This was something that came out of my head during the summer and this definitely hits the centerpiece. I came up with this idea of Musaki going on his first rescue mission on his own and while he's there, a friendship has formed. This is for vampire1031, Joe 'Po' Navark (given that he likes friendship stories) and Tan-Tan Tanuki. I hope you like this one.

The Dark Side of the Moon

by: Terrell James

Chapter 1: Arizona's Beginnings

A long time ago somewhere in ancient China, lived a very peaceful place named Mu Zho Village where the wolves live in deep harmony and peace. Emperor Rao and his wife Ming-Mei were peaceful rulers of the Mu Zho Village to keep the intruders out of their way and kept a close-knit united front for everyone.

And it was with great joy that the emperor has brought forth a son to have a bright future ahead of him. The emperor looked into his hazel-blue eyes and gave him a name; Li-Xiao Arizona. The name suited for him because he was born early in the morning and that he has strength as well. He lived a very happy life in his early months of being born in the world.

But soon enough, it all changed just before Arizona was only a year old, he witnessed something tragic...watching his mother die in his eyes by an evil crocodile bandit. It was sheer panic in the village to see that someone killed the emperor's wife.

Everyone in the Mu Zho village became devastated and the emperor became saddened by this tragedy, but he has decided to carry on her legacy to being peace and love into the village as well as taking care of his young son, giving him enough love and stability he can get.

But it will have been only one year that they ever get to be together when one fateful day, a huge massacre occured in the village were a group of wolf bandits set out to destroy all that which was good; homes, villages and residents. The emperor could not let this happen as he takes his son somewhere safe so he wouldn't get apprehended by the wolf bandits along with their leader, Dai Ling.

As further as he tried to run, there was nowhere else to go when Dai Ling got in front of him with a sword to seize him. The emperor runs off again trying to save his son from the evil wolves gaining on him. As soon as he gets in the forest to hide him, he managed to fight them with his sword, killing most of the wolf's men in their way.

But Dai Ling came in front of him and used his steel sword to kill him. Just when the emperor was gonna defeat him, the lead wolf stabs him in the back, causing him to scream in pain and falls down on the ground with his lifeless body in the grass.

Soon, Dai Ling walked over to him and sees the emperor's blood coming out of him and felt like he had no regrets of killing the emperor and suddenly, heard a distant cry coming from above and he sees that it's the emperor's son still alive. He could care less about him but somehow, he was gonna take him away from his father into thinking that he 'abandoned' him and that he might raise him in a negative environment.

After the massacre, the wolves headed back to 'their' village, Kong Wolf City, where it used to be a wolves' haven for peace and tranquility, but has since been taken over by Dai Ling's ruthless and evil demeanor as they kept every wolf on the verge of despair where he sent the leader of the town, Master Xiang to prison to let the evil wolf leader take over along with his 200 members of his clan there and it's also where Arizona's been living there his whole childhood. As the years went by, Arizona became the victim of the wolf's constant abuse and harsh, strict negative demeanor, telling him that he's worthless and love is a four-letter word for weakness.

Friendship became a short-lived moment in his world when he met two friends-a skunk and a lion-when he snuck out of the tower one night when he was seven, but any chance he got, the wolf guards managed to scare them off and banished him from the outside world and he never saw them again for nine years.

Throughout most of Arizona's life, he's been judged by several of Dai Ling's pack members who's been treating him like crap and doesn't give him any respect whatsoever and being bullied by them didn't help either.

Whenever he sees a new moon, he howls at it to feel like there may be other wolves out there that feels the same way, but most of the wolves make fun of him for howling on the dark side of the moon, saying that wolves only howl at the full moon. But the mock him by saying 'there's no such thing as a dark moon.'

As he grew older, Arizona felt like a prisoner in his zone, being that the place is a prison where several animals from different species get arrested for trespassing or whatever and torturing innocent people for no known reason. The more Arizona helplessly watched them all be treated unfairly and suffer, the more he feels completely broken.

But the leader felt like Arizona was not reaching potential within himself when it comes to his interest of kung-fu, thinking it's a waste of time and energy and that they're stupid enough to be a kung-fu master.

Dai Ling couldn't stand the fact that Arizona has a good heart and in one good deed of feeding the prisoners, Dai Ling went into a full on rage and scratched Arizona's eye, leaving behind a scar on his eye and beat him down senselessly. The more pain and suffering Dai Ling gave him, the more harsh treatment Arizona received every single year and Dai Ling always tells him that a wolf like him are monsterous, hideous, ugly and doesn't deserve to be loved by everyone, especially in other species thinking that the world is a cruel place for him to be a part of and Arizona believes it, though he disagrees.

Nearly 14 years has passed since the massacre in the Mu Zho village and Arizona hopes to seek freedom from this place to feel like he's special and that someone will be a good friend to him. The ideal friend for him is someone who's by his side, willing to give him a chance for who he is, feeling like he's a good person and needs loyalty and trustworthy to get him out of loneliness. But he has lost hope over the way he is because of the scar on his eye and a wild spiky mohawk hair on his neck for who would be friends with someone like him that Dai Ling calls him...a hideous monster that doesn't deserve love?

Awesome intro, right? What do you think of Arizona? I know you'll ask 'Where's Musaki in this?' He's on the next chapter and he'll receive the biggest task of his life. Let me know what you guys think and I hope you like it. vampire1031, I hope I did a good job at it.