Hello dear Readers :-) This is my new piece of work, where a completely new story is told - not having any story-related connection to my other works; except for Kung Fu Panda maybe :D I hope you will enjoy it. :-)
"Nothing is accidental in the universe - this is one of my Laws of Physics - except the entire universe itself, which is Pure Accident, pure divinity."
Joyce Carol Oates
Crossing the Rubicon
Episode I: Past Glory
1. Chapter: Fishing Tigers
"The sky is weeping." the canine says, while looking through the window. For days it hadn't stopped raining and no one in the Tavern knows if it is day or night. Some of the people inside the crowded Tavern talk and the canine keeps his ears open, while taking another hit of his wine.
"Have you seen the river lately? I hope it will not flood us."
"Don't worry about that. It is not the first time it rains so strongly and I bet not the last. The river has never flooded this Tavern."
The canine looks outside again: the tavern lies in a forest close to a river, which name the canine doesn't know, and a popular road, which connects the Valley of Peace in the North with the Mountain villages in the South. The road crosses this river, where it isn't so deep. It is obvious that the river has burst his banks already, because the road is flooded not only where it crosses the river, but also there where it leads further inland. The road is not crossable in this way, but the river is still far away from endangering the Tavern. …although if it continues to weep this way, it is only a matter of time. the canine considers below his dirty straw hat, before he takes another hit.
While he pours more wine into his small bowl, he hears the words of a merchant, who has come not long ago to this tavern: "It would be better not to think about traveling to the Bridges in the west now."
"And why not? I need to get home soon." another customer replies.
"Haven't you heard about what happened?" the listening customers look confused, "The Army of Chui Mie is on its way." The canine positions himself to listen better after hearing this.
"Chui Mie? You are kidding?"
"Not even when I would safe my feathers in this way." the goose merchant replies, "His army marches…to the Valley of Peace."
"The Valley? Oh god…do the Masters know about that?"
"Have no clue, but I don't think Oogway is so blind not to see it. It announced itself for months already: Oogway, Shifu and the Furious Five made problems wherever Chui Mie went. It is only natural that he wants to get rid of them."
"And the Valley? What about the people there?"
"Do I need to explain what happens whenever this Army crosses a village, town or city?"
The customers – quite a group already – has surrounded the goose, but some of them stand up now, mumbling something about "Need to go home…warn everyone." and leaving the tavern. It takes some time before the silence followed by this gets broken by a pig customer: "And…you say… they will cross the river at the bridges in the west?"
"I guess so. It is the only path across this river as long as it rains this way. They were seen in the Valley of the Silence the last time and these bridges are the closest for them."
The canine drinks the last drop of his wine. He has heard enough and calls for the bill.
Once he has left the Tavern into the rain, he hides one of the two gourds filled with wine beneath his dirty cloak and opens the other. While he takes a hit, he puts his sheathed sword on his shoulder, going along the river to the east.
The Army is in front of them. The bear Chui Mie stands in the front, wearing a bronze and steel armor and helmet as well like a giant war hammer. Beside him is his 5000 bears strong army equipped in leather and steel vests, wearing spears, lances and helmets, and standing in the rain, while in front of him is found the old but stable bridge out of wood.
The Furious Five await them on the other side. The rain has gotten stronger; more and more water bursts the banks, but the bridge doesn't seem to bother. It was built to withstand such weathers; after all the Weeping River is known for bursting its banks to a certain degree.
Chui Mie starts to nod smirking, while his bear soldiers roar into the rain. "You are brave. I'll give you that, but you will not be able to stop us." he says with a lightly arrogant sounding voice, "The Valley of Peace will burn."
"First you need to pass us.", the leader of the Furious Five, Master Tigress, growls, before getting into battle posture. The other Five follow her lead, while the army of 5000 soldiers begins to roar even louder as well like move around impatiently. The bear in the front starts to chuckle. "So be it.", he says, before pointing his hammer forwards, "Attack!"
His men waited only for that: like a wave of water they run at the bridge, weapons at the ready. "They must not cross the bridge!" Tigress yells and runs to stop them there, followed by her companions. Arrows fly from the back, fired by the Bowmen of the army. Cause of the rain the arrows are harder to see, but there for also slower. The Furious Five repel the arrows without ease, right before the real battle starts. Monkey jumps with his feet forward, sending a group of bears down to the river. Viper finds with her thin tail every weak spot in the vests of the bears, which come at her; one after another falls from the bridge hit hard by the tail only to be carried away by the river or sinking in it. Crane has much to do to repel further arrows at his comrades as well like diving into a group of enemies only to send them over the bridge with a double-feet-kick. Mantis, too small to be seen properly, moves around his enemies, grabs one of them and uses him as a projectile to send him and his comrades over the bridge. Tigress dodges the attack of an incoming spear, before punching the wielder hard against his face. She dodges a down rushing sword only to head-butt another enemy, who doesn't wear a helmet. She dodges the attacks of her enemies fast and counters almost simultaneously – as well like the others of the Furious Five. But this is not enough…
Many bears fall into the river; most of them can't save themselves before getting carried away far or sinking simply cause of the weight of their armor, but some achieve that and can return to the battle going on the bridge. "If this continues like this we will be exhausted before it comes down!" Monkey yells between dodging a spear and using this spear to repel his enemies.
"I know!" Tigress yells back, blocking an attack of an enemy before sending him back where he have come from. She uses this opportunity to look around and sees only the storming soldiers in front of her. She growls before jumping forward, grabbing one on the ground lying spears and moves it around fast. It is like a shield, which the soldiers can't cross, which is why their bowmen come forward again, shooting their arrows, but Crane can repel them in time.
Before Tigress can continue to hold them on a distance, a hammer comes rushing down and breaks the spear: Chui Mie joins the battle. He swings his battle hammer once again and Tigress can dodge it only by a narrow margin, before stepping back again. She growls at him, because some of her chin fur was cut away by this swing. "Here is the plan: We need to bring him down, so that his soldiers will lose their faith! I'll handle this, you care for the others!" she yells before charging him again. The others can do nothing except following the order of their leader.
Tigress storms at the giant bear, who spins his hammer around above his head, before swinging it down to smash the female tiger. Tigress dodges it and jumps on the stock, before kicking the bear hard into the face – he doesn't move an inch away. Before she can dodge it his iron grip has caught her and pulls her to him. He hammers his shoulder hard into the torso of the tiger and she gets flying back only to crash into Viper.
"He he…" the bear leader chuckles, while the Furious Five withdraw to their leader. Almost the whole bridge is taken by the bears already and still there are plenty of them behind on the land. "You have given your best…" Chui Mie praises, while Tigress gets up again, touching her torso, "…but you can't stop us. It's over."
Suddenly they start to hear noise from west, from where the river is streaming down. All look there, but only the Furious Five realize in time what it is: a destroyed bridge is rushing down the river; the bridge found upstream.
Without hesitating any further the Furious Five attack the soldiers around their leader, while Tigress jumps on his shoulders only to grab his arms. "What…what are you doing?!" Chui Mie yells confused, while trying to break the grip of the tiger. "Today your terror reign ends, Chui Mie…Viper now!"
The snake doesn't need to be asked twice: she ditches the enemy she wanted to attack – who stops moving startled – only to hit the bear leader hard into his stomach – even his armor doesn't prevent the pain from being felt. Next is Mantis who forces him to move backwards two steps with a hard kick, before returning to battle. Now the bear begins to see what is coming at him: A bridge will destroy the other one, where his soldiers were still fighting and they want him to sink with them. He begins to roar, while trying to pull the tiger from his back with all his might. But then it begins to shake when the bridge crashes against the other – hard. Everyone on the bridge trips, trying to maintain the balance, except for Crane who uses this opportunity to dash his head against the bear leader: he is one step away from the end of the bridge and has still no stable stance cause of the wet wood.
"Monkey finish him!" Tigress yells, before the bear falls over a foot of Monkey. Tigress uses the last occasion during the fall to leave her position. She uses the torso of the bear as a jumping spot to escape the clutches of the bear and send him ultimately to the ground of the river.
And then the bridge breaks. First only at the pillars, which stabilize it, but then more and more also at the platform, where the battle is still going on. "Run!" Tigress yells, while landing still on the bridge, before turning around to the banks.
And then it happens. Tigress begins to stumble, before falling on her knees. The others realize that too late. "Tigress!" Viper yells trying to go for her friend, but it is too late: the bridge yields under the pressure and Tigress falls into the river with many of the bears, which couldn't rescue themselves.
The canine wanders around still drinking from his gourd. The rain has not become weaker and the river got even wilder, but the canine doesn't seem to bother much.
He doesn't think about much now and staggers even cause of the wine, but that changes when he starts to hear something from his back. He turns around and sees still in time like the first pieces of the destroyed bridges come rushing down. He follows their rush with his eyes and sees like the third and last bridge over the river not far away from here – the one he wanted to take by the way – gets hit by the remains of the former bridges. Hard enough that the bridge starts to bend and break, before it breaks apart completely as well.
"Great…and what now?" the canine asks himself, while looking back to the river: he sees the remains of the army. "Seems that someone cared for them…" he assumes, before seeing something different: an orange and red strip rushing down the river. "This doesn't look like a soldier…" he mutters still, before looking back to the spot of the destroyed bridge. "Crap…!" he says, before jumping into the river.
"WAHH!" the canine yells after his head reappears at the surface of the river, "COLD!" He has only one second to adapt to his new situation, before spotting the tiger further in the front. While he gets carried farther, he tries to make swimming movements, but the stream is too strong. Instead he makes himself small: putting arms inclusive his sword very close to his body and for real he comes closer to the tiger. Thanks to the strong stream he needs only seconds before he arrives close enough to the tiger to stretch out his hand.
"ARGH!" he yells when a piece of wood crashes against his outstretched hand; little bit blood flows down the stream with the water. "Darn!" he curses, before trying to grab the tiger again; this time he grabs her foot. He pulls her to him, while his eyes begin to register their situation again: they are still flowing down the river and when the canine remembers it correctly soon wild rapids will come.
"Hey, wake up!" he tries to wake up the sleeping tiger – her eyes stay closed. He curses again, while starting to look around. "There!" he yells when seeing rocks inside the water. He prepares his sword, calms himself despite the situation he is in – holding the unconscious tiger with his wounded hand – before noticing the moment and thrusting his sheathed sword.
It plugs between two of the rocks and stops the movement of its wielder, but it comes for a price: his shoulder dislocates with a snap and the canine yells in pain. "Damn…" he curses again, while looking at the still unconscious tiger, "Not even that wakes you up? Tse!" With all strength left in his body he pulls the tiger on the rocks, before pulling himself up as well, taking the sheathed sword out of its position.
He puts the sword down and resets his shoulder joint with a fierce jolt – another painful cry. Then he looks at the tiger and sees for the first time the peak of the arrow found in the tigers shoulder. He curses again, before looking around to know how they can get away from these rocks.
The pieces of the bridge… he considers, before gulping. He grabs his sword and the tigress, before focusing his eyes on the passing pieces; there are not much anymore. He can't wait too long, that he knows so he jumps again using the flowing wood as a springboard. One board after another, one smaller than the other, he uses to get on the other side of the river, always sinking one centimeter deeper in the river cause of his and her weight. And at the end there is no wood piece to jump on. He curses again, before using the last piece to make a bigger jump.
"UHHH….!" leaves his mouth, when his body hits the bank. The tigress rolls forwards as much as the arrow allows it, while canine tries not be carried away by the stream. He digs the sword inside the wet earth and uses it to pull himself up – successfully. He collapses on his back, the completely wet hat falls in the mud, while the canine regains his breathe.
Finally he can pull himself up again to crawl to the tiger. He looks at her still unconscious face; he checks her pulse by listening to her heartbeat: he can hear something barely. He pulls her on her back and begins to apply first aid: pressing against her chest, breathing in her mouth, pressing against her chest, breathing in her mouth…
"COUAH!" leaves the tigress mouth with water. She breathes one or two times, before falling into unconsciousness again. The canine pants relieved. "That would have been ironic…" he mutters grinning, before continuing to treat her…
Kung Fu Panda and its characters belong to Dreamworks. This story is mine. :-)
I like to hear your opinion :-) so it would be nice when you leave a review.
