I want to thank Y for his review of the last chapter :-)


"Bad news isn't wine. It doesn't improve with age."

Colin Powell


Crossing the Rubicon

Episode II: Dogs and Cats

4. Chapter: News

"Is it really true?" Monkey asks with an astonished voice.

"Yes it is.", the deer merchant answers, standing behind his stand.

"Show it! Show it!" the monkey demands, not able to await it. He doesn't need to wait long: the merchant takes the book from below his book stand. "It is true! The Third Volume of 'Jokes and other Tricks' was released!" Monkey cries full of joy, while holding it between his hands. Instantly he opens it to read it at the spot.

"Eh, that would be 20 Yuan." the deer merchant reminds the monkey. "Oh yeah…" Monkey answers, not taking his eyes away from the book, while taking out four of his 5-Yuan-coins from his purse. After the book is paid he begins to move in a direction – fortunately it is the direction to the Jade Palace. Not even the setting sun bothers him.

Monkey is so absorbed by this book, that he doesn't hear the "Monkey!" yell from behind him. Not before his name is called for a third time and with a considerable increase in volume, he notices it. He looks back only to see a mountain of clothes lying on something. He lowers his head only to see Master Shifu's angry face.

"Master Shifu!" the monkey exclaims, before rushing to his master. It is not before now, that he notices that the mountain of clothes is a body – a bloody body. "What…who is that?" Monkey asks, realizing the situation slowly.

"Don't know." the Master of the Jade Palace replies, "But he needs our help."


"Dad, what are we?" I ask my dad. We are taking a rest in a tavern found at the road. The heavily armed black and huge canine in front of my nose is my dad. He has lost one eye and wears there for an eye patch, while the rest of his face is littered with scars, old and new ones.

"What gives you the idea to ask this now?" he asks between two bites.

"I had it in mind for a while already." I reply carefully, "The kids…they call me mad dog, hound or mutt. They…try to insult me…make me angry."

My dad chews to the end, before he asks in an innocent voice: "Got angry?"

"No…" I reply as confident as possible, "…but…"

"I see…" he interrupts my explanation, "They are wrong. You are neither a mad dog, a hound nor a mutt, much less a dog anyway."

"But…what am I then?"

He grins smugly. "You are a wolf, son. Like me."

I shake my head. "But…what does this mean? To what does this make me?"

The grin gets broader. "It makes you to a warrior."

The canine's eyes open slowly. "Will you save him?" a voice asks worried. "You need to save him!" another voice cries. "Please!" a third voice exclaims.

The canine begins to see details: a room, half dark, half lighted by candles. "I try my best…but can you keep quiet." a fourth voice answers, obviously annoyed or maybe exhausted. The canine closes his eyes to the half, focusing on his body: he gets treated; Left shoulder is treated already and he feels like someone is working on his right leg. The heaviest wounds like it seems he realizes It is time to make my woken state felt.

He breathes in loud and deep and opens his eyes completely. "HOST!" all three voices yell at the same time and are seen one moment later on the snout of the canine: three yellow-brown bugs, fleas. The one in the middle is bigger and seemingly older than the other two, who look alike. "Hi, guys." the canine mutters weakly, before trying to lift his head a bit.

"It would be better, when you don't move." a female voice says and reveals herself to be Viper. The canine still sees the needles of acupuncture on his body, before looking to the reptile. "Curiosity is my Achilles' heel." he replies, before putting his head back, "I wanted to see only, if Shiba, Ichi and Yi made trouble."

"They didn't.", the fourth voice from earlier replies and reveals himself as the rooster Master Neng, "They saved even your life."

"Although it is quite extraordinary that a canine carries three fleas with himself voluntarily." the on the head of Viper jumping Mantis comments.

The canine chuckles, although it starts to hurt cause of this. "Not the first one to notice that…how have they saved me?" "We yelled, Host!" Shiba, the bigger flea replies, "For help till the Master Neng here came with another master, called Shifu." No one notices that the canine eyes widen for one moment after hearing the names. "Yeah, yeah we yelled till we couldn't anymore!" one of the twin fleas adds. "Ichi couldn't yell as the first one." the other flea adds. "Not true!" Ichi replies angrily. "True!" Yi replies and the two begin to quarrel.

"Stop that, you two!" Shiba says, before grabbing the two at their collars, "The Host is injured and you have nothing better to do, than quarreling here?!" "Sorry!" both say at the same time, while the canine moves his head to the rooster. "How is my condition?" he asks completely forgetting about the quarrel on his snout, while noticing something else: at the wall his sheathed sword is leaning as well like his hat, cloak and bag. "You had luck." the old rooster replies, "No one of the wounds was deep and we found you in time, before you lost too much blood. But the healing will take some time.", and the rooster puts the last acupuncture needle at is place.

"I see…" the canine replies, while repositioning his head to the other two, "I thank you all for this treatment. I am in your debt."

"Oh no problem." Mantis replies, "When you would only tell us what…."

"Not now, Mantis." Viper interrupts the green insect, "That has time till he recovered."

"Indeed.", Master Neng agrees, while leaving his seat beside the cot, "Rest is the best treatment now, so it would be better, when we leave you alone." The canine nods, while the three Masters leave the room. He waits still a while till he asks in the room: "What have you told them?"

"Nothing, Host." Shiba replies with a serious voice, "Fortunately they didn't want to know – still – from where your wounds come."

"I see…and we are in the Jade Palace?" the canine wants to be on the safe side. "Indeed…" Shiba replies with a smirk, "Fate like it seems." The canine stares at the big flea. "A matter of time." he corrects, "but still surprising." he moves his head to the twins, "I have a job for you two."


The old Master of the Jade Palace stands beside the Moon Pool, starring in the calm water. Outside it got dark already and torches were lighted, while the younger Masters wait in the Hall of Warriors: Tigress tries to meditate, while Po, Crane and Monkey chat about the jokes in "Jokes and other Tricks". They are not really quiet during this and the feline gets distracted.

She still feels uneasy; the talk with her reptile friend was too short and had no results, which she needed. And now she gets angry, because these three chat about jokes although there seems to be a serious situation. Not the guests, which she has not seen still, but the behavior of Master Shifu was telling it to her. He not even tries to calm the others down, while staring with a serious face inside the pool.

Suddenly his ears move and he turns around to see Master Neng, Viper and Mantis enter the Hall of Warriors.

"How is his condition, Neng?" the old Master asks, while the others calm down and Tigress stands up. All of them gather around the old rooster. "Better than expected after seeing so much blood." the rooster replies, "Worse than hoped, but he will get fine again…but this will need time."

"I see…" Master Shifu replies obviously relieved to have taken a load off his mind. He turns around to the others and the younger ones position themselves in a line in front of him, while Master Neng positions himself beside the red panda. "Master you wanted to talk with us?" Master Tigress asks in a respectful tone, looking at her foster father. "Indeed.", Master Shifu replies, "But first it will be better to introduce someone properly. This is….", but here he gets interrupted: "Master Neng!", Po yells almost, "Former member of the Furious Five, Victor of the Battle of the Yellow Fields, the wandering Healer, who helps everyone on his road, a living legend!"

"That summarizes that…even completely." the rooster chuckles also with being mildly surprised. "Yeah…" Master Shifu sighs, "…okay that was that." he becomes more serious again, "I need to tell you all something. We have received news, while I was still in Gongmen City helping the Kung Fu Council by organizing the repairs after Lord Shen's…reign."

"Two news to be exactly." the rooster adds. "Yes indeed." Master Shifu agrees nodding, "The first one is that some of Shen's cannons are missing."

"Missing? I thought all were destroyed during the battle." the panda interrupts the speakers. "No, some only sank to the ground of the sea, others never left the manufacturing. Shen wanted to take sail much too fast, so the wolves were not able to finish everything and some tasks remained simply there. We tried to destroy the missing ones and one of the captured wolves told us where we could find them. But some of them were not there as well like the blueprints of cannons."

"The Blueprints?" Tigress exclaims, "Master you know what this means…."

"I know." Master Shifu replies with an upset voice, "The one who has the blueprints can build more of these cannons."

"So all what we did in Gongmen City…destroying the cannons…was a waste of time?" Crane summarizes. "No, after all Lord Shen needed to be stopped.", Master Shifu disagrees, "But with the missing blueprints as well like two missing, but not finished cannons are making the situation much more complicated. No one knows who has stolen these things."

"Maybe one of the wolves?" Monkey suggests. "Possible, but not checkable. Most of the wolves fled after their defeat and the ones we captured have no clue about that…but I have not gathered you all for a guessing game."

"What are the other news, Master?" Viper asks with a worried voice. Shifu's face darkens, while thinking about that. "Chui Mie…he is alive."


The camp is a bigger one. Many soldiers in black are found here beside their tents, chatting, drinking or relaxing simply in front of ignited campfires. Most of the soldiers are bears; others belong to other species, like canine, primates, felines or other mammals. There is a variety of ages of the soldiers – some young, some old and some in between – and a variety of languages, although Chinese is the unifying language from everyone.

A Crocodile, thin and delicate built, in a black vest and cloak, looking obviously like better quality than the ones of the soldiers, goes through the muddy camp, while the moon starts to rise up in the sky. He moves through the camps, don't getting stopped by the soldiers around him and he doesn't care about it. In his claws he holds his sword, which rests in its sheath at his belt. He comes closer to a bigger tent, positioned right at the easternmost edge of the camp, right beside a river on a small hill.

Two guards in heavy armor – no one can see which species they belong – and spears in their hands are standing in front of it, not allowing anyone passing through. "Hey, guys. I have a message for the General." the crocodile says, while looking at the helmets of the two – their faces are hidden behind the black steel. He gulps.

"Let him in.", a throaty voice from inside the tent says and the guards stand aside. The crocodile squeezes himself through the guards and enters the tent. The tent is open at the eastern side, revealing a view at the dusty and hilly lands eastwards of here, but also at one watchtower at the horizon.

"I hope this is a good message." a figure, which stood in front of this view, says before turning around. He wears also a black steeled and bronze armor, much better made, highest class quality, which huddles perfectly against his massive body. But at his head is a black hood hiding his face completely behind the shadows.

The crocodile positions himself beside the cot as well like the table where maps are spread out – maps from China. "They are even very good, Sir." the crocodile replies, "They have the blueprints." the red eyes of the bear – the only thing visible through the shadows – begin to shine, "And there is something else."

"And what is this?" the General replies, before turning around to his view again. "They have captured two not finished cannons as well like some of the wolves, which were responsible for the crafting." the bear comments this with a 'Splendid.', "But they can't transport them here cause of Lord Jiao'ao's soldiers and outposts."

The bear begins to chuckle. "Doesn't matter." he replies, while turning around to his crocodile servant, "It is time anyway." The crocodile looks at his superior with a puzzled face. "What do you mean, Sir?" he asks, right before the bear puts his hands at his hood. With one swift movement he puts it down at reveals his face to his servant, who is startled: once it was the face of a bear, even a good looking one, but now at the left side of it is missing skin and fur and only meat and teeth are seen, while on his right side one ear is missing; the left red eye is the upper border of this missing skin and fur and has a bloody fringe, which turned black. Even when the bear wouldn't grin now, it would look like that thanks to the exposed teeth.

"It is time to show China that I have returned from Hell."


Revealing an old acquaintance ;-) Was pretty obvious or not? :-) Still I end the Episode here ;-) Hope you enjoyed reading it :-)

Kung Fu Panda and its characters belong to Dreamworks. This story is mine. :-)