Furious that Baloo and Bagheera never told him, he angrily asks Bagheera about Akela's death, to which he answers that they were going to tell him about it.
King Louie chases Mowgli through the temple, causing it to crumble and knock him out, but before this, he informs Mowgli of Akela's death. Baloo arrives to distract the monkeys and Bagheera leads him out secretly, but ends up being discovered. While on a tree, Mowgli is suddenly kidnapped by monkeys who present him to King Louie, a Bornean orangutan-resembling Gigantopithecus who tries to coerce Mowgli into giving up the secret to the "red flower". While watching, Baloo agrees to Bagheera's plan to lie to Mowgli saying that he never considered him a friend, hoping that the boy will change his mind about staying with him. Using his equipment and tricks, he fashions a vine rope to rescue the baby elephant, forming a bond with the elephants. At night, Mowgli hears a cry for help and discovers that a baby Indian elephant is trapped in a deep pit. A heated debate flares, with all agreeing to sleep on it until the morning. When Bagheera returns to fetch Mowgli, he discovers that Mowgli has decided to live with Baloo, and has utilized various equipment, to his anger.
Confident that Mowgli will return, Shere Khan takes over the pack so as to lure Mowgli to his death. Furious, Shere Khan throws him off the nearby cliff, killing him. Asking about Mowgli, Akela answers that he had left the jungle. Meanwhile, Shere Khan returns to the wolf pack. Together, they form a close bond as Baloo request's him that they should work as a team as Baloo's power and Mowgli's tricks to get things easily will help them both so Mowgli decides to stay with Baloo until the winter season arrives. In exchange for saving Mowgli's life, Baloo tells Mowgli to fetch him honey which is atop a cliff, to which Mowgli reluctantly agrees. Having hypnotized him, Kaa attempts to devour Mowgli, but he is rescued by a Himalayan brown bear-resembling sloth bear named Baloo. Kaa's hypnosis shows Mowgli a vision of his father being killed by Shere Khan and of himself as an abandoned infant being found by Bagheera and also warns of the destructive power of fire, as the animals call the "red flower".
Mowgli, now alone, stumbles upon a thick canopy where he meets Kaa, an enormous Indian python who lures him in with promises of safety and an assurance that she knows who and what Mowgli truly is. However, before a consensus is reached, Mowgli voluntarily decides to leave the jungle for the sake and safety of his pack, with the agreement of Bagheera, who volunteers to guide the man-cub to the human village nearby.Įnroute, Shere Khan ambushes them, injuring Bagheera while Mowgli manages to escape with the help of a herd of water buffaloes. Soon after, a debate and argument arises amongst the wolf pack as to decide whether they should keep Mowgli. He issues a warning that when the Water Truce ends and the Peace Rock disappears, he will kill Mowgli, and leaves. He holds the scars on his face as evidence of man's cruel and destructive nature Mowgli's father burned his face when he tried to attack him and Mowgli. The truce is disrupted when the fearsome Bengal tiger Shere Khan detects Mowgli's scent amongst the crowd, and threatens his life since man is not welcome in the jungle. One day, during the dry season, all the animals in the jungle gather at the Peace Rock to drink the water that remains as part of the Water Truce, a timeout called during a drought that enables all animals to gather at a water hole without fear of being eaten by larger, more predatory animals. Bagheera trains Mowgli to learn the ways of the wolves but Mowgli faces certain challenges and lags behind his wolf siblings, and Bagheera berates him for using human tricks like tool building, instead of learning the ways of the pack. Mowgli is a man-cub raised by the Indian wolf Raksha and her pack led by Akela ever since he was brought to them as a baby by the black panther Bagheera.