Jie Long had to admit. Xun was strong. Not so much physically, as the tiger himself was, but Xun had refused to be carried a second time. After he had cried— Jie Long suspected he wouldn't shed tears again in the near future— he had wanted to walk alongside Jie Long. He couldn't help but admire the kid for that. And . . . in a way, it reminded him of himself. He remembered all the mind-numbing training he had done over the years.
When he first found out about his true parents and their deaths, he didn't cry. He had been taught he needed to get stronger from the day he could throw a punch, but that was the day he realized that a soft heart lead to weakness. He trained out his grief. He brutalized his body in an effort to forget. He subconsciously narrowed his eyes as they walked. When he had recovered, his inner-most pain of loss didn't dwindle. And so, he kept on with this training.
He knew no one like his training regiment. They had been very vocal about it since day one, but he couldn't care less. Strength was what he needed to survive. But, the training didn't help him forget.
The two stopped at the base of the mountain. They were a couple hours out of the Valley of Peace, standing in front of a cave that echoed into the mountain. He could smell the fear coming from the child. "Stay strong." With that final word, he walked into the darkness. Xun couldn't see in the dark, not like he could. So the child followed what little he could see, the tip of Jie Long's tail.
It didn't take long for Jie Long to reach the end of the 'cave'. He came across a large metal door, with a circle bar-handel in the middle of the door. He gripped the sides of the bar and twisted it. It made a loud screeching noise and several thuds could be heard from the door. It stiffened and he pulled on the door, dragging it across the ground. Xun backed up bit from the noise, unsure as to what it actually was.
"Forward." As soon as he was sure Xun was inside, he closed the door and returned the handle to lock the door. He turned around and walked the past the kid, walking through a wooden door frame with no door. He skidded to a stop. Harsh blue eyes stared back at him and his frown only deepened. Of course it was so soon. He took a deep breath, running his mind through a series of scenarios before finally opening his mouth to talk to Master Viper. "I know what you're going to say, but I promise you won't be mad."
He was pretty sure her eyes couldn't narrow any further. "Do tell."
Jie Long stepped to the side, "Master Viper meet Xun." He folded his arms across his chest as soon as Viper's eyes landed on the child. Her glare melted off her face and her eyes softened. He could so easily push his point about their need for patrol through the village, but he choose to say nothing.
"Are you hurt?" Jie Long winced at how similar their fist words to the kid had been. Part of him hated to admit it, but they were similar in many ways. The other part wanted to make sure the kid was comfortable before he left him to his master. Xun merely shook his head. "Let's find you a place to sleep." Viper turned her head to Jie Long, opened her mouth to ask a question. He knew what was going to come out of her mouth, but he shook his head. It was best not to bring up the dead.
Xun's eyes widened, "Wait. Jie Long, aren't you coming?"
He grimsed at the effect this kid had on him. He wanted to say yes, but he couldn't. Not yet, anyways. "Sorry, Xun. I have a few things that need to get done." Xun's face fell and Jie Long's ears fell against his head. Dammit. "I'll see you around."
"Promise?"
"Yeah." He said a bit too quickly, "A warrior's promise." His eyes darted to Viper, "Make sure he eats first. It's been at least a day."
She nodded before saying, "We're not done." He nodded in response and she carted Xun off. He watched them vanish through the maze he dared call home. An underground settlement of survivors. Home sweet home.
Shifu. He could see it now. Shifu would give him a lecture, get his blood going. Every time he heard one of Shifu's lectures it made him angry. Every time he went to the surface he would get one of those damned lectures. Stay in the nest, he would say. Let the world wither, he would imply.
He followed the wall of lit torches. The settlement had a dusty stone floor and a wood support system holding the cave system up. He passed by tunnels leading deeper into the mountain, leading to the survivors of the massacres led by the Regime. He had a guess as to where Shifu would be. The old master spent his time in a conference room of sort. He was always there. On rare occasions he would visit the Great Garden. Jie Long would make sure to avoid both of these areas.
In fact, he would avoid as much contact as he could. He had already ran into Master Viper, a bit too soon for his own taste. Crane, Shifu, and Daiyu would be absolutely vital for him to avoid before he could gather his bearings. Although, as soon as it was spread that he had returned Daiyu would come looking for him.
Jie Long didn't know much about the old wolf's past himself, but Daiyu felt some kind of commitment to look out for the tiger. It annoyed Jie Long at times, having the wolf twist his own neck just to check on the lad. His father, the Dragon Warrior, had saved him, whatever the wolf ever meant by that Jie Long didn't know. Hopefully he would be able to sneak around avoid contact for a few hours. If anything, Shifu alone was his concern.
Despite the vast space the survivors had claimed, many people still shared space, not that anyone really complained about it. It was better than being dead, after all. Due to that, he shared a room with the only other kung fu student alive. Lily. It made it hard to try and sneak around her, but even she had no idea of his findings on Project Xodara.
He had first found out about the Project on his travels into the valley. The information he had collected on it was very limited, he hadn't the slightest clue of what it actually meant, but he understood that it was important to the Regime. Important enough to have dedicated supply lines. One of which ran through the Valley of Peace.
His immediate goal was to find more information as to the location of the Project, which meant finding the supply line and its destination. That's why he had been in the Valley, to find more information. However, following small patrol groups seemed to be going nowhere.
He pushed open the door, entering his shared room. As of right now, it was empty. Good. Inside the room there were two beds on each side of the room. On the left side of the room there was a small bookcase, chest, and desk. On the right there was a dresser and a basket filled with various items, of few of them he collected from the surface. That side was Lily's. He walked to the left, approaching the chest. This was his side. He opened the chest and his paw skimmed by a few items. A small engraved dagger, a jade medallion, and a small staff. He grabbed a rolled up map. He grabbed a few small rocks.
He needed information that only the Regime had access to. He needed to know where the supply line led to and the only way to know that was to do something a bit more risky. He needed a collection of information of Regime Supply Lines and to do that he needed to go into a Regime compound.
Jie Long sat in his desk and stretched the map out across his dusk, pacing small rocks on each corner as a weight of sorts. The dusty, decayed map was of the Valley of Peace. He grit his teeth, scoffing. My trip to the Valley confirmed it. The supplies route doesn't run through the lower half of the village— no, it runs in the north. A low growl escaped from his throat. Dammit, this makes things far more difficult. Despite the Regime's hold on the village, the lower half was still chaotic. In fact, only the Jade Palace was truly controlled by the Regime. Ever since they took the imperial city they had paid less and less attention to the outlining villages. They must have a ledger of some kind, but if they did they would keep it under strict protection. At the Palace.
He narrowed his eyes, what was he going to do?
"Hey!" The chipper voice snapped him from his thoughts, startling him. He stiffened up and slowly turned his head to look at her. It was her.
Lily slithered up closer behind him. "I saw my mother a few moments ago. She was with a young boy, never seen him around before." She slithered up the chair until she was able to be on his eye level. "You brought him back from your to the surface, didn't you?"
He turned his gaze back to the map. "What about it?"
She smiled, "Oh, nothing. Just . . . you brought back a kid of all things."
"I didn't find what I was originally looking for, if that's what you wanted to hear."
Her smile faltered, "You do know I'm not here to torment you, right? I'm just curious." Her eyes darted to the ground before quickly getting back to him. She was nervous. "If you're willing to let a kid tag along, would you mind if I came next time?"
He scoffed, "You? Miss goody-two-shoes? Sorry, I'm having trouble believing you would want to come with me. Aren't you afraid of retribution from Shifu?"
It was her turn to scoff, "Please, he would just yell at me for a few minutes. Besides, I'm getting sick of you being the only one to bring back stuff from the surface." Her face turned serious, losing all semblance of a smile. "Do you think I can't handle it?"
He knew she could handle it. She was strong, whether he liked it or not. "I don't want to be responsible for your well-being."
"I'll stay out of trouble. I promise."
If he was being honest, it wasn't her strength that worried him. Nor was it ability to stay out of sight. No, it was her temperament. He hated the Regime, he killed them at almost every opportunity he got. A lot of the time, there was literally blood on his paws. She, on the other hand, was kind and sweet— alot like her mother. Not being able to kill your opponent in battle may spell disaster.
Reluctantly, he gave in. He nodded to her, showing his approval.
She looked at his map, "What you doing?"
He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind for now. "I'm trying to find out where their record of supplies would be kept. I'm thinking that all supplies that come through the Valley need to be registered."
"The Jade Palace seems to be the most defendable area."
He nodded in agreement, "That's what I was thinking." He clenched his fists, "I need that information."
Her eyes widened and she smiled, "You know, you're a lot softer than you give yourself credit for."
His eyes widened in surprise, "Huh?"
"You're collecting supplies for the civilians." A shiver ran down his spine. He had been so fixated on the mysterious Project Xodara that he didn't even think about it. He frowned at the thought. Here he had a mentality of helping others, but he didn't even think about aiding them. "Oh, don't frown like that! Don't worry I won't tell the others of your softness." He didn't tell her about Project Xodara. He didn't tell anyone about it.
The words came from his lips, barely squeezing past his teeth. "Tomorrow."
Her eyes widened, "Huh?"
"We'll go tomorrow." He rested his paws against the map. "We'll go tomorrow." He narrowed his eyes, I suppose we'll see if all those stories are accurate. We'll finally see the Jade Palace for ourselves.