Wow, here is another late update indeed! Sorry I've been so busy lately, it's just kinda how life goes. Anyway, here is the third chapter, as I've been writing it for about a week now. I was writing a page here and there, but I finally decided to finish it up last night.

Well, I hope you all enjoy and as always, please review! Thank you so much!

-wolfgangwalker

Chapter 3: Journey

The wind began to bite at Po's flesh as he headed ever deeper into the treacherous Wu Dan Mountains. The cold stung, but he tried not to pay it any attention. As long as he was reunited with his lover, he would go through any obstacle.

The trek was not a favorable one, as the bitter wind was almost like a paradise in the mountains. The temperature was known to drift into sub-zero often, and as winter was just around the corner, the days were getting colder every day.

Po climbed the many mountains that stood in his way, each seemingly more difficult to pass as he went on. He was making progress however, despite the obstacles that stood in his way. Short work was being made of the quest until something landed softly on Po's nose. He felt the cool surface of the object pierce him with a glacial chill. It was his worst enemy; the very thing he had been dreading since his departure.

Snow

At first, Po saw the first of the flakes drift down to Earth slowly, but the tempo soon increased. After a short while, it was whipping all around him, and he couldn't even see 10 feet in front of his face. The snow slapped him across the face, taunting him.

This is it, I'm done for. I can't even see where I'm going! Po thought as he struggled to keep going.

He soon started to drift into a half-conscious state, not fully in control of his body or his mind. Images of Tigress started to dance around in his head, and her sweet yet resolute voice echoed through his ears. She was telling him to keep going; for her. For their family.

But the continued fall of snow seemed to be telling him to stop; to just lay down and die. Each flake seemed to whisper dejecting statements to him as they fell.

You'll never make it; you're just a fat panda.

She's already dead.

It's too late to save her. You failed.

Po was becoming more and more frustrated by the minute. He was angry at the situation, the weather, and how he was hungry all the time. He couldn't take it anymore.

"I can't do this!" Po cried at the top of his lungs as he fell to his knees. "I- I… give up." He let a tear roll down his cheek, but it never fell to the ground as it crystalized on his cheek.

"I'm so sorry Tigress… I've failed you." Po said apologetically as he stared up at the pale grey sky, waiting for the tendrils of death to wrap around him. All he could hear now was the unfriendly whistling of the wind as it gust over him.

This must be the most wicked place in China, and I'm going to die here. Po concluded as he looked all around him and saw only more of the same, grey abyss. But then, something peculiar happened.

As if the sky itself had just realized Po's predicament, the snowfall started to slow. The harsh gale melded into a soft breeze, and within a few minutes, the snow had completely stopped. Po opened an eye, as he noticed the stillness of the air.

"Am I dead yet?" Po grumbled as opened an eye and looked around. He noticed that he was still on top of the mountain, yet there was no more snow coming down.

This must be a sign. I must be destined to rescue her! Po thought excitedly as a new flash of hope coursed through his veins.

"Alright!" Po shouted as he started running down the opposite slope of the mountain. "Tigress, here I come!" Po proclaimed. Just then, he tripped on a rock protruding from the mountain and began a long tumble down the slope, similar to his many falls down the steps to the palace.

He finally reached the bottom of the peak in a snarled clump of black and white.

"Ouf, that's gonna leave a mark in the morning." Po whined as he got up and rubbed his shoulder blade. He looked off towards the next mountain, but instead of seeing another looming, desolate palisade, he saw the flickering lights of a small village in the valley before him. He could clearly see people milling about in the streets.

How can there be a village in the middle of nowhere? How could anyone possibly survive out here? Po pondered as he began to walk to the village.

His first thought was that he could be hallucinating, but as the village grew closer, it began to look more and more realistic to him. Po walked up to a building on the outskirts of the village, and brushed a paw against its rough-hewn surface. Sure enough it was real.

He continued to walk through the village streets until he came to a small hotel. He went inside and rented a room for the night.

"Hmmmm…." The elderly female goat innkeeper said as she looked Po over skeptically. "We don't get many travelers here often." She said bluntly. "So, what brings you here panda?"

"Well, I'm here to rescue my wife. She's being held captive at the Mangsau Palace."

"Oh, well I'm sorry to hear that dear. I hope you get her back." She said tenderly as she smiled up at him.

"Thanks, I hope so too." Po said exasperatedly "Hey, how do you all live out here anyway? This place is a wasteland! What do you eat?"

"Radishes. They grow in the cold, so we're able to plant them in the summer. It gets old after a while. Radish soup, radish stew, radish everything! But, it keeps us alive."

"Wow." Po said astonished as he tried to imagine eating nothing but the red vegetable for every meal.

After he got his room, he went over to the local shop and bought a bag full of radishes. They would surely last long enough for him to make it to the palace. He then went back to his room and quickly fell asleep. But, strange dreams soon plagued him as he was thrown into an uneasy slumber.

Po sat in the middle of a thick forest, staring at a crackling fire across from him.

"Hello, Dragon Warrior." An elderly voice said on the other side of the flame. Po quickly snapped his head up from the lambent embers and looked at the speaker. It was the soothsayer. She had a grim look on her face, and stared at Po with worry. "I have some news for you."

"What's that?" Po asked, now curious as to what she could possibly have to say to him.

"I've had a vision, and I have come to warn you about your quest."

"What do you mean? What did you see?"

"I see a lone warrior of orange and black, returning home without her companion. I also see a Panda surrounded by hearts of pure black. He will have to make a decision that will either save or doom his true love. This decision may ultimately cost him his life. There is also another Tiger. Jealousy fuels her passion for killing. She will try to kill you next. Someone you trust will betray you. Beware the crescent moon Dragon Warrior…"

The soothsayer then began to fade,

"Your path is wrought with peril. Trust very few along your quest."

"Wait, what are you saying? Are you telling me I'm going to die?"

"I cannot say. Your decisions will decide that."

"No, no I want answers!" Po shouted at her, but it was too late. She had already disappeared into the night sky…

"Agh! Tigress!" Po cried as he woke. He was breathing heavily and sweating.

There's no way that could be real… Po thought as he wearily went back to bed. No more dreams troubled him for the rest of the night.

Po woke the next morning, vividly remembering his dream with the soothsayer.

Why was Tigress going to return home alone? Who would betray him? And why should he be so afraid of a crescent moon?

A thousand questions buzzed around in his head like angry wasps, each demanding an answer. But answers were something he just didn't have at the moment. He wasn't even sure that the dream was real. The Soothsayer in his dream must have been just a figment of his imagination, but then why was his stomach in a knot?

He tried to swallow his nervousness, but it persisted. So he just tried to ignore it, despite the fact that it could be a matter of life or death.

Po then headed out of the hotel and decided to continue on with his long journey. As he was walking out of the village however, a voice shouted behind him,

"Where do you think you're going?"

Po spun around to see a rhino, a black fox, and an ox all glaring at him.

"Um, do I know you?" Po said, surprised at the sudden display of hostility towards him.

"You should, Dragon Warrior." The fox spat. "You sent us all to Chorh-Gom to rot!" Then Po suddenly recognized the three criminals as past foes that he had defeated.

"Oh ya about that…" Po trailed off as the three started walking to him. "Seriously, I don't want to hurt you guys!" Po said, hoping not to start any trouble, but the thugs kept pressing onward. They backed Po up against a wall.

"Any last words panda?" The rhino said gruffly as he unsheathed a long, steel blade.

"Um ya… look out!" Po shouted as he pointed behind the rhino. The husky rhino spun around, right as a black paw collided with his jawbone. He crumpled to the ground, and a black jaguar loomed above him. Her eyes shimmered with pure turquoise as her graceful voice reverberated off the nearby buildings.

"Now boys, let's learn how to play nice."

"Get her!" The fox shouted as both him and the ox attempted to avenge their fallen comrade.

She delivered a solid punch and a kick to the ox, and then jumped up in the air and landed on the fox. After she had pinned him, she punched him in the head, sending him into an unconscious dreamland. She then got up to face Po.

"You better watch out, these guys are tough. Don't mess with the wrong people."

"I could've handled that myself, thank you." Po said crossly, disappointed that he didn't get to defeat them himself.

"Sure you could. Wait a minute; I've never seen you around here before. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Um, I'm Po, and I'm trying to get to the Mangsau Palace, but I don't really know how to find it. Do you know anyone that could tell me the way?"

"Well hello Po, I'm Shu. I know how to get to the palace. What's your business there?" Shu inquired, curious as to why the panda would want to go to Mangsau Palace of all places.

"Um… it's personal."

"Alright fine, don't tell me. Look, I'll help you get there. I could use an adventure myself."

"Alright, it's settled then. Thank you."

And with that, the panda and the jaguar set out to find the palace. The snow crunched beneath their feet as they trekked across miles of more barren, icy dessert. Po started to fumble as they went on, his strength slowly diminishing as the minutes turned to hours, and then to days. They only slept for a few hours at a time, and ate sparingly.

As they reached the top of yet another ridge, Po finally cracked.

"Ugh, I need- I need a break…" He said panting heavily.

"Look." Shu said with an urging tone; pointing a black digit at the landscape beyond. Po looked up over the ridge and saw a giant, looming structure that appeared to be as old as the mountains themselves. The old grey brick was chipped off in many places along the outer wall of the place, and the tall stone pillars that jetted up out of the chateau were crumbling away into dust. The palace had an air to it of desolate evil. Just looking at it gave Po the chills. It looked more like a graveyard than the illustrious dwelling that he had pictured it to be in his mind.

"It's the Mangsau Palace! We made it!" Po exclaimed as a wave of relief came over him.

There were soldiers patrolling the wall of the palace, and Po recognized a few of them as criminals he had thwarted and thrown in jail in the past.

"So, how do we get in?" Shu said nervously. "I didn't expect that the place to be surrounded by thugs." Po was shocked at her loyalty to follow him into the fortress, seeing as she was just a simple village girl.

"What? You're not going in there! You'll get yourself killed. Besides, you can't defend yourself against all of those warriors."

"I handled myself just fine against those three warriors back at the village. Look, I'm coming with you no matter what."

"Ugh… fine." Po said in defeat as he knew that the jaguar was the type that never lost an argument. "We're not sneaking in though. We have to go in through the front doors. This is my fight, so I'm not expecting you to come along."

"No. I'm going with you." The female said as she grabbed Po's arm tightly. Po felt uncomfortable at the fact that another girl was grabbing him other than his wife, but he decided to just ignore it. He looked down at her wrist and noticed a string bracelet wrapped around. On the string was a crescent moon charm, reflecting the sun off its polished surface. Po dismissed it however, as the long weeks in the snow had left him thinking unclearly.

So the two walked up to the palace, alerting all of the guards of their arrival…

"Empress Xia, Empress Xia!" A guard shouted as he burst in to the malevolent cat's quarters. He hated using the term Empress Xia but she had threatened to kill anyone who didn't refer to her as such.

"What?" She said agonizingly as she looked up from her paper-wrought desk.

"The panda has arrived just like you said he would. He's at the front gates now."

"Excellent!" Xia cried as she stood up and made her way out of the room. "I'd better go tell my dear sister the good news!"

Xia walked briskly through the long corridors of the palace, until she came to a solid wood door. She flung it open, revealing a bloody tiger before her. There were cuts all up and down her arms and legs, and there were claw marks across her right cheek and her forehead.

At the arrival of Xia, Tigress wanted to scream in fear, yet she was a fighter. She only cast a menacing glare at her sister. She pulled at her restraints, desperately trying to get free, but same as the past month, they still held her down.

"Now, now. I'm not here to hurt you this time. Now is a time of happiness; of celebration! Your precious Dragon Warrior has come to save you!" Tigress' heart skipped a beat at the mention of a name in which she hadn't heard in several weeks.

He actually came for me. He truly does care…

Tigress growled and said,

"If you lay a finger on him, I'll…"

"You'll what? Kill me? Haha, I'd like to see you try." Xia teased.

"He's going to save me, and you're going to regret what you've done." Tigress lashed back through barred teeth.

"We'll see about that. We'll see…"

Well, there it is! I hope you all liked it! Anyway, I've already updated my profile with information on the story's progress and when the next chapter should be expected. (It's sooner this time I promise.) And also, I may be releasing another story soon, so there's also info on that on my profile!

Thanks again for reading and please review! I'll respond to every review. But so far, I love the feedback. Thanks!

-ww12