"I am so glad my brother blessed me with such a cute little snowy owl," Fan He chirped as she reached her wing to gently stroke her snowy owl's cheek.

The little boy did not know what to think of his current predicament. When Lady Mayuko, princess of the Fire Peacock Clan, captured him with the intention to give him to the Emperor as a gift, he expected to be put into a dungeon cell, fed with dirty food, and even tortured for a 'yes' or a 'no'. The rumors he heard about the Emperor talked about his seemingly limitless cruelty and that he had no heart at all.

But none of it happened at all. When he arrived, they decided to give him to his sister, Lady Fan He, as a gift. And she treated him with nothing but affection, constantly cuddling him and even bought him golden harem pants that complimented his curvy figure. She would also act in a flirty way by moment. It was hard to believe such a nice and kind-hearted creature could be siblings with the most cruel Emperor China has ever seen.

"A-And I'm honored of being here, Majesty," the young owl assured with a polite bow.

"You're so sweet," the peahen giggled and kissed her boy's cheek, making it become red instantly. "I'm gonna go take a nice, warm bath now," she said with turning around and walking away, her tail feathers swinging elegantly behind her in the process. However, before leaving the room, she stopped and looked at her boy over her shoulder with a grin. "Well, are you coming or what?"

The little snowy owl's entire face became as red as a tomato...


Crane looked alternately at the smirking Wu Sisters and the glaring Mei Ling, confused as to what was happening. "It is so good to see our dear sister, Mei Ling, after so long," Su said with a grin.

"I have nothing to do with discusting scums like you!" the golden cat declared with raising her bo staff. Crane could not remember the last time he heard her talking with such hatred.

"You wish it was true. Sorry to ruin your day, but we have to clear our family's name in the eyes of our new Emperor," Wang mumbled behind her mask. "You two are coming with us now." The three snow leopardesses took their fighting stances, ready to attack.

The Lee Da masters did the same. Even if their chances of winning were slim, they couldn't give up without trying. Before any of the four present felines could do anything, Crane flapped his wings to take to the skies, and performed his Wings of Justice attack that sent the three sisters to the heavens. While they were twisting wildly in the air, Mei Ling leaped forward and planted a vicious kick into Su's chest, the force of the impact sending her backwards.

Crane followed behind, hitting Wing and Wan with a spinning attack. They both plummeted rapidly and impacted the ground with a booming crash, creating small craters beneath their bodies. Mei Ling landed gracefully on her two feet and took her fighting stance again with Crane taking position right above her.

The three sisters groaned in pain a bit, dusting the snow off their clothes, and glared their eyes at their two opponents. "Not bad, I must admit that was a good combo," Su admitted. "But this battle has only just began. Wing, Wan, take care of Mei Ling; I'll tear the feathers off that bird's body!"

As the two leopardesses went after their sister who nodded to her friend and ran away, the avian narrowed his eyes. "I'll go help her after taking you down!" He launched forward at the feline with golden and silver eyes, rising his wings to hit a powerful strike.

Crane swung his wing horizontally, aiming at his opponent's head. However, this last one performed an impressive backbend to duck the attack before jumping up to land a knee strike directly to the avian's beak, making him groan and stumble back a little bit. He pressed a wing against his beak before bringing it back and seeing it covered in a red liquid. Unfortunately, his opponent did not stop there and planted a knee strike directly into his stomach, knocking the air out of him, and then dropkicked his torso, sending him to the ground.

"Really thought you could take me one on one, birdie?" she asked with a sinister grin.

#

Meanwhile, Mei Ling groaned as she was forced back by her two opponents. Normally, such a strong warrior like her would have no problem having an handicapped fight like this... if her opponents were not dangerous assassins using wind-and-fire wheels, that is.

"Disc Storm?" Wing asked her sister who grinned.

"Disc Storm!"

The two felines tossed their bladed rings toward their so-called sister simultaneously. The bladed discs whirled rapidly as they slashed through the air and toward their target. The golden cat managed to avoid them at the last second as trying to deflect them with her bo staff would be suicidal. However, Wan and Wing caught their weapons in their paws and tossed them again, repeating the cycle like a frisbee game.

After dodging three times, one wheel sliced across her torso. While it did not touch her skin or flesh, it did cut through the fabric of her clothes, leaving her torso exposed to the cold outside elements. "Great!" she grumbled while trying to protect her now exposed midsection with one arm. Her situation just got better: how was she supposed to fight two Wu sisters at once with only one arm? And she couldn't leave herself exposed to such a cold; her body wouldn't tolerate it. She wasn't a snow leopard like them!

#

Planting her legs in the snow-covered ground, Su launched herself at her visibly hurt avian opponent. This last one somehow managed to roll out of the way in time, letting her push a hole in the snow, and then flapped his wings for a gust of air that sent snow fly all around, covering his position.

"Trying to hide from me?! Come out and fight like a man!" the leopardess called with a growl.

Suddenly, she received a kick from behind that pushed her back forward and made her groan in pain. Crane pressed on his attack by swinging his wings and talons at Su, managing to land a few cuts. Realizing she was losing this round, the leopardess performed a moonsault to put some distance, but while she was in midair, Crane took to the skies and planted a strong kick into her stomach, causing her to spit some saliva, and land face-first in the snow.

Coughing a bit, she pulled herself up. Good thing she was a polar creature; all the snow covering her body at this moment would have hurt any other animal. "You're a dead bird!" she roared.

#

Things were not going better for Mei Ling. The sisters kept throwing their bladed rings at her and the cold sneaking through her open clothes was starting to get to her. If this kept going on, the cold would kill her before these assassins.

"Time to get on the offense!" the golden cat thought and leaped toward Wing so that she could sweep her off her feet right after catching her discs. She then attempted to plant the tip of her weapon into her torso for some extra damage, but she rolled out of the way in time. Mei Ling failed to notice she left herself open for an attack when Wan planted a kick into her bare back, pushing her forward with a groan.

"What's wrong? Losing your stamina, sister?" Wing asked with a snarl as she could see her opponent panting deeply, steam coming out of her mouth.

#

Crane turned his head to look at his feline friend in worry. As much as he wanted to go help her at this very moment, he knew they wouldn't stand a chance in a three on two fight against the Wu sisters. The initial idea was for him to defeat Su as quickly as possible and then go on to finish the two others off with Mei Ling. But the leader of the trio revealed herself to be much stronger than he thought. Things were getting out of control.

The Master of Crane Style could see Su narrowing her eyes, ready to take him down once and for all. Honestly, he had no idea how he could possibly defeat such a ferocious opponent. The fact that she wasn't affected by the cold while he was did not help at all. Then, looking over his own shoulder, Crane realized he was standing over the ledge of the stone platform that overlooked the rebel camp.

... Wait, the rebel camp?

An idea started forming into the bird's brain. Maybe he could go down to the camp to get some reinforcement that would help them defeat the Wu sisters? But if he was to take that set of actions, Mei Ling would find herself alone against all three Wu sisters at once. This was a fight she could not win. They were way too strong, and the fact that she was close to be killed by the cold was still to be taken in consideration.

But... they were already dangerously close to losing right now. If he acted fast, maybe he could come back with reinforcement in time before they could do anything to Mei Ling. She was the strongest master of Lee Da after all. It's not like she couldn't take care of herself... even in a desperate situation. The avian sighed sadly as he made up his mind.

"I'm sorry, Mei Ling." Opening his wings, the avian took the skies and darted in the direction of the camp before Su could toss her wings of wind-and-fire at him.

"Crane?! Where are you going?!" Mei Ling called after seeing her best friend leaving.

Su laughed evilly at this. "Looks like your friend was too much of a coward to face death and decided to leave you to your own fate."

The golden cat narrowed her golden eyes into a glare, raising her bo staff once again. She didn't believe her! Crane was maybe not the most courageous man on Earth, but he would never give up on a friend like this. Surely he had a plan in mind and leaving her alone for a moment was part of it... right? Of course! She just needed to hold on against her so-called sisters as long as she could.

"Let's teach our dear sister a good lesson, girls!" Su said as she, Wing and Wan took position around the golden cat in a triangle pattern, blocking every possible exit for her.

Mei Ling leaped upwards when Wing charged and swung her bladed disc at her legs. Wan assaulted next with a kick that Mei Ling managed to block with her bo staff. Unfortunately, she failed to see the third attack coming and received a devastating kick across the face by Su. She fell flat on her face into the snow.

"Come, Mei Ling, don't tell me that's all you learned at the so-called best Kung Fu Academy in the world!" Su taunted once again.

After coughing and cleaning the snow from her face, Mei Ling somehow found the strength to get back up. While the pain of the hits she took weren't that bad, the cold was really starting to affect her. She felt like she was breathing a blizzard and her throat was on fire. "Crane, I beg you, hurry up!" she mumbled.

Mei Ling did the best she could to dodge and parry the synchronized attacks from her sisters, but even she could not last forever. The attacks started slipping past her defenses and kept coming over and over again. Eventually, Su slammed her fist across a dazed Mei Ling's face, knocking her on her back, and causing her to drop her trusty weapon. It was over. She lost.

The three sisters stood over her defeated figure with smirks. "Go ahead... Finish... me... off...," she dared. Even if this was the day of her death, she would not show weakness to her enemies - especially not her so-called sisters.

"Finish you off?" Wing asked with rising an eyebrow. "Why would we kill our beloved sister?"

"No..." Su twisted her lips into a sadistic smirk. "We have better plans for you, my little Mei Ling..."


"We're here!" Crane announced the rebel soldiers when they arrived back on the platform where he fought the Wu sisters moments ago. "Mei Ling! I've brought backup! We're gonna defeat the... Mei Ling?"

To the avian's surprise, his feline friend was nowhere to be found. And the evil assassins neither. There were traces of their fight everywhere in the snow along with some blood... and not his. Did they arrive too late? Did he leave Mei Ling alone against the most dangerous trio in China and she got... killed? Crane's beak started trembling uncontrollably and the cold temperature had nothing to do with it. Tears rose to his eyes.

"MEI LING!"

Author's note: What's up, guys? I haven't updated this story in, what? Three months? Wow, that's a long time, isn't it? But you have to forgive me for being the kind of guy who prefers to write his stories when he feels like doing it. Honestly, would you have liked to see poorly written chapters? I strongly doubt it XD.

Anyways, there was more fighting in this chapter than in my previous ones. I hope I'm getting the hand of writing fight scenes as I've been practicing a lot with "The Frog Dojo".

Mei Ling is in trouble now and the young snowy owl has found an angel in Fan He. What is going to happen next? Stay stunned to find out and, as always, may the gods watch over you all.