"So I was born in a Feral Asylum." Tianqi began to tell his tale (it had taken much pleading and puppy dog-eyes to achieve this, as well as to promise to tell Tianqi his whole story. The Curse apparently only prevented him from talking explicitly of the other members of the Kingswood). "My parents are both feral, but I don't think I ever was. But the people there were either too stupid to tell the difference or cruel enough to not care. They treated me like an animal-"

"We are animals."

"Can you not interrupt?"

"Sure."

"Well I don't like physical contact because of them, so you could say they scarred me for life. It doesn't matter though. Eventually I was adopted by Mrs Fan and Mrs Min. They care a lot about me but they aren't cared for well themselves. I think one of them's married to Mr Mufen, but I don't know. He's never treated them like people. More like objects."

"Why? Can he not tell the difference or something?" Han asked dumbly. The Lin Kuei and Kingswood had never had any problems like this.

"He's just like that. Anyways. I started learning Kung Fu since I was five, so that I could protect them."

Cat stopped ranting suddenly and paused for thought. "You know what's the worst part? He acts like I have never struggled for anything!"

Misty raised an eyebrow. "Have you struggled for anything recently?" Being extremely powerful the two hardly ever struggled for anything.

"Well no. I mean there was the kitsune but still. I meant he acts like I've always been this powerful."

"You act like you've always been this powerful. Hello, Cat? Cat, are you okay?"

He held his head in his paws, tears streaming down his cheeks at the sight that lay before him. His father scoffed at the sight of him, and dropped his mother's dead body to the floor. Turning, the older feline made a ball of black flames in his paw, and let it loose inside the house.

The younger cheetah could have run, he probably should have, instead, he crept forwards. The gash was horrendous, with blood bubbling out weakly. His mother was dying and his father had killed her.

What had possibly gone wrong?

His mother tried to reach her paw out to him, but it fell before she could hold his paw. The young feline grabbed his mother's paw and held it tight. He wanted to beg her... To stay a while longer. At least a little while longer... She tried to make words, but the only thing that left her throat was blood. Then she shuddered and Kinchi felt something rush through him as his mother died, but he didn't know what it was. All he knew was that his mother was dead...

"Do you know who I am?" Asked the voice. It was a dark room.

Kinchi shook his head weakly. He wished there was a candle...

"Good. Better question. Do you know who you are?"

"K-kinchi?"

"No. Kinchi is dead. Your name is Cat. Remember it, it rhymes with hat."

Cat... Cat. "Why do I have to be Cat?"

"To kill your father and avenge your mother-you must be Cat."

The young cheetah shut his eyes firmly. If that's what it would take to avenge his mother... That was what he'd become.

"Repeat after me."

Cat blinked, unable to copy the blur of movement that was her hooves. "I-I can't."

"Then you are not strong enough. I'm sorry. Your mother cannot be avenged by you."

Fresh tears sprung to his eyes. The figure turned to leave. If she left noone would train him. He would never become stronger...

"W-wait! I can do it again!"

And so he tried. And tried. And failed. But tried again. And once more. And a third time.

And one day, many tries later, he figured it out.

"You still are not strong enough." The figure said coolly. "Train harder. Learn more."

Cat bowed his head. He'd do anything to avenge her. "What shall I learn next?"

"Cat? Hello?"

"Oh, nothing. Don't worry. Just remembering things..." He shivered.

Misty placed a paw on the cheetah's shoulder. "Forget your past. It's honestly not worth thinking about. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to the library for a bit of light reading."

"Eventually I discovered that my hooves were malformed. Hence why I can manipulate the air itself. I started incorporating that into my combat. My weapons are also specifically designed to be able to catch and essentially bend the wind."

"Woah. I thought you were using magic."

"I suppose the illusion is valid. A shadow does resemble the being it was created from. I learned Scroll Sealing because quite frankly I can't be bothered to go around carrying my arsenal with me. I mean I do, just not in a heavy form. So I am competing now to prove my worth and test myself. So far, I think I'm doing quite well."

"Well better than me!" Han said with a good-natured laugh and a slap on the back that made Tianqi desperately pull away.

"I told you! No physical contact!"

"Oh, er sorry."

"Hey Han." Both the horse and the mustelid turned to Saphire Tamod, who looked positively radiant as she approached. For some reason she seemed to be walking slowly and there was romantic music playing in the background of their imaginations. "Hello? China to Han, are you still there?"

Tianqi recovered first and bowed. "My name is Tianqi. Nice to meet you."

"Oh, hello again." Han replied, snapping out of his dreamlike state.

"I was just wondering whether you were hungry or not?"

"Well..." Tianqi began. He hadn't eaten very long ago.

"You bet we are!" Han replied jubiliantly, pulling the horse down into a headlock, one Tianqi responded to by dropping the wolverine face down in the floor. Tianqi automatically followed up with a high-pitched scream and an air blast that buried his opponent into the earth.

"Ouch..." wheezed Han, temporarily stunned.

"Um sorry... I don't like contact." Tianqi said, coughing awkwardly.

Misty frowned at the sight of the destroyed library. Countless precious scrolls and books were scattered everywhere. It almost made her cry. She approached the injured bunny and gasped. While the otter did possess a healing technique it was only effective against durable people like herself. She couldn't risk damaging the boy further.

"It was his own fault." Came Duyao's voice. The frog had returned, primarily to make sure she hadn't overdone it. "I offered him out, all he wanted was revenge."

"I've seen that." Misty said dumbly. Revenge destroyed people...

"We have to. If the soothsayer was right then this child will destroy the Secret Palace of Mount Fuji. What's one child, compared to the worth of the whole world?"

The mother bit back tears, and threw the bundle of blankets over the side of a cliff. "For the greater good." She whispered, turning her back to the helpless otter-babe trying desperately to paddle as she sunk under the lake.

That would not be the end of her. She awoke in a land of darkness, where a voice rumbled and a contract shone in front of her. She did not remember reading it, only that she had sprinkled blood-her blood over it and then she had awoken.

Small, five years old, recently deceased and now powerful. It had been chaotic...

The otter child made tendrils of blood burst out of her back and travelled around the room, flying through the countless guards. One fox tried to stab at her from behind, and for his efforts the child grabbed him by the throat and held him there, screaming, as her blood sunk through his eyes and burst into his skull. Then at last the palace was empty and she turned to face her remaining opponents. Her mother and father.

"Please m-my child-" Water wrapped around the female otter in a bubble, squeezing the air out of her. The smaller otter girl watched as bubbles escaped her mothers now drowned form and let her body drop to the ground. Then her father stood there... Speechless and broken. Well... Not as broken as he could be. Ice stacked around her father in huge block, freezing every inch of him. Misty marched forwards and with a single swing of her powerful tail the ice shattered and her father burst into bits and pieces. That was when her rage failed her and she dropped to her knees, sobbing hysterically.

"I've seen that too." Duyao said solemnly. "Revenge makes everyone a monster."

For a long while she didn't know what to do. She buried the dead. She cleaned the silent halls of blood and dust. And found nothing to do. Her hatred was what had driven her forwards. And now even that had been taken from her...

"I'll take him to the Hospital Wing." Duyao said, snapping her out of her past. Misty merely nodded. The giant otter went to find Cat. Surprisingly short though it had been-it had been a long day.

"Anyways..." Han said, chuckling awkwardly at having not only creeped out both his companions but also scaring away all the customers in earshot of his grizzly tail. "So the Lin Kuei kept me for a bit. I mean they key me sleep and eat and train with them I guess. They gave the weird axe-it was that or a meteor and well... I never really learned to use that weapon so yeah... The armour was also one of theirs. But they were nice and all, but I always felt out of place. So yeah... I left. And in my travels I met the Kingswood-they were the best! Well before they wanted to kill me... Prowler was always nice and kind and he made St-one of them teach me a few tricks he had picked up. It felt like one big, happy family...until it just... Wasn't." He sighed. "They killed Prowler and Elder and wanted to kill me. But I escaped and have been running ever since." He then forced a grin. "But that's life, am I right? This happens to almost everybody, doesn't it?"

Saphire frowned, feeling guilt mount within her whenever she looked at him. He'd already been through enough and now he was eliminated from the tournament... "So what are you going to do when the tournament's over?"

"I'm going to make my own dojo. Kung Fu is an art everyone should be able to enjoy!"

"Well... I guess I'll just be back on the run." Han said solemnly. "But who cares, am I right? We're still only on Task Three! We've got time! We're too young to be worrying. Now let's talk about... Um... The weather?"

Saphire smiled slightly at the irony. Han had more reasons to worry than the either her or Tianqi put together...yet he insisted on not worrying. "It's going to be a beautiful week." She said, relaxing.

"Actually," Tianqi corrected. "It looks like it'll be cloudy in an hour or two."

Footnote: So who's backstory did you like most? Out of Cat, Lee, Han, Misty and Tianqi's. I like them all personally and as an author must be unbiased! And I haven't entirely finished Duyao's... Not yet...

Now that wraps up Han, Tianqi, Duyao, Cat, Misty, Lee and Saphire's mid-task chapters. Next up we have Zora, Pulsar, Viccori and Zhanshi-which I assure you-is definetly something to look forwards to :)