Mungai and the Goa Constrictor

Chapter One - The Encounter

Mungai lived all alone in the jungle.                                                                                               

He hadn't always lived alone, but he was such a dreadful creature at times that those who once cared for him decided he should leave and never return. He was considered 'bestia non grata' in most of the places he'd ever known. No-one wanted him, no-one needed him, and no-one spoke to him. To Mungai this could only be an advantage. He was able to drift through the jungle undetected and unsuspected.  Past lives, past acts of deception, and other terrible deeds he'd been involved in, were easily hidden from the few animals he encountered.

He was a very strange creature, all furry and quite pleasant to look at due to his constant cleaning and preening of himself, but no-one in the jungle really knew what sort of creature he truly was.  He had cultivated many different personae and wore whichever one he saw fit at the time. With each transformation, Mungai adopted a new aroma which seemed to follow him around. This was no accident, but a carefully thought out strategy which he believed would enable him to pass smoothly through the jungle avoiding any unwanted attention. Mungai knew that all creatures relied upon smell. Firstly, to determine foe, friend or food, and secondly, to understand what species another belonged to. He managed to blend in well, whatever the circumstance, and others perceived him exactly as he wanted them to.

On one of his many travels, Mungai had fallen into, quite literally, the smelly advantages of wolf dung. Personally he'd found the scent to be quite disagreeable. About to clean and preen himself, he discovered those responsible.  A pack of wolves milled around close by. Curious of their actions and behaviour, but even more curious why he hadn’t been found out; he decided he'd observe them for a couple of days. Between two shrubs and three piles of wolf droppings, a fourth pile being glued to Mungai and thickly covering his usually pleasant body, he was able to spy on them. From what Mungai could make out, the wolves were gorging themselves on some unidentifiable food source without any exertion on their part. Mungai definitely wanted in.  If not for his arrogance, a characteristic that partly contributed to others thinking him dreadful, he might have remained undiscovered.

Unaware of the gazing sun's effect on his recently discovered disguise, Mungai moved closer to the pack. In the ever increasing heat of the second day, the dung had started to harden and began making a crackling sound as he moved. Each crunching, faltering step he took sounded like a predator crushing the bones of its prey. He thought the dung had made him invisible, but in trying to get closer, he was reminded of how highly tuned a wolf's hearing was.

Sahba, chief wolf and council member of the Jungle Elders of Wolves and other Tooth and Claw, was instantly aroused. He immediately alerted the rest of the pack, and then with the same alacrity, collapsed laughing as he set eyes on Mungai. He could only take pity on him.  Mungai was beyond description or more to the point beyond Sahba's description. The only parts of Mungai still visible were his eyes and the tip of his nose, and up close the smell was surprisingly offensive to any beast. What's more, the dung had baked his mouth shut. Excuses and pleas were out of the question. He was so completely matted in the stuff he could barely move. The more the dung hardened, the more difficult it became to escape. He looked like an enormous 'hedgehog en croûte' prepared and ready for the wolves to throw into a fire. Sahba and the others couldn't stop tittering. The rest of the pack shook themselves vigorously, stifled their giggles and tried to look serious as they waited for the order. Sahba, aware that Mungai would be far from appetising in his current state and with his shoulders shaking so uncontrollably with hilarity he was incapable of regaining even the remotest signs of composure, lifted a paw, haughtily waved Mungai aside and left him to go free.