Chapter 10: Loyalty.
Po kept his word. As Shifu's students left Gongmen City and returned to the forest area (bringing three struggling prisoners along with them), he explained the day's events as best as he could (resisting the urge to ramble on like he sometimes did). Just as he expected, they were not exactly pleased.
"So let me get this straight. Now we have to bring in the Yan-Li, and thirty armed wolves?", Monkey asked crossly, close to losing it.
"Yeah, pretty much", Po admitted sheepishly. "But on the bright side, thirty's nothing compared to two-hundred and fifty", he added hopefully.
Shu, meanwhile, listened with rapt attention. From what she could piece together, the masters had stumbled onto the wolves by accident like she had, and were still trying to decide what they would do with them and how they'd go about doing it.
She had heard the stories about Po and the Furious Five, just like all the girls in her village, but she never knew their team was like this on the inside. Or that the legendary Zhong Yu acted like your regular surly grouch instead of a hardened criminal. She felt like an insider; like she was a part of something so few people ever got to see.
By the time they entered the wolves' camp, it had to be 3:00 in the afternoon. The field was still empty, since sunset wouldn't come for another two hours (or less). So there was still time to come up with a plan.
((()-()))
Rao twitched. The croc bandit's head flopped from side to side as he slowly regained consciousness and the room around him came into focus. Along with the ropes that tied him to a chair from the neck down.
He'd been captured. And he wasn't alone. His partners in crime had also been restrained by similar means.
Which meant they had to be somewhere nearby. Watching him, no doubt.
"Good, you're awake", Tigress observed, appearing out of the dark in front of the bandit.
"What do you want with me?", he leered.
"You know what we want", Viper replied, slithering up to her friend, followed by Po and the rest of the Furious Five, while Zhong and Shu watched from a distance. Holding the questioning inside the living room had indeed been the right choice on Po's part, considering how much room they'd need for the interrogators and the interreges.
"Where are your bosses?", Monkey demanded.
The crocodile didn't say a word, only glaring at the simian in silent fury.
Mantis scowled and jumped onto the croc's snout – Rao didn't even flinch as Mantis held his deadly feelers right in front of his eyes. "He said, where are your bosses? You know who we're talking about; don't make us have to force it out of you", Mantis growled, losing his patience with the captive.
The reptile raised his eyebrow, unimpressed, before he shook his head and threw the insect off his nose.
"He won't talk", Crane said to his teammate Tigress, frustrated. Most petty thieves would have spilled their guts by now.
Tired of watching the masters get nowhere fast, Zhong decided to stop being a witness and put his opinion forward again. Shu watched curiously as the one-eyed commander spoke up.
"Of course he won't talk, he's too loyal. Whoever he works for, they've obviously been in business together for a long time. You could torture him or threaten him all day til you're blue in the face and he'd still only give you the silent treatment", the wolf remarked, and Po couldn't help but notice he sounded like he was speaking from experience. Sure enough, his suspicions proved to be correct just a second later. "It's what I would do", Zhong added, folding his arms.
Tigress narrowed her eyes. "Well, since you're apparently the expert on lowlifes, what do you suggest we do?", she asked, half-sarcastic and half-serious.
"You can stop wasting your time. How about turning your attention to the youngest? The new recruit?", Zhong coolly suggested. "The one who looks like he's about to crap himself now that he's outnumbered and his pals can't back him up anymore", he added in his head.
Sure enough, the youngest crocodile tied and bound did look a lot more nervous at the moment than he had when they were fighting; when he wasn't at the Five's mercy. Tigress could see the sweat collecting on his brow even in the dim evening sunlight. She hated to admit it, but Zhong's idea was another good one. After all, he was a strategist.
Tigress looked away from the wolf and Rao (who looked like he'd gone from being pissed to being furious, now that Tigress had discovered his gang's weakness), and sauntered towards what Zhong had described as 'the new recruit'.
Unlike the other two crocs, who looked to be quite a bit older than Po, Kwan was still young, still unhardened by the dangerous business he worked in, still more fearful than his comrades. The twenty-two year old couldn't deny he was terrified when Tigress advanced on him, but he did his best to hide it like he had that afternoon. He couldn't let her break him. There was too much was at stake.
"Talk", she ordered.
"Never", he shot back.
And then she put her hands on his snout, crushing it in her vice grip, squeezing inwards.
"Okay! Okay! I'll talk", he blurted out, willing to say anything to avoid receiving another vicious beatdown like the one he suffered before.
Of course, Rao and Ling would do a lot worse to him themselves if they weren't tied up too, going by the looks of extreme rage and betrayal that had twisted onto their faces the moment Kwan gave in so easily.
"The three of us were freelancers up until last year, when we started working for these bigger, badder guys as muscle", the croc explained to the feline.
Tigress had suspected as much, but her hunch hadn't come with a motive. "Why do the Yang-Li need 'muscle'?", she inquired, wondering if the reason the 'unnamed gang' was still hanging around Gongmen was because they were planning another big heist.
"To move stuff", Kwan replied, lowering his eyes to avoid making contact with Tigress (and Rao, who was still seething behind her).
"What kind of stuff?", she pressed, a tiny growl building in the back of her throat from impatience. She was getting tired of short answers already.
"All kinds of stuff. Old stuff. Swords, scrolls, armor, treasure – anything that might be valuable", Kwan specified.
Tigress put two and two together the exact same time as Viper. "Anything you haven't sold yet", the serpent added.
"You mean?", Mantis asked, eyes widening.
"Uh-huh. You heard what Shifu said, only a few of the stolen artifacts have been recovered over the years. I think it's because only a few of them have been sold", Viper explained.
"Anything they didn't or couldn't move on the black market, they packed up and brought with them to the next town, hoping to try their luck there. That's why they've been hiring so many gangs like this one, why they haven't left Gongmen yet. Because like Viper said, they can't leave. It takes a long time to move something priceless without damaging it, so they're taking the risk of getting caught because they want to stay here long enough to lighten the load and make a profit", Tigress elaborated.
Slouching against a wall in the corner, Zhong nearly whistled, impressed. Despite their constant bickering, Shifu's students really did make a good team when they were in the zone solving these cases, melding their minds. Then again, he supposed he wasn't one to talk about chaotic alliances.
Tigress turned back to Kwan. "Where are you keeping the relics?", she demanded.
"We've been hiding them in this warehouse downtown. I don't know the number, but it's near the bay", he replied anxiously, no doubt worried that if he wasn't helpful enough he'd be beat up again.
"There's no way that's a coincidence. They've gotta be planning to sail to the next town", Po mused, rubbing his chin.
"And they've gotta know we're tracking them by now. The whole city knows we're here", Monkey added anxiously.
"They won't leave without their ill-gotten gains. They haven't done it before and they won't do it now. It'll take a while to move it, even if it's already packed-up, and they can't set sail without being seen until nightfall. So that's how long we've got to stop them", Tigress declared.
At last, for the first time since they got to Gongmen, they knew where the crooks were and how long they had to find them. They had made one giant leap of progress in minutes compared to a whole day of detective work.
"Yeah, but we can't just barge in there without a plan. They've gotta have dozens of guys working for them by now", Crane reckoned, being the voice of reason as usual compared to his more impulsive friends.
"Then we'd better start brainstorming, because we don't have much time", Tigress decided, finally moving away Kwan and giving the kid room to breathe. Of course only a few seconds later, Zhong padded up to him, looking as imposing as the wolf bandit always did, and made the croc suck in his breath. He came to give the ruffian something he seemed to be full of that day – advice.
"Get out the crime game, kid, you're not cut out for it", he warned him, before leaving the confused reptilian alone to face the unrelenting death glares of his (no doubt former) cohorts again.
"Hey, Zhong", Po called, catching the gray wolf's attention. The black and white panda stepped forward, having something he wanted to get off his chest, confidentially. "Err, I just wanted to say… thanks, man, for giving us a hand with these guys", the bear said a bit awkwardly, but sincerely.
Zhong arched a brow at the gesture, but to the panda's surprise, the general didn't say anything snarky or cynical. Instead, the wolf bandit huffed, nodded his head (accepting the Dragon Warrior's comment), and rested a rough, calloused, bracing paw on the Dragon Warrior's shoulder for a moment, taking him seriously. "You're welcome, panda", he rumbled stoically, showing a hint of a smirk, before he stepped back. Once Po was satisfied that he had said his part, the panda smiled a bit in return and quickly walked off to rejoin his friends.
From where he stood, the wolf boss noticed Po and the Five were all huddled together, discussing what they should do next, but he made no effort to listen in or get involved again. He'd done his part, helped them catch the bad guys and get the information; they were all on their own now. He was more preoccupied with the rapidly descending sun than he was their mission.
Shu watched him climb the staircase to the second floor, and heard him shut his bedroom door not long after. She'd only known him for a few hours, and even she knew he had gone off to go sulk about something like he had a habit of doing. He seemed like the type who was always such a loner.
The she-wolf walked over towards the Dragon Warrior and tapped him on the shoulder, to the panda's surprise. He broke away from the group huddle to talk to her. "Oh hey Shu, what is it?", the bear replied, only paying half attention to the villager he had just met / been blackmailed by that afternoon because he was distracted by his friends, who had kept on talking even when he stopped.
"I just want to ask you something, if that's alright", the lupine requested. Po nodded, and the she-wolf worked up to say what was on her mind. "What do you know about Zhong? Personal stuff, I mean?", she requested.
((()-()))
As he once again crouched over his desk, Zhong stared at the words on the paper. The scroll he was reading represented everything he'd learned about himself over the past three months; everything he'd worked towards. Everything he was about to give up on. Though truthfully, he had already given up on it that morning, after his fight with Koran. His hopes were just wishful thoughts written down on paper now. He had nothing more to add to them, despite what Po had said that afternoon. At least it made a good, supposedly incomplete, song.
His ears pricked up when he heard someone's fist collide with his wooden door a few times before it creaked open, and Shu invited herself inside his room. "Thanks for knocking", he said sarcastically.
Shu toed the floor as she walked towards him, looking unconfident for a change. "Po told me what you've been doing these past few months. I just want to thank you for helping me. I didn't get a chance to do it before", she explained.
"I should be the one thanking you for having my back today. And blackmailing me", Zhong replied bitterly, before turning his back to the she-wolf.
Shu had expected a reaction like that. Like Po that afternoon, she sat down next to him on his bed. "I wasn't really going to blab to the royal guard. A guy saves my life and I get him arrested? I don't think so. I just let you think that so you'd bring me along", she confessed.
Zhong froze. The brusque wolf turned his head to scowl at the female. "So you lied?", he asked.
"I bluffed you", Shu corrected him.
Zhong's brow furrowed further before the lupine did something else he never would have done a year ago – he brushed it off and went back to reviewing his scroll. "You're a very weird woman. You know that right?", he decided bluntly.
Shu's features relaxed and the girl cracked a smile. "This coming from the one-eyed guy who spends all his time hiding in shadows and helping innocent damsels in distress?", she countered.
Zhong grumbled but admitted "Touché" under his breath.
Shu, feeling comfortable enough to do it for the first time since she came in, looked around the bedroom, taking in it's dull walls and minimal furniture. Not to mention the messy, unmade bed. "How many women serve in your army?", she asked randomly.
"None", was Zhong's curt, uninterested reply.
"I thought this was an all-boys camp, cause it's the worst-kept one I've ever seen", she remarked, just as frank as Zhong had been. "And you have booze", she observed, referring to the long-empty bottle of wine on Zhong's desk.
The wolf chuckled.
He actually chuckled.
Something else besides Po's clumsiness had actually succeeded in making the war veteran laugh, non-maliciously. Something that hadn't happened in so long it was practically rare.
"You're the one who wanted to come so badly", he told the girl, grinning.
Shu had nothing more to say about that, since he was right. She'd been so fascinated by the stranger, dangerously fascinated, she actually forced him into letting her into his life. She was getting exactly what she wanted, so she had nothing to complain about.
To take her mind off the mess, she focused in on the scroll Zhong was reading; one of many he'd written going by the quill and ink jar resting on his table, next to a big stack of papers. "Whatcha working on?", she inquired.
Zhong raised his eyebrow. "You mean Po didn't tell you about it?", he said, genuinely surprised that Po had kept his pastime their little secret. The look on Shu's face told him he had. "It's just something I do to stay sane", he murmured.
"Do you mind if I?-", Shu requested, holding out her opened paw.
And to Zhong's utter shock, he found he didn't mind. Maybe it was because he'd already shown the scroll's contents to Po and the panda managed to keep his big mouth zipped. Maybe it was because Shu had grown on him already and he wanted to believe she was a trustworthy girl. Or maybe because it was literally his last hour as a free man and nothing he did at the moment mattered anymore. But whatever the reason, he honestly didn't give a damn if a stranger got a nice good look at his thoughts. He put the scroll in her palm, and folded his arms as she looked it over.
"This is a song", she realized.
"Yep", Zhong replied, a bit bored.
"A really good song", she complimented, though she was probably talking more to herself than him. She had to have realized how personal it was by then. Then she frowned slightly. "But it's missing something", she added.
Zhong was about to tell her about how she wasn't the first to think that, when Shu suddenly put the paper down on his desk and grabbed his quill from the ink jar. "And I know what it is", she decided, writing down a few choice words of her own.
"Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?!", Zhong asked, alarmed. Just because he didn't mind Shu reading it, didn't mean he wanted her drawing all over it – even if he would have to dispose of it soon. He tried to take it from her but she was too fast, moving it further out of his reach before he could snatch it up. By the time he stood up, she was all done and admired her work.
She proudly handed the parchment to the glowering lupine. "Here you go, I haven't changed a thing, but I have added some improvements", she informed him.
No matter how much Zhong wished he could be mad at her for completely disrespecting something that had once been so important to him, his glare softened and eventually vanished completely when he saw just what she had actually wrote – and realized her judgment was correct.
"Well? What do you think?", she asked hopefully, like a cheery little girl eagerly awaiting a friend's commendation.
"It's…not bad", was all Zhong's pride would allow him to say. He sat back down again as Shu stared at him in disbelief.
"Not bad? My part helps it feel balanced, complete!", she argued.
"It makes it catchy?", he added, grinning again, since he knew she wouldn't get the in-joke.
As the two lupines bickered (or rather Shu bickered while Zhong pretended to listen), neither of them noticed a black and white face watching them from the crack between the bedroom door and the door frame.
Shu wasn't the only one with an insatiable curiosity. From the moment Shu asked Po about Zhong, he decided to spy on the two of them. Now he almost wished he hadn't. Because what he had just seen really killed his crime-solving buzz.
That uneasy feeling that had plagued him all afternoon was back, back with a vengeance. An uneasy feeling called guilt. Something the panda had a lot of experience with on days he felt like he was making a horrible mistake. Like today.
((()-()))
By the time Po returned to the living room, the Five were finished talking and the crocs were gone (one of them must have taken the prisoners to another room). Apparently, while Po was gone, they finally agreed on a course of action and they quickly filled the panda in on the details.
"Just one quick question, what are we gonna do about our little wolf problem?", Crane asked without hesitation. "I mean, we can't apprehend the Yan-Li and the pack at the same time", he reasoned. And the fact that none of his friends answered right away proved he was right. They were short on time so they were going to have to put off one of their arrests, but neither one could really afford to wait.
None of the Furious Five knew what to do, not even Tigress, which it meant it was the perfect opportunity for Po to speak up. He knew his idea was a horrible, terrible one, even worse than the one he'd had that morning, but he knew he had to say it. He wouldn't be able to live with himself afterwards if he didn't.
"Actually guys… I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't arrest the pack", the panda suggested quietly.
And the whole room went silent.
He had been right before. Putting in his opinion was definitely a terrible idea. But he couldn't stop himself from continuing.
"Maybe we should just leave them in peace, or keep an eye on them or something?", he chuckled nervously.
He hated the way they all looked at him, like their Dragon Warrior had suddenly gone insane, though he had expected as much.
"Dude… are you nuts?!", Mantis demanded a second later, when he finally found his voice.
And then the rest of the Five exploded, their voices overlapping as they all shouted questions similar to Mantis' (rhetorical and literal).
Po gulped. There was no turning back now, so he might as well man up and go all the way. If they wanted to know what he was thinking, he'd let them know. "I think we should leave the wolves be for now. Their leader, Zhong, he's different now; he's changed. And he's trying to change them as well", he explained.
Po wasn't surprised when it was Tigress who opposed him. "Did he tell you that? Po he's been a criminal all his life, you can't trust him. He probably just wants you to feel sorry for him", she scowled.
For some reason her insulting the wolf's honesty, despite having a very good reason for doing so, didn't sit well with Po. "You didn't see how he was today; the guy was practically in tears. The kind of tears you can't fake", Po insisted, starting to get a little ticked off.
Tigress gritted her teeth. She was starting to grow aggravated, like Po was, but she knew not to let get herself too riled up. She had to keep a level head, since her friend apparently wasn't using his. He hadn't gotten too close to things.
"Okay, maybe he is telling you the truth, but that doesn't change what he and his men did – they can't change", she argued, in the same tone an angry mother would use to end a conversation. But Po, just as stuck in his ways as she was, still wasn't finished yet.
"I think they can", he declared, no longer afraid and refusing to budge on the matter.
And that was when comprehension dawned on his teammate.
And when she realized what was going on, she felt like such a fool for not realizing it sooner.
Po's friend stared straight at him, examining every inch of his round face, not in anger but complete disbelief.
"Po… I've trusted you and cut you so much slack all day because I thought bringing the wolf pack to justice was what you needed to put this city behind you for good. But this… is this what you think your unfinished business is? Helping them?", she questioned him. She didn't demand an answer, she only asked for one.
Po didn't hesitate with his reply. "Yes", he said, with no uncertainty. It had taken him all day to reach this point and be this sure, but now that he had admitted it to himself he could admit it to his friends.
Tigress, stunned, shook her head very slowly. "Po… I'm sorry, but there's nothing you can do for them", she said sympathetically. She wasn't angry with him anymore; now she pitied him. The only way he was going to feel inner peace again was if he did something that was impossible, even for him. He was trapped in a real lose-lose situation.
"You're wrong", Po asserted.
"No Po, she's right", someone corrected him from behind the bear, sounding as calm as Tigress.
"The Vampires of Venice" by Murray Gold begins.
Po looked over his shoulder and saw Zhong had joined them, watching from the top of the staircase with Shu by his side. They had overheard them all arguing of course (it would have been impossible not to), but Po had no idea how long the two of them had been standing there.
"None of what's happened today has changed anything", Zhong said indifferently, being a hardass again. After all, it was always best for a soldier to accept the cold hard truth than fool himself with false hope. There was no such thing as optimism in his profession.
Now it was Po's turn to look like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He scoffed. "So you're really giving up? On your dream, on your purpose? Just like that?", he probed, not buying it.
To that, Zhong had no reply. The wolf and the panda just continued to look each other in the eye, from above and below, fiery passion clashing with ice cold apathy.
Crane, who had backed up all the way into a window during the tense staring contest, to give the two some room, waved his wings to get his friends' attention. "Uh guys, whatever you're gonna do you better do it now, because the wolves are coming back!", he shouted.
Zhong broke eye contact with Po and rushed down the staircase, with Shu right behind him, to join Shifu's students in the living room.
On the other side of the window, the sun had almost completely set, and the fading orange orb backlit around thirty wolves descending down the incline that led to their field and their cabins.
Naturally everything and everyone in Zhong's cabin went silent, holding their breaths as they listened to the footsteps approaching outside. The doorknob on the front door rattled, and the hinges squeaked as it was pushed open.
Only a few came inside to find their leader; the rest remained where they were, lighting a fire to cook whatever they had found in the wilderness. But those few (about six or seven in total) got the shock of their life.
When they saw six kung fu masters, and a complete stranger, standing inside their living room, Po knew all hell was about to break loose.
For a second, Jing, Tai and Xen looked like they thought they were dreaming, while Koran's first reaction was to immediately attack. And Tigress' first reaction in return was to defend herself. She didn't even flinch as the lupine charged towards her and her comrades.
But he was met with resistance. Zhong got in his way before he even knew it. "Stop! You're not going to fight them", the one-eyed wolf commanded.
Koran's seethed at him, looking ten times angrier than Po had ever seen Tigress or Shifu. He must have already figured out what was happening long before his packmates.
"You're turning us in", he snarled.
Zhong, obviously wanting to keep as mute as he could, nodded his head.
No one saw the hit coming. No one. Koran struck so fast Po didn't even see him make his move; he only saw Zhong's head snap backwards with a soft crack as the subordinate wolf punched his superior square in the face.
There were not words to describe how much Koran had just crossed a line. A line that was never meant to be crossed if a wolf valued his or her life.
A chill went down everyone's spine when Zhong raised a paw to his cheek and wiped the bloody area that had been slashed by Koran's claws. They were all awaiting the wolf's cold, unrelenting retribution. At the very least, pack tradition insisted that such an offense from a subordinate wolf be repaid in full. Koran, beneath the unbridled rage, was probably bracing himself for punishment as well, because his instincts told him to do so.
But Zhong said nothing, did nothing, and refused to show any kind of emotional response – even pain. He wasn't the same temperamental leader he used to be, and he had had all day to prepare for something like this. Po wondered if he was even angry.
There was no doubting Koran's anger though. Once his alpha didn't retaliate, the lupine exploded.
"What the hell is this?! You're going to let us go to jail? You're going to let these kung fu fools take us off to prison to rot? What kind of alpha are you?!", he shouted, saying exactly what all the men were thinking.
Not that they kept silent any longer.
Following Koran's example, they bombarded their leader with threats, demands, and even curses. It all got so loud Po couldn't tell one outburst from the other anymore, and he was kinda glad he couldn't.
The only ones who tried to remain calm like Zhong were his lieutenants, Jing and Tai, the only two who actually looked saddened; like they had known that this day was coming, or at the very least, suspected it would come sooner or later. The only two who actually believed Zhong when he explained to his furious pack that what he was doing was for the best; just not the best for any of them.
Koran, his paws curled up into fists again, gnashed his teeth together. "You've lost it, Zhong. You're not fit to lead us any longer. Hell, you never were. We all would have been so much better off if we'd never met you or the peacock prince", he snarled.
Any fool could tell that the war dog and his commander had had problems long before the wolf boss' betrayal. Shu (being quiet for a change and cautious enough not to draw attention to herself) knew that everything Koran said, every callous and malicious word he used to hit Zhong where it hurt the most, was very personal.
And despite Zhong's distant attitude, Koran's efforts to break through his armor finally paid off. The emotionless mask he had used on Po and the others gave way to reveal raw, genuine pain; pain Koran took immense pleasure in viewing. Knowing that his work was done (and smirking in satisfaction at what he had accomplished), he turned back to his comrades. He gave Zhong and the masters one last parting glance.
"We've leaving, you can try to stop us if you like", he challenged. Several raucous barks, laughs, and shouts of agreement from his pals followed.
But Shifu's students remained exactly where they were, glaring at them.
Koran's taunting grin grew even wider. "That's what I thought", he remarked. And then he walked out the door, rejoining the rest of his pack who had no doubt been listening to the whole thing outside. His packmates were right on his heels, following him as if he was their new leader – after all, they had just renounced their old one.
Only two remained. The two who had always stuck by Zhong, and swore to keep doing so as long as they lived.
Tai and Jing watched their leader carefully; his expression had hardly changed since Koran chewed him up and spit him back out. They weren't exactly reassured when Zhong, not speaking at all, completely ignored Shu and everyone else as started walking towards the stairs.
Mantis hopped onto Tigress' shoulder. "They're probably still out there. Should we go after them?", the little bug asked.
"No, we'll get them in the morning. Right now we've got a more important job to do", she reminded him. It was apparently decided. The wolves could wait, the Yan-Li couldn't.
Tigress started to walk in the opposite direction of Zhong and beckoned for Po to follow her, who himself was still trying to come to terms with what had just happened. He did as she requested and followed her into the next room, where the Five had stashed the crocs (still tied and gagged to their respective chairs). When they left they couldn't just leave their prisoners in the wolves' cabin; they needed to hand them over to the authorities like the rest of their gang.
Tigress gave each reptile a not-too-hard but not exactly soft bop on the forehead, and one-by-one their heads fell to their chests as they blacked out. Only then did the striped master untie them, and throw one over her shoulder. Po got the other two and once again followed the feline as she rejoined her teammates in the living room. By then, Zhong had disappeared up the stairs.
"Let's go", Tigress ordered and her friends all nodded. They started filing out of the cabin's front door, which had conveniently been left open by Koran and the other wolves.
Po warily glanced back at the staircase they were leaving behind, and Shu (who like Tai and Jing had stayed where she was the whole time) did the same. The panda didn't want to go yet and leave things the way they were. And he knew Shu understood that.
After all, the she-wolf wasn't trying to follow them as they returned to her city; where all the action was about to go down. She didn't just care about satisfying her curiosity anymore. Like Po, she had started to take a liking to Zhong, and she didn't want to leave him alone wallowing in self-pity. But unlike Po, she didn't have a job to do.
The female mouthed something to the bear, which he understood as 'Go, I'll handle this'.
There was nothing more he could do but hope the girl was good with people like he was.
The panda nodded and ran after his friends.
As he and the Five disappeared into the darkened forest, Tai closed the door after them. Shu meanwhile took a deep breath and started walking up stairs.