Rikki Tikk Tavi

An English family, who have moved to a bungalow in the British Segowlee India, discover a young mongoose half drowned from a storm and decide to keep it as a pet. The young mongoose, called Rikki-Tikki, soon finds himself confronted by two dangerous, murderous cobras, Nag and his even more dangerous mate Nagaina, who had the run of the garden while the house was unoccupied. After that first encounter with the cobras, Rikki's first true battle is with Karait, a small venomous dust brown snakeling who threatens the boy (Teddy). Although Rikki is inexperienced and the snake, because of its deadly venom and small size, is an even more dangerous foe than a cobra, the mongoose defeats him. At Nagaina's urging, Nag plans to kill the human family to get the house empty again so they can have free run of its garden. She also reminds him that their eggs would hatch soon (as they might the next day) and that their children will need room and quiet. Nag goes to the bathroom to wait to kill the "big man", and goes to sleep while waiting. Rikki grabs Nag by the head above the hood. Nag thrashes about furiously, and the noise wakes the man, who fires both barrels of a shotgun into Nag, blowing him in two pieces and almost hitting Rikki. Nag is thrown on the rubbish heap, where Nagaina mourns for him and vows vengeance. Rikki, well aware of the threat, enlists a tailor bird to distract Nagaina while he searches for her eggs. However, while he finds and destroys most of the brood, Nagaina finds the family at the dinner table and threatens to kill the family's son with her poisonous bite. Alerted to the crisis, Rikki races to his family with the last egg. Once there, Rikki claims he killed Nag himself while showing the egg to distract Nagaina long enough for the man to pull the boy to safety. Nagaina snatches the egg and flees to her hole while Rikki pursues her inside. The underground fight is not described, but after an agonizingly long wait, Rikki comes out of the hole in triumph...