A/N: Well this is embarrassing. I didn't notice my mistake here. Nonetheless, here's the REAL chapter 2.
The pulley system ascended back to the lower bridge as the lights of daybreak peeked through tiny holes in the ceiling. Yut hid beside the door at the other end of the bridge as the rhino guard emerged from elevator. The wolf hid behind the door as the guard passed through and went up the stairs. Soon as he was out of sight, he dashed towards the pulley and went down.
The memory-lost wolf woke up early from excited anticipation. He enjoyed talking with the leopard, and he couldn't wait for their next conversation. Going down, he could see Tai Lung at the base of the platform, still hanging where he was from before. The moment he reached the lowest floor, he made his way towards him.
"Hey Tai!" Yut called out. The shackled snow leopard didn't respond. The wolf raised an eyebrow as he continued to walk towards him. "Hey, you okay?"
The wolf waved his hand across his face, but Tai Lung remained his head tucked down. "Hello?" said Yut as he neared his ear to his face, hearing him breathe through his nostrils.
Again, not a sound came from the Kung Fu warrior. Yut thought he was just playing with him, so he thought of playing along as well. He crept up around and behind the Tai Lung, reached out his arms through and across his belly, and quickly dashed his fingers across his fur.
"Kuchi-kuchi-koo!" he jested as he tickled the snow leopard's abs. Nothing but a short exhaled breath came from him. Tai Lung was probably a quarter-foot taller than him, and with another-quarter foot from hanging in mid-air Yut had to raise his hands high.
"What are you doing?" said Tai Lung in a low menacing tone, annoyed by the light dancing of touch on his body.
Yut froze his fingers there for a moment before drawing his arms back. "I was… tickling you?" he responded.
There went Tai Lung's attempt to ignore him, but he knew it was a long shot. "And for what reason would you need to do that?" he replied. "And last time I checked, my name isn't just Tai"
"Hmm? Oh, well, I just thought it'd be better to call you that," Yut said. "I mean, the Lung part really isn't that necessary, is it?"
The snow leopard wanted to retort about his name, but the memory of acquiring it in the first place flashed in his mind, and he instantly drew back all thoughts of doing so and went back to being silent. Suddenly, the thoughts were replaced by an enticing smell that came from the wolf. His sniffing was audible enough for Yut to hear.
Yut was wearing a brown satchel over his left shoulder. The bag rustled as Yut reached his hand in towards its contents.
"Here." Yut handed towards Tai Lung's face a crisp piece of bread, still retaining its fresh enticing scent. "I snuck it out of the prison kitchen. Go on, eat it." First glance of the delicious-looking pastry caught Tai Lung salivating in a blank stare. It was as if the sun shone the light to the darkness in his eyes. It took him a long moment to snap back into reality.
"I-I'm not hungry," Tai Lung said, trying to avert his eyes from the delectable image of sweet ambrosia. Suddenly, a long growl stirred nearby. And it didn't come from another individual.
"Now that's absurd. It looks like your stomach disagrees with you," Yut said before looking around the leopard for any conspicuous signs. "And it doesn't look like they feed you with anything. Do they even feed you at all?"
Tai kept his eyes away from the bread facing Yut. A long deniable silence was the only answer Yut could take.
"Wait- they don't? How can you even survive!" the wolf asked surprisingly. "Wait! Don't tell me! It's another Kung Fu thing, isn't it?"
"It is said that the Dragon Warrior can survive for months at a time with nothing but the dew of a single Gingko leaf, and the energy of the universe." Tai Lung mentioned before accidentally taking a glance towards him and the bread and quickly went back to averting his eyes. "N-not that any of that matters now…"
"Well, I don't know what a Ginkgo leaf is but I don't think there's any here, and I do know that you probably need something to eat 'cause I don't think universe energy is edible," Yut said before bringing up the tasty piece of pastry. "So, come on, just eat this"
"N-no!" Other than the fact that his life in the Jade Palace had trained him with survival and endurance, his pride prevented him having to be fed by a person he'd only met yesterday. His training did involve him starving weeks on end along with sleepless nights, but staring at that certain piece of bread starved him as much as a famine would starve an entire village.
"Come on, it's just a piece of bread. It isn't poisoned or anything." The wolf said encouragingly.
"Just-just get it away from me! I'm not hungry!" Tai Lung denied, but his stomach protested otherwise with a loud growl. "Shutup,stomach!"he shouted in his mind.
Yut waved the enamoring bread left and right, held both sides of the bread and broke it apart with a delightful crunch, letting out the warm bewitching aroma out and filled Tai Lung's nostrils with a temptation he could hardly resist. "It soft and cheewwwyyy," he cooed.
Tai Lung could almost feel his moist tongue wanting to jump onto its rough yet soft texture. He could feel himself inching towards it. His mind chanted "No!" yet his body could not help itself.
"It'd be a waste to let it go cold." Yut brought one half towards his mouth, widened his jaw and savored it upon entry. With every lift and bite of jaw the wolf portrayed made the leopard's jawbone throb, wanting to make the same movement. He made a pleasant moan as he savored yet another unfamiliar thing of importance in his memory. Every chew Yut made was like an agonizing hour as it played in Tai Lung's mind in slow-mo all until he swallowed.
And just as Yut began to move the other half away from his audience's face and towards his, Tai Lung couldn't hold it any much longer. If he had to, he might have broken the shackles that bound him in his prison. Tai pushed his chest forward and protruded his head, snatching the small piece of bread with his bare teeth.
With the food in his mouth, he hastily grinded at it like a hungry dog. And, before finally swallowing, he took slow delicate chews that passed through every corner of his mouth, sinking in the flavor all around. He did not realize it until know that his all his taste buds tasted all those years before in prison was nothing but dust.
As the food passed down his throat, he could hear his stomach praising the gods as if it were manna from heaven, followed by screaming and pleading for more. The moment after Tai Lung licked his lips in satisfaction, he had realized that his host was standing happily with a grin right across him, sticking out a bit of his tongue.
"It's really good, isn't it?" he beamed.
"I-I've tasted better," Tai Lung replied, denying the fact that he did like it.
"Well, I still have some more here if you want," Yut said, as he reached in to the rest of his brown satchel more sweet warm bread. "Couldn't catch it with your superior senses, can't you?"
The leopard narrowed his eyes, but not of deep contempt, only slightly. As if easily passing it off.
When the wolf brought the bread to him, he no longer hesitated eat more. Yut delicately passed the bread towards his mouth, and Tai ate it less impatiently than the first.
"This is demeaning," Tai Lung mentioned as he ate the first piece of bread. His felt his pride almost literally being stepped on.
"No it isn't," Yut replied. "What's so demeaning about it?"
"The fact that I'm being fed like a child," Tai answered.
"No your not," he lectured. "It's a thing between friends, am I right? There's nothing wrong about that at all"
"Friend…?" thought Tai Lung. It was a strange word to him, but he knew the definition well. What it meant to have a friend though, was an experience alien to him. Whether he regarded Yut to be his friend at all, he didn't really know. He would mind, after all, since he seemed to be spending the rest of his life in prison. But the fact about the awkward mysterious wolf whom he just met still remained. Tai Lung kept silent as another piece of bread went to his mouth.
After a few more minutes of simply eating, the two once again started off with normal conversation. Tai Lung related to Yut more on the history of China, and what he learned from studying scrolls other than about kung fu back in the Jade Palace.
"And the great general prevented a war that would have lasted another hundred years," Tai Lung trailed off while Yut listened.
"Wow, it's amazing you remember all this stuff," the wolf replied.
Tai Lung wanted to mention it was a part of his training, but he kept it instead as he realized it might make him sound more boastful. But even without him mentioning it, Yut could not help but ask another personal question.
"Hey Tai," Yut said. "I've been thinking about, you know, your past"
"What about it?" Tai Lung said in a deflective tone.
"Have you ever, I mean, would you have ever chosen that life?" he inquired.
The leopard raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Well, let's say you were adopted by a normal family. And by normal, I mean no kung fu-ey thing." Yut explained. Tai Lung's plain facial expression told him to go on. "And let's say you heard about it, would you go and learn it?"
Tai took a silent pause of thought. "I… never really thought about it. Back at the Jade Palace-" He cut himself off as he realized he was trailing off back into how he was raised again, but urged himself to continue a moment after. "Back at the Jade Palace, all I did was focus on my training. My master… Shifu… told me that I was destined for greatness. And that alone was the drive that kept me reaching for a star that shined I know not where."
"So, are you saying you did all those things because this Shifu guy told you?" the wolf asked.
"Everything I did, I did of my own volition. They all have nothing to do with any of it," he replied, with a hint of spite in his voice.
"Then if you wanted to be a farmer, you could've just left and did just that?" Yut wanted to clarify.
"What? No! I mean – why would I ever want to be a peasant?" Tai Lung replied.
"No no no, what I meant was, if you ever wanted to be something else, would've you become that person instead?" Yut said.
"Becoming a Kung Fu Warrior was all I ever wanted to be," Tai Lung rang in his mind. He contemplated his thoughts and pondered upon them. "It was... my destiny... what I had." Perhaps having a parent, no matter how he tried to deny the fact that he had one, was what had made him into what he was. Would he have been left in front the doors of a merchant or noble, perhaps his life was different. But being told of the potential he had and the environment he was raised in, he realized that there couldn't have been any other dream for him.
Tai Lung shot a glance towards the wolf in front of him, and scoffed. "I don't remember ever letting you ask these kinds of questions," he deflected, not wanting to give him the answer he had.
"Oh – I'm sorry. I… didn't mean to pry," Yut apologized. "I just… wanted to know more how life would be when you're young." The wolf mustered a smile, as if joking about it, even though it pained him to say it. "After all, I don't have any memories."
Tai Lung could see the frown behind the mask. The leopard didn't mean to hurt him, and in most cases he naturally wouldn't care. How he had such an anti-social attitude, was probably because of living in solitude without anyone else.
"Look…" he said, trying to be discreet from his answer and kind in his tone. "Some parts in a person's life are complicated, and it's not good to make them remember it. So keep that in mind. You've got to respect what other people have, even because… you don't have what they do…" he trailed off.
Yut wondered what he meant by that, but he did cheer up. The mask he wore slowly dissolved into his real face. "Alright, I'll do better next time I talk to you"
"I meant with other people too," said Tai Lung. "You don't plan on talking with just me, are you?"
"What's wrong with that?" he winked. "You're pretty good to have a conversation with, compared to these rhinos"
"Heh, you don't even need a long span of memory to find a better comparison," Tai Lung joked, which made the wolf laugh up a bit. Cracking up a joke from him could've been deemed impossible by the furious five.
"And its not like you have anyone else to talk to either, right?" Yut mentioned.
"Well someday you've got to leave this place, aren't you? You don't expect them all to buy that fraud story you've come up with. Sooner or later, Vachir is going to come back, and you'll have to leave before then." Tai explained.
Yut scratched the back of his neck. "You are right about that," he said before beaming his eyes.
"One day, you'll get out there and learn about the world and see for yourself everything I've told you about," the snow leopard said. When he became such a thoughtful sensitive person, he never would've guessed. But there it was, the words coming out of his mouth as proof.
"Then I guess I'll have to learn all I can until then!" Yut said enthusiastically. "Please teach me, master!"
"Don't kid about that phrase," Tai Lung added.
"Yes, sensei!" Yut said as he bowed down to him. Tai Lung didn't feel annoyed at all at his impertinent behavior, in which would usually enrage him. In fact, this time he felt a bit happy. Little by little, as they spend time together, they could feel themselves change from what they thought they were, even Tai Lung. Especially Tai Lung.
Any amount of days one would look forward to would usually pass by without another second's thought. But surprises always happen in the end, which last longer than every moment in the world.
Two weeks since their first encounter, Yut woke up, if the opposite of the expression existed, in the right side of the bed. Popping his neck left and right, he had high hopes that another wonderful day would happen once again.
Those two weeks he spent with a prisoner named Tai Lung, a snow leopard he had cleverly nicknamed as Tai. He did his best to avoid asking personal questions, since Tai Lung didn't seem at all comfortable with it. He had based numerous questions about history, some involved objects he had no knowledge of, and some he had even mistaken for something else.
But strangely, even with his curiosity of the world in analogy was like a child's desire to check the view from the steepest peak of the tallest mountain, he didn't bother about what were the memories he had before. Thinking about it now made him curious of it however, but the time of pondering for it was about to be set aside.
The midnight guard ascended from the pulley, and as he did every morning he hid behind the door at the other end of the bridge and waited for him cross. The moment he was about to sneak up from behind him he made his way through the bridge. But the guard stop before it could pass by him as they heard a very loud thud.
"Where is he!" boomed an angry rhino that stormed out of entrance, the door slamming towards the wall. His voice echoed across the dark fortress, audible enough for the wolf to recognize who it was.
The rhino was only wearing a large white undershirt with blue swim trunks. One of the guards went towards him and greeted him along with the almost a thousand more rhinos him. "Welcome back, Commander Vachir. How was your vacation?" he said.
Vachir was huffing angrily. "I just came here straight from my vacation when I learned that the Royal Palace didn't send any replacement guards!" the commander roared.
"Not good not good…!"Yut trembled.
"Now I don't know what's worse; having no replacement guards sent, or the fact that we've got ourselves an intruder! Find him! Find that wolf!" Vachir commanded. The guard near him had just passed through Yut, giving him the opportunity to slide through him as he always did. But as he started to run across the bridge, his heavy footsteps gave way to his cover. The guard nearby noticed and quickly alerted the others.
"He's over here!" he shouted. The rest of the Anvil of Heaven leaned down and caught sight of the caped wolf.
"After him!" Vachir snarled.
The guard from a while ago was already too late as Yut went to descend down the pulley. The others rushed down as the slow elevator made his way to the lower platform. But around a few meters high, the elevator began to slow down and a few moments after it came to a halt. The guards were holding unto the chains that was making it go down, and the slowly worked to bring it back up.
Yut glanced down and back up, and saw there was no other choice. He went down from the edge of the pulley and grabbed hold with his hands, dangling in mid air. Soon after, he let go, and the decreased height made him survive the fall. As the elevator gradually went back up, Yut sped towards the center of the platform.
"Looks like your time's up, boy," Tai Lung said as the wolf was making his way towards him.
"What should I do what should I do!" Yut stammered nervously.
"You should've tried to make your way back outside," the snow leopard said.
"Are you kidding? There are about a thousand of those muscle-headed rhinos!" the wolf replied.
"I don't think it's impossible, I'm sure you could've beaten them up," Tai Lung said sarcastically.
"Haha, I forgot how to laugh," Yut remarked.
A large clank sound echoed, meaning the elevator had gone back up. "You could've at least tried."
"And then what? Earth to Tai, we're at a mountain! And I don't have the slightest idea for directions!" Yut retorted.
"It would've been a better alternative that coming down here," Tai Lung said. " And what exactly were you intending to do on your escape?"
"I… uhh…" Yut muttered. The elevator finally started going down, and they could see Vachir and a few of the rhino guards descending towards the platform. "I… never really thought about it."
"Well then you better think quickly," Tai Lung told him as his continued to run out. Yut thought hardly, and realized that if anyone could escape the prison, it was the person in front of him.
"Okay, ummm," the wolf said as the idea popped in his mind. "You never really saw the world on your own, right?"
"Where are you getting at?" Tai Lung asked.
"I obviously don't know much about the world either, so here's what I propose: Let's go on a world trip together!" Yut suggested.
Tai Lung gave him an odd stare that lasted a few seconds. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Come on, it's a great idea! It's a win-win situation!" he encouraged.
"You really think I'd want to break out of this prison?" the leopard retorted.
"Please Tai! You're the only person who could do that. And for what better reason?" he pleaded.
"I refuse!" Tai Lung rejected. The elevator had finally landed down, and Yut walked towards his back.
"Then do you think you could convince them to let me go?" Yut whimpered.
Commander Vachir made his way towards them along with a few of the Anvil of Heaven, all wearing swimming gear. "Get over here, you little brat," he drummed. "And don't even think about hiding behind the prisoner."
"Vachir, what a surprise. You actually came to visit me," Tai Lung said.
"I'm not talking to you, Tai Lung," Vachir growled. "I'm talking to the one behind you,"
"So is this what the Anvil of Heaven do now?" Tai mocked. "Nothing but a baby-sitting service that can't even see intruders in plain sight."
"Ummm, Tai… you're just making them angrier…" Yut whispered.
"Shut up you! You're not half as frightening as you were before. You're nothing but a washed up criminal!" the rhino shouted angrily. "Nothing but an accident!"
Tai Lung growled at the last comment. "I bet I could break all the bones in your body without having to lift a single finger," he grimaced.
"Ooooh, I'm so scaaared." Vachir mocked in a whimpering tone. "I can't even beat up a panda! Hahaha!" He and the rest of the guards all boomed in laughter. All from the lowest platform to the highest bridge were the rhino guards drunk with hilarity. Hearing them cackle idiotically at him pushed his temper off the edge. He clenched his fists, and the chains tied around his arms rattled as he tugged hardly at them. One hard pull, and both stalagmites broke apart as Tai Lung crossed his arms in a direction making them slam swing in mid air and slam in unison in both of Vachir's face. It knocked him out with his face holding a wide smile. When his body collapsed on the ground, the surprised faces the guards were now wearing were revealed in front of them. Tai held the cuffs with opposite hands and broke them apart.
"All right! Way to go Tai!" bellowed Yut as he immediately jumped on the snow leopard's back and held tightly.
"What the- get off me!" Tai Lung snarled as he tried to shake him off.
Yut caught sight of a rhino charging in with a snorkel. "Tai, look out!" he alerted. Tai Lung looked straight ahead without hesitation and punched the guard right in the chest, throwing all the other behind him.
The wolf kept his jaw wide open in awe. "Woah…" he uttered in amazement.
Tai Lung jumped high up towards the chains that held the pulley and grabbed unto it and started climbing up. Yut held on tightly to him, locking his arms around his neck. Once Tai Lung got on level ground, he made a 360 degree spin with arms on the chain rope and kicked the two guards nearby. He then one by one beat up the unarmed guards and knocked them out. They were all still wearing their unfashionable swimming gear. One was still wearing a floater around him, and the leopard kicked him and made him roll on his side, knocking the other guards away. The wolf watched as he saw a multitude of trained guards beaten up by a single person with a moment's effort.
After cleaning up the third bridge, Tai Lung made his was up towards the second. Seeing nothing but an empty lane, he proceeded towards the first. He climbed up the wall with his claws, Yut struggling not to let go. On the third were a few guards that were actually armed, those that stayed behind when the others went on vacation.
Not that it mattered, as the Kung Fu warrior made short work of them. No matter how many swords they could hold or how far they could swing their mace, the snow leopard was too quick and strong for them to be of any match. Even with a load on his back, it did not hinder him from beating up every single one of them. He punched, clawed, kicked, threw and slammed every rhino that went in his way.
While Tai Lung was beating up those in front of him, Yut noticed one coming up from behind. The wolf quickly jumped his feet from Tai Lung's back and jerked it up, kicking the guard from behind. Tai turned around to hear a loud thud from behind. After seeing the knocked out guard, he glanced towards Yut with a surprise look.
"…what?" the wolf said. Brushing it off, Tai Lung then continued to the next bridge above them. There were more guards, and Yut began to imagine how many there were. Those that came from vacation were now holding weapons… along with their swimming trunks.
As the rhinos charged in with a battle cry, Tai ignorantly muttered, "They never learn…" Once again the snow leopard came up and defeated each one with them being able to swing their arms even once. As the number of unconscious bodies multiplied, the only ones left standing on the bridge were them.
Finally, Tai Lung started moving up towards the main bridge. Yut relentlessly held on to him. The leopard's warm fur brushing upon his bare arms was a pleasing sensation.
Speculating upon the number of guards Tai had already beaten up, the wolf couldn't imagine any more guards on the next bridge. But there was one last left standing in their way.
Near the door was a guard grinning at them. Around his arm he held a red rocket with teeth and menacing eyes designed in front. "Number 626 comin' at ya!" the guard shouted. He lit a match against the rocket's surface and lit up the rope. It immediately burned and the rocket burst from his arms and seared towards Yut and Tai Lung.
"Look out! It's coming right at us!" Yut warned.
Tai Lung readied himself and anticipated the coming rocket. The wolf grew nervous as the rocket came closer towards them, and Tai Lung not moving an inch from his position. Yut clenched harder around his neck, in which any harder would have been an attempt to choke him.
A moment before the rocket landed on him, Tai effortlessly pushed his hand up from below it, making it turn around vertically. The rocket then sped its way towards to last of the Anvil of Heaven and exploded on impact.
The door burst open and revealed the white snowy mountain range. Tai Lung leisurely walked towards the exit. Dark smoke clouds went up and disappeared in the white foggy blizzard. The moment he was out, the wolf finally let go and placed his feet on the snowy ground.
"That was awesome!" Yut shouted excitedly. "That was totally unbelievable! You were like pow and kablam! Man, you've got to teach me some of those moves!"
But while Yut praised Tai Lung, the snow leopard simply ignored him and trudged onwards through the snowy terrain. "He-hey! Wait up!" the wolf yelled. He dashed towards him and stopped in front of him. "Where are you going?"
Tai simply brushed him aside and continue walking forward. Yut once again went up to him and decided to walk with him. "I thought we were in this together," he mentioned.
"Let's get something straight here, 'kay?" Tai Lung said facing towards him. "There is no we here. In fact, if it wasn't for me, there wouldn't even be a you!" he taunted.
"Well then that means that I'm your responsibility," Yut replied with a simplistic tone.
"What?" Tai Lung blurted.
"That's right. So that means your gonna have to take care of me," the wolf smiled.
Tai Lung brought his face close towards his. "Let's not forget the fact that I can snap you like a twig," he snarled.
"Then you'll just be reliving your mistakes all over again," Yut answered cunningly. Tai Lung became less tense from the comment and drew himself back. He then turned and continued to ignore him.
As their distance grew, Yut huffed and shouted to him, "If you're not going to be compassionate about it, you can at least try to be sympathetic." Tai stopped on his tracks and glanced towards him. The cold wind from the snow storm blew over their fur. "I know I'm asking a lot, and that I'm being pretty selfish here," Yut said. "But like it or not, you're the only one I can count on."
The snow leopard gave it a moment's thought. A mistake, an accident, whatever the things he's learned back in the temple, might seem to be unlikely. He once believed to become the Dragon Warrior, the savior of China. When did all those morals and hopes disappear to?
Tai Lung then reflected his gaze towards the wolf through the fog of snow. What if he were him? Not the part about being completely helpless, but the part about having his past forgotten and only having the present once again. A rebirth, so to speak. And the wolf even offered him words of wisdom before, no matter how nonchalant they seem to be. Maybe it was time indeed for a change.
After a long deep sigh, he made his decision. "Fine," the snow leopard muttered. Upon hearing, the wolf's ears perked up and beamed as he sprang up towards him enthusiastically. But before Yut could say anything, Tai quickly told him, "But I'm only taking you as far to the village nearby, so promise me you'll leave me alone after that."
"Alright, alright deal," Yut said, rolling his eyes. Tai Lung had a feeling Yut wasn't serious with agreeing with the deal, or was thinking that the whole thing was just a joke. But either way, the wolf was sticking along with him. And he might actually just have to get along with him.