And Max goes back to check on Blaze to see how he's doing and gets to know him better.

Chapter 12: Info about Blaze

The next morning, Max walked past the bamboo forest and tried his best to remain indiscreet about where he's going and he was making his return to the cave to see Blaze for a while and maybe find out a few things about him and spend a little time with him. The last thing he needed now was to be caught by either Po, Tigress, Shifu or any of the Five because he knows that they make their journeys or go on walks from there towards parts of the Valley of Peace and he's trying his best to remain low-key as possible.

As he was walking, he felt completely empowered and confident about what happened at that MMA class and it just made him feel more free than ever before and just broke every orthodox kung-fu rules as possible and setting them on his own...yet he always wondered how the Jade Palace masters would react to this...particularly with Master Tigress and how she'll react to it; whether they take it as a positive or a negative remains to be seen. But he knows that there will be one that won't take it well...a certain angry and very jealous tiger master.

He took that focus off of what Tigress thinks as he enters in the cave and just wanted to see Blaze and when he got there, he sees Blaze's tail sticking out and wonders what would happen if he surprised him and he got closer towards the tail and yanks it.

"Whoa! Hey!" Blaze cried out.

Suddenly, Blaze turned around and saw Max right behind him and the cub waved him and Blaze chuckled at this...completely surprised that he actually came back like he said and Blaze said, "You came!"

"Of course I came! Why wouldn't I?" asked Max, smiling.

Blaze couldn't stop smiling and he gave over and gave Max a huge hug and that didn't cause him a lot of issues because they're both the same height anyway and Blaze said, "Gotta be careful with my tail though. It's kinda sensitive."

"Oh, sorry." Max said.

"It's all right. I had thought for sure you'd never come back because sometimes they say they might, but they don't really keep their word." Blaze said.

Max couldn't imagine being in that position where he'd intentionally break a promise to someone, even to one who's got their promise broken many times before and he said, "I'm not one of them."

"I can see why. Some of them who came in this cave sees me and they think it's a monster that's gonna eat them. It really bothers me a lot the way people see you as nothing but a monster. I've always believed what they thought of me...and like I said, I scare them away so I can just be alone. I don't think a dragon would fit in the Valley of Peace really well." Blaze added.

Max kept listening to everything Blaze said and he asked, "So...how did you end up here?"

"I'll be honest, I was separated from my family when I was born and I wasn't sure where they are, where I am or who I was for that matter. Growing up, I was being completely pushed away or shunned because I'm a dragon and when people see me, they think I'm out to eat their children or something like that. Why anyone would believe this, I don't know." Blaze answered.

"Maybe they read too much stories." Max answered.

Blaze chuckled softly at that and he said, "Anyways...I taught myself how to eat, drink, walk, run, crawl and fly. And I breathe fire really well...just for other stuff instead of burning things. Even when I'm not around people, they just call me 'menace' , 'danger', 'devil', 'monster', 'beast', 'deranged'...it's like I don't know who I am or what my purpose is. It led me to believe that maybe I am what they say I am and I don't want to hurt anyone...so I gave them what they wanted; to be left alone in a cave. So...I flew for a while and then this is where I've secluded myself so that no one can see this monster...and I never left since then."

After hearing Blaze's story, he couldn't find the words to say other than how sorry he feels for him and Blaze said, "Do you have any idea what it's like being alone for so many years? To have someone stereotype you as a monster or a freak? Why you're not like everybody else? If you felt the same pain I felt for so long..."

Blaze paused for a second as tears started coming out of his eyes and once it fell down to the ground, Max went over to him and said, "You're not alone on that, Blaze. I've been through the same thing you have...only 20 times worse."

"How did you recover from that?" asked Blaze, with a sniffle.

"It's kinda hard...but you can't let that affect you for the rest of your life. You just have to be surrounded by people who care about you...or at least one person who will be willing to stand by your side...through good or bad." Max answered.

Blaze looked at Max and he said, "I'm so glad you didn't listen to me when I said I didn't need any help when you pulled the thorn out of my paw. I owe you big time."

"It was nothing." Max said, being modest.

Both of them hugged each other and although their different species meant a very bad reputation, their hearts are anything but. And from that day forward, they'd be there for each other and never let anything or anyone tell them any different.

This next chapter takes about 2 weeks since the meeting where Max splits his time between spending time with Blaze and taking the MMA class.

Voice of Max: Ben Diskin

Voice of Blaze: (again) Ben Diskin