Fight for the Bear Title


Sho punched and swung his hammer at Po again. The panda ducked, striking Sho straight at his arm. "DAH!"

"Haha!"

"GRRR!" Sho growled. He struggled to lift his hammer but blocked the panda's next hit. But Po wasn't done. He jumped over Sho, landed behind him, and swept his feet. The bear tumbled onto his hands and knees.

"The bigger they are," Po shielded his eyes. "The more you get to see their underpants. Geez man, cover up."

"GRRRR!" Sho took one swing and clobbered the panda across the face. Po stumbled back and blocked the brown bear's next punch to his gut. "What the heck is going on?!"

"What's wrong?" Po smirked. "Getting nervous?"

A sound punch to the gut silenced him. Po huddled over as Sho lifted his hammer high and smashed it right at the panda's back. "HA!"

"NOPE!" Po rolled out of the way and flung to his feet.

"How are you this fast and alive?!"

"Ugh," Po coughed, "Between you, Tigress, and fighting a bunch of bandits all the time, I think my skeleton is made out of rocks now." Sho shook off his shock and swung his hammer again. Po jumped over it and swung his foot across Sho's face.

The kick drove the brown bear straight onto his side, causing a cloud of dirt and rock to soar into the air. "HA! I did it!"

"Grrr," Sho growled. "You're gonna regret that."

"Uh oh NYAHH!"

While Sho and Po fought, Wolf, Mantis, and Monkey tended to the others' injuries. Wolf knelt by Tigress's side as he lifted her head to help her drink water. She coughed up some of it. Wolf scanned her over to make sure there weren't any bruises. "I'm fine, Wolf."

He didn't seem convinced. A weak smile crossed Tigress's lips, but the shame came rolling over out of her mouth.

"I'm not in that much pain. I just...I failed."

"Hm?"

"I failed. I... I wasn't strong enough to defeat Sho by myself." Her head turned to the fight. "Why is it that Po can fight him... but I can't?"

Wolf sighed and shook his head. He gently moved Tigress's head back to him and touched her forehead. "What?"

"Hmm."

"My... my head?"

Wolf flexed his biceps and pointed to her head again. "Strength... mind... I... I hold myself back because of... what I think?" Wolf nodded and directed his attention to her legs. It made sense. For so long she had seen her full strength as something to be restrained and suppressed. The strength was there, but the mind wouldn't allow it. "It didn't seem to make a difference."

"Hmm," Wolf grumbled, annoyed. While he worked on making sure her legs were okay, his tail started to swipe at Tigress's face. Fur and dust wafted the tiger's nose.

"Achoo! Wolf, your tail," Tigress said, but the wolf was too focused to pay attention. His tail dusted her nose again and again. She couldn't move her arms; the pain was too great, but there was something the tiger could use to stop the dog's tail. Tigress finally chomped down on Wolf's tail. "Hmph!"

She wasn't biting hard on it, just enough to get his attention, but the wolf jumped at the sensation.

"YIIIIPE!" Wolf yelped.

The yelp echoed in Tigress's mind. A migraine shut her eyes. She couldn't see Wolf but something younger stood before her. And the yelp rang again and again as she saw herself picked up in a red-walled bedroom. She saw two feline figures behind the person picking her up. But the person, the animal carrying her, with bits of his fur still caught in her mouth, was a red-eyed wolf, grumbling yet smiling with a boyish grin while she heard the two figures behind him laugh.

The vision left her mind. A second must have passed for what felt like an hour. Tigress's eyes shot open as her mouth dropped. Wolf snatched his tail out of her mouth, grumbling as he continued tending to her injuries.

"B... B... Baba?" Wolf's eyes grew wide and looked right at Tigress. Had he heard right? Tigress tried to sit up, but the pain in her back brought her back down. "My back."

Wolf gently helped her sit upright against the mountain wall. He pointed to her back. "What? You want to see my back?" Wolf nodded. Tigress lifted her vest only enough to where the area hurt. Wolf fell back to his butt, gapping in a face Tigress couldn't make out. He clasped his mouth. Tears broke down his black furry cheeks. "What? What is it?" Tigress asked. Wolf couldn't "speak". Tigress said, "Wolf, what's the matter? Is it the bruise? Is it-"

"Lily?"

The words came out like a foreign language to Tigress's mind. She hadn't heard that voice in her life.

Then why did it sound so familiar? So brotherly?

Her eyes grew wide when she saw Wolf's mouth move... and words came out. "Lily. It's... It's really you." More tears streamed down his cheeks. "It's me... your second baba," Wolf smiled with tears pouring down his eyes. Tigress couldn't make words. "I know who your parents are. I was sent to find you after our-" He cleared his throat. He hadn't used his voice in years it seemed. It came out gurgled and rocky, like a low raspy wind that smoothed over time. "You are a part of the Jai-Yin. I've been looking for you for so long and-." Wolf suddenly tackled her in a hug, crying into her shoulder. The tiger couldn't react. Her eyes went wider than a sack of potatoes. Her body stiffened from the wolf's hug.

And yet, she wrapped her arms around him, slowly hugging back. Something about it felt like home. The warm black fur all rang memory after memory and with each memory, her smile grew. "I finally found you," Wolf sighed.

"HIYA!"

The bears' fight called their attention. Wolf growled and released the tiger. "I've got to put a stop to those two." Tigress grabbed his arm.

"Don't." Wolf looked at her as if she was crazy. "Po's determined to prove something. I don't think that's a good idea."

"There's nothing to prove with-"

"Take this!" Sho shouted, swinging his hammer across Po's gut. The panda huddled back and clutched his stomach. "Third time's a charm!" The brown bear rose his hammer high in the air and slammed it down on Po.

Po caught the hammer and gritted his teeth, growling as he snatched the long hammer away. "Grrr, Enough with the stupid hammer!" He took the hammer's handle and snapped it right in half with his knee.

The mountain fell silent. Po threw the broken hammer at Sho's feet. "There. That thing was getting annoying."

"He... he broke the hammer." Tai Yang's words fell not one inch past his mask. Sho fell to his knees, gazing at the discarded weapon. The hammerhead had a much shorter handle, almost too short to wield properly. But the metal and wood sat shattered and splintered like a twig broken on the ground. Snarling, Sho marched back to his feet.

"That hammer was a family heirloom!"

Po gulped. "Don't get angry at me. You should have taken better care of it!"

"GRAAAHH!" Sho punched and swung his hands at the panda who easily caught and blocked them.

"Whoa, you're not really good without that hammer, huh."

"I'll get you back for this!" Sho yelled. Po jumped over him, booty bumped the brown bear forward, and swept his feet. Sho tumbled right onto his face. As the big bear rolled over to his back, his hammer's head stood three inches from his face. Po held the shortened handle on the other end.

"This fight is over, Sho," Po said.

"Yes, it is." Po looked to the voice only to get clobbered across the face, five feet away from Sho. Po swung his head around and saw Tai Yang standing right over him. "I think I've allowed this fight to go on long enough." He swung his arm back. Po crossed his arms, bracing for the hit.

Thud!

"That's enough!"

The voice sounded completely new to Po. He opened his eyes and saw Wolf standing right in front of Tai Yang, holding his fist. "He... he spoke?" Po stammered. Wolf glared right at the masked man, not snarling. His face, though angry, held a peace that didn't seem to be natural for him, to Po at least. Like he hadn't made that face for a while. Sho's eyes grew wide as he and Po struggled to their feet. Po stood right behind Wolf while Sho struggled to Tai Yang's side.

"I call this fight over. Po defeated Sho, so the Bear Title of the Jai-Yin goes to him."

"You think I was gonna honor that?" Sho grumbled.

"You lost the dignity to even have the title when you first left the army," Wolf barked.

"Oh, and that was my fault?" Sho growled back. Wolf didn't say a word. He simply glared at the masked man. The moment of silence allowed a strong gust of wind to whirl around them and blow the fog away for a moment. The high noon sun brightly burned down on the gray stone plain.

"Uh... sooo can I ask the obvious question?" Po interrupted. "Why are you talking now, Wolf?"

"Lion." Po titled his head. "My real name is Lion."

"Oh thank goodness," Tai Yang sighed. "I was getting tired of making up nicknames." Wolf rose his eyebrow. "Well, I can't be associated with the King of the Demons. And ever since your little excursion in Chengdu-"

"It is not my fault that the princess there eloped. I thought she was the one I was looking for. I was wrong," Lion interrupted.

"Uh... excuse me?" Po asked.

"Never mind," Lion sighed. "The reason why I'm talking now is because I've found what I've been looking for."

"What's that?"

"You don't get to know, pig," Lion grunted at Sho. The two glared. "In either case, Po deserves the Bear Title."

"Over my dead body."

"That can be arranged."

"Enough," Tai Yang shouted, silencing the two. "Lion is right."

"WHAT?!"

"You didn't even want the title when it was first given to you," Tai Yang remarked. Sho grumbled under his breath until he saw Po holding his hammerhead with its shortened handle.

"Sorry about the hammer. But... maybe you can still use it?" Po smiled kindly. Sho glanced at the panda and sighed, taking the broken pieces.

"Alright," Sho muttered. "I lost."

"Good," Lion sighed.

"Now that you have what you've been looking for, what will you do?" Tai Yang asked. The wolf stared silently with a clenched fist. "Well, stay out of trouble and I won't have to come after you."

"I?" Lion and Po asked. They looked at the defeated Sho grumbling in the corner. Things started to clink a bit in Po's head. If he had the Bear title now, Sho was just some regular bandit with no ties to Tai Yang other than being in the same lost village.

"I see," Lion said in a measured tone.

"We'll keep in touch," Tai Yang said as the fog started to roll back in. "And Lion? Stay away from Jai-Yin Mountain."

"That place is dead to all of us. Only ghosts and demons reside there. Heh, ironic that you have a demon mask," The wolf said. Tai Yang looked back for a moment and walked away, disappearing right into the fog. Sho stayed for a moment, sadly looking at Po before walking down the mountain in shame, alone.

"I think we should get going too," Po said, looking at the Furious Five strain to their feet. "I think you have a lot of explaining to do, Lion." The panda smirked. "And I'm sure that Tigress will want to know more."

"Hehehe," Lion nervously chuckled.

Continued...