In the middle of a grassy clearing, silence screamed like the beautiful Sirens, luring Lu deeper into mediation. The calmness was warm and loving, and wisdom had its arm around Lu's shoulder like a good friend.

Step...step...step...

Lu snapped opened his eyes, and twisted around to see behind him. The footsteps were those of his humble and loveable mother. She leaned against the wall of their modest home, and smiled to Lu as he stood up. Lu laughed playfully.

"You can't sneak up on me mother!"

She laughed with him and stepped into the grass, barefoot.

"And I never will learn how either." she replied.

"So, tell me mother, has father come back from visiting Uncle Hou?" Lu asked.

"Well," his mother began, "not quite yet. I think Hou might be showing your father a few dinner ideas."

"Yeah." Lu agreed. "Father never was quite the cook."

"But the reason I've interrupted your mediation..."

"Yes mother?" Lu asked curiously.

"I wanted to ask you if your father and yourself have talked lately."

Lu pondered the odd question. After a moment, the appropriate answer came to him.

"Of course. We chat about numerous things. Why? Is there something important I must know?"

It was typical of Lu to jump to conclusions, whether positive or negative. His father was quite the patient man.

"Sit with me in the grass."

Lu obeyed his mother and sat beside her in the safe and healthy grass.

"You're approaching adulthood and I think it's time you learn about how your father and I fell in love." Lu's mother explained.

"But you've told me already," Lu reassured. "you went to school together, right?"

"Yes, but we were just friends then. You see, your father and I traveled across the whole empire until we fell in love. There was much in between school and the time when we married."

"On a boat I suspect?" Lu asked, following his guess with a giggle.

"Not quite." his mother responded. "We flew."

"Ho, ho!" Lu exclaimed. He fell back on his hands, and leaned his head back laughing. "You flew? On what?" His laughter entertwined with his words. "On the back of a giant eagle?"

"That would have been fun, but no."

Lu's laugher stopped, and he now gazed at his mother seriously.

"Then...how?"

"We flew on machines, contraptions if you will, that zoomed through the air like you wouldn't imagine."

"Fairy tales, mother, fairy tales. I'm too old for them."

Lu smiled, but his mother was all too serious.

"Your father and I...we're not ordinary people. We were once heroes of the Jade Empire. And that is why-"

CRASH!

Lu's father came crashing through the trees surrounding their home. He landed in the grass, and scampered to his wife's side.

"Oh dear Khan, what's going on?!" she asked frantically.

"They..." he began stuttering. "They-the-they're here! They're back somehow!"

He jumped to his feet and yanked up his wife and Lu by their collars, and ran as they followed behind him. He pushed the door to his house open with no hesitation, and slammed it shut when Lu and his mother came in.

"For heaven's sakes Khan what's going on?!"

"Oh-uh-nuh-" Khan was practically breathless, and searching his heart for an explanation. "Take Lu to the cave. I still know Legendary Strike!"

Reluctantly, she opened the secret passage that lead into the neighboring mountain's interior. Lu rushed in, but his mother looked back to Khan.

"Khan!" she called out.

Khan looked back to her, breathing heavily as sweat poured down from his jet-black hair and down his face as it proceded to flow between his hard-earned scars.

"They will not rise again. I promise."