Even if a unity of faith is not possible, a unity of love is.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

The nearest cell was around fifty meters from the one Fenghuang and I had been stuck in. The prisoners were a bunch of crocodiles and… some kind of small… thing. This thing had brown fur on its body, light brown skin on its head and enormous yellow eyes. He wore some blue, or actually rather purple, pants and just stood there and stared at me.

"So, who are you?" the little person asked me after a few seconds of silence. I was almost surprised at the fact that he was able to even talk.

"I'm Hai Zei," I told him. Soon one of the crocodiles had joined him on the other side of the cell. He was tall, covered in green scales, and just like the other crocodiles, he wore a pair of loose-sitting pants, but he also wore a helmet, which made him stand out. "I…"

"Oh wait, you're that guy who got locked in with that crazy owl," the crocodile snickered. "Did you really try to pick the lock with your claw?"

The crocodiles all started laughing – some very dumb-sounding laughs that sounded kind of forced and half-hearted. Yeah, minions – you've got to love them!

"Anyways," I started when they were done laughing at me. "I assume you want to get out." They all nodded and even started murmuring about what they wanted to do when they got out. "And I'm here to let you out."

"Oh really?" the little big-eyed monkey-thing asked me suspiciously. "What do we have to do in return?"

"Why would you think that we'd have to do anything in return?" the crocodile-leader asked carelessly. "He's a prisoner as well, and…"

"All you have to do is to do as I say." When I finished the sentence, they all started laughing at me, like it was some kind of joke. It kind of annoyed me a little, since I actually wanted to get them out. Then, just to show them that I was serious, I held up the keys and let them swirl around my index finger.

"Never mind those low-intellectual reptiles," the little creature said, obviously changing his mind. "My name is Tong Fo, and I'll gladly give you my assistance."

So at least I could get him to join me. I then said that only Tong Fo would be allowed to get out, since he had committed to my leadership. This of course made all the crocodiles complain out loudly, except their leader who tried to keep his cool.

"Come on Fung, why don't we just listen to him?" one of the minor crocodiles asked. He was soon joined by his fellow reptiles, and then he turned to me and said: "I'll be helping you, Sir Zei."

This 'Sir Zei' thing made me want to laugh, but I just smiled a faint smile. It also seemed to be too much for Fung. The big crocodile growled in annoyance and said: "Alright, alright, we'll do as you say… but don't expect me to call you sir."

I chuckled to myself and let them out of the cold cell. Soon they all stood in front of me and we moved onto the next cell. This cell's prisoner was a big, strong-looking rhino. His skin was grey and he had a thick horn, as well as very big nostrils. He wore some brown leathery clothes with metallic knobs on them. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought that he was a guard who had accidentally locked himself in somehow.

"Hey there big guy," I said to the rhino. "Would you…?"

"Yes," he replied, even before I had asked him to join us. "I'll gladly join you."

"Seriously?" Fung asked with a skeptic tone and a raised eyebrow.

The rhino guy nodded and then said: "Because then I'll be able to get out of this dirty, cold prison." I was about to say something, but he continued. "Then I'll be able to get my revenge on the Dragon Warrior for insulting my honor, and…"

"Okay, that's nice, but can you wait with beating up Po till we get out?" I asked and got the rhino guy out of his long speech. He nodded and I let him out of the cell. I then gave the keys to the rhino – who was named Hundun by the way – and told him to get the rest of the prisoners out, but only if they agreed to join forces with us.

"Okay, let's go," I told the others. We then ran up to the fight and joined Fenghuang. She had knocked a lot of guards unconscious, but they still kept on coming.

"Was that really all you could get?" Fenghuang asked me as I avoided the blade of one of the guards' axe. These guys were armed and outnumbering us, and I was pretty much helpless without a weapon. The crocodiles seemed skilled enough to fight, and so did Tong Fo.

"Well, I got this guy out and told him to get the others," I told her as I avoided another slash. Suddenly I realized that the weapons of the knocked out rhinos just lay on the floor. I quickly picked up a wooden staff. It was about as long as Mei Ling's, but it differed from hers by having metallic knobs on it, except the middle which was wrapped with a piece of fabric, so that the user could hold it.

I swung the staff and hit a rhino in the face and made him fall onto his back. Soon the guards also charged me, as they probably realized that I was a bigger threat than I looked. I spun the staff above my head with both my hands to intimidate them a little (But also to show off a little… don't judge me). I jumped forwards and bashed the one end of the staff into the head of one of the rhinos, then quickly withdrew it, swung it in another direction and swept the feet of another away.

The battle went pretty good, but suddenly the rhinos started cornering us and soon I stood back-to-back with Fenghuang with rhinos on each side. I looked over to see that the crocodiles were easily handling the guards, maybe due to their almost equal size.

"Looks like we need to work together a little more," I told her after avoiding another axe. Her back was pressed against mine, and the feathery back of her head brushed against mine.

"Guess so," she said as the rhinos closed in on us.

"What about you go up, and I go down?" I asked her, referring to the way we'd knock out some of the guards.

"Sounds good to me." Then I ducked and swung the staff to the left, aiming for the rhinos' feet. At the same time Fenghuang rotated her body to the left too, using her massive wings to attack the heads of the rhinos on the other side, so that both sides were hit by our combo attack. The rhinos that had formed a circle around us fell to the ground, knocked out cold.

"Heh, that was fun," I told her, but before we could laugh at the rhinos, a bunch of fifteen guards entered. Soon I heard some noise from behind us and saw the rhino-prisoner and a bunch of other people come towards us. They were pretty many, and if I'd have to look closely at all of them, I'd be dead before I got done.

Suddenly a bunch of humongous gorillas rumbled past me and attacked the guards. I whistled in amazement and was just glad that they were on our side. Soon the gorillas had knocked out the guards with massive punches and they had also thrown them around.

"I gathered all the corporative prisoners," Hundun told me and threw the keys at a knocked out guard. I chuckled at the fact that it meant that there were still prisoners locked in because they refused to join us.

"Alright, let's go." I was about to leave, but stopped, which made the prisoners behind me do so too. I saw a door that was slightly opened. Behind it I saw some kind of metallic object and carefully walked towards it. I opened the door completely and revealed a big metallic dragon-statue. I recognized the golden body, the long horns, the dark gray spines, the long legs with wheels attached to them… and last but not least; the big tube inside the dragon's mouth.

"Ah… I know what this is," I said to myself and chuckled at my find. I had seen these before; dad had one on his ship, which he had stolen from some guy in the mountains a few years ago. At that time, I was kind of grounded – on kitchen duty – so I hadn't been with him on the raid.

"Could you guys please pull this out?" I asked two of the gorillas. They obediently walked over and dragged the canon out. It was just as impressive and expensive-looking as the one dad owned. I knew just how heavy it was, and I was glad that the gorillas had agreed to help me.

"Now aim it at… that wall," I said and pointed towards the wall in front of us. And so they did. The wall I told them to aim at was the exit and it was a few hundred meters from us, but I was sure the canon could fire long enough. Soon a wolf walked up and lit the canon. Whoever the idiot who had left the canon loaded was, he should have been fired from Chorh-Gom – but I'd give him a promotion after my book. Soon a loud firing noise was heard, shortly followed by a great and definitely epic explosion in front of us.

We made our way through the exploded wall. The rests of the gate was still on fire, and so was some of the near vegetation, but we kept going. The place that Chorh-Gom was located in was covered in snow, and some of the snow was even melted due to the heat of the explosion.

I walked up front with the rest of the prisoners walking behind me in one big group. If I could see us, I'd probably think we looked pretty epic as we slowly walked out from the prison's walls. There were some flames in front of us, but hopefully they'd subside before we reached them.

"Eh… just why are we going so slowly?" Tung Fo asked after about fifteen seconds of silent walking.

"Well, if anyone was here, I thought it'd look cool," I told him, which just caused him to sigh. I know it sounded crazy, but if you had been there, you'd understand what I meant.

Just as everything seemed to be great, I suddenly saw six people in front of us when the flames in front of us subsided, due to being put out by the snow on the ground. I was a little surprised, but a distant part of me had actually expected someone to wait for us. There was a marbled cat, an otter, a fox, a reindeer, a bat of some sort, a snow leopard and… Tigress?

No, it wasn't Tigress. Well physically this other tigress looked like the Tigress I knew, but her outfit was completely different. Like the others she wore a crimson robe with a black cape, which blew in the wind like a flag of some sort. But the biggest difference was her fur; it was as white as snow! I had never seen a white tigress or feline in general, so it really surprised me to see one now.

"You're not getting any longer, criminals," the tigress spoke. She even sounded like tigress, but there was something else about her that appeared familiar. Then I remembered. She was a bounty hunter! I had dealt with her back when I was ten years old (My first crime by the way) and I had tricked her so that I could escape. I didn't actually know her name though, but her profession made me unable to care less.

"Oh it's you again," I said in a teasing way. "Long time, no chase, huh?"

The tigress' face changed when she recognized me. Her blue eyes locked on me and then she said: "You! Wait, come to think of it, I'm not surprised to see you here."

Suddenly the six grabbed their capes and threw them into the air. The capes got caught by the wind and flew aside and out of sight. Soon they charged us. There was luckily a good hundred meter distance between them and us, so we'd have a chance to make a counter attack.

"Okay men – and woman! If you want your freedom, we need to crush the obstacles in front of us… are you with me?" My question was replied by a "Yes!" from all of them (Fenghuang and Fung sounded rather half-hearted), and then we just charged into battle.

Fenghuang took on the bat, Fung and his minions took on the snow-leopard, Tung Fo and the other prisoners took on the rest. The gorillas left the canon and joined some wolves in the fight. And I had the honor of taking on the white tigress.

I still had the staff and from the looks of it, she had no weapons, so I'd have an advantage against her. I walked slowly towards her, hoping that she'd charge me at full speed, since I would bash the staff against her then. But she didn't. She walked just as slowly towards me as the heated battle raged around us. I could hear and see the others fight against the tigress' friends – Fung, his minions, Ton Fo, Fenghuang, and whoever had been imprisoned. My eyes looked around and followed their every move as I slowly and securely made my way towards the tigress. It was actually like we were each other's reflection, due to the fact that we moved very slowly towards each other. We both stopped when there was only one meter between the two of us. I looked deeply into those icy blue eyes, while she looked into my yellow ones.

"Hai," she said, obviously remembering my name too well.

"B-… something," I said, obviously not remembering her name.

"Baozhai," she said annoyed.

"Baozhai then," I said. Then we both took a step backwards and then lunged forwards, almost synchronized. I aimed for her head with my staff at full speed and with all my power focused into the attack. But Baozhai caught it in her hand, stopped me and then jumped into the air and smashed her right foot against my left cheek. I fell sideways and made a roll when I hit the ground. The impact had been very hard, and my cheek hurt so much that I almost thought she had knocked it loose. But I knew I had to keep fighting her; if we gave up, we'd be locked in again, and then how were we supposed to ever escape again?

I jumped forwards, holding the one end of the staff, and pretended to slam it downwards towards Baozhai, but in the last second I spun around myself in a circle, lowered the staff in the process and hit Baozhai's feet. She fell onto her back, but was soon back onto her feet again.

"Looks like you've improved," she said. The tone she had said it in made it sound like a mix between a distraction and a compliment.

"Oh, don't act like you're surprised," I said after she had avoided one of my attacks with the staff. "But I've got to say: you actually look like you know what you're doing."

Suddenly she grabbed the staff with her left hand, spun around herself, so that she came closer to me, while holding the staff in place with her strong hand. Suddenly I got an elbow in the chest and was sent a few feet backwards. When I looked back up, she tried to use the staff against me. She aimed for my feet, but I jumped into the air, and somehow I was able to do a backflip. I landed safely on my feet, but stopped due to the surprise of being able to make a backflip. My distraction did seem to be worst for myself; a second later, the staff was bashed against my head.

"Hey, that's not nice." The metallic knobs had been painful to get in facial contact with, and I was sure it was going to leave a mark the day after. When Baozhai tried to hit me with the staff again, I grabbed it too, and tried to force it from her. She tried to spin around herself as she tried to make me let go, but I kept holding on. Suddenly I pulled back roughly, and it made her lose her grip.

I turned back to Baozhai, but before I could attack, she tried to punch me. Her right fist came closer and closer to my head, but I brought up the staff, hoping that it'd be enough to stop her.

Unfortunately it broke in two halves. Her fist even continued and contacted with my face, sending me backwards. The punch had been very powerful and I was just barely able to stop as I was shot backwards. I looked up again and realized that she had the one half of the staff.

Now it felt more like a sword, and I hoped that it'd give me some kind of advantage, since I was more skilled with swords. I grabbed the end where the staff had broken with both hands and charged her like I would have with a sword.

Baozhai made a counter attack and tried to hit me in the chest with the end of the staff. I quickly slammed her staff away with my own and then tried to slash her with mine. I successfully hit her, but it didn't make her bleed or anything, but I knew the metallic knobs must have been at least a little hurtful.

Suddenly Baozhai charged me again. She attacked me with the same ferocity I had seen Tigress use against me too. She had thrown her staff-piece aside, and now attacked me with her fists. I used my staff to block most of her attacks, but she did hit me a few times. Though her style reminded me of Tigress', there was still something… more to it. It was more graceful and Baozhai's movements were smoother than Tigress', which were moves of pure strength; seemed like there was more technique than strength into Baozhai's style. Not to compliment her too much though, since she was my foe right now.

I used my staff-piece to block a down moving punch from her, and then kicked her stomach region. The kick sent her backwards and obviously I had stronger leg muscles than I thought. Soon I noticed a strange energy surge through me. I felt like I could lift ten times the weight my dad's ship. I suddenly felt like there was no need for the staff and simply threw it aside. You know how it is when you eat too much sugar? It's like the same feeling, just much, much stronger.

Next I was the one to charged Baozhai, and I jumped forwards with a midair kick. It was like someone else controlled me and I could barely feel it when my foot contacted with her chest area. She stumbled backwards, obviously surprised at the kick I had just made. Soon she charged me with a punch. But somehow I brought up both my hands in a defending manner. When her fist contacted with my palms, I swung them to the left, pulling her arm along. Next up I gave her an elbow in the chest.

"How'd you do that?" Baozhai asked and rubbed her chest area to sustain the pain. "Have you learned Kung Fu?"

"No," I replied in a very confused way. "What do you mean?"

"That move," she replied and looked at me with a surprised expression. "The Double Wing-Beat… it takes lots of training…"

I looked down at myself, almost expecting to find a strong and overly muscular body, but I only saw my own normal body and nothing unusual. The energy rush I had felt seconds ago also seemed to subside. The awareness and the fighting techniques all disappeared like rice in a bowl.

I didn't know how I did that wing-beat thing, but I wish I did, so that I could survive against Baozhai for the rest of the battle, but to my surprise she just sighed and turned around. "Follow us."

Baozhai's comrades had also stopped fighting and now they were all heading for the same direction. Wherever they were going I didn't know. I looked at the other prisoners. They hadn't taken much damage, and seemed to be all fine.

Fenghuang landed beside me and asked: "What'd you do now?"

I just shrugged and started following Baozhai and her friends. "I don't know… but they might."

I looked backwards to see that the other prisoners just walked in other directions with faces that said: "We helped you fight, now our freedom." But Fenghuang stayed… as the only one, which is more than I'd expect from her… but she did.

Finally here's an update! Sorry for the long wait, but I'm on vacation, and there's not really any Wi-Fi in the jungle, but I'm currently staying in the city, so I was just able to uodate now... anyways, hope you'll like it!