Dust. Fire. Rubble. Panic. Death.
That was all that Shadow remembered—being surrounded by those five things—as he began his journey towards the city where the great warriors—The Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior—trained every day to preserve peace in China. Fifteen long, grueling years since he had lost his family to Arwhal, the brutal Mongol warlord from the far Northern provinces. Fifteen years that he had spent regretting his wolf society's obsolete combat methods that had led to their fall in the first place. Fifteen years that he had been planning his revenge.
Lord Arwhal, a giant frog trained in unorthodox combat and tactical warfare, had been constantly getting into China over the Great Wall in attempts to take it over; every time, he had failed. Failed because of Shadow's tribe stopping him upon his arrival and sending him back to the North. Shadow's un-named tribe of wolf warriors specialized in bending the elements to their will and using nature itself as a weapon against enemies.
Then it had happened; Arwhal struck a deal with the maniacal peacock warmonger, Shen. In exchange for the use of Shen's firearms, Arwhal conquered a different tribe of wolves and sold them to Shen as soldiers and laborers. Those wolves, unlike Shadow's tribe, were weak-minded and looked up to anyone powerful, but strong in spirit. With his newfound weapons, Arwhal easily destroyed the Great Wall and all but annihilated Shadow's tribe in a genocidal onslaught. But Shadow had survived; he was the only survivor of the attack. Luckily, he had been training in his tribe's art of self-defense and stealth for four years; as soon as he learned to walk, he learned to control the elements. Shadow had been able to hide, forced to watch, unable to do anything as he watched his tribe die at the hands of the warlord from the North. He saw his parents die with his own eyes, watched them be blown from the face of the Earth by one of those devilish weapons.
As he trekked through the city after journeying without food or decent rest for five days, living only on water, Shadow, now twenty years old, heard the loud bangs of fireworks; they sounded just like the cannons, only smaller. Still, the sounds brought back crippling memories of his past and made him shudder a bit, flicking his seven-foot long tail anxiously. He froze for a moment before realizing that cheers, not war cries, accompanied the sounds. Shadow emitted some sort of aura that made the people respect him, yet give him a wide berth as he was in the streets. A large, gray hooded cloak hid all of his wolfish features from view, leaving his tail the only thing that could be seen openly. Shadow closed his eyes and simply bent his knees slightly, then leapt almost twenty feet into the air, high enough to land on the rooftops in one jump; he drew gasps of awe and astonishment from the crowd that had yet to enter the festivities up the hill. He was determined to learn the art of physical combat; after the disaster in his past, he long considered the fighting style of bending the elements obsolete, although he kept everything that he had learned in his mind for his late parents' sake.
Less than two minutes passed before Shadow reached the rooftops at the top of the hill; he quickly scaled a roof some thirty feet up before perching on a spire. The wind blew hard, making his tail flap in the breeze like a long flag; none but the most trained eyes could tell that he was even there. He watched as the fireworks ended and an intricately designed set of gates opened into the square, which was enclosed by a fence that held an enormous crowd on its other side. His sensitive ears flicked as he heard a faint buzzing sound from the square, yet he did not see anything; then the targets that he had noticed in the square simply seemed to… explode. Shadow tilted his head curiously, pondering what could be happening.
A few minutes passed by, wherein Shadow witnessed what could only be three members of the Furious Five come out and demonstrate their techniques to the cheering masses. He saw a shimmering creature that could only be a snake, then soon what was clearly a monkey. Then, the crane came out; as he flew about the training arena, he passed right by Shadow's perch. As he flew by, he clearly shot a suspicious glance at Shadow, but continued on with his training. Finally, the biggest cheer yet erupted from the crowd as a female tiger emerged into the square; from the other end of the area, a strange monolith was wheeled out. The tigress readied herself in a battle stance, whereupon the structure started shooting fireworks directly at her. Shadow watched in amazement as she deflected one projectile after another.
Tigress rolled her eyes as she sent each firework shooting off into the sky; this may be a workout for someone like Po, but for her it was absolutely boring. As she sent one projectile flying with a spinning roundhouse kick, she paused. She was looking in the direction of Master Shifu, the trainer of the Furious Five and Po, the Dragon Warrior; however, instead of looking at her master, she was looking at the roof above him, directly at Shadow. She had dealt with wolves before when they fought Shen's army months ago, but she didn't realize that this was yet another one. Her eyes widened slightly in surprise; as Master Crane had returned from his demonstration, he had mentioned seeing a figure on the rooftops, but she didn't expect this.
"Tigress, focus!" Master Shifu called out as the training box fired another firework at the distracted warrior. Tigress quickly spun and grabbed the firework, intending to throw it into the sky like all the others; that is, until it rocketed out of her paw, right towards where Shadow was perched. Shadow's eyes widened in shock as he saw the projectile flying towards him; after quickly getting over this moment of surprise, he narrowed his eyes and smirked. He flicked his long tail in front of himself and whipped the firework straight upwards into the sky. Everything seemed fine until the concussion and the loud noise from the exploding firework disoriented Shadow, causing him to slip off of the spire. He clawed desperately at the shingles of the roof, but it was no use; he was too stunned, his ears ringing from the blast. He simply relaxed his body and let himself tumble. He closed his eyes and felt the empty air beneath him; he heard the drawing gasps of fright from the crowd, then he felt pain for the first time in a long time as he slammed into the stone floor of the training ground.