Chapter Text
“-regardless, Baloo, that’s a human!”
“Oh scram, pipsqueak, I know what I’m doing!”
“P-pi- PIPSQUEAK?! Never, have I-, over a human! I-! It’s stirring!!! You better be careful Baloo, and watch your hide! Humans are dangerous!”
A shadow breaks the stream of sunlight streaming in through a curtain of green vines, followed by a fluttering sound. Then, everything is silent.
“Oh boy.”
You faintly hear heavy footsteps draw near and you instinctively clamp your eyes shut, trying to will your suddenly hammering heart to quiet down inside your chest.
*When caught in a situation, cub, of a nature you have yet to identify, remain calm, open your senses to your surroundings. See not with your weak, deceptive eyes, but with your skin, your ears, your gut and your heart.*
Bagheera’s wisdom strikes a cord of calm inside of you. Carefully brushing your fingers over the surface beneath you, you realize you are rested on what feels like soft petals and leaves, which explains the pleasantly sweet, yet earthy scent that hangs in the air.
The heavy footsteps approach.
There!
Something passes the leafy curtain. Something big, something heavy. Something… carnivorous? Your gut feeling tells you that if whatever brought you here had wanted to make an easy dinner out of you, it would have had you already. The footfall of the animal seems heavy and slow, almost lazy, judging by the sound of claws dragging over stony floor.
Cave, big animal with big claws, possibly not exclusively carnivorous… Could it be a-
“Uh, hiya! I heard ya move just then, uh, so, don’t play dead! I won’t eat ya!”
Warm breath fans over your cheek and you feel a gentle nudge of a soft nose at your cheek. Startled by the contact, your eyes fly open!
Above you hovers the head of what could only be described as a “ginormous” brown bear, its large hazel orbs gazing into your own warmly. For a moment, bear and human are left staring at the foreign creature opposite them, taking in the other’s features. Until…
“…Hello,” the bear offers, shyly. His deep, rich voice immediately seems to calm your once again racing heart.
“H- ack”, you splutter, throat suddenly on fire, unable to return the pleasant greeting.
“Oh no! No, no, don’t speak, littl’un! That slithering fiend sure gotcha good! If I’d have come any later, hoo boy, well, I’d say I wouldn’t have found much left of ya!”
When your coughing doesn’t subside, the large animal pads to a dark corner of the cave, reemerging with the shell of some large nut, nudging it towards you clumsily.
“Here, drink! You need to calm your throat! Please!”
Your entire chest feels as if it were on fire now as violent coughs rack your frame until you can’t breathe and the edges of your vision start to blacken out.
Blindly you grope for the water bowl, but between your frantic hands and the huge, clumsy paws of the bear, the water is knocked from it’s makeshift container, spilling between you. You are shaking now, and with the next lurch of air, the flower petals are splattered with a shade of crimson. Tears of panic and fear rise to your eyes as you grab hold of the thing closest to you. Your bloody fingers dig into warm brown fur, tugging at the bear desperately, whose deep brown eyes, filled with pity worry look down upon your body in battle with itself.
As you collapse onto your back your lungs cramp together. The last thing you see before renewed darkness is the giant mammal turning it’s back to you, and you feel like this time, you are utterly done for.
…
“Cub! CUB! Where have you gone?”
…
…
Bagheera…
…
…
“Do not run so far! Manchild! Where are you?”
…
…
“Quiet now, littl’un, it’ll all be fine..”
…
Darkness lies all around you. In the distance, there’s a shadow, a big, dark figure.
Could it be…? No, this creature is far from feline, so large and slow.
A bear?
As the ursine turns, it seems to start towards you, intent shining in it’s deep, warm eyes. It draws closer, yet the shadows swirl abruptly, engulfing the big form in black smoke. Undisturbed, it continues towards your lying form, however, the nearer it comes, the smaller and lither it’s frame becomes, tricking the eye into believing he is in fact distancing himself from you.
Your eyes fall shut.
Something wet drops onto your chin.
Your tongue, leathery and dry reaches towards the liquid, and thirst engulfs you in its clenching fist, leaving you yearning.
A drop of liquid lands on your cupid’s bow, and another on the corner of your mouth.
Surprised, your eyes flutter open. A warm, human hand gently reaches over your face, brushing your eyelids shut, humming soothingly. What you saw for a second only further astonishes you, the image turning over and over in your head. You had never seen something like it before, yet you instinctively knew what he was. A manly face with long chestnut hair falling low to cover his eyes had hovered above you. The tip of a nose smattered with freckles peaked out beneath the obtrusive curtain of hair, the same color as the stubble covering his cheeks and chin. It was a human! It lacked the soft curves of your face and the ears protruding from the top of it’s head resembled that of a bear, however you felt an innate curiosity towards the animal-man.
'Its awake,' says a soft voice from somewhere just above your head. It would sound like the voice of a stranger, if not for the warm cadence stirring recent familiarity somewhere within your mind.
'Good.'
A second voice sounds through the gloom, and there is no doubt to whom the husky baritone could belong to as the single word of praise triggers the usual flush of pleasure to begin rising from your chest and bloom red on your cheeks. But it can't be!
You try to catch a glimpse of your surroundings through the fingers gently shielding your eyes. Two dark shapes hover above you, one short and broad, the other tall and lean, holding a bowl of some sort. The latter moves suddenly, bending down and you squeeze your eyes shut again, but at least now you know where the liquid came from that dripped onto your face- both the bowl's contents and the man's lips where glistening with a runny, golden sheen.
The hand was still softly pressed to your eyes very careful not to block your airways. Oddly, fear didn’t have you in it’s grip quite as much as it should have in a “potentially hostile situation.”
For a second you feel the man hesitate a few mere inches above you, and you inhale deeply, trying to catch in his scent. He smells sweet, earthy, calming. Almost human.
There is a tickle in your throat and just as you are about to fail to hold back a cough, you hear him move swiftly, and suddenly there is a wet pressure at your lips and you part them, the faint taste of honey and something indescribable flooding your mouth.
“Swallow. Carefully,” the voice sounds in your head.
You obey, the concoction sliding smoothly past your abused throat with little irritation, soothing the burn considerably.
“Good cub,” the voice praises.
You feel the rush of pleasure intensify as the worst bite is taken out of your thirst, and the chokehold you have been feeling around your neck since you woke up loosens up a little. As if on cue, the warm pressure leaves your mouth, replaced by a cool rush of air.
“No!”, you protest at the loss, as thirst and hurt return almost immediately.
You feel your hands tremble as you reach towards the mystery shape, groping at the darkness. As your fingers dig into what you recognize as fur around the man’s neck, you weakly tug at it shakily. Your strength has left you. A deep sigh echoes through the darkness. You hear a quiet lapping noise, like a cat drinking from a puddle, and then your hands are pressed to your chest as he fully bends over your supine form. The other man is still shielding your eyes, but you feel a larger hand now carefully reach up to cup your chin.
“Open up, little one.”
You oblige immediately and you are rewarded with an appreciative hum at your willingness. His full lips settle openly upon yours once more, spilling the golden liquid onto your tongue. A little moan escapes your throat at the taste, causing him to exhale through his nose and lean into you more deeply to prevent spilling of the precious concoction. The hand on your chin guides you closely to him and your hands curl fast into his pelt, refusing to let go. You feel stubble scrape against your mouth as his lips momentarily split into a grin and then a warm, wet tongue slips into your mouth playfully, seeking.
You let out an involuntary gasp and suddenly he is gone.
Your eyes fly open and you struggle against the pair of arms now pinning you down, gaze searching for the man who had held you so closely a second ago. As your eyes strain to adjust in the darkness, you see him standing a few feet away, back turned to you. You are about to remark on the beautiful tail that you have spotted swishing behind him, but only manage to produce a strangled wheeze.
“I- kha”, you try again, only resulting in a bout of dry coughs. The man standing at your head covers your eyes again immediately, fingers pressing softly against forehead.
“Don’t talk. Ya won’t be able to.” he admonishes. “Sorry. Here, have some water.”
A bowl is brought to your lips and you swallow greedily, craving the feeling of the cool liquid. You realize the mistake of your haste however as instead of cooling, the water feels like it’s ripping up the lining of your throat.
“She swallowed too fast! Help her!”
You hear another sigh and feel the second man close the gap again between you, urging at your lips. A slick tongue dips into the seam of your mouth and again you feel this searing heat as he establishes an airtight seal. This time you readily meet his efforts, opening for him, coaxing every drop of the honeyed water from him, needing it like a dying man in the desert needs the blue oasis waters, like a drowning man gasping for breaths of treasured air.
*Nngghrrrrr*
A low growl emanates from the man, and if your childhood has taught you anything, it sounds like an animal ready to pounce. Strangely, rather than fear, you feel intoxicated by the thought of being held at the mercy of a big, dark animal. Moreover, you feel a strange sensation pooling warm in your lower abdomen as that previous familiarity washes over you and now you have to know for certain.
You reach up almost instinctively, expecting to rub your hands over pointed, silky ears protruding from a large, feline head and when your fingers make contact a low whine breaks the silence. Whether it was you or the man that made the sound you don't know, but you pull back abruptly in shock as you open your eyes and gaze right into a pair of amber ones. A wave of nausea suddenly takes hold of you. The eyes you had seen had looked unlike any other in the jungle. They had lashes like Ostrich's, though not their length, they had the slant of Fox's eyes, yet not their mischief, they had the innocent roundness of a new-born calf's pupils, yet not their innocence- they looked... like yours! Yet you knew they belonged to someone else, someone who's betrayal had hurt you so deeply that you had decided to run and never look back again.
“Oh mancub…”
Your head explodes in pain as darkness’ embrace quickly folds around you. You weren't supposed to see this, you know that. A pained sob escapes your lips.
…
“Bagheera…!”