Dynasty of the Fated and Cursed

Blood of the Earth

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-Introduction-

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The world is not at peace. The Valley, named after that exact aspect, is actually in a complete uproar and nervous about their coming future. The Valley of Peace, and many major outlying provinces have been engulfed in what appears to be an endless sea of fog. Flightless creatures are restricted to low visibility, and no sun light on the ground, while creatures who can see are lost once in the air and above the swirling fog and the clouds. From many reports, China, as far as the eye can see, is covered in fog that is escaping from a maelstrom where the rope bridge, The Thread of Hope, once held together a major trade route for Chinese merchants. From the giant crevice in the land pours the mighty fog that manages to engulf and suffocate the land even during the day. Crops are withering terribly, little to no trading is possible and the villagers, lords, teachers and masters who did have surplus of supplies are now down to their last amounts…

Although even with the fog strangling the land and restricting visibility and travel, the Furious Five give hope to the Valley of Peace and parts of China. As frequent as bandit raids may have been in the past, the number has dwindled due to the cloud cover, but any homestead that falls under attack would never get the word out, nor would any see a signal fire, or smoke trail from a burning village or a recently razed town. But not even the Furious Five have the knowledge or power to stop something such as irregularly bad weather… There is no current knowledge on the maelstrom aside from the source, and there's been no ground, or air militia that has ever gone to the storm… and reported back.

Shifu and other great leaders fear for the worst with this flood of visible air, but all that can be done is to trust in sages, struggle to survive and prey for the well being of the entire nation. Even the Emperor is stumped… The Furious Five, The Dragon Warrior, and the warriors of Sun-Lo; Mei-Ling and Hou-Xin, haven't returned from their mission to rescue Sun-Lo from a raid by the Shou-Lie Yin-Ying either. However long before the team ever reached the city, Tigress deserted the other Jade Warriors, and vanished into the fog and from their graces. With Tigress gone, and their effective team reduced by one, the Jade Warriors marched onto Sun-Lo after discovering that Master Tigress was actually an undercover, but memory wiped, agent of the Shou-Lie Yin-Ying. The knowledge was uncovered by a Japanese iriomote cat named, Sa-Chi, who is a very mysterious merchant and a muscular male panda who owns an inn lost in the fog named 'Wonton Rin'. But they were two days too late to save Sun-Lo and found a ghost town waiting on arrival, and hiding in the ruins of the corpse of the lifeless city was none other than the highly deadly all female organization Shou-Lie Yin-Ying, the Shadow Hunters. Hou-Xin was killed by the leader of the Shadow Hunters and that act of war set off a violent battle between the Jade Warriors, and the endless army of black assassins in a fight to the death.

Tigress liberated herself from a life of Kung Fu to embrace her original life as, Ryoko Yatogi, with no true knowledge of who she used to be, but her Shadow Hunter training was slowly coming back through the block placed in her brain. Her first act of returning to her life of murder was to locate and attack another Shadow Hunter to steal her clothing. It was all Tigress could do since she had no idea where the Sanctuary actually was, only the knowledge of it being in Mongolia was her only lead, and that was as vague as saying, 'Trust Yourself'. On her search for the Sanctuary, or Tai-Lung, Tigress had completely back tracked due to confusion in the fog and reintroduced herself to the Bao Gu Orphanage, the place where she had been left on her mission and the start of her misery. Tigress' fate of exile and neglect carried on for a few short years, but she was eventually adopted by Master Shifu because of the void left behind by the very man she was supposed to kill. Even though she missed her target, she had been left behind in the Jade Palace and was mentored in Tiger Style Kung Fu and began a new life of servitude, conditioning, discipline and patience. And through those years she met her siblings-in-arm's. Monkey, Crane, Viper and Mantis, and re-discovered her Fire chi.

However, even with her Fire Chi as a secret weapon, Tigress wasn't fully able to defeat and capture Tai-Shen, a black panther who rescued the wounded and dying Tai-Lung after the Wushi Fingerhold. After the Furious Five fought and captured Tai-Shen he revealed himself to be Shen-Mao, the father of Tai-Lung, and the Wu Sisters, who were named Sai-Yue, Reika and Fu-Mai.

The current location of Tai-Lung was unknown after he fled the Jade Palace after his capture, however the Wu Sisters had managed to locate and capture him on his way back to Mongolia. He was stopped before he was able to kill their accomplice Asuka, a lynx with a unique blood pressure chi that changes the color of her fur to either purple or red. The Wu Sisters brought Tai-Lung and Asuka back to their hideout to rest, and after Asuka recovered; she brought back Shen-Mao whom she'd fought and captured before she got into her fight with Tai-Lung; and eventually lost. Lastly, kept save in the Wu Sister's cave was Mitsurugi Kusanagi, the missing second son of Shen-Mao Kusanagi and Xue Wu. Currently the seven of them are en-route to Mongolia to meet with Yue Wu who promises to reunite the Wu and Kusanagi kittens with their mother, while planning on having her own special reunion with Shen-Mao.

Sa-Chi managed to return to the Valley of Peace through all the fog, and returned to her old place of business, across the street from Mr. Ping's noodle shop. After hours, or during with slow business days, Sa-Chi managed to meet with Li-Tang, the new panda working for Mr. Ping in replacement of Po. She was a muscular woman, much better structured than the Dragon Warrior, but she has no interest for Kung Fu, or Martial Arts at all. Which is contradicted by her figure, she was designed as though she'd been training in martial arts for years. But without any business coming through the Valley, the iriomote, Sa-Chi had been passing her days with selling at slightly lower prices to anyone who had money. Sa-Chi, in a desperate attempt to make money began selling her own stores of grain, water, wood, ore and cloth after she released the knowledge of actually owning materials but stock was gone in one day, and the her happiness left shortly after… leaving Sa-Chi short on luck and necessary merchandise and leaving her with one final decision; This fog, had-to-go. Now!

"Damn it, this sucks!" Sa-Chi groaned, resting her head against Shen-Mao's journal that she'd re-read for at least the eighth time.

Li-Tang laughed, "Well quit reading the part about him falling in love with Xue Wu. You know what's going to happen!"

"No not that… even if it does suck. I mean the lack of business!"

"Yeah, no kidding. Mr. Ping hasn't had business this slow ever. I've only been working here for a few days, and he tells me that the day he opened he had more work than this." Li-Tang said while idly thumbing through a romance novel that Shifu had brought by and left. It was accidentally stashed in one of the many short stacks of Kung Fu manuals that he'd delivered to subtly hint to Li-Tang that 'Kung Fu would be super great to learn'; or at least that's how Li-Tang can imagine Shifu saying it. But Li-Tang was a grown woman, and Shifu was a lonely old man, and had no idea how to talk to a woman that wasn't Master Tigress or Master Viper. So his hinting was actually louder than if he'd of opened his mouth and told her to her face.

Li-Tang sighed. "You know, this is driving me crazy…"

Sa-Chi looked up from Shen-Mao's journal again. "What?? All the fog?"

"No, all these stupid, 'Joys of Low Blows' and 'Fundamentals of Face Punching' books. That Master Shifu really really wants me to practice Kung Fu so I can be some kind of savior or something… He's even got the villagers trying to egg me into it. It's not workin' though. I, don't fight. I'm a peaceful, fun loving kinda girl."

"You telling me, beating up jerks isn't fun…?"

"Look, everyone here is either a sheep, a duck, a pig, or married... or a wenis. I haven't had a guy touch my ass, wolf whistle at me, or tell me their address and give me the key to their front door. I don't want to scare off the people that actually treat me like I'm just a regular panda, like back home."

Sa-Chi pondered on Li-Tang's thinking for a minute. "Well… this whole Village loves Kung Fu and everyone who practices it. Just the other day I sold a painting of The Furious Five to a few bunny kids."

"How come you can sell stuff of the Furious Five, don't you need marketing rights?" Li-Tang asked, with her finger on her book so she doesn't lose her placement.

"What are marketing rights??"

"I don't know." The panda confessed and returned to reading her book.

"Well all I'm saying is that, perhaps he wants to show you off. I heard that he actually didn't pick the Dragon Warrior to be the Dragon Warrior."

"Oh really?" Li-Tang replied while diligently reading, getting to the saucier parts of the romance novel and unable to turn her eyes away. But if there's any one thing a restaurant job will teach, it's how to multitask. "Who did he pick?"

"Well…" Sa-Chi spoke, while digging into her kimono, presenting a painting of Tai-Lung, and a painting of Tigress. "First it was the muscular guy over here, Tai-Lung. Shen-Mao's son."

"Cool."

"But according to legend, Tai-Lung was denied for being 'Too Evil' or something of the sort and was cast away. Then he went insane, and got locked up. Afterwards. He chose Master Tigress to be the Dragon Warrior and that didn't work out either. Because out of the sky-"

"-Like a ball of fire!" Mr. Ping added from the rear of his shop while he went over his stock.

"Yep, like a ball of flame, Po fell from the sky." Sa-Chi continued, "And painlessly landed in front of Oogway and was declared to be the Dragon Warrior, a Warrior of ultimate promise and might."

"Oh how hot!" Li-Tang began to laugh.

"Wha?" Sa-Chi paused, getting mixed reactions from something being both 'Funny' and 'Arousing'. "You mean the Dragon Warrior?"

"No no! In this book, Yumi is being stripped naked by Hunan-Khan in his tent and sh-"

"Will you put that book away for a minute!!" Sa-Chi interrupted the sex novel. "I'm telling you smarts!" Sa-Chi muttered, putting away her pictures and quickly losing her train of thought.

"Did you just say 'Telling me Smarts?' Don't you mean, 'Granting me knowledge' or something more intelligent? Or have you been reading Shen-Mao's journal too much, his drunk chapter will make you sound like an idiot if you read it out loud and you've been reading that journal a bit too much…"

Sa-Chi held a paw over her eyes and laugh out loud. "Sorry, sorry … I think…all this fog and no money… is making Sa-Chi go… something … something…"

"Uh… Go-Crazy?" Li-Tang added, trying to figure out what was up with Sa-Chi.

"Don't-mind-if-I-DO!" Sa-Chi suddenly shouted and got an insane look in her eye as she roared out loud and pulled one of her long katanas out an began slicing at the air, cursing and shouting at the fog surrounding her.

"WHOA!!" Li-Tang shouted and dove under her table, and snaked her novel as an after thought as Sa-Chi went berserk up high. The iriomote roared out and swung her katana swiftly but violently around the restaurant. She didn't hit anyone, or anything, but violently and foolishly using her blade was making her feel a-lot better about not making even a note of yuan today.

"DAMN IT FOG! DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT!" The merchant roared out loud to no one in particular.

"Heey!" Mr. Ping shouted, but he couldn't get through to Sa-Chi who was like a mad woman who wanted fog dead. "Li-Tang!" The duck called out, trying to get in touch with either of the women.

"Yes, Boss??" The panda replied, still utilizing her multitasking by replying and reading at the same time. "What is it?"

"Look up! Look at what Sa-Chi is doing!" Mr. Ping said excitedly.

"I see what she's doing Boss, do you want me to throw her out?" Li-Tang spoke without looking up, a bit more interested in the four way between Yumi and Khan's three bandit buddies.

"No no no! Look up, Li-Tang, look!"

The panda sighed, putting down her debauchery. "Yes boss…" The Panda then poked her head up cautiously over her table to see a clean beam of sunlight casting down on Sa-Chi in a bright growing radius. "Whoa… Sa-Chi how are you doing that?!"

"FUUUUCK!!!" Sa-Chi roared out in blind anger.

"No not that! I don't care how you do that! How are you killing the fog?!" Li-Tang gasped, and before anyone could imagine, the entire restaurant was now glowing with warm sunlight and fresher air… and a pissed off feline swinging a four foot blade around wildly. The store front began to fill, with little pig heads and goat noses and rabbit ears. All manner of civilians were poking their heads in the door to witness the spectacle of sunlight actually being visible in the Valley, which was a rare sight for what felt like at least a week or three. The commotion grew as more and more citizens began to show up and Mr. Ping could see all the money he'd soon be making and put on three pots to boil.

Li-Tang was astounded, "Wow… Sa-Chi you can… kill the fog! That is amazing!" The panda was excited to feel sunlight on her fur and muscles. It brought a warm smile to her face and for once she could finally take a deep breath that actually had a smell to it. It was a fresh, crisp, glorious smell… It was … awesome.

Sa-Chi's mad blade wielding came to a sudden halt, but apparently before she was ready by the way she growled/gasped when she stopped. "Whaaa? Grr, what happened… I'm not done killing…"

It was Master Shifu, such a sight of a beam of heaven being cast down onto the Valley was not a sight that even a man as old as he would miss, or fail to investigate, and seeing Sa-Chi wildly wielding her weapon he felt the need to intervene.

"Hmm, no." Shifu interrupted, holding Sa-Chi with one paw at her elbow to control the arm, and his other paw at her wrist to control the hand and the blade. "I don't believe you are. But you are done killing here uh… miss…. Um…"

"Sa-Chi …" The iriomote sighed, "Why don't you remember me? Doesn't anyone remember my name around here?" Sa-Chi growled, trying to come down off of rage. "And why are you touching me?"

"To prevent you from swinging that deadly katana anymore. You have a chance of hurting someone innocent, or the new Dragon Warrior." Shifu turned to Li-Tang who had pulled down an eyelid with a finger and stuck out her tongue. "How brash…" He scoffed.

"I'm not learning Kung Fu! I don't want to!" Li-Tang growled.

"I'm not going to kill anyone! I don't want to, either!" Sa-Chi groaned out loud and pulled herself free of Shifu's grasp.

"Well what are you going to do then?" Shifu questioned.

"I'm gunna finish this novel. This foursome is just getting good." Li-Tang commented, picking her book up from the floor.

"Li-Tang! No reading! Time for prep work. Now that there's sunlight, we can serve some food and make some money!"

Li-Tang bit her tongue, "Gah, yes Boss…"

Shifu snorted, he wasn't asking Li-Tang what she was going to do, he was asking Sa-Chi, who had already sheathed her blade and was running towards Mr. Ping's counter.

"Hey! You said money! Can I help?! You need some stock? Perhaps firewo- no I sold all that… Do you need cutlery? Or a Wok? Two Woks? Already boiled water? No… I sold that too… Anything?! I-NEED-MONEY!" Sa-Chi pleaded, on the verge of going something something again.

"Um… I can pay you." Shifu interrupted Sa-Chi's bargaining, and immediately, almost faster than he could detect, Sa-Chi was ontop of him.

"PAY ME!" Sa-Chi roared, foaming at the mouth. This scared Shifu, because women, especially Japanese women … were weird. "MonEy!"

"Gah! You haven't worked for it yet!" Shifu gasped, feeling himself being lifted off the ground by a woman gone mad, and he didn't know how to defend himself against women ... he hadn't had the time in between all the training and keeping women off of Tai-Lung to let him train, then later keeping Mantis and Monkey off the women to make them train.

"HOW? YOU KNOW WHAT DO? TELL ME!" Sa-Chi spoke non-sense at Shifu but he was guessing she meant. 'What to do, tell me how?' and he replied…

"Gah! Take Blade! Clean Fog! All Valley! Pay Well!" He spoke madness back, hoping his experience in deciphering Tai-Lung's baby talk and Tigress' baby babble for those few short years could aide him here … and it did. Sa-Chi released him and put her hand on her katana and marched at the crowd in the front door like she was going to kill everyone in the Valley.

Shifu hit the ground on both feet sloppily and turned to the citizens, seeing what Sa-Chi was doing. "Hey! Everyone!! Get out of the way. Sa-Chi is going to clean up the fog! Go open your shutter windows and doors, and prepare for a massive wind storm!"

"Wind…" Sa-Chi muttered and left the store.

Li-Tang poked up from out the service window with her apron tied securely around her medium waist. "Hey what's going on?? Where are the customers?"

Mr. Ping was hastily chopping imported Tofu bits. "They're going to watch the merchant kill all the fog. Business is going to explode here soon! Just think of all the hungry, non-zombie depressed customers!"

Li-Tang laughed gently, "Oh yeah, that's gunna be great sir, just great." Big business was only good for the boss and owner, not the employees.

Shifu turned back to Li-Tang. "Um… I know I've said this before, but if you don't like serving food, you can always pra-"

"NO! NO KUNG FU OLD MAN!" Li-Tang argued.

"But why not?! The valley could use a woman with your skill and natural talent! I've seen you work! You have natural skills!" The red panda argued his case to the annoyed female.

"My skills are balancing tabs, remembering orders, service with a smile, and bouncing assh-"

Before either of the pandas had a chance to say any more the sky over the valley began to grow dangerously bright and all of a sudden exploded like a mighty Chinese firework that revealed the entire sky. But there were no fireworks, there wasn't even an explosion, only a very loud roar from the land's fog shifting massively and being consumed. Everyone in the Valley, began shouting in pain at the sudden flash of light that bombarded their eyes, but it was like nothing more than turning on a light once you've been in a dark room for too long. Soon after, the villagers came to see that the fog, had been consumed. The Valley was bright once again and it was apparently mid day, or somewhere near.

Li-Tang, Mr. Ping and Shifu could hear the villagers excitedly chattering amongst themselves, instead of cheering.

"It's gone!" "Wow!" "This is amazing!" Parts of a crowd began to cheer.

"I can see!" "The sun!" "My eyes!! They hurt! It's wonderful!" More began chattering.

"Oh how glorious! The sun!" "Wow! It's mid day? Hey, what time is it??"

"It's uh… let me check the sun dial." There was a pause, and Li-Tang shook her head and picked up a knife to prepare to cut green onions, while Mr. Ping and Shifu listened on.

"Uh… it's 4 o'clock." Replied the Sun-dial checker.

"Pm or am??" Asked the same man.

"The sun is out idiot, what do you think?"

"Then that means it's happy hour at the noodle shop! I'm gunna get tore up! Then lay out in the hot sun!"

"Wha…" Li-Tang scoffed. "Who gets 'Tore Up' at 4pm, it's absur-" Then came the explosive cheering, before Li-Tang could finish talking. The entire Valley erupted with celebration that matched the one that Po had received when he was reigned in as the Dragon Warrior. Complete with confetti, banners and actual fire works being launched off into the air, and a rousing chant of. 'Sa-Chi!' 'Sa-Chi!' 'Sa-Chi!' over and over again.

Shifu smiled smugly to turn back to Li-Tang and gloat about how much people love a savior, but he was shocked to see a shocked look on her face, and her knife in the ceiling of the store.

"What…?" Shifu paused. "Am I growing a second head from a third neck or something?"

Mr. Ping glanced up from his prep work to see what Shifu was talking about and glanced over at Li-Tang, then turned his head towards Shifu, and gasped out loud. "STAMPEDE!!"

Shifu turned around to see almost every Villager, even the children, punching through the front of the restaurant, cheering about the sunlight, demanding food and alcohol, probably prepared to pay any price that Mr. Ping could think of too. Warm food, and an a worry forgetting drink was apparently the way the Valley of Peace was going to get back on it's feet now that it could see and breathe clearly. Shifu had managed to quick step the entire Valley running him over but he leapt straight into another problem… Sa-Chi, and her money cravings. And like fly to honey, she was back in Shifu's face and holding out her hand.

Shifu was true to his word and pulled forth his bag of coin but he didn't give it to her just yet. "I have to inspect your work first… you understand."

"…" Sa-Chi was silent, but allowed the infraction and followed the short red panda out of Mr. Ping's shop, with Li-Tang cursing under her breathe and Mr. Ping giggling at the money that was going to be coming in for today, to make up for his slow week.

The Grand Master of the Jade Palace exited the restaurant to witness that entire Valley indeed had been cleansed completely of the fog… not an ounce of fog was resting inside the property of the Valley, even some of the farms had been cut clean of the mysterious wall of haze, but Shifu could clearly see a thick perimeter of fog outside the Valley. It was outside the wall that surrounded the Valley of Peace and outside the property line of the farms and that was it… from there on, was grey haze.

"I'm impressed… But how?"

"My sword…" Sa-Chi sighed and snaked the bag from Shifu's hand and immediately sobered up from her hatred and merrily ambled away to go and count her riches.

"Her sword…" Shifu pondered for a moment. "A blade that can cut through the wind… Absorb the energy of the wind… A wind blade…" He pondered for a long moment… "Just like… The Sword of Heroes!"

The red panda spun around quickly. "Sa-Chi!? Ah, Sa-Chi!? Where are you!? I'd like to ask you something!!" But she was gone, the iriomote had taken off with her bag full of coin probably to go bathe in it.

"Damn it…" Shifu muttered to himself and poked his head into Mr. Ping's shop to make a quick check to see if Sa-Chi might be inside but to no luck, and if she wasn't at the restaurant, where she normally did business; then there was no telling where she might have ran off to.

"Well… at least there's hope now… Hope for everyone." Shifu said with a determined smile on his lips, then he quickly turned to the restaurant again. "Unless you'd like to be a HEROINE!"

"I DON'T DO KUNG FU OR HEROINE!" Li-Tang angrily shouted back at Shifu, and the red panda was forced to catch a hot bowl of noodles being thrown at his head.

"Well uh…" Shifu paused, "I … suppose I'll try tomorrow." He glanced down at the bowl, noticing the brown tint to the water. "Oooh Teriyaki! I'd better enjoy this sunlight while it lasts!"

And with those words, Shifu ran off to his favorite place to go think. The Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, hopefully the petals would be falling sense there was an actual breeze and sunlight for the stems to enjoy. Shifu still thought about his students, and his friends even when he ate, he would pray that they were all well and able. When Shifu reached his spot, he sat down and gave grace for his free meal then began eating, but while he did… He thought and prayed for Tigress and Tai-Lung; Praying for their safe return.

He prayed for Hou-Xin and Mei-Ling, hoping they wouldn't find themselves in too much trouble with their untrained minds and bodies.

He prayed for Po, hoping he could keep his mouth shut and his mind focused on the task at hand.

He prayed for Master Viper and Master Crane, for their well being and diligence to see everyone unharmed and happy.

He prayed for Master Monkey and Master Mantis to keep their cruel and lewd jokes to themselves so they could focus on protecting their family and friends, and finally …

Shifu prayed for Shen-Mao and his Master, Oogway…

He knew about Shen-Mao's condition, and knew that his friend would be passing on soon and prayed that when he does make his unnatural return, that he is healthy and successful in his endeavor.

His final prayer for Master Oogway was to continue looking over the Valley and to look over him. Because the scariest thought was not being able to speak to Oogway through the fog, and not being able to protect his town and it's people.

Thankfully the people Shifu had collected over the years as friends and family were just as strong and caring as he.

China will be safe from harm as long as the Jade Warriors live, and Shifu is still breathing. He would surely see to it, and with his mind filled with pleasant thoughts, and his stomach full of a tasty meal, the red panda decided that now was the best time for a nap. Shifu settled against the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom and exhaled deeply.

"Thank you for this tree Master…" As he spoke a gentle breeze, filled with peach tree petals came sweeping over Shifu, as if Oogway was stroking his head to comfort the mildly troubled panda, but it put him to sleep. A well deserved one at that… Shifu would sleep throughout the day, confident that everyone was safe, and the Valley was in no danger.

For now . . .

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This is the second book, of the 'Dynasty of the Fated and Cursed' series.

Time for some of those unanswered questioned to finally be resolved.

Keep in touch and thanks for reading. It's greatly appreciated.