"Hey freak. What are you doing here? I thought I told you not to come back around this part of town." "You said that in the Ming region." "Yeah, well, I don't want you around here either. Why don't you just leave our Valley. You don't belong here, you don't even have parents." I looked over towards them and watched as they were yelling at someone. My eyes widened in shock as I saw who it was. "Po, look." Po and Mei Ling turned to see what I was looking at, while I began walking towards the group of children. The young child tried to walk away, but the bullies just followed him and continued to torment him. By the time I had made it to the group of short children, the child that was being bullied had disappeared. I walked up and stood in front of the one I saw as the leader. "Where did he go?" He looked up at me in fear and, becoming instantly speechless, just raised his arm and pointed behind him. I began walking that way then, as an idea came to mind, I stopped and turned back to the children. They were all watching and listening worriedly. I spoke in a very scary tone. "If you pick on any more children, just remember, I'll be watching you, always." With that, I just turned and continued on my way. I searched the entire region, I believe it was called the Guang region, but I couldn't find any trace of him anywhere. It was nearing nightfall when I finally sat down to think of a plan. I set myself into meditation position, and opened my hearing to full potential in case of any surprise attacks. Too bad my next opponent immobilized me without moving a muscle, and he was at least a block away. While I was sitting, I got this strange feeling that something bad was about to happen, I opened my eyes, only to find nothing that seemed threatening nearby. As soon as I closed my eyes again, I felt water cover me from all sides, which then turned to ice. My eyes shot open to find I was now completely covered in ice up to my neck. Looking around, I only saw one person, the person I had been searching for all day, the Black Tortoise of The Northern Valley of Tranquility. "Why have you been looking for me?" "What makes you think I was looking for you?" He walked closer to me, with the ice was holding me still. "I've followed you since earlier today, when you walked away from those bullies." I was astonished, I had been followed all day, and I didn't even notice. "Now, I'll ask you again. Why were you following me?" "Okay, I'll tell you the truth. But only if you promise to let me go after." "Deal" "The truth is that you, along with three others, are going to save the world from certain destruction." "Ha. Good one, I almost believed you." It was obvious he was being sarcastic. He began to walk away. "Have you ever wondered why you're one of a kind? Why there is no-one else like you?" That stopped him in his tracks, he turned and stormed back up to me. He looked into my eyes, trying to see if I was telling the truth. "I'm telling you the truth. I can show you why you're here, and what you're going to do." Tears were now streaming down his face, he took a few steps back and stared at the ice. The ice suddenly changed back to water. "Okay, I'll come with you. We'll leave first thing in the morning. I'll meet you at the entrance of the Ming region, the other side of the valley." With that, he ran off and I walked back to where my day started, I needed to find Po and fill him in. "Tigress, where have you been?" "I was searching for the Black Tortoise." I looked around. "Where's Mei Ling?" "Oh yeah, she took the Wu sisters to the prison, collected the bounty money, picked up a copy of all the wanted posters and left." "Come on Po, let's check into an inn." We checked in, paid for a meal and settled into our room. Before I knew it, it was morning again. We ate breakfast, returned the keys and set off towards the far side of the valley. It was about an hour's walk, but we made it and found the Black Tortoise waiting at the bridge. "Well it's about time." Ignoring his comment, we continued on towards the eastern Valley of the Mists. Our next target was the Azure Dragon. Po turned to the Black Tortoise. "So, you're the Black Tortoise?" "I am a black tortoise, but my name is Zhi." "Po, we have to get along with him, he's going to be with us for at least another six months." Zhi turned to me. "So what exactly is our mission? Where are we going from here?" "We have to go to the Eastern Valley and find the Azure Dragon. Then after that we must find the Vermillion Bird in the Southern Valley." We walked in silence for awhile, so I decided to try and get Zhi to talk a bit more. "So, Zhi. How long have you been able to control water like that?" "Hmm. It was a few months ago now, four I think, just after my tenth birthday. It was really strange, I just woke up on my birthday and there was a new energy powering me. I learnt how to move water around and, after that, how to freeze and unfreeze it." After we left the valley, we were immediately confronted by a forest. We didn't know it at the time, but we were followed into that forest.