Chapter 16
Uh-Oh
"Lien! Lien-Hua wake up!" Crane came zooming in through my window just as I was changing.
"Stop!" I called to him.
"What?" Then he realized the situation and turned brick red.
"Turn around and face the window. Don't move." After instructing the horrified master, I jumped into my patched robe, then moved my shade back into position. "Ok, you're good. What's wrong?" I asked walking over to my weapons trunk and pulling out my blades and Steel Talons. I sat down to put on my Talons, but it was then I realized a female crane was standing on the balcony. Her feathers were a creamish white from her middle to her legs, and from her middle to the top of her head was cornflower blue. "And who might this be?" I winked at Crane and walked over to her.
"Oh your majesty," She bowed deeply, "My name is Chi. I work as a florist in the city." Her voice was soft, but strong in its own right.
"Pleased to meet you Chi. I am Master Lien-Hua, but I am not the queen of this city, yet." I smiled at my own cleverness. "But even when I am, call me Lien."
"Yes, your majesty." I shot her a playful look as she bowed again. "Oh, I…I mean Lien." We both laughed as she tried to hide her blush as Crane wrapped his wing around her.
"She's the top florist down there, and she specializes in weddings." Crane pulled her closer to him and kissed her cheek. Chi giggled lightly as he did.
"Aww! You two are so cute!" I sighed and returned to putting on my Steel Talons. "But before you two get totally lost on me, what's wrong?"
"Oh yes!" Crane soared back over to me. "We have a problem. As in a big, huge, really really bad problem." I could feel urgency radiating off of the spindly crane.
"What is it?" His emotions were starting to twist at my gut, and I was feeling very scared.
"Tigress' patrol returned just this morning, and truthfully I should be letting her tell you this instead of me…" Crane trailed off as I sprinted over to the balcony, spread my wings and dove down to the fifth tier.
"What did you find Tigress?" I asked before I even landed. Everyone turned as I soared in with the breeze and Shifu stepped out of his room looking tense.
"Wolves." Tigress and Po answered together.
"Wolves? They were all crushed in the cave in." I was confused.
"Not those wolves. These were way bigger and there were about three times as many." Monkey explained.
"Bigger? The only wolves around here were the pack that was destroyed in the cave in." I racked my brains for a possible answer, but came up with nothing. Oh how I wished Shen was here! He would know what was going on, and how to take care of it.
"Lien, have you ever heard stories about the Black Moon Pack?" Shifu asked me. I looked at him, confused.
"Black Moon…" I thought for a moment, then I remembered an old ghost story my father had told me when we were in the tunnels. It had been about a terrible blood-thirsty pack of huge jet black wolves, who held no mercy in their hearts for anyone who stood in their way. All they did was go around and take whatever hunting land they could from weaker packs. They had done this for hundreds of years until the Snow Pack, a group of pure white wolves sent by the gods to liberate the abused people, arrived and put an end to their reign of terror.
"My father told me stories about them, but they're just that, stories. The Black Moon Pack isn't real." I explained.
"Look." Shifu lead me to the east balcony so I could see the mountains. There, coming over the peaks like fat black beetles, were the enormous wolves of said pack.
"Their coming for the city Lien." Tigress stepped up behind me.
"What? Why?" I gasped.
"I heard them talking about control, and how they would be the most powerful pack in all of China if they could overthrow Gongmen." My fellow master informed me.
"Don't they think we still have an incredible army?" We had tried our hardest to keep our lack of forces silent to the rest of the world.
"No. The alpha male knows that you are powerless. He's coming with full force, and he doesn't care what, or who, suffers. All he wants is complete control of Gongmen City."
"Up here! Come on guys! I think I found it!" Sariah was full out sprinting ahead of us. After we had woken up that morning Sariah had, as always, breakfast ready for us. I noticed that the three of us were becoming rather plump from the nutritious soup. I didn't know where she got everything that she put in that cauldron but whatever it was, we couldn't seem to get enough of it.
After breakfast we had placed our bowls in her cooking pot and off we went down the tunnels again. We had only been going for a few minutes when we came to a steep up-hill incline. Sariah had dropped to all fours and began to run. Now we were struggling to keep up with her. Genji was doing the best, as he was right on her snowy white tail. Bo-Chen was only a few steps behind him; while I was struggling because my wing had started to throb.
"What exactly did we find?" I called up to Sariah.
"Your freedom!" Our guide called back, and a new surge of energy hit me and I smiled. I dashed ahead of both of the teen peafowl and was neck and neck with the silvery she wolf. Wisps of fresh air wafted down the tunnel to meet my nose. I could see speckles of sunlight dotting the stone. The rush of a little creek greeted my ears.
Pictures of Lien's pretty face flashed through my mind as I thought about how she would react when I returned to the palace. I couldn't wait to run up to her and wrap my wings around her and hold her as close to me as I could. I would never let this happen again, not as long as I was still breathing. Now I could see the end of the tunnel!
All of the sudden, though, my feet were taken out from under me and I fell face first on the stone. I looked back to see Sariah dragging me back into the shadows. "What in the name of fireworks are you doing?" I nearly screamed at her.
"Shut up! Listen!" She hissed at me and I tried to catch my breath. When my panting finally slowed down I could hear the scuffle of paws just outside the entrance.
"What are you doing, mangefur?" A gruff voice said from above.
"I thought I sniffed something, fleabrain. Plus I'm starving." The second voice was wiry and higher pitched. Then we could hear the sound of a dog sniffing around the tunnel entrance. Bo-Chen gasped, but Genji slapped his wings over her beak before she could scream. The sniffing paused. "Did you hear that?" The same voice asked.
"Yeah. It sounded like a little snack." The first voice purred and we heard the first dog join the second at the mouth of the cave. The sniffing began again and I watched in horror as their black noses poked through the cover of vegetation. My heart was pounding so hard I just knew the hounds could hear it, as I tensed to fight them.
"You two!" Another voice, further away, called. I could picture both of the dogs pause and look back. "Let's get a move on. Rafael wants to be at Gongmen City by noon."
"Sir yes sir!" The voices agreed and we listened to them pad away. We waited for a few more moments and collapsed on the tunnel floor.
"Oh…my…gosh!" Genji panted. "We almost just died!" His tail fanned out as he finished his last sentence. I chuckled and ruffled my own feathers after feeling a chill.
"I hate that feeling." I told him with a smile. The young peacock smiled back and stood.
"I almost screamed." Bo-Chen murmured miserably. "I almost gave us away." She was curled up on the floor near Sariah's feet and tears brimmed in her big brown eyes.
"Almost would be the key word there my dear." Sariah crooned. "Those fleabrains wouldn't have been able to get past us anyway. All they wanted was an easy meal, not a full out fight." She sat down and stroked the little hen's back to get her to calm down.
"Don't worry about it little one. I was about two seconds away from screaming myself. We'll be home soon." I tried to comfort her as well, and to my great shock she ran up to me. Wrapping her wings around my neck and burying her head in my chest she started to cry. I looked around to see if I was dreaming or something; I wasn't. Then Sariah motioned for me to hug the little hen back, so I did. "Hey, hey. Just calm down ok? We're all fine." I crooned in her ear, and stroked her head and neck the way I had for Lien when we caught her in the bamboo thicket.
"This is so scary Shen," Bo-Chen blubbered. "What if they come back?"
"Then I will fight them and make sure you get home to your sister." I held her shoulders so she had to look me in the eye. "We're so close now. You can't give up on me, ok?" I asked her.
"I will try." She murmured.
"Try isn't good enough." I told her softly. "I have to have you behind me or I may not be able to go on." I smiled and reached to wipe away her tears.
"Ok. I will be brave; just for you." She mustered a grin and I hugged her tightly. "I love you uncle Shen." She said so only I could hear her. I smiled and had to blink away a few tears of my own.
"That's my big girl!" I told her as we both stood again. Then I noticed Sariah, and how nervous she looked.
"Sariah, are you ok?" Genji asked her coming out of the shadows.
"No. We have a problem on our paws." She looked up to us and re-remembered we were birds. "Or…uh…wings as the case may be." Then she looked back at the floor as though it contained all of the answers.
"What is it?" I asked.
"You heard them say the name Rafael right?" We nodded. "Rafael is the name of the alpha male of the pack that killed my beta squad. He's still alive."
"Oh no!" The young peafowl gasped.
"What should we do, Sariah?" I asked her and peeked out of the curtain of vegetation. All of the wolves were gone, with a huge trail of tracks left behind. "Their gone. Can we leave the cave?" I asked hopefully.
"Of course. Come on." Our snowy white guide led us into the sunshine. All four of us breathed in deeply, taking in huge lung-fulls of the glorious fresh air.
"Yes!" Genji and Bo-Chen pumped their wings and flew around in tight circles. "this is the best!" Genji crowed.
"Shh! They're not that far away!" Sariah called. "I can still smell their putrid stink." Her long white fur gleamed in the sunlight as she sniffed the air again. Then her face contorted in confusion as she sniffed again. Then she pressed her face to the ground and sniffed around.
"What on earth are you doing?" Bo-Chen asked as they landed again.
"Tracking." Sariah said between sniffs. "I smell…*sniff* I smell…*sniff* My pack!" With a small bark Sariah took off over a little rise.
"Wait for us!" We called and followed her over three more little hills to a big peak. As we came over the peak we gasped. Standing in the valley, glowing in the sunshine like walking snowdrifts, was a whole army of white wolves like Sariah. "Holy sparklers!" We breathed and looked to Sariah. She smiled at us sheepishly.
"I told you I had a big pack didn't I?" She asked. She looked so happy to see her own kind again.
"Actually you failed to mention that fact." I told her.
Ok, so the action is coming. It's gonna be good, but I'm struggling with ideas, so it could be a slow process...maybe... Sorry for the cheesy title for the chapter too... I was trying to hurry and get it up. This is getting so deep, and a touch scatterbrained (if it's confusing, just let me know and I'll try to fix it to clarify) and my mind is going like 90 miles an hour so yeah. Hope you like, and REVIEW! Getting reviews let's me know how I'm doing and what ya'll want to read! Come on! XD