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3 "Matt? Hey! Matt! Wakey wakey" Slowly, I opened my eyes. I focused on the two computer monitors standing in front of me, an open Word document on the right monitor, with a half finished sentence ending in a long line of gibberish. Loud sniggering and giggling filled the office while I sleepily leaned back in my office chair. "Yup! Truly qwerty'd! AGAIN", Jonatan laughed. Bemused, I looked around at my amused colleagues. "This is the second time today you've fallen asleep, Matt", Jaques, my manager, commented while rolling up an office chair next to me. "You're alright?", he worriedly asked, placing a hand on my right shoulder. "You seem very absent-minded this week." The others went back to their workstations and tasks, giving me and Jaques some privacy. "I am... not feeling too well. It's Thursday today, right?", I rhetorically asked. "I've no urgent matters that require finishing at the moment. I'll take this afternoon and tomorrow off, if that's alright with you" "Of course, no worries. Get some sleep and try to sort out whatever it is that is bothering you, alright?, Jaques said while standing up. After shutting down my computer and wishing everyone a good day, I took my coat and walked out of the office to the underground parking.

A thirty minute drive home later, I sat down in my large reclining chair and exhaled. I reached out to a drawer on my right side and opened it, taking out an A4 size file folder containing news paper cuts. "Man returns after being lost in the Indian jungle for six months." A small article in one of the main Dutch newspapers. It also was a short item on the evening news. Thankfully, that was as much attention as it got from the Dutch media. Superficially, I scanned the article I had read so often. Inspector Chadha apparently had done a good word about me to Dutch authorities. A victim of misfortune, who almost died in a car crash, and was then brutally attacked by two poachers. Two poachers who turned out to be criminals on a 'most wanted' list in the region. When I first got back home in the Netherlands, I was admitted to a hospital to recover, given my bad physical condition. It was close to the town I used to live. It was there where Jaques, who had heard about my return, visited me. After a pleasant conversation, he very kindly offered me my old job back, as they had not been able to find a suitable replacement during my six month long absence. It was amazing how little time it took me to feel as if those six months were just a week, a short vacation to another world.

Two years had passed by since. Alexander, Luri, Sura, Akru, Lala, Bagheera, Baloo, Bacchus. Not a day went by without thinking about them. But I managed to function, and I dare to say that I even was fairly content being back home, and back in human society. Well, until a week ago, when a news article on the Internet caught my attention: "Man-eating tiger kills forty year old man in India. Local authorities organize man-hunt." I checked the date of the article. It was about a week old. My stomach started to churn as I read about the location of the incident. "Balaghat region, India." Balanghat is the town I got to know as the 'nearest human settlement' when I lived with the pack, and where I was jailed. Feverishly, I browsed the Internet for more information about who the victim was, but couldn't find any more details. I checked the time - 'Standard Indian time is eight hours earlier. So that should make it late morning there.' After a quick browse, I found the telephone number of the agency that posted the article and I grabbed my phone.

Thirty seconds later, there was a clack, and through some static, I could hear a male voice speaking to me in Hindi. "Namaste? Main kisake saath baat kar rahee hoon?" "Eh, Hello? I'm sorry, but do you speak English?" "Oh, yes. Most certainly", the man on the other side replied. I told the man my name, and asked if he knew any more details about the incident. "Oh wait, you're that man that survived for six months in the jungle here, right?" "Uh yes. I am. And because what happened is in the same area roughly, I grew curious after reading what happened." "Well, it was quite interesting, and horrible at the same time according to witnesses and police. A huge tiger appeared out of the forest suddenly. It seemed very focused and pretty much ignored the poor panicking people it encountered on its path. It was almost as if it knew where to go. After a short wander around, it ran to an apartment block for assisted living, jumped through an open window of one of the ground level flats, and well... went for and attacked the man in that room. People saw the animal jump out of the same open window again a minute later, blood all over its face and chest, and run off back into the jungle. The scene those poor souls encountered when checking on what transpired was... well, horrific isn't the right word. It was just brutal. Police showed me pictures of the massacre." My heart raced and pounded in my head. "Who was the victim? Do you know?" "There is only suspicion and speculation for now. The body was so badly mutilated that it was unrecognizable. Tissue samples have been taken for DNA anilasys. But people who live in the same apartment block said that the room belonged to the young man who came from the jungle a few years earlier, who goes by the name of Mowgli, and that the man who was killed was his guardian." "And the boy? He is safe?" "Yes", the man answered. "He was in the building's library studying when the tiger attacked. He's still learning languages and speaking properly, you know. For that he reads a lot. The incident has left him deeply shocked. He kept on speaking of the tiger as 'Shere-Khan' and claims that the only reason it left the protection of the forest was to find and kill him. He begged to be moved to a place closer to the town center, afraid the animal will come for him again." "H-Has the tiger been captured yet?", I asked with a trembling voice, trying to keep my emotions in check. "Sadly not yet. Local authorities are teaming up with voluntary trackers and hunters in an attempt to track the tiger down." I clenched my jaw, as visions of one of the nightmares I suffered while in that cell came back. "But sadly", the man continued, "Four of the men who went into the forest have not reported back and have been missing now for three days. They're operating in a radius of a few kilometres from the edge of town, as that is where the tiger is believed to have its hunting grounds." "One more question", I asked, "You mentioned local authorities. Police?" "Yes. Ah, and you might know these men. Chadha and Bawa." "Are they among those missing?" "No. They're coordinating the operation. Now their focus is on finding the missing men." I exhaled. "I want to thank you for your time, Sir. Have a good day."

Quickly, I terminated the call and threw the phone across the room onto the sofa. I placed my hands over my eyes for a few moments, taking deep breaths. Every fibre of my body wanted to be back in India now. Back in the Seeonee forest, trying to make sure my pack mates were safe and sound. 'A few kilometres from the edge of town', resonated in my head. 'The campsite is much further than that', I reassured myself. 'This is no where near the Seeonee Pack's territory.' It did not take me very long to make up my mind. My destiny did not lie here. It wasn't in this comfortable house, or the office that I worked in. The place I belonged was the Seeonee forest, among my adoptive family. I had to make sure to get back as quickly as possible.