Gotcha - The Story Part 2

Baloo the bear danced through the shrubs and hummed an old song. "Another lazy day in the jungle", he said to himself with some kind of satisfaction. He was always searching for food and so he turned every stone and checked every bush for insects and fruit. "Honey, honey, honey… where are you?", he sang to the jungle and sniffed the air. Then, something familiar caught his eyes. Dangling from high above, a snake's coil hang in mid air. The rest of the snake was hidden in the leaves. "Hm… could that be old Kaa?", Baloo said, thinking. "I wonder if he caught himself another of these poor monkeys…" The bear trotted closer to the dangling coil and looked up, but was unable to see anything but leaves.

Up in the tree, Mowgli dreamed in his trance. Kaa, the python had put him on a huge branch and had commanded him to sit still. The snake removed his chaotically placed coils from the boy, only to wrap him up in a proper manner. The tip of his tail crept on his right hand and formed a loop around his back and other hand, snaking against his tummy and around his back again. Coil after coil, Kaa surrounded the poor boy in a cocoon of his muscular snake body. He made sure to pin his arms and hands to his side to prevent any possible resistance. After one coil was formed, he tightened his grip and constricted to press the air out of the boy's lungs. "Jussst one or two more…", said Kaa in his soothing voice. Mowgli's eyes were wide open and still wildly spiraling. His face showed a huge grin and he was oblivious of the danger. The python's tail had reached Mowgli's shoulders and looped around his neck now – once – twice. These final coils constricted as well, preventing the boy from breathing. "That'ssss better now, issssn't it?", he chuckled and moves his head over Mowgli's.

"Oi, KAA!", Baloo yelled. "KAA…!" He picked up a pointy stick and started to poke the dangling coil with it. The snake's body twitched a bit. Just when Kaa was about to dislocate his jaw, he felt a stinging sensation in his mid-section. And it didn't stop. Something or… someone really tried to getting on his nerves. "Will I ever be able to have a peaceful and quiet dinner?", he said and slithered down the branch to see what bothered him. When his head broke through the thick layer of leaves, he saw the cause for the interruption. A large, fat bear… poking him with a stick! But not some bear. It seems to be the man-cubs friend, Baloo. "Oh… looksss like the main courssse hasss arrived." He slithered closer to the bear and said: "What exactly are you doing there?" Baloo was surprised by Kaa's voice, coming from behind and turned a bit too fast, he almost lost balance. "Oh, I… I… just wondered if you caught yourself some poor monkeys again. You know… it's not very nice to eat other people! Have you ever tried eating fruit?" Kaa sighed angrily and slithered even closer, eying Baloo from top to bottom. "I don't think that would… sssatisfy me…", he said and smacked his lips. The old bear took two steps backwards now, only to bump into Kaa's hanging coil. "I, uhm, don't want to an argue with you… but I'm willing to fight, if you try something!" He raised his stick and swung it through the air like a sword. The python chuckled again while the coil Baloo ran into formed a "u" around his shoulders to hold him in place. By rotating the coil a bit, it started to massage the bear's back. Slowly, Kaa advanced further and released his hypnotic power once again. His pupils shrank and were replaced by multiple colorful, swirling spirals. "Are you ssssure you want to fight? I don't thhhink sssooo…", he said with a very soft voice. Baloo, like most animals couldn't resist Kaa's powers like humans can, and was slowly but surely caught by his eyes. "Please Kaa… don't do that to me… again!" Kaa brought down more of his body. Up in the tree, Mowgli was spinning clockwise with the rotating coils. The snake had loosened his grip on him a bit, so he was able to breathe again. A rush of adrenaline made him wake up, but he was still imprisoned in Kaa's coils.
Baloo tried to look away but with every burst of color, the python's hypnotizing eyes washed his willpower away. "Please… Kaa…", he whispered but the snake showed no mercy. Kaa was so close now, that the only thing Baloo could see were the two snake-eyes, assaulting his brain. The snake retracted the coils from Mowgli and brought his tail down to finish the bear. He started by coiling around his neck very firmly and said: "Danccce, bear!" Baloo nodded slowly and started to grin. With tiny steps, he turned around his own axis, engulfing himself in coil after coil.

Mowgli, free again, shook his head to clear it and blinked. What was going on? Why didn't Kaa eat him? He decided to get away from here as fast as he can and balanced to the end of the branch. He grabbed a liana and swung to another tree to get as much distance between him and that vicious snake.