"How little! How naked, and--how bold!" said Mother Wolf softly. The
baby was pushing his way between the cubs to get close to the warm hide.
"Ahai! He is taking his meal with the others. And so this is a man's
cub. Now, was there ever a wolf that could boast of a man's cub among
her children?
"But why--but why should any wish to kill me?" said Mowgli
"Look at me," said Bagheera. And Mowgli looked at him steadily
between the eyes. The big panther turned his head away in half a
minute. "That is why," he said, shifting his paw on the leaves. "The others they hate thee because their eyes
cannot meet thine; because thou art wise; because thou hast pulled out
thorns from their feet--because thou art a man."
Mowgli stood upright--the fire pot in his hands. Then he stretched out
his arms, and yawned in the face of the Council; but he was furious with
rage and sorrow, for, wolflike, the wolves had never told him how they
hated him.
"Listen you!" he cried. "There is no need for this dog's
jabber. Ye have told me so often tonight that I am a man (and indeed I
would have been a wolf with you to my life's end) that I feel your words
are true. So I do not call ye my brothers any more, but sag [dogs], as
a man should. What ye will do, and what ye will not do, is not yours to
say. That matter is with me; and that we may see the matter more
plainly, I, the man, have brought here a little of the Red Flower which
ye, dogs, fear."
This assignment was so incredibly fun and also very hard! It proved to me that I really need to work more of my metaphorical visual storytelling and push outside my cozy little comfort zone a lot more.
