Finding Demons


Tigress watched over the wolf sighing in his cell. Though he ate more, he still seemed... was depressed. The wind blew through the barred window, bristling his fur. He didn't wear the blanket anymore. He rejected all kinds of comfort. Viper had even given the wolf a bath, but though his black coat of fur smelled nice and slowly displayed its sheen over time, he still wallowed on the floor with his tattered pants.

Tigress growled, "This is getting ridiculous." Wolf perked up his ear. "You have to move on."

"Hrm," The wolf grunted back.

"Maybe I should ask Viper to give you another bath?" The wolf glared at her small smirk. He didn't mind bathing but getting cleaned by a snake was...Wolf shivered at the memory. "I know your pain but dwelling on it is not the right way to deal with this." The wolf said nothing. Tigress sighed. "How does Po do this?" Wolf rose an eyebrow, side-glancing the tiger. "Po's... better at comforting people than I am. And..." The tiger shook her head from the thought, but Wolf lifted his head from the ground, tilting it slightly. "Nothing, it's...it's nothing."

"Hmmm."

"If you can write," Tigress said after a long pause, "Why don't you just write what you want?" Wolf shrugged, plopping his head back to the ground. Tigress gave a sharp sigh, "Look, you've got to get over this."

"Hmph," The wolf grunted.

"I know they were close to you, but they wouldn't want you moping like this," Wolf said nothing, but he gave Tigress a questioning glare. Or maybe it was sarcastic. She couldn't tell. "This would be easier with Po around. I could strap him to some fireworks and-"

"Hrm!" Wolf lifted his head both confused and concerned that the tiger would say something like that.

"What? He's done it before... twice," Tigress casually said. "When he was chosen, he strapped himself to fireworks just to get over the gate, thus fulfilling the Dragon Warrior's coming as a ball of fire."

The wolf sniggered. Then an idea flew into Tigress's mind. If she couldn't cheer up the wolf herself, she could use Po's antics.

Why the wolf's happiness mattered to her was still a mystery, but after losing the guards, happiness was the least she could try to give him. "He also forgot his clothes and had to go down the entire mountain dressed in Master Flying Rhino's armor one time."

"HEHehehehehehehe." The wolf laughed. Tigress smiled. There was something comforting about his laugh.

"Then there was the time he tried to make noodles by mixing them raw with boiling water into his mouth," Tigress sighed fondly.

"HAHAHAHAHA *Snort* HAHAHAHAHA *Snort*" Laughter rang out from Wolf's cell as he laid on his back, kicking his feet in the air. His snort was uncontrollable but the dog didn't care. It seemed like he hadn't laughed like this in a while.

"AAAHHH!" Suddenly, Tigress gripped her head. Lights flashed around her even though she shut her eyes. The wolf's laughing still rang in her ears, but it sounded younger, closer to the crib. Wolf immediately stopped laughing and bolted up from the floor, latching onto the cell bars as close as he could; the waist shackle was still around him. "I'm... I'm fine. I just... have a headache... I think. What was that?" She didn't know, but somehow someway, the wolf's laugh had triggered some kind of vision, but it was too brief to figure out.

Just then, Wolf's ears perked up, and he growled. "I hear it too," Tigress said. Footsteps clambered down the stairway, and Monkey slid into the dungeon.

"Bandits! Bandits are attacking the Jade Palace! There's got to be a thousand of them!"

"I'll be right there!" Tigress shouted. Wolf thrashed against the cell door. "What are you- You want out?" Wolf nodded. The tiger frowned. "Was this your doing? Is this your break-out scheme?" Wolf's eyes widened. He shook his head profusely.

"Tigress!" Monkey shouted.

"You're staying here. I... I can't believe I trusted you," grunted Tigress as she ran up the stairs. The wolf's thrashing echoed all the way up. Just as she got up the stairs, a club whizzed by her face. Tigress rammed her fist into the gray wolf and tossed him into another one. Wolves packed the Hall of Heroes like sardines in a can, and there were more squishing in to fight the masters. Tigress dodged a swung sword, but a fist smashed into her face, forcing her to the ground. She got up, quickly jumped out of a mace's way and towards her master.

"The Fang-An bandits," Shifu shouted. "They're too numerous! Make sure they don't overwhelm you!" Tigress smashed right through an armored dog, making a line of bandits tumble back. "DAH!"

"MASTER!" Shifu dropped to the ground but rolled out of the wolves' clutches. Growling, the tiger kicked the wolves away from the red panda, helping him off the ground. "We need to get out of here! We can wait for Po and retake the Jade Palace." Though pain filled his eyes, Shifu agreed. Suddenly, Shifu held his ears in agony. "Master? What's wrong?!"

"The noise! Something's coming!" Shifu shouted. Before she could speak, three wolves tackled Tigress to the ground. Two held her arms in place while another one held his sword over her head. Growling, Tigress kicked the wolf off, flinging the other two away. Another wolf took a slash at her back.

"AHH!" Tigress caught herself from falling. She punched that wolf far over the sea of bandits. But the damage was done. Already, she could feel the sting in her back. "I... I have to keep... fighting." She saw Shifu fending off a few bandits, but they were forcing him back towards the Moon Pool.

Tigress looked ahead and five armed wolves launched at her with swords, clubs, and maces poised to destroy her. She crossed her arms to block them, shutting her eyes.

Nothing happened.

Tigress opened her eyes and gasped. The formerly imprisoned Wolf stood with all five bandits in his grasp... in one way or another. He held two of their muzzles in his hands, his feet stood on two wolves' heads, and he held the fifth by the neck in his teeth. Blackie dropped the wolves and dusted his hands. Whether they were dead or not wasn't Tigress's concern. The wolf had none of the shackles on him. If he had broken the chain, the shackles would have remained, but it seemed he broke the shackle themselves. Wolf looked back, concerned. Tigress's shock couldn't register the look, but she simply nodded.

"RAAAAAHHH!" Another gray wolf swung his sword at the black wolf. Wolf caught the bandit's hand like a twig and rammed his fist into the bandit. The force alone sent a wave of the bandits tumbling to the ground, about fifteen in all. Wei, the Fang-An leader, noticed his soldiers falling back.

"Attack that dog!" He shouted, and all of his forces charged at the wolf. Wolf calmly stood, crossing his arms with a snarl.

BARK BARK!

Then it happened.

A loud low droning hum echoed around the chamber. Every shadow in the hall shifted. The doors closed by themselves. The windows blotted out as if they had black curtains. But they never had curtains. All the candles and lanterns were doused. The horrible hum echoed around. Master Shifu clasped his hands to his ears.

"Ahhh, it hurts!" Mantis shouted, holding his antenna as the hum suddenly turned high-pitched, like the cackling of hyenas. In the pitch darkness, millions of red glowing eyes shone in a wave, high above, leading to Wolf's red eyes. Tigress's eyes are used to the darkness, but the sudden change didn't give her time to adjust. And she never witnessed darkness this thick. Everything sank into blackness. She could only see faint traces of the bandits, but Blackie was completely invisible. Wolf darted and smashed through the large horde of wolves with ease. Shouts and screams echoed around the hall. The Furious Five froze as they heard the cackling grow louder and louder.

"THEY'RE ON ME! THEY'RE ON ME!" The wolves wailed before a swift kick silenced them.

Bark!

As suddenly as it happened, the laughing stopped. The red glowing eyes vanished. The windows were cleared, and the lamps were lighted again. The hall doors swung open, revealing a huge pile of defeated wolves: one thousand in all. Among the groaning, moaning heap of wounded bandits, Wolf dusted his hands and looked at his work. The Furious Five's jaws couldn't have dropped closer to the ground. It wasn't until Wolf walk up to Tigress and offer up his hands that the tiger moved. She could only blink. The Furious Five and Shifu looked at each other while the black wolf humbly waited for Tigress to place him in cuffs again.

Finally, she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Po has a lot of explaining to do."

Meanwhile, said panda watched as the large red doors opened up to the grand palace, finished with golden displays of dragons, lotuses, and deers. Pillars of marble held the high ceilings up, and the panda gawked at the splendor making his head and body spin. "Whoa," Po mumbled, holding his head. "This is huge!"

"Eh, you get used to it," Shang yawned as they finally put the sedan chair down. The gorilla cracked several stiff bones in his back while his older companion stretched his sides. "Ah, are you sure you wouldn't settle for one of those sedan chairs on wheels, Prince?"

"The wheels always break," Yueding sighed. "Sorry."

"Bah, Shang over here is just too lazy for his own good," Yanshi laughed. "Thank you for helping us escort the prince, Dragon Warrior. I hope your trip back is safe."

"Not so fast," Yueding said. "I have some... business with the Dragon Warrior before he goes. Why don't you and Shang play some Mahjong? I'll be there in a moment." The nervous grin on his face made Po wince. He knew what a bad liar looked like and the deer couldn't have been more of a shining example. Yanshi narrowed his eyes a bit but shrugged.

"Well, whatever you're hiding, make sure it doesn't collapse... again."

"I will!" Yueding piped up. Grabbing Po's hand, the deer showed him down the hall while Yanshi looked on suspiciously.

"What's wrong?" Shang asked.

"I don't know. I feel like the prince is up to something."

"You think we should follow him or something?" Shang asked. Yanshi wrestled with the idea but sighed.

"It's probably nothing. If anything, the Dragon Warrior is with him. He'll be fine. Now, onto that game of Mahjong I'm supposed to best you at," the old gorilla smiled.

Yueding quickly lead Po down the corridor to the royal library layered with lanes of shelves and scrolls. "Whoa! This is huge! And bad!"

"What?"

"How are we gonna find anything about the Jai-Yin here?" Po asked.

"I... didn't think of that," Yueding sighed. "There's got to be a better way of finding the information we need."

"Actually, that reminds me. Why did you call me?"

Yueding looked at the floor, sighing from a small deep sadness that Po couldn't figure out. "I can't tell you. You know that."

"I know, but why get me involved? I... kinda already have enough secrets."

"Because my father's words are making me have... second thoughts." Yueding dipped his head in silence, gazing at the floor. "I don't want to go against my father, but... what's he's asking from me is...wrong." He lifted his head and declared firmly, "We have to find more information about the Jai-Yin. What do you know about them?"

Po's face twitched a bit as he thought. "I shouldn't tell you this, buuuuut... technically, your father's involved with him anyway, so you're gonna know eventually," Po sighed. "I was... So there's this guy that was in a cave and we were supposed to move him, right? But then Sho comes and wrecks the whole place and-"

"The King of Bandits!"

"Yeah, that one. He was so strong that one swing of his hammer sent the entire garrison to their knees. And... he... kinda mopped the floor with me. But don't tell anyone that!" Po quickly said. "Anyway, the guy we were supposed to move one-shots Sho, still in chains! And we had to take him to the Jade Palace until reinforcements get him."

"Who is this person?" Yueding asked.

Po threw his hands up. "That's what I'm trying to figure out!" He shouted. "I can't find any records on him, but I think he's connected with the Jai-Yin. He wrote a story about them and our servant, Zeng, said he knew about them." The deer's eyes widened. Po told the prince about what he read from the scroll. "But Shifu called me to come to you and well... here we are."

"Then you can go back and read the rest of the scroll and-"

"I don't know if that's a good idea. The others are already getting suspicious of me, especially Tigress. Plus, Shifu stopped Wolf from writing any more about the Jai-Yin, so there's not much left." The royal deer stomped his foot with a huff. "But it's something," Po continued.

"It is. At the very least we know something was covered up." Yueding placed his hooves on his hips as he looked down the lanes of the library. The scowl on his face never left him, and Po couldn't figure out if he was thinking or just angry. "Aah, it won't do."

"What?"

"Even if we found the scroll on the Jai-Yin here, it wouldn't be any different than that scroll your wolf friend was correcting."

Po facepalmed himself. "Right. And who's gonna have another detailed record just sitting out in the open?"

Then Yueding's face lit up. "Councilman Platon is my father's expert on Jai-Yin artifacts. Maybe his place has something."

"The lion," Po mumbled to himself. Before he could say anything else, Yueding led him down another corridor. "Platon lives here?"

"Oh yes, of all my father's council, Platon is the nearest to him," Yueding said.

"Won't he get upset with us going in his room?" Po asked.

"Don't worry, we'll just be in his study." The panda walked with him to a green stained door with elaborate decorations. Yueding opened the door, and the splendor of the room dropped Po's jaw. The red-walled room had a goldened ceiling with intricate designs. A huge golden orb polished to a mirror shine hung in the center of the room, allowing the sun to brighten the room through the silkscreen window. To the left was a huge carefully kept bed, and the right had a large shelf of scrolls, but also books and other trinkets that Po had never seen before. "What? Too much?"

"WHOAAA This place puts the Jade Palace to shame! Whoops! Don't tell Shifu I said that," Po said.

"We have to be quick," Yueding replied, closing the door behind them, "No telling when some servant might spot us." Po nodded, and they got to work, starting at his bookcase.

"Do you know where Platon is from?" Po asked. "Because he never told us."

"My father says his people originally came from out west but he grew up here, in China. Where I don't know." They suddenly stopped searching.

"Wait, you said that he's your dad's expert on Jai-Yin culture? You don't think he's... one of the Jai-Yin... do you?"

"No, that's impossible. Why would a Jai-Yin warrior serve the person that raided their home?"

"Hmmm," Po murmured. They searched everywhere on the shelf, but they couldn't find anything. "Ugh... for someone who's an expert on the Jai-Yin, he sure doesn't have anything about them."

"Which is odd," Yueding said more to himself. Po walked over to the bed. "Please don't sit on that."

"Oh sorry." Po sat on the floor instead, resting his back against the wall. "Platon did say that he came from a clan that rebelled against the Emperor."

"That's... true... But then that would mean he," Yueding shook his head. "It doesn't matter. We can't figure out what he did if we don't have any-"

"Hello," Po said. "What's this?" He pulled a small bound book from underneath the bed. "I think this is Platon's diary."

"Journal."

"What's the difference?"

Yueding was about to answer, but he couldn't find the right words. "It just... sounds better." Po rolled his eyes and opened up the book. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"You're the one who brought me here, dragged me to Platon's room, and told me to start searching."

"But looking through a person's personal journal is wrong."

"Not if it can protect China," Po said. The young dear sighed and checked the closed door for privacy.

"Read it," Yueding said.

I remember a time of peace, of wealth. I remember a time when I didn't have regrets and worries, aside from the little ones I looked after. A time when things were simple on the Jai-Yin mountain with the noble Bear, Tiger, Wolf, and me. It was a great land. A land of struggle that made us strong, where we could rest on the mountain to lay our hearts open. I left teaching and took up the role of spying, to secure everything we had. We were largely alone, save for the villagers we protected. But I began to notice that the bandits who attacked them were taking them, not by force anymore. They were paying the villagers off, to get rid of them for the coming battle.

There is not a day that goes by when I feel regret and remorse about what happened. What I had to do. I discovered a plan by the Emperor to eliminate my people. Though we were mighty, a war between the entire Chinese army and my little clan would be bloody. I couldn't risk this happening. Under the cover of night, I left Jai-Yin Mountain, meeting the Emperor for myself. Admittedly, he was much smaller than I thought, but appearances didn't fool me. This man had the ability to put all of my people in danger. Killing him would only spark outrage. This had to be done quietly. When the Emperor told me that it wasn't the people he wanted, only the mountain itself, I saw an opportunity.

Getting the clan to move was impossible. I knew that. But if I could get the Emperor to raid them through one of the secret ways up the mountain, the rest could escape through the other pathways. It would avoid the Emperor killing my people outright. I knew that my people could fight, but...I knew once they saw me, they'd scatter. And I was right. Li's face was probably the most horrifying. And she had just given birth. She'll kill me if she finds me. But not one Jai-Yin member was killed that day, and they were scattered, or maybe they rejoined somewhere else. I don't know. To-Akan is probably upset... or happy, at what his son has become. The King of Bandits. HA! To-Akan always said he'd a king of some sort, the idiot.

And My son. I swore to protect you and yet I've only given you so much grief. I've missed hearing your voice. I'm so sorry. I'm so so sorry.

Po closed the book. "Whoa, that... that was a lot."

"It definitely makes more sense," Yueding sighed.

"So... Platon is the Judas of the Jai-Yin!"

The deer cocked his head. "Who is Judas?"

"I have no idea. But anyway, he's the traitor of the Jai-Yin. That's probably why some people hate him because they're probably part of the Jai-Yin."

"Wait a minute everyone who's... YANSHI!" Yueding exclaimed. "He was acting strangely when Platon arrived. Maybe he's one of them! But why work for the Emperor?"

Po shrugged. "Maybe he wanted to make sure you didn't end up hating the Jai-Yin."

"Maybe," The deer stood up and sighed, walking a few feet before spinning around. "This still doesn't tell us about the others OR if the Jai-Yin people still live."

"They are alive but they're probably hidden. But Platon, Sho, and the wolf are definitely connected. Maybe it has to do something with Platon's son. Whoever that is," Po sighed, "Hmmm. Maybe... the guards."

"Huh?"

"Oh! Nothing!" Po smiled cheesily. "I was just thinking about some friends of mine that... aren't around... but maybe I could get something from their house."

"I hope so," Yueding peaked his head out of the room. "Come on, let's go." The two placed everything back and snuck out of the room before anyone could see them. The young deer groaned heavily, "I can't believe that my father would kill some innocent people."

"Eh, it happens," Po shrugged.

"How can you say that so relaxed?"

"I've seen it a lot of times. You get used to it. Or just fight enough warlords to get through it," The panda said, punching the air. Yueding still frowned. "Hey, that's not important right now. We'll find out how to get through this."

"I hope so."

"But uh I need to ask you a question," Po said, "If push comes to shove, would you work for the people of China or for your dad? Because it seems like you're gonna have to make a choice soon." The young deer blinked several times and sighed.

"If the moment comes, it has to come. I will help the people. No matter what my father does, China must stand." Yueding pulled out a small red cased dagger from his robe and gave it to Po. The casing had carefully imprinted beasts, some of them looking like wolves or maybe lions. It was old so it was hard to tell. Po pulled the dagger out, showing its 12-inch blade with more hammered in beasts running down the edge from its jade hilt. "Take it as a sign of my word. My father said it was taken from the Jai-Yin's land. Maybe it will find a home with your guidance." Po nodded and tucked the dagger away as they headed towards the exit. "What will you do?"

"Maybe talk to Wolfie. Well, maybe not talk but...I'll figure out something. There's got to be some way to figure out who is or isn't a part of this clan AND how to find them."

"We'll find something," Yueding said, looking out to the high mountains surrounding the palace. "In either case, you should go. I'll tell you if anything pops up."

"Yeah," Po sighed, "And I'll try to not get squished by the king of bandits."

"Nothing is impossible to the Dragon Warrior, right?"

"Don't remind me," Po nervously laughed. The young deer smiled. The two bowed before each other and walked their separate ways with their own missions.

Continued...