Kung Fu Wolf: Rising of the Moon

Chapter six: Like the back of my hand

Hiro's P.O.V.

Twenty minutes in and nobody has said a word.

After all the talking and arguing that happened on the way here, the silence is somewhat eerie. I had everyone line up in two rows, side by side. Spreading out would put them in the 'danger zone' as I like to call it. There were a few complaints from one or two of the Sapphire Palace masters, but a quick glare from Tigress put an end to that real quick.

I looked back to check on everyone to make sure we didn't lose anyone. It's really easy to get lost in this place, and the last thing i need is to go searching for some lost fool.

Standing right next to me was Marcus, and behind him was a line of the masters from the Sapphire palace, we're gonna call it the Sapphire line. And behind me was the Jade Palace gang, we're gonna call it… you know what Jade Palace gang sounds just fine. And… yep everyone is present and accounted for.

Hmm…

How did that come about? I get the "present" part, it's the "accounted for" that confuses me. Because whenever I hear the word "accounted" I think of those miserable old people who count all the rich peoples money because they're just too damn lazy to do it themselves. Seriously, can't everyone just say "they're all here" it would be so much less confusing… or is it just me that gets confused? Or maybe-

"Hey Hiro, how much further?"

Hmm?

Whoops! Almost missed the turn here. Sure glad someone decided to speak up. I turned down another path and everyone followed me like a mother duck and her young. I'm not gonna lie, I had an overwhelming urge to start quacking, maybe it would get a few laughs. I looked over my shoulder again to see everyone looking at me, waiting for my answer.

"Well, if we were going in a straight line; we'd be out of here in a couple hours tops. But remember this place is like a maze, we pretty much gotta go all over the place before we get out of here."

That brought everyone down in a snap. They wanted to get out fast, hell so did I. Just because I know how to get through the canyon doesn't mean I like it. But this is the safest, and I use that term loosely, route available to us right now. If we weren't in a hurry we would be taking the scenic route. Maybe even visit a few places I've been, people I've met, my old masters… would be nice to see all that again.

"So… how much further?" Kira Ni asked again. Once again I had everyone's eyes on me.

I sighed to myself and tried to remember the last time I went through this canyon…

Flashback. Six years ago.

Whew… almost out.

I sat down to rest for a bit, and leaned against the only, and I mean ONLY part of the canyon wall that didn't look or feel like a stoney thorn bush from hell. How long has it been? Let's see… it was early afternoon when I first entered Migong Canyon, and the sun is going to set in about an hour or so. So… four… five hours? Yeah that sounds about right. Now that I think about it, I'm probably setting a new personal record here. I think the first time I went through here I got lost for at least three days. When I finally got out and saw the next town I ran straight for the nearest restaurant and-

Dammit! What keeps digging into my back!? The surface of the canyon wall, like I said before, was smooth so I reached behind me and pulled out a pair of two-and-a-half foot long short staves; my hanbo. Gifts I had gotten from the monks of a temple I had passed by.

Yeah, monks. Really nice people too. See what had happened was I just happened to be passing by after I left the previous village when I had finished my apprenticeship in metallurgy. And trust me, their temple had seen better days. I asked them if they needed any help and they told me that they had all the materials they needed to make the repairs, they just didn't have the expertise to make said repairs. So I offered my assistance.

In exchange for making the repairs to the temple, the kind monks offered me shelter and food, which I accepted gratefully. It took a few days for me to get the temple looking nice again, but as my carpentry master once said "Rushing through your work always leads to half-assed results." So I took my time and, I have got to say if old man Xian Du could see my handiwork, he would be weeping in joy and bragging about his old apprentices accomplishments until the day he died.

Once the repairs were done the monks were so grateful they gave me a pair of hanbo as thanks. Oh and a little bit of money and food. I tried to turn those down but the monks were insistent, so I gave in.

I smiled as I looked down at the hanbo. While I was at the temple I had only seen one monk use these weapons, the same one who presented me with the hanbo I now hold in my hands. He told me that he felt I would be able to use them quite easily. Said that he had a gut feeling that I would have a talent for them.

I looked up and-

Oh damn!

I've been zoning out to long, sun's gonna set soon.

So I got up and took the final few turns that led out of the Migong Canyon.

Present time

"About five hours, if we don't stop." I said turning back around and continuing to lead everyone through the gorge of certain death. Needless to say a chorus of groans and complaints sounded off behind me. Now I am really starting to lose my patience. "And the longer you guys complain, the longer we stay here." And that little bit of reasoning was enough to motivate everyone to move their collective tails.

I looked up to the sky to look for the position of the sun, we do not want to be stuck in the canyon after dark. You think the place is dangerous now, try walking around without being able to see where you're going; you'll be dead before you even realize what happened. I looked up, but in vain. The cloud cover made it impossible to see the sun. We need to move faster.

"So… how often have you been through this here canyon, anyways?" I looked to my right to see Marcus walking beside me.

"About four or five times. Why do you ask?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Just curious is all. And I really don't much care for getting lost, I need to get to my sister and fast. Ya hear?"

I nodded. "Not to worry my friend, I know the Migong Canyon like the back of my hand." I smiled and lifted my right hand as a visual display. He smiled back, my reassurance probably gave him the confirmation he needed that he need not worry.

Speaking of 'worry', there's one thing that's still bothering me…

"Y'know Marcus, you've never told us who're the bandits responsible for you and your sister getting separated." I really hope I'm not being too nosey, but this is something I'd like to know before anything big happens.

His smile vanished rather quickly. That's never a good sign.

"It's said that they were all former soldiers of the Chinese army. They call themselves The Bandit Brigade." He explained with a almost hateful look on his face.

The Bandit Brigade?

Well that's not good.

The Bandit Brigade were all former soldiers of the Chinese military, led by the man who was said to be China's greatest swordsman; Zhou Feng Gu. The story goes that they were abandoned and left for dead by the Emperor, so they renounced their oaths to fight for and protect the people of China and became one of the largest, and most feared gangs China had ever seen.

Now, you're probably wondering why doesn't the Emperor do something about it. Well, one day I was at a bar in the Imperial city, and some of the guards came in to get drunk. Sure enough, the topic of an army of bandits came up, and it was revealed (rather loud and obnoxiously) that in order for the Emperor to send an army after the bandits, he'd have to remove them from the country's borders or from the royal palace. And according to the royal advisors neither idea was acceptable.

So unfortunately nothing has been done about The Bandit Brigade yet. But who knows, maybe that will change soon.

We came to a fork in the path and without thinking I took the path on the left, which lead to another turn to the left. We turned again and stopped. Now I want you to imagine a river. A river with a path of stepping stones leading from one side to the other.

You got that image in your head? Good.

Now imagine there's no river, but there's still the stepping stones, and the bottom of the trench is one hundred and twenty feet down.

"Well, I'm turning around and taking the river, see you guys later." Chin started to walk away, everyone else was staring out into the abyss with open mouths.

"You know the way?" I asked. Chin stopped and growled at me. "Didn't think so." And I hopped from the edge and over each pillar like I had done it a hundred times. Once I got to the other side I turned around and called out, "Alright one at a time. Who's next?"

Chin stepped forward and cracked his knuckles. Was that supposed to make him look intimidating? Is it supposed to make him look cool? I'm veering off topic here. Anyway, he steps up, takes a few deep breaths and I'm thinking 'quit stalling'. Then he ran full speed and jumped every other pillar and landed right next to me. He gave me that cocky look…

Then he took three steps and slipped on a rock, landing face first into the stone pathway.

Everyone on the other side were howling with laughter, Tigress was chuckling. Zoyo… just stood there. I tried not to laugh… and it wasn't easy. I was shaking, but I wasn't laughing. Chin got up, and started growling and grumbling as he tried to get his nose to stop bleeding.

Next Monkey hopped over with Mantis on his shoulder, no problems there. Crane flew over carrying Viper in his talons, no problems there. Then Di Foon, Zoyo, Shu Lan, Marcus, no problem, no problem, no problem, no problem. All that was left was Kira Ni, and Tigress. kira went first, and this is where I started to get concerned. Why? Well Kira isn't exactly small, I'm not saying she's big… but she's not small either. She hopped on over and made it to this side, no problem.

Guess I worried for nothing.

Last but not least was Tigress, she hopped on over.

Hop, hop, hop, crack!

These pillars never had a whole group of people of varying sizes hop across them at once before, maybe that was the reason. Maybe they were worn down. I don't know what the real reason was, but I did know this; Tigress was in trouble.

The pillar began to fall, and my feline friend with it. I panicked. "Tigress, move!" Me and the rest of the Jade Palace gang shouted. Tigress leapt from the falling pillar and landed on the next one… just as it was hit by the falling pillar. Now that is just messed up! As if this wasn't dangerous enough already! She jumped again, and again as fast as she could, finally she made it to the last pillar…

But the last falling pillar got there first.

As her foot landed on the last pillar it began to fall away…

She lost her footing...

She fell…

Tigress's P.O.V.

This wasn't the first time I've fallen from a high place, but all those other times had been of my own free will. I slipped on the falling stone, so I wasn't able to jump to safety. As I fell all I could think of is that I never got to spar with Hiro.

That last regret brought up the memory of Hiro fighting with Chin. His attacks were powerful, his defence was unbreakable, and just once… I wanted fight him. Now it seems like I'll never get the chance.

I closed my eyes and waited for the inevitable.

Two seconds later I felt something clamp onto my wrist. I opened my eyes to see Hiro keeping a death grip on my wrist.

He saved me.

Because of all of my training I've never needed saving before, so this was a new feeling for me. I'm certain if it were anyone else, I would have felt indignant. Grateful… but indignant. But as I looked up at Hiro I felt no indignity, what I felt wasn't grateful- it was more than that. He didn't hesitate for a second to throw himself off a cliff to save me. I'll admit it… not out loud or anything, but I was touched.

"We're taking a different route on the way home. Sound good?" Hiro said with a strained smile. I chuckled and shook my head at him. Here we are in a life or death situation, and he's already talking about the return trip. This wolf is something else.

"Yeah, I'm going to hold you to that." I looked up to see how far we had fallen. Vipers upper body was wrapped around Hiro's ankles. She looked down and smiled.

"You alright Tigress?" She asked. I nodded and kept looking up. Monkey was next, hanging on to Viper by her tail. Then it was Chin hanging on to Monkey by his tail. Then Di Foon was hanging on to Chin's ankles, her face was locked in concentration trying to keep her grip. She then looked over her shoulder and said, "We've got her. Pull!"

I kept looking up to see Kira on the edge of the cliff holding on to Di Foon's ankles. She then pulled us up one at a time, once everyone was on solid ground all we wanted to do was rest. But that hope was short lived as we all heard Hiro say, "Take two minutes to catch your breath, after that we're gonna keep going."

"Are you kidding me!?" Chin shouted.

He got up and got right in Hiro's face. I got to my feet to get ready to help my friend if he needed it. Everyone else got up to get ready to separate the two males in case things got too rough.

"We almost had someone fall to her death, and now you want us to keep going?" Hiro didn't even flinch. He just stared at Chin, his face a blank mask of neutrality, even as Chin kept yelling in his face. "Next time you want to take us on a suicidal route, why don't you lead us into an active volcano, you damned idiot!" He then lifted his hand to illustrate a point, but Hiro moved… and he moved fast.

Before Chin could even react, Hiro had one hand on Chin's arm, and the other hand on the back of Chin's. Once he had the hold locked in Hiro applied pressure, trying to make the tips oh Chin's fingers touch the underside of his forearm. Every time Chin so much as twitched, Hiro would apply more pressure, if Chin kept moving around like that he would end up with a broken wrist. So he showed a little bit of intelligence for once, and stopped moving.

Everything got quiet. Hiro hasn't been at the Jade Palace for very long but we have never seen him lose his cool like this.

Hiro then spoke, his voice deathly quiet…

"Chin… I have dealt with your arguing and complaining up to this point. But no more. If I hear… one more thing out of you… that pisses me off… I will snap. Your arm. In half."

Wow.

"Do you understand me?"

Chin began to nod frantically, his eyes were clenched shut from the pain, he never looked so pitiful.

Hiro put more pressure on Chin's wrist. "Look me in the eye and tell me."

He did. "I understand."

And with that Hiro let go.

My stomach felt like it was fluttering, my heart was racing, and there was a shiver going up my spine. Seeing Hiro act like this had gotten me all excited... and I don't understand why. But I know someone who might. My eyes landed on Viper.

My snake sister and I are gonna have to have a little… girl talk.

A/N Hey guys I'm Back! Again sorry it took this long, but my inspiration isn't as fast as it used to. Anyways you all know the drill. Just please leave a review to tell me how I'm doing, good reviews help me with the inspiration thing.

See ya next time.