`` This thing will die if I do not give it things to eat '' ; and he dropped twigs and dried bark on the red stuff . Halfway up the hill he met Bagheera with the morning dew shining like moonstones on his coat . `` Akela has missed , '' said the Panther . `` They would have killed him last night , but they needed thee also . They were looking for thee on the hill . '' `` I was among the plowed lands . I am ready . See ! '' Mowgli held up the fire-pot . `` Good ! Now , I have seen men thrust a dry branch into that stuff , and presently the Red Flower blossomed at the end of it . Art thou not afraid ? '' `` No . Why should I fear ? I remember now -- if it is not a dream -- how , before I was a Wolf , I lay beside the Red Flower , and it was warm and pleasant . '' All that day Mowgli sat in the cave tending his fire pot and dipping dry branches into it to see how they looked . He found a branch that satisfied him , and in the evening when Tabaqui came to the cave and told him rudely enough that he was wanted at the Council Rock , he laughed till Tabaqui ran away . Then Mowgli went to the Council , still laughing . Akela the Lone Wolf lay by the side of his rock as a sign that the leadership of the Pack was open , and Shere Khan with his following of scrap-fed wolves walked to and fro openly being flattered . Bagheera lay close to Mowgli , and the fire pot was between Mowgli 's knees .
When they were all gathered together , Shere Khan began to speak -- a thing he would never have dared to do when XXXXX was in his prime .
Akela Flower Khan Mowgli Rock Wolf fire fire-pot fro moonstones