The Tale of Two Wolves

Po and Tigress never told Shifu about what happened. They just said it took a while to find the right clothes. "He is small," Po pointed out and Shifu thought nothing of it. Tigress began to watch the wolf more and more for two reasons. One; she was trying to figure out why the wolf wouldn't leave. He had several opportunities to escape yet he didn't. "He must not want to leave. That and Platon did say he would hunt him down if he left."

"That or he's trying to win our trust and then betray it," Tigress replied, a bit paranoid. The second reason was Tigress didn't trust the others to watch the wolf. She noticed several times the wolf seemed exhausted to the point of breaking when she wasn't watching but was completely fine when he was with her. She found out that the others were putting undue labor on the wolf, making him do more work. Again, Po knew nothing about this.

So now, only Po and Tigress watched him. "Why are you and I the only ones watching him?" Po asked curiously.

"I guess we're the most capable," Tigress simply answered, not wanting Po to know. Presently, Tigress was watching the wolf clean the Training Hall. He was washing the bowl when Monkey came in.

"Hey, Tigress. Why don't you go an take a break? You're obviously tired," Monkey replied with a great big smile. Tigress knew better.

"I'll. Watch him," She sternly said. The monkey could only nervously laugh in fear and scurried away. Tigress looked over to see the wolf looking at her with a questioning look. "I'm not letting them make you do unnecessary labor." The wolf jumped out of the bowl and shrugged. "What does that mean?"

"It means that he doesn't mind," Zeng said from behind her. Tigress was greatly impressed.

"You can understand him? But he barely ever says anything," Tigress pointed out.

"I've been trained well," Zeng smirked. "But I think he knows that they're being cruel to him." The wolf nodded and shrugged. "And he doesn't mind."

"Still, I'm not letting them do that. He may be dangerous, but we're not tormentors," Tigress replied. The wolf straightened his back and crossed his arms with a disbelieving smirk on his face. "What is that suppose to mean?" Tigress growled out as if offended by his very stance.

"I agree with him. Weren't you the one to bully him around when you lost to him?" Zeng asked, innocently. Tigress growled as she stormed up to the wolf, grabbed the wolf by the collar, and snarled in his face. The wolf was more than terrified.

"I remember, but I won't lose again," Tigress grumbled, "And let me reiterate when I say, 'I don't trust you.'" Tigress dropped him on the ground, and the wolf shuffled away. "Zeng, keep watch over him."

"But I'm not fit to watch such a dangerous fearsome creature as this monster right here," Zeng sarcastically said. Tigress turned back to see the wolf 'air-choking' Zeng's sarcastic neck. Tigress smirked as she left the room.

Later at night, Master Shifu asked Po, Crane, and Tigress to go down to the village to get some emergency food. "Did you have to eat all of the pudding, Po?" Tigress groaned.

"It was going to go bad!" Po exclaimed defensively. Crane just smiled from the back as the two bickered. "What are you smiling about?"

"Nothing, I just like to see an old couple fighting. It's actually pretty funny," Crane chuckled. The two glared at the bird with death written all over their face. "Nevermind what I said," He recovered. Suddenly, they heard a loud scream from the shopkeepers.

"EEEE HELP!" The three rushed to the scene to see a bareback small wolf, cornering a goat woman. Po instantly tackled him down.

"Not today, crook!" He grunted, struggling with the wolf's strength. The wolf finally got Po off of him as Tigress and Crane tried to pin him down. Although the wolf had a harder time shaking Tigress loose, the wolf's strength was too much for Crane and Tigress as he shook them loose and scurried away, laughing evilly into the night. The main problem of all of this was... the wolf looked a lot like the wolf at the Jade Palace. Black pants, black wolf. The only difference was the look in his eyes. They looked purely evil.

"Crane, go tell Shifu," Tigress commanded. As the bird flew away, Po looked around the crime scene. "What was he after?" Tigress asked the goat lady.

"Hhhh he was after my linen. I don't know why. He just... barged in without a word and started knocking everything over. Then he took my linen and was about to-" The lady didn't finish as she shook terribly. Tigress hugged her tightly.

"I promise you that he won't hurt you again," Tigress promised.

"Isn't that the wolf that works at the Jade Palace, though?" the goat lady asked.

"I... I don't know," Tigress replied. "We'll look into it." With that, the two left the house. Tigress noticed that Po was suspiciously quiet, but she knew she couldn't ask him anything. Or that's what she thought.

"Go ahead, say it."

"I wasn't going to mock you," Tigress assured Po. "What are your thoughts on what happened?" Po sighed and simply threw his hands up.

"I don't know," Po said. Just as they reached the top of the mountain, there stood the rest of the Furious Five and the wolf next to them in chains. Po sighed. "Go ahead, take him back to Platon."

"WE didn't put him in those chains," Crane sighed. "Once I told Master Shifu about the incident, he walked out, grabbed the chains, and chained himself."

"Whoever did this is trying to frame the wolf," Shifu explained, "I watched him the entire time that you three were down the mountain."

"Maybe he poisoned you to make you think he was there," Po said pessimistically. Tigress looked at Po then looked back at the others.

"The point is that we must find out who did this before the village is in an uproar. We have to work quickly. Find the goat woman and make sure she knows what happened." Shifu instructed. Crane flew back down the mountain. "Mantis, Viper, and Monkey, take the slave back to his dungeon... and release the chains on him." The wolf looked reluctant to let them take them off.

"They're not holding you anyways," Tigress said to the wolf, knowing better. As the three escorted the wolf, Shifu said to Po and Tigress.

"Find out what's going on. Something is wrong here. Why would someone blackmail a slave?" Shifu asked himself.

"We'll do our best," Tigress bowed and then they left to sleep. Tigress drew Po into the kitchen alone. "Po, what's wrong?"

"What? What do you mean? Nothing's wrong. Hehe, everything is peachy," Po smiled nervously.

"Then why did you turn so quickly on the wolf?" Tigress asked. Po sighed, knowing he was caught.

"I knew you guys would immediately jump to that conclusion. I knew that the moment that I saw that black wolf, you guys would think he was the one that did it," Po explained. Tigress sighed.

"You were right. I immediately thought that. But something just doesn't seem right. Why steal linen?"

"He wasn't after linen," Said a voice behind them. Po jumped.

"Dead Shot!"

"Yeah I know, you're skid-ish," Dead Shot replied. Po pouted.

"I'm not skid-ish," He griped.

"What was the person after?" Tigress asked.

"He was trying to raise a ruckus. He knows that people in the village will talk about him and that rumors spread faster than truth.*Sigh* And those idiots will eat it up like Po eating a Dragon Warrior-size dumpling."

"First, ouch," Po said offended, "And second, the villagers aren't that gullible, are they?" Tigress and Dead Shot looked at Po with a look that said, Did you really just ask that? "Yeah, the poor guy is dead."

To Be Continued...