    Mowgli’s Diaper Adventures

    Summary: The story of the Jungle Book is very good, but in this version
    Mowgli has been diapered all his life, and now Shere Kahn is back in
    the jungle, Mowgli must leave his friends behind and start a new life
    in the man-village.

    Chapter 1.

    A Lucky Discovery

    Bagheera dozed peacefully under the shade of a wide green leaf that
    stretched above forming shade against the glare of the hot sun. He
    shifted slightly, into a more comfortable position on the curved log he
    lay upon. The jungle was teaming with voices of animals, birds and
    insects, just like any other day really. A brightly coloured bird
    twittered overhead, Bagheera twitched his ear, dislodging an irritating
    fly. As he did so, a new sound drifted from amongst the trees. He
    pricked his ears once more. Listening. There it was again. A faint,
    high-pitched sound, unlike anything he had heard before in the jungle.
    With nothing better to do, he rose to his feet, stretched, and went off
    in the direction of the noise. Very soon he came across a small river,
    it flowed fast and was impossible to see where it ended from his
    position. The sound broke the sloshing of the water. Bagheera climbed
    atop a tree that leaned over the river, as he stopped, he saw the
    source of the noise. On the other side of the bank, hidden by long
    reeds, was a wickerwork basket. It seemed to have been somewhat
    ‘beached’ on a bed of mud, it didn’t move as the torrent of water
    pushed past it. Inside, only just visible, was a small round face.
    Bagheera peered closer at this face. It was the only actual alive thing
    inside the basket; it was, as Bagheera now realized, a human child. His
    little knowledge of humans told him that this child could only be a
    year old, at the very least. It looked back at Bagheera, and gave a
    small laugh. Bagheera stared into the eyes of the child. It was common
    jungle law that any animal should never associate with, be tamed by or
    help a human. Bagheera was a strong follower of the rules of the animal
    kingdom, however, he knew that it wasn’t just a human, it was a child.
    An innocent man-cub, that has, as far as he knew, done no wrong.

    He looked at the child, and was about to turn back and obey the law,
    before the man-cub spoke out again. It gave a high-pitched little
    scream, not of pain, fear or any like that, but just something to get
    Bagheera’s attention. Bagheera’s mind raced. “The jungle law?” he
    thought. “Or save the innocent?” The basket the child lay in shifted on
    its bed of mud. Bagheera took that as his final decision maker. Leaping
    to the other side of the river, he took the basket in his jaws and
    lifted it from the reeds. He wondered now, what should he do with it?
    He couldn’t raise a child, he didn’t know how. Nothing else would…or
    would they?

    Bagheera poked his head through a wall of long grass, which surrounded
    the wolves’ cave. A low stone mouth embedded in a rock face with a yard
    of soft ground in front of it. The grass wall in turn, enclosed this.
    Bagheera watched the mouth of the cave; he knew that if the wolves
    found him near their young he might be taken for an enemy.

    After a minute or so of watching, Bagheera, with the basket too, crept
    forward, placing the man-cub just before the mouth of the cave. He
    hurried back to his shelter, and waited. For a long time, nothing
    happened. Impatiently, Bagheera reached forward and prodded the basket.
    The child cried out at once, making Bagheera almost pounce back amongst
    the grass. The man-cub’s yells had alerted the wolf cubs. Several cubs
    raced outside to see this new ‘thing,’ they were closely followed by
    two adult females. One leant forward and studied the child while the
    other watched from the cave. The first female looked back and nodded.
    The second adult disappeared into the blackness of the cave and quickly
    returned with the adult male. He cautiously came forward and studied
    the man-cub with his own eyes. Bagheera held his breath. The male took
    the basket in his mouth and lead the cubs back inside the cave.
    Begheera sighed with relief, as the child had been welcomed into the
    wolves’ hospitality.

    Inside the cave, the adults removed the child from its basket and laid
    it freely on the floor of the cave.

    “What do you suppose we call it?” One of the females asked. “What sex
    is it?” another asked. “Male or female?” The male wolf undid the man-
    cub’s tiny cloth diaper and looked. “Male,” he said. “So a male name to
    suit him I think.” “He bears no fur,” an adult noted. “Like a frog or
    something.”

    “A little frog,” said another.

    “Isn’t they’re a word for ‘little frog’?” the male asked.

    “It’s Mowgli, I think,” said a female.

    “Then Mowgli it shall be,” said the male.

    “He’ll need clothes, though,” one said.

    “Go to the man-village and see what you can find,” the male ordered.
    “But be careful not to raise alarm.” One of the females left the cave.
    She retuned much later, carrying a bag filled with thick cloth like
    material. This is how Mowgli’s life with wolves started, studying the
    art of diaper folding, the wolves studied the man-cubs in the man-
    village, seeing how these diapers worked. This meant, Mowgli was
    diapered since birth and up to the age he is now. Wolves continued to
    creep back into the village and take back more diapers for Mowgli to
    wear; the used ones were returned to the village and put amongst the
    children of the villages’ diapers, so they never knew.

    Many years later, on a bright sunny morning, Bagheera watched the young
    man-cub rise from sleep and take his usual morning stroll down to the
    river. He still wore diapers, as Bagheera noticed, much larger and
    thicker ones then when he was a baby. The diapers were now very large,
    so much that they came past his bellybutton. They were fastened with
    Velcro tabs on either side, four of them, two on one side, two on the
    other, keeping Mowgli’s diaper able to hold on, no matter how he moved
    or how much he put in them. The wolves, along with Bagheera on some
    occasions, helped change Mowgli, who didn’t seem at all embarrassed by
    his eternal diaper changing, or how he was still wearing a diaper at
    the age of 7. But as Mowgli never came in contact with the human world
    he thought nothing of it, and as he never had toilet training, he
    seemed to think diapers were the normal things.

    One night, however, a scout wolf returned from far side of the jungle.
    He brought news of Shere Kahn the deadly tiger, which had apparently
    returned from the wilderness to hunt again in the jungle. News of the
    man-cub was common about the jungle, so it seemed natural that Shere
    Kahn would soon know of Mowgli and his hatred of the human race would
    lead him to destroy Mowgli in his personal vendetta.

    The night the news of Shere Kahn reached the wolf pack; a meeting was
    called to discuss the possible ways of dealing with the problem at
    hand. “It is decided then,” the alpha male called. “That the man-cub,
    Mowgli, may not stay with the wolf pack. His presence will put all our
    lives in danger, although Kahn is primarily after Mowgli, it seems he
    may be goaded into taking a few of our number down as well.”

    “Something must be done then,” a wolf said.

    “Indeed, there must,” said the male.

    “We mustn’t allow Mowgli to be exiled in the jungle,” a female said.
    “Kahn isn’t the only danger to him.”

    “I believe,” said a wolf. “That the only option we have is to have the
    man-cub taken to the man-village, there, I am sure, he will be safe.”
    This proclamation was met with much muttering from the pack.

    “That is all well and good,” said the male. “But that will require one
    of out number to accompany the child all the way, we need the entire
    pack here for defence against this new enemy.”

    “I believe that’s where I come in,” said Bagheera. He leapt down from
    his tree and approached the male. “I can take the man-cub to the
    village, I am strong and able.” The male looked at him.

    “It will be dangerous,” he said. “I would hate to loose a fine friend
    because of this child.” “The man-cub is important,” Bagheera said.
    “More important than me. He has only started his life; he must live the
    rest well, out of danger or harm. I am willing to take the risk.” After
    a long pause, the male gave a single nod. Bagheera thanked him and
    hurried back to the cave, to the beginning of a long journey.

    Notes: a rather more 'faithful' adaptation of the classic story. This
    version is more about Mowgli's travels through the jungle. Instead of
    my previous stories, this is about Mowgli's diapering, rather than
    others. I hope this makes better reading.