Kung Fu Wolf: Rising of the Moon

Chapter Seven: The way out

Tigress's P.O.V.

I'll never say that I don't trust my friend Hiro's judgment, but next time we go out on a mission, I'm gonna decide on the route.

The path we were supposed to take ended… into a bottomless pit.

"So… there's no way around?" I asked.

"Nope." Hiro replied.

"This is the only way?" I inquired.

"Yep." Hiro confirmed.

"And the only way to get across is by scooting along the dangerous ledge along the wall?" I asked, slowly losing my temper.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it. Why?"

I lost it for a second. "Next time I'M gonna decide on the route!"

He lifted his hands, defensively. "Ok, ok. Calm down, this little is actually a lot safer than the stepping stones from before." He stated. No one seemed convinced. But then again, I don't really think they were listening. They were all looking into the pit, trying to guess how deep it may be.

"How so?" Oh I couldn't wait to hear how he considered this to be safer.

"The chances of the ledge breaking apart is very slim." He explained.

I'm still not convinced. But Hiro is the only one here who successfully got through the canyon, so I guess I still have to trust him. Not that I ever stopped.

"Ok, we will all go one at a time, who wants to go first?" Hiro said, smiling to one said anything, no one stepped up, they just stood there. Hiro's smile faded, then he sighed to himself. "Fine, I'll go. Like I said it is a lot safer than the stepping stones and- what's wrong with her?"

I followed Hiro's gaze and saw Di Foon standing at the edge of the pit, her eyes wide and her body shaking. Kira Ni and Shu Lan got on either side of her and tried to calm her down. "She doesn't do well with heights and ledges, dude." Shu Lan explained.

"How come we didn't notice that before, at the stepping stones?" I asked.

"I kept my eyes closed." Di Foon said. I was absolutely shocked at her carelessness, but also impressed at the skill required to achieve such a feat. "Hey Hiro, can I cross with you?" She then asked.

"Uhh, well I've got no problem with it. You want me to hold your hand or-" Hiro stopped in mid sentence as Di Foon threw her arms around Hiro and latched herself onto him. Hiro started to blush and made his way to the side ledge.

A wave of rage washed over me as I saw Di Foon snuggle against the Dragon Warrior. I felt a growl rise from deep within my throat as she started to purr and nuzzle her face into my wolf friends neck. I haven't been this angry since Monkey tried to dye my fur blue, and I still don't know why I'm getting so mad! Once Hiro got halfway over, I noticed he started to blush profusely, even his fur was starting to turn red. I looked closer at Di Foon and saw that she was pressing her chest into Hiro's.

When I get my hands on that-

"Tigress! You need to calm down!"

I looked around and somehow I never noticed all the girls were trying to hold me back. I took a few deep breaths and everyone let me go. Viper stayed by my side. "Tigress what's wrong? You've been acting very strange lately." I looked across the pit to see Hiro and Di Foon had made it to the other side, and that the snow leopardess was no longer clinging the wolf.

I narrowed my eyes at Di Foon… I hated her. I don't know why, but I did. Watching her latch onto Hiro like that… I just wanted to-

"Tigress, what is going on?" Viper drew my attention away from them, if I watched them any longer I think I might do something I'll regret later.

"I don't know, can we talk later? I can't, for the life of me, figure out what's going on." If anyone can help me understand what's going on with me it's Viper. "What happened just now? I zoned out for a minute." I asked, curious how I never noticed why I was being held back by three other women.

"Well… you were growling and snarling. Then you started going after those two with your claws out, we tried snapping you out of it, but in the end we had to hold you back." I blinked. That's never happened before. Sure I've gotten irrationally pissed off before, but I've never had rage blackouts before. I looked back over to the other side of the pit to see Hiro guiding Marcus along the ledge.

Hiro…

Di Foon may have been the cause of my sudden burst of rage, but she wasn't the source of what I was feeling… Hiro was. I started to shudder, nothing like this has ever happened before.

What power does he have over me?

"Tigress!"

I snapped out of it as Hiro called my name, it seemed to calm me down a little. "Come on, you and Viper are next." He said, waving us over. I shook my head and stood up, Viper slithered up and wrapped herself around my waist like a belt. I started my way across the ledge, keeping my back against the canyon wall. Surprisingly the walls were smoother compared to the rest of the canyon, but the ledge was narrow even with my heels against the wall, my toes would dangle over the sides. I had to be more careful this time, if I fell it wouldn't be just me going down; Viper would be coming along for the ride.

Thankfully nothing happened and Viper and I made it across. She slithered off me and went to join the other who made it across, most likely when I had zoned out. The only ones left were Shu Lan and Kira Ni, the former made her way to the ledge and started making her way across.

"Hey, what's up?"

I turned around to see Hiro standing there. He had a concerned look on his face as he started looking me up and down. "You know I'm starting to worry about you, anything you wanna tell me?" He asked me. It was so kind of him to be worried about me, but I can't tell him about what's been going on with me until I've figured it out for myself.

"It's nothing." I looked back to see that Shu lan had made it across and now it was Kira's turn. She surprised us all when she, instead of walking the ledge like the rest of us, began to climb across the wall.

"Hmm." Hiro mused. "Never even considered that." I raised my eyebrow at him and shook my head, as I chuckled and walked toward the others. "What?" He said defensively. This is when I noticed something about Hiro; he's smart and clever, but he can be oblivious.

Kira made it across. "So Hiro, any other crazy obstacle we should know about?" She asked with friendly sarcasm. Her question brought a smile to Hiro's face as he walked to the front of the group.

"Just one more, and we're home free."

Hiro's P.O.V.

"And here we are." I said as we made it to the cave. "word of warning; the only safe place to be in here is on the path, everywhere else there are spikes and razor sharp stones." I turned and faced everyone. "On the bright side, once we get through we're almost out of the canyon!"

"Do you have any torches?" Crane asked.

"Don't need them." Everyone's jaws dropped. "I placed all sorts of spices throughout the cave so I could navigate by my sense of smell."

"Huh, that actually sounds like it could work." Tigress said after a little thought.

"I assure you it does work. I've been through here a few times and trust me it gets easier every time I go through." I started for the cave entrance until I was stopped by Tigress.

"Hiro I know you can get through the cave, but some of us can't. Is there another way around?" I sighed to myself. Seems to me that someone asks that same question every ten minutes. I know I'm exaggerating right now, but still, if I have to explain something more than once, it gets aggravating.

"Okay, I'm going to explain it one more time. The path we've taken up to this point, and from this point to the end of the canyon is the only. Way. Through. There are no other shortcuts, there are no other paths, there is just one way." No one looked amused at my ranting, especially Tigress. But hey, I'm getting tired of explaining the same thing over and over again.

I took a second to breathe and looked over to the west, the sky was starting to get red. We need to get out of here before it gets dark.

"Hey Hiro!" Marcus called to me.

"What is it Marcus." I asked trying to be patient, but my fuse is starting to burn short.

"well, I got some oil, rags and sticks. Can't we use them to make torches?" I was surprised, this guy has planned ahead.

"Great thinking Marcus. Anyone got any flint?" I asked. No one from the Jade Palace said anything. Kira on the other hand…

"I do!" She said, holding up a set of iron and flint. Good, looks like we'll be out of here quicker than I thought. We made three torches, lit them, and started our way through the cave.

Now even with the torches, it was pretty dark in there, so I had told everyone to stay close. But now I'm betting everyone is wishing we could go through the cave without the torches. Why? Because it looked like we were walking through the mouth of some gigantic demonic beast. Now some of you might be wondering how I made it through this cave with no light? The answer is very simple; very slowly. But I did leave a few drops of blood behind during my first run through here, so… yeah.

Anyway, back to here and now.

The march through the cave was entirely uneventful, until we got near the end and heard an agonized yell.

"AHHH!"

I whipped myself around. "What happened!?" I demanded.

"I'm alright." Came Tigress's voice. "I just bumped into one of the spikes, got my leg good." I saw her sitting in the middle of our little group. I sniffed to confirm what she said. sniff sniff. Yep, she's bleeding. Judging by the intensity of the blood smell, she would live through it, but if we don't stop the bleeding, it could cause major problems.

"Make a path." I said, and everyone cleared out of the way. I knelt down beside her and inspected her injury. As I thought, it wasn't life threatening, but something had to be done about it. "Anyone got a medical kit?" I looked around at everyone, they all shook their head. Dammit. "Wait… there's a stream a little ways from the end of the canyon, I can treat her there."

"I told you I'm fine." She tried standing up, and I pulled her back down. She crossed her arms and scowled, I gotta admit it made her look cute. I took off my bandana and tied it around her leg, a little above where she got poked, making a makeshift tourniquet.

I looked her in the eye. "Can you walk." I asked .

She had an indignified look on her face after I asked. "Of course I can." And she started to get up… only to fall down again. I leaned in close and whispered in her ear, so low no one could hear me.

"The way I see it you have two options, either I carry you on my back or in my arms. I'll let you decide." At that moment she looked like she wanted to kill me, thankfully there was a plus side to that; I could now outrun her if it came to it. She took a deep breath and realized she couldn't win here. So she whispered so quietly, I almost didn't hear her.

"back."

So I moved in front of her and she climbed on my back. I turned and saw everyone staring at Tigress and I wide eyed and slack jawed. It was understandable of course, someone could live for a thousand years and never see the amazing Master Tigress swallow her pride like this. "If I hear about this ever again, I'm gonna break some legs!"

All mouths closed simultaneously. I chuckled and shook my head. "That goes for you too wolf!" She knows I don't like being called that, but seeing as she is in a what she sees as an embarrassing position, I'm gonna let it slide just once.

"Alright, let's go." I gave Tigress the torch to hold and we made our way out of the cave without any other problems.

We made it out of the canyon with an excited round of cheers. I think I might've broken my last record by twenty minutes. But no time to dwell on that, Tigress's leg needs bandaging. I turned off to the side with everyone not far behind. We came up on the stream I had mentioned back at the cave and I set Tigress down.

"Does it still hurt?" I asked, as I rolled up her pant leg. The blood was starting to dry out, good thing too, it would stop the bleeding.

"No, it doesn't. But thanks for looking out for me." I smiled

"What're friends for?"

She smiled back. I could never get enough of that smile. I wish she could smile like that all the time. But like almost everything good in my life, it isn't meant to last.

"How is she?" Viper came slithering up with a concerned look on her face.

"She's fine, I just need to get some things… hey guys! Wanna help me out with something?" I called out to everyone. "Viper, can you watch over her for a bit?"

She nodded, and I made my way to the rest of the group to give them some jobs to do.

Tigress's P.O.V.

"So what did you want to talk about.". I looked around and once I was sure we were alone I spoke.

"Something's been wrong with me ever since we left the Jade Palace. And I don't know what's going on."

Now she was concerned. "What is it? Are you sick?" She started to panic because I almost never get sick.

"No that's not it. At least I don't think it is." I said thinking of a way to explain it to her.

"Well then, what's wrong?"

"It's Hiro."

She then exchanged her look of concern with a look of confusion. "Hiro? WHat's wrong with him?"

I could never ever lie to Viper, we've been telling each other secrets ever since she came to the Jade Palace. So I told her everything. "I just don't understand what's going on, it's been happening ever since Hiro defeated Tai Lung. Every time he's near me I start to feel short of breath, I feel a shiver run up my spine, my heart starts racing. And when Di Foon starts getting all clingy with him, I just want to rip her arms off." I looked at Viper after telling her what I was going through, and lifted an eyebrow when I noticed that she was smiling slyly at me.

She giggled and said, "Well, I have a theory about what might be going on with you, but I'm going to need to ask you a few questions."

"Okay, ask." I was a little afraid on what she was going to ask. What if it turns out I really am sick? But then, why would Hiro be the cause of it?

"First, I want you to name three things you hate about Hiro." After she was done speaking she stared at me intently.

I started thinking about it. What were three thing I hated about Hiro? I know for a fact that a while ago I would've said that one thing I hate about him was because he stole the Dragon Warrior title from me, but now I realize that if I was unable to beat Tai Lung then I have no business being the Dragon Warrior.

So I can't use that. What do I hate about him?

It took me about five minutes of thinking to realize…

"Nothing. I can't think of a single thing to hate him for." Which was odd because there would be at least one thing I would hate about something. With Monkey and Mantis, it's their prank wars. With Crane it was his constant yammering about thing no one else cared about. With Viper it was when she'd try to make me act more girly, never gonna happen. And with Master Shifu it was because he pushed me so hard in my training, and all without a tiny bit of praise.

"You sure? Not even his stubbornness?" She asked me, getting that smile again.

"Nope, I actually find it to be inspiring. I like his whole 'never give up' attitude."

She nodded then spoke again, "Alright, now I want you to name three thing you like about Hiro."

A couple things came to mind, I already spoke of his tenacity, so I put that to the side. "Well he's brave, kind, skilled at a style of Kung Fu that I had previously thought could not be mastered. He's a great cook, he's fun to talk to, and he's just an amazing person. I'm really glad to be his friend."

Viper smiled and nodded. "You gave me six reasons there. Now I want you to close your eyes and imagine you and Hiro sitting under the Sacred Peach Tree and just talking." I did and a smile tugged at my lips. "Okay, now picture… Di Foon…" I lost the smile. "Walking up to Hiro and planting a big kiss on him." I snarled and tensed up so hard my body started to convulse.

"Ha! I knew it!" I snapped out of it and gave Viper my undivided attention, my daydream about tying Di Foon to a rock and throwing her into a river would have to wait.

"What is it? Am I sick?" I asked, now it was my turn to panic.

"Oh, you're sick alright… lovesick." I said nothing. Me… in love… with Hiro? Never once did I ever think it possible. When Viper and I were younger and the topic of boys came up, I never really paid any attention. And when I got older I was so focused on my training, I never thought about falling in love or anything like that.

'You're joking with me right." I asked, yeah, it had to be a joke I couldn't have fallen for the Dragon Warrior…

Right?

"Okay, let's think about this… You can't think of anything bad about him?

I shook my head.

"You like spending time with him?"

I nodded.

"You like him as a person?"

I nodded again.

"And you get hostile whenever another girl, has any prolonged contact with him. If that's not love, it's pretty damn close to it." I couldn't speak. She was right. Maybe I am in love, but…

"What do I do now?" I asked.

"First you need to find out if Hiro feels the same way. No sense in getting your hopes up for nothing." Yeah, I don't think I'll be able to handle that. But that begs the question...

"How do I find out?"

"Go on a date with him of course! Now here's a few things you should know before you go on your first date."

I listened intently as she explained to me what I would need to know for winning Hiro's heart.

Hiro's P.O.V.

Clear night tonight. Strange seeing as it was cloudy all day today. I looked down at my right arm to see it glowing, it would make the job of looking for the herbs I need to help Tigress a lot easier.

After I set Tigress down earlier, I sent everyone out to look for some supplies. Monkey, Mantis and Crane's job was to look for firewood. The Sapphire Palace masters job was to look for some of the edible plants that grew around here. And my job was to look for medicinal herbs for Tigress's leg. I looked behind me and noticed a faint pinprick of light where I left Tigress and Viper.

Good. They got the firewood. one less thing to worry about. Now where are the… Oh here they are. One of the chef's I learned from had a wife who was a doctor, so along with another style of cooking, I learned a few medical skills.

The plants I was picking would help fight any infection that might've gotten into Tigress's leg, and it would help it heal faster. I picked enough to have a small handful then turned to make my way to the campsite.

"So… it is as I thought." I looked up to see Zoyo standing in front of me. He snuck up behind me without making a sound, I couldn't help but be wary.

"I thought you were going to get the food, Zoyo." I slowly shifted into a more defensive stance.

"The others found some berries, and some fruits nearby, they're all back at the campsite." I started to walk over to the others.

"Well, why don't we join them?" I said as I was about to step passed Zoyo, until he grabbed my glowing arm.

"In a moment. We need to talk." I eyed him suspiciously. What could he possibly want to talk about with me? Then another, more disturbing thought came to mind…

Why wasn't he shocked about my arm?

That made me more worried that when people stared open mouthed at my arm.

"What has she told you?"

What? She? Who was he talking about?

"What are you saying?" I asked, getting ready for a fight.

Zoyo moved his hands to his black straw hat and removed it, and for the first time I saw his real face.

He was a black furred fox. He was still young probably in his mid twenties. His eyes were a piercing red, and there were markings on the left side of his face…

They glowed like the markings on my arm… only his markings glowed a sickly purple.

Species aside… he was just like me!

I was so shocked I almost couldn't speak… almost.

"Who are you? What are you?" I wanted answers, and I was willing to bet all the gold in the world that he could give them to me.

"First you must tell me what she has told you." This again?

"What the hell are you talking about?' Who was this 'she' he's talking about? Tigress? Viper? Who?

"I just call her the Lady in White."

The Lady in White?

"You mean the wolf woman from my dream?" There is no way he could be talking about her.

"The very same." Okay, so I'm wrong. It's happened before. "What has she told you? Answer me this and I will answer any question you want as long as it is within my liberty to answer."

I took a minute to remember my dream. "She said that she had been watching over me all my life and that we would meet again at the end of this journey."

Zoyo got an inquisitive look on his face. "She must have not had enough time to explain everything to you. Anyway as promised I will answer your questions, but remember there will be some questions I will not be able to answer."

I narrowed my eyes. "Why not?"

"It is not my place."

First question that came to mind was one I asked earlier. "Who and what are you?"

"My name is Zoyo Li. I am a trainer of the half bloods." That only raised more questions, but Maybe I had a limited amount of questions that he could answer.

"Who was the woman from my dream?"

"She is a very powerful spirit and that is all I can say on the matter." A spirit? Why would a spirit be visiting me in my dreams?

I lifted my right arm. "What's going on here?"

"Those are the markings of one who can walk between worlds. You are very special Hiro." I already knew that. Was nice to hear it though.

"Why do they only glow in the moonlight?"

"Because your strength is linked to the moon. Now I'm afraid that's all the information I can give you." He said as he placed his hat back on his head.

"Wait! I have more questions!" He ignored me and turned to walk away.

"The rest of your questions will have to wait, until you have met the Lady in White face to face. Now that I've answered some of your questions, perhaps you could do me one small kindness?" He turned his head and I was able to see one of his crimson eyes beneath his hat. "Let's keep this conversation between us, shall we?"

I thought about it. Oh, why not? It's the least I could do. I followed him to the campsite. By the time we got there almost everyone was asleep, all except for Tigress.

"You've been gone awhile." She mused.

"Just… wanted to make sure I had enough herbs for your leg." I lied… I lied. I suddenly felt terrible, lying to one of my best friends. I tried to take my mind off my guilt as I set to work fixing up her leg. Washing out the wound, making the salve from the herbs, washing my bandana, and using it as a bandage. "Your leg should stop hurting by morning." I said to her smiling.

She smiled right back. "It feels better already." I got up to get the last pieces of fruit that was left. It was a long day and I was starving.

"Hiro?"

I turned around with a apple in my mouth to see Tigress just about to fall asleep. "Thank you, Hiro."

I smiled again at her. You know, it's times like this that makes me care less about all the questions flying around in my head, and more about the people in my life.

"By your journey's end, you will have the answers you seek."

By the journey's end, huh?

I looked down on Tigress's sleeping form, and smiled once again.

Hope it doesn't end too soon.

A/N I think I set a new word record here! Well, like, fave you know the drill. Just please review.

See ya!