-11-

Milla rushes into the city to investigate the location she heard the gunshot from earlier, I hope Kai and Norah is alright! The hounds heart begins to race as she runs faster through the crowded streets, towards the Dōng mén park. As Milla finally reaches her destination she catches her breath.

"You're alright, not exactly the most appropriate way to meet a friend." Mille hears a familiar male voice, she looks up in front of her and sees a tibetan wolf boy who gestures with a smile, the exhausted hound attempts to make a smile in return.

"Zhao!" Milla responds in glee before noticing Norah behind him; her face became filled with rage, "Now what's going on?! What are you doing with her?!" the hound demands in an exasperated tone as she point directly at the panda girl, who responds with an equally aggressive expression. Milla's sudden wrath catches the wolf off guard.

"She was helping me find you, am I missing something?" Zhao attempts to relax the angry hound, "What did you think we were doing?"

"Yeah, what did you think we were doing?" Norah taunts.

Milla growls in response, she notices a husky and viper exchanging bullets with their respective dual pistols, "What the heck is Kai doing fighting Serpentine, by himself?!". Ignoring the panda and wolf, she runs head first into the conflict.

Meanwhile the husky and viper were taking cover behind the several trees throughout the park, "GIVE UP ALREADY CREATURE!" Serpentine yells out of impatience.

"Creature? You're a snake, last time I checked snakes are animals too." Kai retorts.

Serpentine was stupefied by the remark, he couldn't find an argument against the husky's superior logic, "ENOUGH TALK, JUST DIE ALREADY!" Serpentine responds as he aims his dual pistols at the sky, ready to perform his bullet rain technique, He can't avoid this!

Immediately before the serpent can fire his weapons Milla drops in front of him, softly landing from the canopy of trees, crouched with her katana drawn and filled with psychic energy, "WHAT THE?!" Serpentine was caught completely off guard.

The hound swiftly strikes, forcing the viper to dodge, thus canceling his attack. Milla responds with a powerful psychic attack, blasting the viper out of safety. Without question Kai fires his pistols at the stunned serpent, however the viper avoids the attack and quickly charges at the husky, unfortunately the husky had ran out of ammo and unable to reload fast enough before the viper can fire his energy bullets at the husky at point blank range, Kai snaps his tongue in frustration.

Sudden Zhao jumps in front of the charging viper in the husky's defense, in a matter of seconds the wolf quickly draws his dual swords and counter attacks. Serpentine was quickly defeated as the offending canine destroys his duel pistols, "You infuriating wolf!" Serpentine growls.

"I'm sorry for destroying your weapons, but trying to waste civilians isn't exactly… allowed." Zhao retorts.

"Who do you think you are?!"

"I should be asking the same question, I'll give you a choice: you can retreat now or you can get arrested, it's one against four." The wolf tone becomes serious.

Serpentine observe the other youths surrounding him before he cracks a smile, "Shyahahahahaha, Your compassion will lead to your downfall, REMEMBER THAT!" he exclaims as he swiftly retreats.

As Serpentine slithers through the alley ways, attempting to escape the city, he notices a presence behind him. In reflex the serpent makes a sharp turn and immediately fires his remaining rocket however the person evades the attack at blinding speeds, seconds later the person was standing about two feet passively in front of semi-intimidated viper. A sweat began to roll down the serpents face as the person made a faint smirk.

"Hello there Serpentine, do not be afraid, I'm not here to harm you. In fact we have common hindrance." The person purs.

"You're not the first one to refer to that dog, and look at where that fool is now!"

"Ah yes, I'm aware of the fate your former compatriot, Kongzhi Dong. I assure you that this will be different."

"Give me a reason why I should believe that crap."

The figure begins to walk towards Serpentine exiting the shade which obscured his face, as two hooded figures appears behind the man, Serpentine is left petrified by the person's identity.

The youths follows Zhao up several flights of stairs to where the Dōng mén Dojo resides, as the group finally reaches the summit they are met with a large complex made with red hardwood and cobblestone.

"Jie is waiting for you at the shrine, also thank you Milla." Zhao explains.

"Thank you for what?" Milla asks.

"For this…" Zhao says as an older female tibetan wolf appears before the party as they enter the dojo.

"Fang!"

"Well then, so you decided to see your brother and sister yourself." Kai observes with a monotonous tone, which like usual somewhat annoyed the older female wolf.

"Good to see you too, and who's this." Fang retorts as she refers to the lonesome panda girl who felt out of place, although she never expresses this.

"This is Norah, she's a friend of Milla and…" Zhao explains, trying to introduce the husky whose name escapes him.

"Kai."

"Kai!" Zhao chuckles, he changes into a serious tone and briefly directs his attention to one of the guards, "We bumped into some trouble back at the city though, Serpentine is in the city"

"We will inform the mayor of this, thank you for reporting this Zhao Shi." The guard informs as he exits the dojo with three other guards.

"It sounds like you had an interesting day." Fang acknowledges.

Zhao gestures with a smirk as he turns his attention back at the party, "Jie will like to see you alone, Mills"

Milla's face turns red in embarrassment as the husky and panda refrains themselves from laughing at the wolf's remark, Fang slaps Zhao behind the head, "Hey, that's not how you treat a friend!" she snarls at her younger brother.

"It's alright I'll just be sure to refer to him as 'Zao' next time." Milla reinsures with a cool expression as she head over to the ancient shrine.

Zhao makes a large sigh, and sees the other two youths holding their laughs, "Is something funny?"

"No." Norah faintly responds.

"Well let's head over to the mess hall and have some dinner, what d'ya say?"

The cafeteria was lively as it consisted of students, teachers and guards. The younger students were initially separated from the older students as the teachers watches over them, however the teachers were usually lenient about the rules and the different students would sit where ever they want. Fang, Zhao, Kai and Norah were sitting on their own table as they eat their dinner, "Where's Ginger?" Fang aks Zhao.

"Um…"

"Where is Ginger, Zhao!" Fang slowly says in a condescending tone.

"I! I thought she was with you!"

"Missing some-" Kai interrupts, however he notices a young tibetan wolf girl, wearing a small dress, peeking her head out the entrance door, "I think I found her."

Fang sees the girl at the door, "Hey! Ginger come on, are you going to eat dinner with us?"

The girl immediately runs away, Zhao chases after the girl in response, "Ginger wait!"

Fang expression becomes desolate in response as she makes a large sigh.

"Who was she?" Norah asks, obviously unaware of the situation; Kai closes his eyes and remains silent in respect.

"She's my little sister, Ginger Shi, ever since I arrived at Dōng mén she've been distant from me and Zhao."

"Oh, sorry I asked. Why haven't you tried talking to her?"

"I have but she actively avoids me and when I do find her she usually just ignores me."

"What did you do, for her to act that way…"

"Norah." Kai interrupts, giving the panda girl a serious expression and tilting his head towards the melancholy wolf, she knew that she should stop asking question.

Milla reaches the ancient shrine where she saw a short elderly bobcat with yellow-green fur and wore a black gi with golden outlines. At first the feline faces the basset hound with a stern and serious face, after both Jie and Milla bow to each other in respect the bobcat makes a warm smile, "I see you've been busy Milla Basset, I must say despite the little time we had knowing each other, I'm quite proud of you. I can see that Jin have helped you in your training, very good… very good indeed" Jie chuckles.

"You could've told me why you sent me to Jin in the first place… though if you didn't I wouldn't have met so many new people."

"I see you learned a lot from my quest, however I apologize for the inconvenience."

"You shouldn't! I'm grateful for it, anyways Jin sent me to-"

"I'm aware of what happened with Yasmine and Kongzhi. Though it took that blasted earth dragon long enough to finally see her again."

"Everything went well in the end though."

"Indeed, also I'm aware you need to enter Shang Mu, well lucky for you I happen to have three tickets for the train to Shang Mu."

"W-wait how do you-"

"Know about Kai and Norah? Child I may be old but I'm still quite sharp, I've done research.", The dojo master made a quick serious expression, This world is truly small, what are the odds that these children of all people will meet each other like this?

"Jie?"

"My apologies, I was thinking is all, either way I want you to remain careful."

Milla remains silent.

"I fear that your recent actions, though valiant, may result in an increase of shady activity."

"That doesn't seem new to me, my own identity already causes trouble."

"I understand that fame is a heavy burden to bare, reinforcing your responsibilities, however this should encourage you to fight back and do what's right."

Milla responds with a determined nod, "You're right!"

"Good to hear, you may leave now. Ah, also you might meet another important person at Shang Mu."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Jie responds with a nod, "You may reunite with your friends."

As Milla leaves the shrine she takes a quick look over the cliff adjacent to the shrine and sees Ginger by the lake, the hound decides to investigate. Milla reaches the beach however she hears Zhao calling Ginger's name in the distance, and remains behind a couple of ferns.

"Ginger! Ginger!"

Zhao finally finds the younger wolf sitting with her arms wrapped around her legs, "Ginger, please come back to the dojo, it's getting late." Zhao pleas as he sees the sunset.

"Leave me alone!" Ginger cries, "I want to be left alone!"

"Ginger, I know she sent us away for four years ago, but-"

"Shut up!" The girl screamed in a hostile tone.

Zhao submits and slowly steps away, "Just don't stay out here for too long."

As the distraught wolf boy walks back to the dojo the hound confronts him.

"How long were you here?" Zhao asks, surprised to meet Milla.

"Long enough, what happened?" Milla responds in a worried tone.

Ginger was by herself, she looked at her reflection at the surface of the crystal clear lake as the moon rises, a basset hound slowly walks over to the agitated wolf girl and sits next to her in a similar fashion.

"Hi." Milla softly says.

"Hi." Ginger responds depressed.

"What's wrong, why have you been so distant from your brother and sister."

Ginger remains silent.

"Please, at least talk to me."

"It's… why?! Why did Fang have to send me and Zhao away?!"

"You should be asking Fang that."

"How can I though? You wouldn't understand."

Milla remains calm but saddened "You're right, I wouldn't. I never had siblings, I never had parents, I never had family. For the longest I saw Norah as a sister but that changed, and I feel like I left my new family behind. I never had that luxury, don't take it for granted!"

"I- I'm sorry Milla, I didn't mean to be-"

"It's fine, come on let's head back to the dojo before it get's too late."

Milla and Ginger walks back to the dojo, as they arrive back to the complex and enters the dormitory, the hound crouches down to the girl's height and holds the wolf by the shoulders, "So, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to apologize to Zhao and Fang."

"And."

"I'm also going to ask Fang why she sent me and Zhao here."

Milla made a short nod, "Don't let her change the topic either." Both canines hears a monotonic voice, Ginger turns her head and sees a husky leaning against the wall with a panda girl next to him.

"Well, what are you waiting for, go find your brother and sister." Norah recommends.

The wolf girl ran towards her older sister's room, however before she left the dormitory she walked up to Norah and whispers something in the panda's ear. Norah face is filled with distraught and guilt.

"What did she tell you?" Milla asks.

"Nothing…" Norah's tone and character becomes softer.

"Well, I think we should be sleeping soon." Kai suggests.

Milla nods in agreement "Yeah, we have a long day tomorrow."