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10.

Shere-Khan's weight bore down on me. His panting made my body shake, hindering my already laboured breathing. Here I was, about to meet my end between the jaws of a tiger. Without my bowie knife or machete, I had nothing to defend myself with. Mowgli had taken my advice and was gone. That thought comforted me, because he now had a good chance to see his family again. I lay in wait for the end. Nothing. I opened my eyes. A nasty, evil stare greeted me. "A quick death would be too merciful for you, runt", Shere-Khan snarled. "Your end will be agonizing. Because of you, that man-cub has escaped me, and I will make you regret every coming second, until I decide to kill you." He raised himself off of my chest, grabbed my right leg and flung me away as if I was a rag doll.

The tiger limped towards me, grabbed my left arm and threw me in the other direction. Every fiber in my body was in agony. My left hand felt damp and sticky. "Blood", I thought and I turned it around. Red. lumpy blobs. Numbed and confused as I was from the pain and being thrown around, I couldn't think straight. "Blood AND flesh? Oh, I must be in a very bad way", I thought. I rubbed my hand over my cheeks and mouth to wipe off blood and sweat. Almost immediately, my mind became crystal clear. A layer of chili paste coated my pores and the small cuts and wounds on my face. The sharp stinging pain jump-started me and shook me out of the numbed state I was in. Shere-Khan grabbed my right hand to throw me around again. I quickly rolled over and slapped my left hand in his face, pushing and rubbing it around over his eyes and nose. He immediately let go. Confused, he tried to get rid of what was causing him the nasty stinging pain by violently shaking his head and rubbing his face in his paws. I took my chance and kicked him against one of his temples which caused the tiger to fall to the ground. holding onto a branch, I worked myself back on my feet. I could barely stand upright. Frantically, I searched for my knives and found my machete. My kick against Shere-Khan's head was not enough to knock him out for long. He had jumped up and he lashed out with his left claw when I was reaching out for the machete. He grabbed my left had with the intention to throw me away again. After only a second, his grip weakened, and my hand slipped out of his mouth followed by a gush of saliva. I pulled myself out from under him, scraped my left hand over my jeans again and rubbed it onto the open wound on the tiger's left front leg. He yowled in agony.

We faced each other, and I pointed the machete at him. "Come on, jump on me again. The first thing you'll feel is my knife's blade passing through your rib-cage. The last thing you'll feel, is it cutting through your heart." His eyes were watering, strings of drool dripping hanging from his maw, his lips curled up in a snarl. I placed one step in his direction and raised my machete. The tiger backed off, turned around, and limped away. Suddenly, I heard humans shouting, followed by a loud bang. The trunk of a young Teak right next to the feline disintegrated, causing it to fall down. Another shot ricochet off a rock. There were popping sounds coming from smaller caliber firearms. Shere-Khan now ran for his life. By the time the hunter had reloaded his shot-gun to take aim, the tiger had escaped out of sight.

The adrenaline ebbed away and I collapsed on the forest floor. Two hands grabbed me and pulled me up. "Are you alright, Sir?", I heard a familiar voice say. In front of me wearing a camouflage uniform, was inspector Bawa. His mouth fell open when he recognized me. "Mister de Berg?!", he exclaimed in disbelief. "What on Earth are you doing here?" I staggered on my feet. Bawa quickly grabbed my shoulders to prevent me from falling over. "You need medical care, mister de Berg", he said. Bawa ordered something in Hindi to his companion with the shotgun. who promptly flung the weapon around his shoulder, and took a red case marked with a white cross out of his backpack. "We saw you fight with the tiger", Bawa said. "If we shot earlier, we might have hit you. and to be honest, we are astonished. That tiger has killed four of our men. And you not only survived his attack, you even scared him away. How?" "Let's just say that we have a bit of a history", I answered. Bawa's companion started to clean my wounds with disinfectant. The stinging hardly bothered me. "We'll take you to a hospital", Bawa's companion said. I thought about that for a few moments while looking myself over. Admitted, I was in a terrible state. My body was covered in cuts and bruises from being dragged and thrown around. And I was bleeding quite badly from the deep claw-marks on my chest and flank. This time, a bit of a patch up would be a good thing. "What's that on your left hand?", Bawa asked. "Chili paste, and the reason why I am still in one piece." "Hmm... That's very clever actually", he replied. "That could have given those four hunters a chance." "Yeah well, I assume you don't really count on being close enough to actually use it on or throw it at him." "But you did?" "A last resort." Bawa shook his head. "You must be crazy to be out here all by yourself with that tiger on the loose." "He already was when I was here two years ago. I just got unlucky. That's life in the wilderness for you." "Is that why you got back here?", he asked, "To live out in the wild?" "Where I lived, there hardly is any nature which isn't planned or cultivated in a way. When I got here first, I was amazed by the gorgeous nature. It captivated me. And well, after I was forced to actually live outdoors for a while after I crashed, I found it to be very therapeutic, even if it has its dangers. So I made the decision to return to India indefinitely." Bawa's companion found my bowie knife, still covered in the tiger's blood. "You've wounded him. At least that should make it a little bit easier for us", he said while cleaning the blade off with a rag before giving it to me. I sheathed it, and stored it and my machete in one of my backpack's side compartments. "It's a ten minute walk to our jeep, mister de Berg", Bawa said, and he grabbed my arm to support me. His companion grabbed my backpack and carried it for me,

Bawa drove me to the ER of the same hospital I raced to with the man and his wounded daughter. "Take some time to recover, mister de Berg", Bawa said. "I'll come see how you are in a day or two." I had washed my hands, taken my jacket off and sat on an exam table waiting for a nurse to come for me. "Matthew de Berg. I don't often assign my patients myself, but when I saw your name on the sheet, I couldn't resist! I assume you're not here for another batch of antibiotics time time?" The man smiled warmly at me before frowning, "You're in a bit of a state. What happened to you?" "I ran into the same tiger that wounded your daughter a few years ago when you were out camping", I answered after recognizing the man standing in front of me. "You're the first one who survived to tell the tale", he said while grabbing some sterile cloth and disinfectant out of a closet. He shook his head while looking at the claw-marks on my chest and flank. "That tiger actually was on top of you? I can't believe it!" "He was. And he made the mistake not to finish me off right away." "Wait a moment, you actually FOUGHT him?", he asked in disbelief. "I rubbed chili-paste all over his face and in his eyes, before inspector Bawa and his companion arrived", I said while pointing at the red stain on my jeans. "Ah. That explains the smell. For a moment I thought curry was on the menu today!", he grinned. "How is your daughter doing?", I asked. "She's well! She made a full recovery, for a big part thanks to you. And she's always talking about the black panther that sat next to her in the back of your car. She still misses him. Was he with you during those six months you spent in the jungle?" "Yes. He was like a close friend of me. Sadly, I've not seen him since I left India. Your daughter is not the only one who misses him." He nodded. "Yes. Living with a predator like that as your companion must be very special." I exhaled and nodded. "What brought you back here though? Another expedition?" "I emigrated to here to go live in the jungle." He looked at me for a few moments. "That is something you don't hear every day! I love nature and the jungle, but I always long for the company of my wife and daughter, and a soft bed to sleep in at night. I don't think I would last very long out there all alone."

After thirty minutes, the open wounds on my chest and flank had been cleaned out and stitched up. He gave me a quick physical inspection and concluded everything was fine. "Alright. I'm going to assign at least four days of bed-rest for you to recover. You're very fatigued. Going back to the jungle in your current physical shape would not be a good idea." I wasn't very enthusiastic about this at all, but I realized that my body simply needed it. It would be to be in a decent shape when going back to the forest. I was sure that the fight I had with Shere-Khan was not the last one I'd have.

It was well past midnight. I lay on the hospital bed, unable to sleep. At least I was given a private room, which I was grateful for. Mowgli probably had reached the pack's grounds by now. I wondered how he, Bagheera and Vermillion were doing. If there had been a reunion between them and the pack, making things a bit as they used to be. Almost. Mowgli most likely would have told the others that I sacrificed myself to aid his escape. My thoughts also went to Tabaqui, all alone in Bagheera and Vermillion's den. I wondered if the pack would give him a chance and accept him, after hearing what he had done for me. Briefly, I thought about simply walking out of the hospital. I didn't want to be here. There was no one who could force me to stay. I did not need a doctor to cut out stitches. I sat upright in my bed and flung my legs over the edge. It only took one second of standing on my legs to quickly rethink my strategy. It felt as if a 50 kilogram bore down on me. My body had realized it was out of danger, and had switched into healing-mode, consuming large amounts of my energy. With a sigh, I let myself fall back on the bed. I was in no shape to leave.

The next day was spent in a continuous light slumber with a few waking moments. I ate some lunch, having had slept through breakfast. The doctor came to check on me. "You look exhausted. Did you sleep last night?" "Hardly. Thoughts kept me from sleeping." "Well, it's not every day you can say you've survived an attack by a man-eating tiger. And your body received some punishment. You're all bruised up." "Yeah. That tiger threw me around a few times. He played with me like a cat with its prey." "You are one lucky guy, having survived that", he said while shaking his head. "I'll let you be. I'll come check on you again tomorrow. I hope you'll sleep better tonight!"

It was as if the man with the hammer knocked me out that night, and I slept for fifteen hours straight. The next late morning, I got up to go to the bathroom and take a shower. The water running over the stitches felt very weird. I was careful not to rip any of them out while washing. The night nurse had been so kind of provide me with some basic hospital clothing while taking my camouflage outfit to the hospital's laundry. During the afternoon, I had a wander around and went to the hospital's cafetaria to have a cup of tea. While blowing in the cup of piping hot Chai, I spotted Bawa walking to my table from the corner of my eye. "Ah, mister de Berg. How're you feeling?" I pushed a chair back, inviting the inspector to sit down. "It goes. I've been cleaned up nicely. Any more news on the tiger?" "No. He has disappeared like a ghost." "He probably is hiding somewhere to heal. He has a bad wound on his left paw." "Yes. I wanted to have a chat with you about your ordeal with him. You have certain, erm.. qualities it seems, if I may call it like that. That tiger has brutally killed four men. Not the least either, all were seasoned, expert hunters, but they were no match for him. However, you managed not only to survive a confrontation, but to win a fight with him. We can use someone like you on the team to hunt that tiger down. We are getting desperate. The families of the caretaker he killed first, and those of the four hunters want results, so they can have closure." I stared at Bawa while sipping my tea. "I will go back to the jungle the day after tomorrow, alone. Not you, or any of your men will follow me. And I will promise you the only thing you'll see of that tiger again, is his corpse. No questions asked." Bawa squinted his eyes at me for a while. "What do you need for this?", he asked. "Just a few packs of conserved food, water, and a re-fill of my first aid kit." "That's it?", he asked. "No rifle or a shotgun? You're going to hunt that tiger down unarmed?" I chuckled wryly, "A police inspector offering a man without a firearms license a shot gun?" "I am a practical man, mister de Berg. Surely rules and regulations are in place for a very good reason, but in certain circumstances, I allow myself to deviate. And asking a man to go hunt a tiger unarmed is like sending him to a certain death." I thought about my earlier desire to get a shotgun. This would be my chance. But Bagheera and Mowgli's words echoed in my mind. I was a member of the pack, and would abide by the pack's rules. "Thank you for your trust in me, inspector. But I will turn down that offer. I will take that tiger down my own way." Bawa shook his head. "With your bare hands? Well, have it your way. I can't make you. But please let me know if you change your mind. I will come pick you up the day after tomorrow and drive you to the edge of town."

"So, you're heading back to the jungle, eh?", the doctor said. "I guess I can't make you stay longer. Do you have tweezers and pliers for removing the stitches?" "Yeah, I have a few tools with me. That should all be fine." Bawa was standing in the door opening waiting. I said my goodbye to the doctor, grabbed my belongings and followed the inspector out of the room. We drove for the five minutes it took to get to the edge of the forest from the hospital. Bawa parked his jeep at the side of the road. "What about the hospital bill?", I asked while we walked the last hundred meters towards the treeline. "We'll see to that", Bawa answered. "Thank you." "You're helping us out. Just think of it as a small down-payment. You'll get a proper commission when the tiger is dead." "Well, I am not asking for anything." Bawa stopped walking. "You're not asking for anything? Not a commission? Then why would you do it?" "I guess that's personal. That tiger has hurt me in ways I can and will not say. He will die, commission or no commission, even if it means the end of me", I decisively said. "What on Earth is that animal? You talk about him as if he's a person." "Thank you for your help, inspector." Bawa lay his hand on my shoulder. "In any way, good luck, mister de Berg. I hope we'll see each other again rather soon." I gave the inspector a polite nod, turned around, and walked into the forest.