"It was this way," Mowgli said, slipping his hand into Swan's. He led his friend past the outskirts on a large and strange city, shying away from it as much as possible. He still didn't like cities; they were too full of people, of things and noises. They weren't like the jungles or the woods. He missed the jungle. His own, but he didn't know how to get back there. The best he could do was take Swan where he knew there was a jungle here in this strange world. It was where he'd woken up so long ago, after he left the man-village and started walking.

It wasn't his jungle. It was someplace else ripe with dark green life, a rushing river, and curious creatures. It was strangely full of birds and animals he couldn't name. He had no idea of the dangerous creatures who lived there: man-eating mermaids, wild fey, and other dark creatures he'd never heard of. He just knew it had life, the kind Mowgli grew up with, the kind he sorely missed. It wasn't his home, but it was close, and he wanted to show Swan.

They finally left the city behind, entering a dense jungle. Some of the leaves on the trees were wide as Mowgli's hand. Or his head. There was a brilliant smile on his face as he went. He squeezed Swan's hand and looked at him as they started walking through the Rajani Jungle, as the place was called. "What do you think?"

The weather was slowly getting cooler. It was still warm, still the end of summer, but fall was coming soon. Mowgli wanted to travel, wanted to take Swan with him now that the other mac could leave the lake in the woods. The Rajani Jungle was the first place Mowgli had been to in this new world that wasn't his, and he wanted to show it to Swan. It was the only other place he'd been to that was a wilderness, that wasn't a big city he felt uncomfortable in.

But he wasn't in a rush to get there. The woods were comfortable; their home was there. But there was a lot Swan was missing. and Mowgli felt he was the one who should show it to him. He was daydreaming and thinking all this as he walked, and found himself walking a bit aimlessly through the woods. He paused in a clearing, thinking what he should bring Swan back this time. Flowers? Berries? Maybe something a little hardier to eat.

He sat cross-legged at the base of a tree idly chewing on a piece of grass as he thought. He was never gone too long, but he always brought something back. And usually managed to have some kind of adventure on the way.

Caterpillar found himself somewhere in the woods. There were birds chirping, but for the most part his ears were focused on each step he took. It wasn't that he didn't like Ozland -- he simply wanted to get out and travel a bit, since he never truly had the opportunity to do so before. He wanted to see the new lands that he found himself in, and the woods were beautiful.

He, of course, noted that they were different from his home land, but then again everything looked different to him now. Knave had been enormous before, and while the man was still large, it was in a much different way than it had been before. He found that the entire world, his entire perception of the world, was much different now that he was a man.

Either way, he was walking casually down the path, counting his footsteps. Four hundred and nine, four hundred and ten... As he counted he realized that his head was starting to clear -- something that he would no doubt have to take care of soon.