Hello,

Hope you enjoy, R&R please, thank you!

Aunt Ming, Chuge discovered, did not seem to be in that day.

She rapped again and again on the front door, but no one came. She tottered over to the window and, having to stand on her tiptoes since it was rather abnormally high, she peered inside but all she could see was the plum colour of drawn velvet curtains.

"Seriously?!" She growled in anger and kicked at the door in frustration. "No one's home? Really?"

Her yelling and kicking unfortunately did not help in her predicament however and she was forced to turn away from the hut and pull her cardigan over her head to shield herself from the cold.

"Fricking hell." She cursed, placing her paws on her hips and tutting loudly. "She's here all the time annoying me, and the one time I want her to be here, she vanishes!"

"Why don't you just go down the mountain and ask someone in the city?!" Nian shouted, it appeared he'd flung the window open and was peering through it again. For someone who thought the girls were a waste of space, he certainly was cropping up a lot in this predicament.

"Well…. oh," Chuge faltered, noting that Nian's idea actually wasn't an awful one. "Thanks." She nodded towards his doorframe.

"Whatever." He replied airily, beginning to close the hatch again and disappearing within it. "You'll make me some Dim Sum later, right?"

"Yeah sure." She responded disinterestedly, her mind whirring. "Actually, do you know~" she began, but the door slammed before she had time to ask her question. "how to get down the mountain." She finished quietly, cursing him under her breath.

"Excuse me?"

A nasally, squark of a voice interrupted her cursing and she glanced up to see a silvery-grey goose wearing a gold uniform fly dizzyingly towards her.

He fell to the floor clumsily and straightened up, looking dazed. "Excuse me?" he repeated. "Is this Mount Gongga Village?"

"Yes, it is." She stared at him curiously, unsure of what he wanted.

"And are the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five here?" he continued breathlessly, dusting down his uniform absentmindedly.

"Um yeah."

"Oh great, and one more question; did they have three young vipers with them?"

Chuge could've sung, she could've jumped around and started dancing. This guy, even though he was only a puny little goose, was her saviour.

"Yes! Well, no. but yes!" she responded feverishly, to the goose's clear uncertainty.

The goose looked even more confused than before. "So are they here or not? I've jus had an urgent message from the Viper palace that the three young misses were missing and I had to check every corner of China to find them~"

"And you thought they might be here since this is where the Furious Five are." Chuge finished to the grey gooses' relief. "I'm sorry they're not here."

"What?!" He looked grief-stricken. "But that means they really could be lost, or stolen, or hungry, or cold, or~"

"Hang on, hang on!" Chuge held up her paws in order for the goose to stop chattering. "They aren't in this village; I know where they are."

"So why haven't you gone to find them?" he cried, looking beside himself with frustration. "I've been looked from Shanghai to~"

"Oh gods," Chuge sighed, putting her head in her paws. "I know where they are but I can't get them because they followed the Furious Five and the Dragon warrior into a trap filled temple. Happy?" she looked increasingly exasperated.

"Wait they're in a temple? How'd they get there, someone should have been watching them!"

Chuge sighed again and groaned at having to retell her tale of how she lost sight of the children. "I was looking after them but they pranked me and followed the others."

"Oh," the goose fell silent for the first time since he arrived, before glancing up at Chuge again. "So who are you then?"

"I'm an inn keeper who let two of the five and the children stay at my place for free and was trusted in looking after them until the warriors returned. My name's Chuge." She extended a paw to shake which the goose took after a few seconds hesitation.

"I'm Zheng. The Jade palace messenger."

"Nice to meet you." Chuge folded her paw back across her chest. "I guess we should find someone to help us get into the temple then."

"Grand Master Viper's a Kung Fu master, as is his Mother-in law, they might be able to help." Zheng explained.

"Oh perfect!" Chuge looked greatly relieved. "How far away are they? An hour, two?"

"Err, at least five days, providing we don't get caught in an avalanche on our way down the mountain, or fall down a glacier." Zheng replied, as the two started subconsciously making their way towards Chuge's house for supplies for the journey.

"That's a fair journey." Chuge responded, biting her lip and clicking her tongue in worry.

"We also need to travel back so it'll be at least ten days, until they're rescued." Zheng tapped his snow-covered webbed feet on the front door matt and followed Chuge inside the inn.

"And you're sure there's no one else we can turn to, who's closer?" Chuge pushed the Dragon's beard sweet bowels and sticky appliances off the countertop and placed a slightly cobwebbed backpack on top of it.

"Yep." Zheng replied despairingly, shaking his head. "Master Ox and Croc are in Gongmen city repairing and rebuilding it, as well as protecting the city's occupants and sacred artefacts."

"And there's no one else?" Chuge asked as she began filling woven bags with tap water and stacking them inside the backpack.

Zheng shook his head again. "Master Eagle and Lizard are even further away then Grand Master Viper, about twenty days traveling there and back, as is Master Chicken and bear in the far north."

"I guess that's answered that question then." Chuge stopped filling the bags and began packing food into the backpack, joined now by Zheng.

Chuge stopped wrapping ceramic mugs in cloth and glanced around at Zheng, her paws frozen. "Do you think the girls will be ok until we get back with Grand Master Viper?"

"Yeah, they're with the Furious Five, and Master Shifu, and the Dragon Warrior and Viper, she'd never let anything happen to them." Zheng took the mugs from her paws and stacked them into the backpack looking confident.

"But what if Viper isn't there, or any of the others? What if they're alone?"

The confident smiled ripped steadily off Zheng's beak like golden honey. "Then they'll have to trust their instincts and fight using their own knowledge and skills, you never know, they could be young Kung Fu masters in the making." He looked as if he was trying to make a joke but Chuge just starred into space, letting the thoughts wash over her.

"Yeah, maybe." She finally responded airily.

Hi,

So that chapter's done, what did you think? Hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next chapter, please remember to review it would really make my day, thank you!

xx