Felines In Love : Bagheera x OC

The Forgotten Past

Few days has passed now. All the animals had accepted the new three animals. Bagheera is still teaching them the laws of the jungle every morning. Mowglie has been especially close to Saya. While Saya, Scarface and Cleo were still trying to cope up with their surroundings.
In between all these, Saya was having a problem. She is suddenly having a curiosity about knowing her own past ( which she doesn't remember much) after listening how Mowglie came to this jungle. But she couldn't collect much memory of anything about her past. But it made her more uncomfortable. So, she decided to explore this jungle to keep her mind fresh, in the hope that she might remember something. Something to know about her past. She sighed and jumped from the tree branch she was sitting on.
Before she could go any further, she was stopped by a male voice.
"Where are you going now? I thought black panthers rest for a long time after their lunch."
She turned to face Baloo standing near the tree.
"Oh hey Baloo. What are you doing here?" She asked.
Saya and the others had met with Baloo in these few days, and without Cleo and Scarface bulling her now, Saya has started being more social and started sharing a good relationship with Baloo, especially since Mowglie became fond of her and Baloo often prefers to stay with him.
"Just passing by after having some delicious honey. But you didn't answer my question. Where are you going now?" He asked again.
"Oh. Well, just thought exploring this jungle. After all it has been five days now, and I don't know much of the jungle yet." She replied, totally avoiding the real reason.
"Ah! Bagheera said that you guys might wanna discover more of the forest. So he said if I meet with any of you, I should warn ya' guys that this jungle is far more dangerous than you think it is. So be careful and do avoid the dark and creepy areas."
"Wow. Are we that predictable? I mean Bagheera already knew?" She wondered.
"Yeah I know. He's just like that. Wonder if he was ever a father." Baloo nodded.
"Wait! Was he?!" Saya almost yelled.
"Nah! Don't worry. He never mated with anyone." He assured, and then looked at her," By the way, why do you ask?Are you-"
"What?! No, no. That's not what you think!" Saya cut him off.
This time Baloo smirked," Yeaaaah. Right!"
She blushed in embarrassment.
"Alright Saya, enjoy!" He said , going to wherever he was going.

Saya sighed and started walking to a random direction. She almost forgot why she wanted to explore the jungle.
Her thoughts again went to what she was thinking.
The first thing she remebered of her childhood was waking up under a big tree. There was no memory before that. Thankfully, she had already crossed the age of mother's milk. She was scared at first. And that's what to be expected from a little panther when she is all alone in a big forest. She used to seek help from others. But soon,she realized the harsh law of the wild, in this world nobody except your bloodline will stand for you. Well, in Saya's case, even her mother or family left her. Well, maybe they didn't mean to leave her behind. Maybe they didn't do that on purpose. But growing up, she has seen many big cats licking their cubs tenderly. And how they protected their cubs no matter what. Giving their everything. And she wondered if her mother would have protected her if she was there. If her mother would have really protected her from all those predators who were ready to attack little Saya to feast on her. She was lucky enough to survive. As she grew up, there was problem with her hunting skills since she never got anyone to teach her to hunt. Her colour was also a demerit. It was hard for her to camoflouge in the forest and she was often caught by those annoying lagoons. That's when she realized she was really dark. Like, as dark as a shadow. So she decided to have a name. A name which would represent her. 'Saya' was the name which flashed in her mind. Saya, was derived from the word 'chhaya', meaning 'shadow' in both Hindi and Bengali.
"Wish I could know whose my mother." She muttered to herself.

Suddenly, her paw felt something wet and slippery. She instantly snapped out of her thoughts, realizing that she had done the exact thing which Bagheera ( well, indirectly) told her not to do. To her unknown, her paws had brought her in this dark, wet and deep jungle.
She looked down to see what was the wet and slippery thing under her paw. It was a snake's scaly skin. It was huge. Like really huge. She couldn't see until where it has gone and the width of it didn't made Saya feel safe either.
She knew she was lost, as the ground was mostly covered with either rocks or wet leaves. She tried to smell her own scent, but there was no success either. A strange flower has managed to spread it's own gross smell while making all the other scents to fade away. Another thing that scared her more was there was no sound. Not a single bird chirped, nor a cricket creaked. The whole jungle was wrapped around by an uncomfortable silence.
"H-Hello? Anyone there?" She spoke while trying to keep her voice steady.
"Poor, little panther. All alone in the deepest of the jungle." A cold voice hissed.
Saya jumped in surprise and turned back to find a huge snake staring at her.
"W-Well hello. I'm, I'm Saya. " she stumbled on her own words.
"I know, Saya." The snake said and slithed her tounge.
"How do you know about me?"
"The whole jungle is talking about the new strangersss of the jungle."
"Oh, well, what's your name?" She asked.
"Kaa." The snake pronounced her name like a lullaby.
Something told Saya that Kaa isn't the best one to talk to, but there was no one else to ask.
"Now, I heard you say something about your mother?" Kaa hissed.
"Oh! Well, yeah. You see, I was wondering if I could know whose my mother. " Saya replied hesitantly.
"Oh poor little life, all alone by herself from an young age. You don't know your past. I know your past." Kaa hissed.