Part 2
The Bad Old Tigers

Three weeks had passed. Yu and I had grown very close over the course of that time. I showed him several things about basic survival skills while he recovered in bed for the first week to keep him entertained. He ate the stuff from my fingertips.

One night, I told him a story of an experience from my childhood. The next night we were to be learning how to camp outside and survive in the cold with my instruction. Eventually, the snow settled down enough to where we could do a campout without worrying about freezing to death.

"Daddy did you pack the coats?" Yu's voice sounded from our room, his call catching my attention.

"What the heck?" I realized that my thoughts ran away again.

"Yu! Son! I am ready to head out when you are!" my voice rang back to him. The pup walked out with his pack of gear hoisted around his shoulders.

"I'm ready daddy," he replied, a smile beamed toward me. We were very excited.

"Well let's go," I stated.

With my bundle of clothes, the tent, and the other supplies on my back we left the house and walked down the path that lead away into the forest. It had snowed outside, but it had not been unpleasant for either one of us.

I lead the way down the trail so that we could easily get to where we headed. After about thirty minutes, Yu's enthusiasm all but started to fade. He was either really tired or just a bad actor.

"Daddy are we almost there, my feet hurt," Yu complained. My annoyance grew.

"No. We aren't even half of the way there. Now pick up the pace and let's keep moving," I barked back.

Yu moaned, but he didn't complain again for the rest of the hike.

"Daddy…" Yu's voice called out to me. He stopped, set down his backpack, and sat on a stump. With me sighing, my thought was to take the pack off and put it on the ground.

"Hey son, come give me a hand here," I told him.

Yu nodded and sluggishly paced to where I currently was at. My eye stared at him and my laughter broke out.

"You are that tired!" I mocked him. Yu glared at me darkly.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" he responded. Spreading the cloth across the ground with the stakes pulled out of the bag, I tossed them all aside and nudged Yu forward with my tail.

"Simply hammer in the stakes at the four corners of the tent and that is it. No hard manual labor involved. I'll hold up the tent for you," I explained.

Understanding my instructions, the pup took up the stakes waiting for me to raise the tent. Pitching up the cloth that was to be the roof that covered our heads tonight, I held it up and set out the poles. One string came off the four pools that held up the tent.

"Now, I shall go inside the tent and hold it up so you can hammer in the stakes."

Quickly, I raced around to the entrance of the tent and held it up by raising both my arms.

"Your turn Yu! Hammer in the stakes!"

"Yeah, yeah, I am on it," he mumbled.

After five minutes of waiting, Yu gave me the call that the stakes were pounded safely into the ground. The tent held up. That meant that he had done what he had been instructed to do.

Content, I headed back outside. The first thing I noticed? Yu was right there back on the same dead stump he sat when we arrived here.

"Do you want to help me get the campfire going?" I asked.

Yu looked up at me and his face brightened up.

With me giving a smile back, everything seemed to perfectly move along.

Only then...

Yu squealed and jumped into the air as a small flame arrow soared past him and narrowly missed him. He was in shock by the sudden occurrence that had taken place.

Was that an accidental misfire by somebody who had been hunting? Seeing the projectile that was lit aflame, that rang a bell in my mind telling me a shot had been fired at us on purpose.

"Oh shit,"I mumbled.

The next thing on my mind was to grab Yu. To ready myself for whatever was to come, I grabbed my trusty war-hammer that had been packed as a back-up for pounding in the stakes to the tent.

"Daddy? What's going on?" Yu asked. Feeling his arms gripping at the fur on my shoulders, it was easily noticeable that he was nervous.

"Ambush," was what came out of his mouth.

For me, my past experience taught me what to anticipate here in that situation. The dynamics of an ambush attack were familiar to me due to my history as a fugitive. In seconds, some of the projectiles were deflected with my hammer and evading them was fairly easy.

Several feline growls came from all around us. Yu trembled in fear.

"Tigers," he muttered under his breath.

"Easy there Yu. Remember, I am here to protect you this time," I told him as he gripped tightly onto me.

"I know who you are wolf!" A voice rang from the depth of the forest.

My rage flared.

"And I know who you are too! You cruel bastards! How could you murder an entire village like that!?" I barked back.

"I could ask you the same thing Wolf Boss! Or should I say former second-in-command to Lord Shen." the voice taunted me.

"Shutup!"

The voice broke out into a dark laughter as several tigers stepped out from behind the trees and brush. They came from everywhere around us.

With my sharp grip on my hammer, the fight ensued.

One of the unlucky tigers were caught with the face of the hammer. He rebounded backwards into several others of the bandits behind him. Yu cheered with the successful first blow.

"Watch it!" my son warned me. I made a quick turn and kicked the bandit tiger in the chest.

Smash! Crunch! Snap!

The sounds made by his breaking bones were loud enough to be heard clearly to where I stood. Yu's entire body trembled and what could only be assumed was that he had seen what had happened to the tiger that had been kicked by me.

The bandits all stopped too.

"No, don't tell me he is dead?" a voice uttered.

Sheer terror was all could that be described on Yu's face. To my very surprise, the source of his fear wasn't of me because of my brutality in battle, but rather the bandits themselves.

"Don't worry about it Zhong. If those bandits get ahold of Yu they will do much worse."

"Attack!" one of the felines ordered.

All of the tigers around rushed at me.. In my mind I blocked out all conscious thought. Duck, swing, sidestep, downward swing, kick, jab. Seven more tigers were taken out by me followed by my maelstrom of strikes from my hammer. That felt enthralling and like heaven for a sweet second.

Smash!

Two tigers soared backwards into a dozen more of the bandits which knocked all of them unconscious. Maybe one or two were dead, but both my son and me didn't have the time to worry about that. In the utter stillness, I looked around. No more tigers. Was that all of them? It was only then that...

"Daddy!" Yu screamed. I suddenly realized that my back was now thirty-five pounds lighter.

Bam!

Out of nowhere, I was thrown back and my face had a nice reunion with the snowy ground. This was it. That really pissed me off!

"I'll kill you!" I barked and stood up.

Suddenly, three pairs of arms wrapped around me to what I figured were to restrict me.

"Shit…"

With three tiger that held me back, it was helpless.

A very stout tiger that stood about six inches over my height was what I saw next. Suddenly, all of my worst fears came true. In his right paw was a struggling Yu. He punched, bit, kicked, and clawed at his arm in attempt to free himself.

The tiger bandit had a pair of fingerless red-stained gloves. My face grew pale. He was laughing and taunting Yu.

"You are a feisty one aren't you little wolf," he mocked in Yu's hopeless effort. A low growl escaped my muzzle.

"Shutup Pung!" Yu spat back at his face. That made me smile at his boldness. Pung smirked right back at him before delivering a strong punch into the young pup's gut. Yu was quaking in pain.

"What do you want from us?!" I screamed at him. It was too much too bear.

Pung turned at me and his eyes met mine. It was his look that told me everything and I realized what he wanted.

"Normally I would be swift and merciless with my victims, but you have something that can be of benefit to me,"Pung stated. His eyes were focused on Yu's.

My throat tightened with me gulping. That was very scary for me.

"What?" I asked.

Pung looked at me. He reached with his free paw into his pocket and pulled out a small ivory dagger. Yu stared it with his face turning a pale white.

"So what happened to all that courage before? You seemed so brave just five seconds ago." The tiger stated.

"No! What are you doing?! Stop! I don't care what you do to me, just don't kill my son!" I pleaded.

With me forced to watch my son be tortured in horror. My resistance was futile. Yu was frozen in fear. Desperate, all I could do was beg. And for that first time for in my life, the shoe was on the other foot. With a silent prayer, my hopes were that fate would have at least spared Yu from a cruel death.

Pung looked again at Yu with a tight grip on his ivory dagger. What surprised me was that he didn't drive it very deep. Even from my distance it was easy to tell he only sliced open a small cut into his flesh.

Yu didn't even scream in pain. He looked at Pung silently.

"What did you do to him?!" my orders came out.

Pung turned to me. He smiled sinisterly at me. The look on his face easily gave away that he was up to some kind of demented plan.

"What did you do to my son!?" I bellowed at him.

He smiled vilely at the poor pup. "Your son has now been injected with a poison that slowly eats its way through the bloodstream where in four days it hits the heart. That is when it spreads out through the entire body causing paralysis, slight suffocation, and heavy internal bleeding. It all depends but one of them ends up killing you first. Usually it is due to blood lost," he explained.

At that very moment if it was possible, my heart stop. Yu looked at me. His face, filled with complete fear, caused me nothing but pain. I felt sweat trickle down my neck. To me, all seemed hopeless. The only thing that could have saved us was maybe a miracle.