Hi all, first and foremost, this is the first time I'm writing, so I do apologize if it isn't up to standard. A word of warning though, this is pretty graphic from comments I've gathered so far.
You have been warned.
I would like to thank the following people for encouraging me to do this:
M4dG4rl: Thanks for being the first to encourage me to write my own stories.
Lionstar09: Your comments was what made me believe its possible.
DATsubasa: You're the best friend ever.
Disclaimer: I do not own Kung Fu Panda. Dreamworks does. The characters you see in this chapter here are mine though =D
A lone black panther woke from her slumber with a sudden jolt. She opened her eyes and briefly glanced around her, wondering why on earth was she in such a position. Did I fell asleep standing again? Feeling a slight ache in her shoulders, she decided to stretch to relieve the soreness. It was only then when she realized that she couldn't move her arms. She searched for the cause of the constriction and what she saw instantly snapped her awake.
She was bound to the ceiling, an arm on each side, chained by a complicated looking shackle. Her arms were chained at just the right height to keep her standing in an upright position and her legs were bound to the floor to prevent her from reaching the wrist shackles with her foot paws. No wonder I was asleep standing, she thought grimly.
She tried to pull her wrist out of the shackle, only to freeze from the pain. The shackle had tightened itself around her wrists, piercing almost a dozen steel needles into her wrists. She clenched her jaws and held her breath for almost a minute, only to sigh in relief as needles retracted, allowing the pain to subside a little. She winced slightly when she saw the many lines of fresh blood ooze out from the punctured wounds on her wrists.
Deciding to ignore her wounds for a moment, she looked around her surroundings with more effort this time. She was facing the end of what looked like a dark and dank cave. The floor was rough and damp. There were numerous dark patches on the floor. A foul stench filled the air, like meat gone bad. The walls around her glittered slightly from the inconsistent light cast by a flickering flame in front of her.
Taking in all these, she still had no idea how she had gotten herself into such a predicament, how many days had passed since she was bound, and most importantly, how to get out of the situation she was in. The same thoughts kept her occupied for quite some time till she lost consciousness again.
She woke up again an hour later to a grinding noise behind her. Whomever it was was grinding something large judging by the amount of sound and sparks that it was producing. She tried to move slightly to try to ease the persistent ache in her lower back that was the result of standing in such a position for so long. It wasn't really productive though as all it achieved was to shift the ache to another part of her slender, but now haggard body.
Apparently her movements had attracted the attention of the person behind her as the grinding stopped and the clunk of metal was heard. Her sensitive nose twitched slightly as she tried to discern its scent through the stench that was present in the cave itself. It took a couple of minutes, but she got it in the end. Male, she thought. Definitely someone large. She pondered for a moment, but her proud nature took over her thoughts. Well, I'm not going to give him the satisfaction of seeing me in fear. I'm not going to turn around to look at him. If he wants to see me, he has to come in front of me. With this, she continued staring defiantly into the darkness in front of her.
She jumped slightly when the guy behind her picked up her tail and started playing with it. She tried to pull it out of his grasp, but he tightened his grip at the tip of the tail and started caressing it up and down its furry length. She felt her fur standing as the teasing on her appendage sent shiver after shiver down her spine. Apparently the person behind her knew his technique was working as he slowed down his actions and became gentler with her tail, working closer and closer to her hindquarters. When he touched the sensitive skin between her tail and puckered anus, she shuddered involuntarily and tried to growl, but all that came out was an indistinguishable mixture between a moan, a growl, and a purr.
Bewildered by the different feelings and thoughts she was experiencing, she was unprepared when the person behind landed a strong blow to her left kidney. Her knees buckled and she arched her back in pain. She would have crumpled on the floor had she not been chained up by the shackles. Therefore she hung from the shackles as she clenched her teeth and wheezed in pain for almost five minutes before recovering enough to stand on her own again.
With the stress of holding up her body, the shackles came alive once more and started piercing the blood smeared needles deeper into her wrist. Almost an inch of each needle was embedded into her wrist, taking the pain to another level as the needles prodded and pressed itself onto her bone. Every movement she made tore at the wounds, causing her wrist to bleed profusely. She looked up when she felt her torturer trail a finger along her wrist, drawing a line on her now blood matted fur.
Her torturer was a large rhino with a 14 inch, armor plated horn. He had a dark grey leather hide and large dull black claws. His body was very well toned with well defined muscles from top to toe and he stared out at the world with blood red eyes that seemed to glow eerily even in the light. He wore a thin but sturdy, triple layered silk battle robe. The middle layer was a metal chainmail, allowing the battle robe to be light, yet tough and sturdy. Standing at almost 2.7 meters tall, and weighing almost 4,000 kilos, he wasn't someone to be taken lightly, both figuratively and literally. She gasped when she realized who he was.
"My… My Lord?"
He neither replied nor responded to her acknowledgement, but licked the blood from his finger and walked toward the source of light before her. He knelt down beside the fire and added more logs to it, increasing its strength and ferocity.
With the place now being bathed with light, she turned around to look at her surroundings once more. She realised with horror that what she was in wasn't just a prison cell, but an interrogation cum torture chamber as well. The entrance behind her was a solid metal door that would block off all screams from the outside. On her left was what looked like a used surgical table. There were large amounts of blood stains on its surface and the floor around it. Hung on the wall beside the table were a number of whips which had polished metal hooks attached to the receiving end of its length.
What made her stare in horror however, was the wall in front of her. She had initially thought it glittered due to the reflection of its uneven surface, but in the now brightly lit room, she saw that it was filled with row after row of neatly arranged torture instruments. She recognised many of the items, having personally used them before. They ranged from surgical knives to hooked blades to a number of metal framed equipments. The familiarity to these items was more than enough to make her go weak in the knees with fear, knowing that she'll soon be on the receiving end of some them.
As she continued to look through the equipment, the rhino stood up to face her with a cruel smile. He walked towards her and aimed another punch, this time at her chest. The force of it cracked several ribs and nearly crushed her lungs. She wheezed in pain for the second time and gasp desperately for air as her lungs tried to re-inflate after the impact.
The rhino leant against the side of the wall and faced her.
"Tell me Cui Yan, why is Tang Zen still alive?"
When she recovered enough to speak, she replied in a raspy voice.
"Because he didn't deserve to die."
"Well, that isn't your decision to make isn't it?" he replied casually.
"I know, but he's an upright citizen."
"He was, until he decided to go against me."
She stayed silent, deciding to save her energy to keep herself upright and from collapsing rather than reply him. She was hurting enough all over and did not want to give the shackles more chances to impale her wrists even further.
The rhino frowned at her for almost a minute before seemingly making a decision. He ripped off her tattered midnight blue tunic and black silk pants followed by her chest wrappings and undergarment, leaving her completely in her own fur. He then shrugged off his armoured robe and hung it on a hook on the ceiling, leaving him in just a plain white silk tunic.
Her eyes widen in shock and her fur stood in fear as she realised what he had done and was intending to do. Her panic escaladed further when he took a polished surgical knife from the wall and walked around her. He continued twirling the knife while circling and observing her from all angles. He took in her well toned figure, her silky jet black fur, her dense and compact muscles on her arms and thighs, her lean stomach, her jade green irises, her razor sharp claws and her now bleeding wrists and ankles.
She felt him close in behind her and braced herself. She squirmed and whimpered slightly when he wrapped an arm around her waist almost lovingly from behind, raking the fur on her sensitive belly with his dull but sharp claws. He gently slash down her mid flank repeatedly, eliciting a soft cry of pain from her muzzle. She then gasped when he pressed the surgical knife between her shoulder blades and dragged it down her back, trailing her spine and stopping just right above her tail. The slash was deep, not to mention painful, but thankfully not fatal. Letting her bleed from the wound, he put on a work robe before returning to the wall to retrieve another piece of equipment.
A look of recognition appeared in her eyes when she saw what he picked. It was a two piece metal clamp which would crush a victim's paws when tightened. She growled at him and balled up her fists when he approached, preventing him from fitting her paw into the clamp.
"I see you remember what this does, but remembering won't save you or anything. Now open your paws." He commanded.
She kept her paws clenched, ignoring whatever he just said.
"This is my final warning, I'll do it with or without your co-operation." He warned her.
She looked straight into his blood red eyes and stared at him defiantly.
He shook his head and stomped on her right foot paw, holding back slightly at the last moment to avoid completely destroying it. The impact broke and splintered the bones on her foot, causing her to shriek in mind numbing pain as she struggled to pull her leg out from under his feet. She clenched her jaws and hissed slightly as she rode out the wave after wave of throbbing pain now radiating from her broken foot paw. He removed his leg from hers and stood back to watch her. Despite the pain, she continued clenching her paws, thwarting him of his plans.
"We'll do this the hard way then." The rhino muttered.
He put down the clamp and picked up the whips from the corner. One on each hand, he starting whipping her continuously and mercilessly. She cried out every time the whip came in contact with her back, her body jerking in pain as the hooked whip tore and clawed at her back. Soon the entire room was filled with the sound of cries and whipping.
Ten minutes later, the black panther struggled to stand on her remaining leg as the amount of pain from her back threatened to overwhelmed her. Her once smooth back was now a huge lattice of ripped flesh and fresh blood. In certain areas, the wounds were almost two inch deep and up to four inches wide. The metal hooks were no longer polished. They were now covered in blood with bits of skin and flesh stuck on them. Blood flowed freely from her back, turning her surrounding black fur a dark crimson. She panted hard from the exertion, her strength almost depleted as she hung limply from the shackles. She no longer felt the needles in her wrist as the pain paled in comparison to what her back had endured.
Immersed in her own world of pain, she was unaware of her surroundings. She looked up when she felt her right paw slide into something cold and hard. She continued staring blankly at whatever was being done, not registering that the rhino had just slid her paw between two metal plates and with a slight 'click', attached the clamp to her shackles. With a sudden jolt of fear, she struggled desperately to extract her paw out of the clamp. After a minute of struggling and realising that her efforts were in vain, she tried her last and final attempt to persuade her former lord to change his mind.
"Please, My Lord, Please..." She pleaded desperately as she continued her fruitless attempts to pull out of the clamp, not caring that with each tug, the needles from the shackles grazed even deeper into her bones.
He turned to look at her dispassionately.
"You've had your chance to repent earlier, there's no turning back now."
Without warning, he snapped the ends of the clamp shut. Save for the edge of her finger tips, her entire paw was encased between the two metal plates. She let out a blood curling scream as her paw was slightly dislocated from her wrist and was crushed into a space almost half the size of her paw itself. Blood dripped from every join and crevice of the clamp as sharp metal studs on the inner surface of the metal plates pierced deep into her soft paw pads. The compression of the clamp on her finger tips had also caused her black razor sharp claws to be forcibly unsheathed.
After almost five minutes of intense screaming, she was out of energy and was reduced to sobbing weakly from the pain. Please, let it stop, I can't go on anymore. Please... She thought as tears, sweat and grime cascaded down her face. She was physically and emotionally drained. Her surroundings swam in and out of focus as she tried desperately to hang on to consciousness.
A soft clinking sound snapped her back to reality. She raised her head up weakly to see her former lord pick up a pair of tongs used by blacksmiths. He gave her a demonic grin and casually open and close the tongs. It gleamed menacingly as he brought it closer and closer to her claws.
"No... Please... I'll do anything... Please..."
"I warned you before Cui Yan. The next time I have to punish you, it'll be declawing."
"Please..."
He ignored her and gripped her thumb claw with the tongs. With an abrupt pull, he ripped her claw out of the finger. Her screams echoed in the chamber once more as the rhino continued with the remaining four claws, each declawing resulting with a bleeding stump on the finger tip. When he was done, he put the tongs aside and resumed with tightening the clamp further, stopping only when he felt her bones finally crack within the metal plates.
Standing back, he wiped his hands and claws on a rag as he surveyed her from head to toe. She was a sodden and bleeding wreck. From her right finger tips and paws to her mutilated back to the shackles on her wrists and ankles, every bleeding wound only assisted in coating her black fur with a layer of crimson. Her legs were unable to support her body and she was wheezing and gasping for breath every now and then. Tears poured from her jade green irises as she hung limp from the shackles.
Deciding that he was tired of playing with her, he back handed her across the face, snapping her head in the other direction, knocking her senseless for a moment. Before giving her time to recover from the latest blow, he kneed her sharply in the stomach. She managed a strangled cry before the culmination of pain finally overwhelmed her. She didn't have the strength left to fight, finally succumbing to the welcoming darkness that brought everything away with it.
The rhino changed back into his battle robe and walked out of the room to the see the prison warden waiting outside for him. He was an axe wielding gruff boar with limited fighting skills, but with large amount of brute strength to accomplish whatever that was required of him.
"Did you carry out my instructions earlier?" he questioned the warden.
"Yes my lord, the physician should be arriving any moment now. Ah, there he is." The boar replied as he gestured to an approaching deer in a white lab robe.
"What are your orders sir?" the deer asked when he approached the pair.
"Take a look at her." The rhino pointed into the room. "Your only job is to make sure she doesn't die. Let her suffer from her wounds and injuries, but I want her alive. If she dies, you'll be next"
"I understand sir" was the only reply the warlord heard as he walked out of the prison.
As I said earlier, this is the very first time I'm writing my own stories. Please review and tell me what you think. I take any kind of criticism no matter how blunt it is as long as its constructive. One lined reviews are welcomed too.
Po and the rest of the gang will enter the story roughly chapters 3 to 4, so do stay tuned.
-Salunatic