The search for a little brother begins!
Chapter 4: Who to Find
After this, Cody and Max went indoors towards the orphanage to see which ones that Max would want to have as a little brother and to their surprise...tons of kids, most of them from differemt ages and species were all over the place, simply just playing around and things like that. For Max, it would turn into a humongous challenge for him and that nervous feeling just brought back up again.
"Wow...that's a lot of kids." Cody said, wide-eyed.
Max was pretty much well aware of how many kids are there and for him to choose which ones he would want most is pretty hard. He lets out a big sigh and looks around to see who's interesting. Mounds of ducks, geese, rabbits, sheep and other species were a little unsure about Max coming in, but they saw his nervous face in front of them and one of them asked, "What are you looking for?"
Max turns around and sees this little bunny right behind him and he replied, "I'm trying to find a little brother of my own."
That widened the bunny's eyes to hear that and he then asked, "You are?"
"Yeah." Max replied, in a hesitant voice.
Cody comes up behind him and said, "This is Max's first time choosing whom he wants to have a little brother."
"Ohh...have you been here before?" asked the rabbit.
"Uh-huh."
Before long, some others came towards Max and wanted to have their shot on being a new big brother and for Max, it was almost overwhelming to decide who he likes more. Frustrating, even. Cody could sense Max's growing sense of frustration to choose which one he wants to have a little brother and with that, Cody brings him over to the hallway to get away from it all.
Max sits down on the ground, with his back against the wall and he said, "No one told me that this was gonna be hard."
Cody sat down next to him and he turns to Max and said, "Sometimes, finding the right person to take in is a challenge. Same thing happens to dad when he adopts someone new and takes them in."
Max blinked his eyes twice and placed his paws over his head and he looks up at Cody and said, "Maybe I'm not meant to be a big brother after all."
"Hey, don't say that. You'll find that person. Besides, you never know." Cody said, giving him comfort and support.
Just then, Max heard someone's footsteps running towards the hallway and slammed the door and he was on alert on who it could be. Cody looks around and asked, "What was that?"
"I don't know. But I'm gonna go check it out." Max replied.
Max gets himself up and proceeds to walk around the hallway to see what's going on and he figured that he might use his tiger instincts, but not just yet. Pretty soon, a few kids were running out of the hallway and Max wanted to know what was going on, but just focused on who made those footsteps and where it came from.
"Max...be careful." Cody said.
Seconds later, he heard some noises like someone was crying on the other side of the door and Max wanted to get a closer look into it and he slowly opens the door and as he went in, he saw a small snow leopard curled up in a corner...just on the back, not showing himself to him. Max's suspicion grew to concern in a split second and he cleared his throat and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Go away."
Max blinked his eyes twice and he could tell that this cub was definitely lonely and he said, "I'm not gonna hurt you."
"Just leave me alone."
This was gonna be harder than he thought, but he's willing to stick it out for the best no matter what and he definitely saw himself in that same position and he was still standing there.
"Why aren't you running away from me?"
Max seemed confused by that remark and he asked, "Should I?"
Soon enough, the young snow leopard cub turns around and faces himself; deep orange eyes and wearing only holey ripped pants and he asked, "Everyone else is afraid of me."
"Why?" asked Max.
The young snow leopard took a deep sigh and he sadly replied, "I don't know. But they call me a freak."
That really broke Max's heart after hearing something like that and he reminds himself in that position the first time he was at the orphanage a few years ago, like everyone takes advantage of him for all the wrong reasons or for no reason at all. Max then asked, "How long have you been here?"
"When I was a baby cub. I'm only six years old." the snow leopard replied.
Max blinked his eyes and he said to him, "I'm not afraid of you."
That took the young leopard cub by surprise and it's like he'd always hoped for someone to come along to say 'I'm not afraid of you' and he walked up towards Max and he stuck out his paw and said, "I'm Isaiah Xiu."
Max immediately accepts the handshake with no hesitation and he said, "I'm Maximus Bushido-Akio...but everyone calls me Max."
Isaiah nods his head in understanding and he said, "What brings you by the orphanage?"
"I was actually looking around to find a little brother of my own for Christmas." Max replied.
"You're lucky. I wish I had a family. They left me behind after I was born." Isaiah added.
Max definitely knew what that feeling felt like because he can relate to that so easily and he nods his head and said, "I know how you feel. My birth mom left me behind when I was five."
'Looks like we have a few things in common.' Isaiah thought.
Just then, out of nowhere...a brown lion cub comes out of nowhere and pins Max down to the ground, with the fiercest look ever made and he asked, "Who are you and what are you doing to my friend?!"
Isaiah came towards him and had to reason with him, but the lion cub didn't wanna hear it and he looks up at Max and asked, "Who are you?!"
"Max."
The cub pulls out a claw and comes at Max's neck and asked, "Friend or foe?!"
Isaiah yanks the lion cub's tail and he said, "Bakari...don't. He's a friend."
Max looks up at Bakari and he said, "Very good friend."
Once Max told him the truth, Bakari then gets off of Max and he looked up at him while Max was getting up and he said, "I'm sorry. I just thought that you were one of those bullies."
Max glared at Bakari for a second and he asked, "Me, a bully? I would never be one."
Isaiah clears his throat and he said, "Max, this is Bakari. He's my best friend."
Bakari walked in front of Max and he immediately felt bad about pinning him down out of nowhere and he said, "Forgive me for pinning you down. Lion instincts, I guess."
Max could understand what he meant by that and he said, "It's okay."
Just then, they heard some commotion coming from the hallway and wanted to find out what the deal is and somehow...they saw a young white wolfdog cub fighting all the other kids and Max kept looking and asked, "Who's he?"
"That's Duke. He always picks a fight with anyone." Isaiah replied.
Max didn't like where this fight's gonna go and he asked, "Shouldn't anyone stop him?"
Bakari quickly nods his head imply no and he told Max, "If you get in the middle of it or try to stop it, he'll fight you."
Duke kept fighting this little bunny rabbit and most of the other kids were egging him on and Max couldn't handle seeing this anymore, so he quickly went into tiger mode and stopped the fight by shielding the bunny out of the way. Duke lets out a growl and he told Max, "Move, tiger."
"Leave the bunny alone." Max said, in a serious tone.
"What is going on here?"
All of a sudden, they see Ms. Faye along with Mako, Arizona and Cody coming in to see what was going on and Ms. Faye saw Duke standing in front of Max and she asked, "Are you fighting again?"
"Yeah, so what?" asked Duke.
Ms. Fay didn't like that tone one bit and she said, "Don't give me any of your attitude!"
Arizona looks up at Max and he asked, "You all right?"
"Uh-huh. I heard him fighting this rabbit and I wanted to stop it before he gets hurt." Max answered.
Duke mocked Max's voice and he said, "And I would've beaten him down if you hadn't have stopped me!"
"That's enough! As of this point, no dinner for you!" Ms. Faye shouted.
Duke barked off at her as he stormed off on the way into his room and slammed the door and then, she looked up at Max and she said, "It's a good thing you stopped the fight the way you did, Max."
The little bunny looked up at Max and he said, "Thank you."
Arizona then took notice of Isaiah and Bakari standing in between Max and he had a feeling that these might be the brothers he's looking for and he asked Max, "Did you find any brothers?"
Max looks up at Arizona and he replied, "I think I did. Both Bakari and Isaiah."
Mako then lets out a smile and he felt really proud of Max of finding them on his own and he said, "I guess those are the ones you wanted."
Ms. Faye overheard this and she felt like it was time to let Mako know a little more about them and he said, "Mako, I wanna talk to you for a minute."
Mako nodded his head and accepted that request and he turned to Max and said, "Hey, Max...why don't you play with Bakari and Isaiah for a minute?"
"Okay." Max said.
Arizona chuckled softly and turns to the three and asked, "How good are you guys at kung-fu?"
Now that you've met the three orphans, Mako's hitched up a little plan. Wanna know? Stick around!
