Hello there. (I'm also a Star Wars fan, can you tell?)

This is my first time ever attempting to write fanfiction, or any type of writing outside of school. I just discovered this website a few months ago, and I read some really good fanfictions and that made me want to write one myself. In the span of just a short few months, I have gone from not even knowing what fanfiction is, to becoming a "veteran reader" of this particular fandom. The strange thing is, I think most fanfics are made in honor to the story they come from. While KFP is obviously a favorite movie of mine (duh), I feel like this fanfic is born not out of the movie, but out of other fanfics. So that's why I dedicate this fanfic to other fanfic writers, who all have my respect. (I know, I need to stop using the word "fanfic" so much). Keep being awesome, everyone.

P.S. I know you've read it a million times, but I have to say it. (Deep breath) Kung fu Panda, its characters, locations, and story are all property of Dreamworks. This story is a work of fiction and any characters or actions that resemble real-life events are purely coincidental. The statements, views, and opinions do not in any way reflect the statements, views, or opinions of the author (which is me). (Inhales)

It was snowing. Very hard. The two soldiers trudged through the snow and bitter wind. They were two male tigers, and they both had on a suit of simple chainmail, a metal helmet, a spear on their backs, a bow with a quiver of arrows on their backs, and a large coat on. One of them had a bundle of thick cloth in his arms. They were on the path to the peak of the tallest mountain. On the top of the mountain, the altar awaited them. The one with the bundle looked to his side, and saw the grand majesty of the mountain range that lay before him. The snow-filled valleys and peaks, the evergreen trees refusing to die in the frigid temperatures. The snow rested on the individual needles of the trees, piling on and on until the needle bent from the weight. But, our current viewer didn't appreciate all of this. He had seen it too many times. In addition, he was busy being cold. He was just thinking about getting back to someplace warm. Anyplace warm.

"Wh...why can't w...we kill her n...now, c...commander?" Our viewer with the bundle in his arms complained to his companion as his teeth chattered. He was shorter than the other tiger, and judging by the look in his eyes, he deeply respected his commander. He held up the bundle in his hands, and saw the sleeping face of a newborn tiger cub.

His commander replied in a gruff voice, and without any chattering, "I told you Xi. Chief's orders. Now quit whining."

They continued to slowly make progress through the trail. They slowly went up the agonizingly not-steep-enough trail. They would soon reach the area with trees. At least then the wind wouldn't be torturing them there. Xi took the bundle in his arms and examined it from arms length. It was a newborn female tiger cub. She was sleeping at the moment.

"W...what is this… number s...seven?" Xi put the cub back on his shoulders again, using her body to warm him up, although part of him knew he was probably giving off more warmth to her than she was to him.

"Eight," his commander continued to stare forward.

"No, th...this has to be seven. This i...is the seventh...time we've m...made this trip."

"You forgot about the twins."

"O...oh. Right." They continued trudging through the thick snow. Xi looked up. The trees seemed no closer than they were ten minutes ago. He went through a string of not-so-family-friendly words in his head. He then started venting all of his frustration in his favorite way.

"When I j...joined the Clan I...I thought I would be plundering riches, r… ransacking cities, living comfortably." He started to chatter less the more he got rolling. "But do I do any of these things? No! I get to be the personal garbage disposal of our amazing ruler and that sits on his fancy throne doing nothing but making babies with our queen for me to get rid of!"

The commander, whose name was Zhu, would have been angry if he had heard what his fellow soldier had said. However, he had tuned out his companion's words at the very beginning of his ranting. Zhu had high ambitions and high goals set for himself, and he was very loyal to the Chief. Right now, he wanted to be finished with this not so he could be warm, but so he could stop having to be with Xi.

However, despite his loyalty, Zhu was only mortal. Even he couldn't help but wonder why he even had to go to the top of the mountain. "Wouldn't the gods accept an offering right in the palace? Why would the Chief and Chieftess make us perform the ritual on the top of this mountain?"

In reality, Zhu was starting to get tired of this trip. He was one of the few in the Clan who knew that his Chief and Chieftess really just wanted a son to rule in their place, but fate simply refused to give them any boys. They didn't tell many others about this, though. They thought that killing their children might lower other people's level of respect for them. Instead, they claimed that they were so devoted to their fellow gods that they were willing to sacrifice their children (who were all conveniently girls).The first time he was chosen to perform the ritual sacrifice, he was honored beyond description. His Chief and Chieftess, who both had godly blood running through their veins, trusted him to do their bidding and tell him the real reason for it. He might have exploded with happiness at any moment under that flat, immovable expression. The second time, he was still honored. But now, it was getting a little bit repetitive.

While Zhu was thinking about all of this, he and Xi reached the trees that signaled the final stretch of their journey. Zhu looked around. There was nothing but snow and trees. To a newcomer, the trees would have seemed scattered randomly. Zhu, however, had begun to recognize the place. A specific bent branch here, a mark on a familiar tree there. At least the wind wasn't so harsh here. But something seemed ...off. Zhu could feel the fur on the back of his head raise with apprehension. He felt as if he was being watched. The sound of the wind had died off and he strained his ears, but he could hear nothing but the crunch of the snow and the ranting of Xi. He continued to walk forward with Xi, but he had never focused on what he said. He suddenly realized that Xi's constant talking would draw attention, assuming that there was someone actually watching them.

"...and that's why I think that I should have…" Xi started to say.

"Shut up, Xi," Zhu interrupted.

Xi looked at his commander's face, and saw a slight twinge of nervousness in his eyes, something he didn't see regularly. His commander was a lot of things, but a coward was not one of them.

"What is it?" Xi asked in a whisper, slowly reaching behind him to grip his spear.

"Just be quiet," Zhu responded, reaching behind him for his bow. Zhu looked around, but couldn't see anything other than trees scattered on the falling snow.

After looking around for a few minutes, they both seemed to realize that if something was going to attack them, it would have already done it.

"Let's just complete the ritual quickly and get out of here," Zhu whispered to Xi. Xi nodded, and they continued on their path, which was now all covered up with snow. As they passed tree after tree, Zhu continued to glance around, looking for a sign of… well, anything. Slowly starting to calm down, Zhu's thoughts started to drift away to other matters.

"The alliance is starting to get shaky. I don't like those nasty wolves either, but we need them to defeat that...demonic boar and his army." Zhu kept thinking about him. That boar. He was convinced that boar was a plague sent straight from the depths to haunt them all. Zhu had personally seen him in action. He was just… unbeatable. His signature flail he always carried was the last thing many of his friends had seen, right before it smashed their faces in. Tigers were obviously the grandest of all species, kings of the jungle in ancient times, but Zhu was no fool. They needed help to beat the boar. Not to mention the formidable army of rhinos, elephants, and other boars. They were also a problem. But they never really seemed like it. That boar demanded everyone's attention with his presence. No matter how many of his fellows challenged him, a swing of his flail was enough to send five soldiers flying a short distance away.

Xi suddenly interrupted Zhu's thoughts by tapping him on the shoulder.

"What?" Zhu was a little irritated that Xi had interrupted his thoughts.

Xi pointed to something over Zhu's shoulder. Zhu looked at where he was pointing, and he swore under his breath. It was a small wooden hut. "Fool. You let your guard down," Zhu scolded himself. He had never seen that hut before. He signaled to Xi to follow him and to be quiet. As they got closer to the hut, the details came into focus. It was a small hut, only fit for one person. It was simply constructed, with logs of fallen evergreen trees making the walls, mud covering the gaps, and mixture of dried grass and mud making up the roof. Zhu and Xi silently walked up to the door. Well, if you could call it that. It was really simply two pieces of cloth strung up at the top of the frame that covered the door frame. They both listened, but they couldn't hear a single sound. Getting ready for a confrontation just in case someone was in there, Xi gripped his spear tighter, and Zhu replaced his bow for his spear. Zhu held up his hand to Xi and started counting down.

3...

Zhu's heart started to beat a little faster.

2…

The fur on the back of his head stuck up.

1…

He was ready.

Now!

Zhu shoved the pieces of cloth aside with Xi following close behind. Zhu pointed his spear forward, and looked around. It was rather dark, as there were no windows, so Zhu tore the pieces of cloth off of the door frame, and some light flooded the small room. The hut was bare: it had no beds, no anything. Looking around, he saw a small fireplace with some burned logs, and he saw a large sack shoved in the corner. Zhu walked over to the fireplace and bent down, inspecting it. He put his nose forward, and the smell of burnt logs assaulted his nose. Meanwhile, Xi took turns sticking his head out of the door, looking for anyone who might be near, and looking back inside.

"Someone's left here recently," Zhu told Xi, still examining the fireplace.

"Do you think they heard us coming?"

"With your talking, it wouldn't surprise me," Zhu coldly replied.

Xi's ears flattened on the top of his head, ashamed that his talking might have put them in danger.

Satisfied with the fireplace, Zhu stood up and walked over to the sack in the corner. He bent down again, and opened it. Reaching inside, he pulled up a book. Looking inside, he only saw more books and writing tools. Opening the first book, he flipped through its contents. It was a journal, handwritten, but not in a language Zhu had ever seen. Instead of the complex characters of Mandarin, the letters seemed to be much simpler, composed of mostly straight and a few curved lines. He continued flipping through the journal, and he saw something that caught his attention.

A drawing of the front gates of their settlement in the forests. The drawing wasn't just a brief sketch, either. It was almost a perfect representation of the gates. He flipped through a few more pages, and saw other drawings, too. He saw a sketch of the city gates. The city that the boar was the general of. Zhu knew at that moment that this was no ordinary traveler. This person was a spy. Seeing both the city gates and the gates of the Clan assured Zhu that the spy couldn't be from around the area. He shoved the book back in the sack, closed it, and picked it up.

"Let's finish up here and then we'll tell the Admiral about this. She'll send some men to investigate this place," Zhu told Xi. He then held up the bag. "We'll take this back and we'll see if the old man can make some sense of it."

"But who lives here?" Xi asked, his voice filled with curiosity.

"A spy. He writes in some language I've never seen. It's probably some form of code," Zhu replied.

As they left the hut, continuing on their journey to the top of the mountain and the altar that laid at the top, which contained the ashes of the remains of the Chief's other baby girls. Jobs done by Zhu and Xi personally. The little cub that Xi had been carrying this whole time, having gotten used to the warmer air in the hut, woke up from the sudden blast of cold and began to cry.

Worried that the sound would draw the attention of whoever lived in the hut- who Zhu knew had to be around this place somewhere- Zhu looked at Xi and aggressively whispered,

"Shut her up now!"

Xi attempted to shush the baby and rock her back and forth, but it was all to no avail. After all, the baby was probably getting hungry, and her mother certainly hadn't fed her. Zhu thought about simply killing her right then, but then he realized that the Chief and Chieftess would know. Since they were gods, they knew everything, or so Zhu thought. They were almost there, Zhu could see the altar in the distance, sitting on the peak of the mountain.

"Xi, I want you to…" Zhu began as he turned to look at the soldier. But he was gone.

Zhu began to frantically turn his head as he whispered as loud as could, "Xi! Xi! Where are you!? This had better not be a joke!" Zhu kept stumbling around, twisting his head back and forth for his partner. He looked down at the footprints that Xi had made and searched around for clues as to where he might have gone, but there was nothing. Only the prints from where they had come. The prints beside him were the end of the trail.

Suddenly, Zhu heard a voice come from the trees.

"Hello." It calmly said. It was a male voice. It also had an accent that Zhu couldn't quite place. Zhu tried to look upward in the trees, and he might have found the source if he wasn't so panicked at the moment. He could hear the sound of his heart beating rapidly and the quick, shallow breaths he was taking. He knew better than to panic, but the disappearance of his partner had unsettled him.

The voice continued talking. "May I ask why you're going to sacrifice this baby?" He spoke in a way that suggested a deep respect for manners.

Zhu kept looking around, straining his eyes on the branches of the dormant trees, looking for the source of the voice. He decided to keep it talking so he could have more time to find it, so he responded with,

"Who are you?"

The voice chuckled. It didn't sound like there was any malice in it. It sounded like he had told the voice a joke and it had found it mildly amusing.

It responded with, "I'm just a visitor. Passing by. I have many places yet to see."

Zhu started to calm down a bit. Whoever was with him didn't seem to want to kill him. Yet.

"Is hut over there yours?" Zhu asked.

"It is."

"Then you're a spy!" Zhu's voice rose as he remembered the contents of the book.

"A spy? No. I'm no spy. I'm only here to learn. As a matter of fact, what are you doing with my bag? And you call me a spy. Hmm."

Zhu was getting frustrated that he couldn't find him in the trees, so he called out to the trees,

"Where are you?"

"Up here." Zhu turned to carefully look around.

"That's it, that's it, almost there," The voice encouraged him. Finally, he saw it. High up in the trees, he could see the figure of someone with their legs dangling over the branch he was sitting on. He was high up in the trees, and Zhu hadn't bothered with looking up that high, which is why he couldn't find him before. He was covered in dark clothing that went over his whole figure, and his face was under a long hood. He was too big to be a common goose or pig. He was a little too tall to be a monkey. He might have been another tiger, which would make sense, but he seemed too thin. He didn't see Xi up there with him. Or the baby, for that matter. Thinking of the baby, Zhu realized that it had stopped crying.

Instinctively, Zhu aimed his bow up at the figure, notched an arrow on it, and let his arrow fly. It whistled in the air until it struck the figure right in the chest. Zhu smiled with satisfaction as he waited for the body to fall, but it kept sitting there, with its head looking towards him. Finally, the figure's head looked down at the arrow sticking out of his chest and said,

"Nice shot." He spoke just as calmly as before. Zhu quietly gasped to himself. How was he still alive?

The figure reached down to the arrow and gently pulled it out. He let it fall to the ground, where it landed on top of the snow close to Zhu. He looked carefully, and saw that there wasn't any blood on the tip of the arrow.

"He must be wearing some kind of armor." Zhu thought to himself with disappointment.

"That's not a very nice way to talk to people." The figure said to him, with a hint of amusement in his voice.

The idea of this person making a fool of him started to anger Zhu. He looked up at him and shouted, "Why don't you come down here and fight me like a real warrior!? Don't you have any honor!?" He drew his spear from behind him and got ready to fight. However, the figure didn't seem interested in fighting. He didn't move from his spot in the trees.

This time, the figure laughed out loud. When he finished, he spoke with some malice in his voice,

"You're about to murder a baby, and you dare to speak to me about honor? I'll ask again. Why are you going to sacrifice this baby?"

It suddenly struck Zhu that he had never told him that he was going to sacrifice the baby. He must have looked confused, because the figure continued with, "I couldn't help but overhear everything your loud partner was saying while I was looking for more firewood. He said something about sacrificing this baby for your...chief? King? Something around those lines."

Zhu was getting tired of this. He wanted him to come down that tree so he could pierce his spear right through his face. He saw the figure actually move for the first time as he looked to his side. Then it said, "I think we'll have to continue this conversation inside. It's not healthy for the baby to be out here in this cold weather." Zhu suddenly felt something pinch his shoulder, and he looked. On his right shoulder, there was some sort of dart sticking out. He pulled it out, but immediately began to get queasy. The last thing he remembered before he blacked out was the sound of the figure stepping on branches carefully on his way down.

So... what did you think? Please, leave a review if you liked this prologue, and please, tell me if I made any grammar mistakes (which I expected I did).

I'm new to this site, and I would like add a picture to this story, but I can't find an image that doesn't end in .html. On top of that, I'm not exactly a computer wizard.

Anyway, keep being awesome.