Chapter Two- The Hunter

Shifu inched closer and closer towards the dragon, being careful to stay behind the rocks. The black dragon was unconscious on the ground, but it was still breathing. Shifu gathered his courage and slowing advanced towards the beast. He examined it closely. The dragon was magnificent! It was such a dark black it looked like it had come out of the night sky. Shifu noticed a shard of bamboo stuck in the dragon's foot. Feeling pity for the dragon, Shifu carefully reached over and pulled it out.

That's when the dragon woke up.

The dragon leaped to its feet and tackled Shifu, sending them both tumbling head over heels until they both hit a rock. Shifu managed to scramble away running from the beast that now wanted to kill him. Shifu sprinted towards the rocks he had come from, the dragon right on his tail. The dragon snapped at the small master, but Shifu managed to jump away and land on a rock above. He climbed a bit higher and looked behind him. The dragon was flapping its wings, trying to chase after Shifu once more, but it couldn't. Shifu got a good look at the dragon's eyes and saw that they were bright green and had slit pupils, like a cat's. The dragon eventually left Shifu alone and tried to fly, but it kept falling. Shifu noticed the red makeshift tail fin was still folded up.

Suddenly, the dragon lunged again! Shifu jumped back, the dragon landing short. The aged master ran for his dear life and didn't stop until he was in the safety of the Hall of Warriors. He slammed the door shut behind him and breathed heavily. Then, he sighed and slid down the door until he was curled into a ball.

It was then he realized that he had left his flute in the canyon with the dragon.

*****

Shifu was quiet the rest of the day. He was so shaken by the attack from the dragon that he didn't feel like doing much. The next morning, he realized just how fond he was of his bamboo flute. Shifu couldn't help but think that he should go get it. He tried to take his mind off of it, but he couldn't. While his students trained, he thought of meditating. But every time he closed his eyes, he either saw the dragon trying to attack him or the dragon teething on his flute.

Shifu growled. That flute had been a gift from Master Oogway himself when Shifu was ten. Shifu stood and wandered into the forest, determined to retrieve one of the things he loved the most.

Shifu managed to find the ditch that the dragon had made when it crash-landed and followed it down to the canyon. He stayed low and hid behind the rocks, carefully moving down into the canyon. He came to the last bit of rocks and slowly peeked out.

But the dragon was nowhere in sight.

Shifu was suspicious, but then he noticed his flute on the tiny shores of the small lake of water. He looked around once more before walking down into the canyon. He warily looked around for the dragon as he advanced towards his flute, but didn't see the great beast anywhere. He finally grabbed his flute and stepped back a bit.

"Hmm…." Shifu inspected his flute, but saw it wasn't damaged. "Must've left." Suddenly, it heard a noise, and it ducked behind a rock. He looked out but saw nothing. He thought about walking out, but then the dragon dropped to the ground. He was shocked to see the leg of the dragon bleeding. The black dragon sighed and walked off. He breathed fire on the ground and curled up on top of it, falling asleep. Shifu sprinted off, but the dragon didn't wake. Shifu stopped running halfway to the palace. He looked back at where he had come from. He inspected his flute again, but there was nothing wrong with it.

Shifu was starting to get curious. He walked off home. But instead of going to the palace, he journeyed into the village. Villagers greeted him warmly, but he only nodded in their direction. He was on a mission to figure this out. Shifu stopped at a large house in the village and knocked on the door. There were a couple of crashes from inside before the door opened, revealing an adult coyote wearing simple brown pants and a shirt that matched.

The coyote smiled warmly. "Good afternoon, Master Shifu."

"Afternoon, Kai." Shifu said. "May I come in?"

"Of course!" Kai exclaimed. "Just watch your step." He traveled back into the house. Shifu followed, closing the door behind him. Shifu walked about the house, which was a mess of books, papers, journals, brushes, and ink. Shifu carefully stepped over a stack of papers on the floor as he followed his friend. Kai set himself down at a table and gestured for Shifu to join him.

"So, how can I help my old friend?" Kai asked.

"First off, you're not that old." Shifu retorted. "Second, I need you to help me with a dragon."

"Really?" Kai perked up. Studying dragons was his specialty. "What dragon?"

"That's just it; I'm not sure." Shifu told him. "I saw…..a picture of it. But I'm not sure what it was." Shifu was careful; he didn't want to reveal that there really was a dragon in the Valley of Peace. Kai brought out an ink brush, ink, and a piece of paper and instructed Shifu to draw the dragon. Shifu did his best to draw the beast that nearly killed him. Kai studied the picture for a while before he ran off to his bookshelf. He scanned every volume, climbing onto a ladder to reach the topmost books. Eventually, he found what he was looking for. But, in the process of dragging the giant book off the shelf, Kai fell off the ladder.

"You alright?" Shifu asked.

"Fine." Kai wheezed. He got up and set the book on the table. He opened the book to the very last page. "Now, this book is written in the language of the Vikings. They were Norse, or Scandinavian. Now, this here is the legendary Night Fury. Little is known about it; in fact, there's only one thing for sure: you must hope it does not find you, or you're dead." Kai sighed. "I've cataloged and studied every dragon in the world. But, for some reason, I can't find this Night Fury. I heard that it is native near a village called Berk, but I traveled the world, asking about the Night Fury and of Berk. I never found a thing." Shifu stared at the page in the book. The only things under "Night Fury" were a few notes at the bottom.

"Anything else?" Shifu asked.

"It's carnivorous." Kai said simply. "The Night Fury is a ferocious hunter."

*****

Shifu didn't even wait until the next day; he went to the palace, grabbed some bandages and a knife, and went back to the canyon that afternoon. He ventured into the canyon and looked around. But, yet again, the Night Fury was nowhere to be found. Shifu walked around the canyon before he heard a low, yet painful growl. He slowly turned around and saw the Night Fury, trapped in a tangled net. How the net got around the beast, Shifu wasn't sure. But, as far as he could tell, the dragon was stuck. It was also unconscious. Shifu went to bandage the creature's leg first, wrapping it tightly but trying to not wake the beast. Only when Shifu tied the bandage off did the dragon jerk. Shifu jumped back and his eyes wandered to the Night Fury's head.

The Night Fury's bright, green, cat-like eyes were staring at him.

Shifu gulped a little. He took out the knife he had and slowly moved forward. The Night Fury didn't move or try to escape; in fact, it laid its head down, thinking it was about to die. Shifu started to cut away at the net, slicing off as much rope as he could. Though it took a while, he managed to cut it all off.

Suddenly, the Night Fury pounced!

Shifu dropped his knife as he was thrown and pinned to the ground by the Night Fury's paw. Its sharp talons were just brushing against his throat. Shifu stared at the dragon's eyes with fear. The dragon, in turn, glared at Shifu. Shifu braced himself, but the Night Fury didn't strike. It just glared at him for a long moment. Then, it reared back……

…….and roared in Shifu's face.

Then, it bounded off as far away from Shifu as it could possibly get while it was trapped in the canyon.

A/N: I know I included some of How To Train Your Dragon clips, but I own nothing!