A huge thank-you to Red Panda Obsessor for the encouragement and the grammar check. ^_^ As an FYI, anything in first person narrative is from Shifu's point of view.

Kung Fu Panda and its original cast belong to DreamWorks. I do not own. Cha Gung village and its inhabitants (with one exception), and the Fisi Clan are of my own twisted imagination. Yum.

Chapter One

Something was wrong.

I couldn't breathe. My side burst with hot pain. I screamed.

I know I screamed. I did, I…

There was no sound.

I couldn't hear anything. Why? My heart pounded in my head like a menacing war drum. I could feel every beat against the inside of my skull. Why couldn't I hear anything?!

Where was Master Oogway? I opened my eyes. I had to speak with him. He was here somewhere; I just had to find him…

My vision swam in ripples of dull brown and gray. Waves of hot and cold rolled through me, making me tremble. My face felt wet. My eyelids were cold. The light got brighter, sending shooting pains into my head. My stomach clenched. I followed the instinct to roll over just as I threw up.

My side was splitting in two! I curled in on myself to stop the pain. A force on my shoulder turned me onto my back. That hand did not belong to Oogway. A cloud of gray blocked the light above me. I blinked hard to get the water out of my eyes. They burned and stuck. It was hard to open them again.

If I squinted I could see the blur of gray above me was more than cloud – my captor. My hands moved without me. The weight on my shoulder disappeared, and the light came back as the enemy fell away. Another wave of nausea hit me, wrapping me in hot and cold tremors. I rolled over.

I could barely hear myself vomit. Everything sounded like a dull roar. It was the same echo over and over again. It shattered my ears with a pain that made my head swell. Hot and cold all over again. I didn't have the strength to be sick. I stayed still a moment, panting, trying to keep my eyes open. I couldn't catch my breath; it hurt too much. I couldn't stay here. If I found Master Oogway…

Sitting up took an eternity. My arms trembled so badly I nearly couldn't support myself. My muscles wouldn't do what I wanted them to; everything took several tries. More water in my eyes. The room spun and tilted like silk panels in the wind. I closed my eyes, but it didn't help. I was tilting, too. I shook my head to clear it.

I threw up.

I nearly collapsed from the pain, throbbing in every muscle down to my tail. My whole body hurt to the erratic rhythm of my heart. I don't know how I stayed upright, only that I had to find Master Oogway. The room was still moving when I opened my eyes. My head kept tilting. My ears were twitching, full of a roar I couldn't understand.

The dark blur in the corner of the room was most likely the door. I rubbed my eyes and looked down, trying to ignore the burning in them. The floor disappeared in the watery tunnel of my vision. It got lost somewhere, just a soft red landing pad without definition. I didn't trust my legs.

Maybe I was supposed to stay where I was…

No.

My body was moving without me. I landed in a heap on the floor before I knew I'd slung myself over. I cried out. My sight blacked out for a moment. The floor was a lot harder than it was supposed to be. My lungs burned; my side was unbearable and I clutched at it. I drew back when my touch hurt; my hand was warm and wet…

Master Oogway could fix this. I had no time to rest. I struggled to get to my hands and knees. My body wouldn't listen.

I startled when someone picked me up by the scruff of my neck. My muscles jumped, sending more pain ripping through me. My body froze, ignored my commands to move. The sudden rush of air through my teeth meant I hissed. My ears pressed back. I wanted to defend myself against the hand hoisting me up, so high off the ground! My arms wouldn't lift. The roaring in my ears exploded with a loudness that nearly made me sick.

I felt too heavy for myself. Nothing moved right anymore. I was ready to give up, if I could just breathe again…

Then I was cradled, looking into the face of the enem –

…Wait.

Furrowing my brow made my head pound worse, but it couldn't be helped. I blinked again.

I knew that face…

Master Flying Rhino looked worried. Perhaps he could help me find Master Oogway. In the mean time, this familiar face meant my safety. He was saying something to me, but I couldn't understand.

My eyes fell closed to Rhino. I recognized one word on his lips: Help.

~*~*~*~*~

Amadi sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with thumb and forefinger. The fur on the back of her neck rose.

"Ige," she growled. The hyena in front of her bared his teeth aggressively, a high cackle escaping his throat. "I made you head of the guard for what reason?"

Ige stared ahead as Amadi circled him closely, her nose near his neck at all times. If she didn't smell fear, he didn't respect her, and he would be killed. Her bare paws smacked gently on the canvas floor of her tent, cold from the packed snow beneath.

"Nothing escapes my guard," he replied with confidence.

"I heard a disturbing rumor from Ramla this evening. Do you know what it was?"

"No, Kgosi," he replied flatly.

Enraged by his ignorance, Amadi fisted his hackle and threw him down with a menacing growl. Ige cackled again. A spike of bitterness rose through his stench, quelling her anger a bit. That was the fear she'd been looking for. She allowed herself a rare, indulgent sniff of his mottled brown fur and dirty armor, reveling in his weakness.

"You failed me," she seethed in his ear.

"Impos –" She slapped him, barking with a snap of her teeth to induce silence. He winced, but didn't move from his prone position. He glared into the canvas.

"One of your guards failed to stop a strange traveler two days ago. He could have had weapons. He could have had food. He could have been food!"

"How?" Ige snapped, desperate to defend himself against her verbal onslaught. "This damn blizzard started three days ago!"

"I know when the damn snows came, ingrate!" Her paw landed on his curved neck, making him yelp in pain. Closing her eyes, she breathed deep through her nose, registering the fear to calm her temper. Her voice came out cool.

"Had it not been for the snow, I would have the Sword of Heroes, the village would be burned, and we would be trekking back to warmer weather by now."

But with a wistful laugh and a shrug of her shoulder, Amadi crouched before him and grabbed his chin, forcing him to look up into her grinning face.

"But if you're so adamant, then prove me wrong. Send one of your Paki up to the village. If the stranger is there, both you and your subordinate will answer to Gwandoya. Am I understood?"

Ige nodded against the force of her hand. With a cackle, she drove his head into the floor again. He continued nodding into the canvas as she sauntered to the pile of bright pillows that served as her bed, and the male hyena that awaited her there. Ige lost the breath he was holding, and began laughing uncontrollably.

~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Greetings again. Hope this held your interest. R&R, if you would be so kind. The chapters following this will probably get a little longer. Plot will also become clearer, I just wanted to get some of the setting into place before hand. Names:

Amadi: African name that means "seemed destined to die at birth" in Yoruba.

Ige: African name that means "born feet first" in Yoruba.

Kgosi: African name meaning "king or chief" in Tswana; used here as a title rather than a name.

Paki: African name meaning "witness" in Xhosa; used here as a title rather than a name.