How did Mowgli leave the pack at last?

When Mowgli returns to the village, the pack starts to pace, and there is a menacing tension in the pack. "Now the business is in thy hands," Bagheera tells Mowgli. The boy stands upright, stretches out his arms, and yawns at the pack. Although he is deeply hurt by the pack's display of hatred towards him, he is careful not to show it. He tells them that he would have been a wolf with them until the end of his life, but that tonight he is a man, not a wolf. He says that he has brought the "red flower" and proceeds to fling it on the ground. The fire ignites a little of the surrounding brush on fire, and the pack withdraws a few paces in terror. Seizing his advantage, Mowgli feeds the fire with dead branches and leaves until it crackles, further terrifying the cowering wolves. Bagheera whispers to him that he is doing well and advises him to save Akela, who has always been his friend.

Mowgli tells the still trembling wolves that he is leaving to join his own people in the village, that because he has been their brother, he will not betray them to the men in the village, and that there will be no war among the members of the pack. He has a score to settle with the tiger, though, and walks over to where Shere Khan is sitting. Mowgli waves a flaming branch around the tiger's head. Shere Khan whimpers in agony and fear, but Mowgli withdraws, bidding the tiger also to go. He asks the council to let Akela live, that it is Mowgli's will. Before leaving the jungle, Mowgli says goodbye to the only mother he has ever known. He cries on her coat and implores her not to forget him. "Never" is the answer, and Mother and Father Wolf bid him to return and visit them often. Mowgli replies that he will, and that it will be with Shere Khan's hide upon his back. Mowgli tells his parents to not let the jungle forget him and turns to leave. It is just dawn as he makes his way down to whatever fate awaits him in the village.