Blood Brothers
(10 years after the events of Kung Fu Panda)
"In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again"
It was another day during the cold brutal winter in the north part of China that the expedition was taking place at. The fierce wind was pushing what seemed like large clouds of loose snow over the camp, but within the gigantic walls, everything seemed to be still. Not even the tattered banners of the ones who once occupied the large structure before the current group twitched. The only movement came from the flames dancing off of the torches that hung from the walls, and a gate that was opening on the northern wall of the castle like structure. A tall statured man wearing a cloak, and a hood thrown over his head stepped into the dull light, and the erie stillness of the camp. His breath forming a small cloud around his face before dispersing off around him. He walked over to the east part of the structure and entered one of the doors. It closed behind him, sealing out the bitterness of winter, as the warmth from the fire at the other side of the room surrounded him. The man turned around and pulled the hood from his head, revealing weary but angry eyes, and an unmistakable under-bite. He walked over to the fire and sat down with a small group of six men, some asleep, some barely awake. The two men with enough consciousness to recognize who he was jolted themselves awake and averted their gaze. The man just sat there, glaring into the fire that burned as hot as his hatred for the person who had ruined his chances at getting everything he had ever desired.
"Have we made any progress getting into the main chamber yet?" He asked, bringing himself out of his trance of hate and despair. "You know how he feels about things running late."
"We've gotten nowhere." Replied a hog sitting off to his left. "Those explosives don't seem to leave a dent in that damn door."
"Have you tried using more explosives?" The leopard asked turning his head back to the fire.
"We have tried using more of that dynamite that we found a while back." The wolf sitting over to his far right chimed in, "but no matter how much we pile up against the door, it just won't open."
"Yang thinks that it needs some sort of key to open, but there's no sign of any type of a locking mechanism on it." The hog brought back up, "Even if there was, the sisters would have found a way to pick it by now." The leopard brushed his hand against his head in thought about the course of action.
"What about burrowing around it?" He said looking back to the hog. "I keep asking about that, but no one seems to be doing anything to try it."
"We've brought it up to the boss." The wolf said sitting upright and resting one of his arms on his knee. "Borya thinks that doing this will damage whatever it is that we're looking for inside."
"Of course it will." The leopard said starting to get frustrated. "And is he still unwilling to share exactly what it is we're looking for?"
"Pretty much, every time we ask him he just gives his whole spiel about how it's going to change the fate of the world to our favor and that we will be enlightened when we find it."
"Well see what happens when we find it then."
"What if we tried using one of the cannons that we brought with us? Surely they must do something to that damn thing." The wolf said looking over at the hog.
"We've tried to convince the old bird to let us try, but he thinks that the ammo will shatter and kill anyone in the room." He added in as he looked back into the fire. The leopard sighed in defeat as he laid down on the ground.
"So we've gotten pretty much nowhere is what you're telling me?" The leopard said rubbing his forehead with his paw.
"It isn't good to say, but at least we know what isn't working." The wolf said trying to be optimistic about the situation. "We have plenty of food to last us all winter here, we have places to stay warm and out of the snow, and no one would ever think of looking for us up here."
"Even though everything you say is true, it is a little bit demoralizing that we have yet to figure out how to break through the first wall after two weeks of trying." The hog said to the wolf sitting across the fire.
"We should get some rest, no use worrying about this thing out right now. We can figure it out in the morning." He said as he closed his eyes and was lost in thought. The other two looked at each other and gave a small shrug. Both of the men rested their heads down on their packs, and went to sleep. The leopard kept running through his thoughts of the last decade and how everything had come to transpire. Everything before that had seemed to fall into place so easily, and now, it was a daily struggle to make any progress of any kind. His train of thought kept wandering from one thing to another, until he finally drifted away to an un-restful sleep.
The doors that the men were talking about stood roughly ten meters tall, and were embroidered with impressive stone work depicting men of different species of animals in combat, and seemed to be made of a very coarse stone, but it gave off a slick sheen look, almost like steel. A few scuff marks can be seen at the bottom of the doors, and a pile of broken tools and equipment set off to the right. A clouded leopard makes his way down the corridor carrying two bags, and takes a left before he comes up to the door. He walks up to two large cages, dumps the contents into them, and leaves. The people inside rush towards the pile and start grabbing for a piece of bread that he had brought down, and then huddle back together to stay warm. Two women run up to the edge of the cage and plead for him to come back, and start yelling at him, screaming and crying. It's too late for him to notice anything like that. He's already begun his ascent out of the rabbit hole.
- Hey there boys and girls, I'd like to thank you for giving my story a chance, and I'd like to know what all of you thought as I am new to this website, and would like to hear what you thought about the first part of the story. Criticism is welcome and I am open to some suggestions about how to adapt my writing, and I hope to see you all in the next chapter of the story.