Faith in People
Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable characters, settings, instances, etc. They come from DreamWorks's (aka the guy fishing on the moon Inc.) Kung Fu Panda (one of my FAVORITE animated movies!!!). I'm not making any money off of this…I don't need to either since I sell biological weapons (just kidding). All other elements (char., sett., inst.) are the products of yours truly. Please do not use without permission.
What else? Um, oh yeah! Please comment! No flames unless your name is Roy Mustang (if you watch FMA, you'll know what I'm talking about ;-)
Chapter One:
"Di Guang. Please pass me that bowl. Di? Di!" Jin Hua shouted toward the figure sulking in the darkened corner of the room.
Turning listlessly toward the other girl, Di Guang slowly moved to grab the tonic brewing over the fireplace. She half passed, half tossed the brew to Jin Hua, which Jin Hua struggled to catch before it fell onto the floor. Jin Hua sighed heavily. Di Guang's behavior had been…less than considerate lately. It hurt Jin Hua to see her sister like that, but Di Guang refused all of Jin's help and concern; she shut it out like a heavy stone door shuts out a frozen draft.
Turning her attention back to the poor, sick pig who was lying on the bed groaning, Jin Hua cupped the precious bowl of tonic in her hands. Leaning toward the sick man, she gently coaxed the warm broth down his throat. She heard him swallow, at first reluctant, but then satisfied. Jin smiled. Her mother had sworn by this recipe.
Gulping the remainder of the liquid down, the villager smiled and rasped out, "T-thank you, Lady Jin Hua."
Jin Hua smiled, although she must have told the villagers a thousand times not to call her, "lady". It made her feel like they didn't regard her as a normal being. Di Guang, however, seemed to prefer it. Before Jin could get out a response to the pig's gratitude, the wooden door of the small home swung open with a tremendous noise. It had been thrown open by a young, frazzled girl.
"Dian!" Jin Hua turned to face the trembling child. Dian was a good girl who loved to learn. Now, the poor girl was shaking fearfully. "Whatever is the matter?"
"Lady Jin Hua! Out…" Dian paused as she panted heavily. "Out…by the river. There's…there's a man in the river, Lady…"
Jin Hua didn't allow little Dian to finish the sentence. She had an automatic reflex for emergency response. Leaping to her feet, Jin shoved open the door and out into the twilight. The almost-silent footsteps behind her told her that Di Guang was right behind her.
Rushing into the rushes behind their small home, the sisters ran through the damp plants toward the river, the boundary of their small town. It was small enough to see across, but deep enough to be dangerous. Jin and Di had pulled groups of villagers out of the river every flood season. That's what the problem…it was well past flood season. Whoever was in danger in the relevantly low stream would have to be horribly injured.
Running down through the bank, Jin Hua felt the warm mud squish under her toes. She preferred to go barefoot. It was easier for her in her daily activities that way. Slipping the rest of the way down to the river bed, Jin Hua frantically stared into the river. She was afraid that the poor soul was already drowned.
It was a relief to see a person floating face-up in the river. That at least gave them a fighting chance to save him. Jin Hua reached around her waist and tore off the sash holding her kimono in place and jumped into the cool river. The water swished through her hair and the sleeves of her dress. Stroking through the water, she reached the body and put her arms around it, supporting it under the neck and back, incase there were any broken or sprained bones. She swam carefully, struggling to keep them both above water.
Finally back to the shore, Jin Hua pulled the man onto the bank next to her. She heard the sound of someone's knees falling to the ground next to her. Di Guang put a hand on her sister's shoulder and gave her an "are you okay?" stare. Smiling faintly, Jin Hua nodded toward her sibling.
Refocusing, Di Guang turned away and faced the body next to them on the ground. Putting two fingers to the side of the throat, Di Guang checked for a pulse. And waited. Then, she moved her hand over his mouth. That was a good sign. At least he still had a pulse, or else Di Guang wouldn't have even bothered to check for breath. She saw Di shake her head. Oh no. They weren't breathing. Although Jin couldn't see it, she knew that Di Guang was rolling her eyes.
Bending down, Di Guang opened the man's mouth and breathed into his mouth from her own lungs. Once the breath was completed, Di pressed her hands under the ribcage and gave several vigerous thumps. Failing again to feel any breath from the other pair of lungs, Di Guang repeated the process. The third time, Jin Hua was convinced that they had lost the person's life, but as Di thumped for the last time, the lungs reacted, expelling large amounts of water from the mouth.
Di Guang backed up cautiously as the breathing resumed, frenetically at first, but then starting to level out. Seeing that the crises had been averted, Jin Hua turned to the other girl, who has disgustedly wiping away moisture from her mouth, and shouted, "Di! Go! Go for help!"
Di Guang didn't waste a moment. She was a bit impatient, and speed was the key for her in any situation. Jin Hua heard her steps pound away into the rushes and turned to look at the victim.
She immediately stiffened in shock. A snow leopard! A snow leopard? She could not remember having seen any snow leopard but Di Guang before. The male leopard lay panting for breath on the ground. Thank goodness they had gotten to him when they had!
He was middle-aged…late thirties she approximated. His fur was in an unsightly disarray and his violet pants were torn and tattered. That wasn't all. They were stained in blood.
Shocked, Jin Hua quickly ripped off the bottom of the pants, trying to find the injury. Luckily, the blood must have been from a former wound, because there was no open injury, although the back of his legs were covered with horrible black, green, and iris purple bruises.
As she looked him over further, she noticed thick scars of gashes across his shoulders and several cuts up and down his arms and chest. But that wasn't the worst of it. That's when she saw…
She gasped in horror. Rolling the body over onto its side, her eyes spotted horrible, splotchy burns down the entire left side of his body. Continuing to roll it over, her repulsion increased as she saw the other side as horribly disfigured as the first. It took a moment for her to realize that it wasn't just the fur that had been singed off. Almost the entire skin on this man's back had been terribly burned off.
"Oh!" Jin Hua screeched to no one in particular. "How could such a…who would…what happened?"