Chapter I: Innocence Lost
I do not own Kung Fu Panda. I only own my OC's.
A scream pierced the cold, snowy night.
Yin Bei was startled awake. The six-year-old Chinese snow hare had pure white fur, a small brown nose, and big white ears that were more than double the length of her body. Of course, given how small she was, that wasn't saying much. Her wide blue-green eyes searched the dark warily as her small paws clutched at her blanket nervously.
Yin Bei, or "Bei" to most people, had always been a very shy and jumpy child. No matter how much her father, a Kung Fu master, tried to bolster her confidence, she never made friends with any children her age. Bei was also a very heavy sleeper, yet the scream had been loud enough to wake her.
Strange noises emanated from outside of Bei's bedroom. They seemed like…voices? Bei froze in fear. Were Mom and Dad fighting? They never fought! Neither Bei nor her mother knew Kung Fu, and Dad had been trying to teach them a little bit recently. Maybe that's what it was.
Yin Bei quietly slid out of bed. She crept over to the door and slid it open a crack. Her small, light-brown nose wiggled as it sniffed the air. She shook her head, startled at the sheer amount of unfamiliar scents she picked up. She put her ear to the door. There were definitely voices out there. They seemed to be keeping their voices low, so she couldn't clearly make out what they were saying. She slid the door open further, slipping out into the hall.
She crept down the hall, trembling a little as she tiptoed out into the main room of her family's home.
Yin Bei peaked out into the hall….
… And was immediately seized by her ears, and lifted into the air.
Bei struggled fruitlessly, her limbs far too short and weak to have any effect on the armored black bear who had scooped her up. "Hey Boss!" the bear called. "I caught a snack! Can I eat it now?"
"Not yet, E Jile." a voice answered. "Let me see it first."
Yin Bei's stomach lurched as E Jile swung her around to face the speaker. Bei gasped when she saw the sheer number of strangers in the room. Bei couldn't count high enough to tell how many there were crowded into the tiny cabin. They were all of different species, but they all had two things in common; they were all armed to the teeth, and they all wore nasty grins. Across the room, Bei saw a big hippo in a butcher's smock with a cleaver in one hand and her father's ears in the other.
Master Swift Hare, although larger than his daughter, was still cursed with being small. Like all snow hare during winter, his fur was pure white. It was now stained red in some spots and ripped clean out in others. His white tunic and pants had suffered the same fate. He winced when he saw her.
Bei was relieved to see that he was okay, but her relief turned to horror when she saw her mother. The female snow hare lay face up on the floor, her blank, glassy eyes staring at nothing. There was no obvious mark on her, but she was obviously dead.
Bei felt her eyes tear up. "M-Momma?" she sobbed weakly.
"Neat, huh?"
Bei turned. The person that E Jile had called Boss was shoving his way through the crowd. For a moment, Bei was confused. The bandit leader looked just like her dad.
But the differences quickly became obvious. While Dad's eyes were a warm shade of brown, this stranger's eyes were cold and dark, like mud. His smile was an endlessly malicious slit across his face. He wore a simple black vest, loose black pants, and a red kerchief around his neck.
He gave her a big grin like this was the ding-dang happiest day in the history of the world. "Enjoying my handiwork? I think I did a pretty good job."
Bei started to cry loudly, but E Jile slapped her hard across the face, leaving her cheek stinging. "Be quiet snack!" he snarled.
Yin Bei sniffled, and held back her sobs. She saw her father start to struggle, only to receive a loud strike to the side of the head from the flat of the hippo's cleaver. "Don't you dare touch her Yang Chao!" the bound master yelled.
The Boss, Yang Chao, rolled his eyes dismissively. He walked up to stand beneath Yin Bei and looked up at her. "Well! Aren't you a cute one! What was your name again? Yon Bit?"
Bei gulped. "Y-Yin B-Bei!" she stuttered.
Yang Chao's grin grew so wide that Bei suspected that he could easily swallow her whole if E Jile decided not to. "Yin Bei, Yang Chao." He chuckled amusedly. "I see what you did there pops. Anywho, I'm your big brother."
Yin Bei's jaw dropped. Mustering her courage, she glared at him. "You're lying!" she accused. "Isn't he, Daddy?"
Her father refused to meet her eyes. "He's telling the truth."
Yang Chao batted her like a cat playing with a ball of yarn, causing her to swing back and forth. "Lesson one, little bit; don't get defiant with me. I'll be truthful; you are going to die tonight. How painful your death is depends on my mood at the time. Understand?
Bei's eyes started to water again, but she nodded, terrified. She needed to get out of here. Bei was a fast runner, and most of these bandits had a lot of weapons and armor on them. If she got out of E Jile's grip, maybe she could dodge around them and get out the front door. Once she got into the woods, she knew her way to Master Rooster's Dojo, where Daddy trained. She could bring back help.
But first, she needed to get free.
Yang Chao was pacing back and forth. "Now, I want Pops over there to suffer, and I can ensure that he does by making her suffer. Would the more intelligent ones among us please step forward? I could use some ideas."
Five bandits stepped forward; the hippo holding Yin Bei's father, a slippery looking weasel in an outfit similar to Yang Chao's, holding a razor sharp sword, a squat, ugly bat in a big hat holding two strange devices that Bei did not recognize, an energetic female squirrel in a purple hooded cape with a strange, curvy dagger, who Bei thought was kind of cute, and, to Yin Bei's surprise, E Jile.
The hippo was the first to speak. "The little one would make a fine soup." He suggested. Bei went bug eyed.
"I like your sadism, Tufu." Yang Chao complimented. "Sadly, we don't have time for that. Anybody else?"
"I could eat it whole." E Jile put forward. "I saw it first, after all."
Yang Chao nodded thoughtfully. "Simple, not time consuming, and an awful way to die… I like it. Any other ideas?"
"Ooh! Pick me!" the small red squirrel begged, bouncing up and down.
Yang Chao smirked, and gestured for her to speak.
The squirrel stopped bouncing. "Let me sacrifice her! She'll be stuck as a ghostly slave for all eternity!"
Yang Chao blinked. "Um… wow, that is really cool. Any objections?"
The weasel scoffed. "What superstitious nonsense!" he said in a strange accent that Bei didn't recognize. "Personally, I like E Jile's idea. This is one of the rare occasions when he has actually had a good one."
"Do not dismiss the power of the supernatural so easily." Tufu warned. "I say we go with the Priestess's plan."
The weasel waved a paw dismissively. "You can be a fool if you wish. I say we go with E Jile's plan."
Tufu growled dangerously. "You dare call me a fool!? I am the greatest gourmet in the world!"
The weasel grinned, showing sharp teeth. "I wonder if your ingredients would agree. Somehow, I doubt it."
The hippo raised his cleaver, ready to strike the weasel down, and the weasel leveled his sword to thrust into the hippo's ample belly.
*BANG*
Everyone turned. The bat held one of the strange thingamabobs in one of his winghands, and one end was smoking. "Ya'll need to shut up," he warned, in an accent even weirder than that of the weasel. "'fore I decide to see if two bullets cure two headaches."
The two combatants lowered their weapons, but still glared daggers at each other. Yang Chao stepped between them, looking at the bat. "It looks like both ideas are tied. I like both of them, so you, my friend, may cast the deciding vote."
The bat lowered his weapon. He glanced at Bei for a moment, his expression unreadable. "Hmm… I never held with all that 'supernatural' bullshit. Think I'll go with the big guy on this one."
Bei noticed that, while all of the bandits were focused on the bat, her father had begun to swing himself back and forth. Now he flipped up, wrapping his ears around Tufu's arm, throwing the massive hippo like he weighed nothing. He crashed into E Jile, causing the shocked bear to drop his hostage.
Yin Bei landed roughly, but recovered quickly and dashed off on all fours. She dodged left as the bat aimed his weapon at them, then jumped over the squirrel, who'd tried to dive at her. Nearly all of the other bandits were desperately trying to subdue the furious Kung Fu master. Yin Bei was so terrified that she barely looked back as she dashed out the door, a band of bandits in hot pursuit.
Bei was extremely cold. Wearing only her nightclothes, all she had to protect her from the brutal snowstorm was her fluffy white fur, which was slightly thicker during the winter months. . She knew that Master Rooster's compound wasn't very far away. She had often raced her father back and forth for fun, and it had only taken a few minutes to get there going the long way along the path. Taking the route through the woods should be even quicker, shouldn't it?
What Bei didn't know was that her father took her on the path because while the way through the woods was shorter, it was also up a steep hill, and the gaps between trees were shrouded in thorn bushes. They tore at her clothes as the sound of pounding footsteps thundered behind her.
Yin Bei swerved and leaped between the trees. Tears streaked from her eyes as the thorns ripped into her skin. Her many cuts felt like they were on fire, slowly burning away her skin. But she couldn't slow down.
Yin Bei became sure that she would never lose the bandits, but eventually she heard the sounds of her pursuers fade off in another direction. She breathed a sigh of relief.
When she emerged in front of the gates to the dojo, Bei's clothes and fur were completely shredded, and she was freezing and exhausted.
"What on Earth-?" Exclaimed a familiar voice. "Yin Bei! Are you okay?"
Master Blazing Rooster rushed forward to catch Bei as she collapsed. The Master's orange feathers, yellow beak, and red crest really did make him look like a brand of fire, starkly contrasted by his royal blue robes that were lined with white. "What happened to you?" he asked in concern.
Yin Bei looked up at him weakly. "B-bandits…" she murmured. "At our house... Momma…" At this point, she closed her eyes and started sobbing weakly. Rooster carried her into the dojo courtyard, where three more Masters were sparring. They immediately stopped when they saw Rooster run in with the wounded hare.
Master Bing, a large black rat in a forest green vest and brown pants stopped mid-strike, while Bao Zhi, a giant, red faced baboon with shaggy silver fur in a pair of black shorts, stumbled and squashed Master Gishi, a bright orange python covered in black tattoos. "Master?" said Bing. "What is wrong with Yin Bei?"
"Bandits have attacked Swift Hare's cabin!" Rooster explained. "Gishi, Bao Zhi, come with me. Bing, stay here and treat Yin Bei."
He gave them more orders, but at that moment, Yin Bei lost consciousness.
Hours later, Yin Bei's eyes creaked open. Rooster, Bing, and Gishi stood over her. "Where am I…?" she rasped.
"On a mat, in your father's old room in the barracks." Rooster replied, concise and to the point as usual.
"What do you remember?" Bing asked gently.
Bei thought back. "Yang Chao came with bandits… they caught Daddy and ki-"she choked up. "-killed Momma. Daddy and I got loose, I escaped and… that's it."
They looked at each other bleakly. "I told you it was Yang Chao." Rooster said to Bing.
Bing nodded sadly. "I hoped you were wrong."
Yin Bei sat up and looked around. "Where's Daddy? Is he okay?"
Bing's face fell. Before he could speak, Rooster delivered the news in the bluntest manner possible; "Yang Chao killed him." He said with no expression whatsoever.
Bei's heart shattered into a million pieces. "No… no…!" she sobbed loudly, blinding herself with tears.
Gishi patted her shoulder with his tail. "Hey, now. Everything'll be okay."
No! Nothing would be okay! Why!? Why on Earth did this happen? Bei could not speak. All she could do was cry. She was like this for nearly an hour. Finally, her voice gave out, and her tears ran dry. Her sadness burnt out. She felt…dead. The only sensation she felt was the stinging of the cuts all over her body as the fowl-smelling healing poultice soaked into them.
Yin Bei looked up at Rooster, and said only one word; "Why?"
Rooster sighed. He sat down next to Yin Bei. "I truly do not know." He admitted. "Long ago, when Swift Hare first arrived at my dojo, he had Yang Chao at his side. He was about your age then. Neither of them ever spoke about their life before they came here, and I did not ask. Swift Hare trained diligently, developing a style of Kung Fu called Ten Limb. Yang Chao kept to himself, reading scrolls all day. When he was about twelve, he simply disappeared along with several scrolls. One of those was supposedly a map to a forbidden technique that could kill with a simple touch. We believe it is that technique that he used to kill your parents. He and his ilk were gone when we arrived."
Yin Bei's eyes closed for a moment. When they opened again, they still held fear, but there was a new anger there. "I want to help catch them."
Bing furrowed his brow. "Bei, you're only six. You can't possibly think we can let you go after them?"
"Perhaps not now." Rooster corrected. " I will put all of my resources to finding the members of Yang Chao's gang, but it will take time, during that time, if she wants, I can train her."
Yin Bei looked up and nodded. She did not smile, but there was a new sense of purpose in her eyes. "Yes."
Rooster nodded in return. "Very well. Rest for tonight. In the morning, your training begins."
Bing and Rooster left the room. Yin Bei snuggled down into the blankets. They were clean, but even though years had passed since her father had slept on this bed, she could still detect his stale scent on the sleeping mat. She sniffled, but she had no tears left. Her face contorted into an expression of fury as a scream ripped out of her. She slugged the mat as hard as she could, pummeling it and wishing that it was Yang Chao's face.
The sudden explosion of activity burned away any energy Yin Bei had left. She collapsed onto the bed, and blackness consumed her once again.
End of Chapter 1
Hey everyone! Welcome to the brand new, remastered version of SotH! I'll be going through all of the chapters, editing them, and removing the evidence of how much my writing used to suck. I hope you like it better than before. If you're a new reader, disregard the previous statement. You don't want to see the original version of this story. XD
To differentiate from edited and unedited, look at the chapter number. Edited chapters will have a Roman numeral.
Until we meet again,
Mind Jack, OUT!
Edited 12/12/16