(Jade Palace)
The sun was just beginning to set when the when Tigress and the other had finally made their way back. Walking up the final set of stairs they turned to see Po yank himself up the last step before rolling onto his back completely exhausted.
"We've walked up these steps how many times and you still can't make it?" asked Monkey in disbelief.
"What… can I… say… stairs… are my… worst… enemy." Replied Po in between breaths as he tried to regain his breath.
Tigress just rolled her eyes as she and the others turned back around to walk into the hall of warriors, where they saw Shifu meditating at the end of the hall.
Hearing the return of his students, Shifu opened his eyes but didn't get up out of his meditation pose as he merely raised his head and took a deep breath.
"I take it, the monster was stopped?" he said as he waited for an answer.
But he was given none as his student's mere looked at one another as they were not sure how to tell him that the monster had gotten away. Not liking the silent response, he was receiving he got to his feet and turned around to face his students.
"You… did stop the monster, right?" he asked with some slight concern.
"No Master." Responded Tigress with shame in her voice. "It had escaped into thin air after jumping into a river." She then stated.
Shifu was a little disturbed by this as there were very few in China who could evade his students, who were some of the best kung fu masters in all of China.
"That is not good… as with it still lose it may try to attack another village." He then said as he thought out loud.
"Zeng!" he then shouted as the goose immediate flew in before landing in front of Shifu.
"Yes master Shifu." Zeng replied with a quick bow.
"I want you to head down to the valley, and tell the guards of all the near by villages to be aware that the monster is still at large, and if it is spotted tell me immediately." He ordered to Zeng.
"Yes master Shifu." Responded before taking off out the open doors before heading down to the valley below to relay Shifu's message.
After Zeng had disappeared the six warriors turned to face their master before Tigress bow and the others quickly followed suit.
"Forgive us master. We failed you." She said.
"You did not fail me Tigress… none of you did. What ever this thing is… will appear again… and I'm sure you all will stop it then." He stated as they came out of their bows but Tigress still had a look showing she was not please that this thing had gotten away.
She never took failure lightly, and for all of them to lose the monster didn't sit well with her. What ever this thing is, was good at evading capture, and those who usually are were dangerous and would often create chaos. But the monster had gotten away there was nothing she could do now except wait until it showed up again.
Shifu could still see the look on Tigress's face, and knew she was mad at herself for failing. He felt some what guilty as it was because of how raised her.
Twenty years of him criticizing her for her mistakes, and very rarely praising her successes had made it difficult for her t accept failure. He now saw that his treatment towards her was wrong and wished he could fix that mistake.
But she was now all grown up and he didn't really know how to mend that wound.
His gaze shifted and brought him out of his thoughts when he spotted something in Tigress's hand.
"What is that?" he asked as he point to the odd-looking object.
Tigress opened her hand to examine the object once more, before handing it to her master so he could examine it.
"The monster used that against us… it some how emitted a bright light and deafening sound that slowed us and allowed the monster to escape." She stated as Shifu continued to look at the object in his hand.
He could not tell what metal this thing was made of, and had no idea how to even create the odd shape of the object. He then turned it over and saw some strange symbols on it that he was not familiar with.
He would have to look in the archives to see if he could find anything on these symbols and possible decipher them.
"It is getting late… you should all get some rest." Said Shifu as he gained his students attention.
"Yes master." They all said with a bow before turning around to head to the kitchen to get something to eat before heading to their rooms.
(With Mark)
Mark had waited in the water for about an hour to ensure his pursuers had indeed left, before finally pulling himself out of the water. Shivering slightly, he removed some of his armour and put it over a tree branch to let it dry. To exhausted we slumped up against the tree before looking to examine his leg.
'What is with me being hit all the time?' he thought sarcastically as he looked at where the arrow hit.
Seeing it hadn't hit anything major he reached into his bag and pulled out the med kit he had and treated it before wrapping it with some bandage. With the wound treated he looked up to see the sun was now setting and knew it would be dark soon.
Struggling to his feet he got up in order to gather some wood and twigs to start a fire as he knew he couldn't make it back to the ship before dark, and trying to navigate in the dark would be impossible.
A half hour later Mark was resting against a tree with a fire just in front of him over looking the river. He silently stared at the fire as his mind raced about what he just witnessed today.
Animals standing on two legs and talking…Talking! Clear English as if it was normal… but that wasn't possible. Animals couldn't talk and walk like people… unless it was Disney.
But the biggest question in his mind was how? How did this happen? Was he in some weird dream… and was really still passed out on the ship?
No that couldn't be the case… he was shot with an arrow and felt the pain from it. As far as he knew, in a dream you would wake up if you were about to feel pain. He also had slept a couple of time… even if only a couple of hours. Which meant unless you can sleep in dream and this was a really long one, this was real.
But how? Animals could talk… not in…
Mark's mind went into overdrive as the next thought bewildered him.
Not in HIS world. But perhaps they could in ANOTHER world. This left him completely speechless as he simply couldn't believe that he somehow ended up in another world.
But that wasn't possible… was it?
Mark understood what a multiverse was, but never thought that something so outlandish could possible exist. Was it possible that he ended up in some twisted dimension where animals walked and talked like humans?
He brought his hand to his chin as he pondered on how could this possible happen, before a scary thought hit him.
The dark matter! Such a thing had never been used before, and there was a concentration of it when the explosion happened. So, was it possible that it had somehow 'broke' the gap between this universe and his?
Sighing he decided to wait tell he got back to the ship, before he delved into this idea further. He then looked up at the night sky as he began to ponder on he was going to get back to the ship.
He knew he couldn't just take the same way he came since it was most likely to close to the village that attacked him, and they would most likely send those same animals back to finish him if he even so much as breathed to close. He would likely have to follow the river since it mirrored the path, until he was far enough away from the village to cross the path and begin making his way back to the ship.
He looked back at the fire as he watched the flames dance and twist as the wood slowly burned. As he watched though he suddenly started having flashes of his past as he remembered certain moments during the war that he wishes he could forget.
Shaking his head, he tried to supress the dark memories as he looked away from the fire and out over the river at the calm water which slowly flowed down it.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he closed his eye and tried to get some sleep as he knew tomorrow was going to be a long day.
(Jade Palace next day)
Shifu was down the hall towards rooms where his students slept, as it was just about time for the gong to go off. Finally reaching the hall he waited patiently for the gong, which rang about ten seconds after he arrived. The moment the gong rang six figures bursted from their rooms with a perfect bow.
"Good morning master." They all said in unison.
"Good morning my students." Shifu replied. "Because you all have been training really hard the last few days and you have had to deal with bandits three times this week. I decided that you can all take the day off for yourselves." He then stated.
He could see Monkey and Mantis trying to hide grins from growing on their faces, as they most likely would head down into the valley to pull some pranks for the day. Crane and Viper gave each other some glances, as they were most likely going to be speeding some quality time together. Po had a look of relief and Shifu most thought he was most likely going to go back to sleep. The only one who hadn't given any real reaction was Tigress who he thought would most likely use the time to train in the training hall by herself.
He then turned around to begin walking away but a voice stopped him.
"Where are you going master?" asked Tigress.
"I will be in the archives to see if I can find out what the symbols on the object you and the others brought back after dealing with the monster." He said as he turned back around to face her.
"Is… it alright if I join you in finding information about the monster, master? She then asked.
She had spent a good portion of the night thinking about the monster. It was taller then her and slightly more than Po, but was not as tall as the Rhinos down in the valley. But what kept her thinking about it was how it had evaded all of them, and she wanted to find out how and possibly what it is.
Shifu was slightly surprised by this, thought it could be a step towards bonding with her.
"Of course, you can Tigress." He replied before turning around to continue walking towards the archives with Tigress following behind her.
After a few minutes they soon arrived at the archives, where they walked towards the stacks of scrolls that lined the walls.
"So where do we begin looking master?" asked Tigress as she eyed the wall scanning over the scrolls.
Shifu pulled out the object Tigress had given her that was from the monster. He looked over it once more as he studied the symbols for a moment.
"We should first start by trying to learn what these symbols mean. I will look in the ancient dialect, you should look at foreign languages to see if it came from else where." He told as he then looked up to see her nod before heading for a specific section to begin gazing through the scrolls.
A half hour passed and both found nothing, as they went through about half of the scrolls. Tigress was starting to get frustrated as she would of thought that either her or Shifu would have found something by now. She had gone through all different text in Asia, and none of them came close to the symbols on the object.
'Maybe it came from Europe?' she wondered, as she moved onto the scrolls that covered European languages.
Immediately after opening the first scroll she knew she was heading in the right direction. She saw some of the symbols were the same and others similar not looking anything like the ones on the object. She moved onto the next the one with all of the symbols looking the same but when trying to decipher the words they didn't make sense. Turning to the next scroll she found the same thing with seeing the same symbols but couldn't make any words out of the them. She sighed before moving onto the next scroll and opened it up. She examined the symbols and found them to be the same as the ones on the object.
'Hopeful this one will tell me what they are saying.' She hoped as she continued reading the scroll.
She began trying to translate the symbols but found them to be difficult and had to take several tries to try and sound out the words.
"Flash… Bang?" She finally got and wondered if that is what it was called. It would make sense since it flashed a bright light with a bang before the monster escaped.
"Master." She then said as she gained Shifu's attention came over to examine the scroll she had out.
"Did you find something Tigress?" he asked as scanned over the scroll and saw the same symbols that were on the object.
"I believe so master." She said as she continued to try and translate the rest of the symbols.
"Well what have you learned?" Shifu then asked as he turned to look at Tigress who thought she had translate the rest of the symbols.
"It says flash bang, which is what I think its called. Below that it says model 7…2…9…0, with the next line saying U S patent 5…0…5…4…5…2…3." She said as she read translated the symbols.
The next translations confused her though. "Made in U S A?" she said confused.
"What do you mean made in U S A?" responded Shifu who was also confused, as he had never heard of a place called U S A, which is where he assumed the object is from.
"I don't know master… it just says USA." She responded before rolling up the scroll.
"What language is it?" Shifu then asked.
"English… it says English which is from Europe." She replied as she turned to look at Shifu.
"Europe, you say…hhmm… perhaps we can learn something on what it is from European creatures." He said before climbing up the shelf to scanned through the scrolls before grabbing one of them and reading it over for a second before seeing it was not the one they were looking for.
"No." he said before putting it back and grabbing another.
He read through it before nodding an jumping down back in front of the table, with the scroll.
"Here we go." He then said as he unrolled the large scroll.
"What is it, master?" asked Tigress as she didn't recognize the type of scroll which seemed to be a list of some kind with different types of animals beside the text.
"A list of all known species from Europe." Replied Shifu as he scanned over the extensive list, before pausing. "Tigress… can you describe the monster for me?" he asked.
"It a bit taller then Po, with no visible fur with pale skin." She responded as she recalled on her in counter with the creature.
"Would you say it was a mammal?" was Shifu's next question as he looked over at Tigress, as she thought about it for a moment.
"I… believe so master." She answered to which shifu moved to a different section of the scroll.
"Do any of these look like the creature Tigress?" asked Shifu as gestured the list.
Tigress moved slightly to get a better view of the list and started to scan over it. The first few were nothing like the creature being different types of wolves, bears, felines, and rabbits. She continued to scan the through the list before reaching the end and turning towards Shifu.
"None of these were like the creature master." She told which got a semi worried look from Shifu who began stroking his goatee.
"That is not good this is a list of all living creatures in Europe." He stated.
"Wait… living?" questioned Tigress.
"Yes living." Was all Shifu said.
"Could it be a species that is thought to be extinct?" she then asked which got Shifu to pounder for a moment.
"Extinct… it is a possibility." He contemplated before turning around, and jumping back onto the shelf.
Shifu then starting picking through the scrolls till he found a very dust one at the bottom. It was very old and looked to be very delicate due to its age. Jumping back down he gently placed the scroll on the table, before opening up.
Tigress looked over the scroll and saw many different types of animals but didn't see any that looked like the creature.
"Do any of these resemble the creature Tigress?" Shifu asked as he studied the different animals on the scroll.
"No master, it isn't…" stated Tigress but stopped when she noticed the small amount of text at the edge of the scroll. She gently continued the scroll to reveal more text, which shocked her.
Because their clear as day was a image that looked like the creature they encounter.
"That's it." She stated as she pointed to it to the image as Shifu moved slightly to see the image. The image showed two images of one that was likely to be male and other one female. The one that was male had short hair that covered its head and face, while the female had long hair that was long enough to go down its back on its head with no facial hair.
She then began to read the text to identify the creature
'Humans. Humans were one of the worlds most intelligent creatures which belong to the primate family. They were one of the oldest, with their species rising to form civilizations predating any other species. Their species usually stand at around five to six feet tall, but their heights and weight can very drastic as well. When it comes to being a predator they are not the most dangerous as they do not have any claws or fangs of any significates. But what does make them dangerous is their intelligence, with them being able to out think almost any animal, and were able to create mechanisms incomprehensible to all others.
The humans were an odd species with them mostly keeping to themselves, away from others eyes, as it seemed they only ever watch and observed us unless provoked. But something happened which lead to many of them disappearing seemingly over night. But despite their small numbers they were still very dangerous.
They were so dangerous in fact it took all animals in the world to unite in this single conflict against them. The battles were fierce with few humans being able to wipe out entire armies, and it looked like nothing could challenge them. They were even some how able to wipe entire villages away that only left a chard landscape in its wake in an instant. Battle by battle they won, and it looked like their victory was inevitable.
But then when all hope seemed loss they just simply disappeared, and vanished into thin air to never be seen again. What killed them remains unknown with some saying they died of disease, while others think they killed themselves off, as they turned on each other. It is said though that they didn't die and may one day return, and that they are not existent but merely hiding. Others say they went underground, while other suggest they moved to another part of the world.
If a human should ever be seen again, it should be stopped at all costs. Because it is said that their power has the ability to rival even that of the gods.'
Tigress was dumb struck. Humans… so that is what the creature is. Which is one of the worlds oldest and most dangerous creatures, which was now loose in the valley. This disturbed her because if it was loose in the valley, there was no telling what this human could do.
She turned to look at Shifu who appeared to be just as disturbed as she was by this news.
"Gather the others we need to discuss about this." Told Shifu as he continued to stare at the scroll.
"Yes master." Replied Tigress with a perfect bow before turning and to run and gather the others.
(With Mark)
Mark was clinging to the cliff face as he was about twenty feet from the summit, as he was currently hanging onto a root. Taking a deep breath, he pulled himself up a bit before grabbing another root, to aid him in climbing. This proved to be a mistake though as shortly after grabbing the root it broke.
"Shit!" cursed Mark as he immediately grabbed the previous root to catch himself from falling any further.
Mark slammed back into the side of the cliff, with a groan as he swore he heard one of his ribs crack upon impact.
'That fucking hurt' he thought as he just took a few deep breathes while hanging onto the root. He looked down for a moment to see he was a few hundred feet off the ground, and that if he didn't catch that root he would have most likely died.
'I hate climbing.' He thought before turning to pull himself a little bit more up the ledge.
Anther few minutes passed before Mark finally reached the top and pulled himself away from the ledge. Mark then rolled onto his back holding his side slightly as he tried to catch his breath. Another few minutes passed by before he finally sat up and pulled a water bag out of his pack and began sipping on it.
'Okay the village is probably in the direction the pig and rabbit fled so I should head the opposite way for a bit before trying to cross that path. I don't need a repeat of yesterday.' He thought with a slight shiver going down his spine at the memory.
Taking one final sip, he then turned to placed the water bag back into its spot before getting up to begin heading the opposite way of the village.
Mark made his way though some tall grass before reaching some thick bamboo, causing him to stop.
'Well shit!' he cursed as he realised he was going to have to cross the path a little closer to the village then he would have liked.
'Well I'm not wasting my strength trying to cut through that.' he concluded in his mind before turning to begin heading towards where the path should be.
About ten minutes passed before Mark finally reached the path, where he crouched down as he slowly approached through some tall grass. Slowly he poked his head out of the grass to see if the coast was clear and to his relief it was. Not wanting to waste the chance he got up and sprinted across the path before disappearing in the thick woods on the other side.
Mark slowed down when he lost sight of the path as he thought he was in the clear. He walked for a few minutes as he slowly made his way towards the next cliff face that would lead to the valley before reaching the cliff the was below the crash site. His thought soon entranced him though as his thoughts consumed him and he thought about how he even ended up here.
What mark was unaware of though was that he was not in the clear. A group of children had snuck away from the view of their parents, to play in the forest.
"Tag your it!" a girl wearing a yellow dress said as she tagged a sheep who was wearing blue shirt and brown shorts.
"Oh ya!" he said as he began to chase after the rabbit to tag her back.
A few of the other children ran away as well as to avoid being tags as some hid behind trees while others ran deeper into the woods. One of the girls continue to run while looking back to see if anyone was following her. She then went around a tree when she suddenly bumped into something, causing her to fall back onto the ground. When she looked up though her face became one of absolute fear as she was standing less then a foot from Mark.
When Mark felt something hit his leg he at first thought it was a branch but when he looked down he saw a small rabbit that he assumed was most likely a child if he were to guess. His heart then suddenly stopped as he realised what had just happened.
He had stumbled upon a child, that most likely was from the village, and the if they were hostile towards him already, they were going to be really after him now.
His horror only increased when a few more children came around the tree, before freezing with fear just like the girl.
'Fuck!' was the only thought Mark had as he realised what was about to happen.
(In the Musician village)
In the musician village guards patrolled around while some of the villagers finished repairing the last of the homes that were damaged by the bandits.
At one particular house two rabbits were finishing up as the placed the furniture in its intended spots. Placing down a table the two stood up with one of them rubbed his back for a moment.
"Thanks again for the help." He said, when a female rabbit ran with worry on her face.
"Honey what's wrong?" he then asked as he took a step towards her.
"The children! I was watching them, but when I turned back around they were gone. I think they went into the forest!" she stated, which caused him to go wide eye briefly before running out the door and straight towards the guards.
One of them saw them come running up and they turned to give him their attention.
"What is it?" one of them asked.
"The children! They ran off!" he stated.
Before the guard could respond they suddenly heard screams in distance, which was most likely the children. The guards immediately took off towards where the screams came from and soon saw the children come running towards them.
"What happened?" the captain asked.
"The monster… we saw it… it ran off… that way." One of them said as then pointed towards the cliff.
"Alert the Jade palace!" he told one before turning towards the others.
"Rest of you go after it." He then ordered as the remaining guards took off after the monster.
(With Mark)
Mark was sprinting towards the cliff as he knew things were going to get messy if he didn't get away, and quickly. Reaching the cliff ledge, he looked over the ledge to see vines lining it all the way to the ground below.
Not wasting anytime, he began to descend down when he could hear voices coming from above which only served to make him move faster. Taking a chance, he let go of the vine he was hanging onto, fell before grabbing another vine about fifteen feet below. When he looked back up he could see some of the rhinos again and that they had spotted him. One of the rhino drew his bow before firing an arrow at mark which missed by about feet, which stuck into a vine.
Not needing to be told what would happen if he got shot he continued to descend at a rate he didn't even know he could do as he kept drop ten feet at a time as he grabbed vin after vine.
(Jade Palace)
Everyone was gathered in the archives where Shifu stood in front of the table with the scroll with Tigress beside him as the others stood in front of him, to hear what they had found.
"So, what's the finding?" asked Mantis as he and Monkey were a little annoyed that they had to give up on their pranks to come back.
"Tigress and I found some disturbing information concerning the monster, and if what this scroll says is true then the valley is grave danger." He told as he glanced at Tigress who had the same concern look as he had.
"Well what did you find?" asked Crane as he scratched his neck for a second.
Shifu was about to respond when the doors suddenly swung open and Zeng came rushing in.
"Master Shifu! The monster was just spotted outside the musician's village!" he told.
Shifu immediately turned to Tigress. "Tigress I want you and the other to bring the monster back here if possibly." He ordered.
"What but master!?" question Tigress, but stopped when Shifu raised his hand to silence her.
"We need to learn the truth about this creature, and the only way is to bring it back here and question it." He stated.
Tigress thought about it for a moment and thought it made sense. The only way to find out if what the scroll said is true was to interrogate it. Which meant they had to bring it back alive.
She looked back and nodded at Shifu before turning to the others.
"Let's go!" she then ordered before running for the door.
Not missing a beat, the five others warriors followed her out side to head back towards the Musician to deal with this monster.
"So, what is this thing exactly?" asked Viper as she slithered beside Tigress who was now running on all fours.
"The scroll said it was called a human, and that it is very dangerous." Tigress replied as she briefly looked at Viper to tell her. "But what has got master Shifu and I so worried is how dangerous the scroll says they are, and that they are suppose to be extinct." She then added.
"Wait really?" asked Crane who flew a little to join the conversation.
Tigress nodded but didn't say anything else as they continued to run towards the musician's village.
'You are not getting away this time human.' She thought as she was ready to beat this so called most dangerous creature.
(Authors notes)
And done. Wow that took a while, but I finally finished this chapter.
So ya… we Tigress and the others now know what Mark is, and know where he is.
So next chapter we will see what happens when tigress and the others confront Mark for the second time.
Who will win… will Mark get away again or will Mark get captured?
Until next time this is the forgotten soldier signing off.