I would like to inform my readers that since I will be starting college within the next few days I can't promise updates will be as frequent as they've been, at least until I get into a new swing of things. My only request is that you be patient with me and continue to read and review in the future. You make all feel worth while.

All that aside, there is a chapter at hand
Like always, ENJOY

Making the Cut
Chapter 12
Coyotes at the Fireside

I sat opposite the two coyotes with the small fire between us.

"We know you're looking for them." the male coyote repeated. "We know where they are. There with a former collegue of his, Master Val-"

"-Valko Montenegro in the Black mountains. I know. I read it in this morning's paper. I'm already planning on starting for there tomorrow." I was hoping there 'help' was more than information I already knew.

"How are you expecting to get there?" asked the girl skeptically.

"By foot." I said to her firmly although it sounded stupid so I followed it with "I don't have much of a choice."

"We know another way to get there." the boy said.

"What's that?" I asked.

The girl said "There's a farmer near our school. He makes trips, carting his produce and dropping it off to distant villages. He's making a trip that leads to the Black Mountains tomorrow morning. It'd be alot quicker than walking."

As much as I wanted to believe both of them were sincere, I could not for the life of me relieve my mind of the paranoia I wanted to feel being in their presence.

"Mind if I ask yall a question." I said.

"I was about to say the same thing." the male coyote said.

"Fine you go first."

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Xanidor." I answered.

The boy said "I'm Zed. This is Germaine."

Beginning my question I said "I'm having some trouble understanding. I mean, I come into your school, massacre the place, kill your master, and you wanna help me. Can you clear that up for me."

"It's because you got rid of him that we wanna help." Germaine said rather matter-of-factly.

For the first time the thought dawned on me that there were Masters that existed that were terrible to their students, like really terrible. Some how the thought never occurred to me before.

"Did he... I mean... What did he do?" I spoke as if I was treading on unstable ground.

Zed spoke. "Let's just say, when we didn't perform up to task he'd 'show us how it was done.'"

I remembered when Mr. Amm had said students from Keen Lee Academy stopped by due to injuries a lot. It took on a whole new meaning now.

Hanz Amm: Usually it's minor things, cuts and bruises like yours, but every once in a while a kid comes along with a broken wrist or ankle.

"I'm sorry." I said quietly.

"Sorry about what?" Germaine asked.

I'm sorry I don't have a master a bad has yours.
"I'm sorry he... did that to you all."

Zed said "You shouldn't apologize. You're the reason he'll never do it to anybody again."

Unsure how to respond I said. "What were your other questions?"

Zed asked "Why are you looking for the students of Master Oogway? Do you know them?"

I answered "Master Shifu was... well he sorta is... my Master." I had assumed they somehow knew this already, but the instant I saw their stunned faces it was safe to assume they hadn't a clue.

"Are you serious?" Germaine asked. For the first time her expression had appeared broken from its form.

I nodded.

"How did you escape." she asked.

I said "I was never taken. I wasn't there the night... it happened. I'm not actually sure what happened. ...Do yall know?"

"They took them at night when they were all still sleeping." He paused before quickly adding "We didn't go that night. Master Keen Lee took a hand-full of his students and more of Master Montenegro's students, but the ones from Keen Lee Academy that went told us about it. Sounds like they didn't even need that many students. They used chloroform or some other knock-out substance so they wouldn't struggle. They said Shifu and a monkey weren't completely over taken by it though. Said they put up quite a fight. But eventually it kicked in and they were all carted out of the Valley up to the Black Mountains."

I didn't say anything for a while, letting the crackle of the campfire take over the silence.

"When can we leave tomorrow?" I asked.

Germaine said "We can take you to him in the morning, but we can't go with you though."

"The authorities are watching the school like hawks." Zed explained. "They're worried if the 'perpetrator' comes back. It's a miracle we even snuck away, heck it's a miracle we found you."

"How did you find me?" I asked.

Zed said "We knew you couldn't have escaped that fight without being hurt in someway. When the students were taken to the only clinic in the village me and Germaine asked if a badger had stopped by anytime recently. When he said yes we knew it had to be you. There aren't many badgers in Pearljing. We were hoping you hadn't gotten very far. So we started searching the outskirts of the city when we found you."

I glanced down at Zed's knee where I remembered jabbing him during the fight. His knee had a distinct red circle on the where I knew Mr. Hanz had performed his fire-cupping. Mr. Hanz must not have heard the news at the time I was there. I smiled thinking of what Mr. Hanz' face when the entirety of Keen Lee Academy showed up at his clinic to be administered to some time after I had left.

"The sooner the better. I only have 4 more days to get to them. Aside from that, the authorities are bound to notice me if I stay here too long."

"You won't have t worry about that." Zed said smiling.

"The rest of the students have taken a vow." Germaine said. "As far as the authorities will think, the school's attacker was a male Javan Rhino in his early 20's."

Zed said"You'll have an element of surprise in the Black Mountains. Valko is expecting their former master, Master Oogway. Come to think of it... why didn't he come."

After blabbing that Master Oogway was dead almost ended fatally, I didn't want to repeat the mistake. Even though I doubted anything bad could come from me telling Zed and Germaine, I was still hesitant with them. "He hasn't been at the palace in a long time. He went on... some kind of... kung fu journey about enlightenment or something... he didn't really say. He likes to be mysterious like that. I had no idea when he was gonna be back. I was the only one left at the Palace so I had to find Master Shifu and the rest myself."

"Wow." Zed said. "It's crazy to think about."

"Yes." I said. Very Crazy

"How has Mantis been coming along with the lock picking?" Shifu asked leaning against the barred wall that separated his cell from Po's.

"He said it's not looking promising." Po responded. "Even if he can pick the lock to his tiny cage he said there's no guarantee that he'll be able to open any of our cell doors."

Shifu hated not being able to talk directly to Mantis. From what he had gathered from Po, Mantis and Viper were both being kept in separate cages rather than the cells which the rest were in. The cells were all in a row. As Shifu's cell was on one end all his information was relayed to him through Po, his only neighboring cell. Shifu sighed in exasperation. Every new idea that came to him he shot down before he'd finish thinking it. As futile as it was to try, he attempted at least twice to squeeze through the bars of his cells hoping for some bad architecture to pay off.

"Our situation is turning from bad to worse." Shifu said.

"You're telling me." Po replied. He had done his best to keep hopes up but as days turned into what felt like weeks it made optimism hard

A creak from a distant door followed by the echo of footfalls silenced the two's conversation. Shifu and Po immediately lied down in a fake sleep. Even with his eyes closed Shifu could hear the breathing of the person he used to know so well.

Valko Montenegro stared at the cells, each occupant sound asleep (or so he thought).

A second later tall crane of black and plum plumage walked in the doorway with a rolled paper under his wing and stood next to the Master.

"Master Montenegro." the crane said.

Montenegro spoke. "Qiang, welcome back from your excursion."

"Any sign of Oogway?" the stately bird asked.

Valko said "Not at all."

Spying Shifu's sleeping form in the closest cell Qiang asked "Has there been any problems with Shifu in my absence?"

"A few unspeakable words and loud thrashing, the expected. As long as I've known him he's always had the a will as strong as an 50 oxen. I'm not naive enough to believe Shifu hasn't been formulating an escape since he got here. I need assistance from Keen on this. I need a few of his best students. He owes me that much for lending him mine for their capture at the Palace."

"I'm afraid it won't be done Master." the bird said. His voice was without emotion.

"And why, may I ask, is that?" Valko asked incredulously.

"I've gathered some rather bizarre information in my gathering."

"Have you found out who these students are?"

Qiang began "Well the tiger, bird, snake, mantis and monkey are known as the Furi-"

"The Furious Five, I know." he said impatiently. "Everyone's heard of their battle at Weeping river. I want to know who that panda is."

"He is a student of Shifu's as well." Quiang went on. "Apparently he started sometime about a year ago. They call him "The Dragon Warrior." I've gotten that much information from the Valley. Almost no one seems to be aware of their absence."

"Almost no one?" asked Valko.

Quiang sighed through his beak. "After the Panda became a student, Shifu enlisted another student, people calling him 'The Next Dragon Warrior.' That's all I was able to gather about him from the Valley. Anyway, he wasn't there the night of the raid. As I've said, the villagers don't appear to know that Shifu has been taken, although i'm certain this student must be aware of it by now."

"And you think this student is of any importance?" Valko scoffed.

Quiang handed him a copy of "The Pearljing Gazette" dated June 11. Valko took it perfunctorily. Quiang watched his face turn from amazement, to shock, to worry, to anger

He threw the paper to the stone floor.

"Am I to believe this amateur fought off 52 of China's best students just to get to Keen!"

Quiang said surprisingly calmly "I think it's more than obvious from this that they are no longer the best."

Valko's face contorted with rage before relaxing. "You are right. My students still hold that title. Keen Lee was foolish thinning his knowledge in teaching just to have many students. Numbers aren't what wins a battle."

"-also obvious from this." Quiang added under his breath.

"You think this student's a threat?" Valko asked.

"You know what you just read."

"Fine. But if that's all you've gotten from the Valley, we don't exactly know who this student is."

"I've gotten a vague profile from the authorities given to them by the injured students." Quiang said. "We'll know what to be on the look out for."

"Fine. Let's discuss our procedure for the upcoming days." With that, Quiang and Montenegro left the room.

Shifu's left eye opened making sure Valko had gone.

He reached his arm through the bars where Valko had thrown the paper to the floor just within reach. If something had struck Montenegro speechless it was probably important. He had known him long enough to know that that was no common feat. Master Shifu read the article three times before he decided what he was reading was legitimate. By then he was as speechless as Montenegro, an equally uncommon feat. "Jo?"

"Did you say something, Master?"

Po lifted his body from his "sleep" position in his neighboring cell.

Without saying anything Shifu slipped the paper to Po through the bars.

Shifu waited with a look faltering between indifference and concentration.

Po finally spoke in an astounded whisper. "Master, do you think… Jo….. Could he really…."

"I don't know," Shifu cut him off. He was staring out the only window in his cell. Barred of course. The moon was nearly full tonight. In these past few days he had grown to like the moon. Its light at night seemed to be a shred of hope. It was a connection to the outside. Proof that that freedom still existed, just out of reach.

"But I hope so."

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