A/N Nope, they won't be all lovey-dovey just yet. The whole story will go on much longer in fact, and will span for two story arcs. This is still the first.
At the few remaining hours of that night, a wolf dreamt of recent past events. All that was on his mind was his leopard companion.
"You've got a lot of nerve to walk up and go as far to touch me"
"I've… got a keen sense of smell"
"You're a strange one, you know?"
"What? No! I mean – why would I ever want to be a peasant?"
"Let's get something straight here, 'kay? There is no 'we' here. In fact, if it wasn't for me, there wouldn't even be a 'you'!"
"But I'm only taking you as far to the village nearby, so promise me you'll leave me alone after that."
"You really are like a child."
"If we've gone this far already…"
Everything rewinded since the very first time he woke up. His eyes watched a series of images flow continually in his mind. It had only been a few days since, and yet he already had memory of so much. As the first ray of sunlight beaming through his eyes, a phrase shot through his mind.
It was morning. At the realization that they were near a village like their promise was made, Tai would most likely have left him by now. At that moment, he felt as though all his memories were about to be trashed; that one day he would forget all the memories he's had, as if having amnesia all over again.
But then, as he ruffled his arm, his fur collided unto something of the similar texture. The warm feeling was strangely familiar. Yut gently lifted his head. Glancing up, he sees the cute face of a snow leopard fast asleep. Regaining full consciousness of his body, he recognizes a strong feeling over his chest. Tai Lung's arms were wrapped around him, and Yut soon realized he had slept this way with him lying on his burly chest. The leopard's husky form surrounding him made his entire body flush hotly, like taking another aphrodisiac. Quickly recalling what happened last night, he bashfully tried to remove himself.
In his abrupt movements, he accidently woke Tai Lung up. The leopard's arms shuffled around him. "Uh- g-good morning…!" Yut greeted nervously, incapable of thinking what the right thing to do or say in the current situation.
Tai Lung yawned and scratched his head before returning the proper greeting. "Hm? Oh, good morning," he said almost apathetically.
With his arms no longer hoisted around him, Yut quickly got up. Noticing the loose clothing below his waist, he hurriedly pulled it up. He was obviously freaking out, but it appeared that the Kung Fu warrior was as calm as the sea. Tai Lung was wearing back his pants and belt, and looked as if nothing ever happened.
"Uh… hey. A-about last night…" Yut brought up. The nervous wreck he was in was apparent enough for Tai Lung to read.
"Hey," Tai Lung said. "You don't need to freak out, alright. Just calm down."
Yut tried to calm himself down, taking deep breaths but only to no avail. He was still a bit shaky. Seriously, how would one react when a few hours ago he had sex with someone? Especially on with the same gender?
"Right. So… uh… last night you… err... I… umm," Yut mumbled recklessly. He couldn't get the events out of his head. He wondered how Tai Lung could be so calm about it.
To be honest, the snow leopard didn't felt anything too strange to fuss about. Perhaps he had grown far too lax with not feeling anything or maybe because it really wasn't such a big deal to him at all. His nonchalant expressions simply made it harder for him to ease up. But knowing his traveling companion, it would most likely bother him for a long time if he wouldn't try to fix it.
"Look, you don't have to overreact. We can just act as if nothing happened, right?" Tai Lung suggested. After a slow anxious exhalation, the wolf silently nodded. Tai got up and looked towards the sky. He felt his fur slightly damp from last night's sweaty events. He could even smell the faint scent of semen as well. He looked at Yut to see him blankly staring at space, thinking deeply while blushing in embarrassment.
"Hey, let's take a bath," Tai Lung again suggested. "Maybe that would help calm you down. I don't want to smell like this either way."
Again, Yut simply nodded. To be honest, the scent was even stronger around himself. The two made their way back to where they first took their bath. It was a few ways off, but they managed to find their way back. On their way there, Yut remained completely silent. Tai Lung found it strangely new to him, but he could definitely get used to it.
The spring was the same as they left it. Tai Lung undressed and went directly into the water. Yut stared at him for a few seconds. The shape, the curve of his body, the size of his manhood, he could relive their sexual encounter just from looking at him. Yut quickly displaced his thoughts of him and went to undress himself.
The cool feel of the water on his fur was relieving. It certainly did calm him down, just a bit. Swishing around, he felt like playing around even. But every time he saw the naked leopard, he can't help but remember what happened last night. His face would flush and he'd look away every time Tai Lung would look back. Almost always he'd get caught staring at him.
Yut felt like he had to break their awkward atmosphere eventually. Tai didn't seem to feel anything unusual. Perhaps some way he could just blur everything out like it never happened. Or maybe their difference in age was what mattered. But how old was he? Tai seemed around his forties. But right now his anxiousness was getting the best of him. The wolf looked down at his blurry reflection in the rippling water.
That means trying to forget, and as far as he was concerned, he was trying to remember. Life is measured in memories. If you can't even imagine yourself having to relive anything, then you'd feel yourself a toddler. But part of life, evidently, was forgetting; as hard as it is. The wolf was, inherently, afraid of forgetting. He had already forgotten everything, and forgetting even further filled him with despair. It filled his soul with sadness.
Yut faced his snow leopard companion for a last conspicuous time. He remembered the things he told him. The things he needed to convince him to get out of Chorh-Gom Prison. Indirectly, it involved asking him to forget his past. He seemed convinced that Tai Lung already had. But at any time he could remember, and he could go back to his past any time he wanted.
But what Yut asked of Tai Lung was to not remember. By distancing the past away by asking for his help, Yut had him do what he didn't want to; to forget. And the wolf found it selfish in nature. He had asked a lot. And when Yut would think about it, it was more than he first thought.
So, in a little spark of resolve, he faced away from selfishness. He would face forgetting, in an act of selflessness. He wondered how it would be selfless, doing something for himself either way. But by doing the same thing he had asked of Tai Lung for nothing in return, he found peace in it. So then he turned away from the leopard, without him noticing.
He noticed the fur on his upper body was drying up. He quickly bathed himself in the water. Yut sniffed his fur to make sure not even a faint scent of sweat or anything else unmentionable would be left. He got his head wet and shook it off along with any embarrassment he had left.
"Hey, you-" Just as Tai Lung was about to finish asking, Yut cut him off.
"-done!" Yut beamed back to him. He regained the usual optimistic smile he always wore.
"…okay. Let's go." Tai Lung said after drying himself up. The two got back into clothing and trudged through the forest and onwards.
The sun dried up their fur quite nicely. Yut brought back his rambunctious energy from bathing in the morning rays. Tai Lung shot quick glances back towards the odd wolf. One moment he was in slump, and the next he was back to normal. As they walked onwards, Yut couldn't help but ask a question. "Hey, wait. Tai, where are we going?" he queried.
"We're going to a village. A real one, this time." Tai answered from in front.
"A real one? What about, you know, last night?" Yut continued to ask, walking up to get closer to him.
"Thought you might ask," he said. "See that?" He pointed towards familiar structures of stone below a hill.
"That's the village from last night," Yut recognized.
Tai kept walking. "Not exactly." As they got closer, Yut started to remember the way it looked like with lanterns and colors. Now, it was just a desolate place with ruined buildings and left behind scraps of cloth.
"Wah- what happened here?" Yut asked as he scanned through his surroundings. Not a single soul was there. All the colors and lanterns disappeared. "And these buildings…"
"Didn't realize it myself either. Thought maybe in all the years they kept me in prison they'd fix it, but…" Tai Lung answered. He went up to one of the buildings and rubbed his paw on the rough yellow wall. "They were like this without us knowing."
"I thought it was a real village!" the wolf clamored. He remained in disbelief of what he was hearing.
"It wasn't," he replied. "If it were, then this place should be less than rubble left."
Yut arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
Tai Lung took a moment to look at the deserted mass of buildings and concrete. "When I was still training, I heard stories about a place like this. At nights, people would throw parties, drink, party, dance, everything to have a good time" he answered. "Without any repercussions. Which means, anything was allowed."
"Like, selling aphrodisiacs," Yut added.
"Exactly," Tai said. "And they'd usually do it on random nights. That way no one could catch them. No one really knows how they plan it."
"Not even a great kung fu warrior, huh?" the wolf said.
"Entire world is a mystery. I've been surprised a lot of times, even after my first prison breakout." The snow leopard said with a shrug. "Well, come on. Pick up the pace. The faster we get there, the faster we part ways."
"But if I do that, won't we get tired easily?" Yut complained. The two continued to walk onwards, conversing as they left the ruined village.
"Just you would. How about I just carry you on my back? Makes things easier for both of us, no matter how unpleasant it is for me." Tai Lung replied.
"Nuh-uh. No carrying. Last time we did that, you blew up an entire mountain." The wolf declined.
"You're the one that forced to get on my back then," Tai Lung said.
"Heh, yeah. A mistake I'm never gonna repeat," he sniggered.
"That mistake is the reason why I'm stuck with you. Glad you've reassured me you're not gonna make me do anything else like that." Tai said. Yut simply rolled his eyes.
The two continued to travel on foot. After a while of random conversations, Tai noticed that Yut's complacent smile and curious demeanor returned to him. In an awkward sense, he grew curious too. As they continued to walk onwards to their unknown destination, a question popped into his mind. "Hey, kid," Tai caught his attention. "About last night, does it still bother you?"
"Huh? Well, no. I'm perfectly fine with it," Yut answered.
"Really?" Tai blurted in skepticism. In all honesty, he had only been keeping a straight face all this time. Doing it with a man bothered him a bit, and the only reason he seemed complacent about it was habit of not showing much emotion.
"Yeah. I mean, we could just forget all about it, right?" the wolf said. "Never bring it up again."
"I suppose…" Tai Lung muttered. He was in a bit of shock. He didn't expect him to relax after all that so suddenly. As happy as he was that they could not talk about it ever again, the leopard frowned at the thought that Yut would resume his loquacious postulate manner.
Then, his small ears perked as he heard a noise coming from a distance. He deducted the sound to be a set of wheels rolling on the ground. It was obviously a wagon. Although inaudible to his wolf companion, he could sense the sound growing louder. Yut noticed his traveling partner suddenly stop. "Tai, what's-"
"Ssh!" Tai Lung placed a hand over his mouth. Inferring that the wagon would approach in a matter of seconds, he brought Yut hiddens towards the bushes in an awesome display of strength.
"Tai, what are you-" Yut muffled.
Tai Lung kept his sights on the wagon about to go up the hill. A large brown buffalo was seen first slowly dragging the wheeled wagon. A goose was chiming happily as he drove the wagon. Yut noticed it as well, but as he turned towards the leopard, he suddenly disappeared from sight. He arched his neck to see that he had jumped up into the trees, perching above the wagon.
Yut watched the kung fu warrior leap and land down in front of the wagon. The goose let out a frightened quack. Tai Lung gave him a menacing look. "Boo."
"Aaahh! I-I-It-it's-it's-!" the goose shouted as he quickly got off the wagon and ran off in another direction. "Aaaaahhhhh!"
Tai watched him run away while Yut came out of the bushes. "Glad to know some people still know of me," he said to himself.
"What was that for?" Yut questioned.
"Hitching a ride," he said as he got up and latched on the harness. "Hop on, or I'm leaving you."
"But, you- what about the-" As he blurted on, Tai had already turned the buffalo-pulled wagon around. The leopard gave him one last look. "Alright fine. But no scaring people off again, okay?"
Tai gave off a scoff. Yut didn't know what exactly it meant, but he hoped it meant yes. He lifted one leg up first, pushed himself up and got down on the seat. Tai Lung then cracked the set of ropes, making the buffalo move forward.
The wagon rocked and bumped at the tiny stones that littered the dirt road. Yut locked his eyes in the ever-changing scenery. First watching the clouds race against each other towards the horizon of the blue, then speculating over numerous types of flora whilst having falling leaves that gently drizzled from high branches atop them, and then witnessing breath-taking sight of a mountain edge slowly coming into to zoom.
You would have guessed how the entire trip felt like. Tai Lung had once again tried to stay his patience from the repetitive sounds of "oohs" and "aahs" from the inquisitive wolf. He could almost hear it echoing his mind. It annoyed him to some extent, enough that he dwelled in the thought of swinging the wolf down the mountain's edge.
But he himself was dwelling in the surrounding scenery. Nothing much had changed in that additional of span time he was held in the prison. But indeed, there was a slight difference. New sprouts had to begun to grow; new leaves began to blow in the wind; and new fruits to fall from trees.
Indeed, he had to admit it. He was getting old.
He needlessly focused himself back to the present. Once again the sun began to die down into the horizon. As dusk approached the trees and grass turned grey from the fading light. Like the tip of a candle flame it glared into their eyes. Yut became distracted at the glowing orb. He stared into its austere light, basking under its warmth as the breeze brushed coldly through his fur.
Yut let out a yawn. As he brushed his eyes, he felt the wagon come to a stop. "Hey- what's going on?" he asked.
"We walk from here," Tai Lung said as he nodded to the front. In front of them was a series of wooden bridges that were built over two islands of dirt that stood out from a foggy abyss down below. Yut shuddered in fear as looked down below. "This place is called the Bridge of Mists," said the snow leopard. "We go across and make camp on the other side."
"D-d-do we have to? I-I mean, it's not like we're in a rush," Yut muttered.
"Fine. You stay here then," Tai Lung said as walked onwards.
"Wha- h-hey! Wait!" Yut followed anxiously behind him. The wooden floor boards creaked with each foot step. While Tai Lung could pace himself without feeling any fear, Yut was in a state of the opposite. The wolf yelped as one wrong step resulted in a part of the wooden floorboard to break. It was small enough for Yut to have lifted his feet back up without having it sink down.
"Don't look down, don't look down…" Yut chanted. Tai smirked as he overheard him.
"But aren't you curious to know what it looks like below?" Tai remarked. Having his inquisition raised regardless, Yut took a peek and in an instant a small case of vertigo hit him. He shivered at fumbled to grab hold of the rope.
"Th-th-that was n-n-not fun-fu-funny!" He babbled after seeing what seemed like an endless ravine filled with fog. Tai Lung simply chuckled. You'd think Yut would be in relief the moment they landed on the island centering the giant chasm. But the moment Yut stepped foot on it he felt even more scared as an empty breeze blew past his fur. Without anything else like rope to latch on to, he quickly dashed forward to grab hold of Tai's gray back fur.
Tai Lung turned his head at annoyance to see the wolf's cowering form. He sighed and faced back forward. "How helpless…" he thought.
The sun had just died down right after they crossed the second bridge. The But even after then, Yut was still keeping a tight grip on his fur, aching Tai's back while he did.
"Can you let go now?" Tai asked. Yut took a few moments longer to realize he was still gripping on his fur.
"Oh-! Uh, sorry, heh," Yut forced a laugh. He didn't realize how close he was to him while did it. He feared it might have implied a different meaning.
The snow leopard didn't reply and simply walked onwards. The wind blew across his fur once again, only this time not as strikingly frightening. "Nothing really mattered to him then huh…" Yut thought. He shrugged it off in a breath of relief. Yut was glad at the realization that he might be able to just put it all aside after all.
"Hey, boss," said a low-toned voice amidst the shadows. "Over there." He pointed at a pair of wandering fellows, a leopard and a wolf. "Looks like our lucky day," he grinned.
"It really does," a distinct female voice replied back. "Alert the troops. We might get lucky with these ones."
"So I was thinking, what does the ocean look like?" Yut babbled. The snow leopard intently trying not to listen to him. "I know its blue, but how blue is it?"
Tai Lung let out an annoyed grunt. He tried to search for something else for his ears to pay attention too. The noise of the breeze rustling through the tree leaves maybe, or the noise of insect-folk living within the vicinity. But apparently, he couldn't hear anything else other than the annoying wolf's voice.
And then it came to him. He couldn't hear anything else around them. It was quiet.
Too quiet.
"…so does it look like the sky except it ripples and tides and stuff-" Tai Lung pushed an arm back towards Yut, making the wolf stop talking. Immediately so, the two stood there at the forest path.
"Uhh… Tai?" the wolf inquired, wondering what was going on. Tai gave a quick "sshh". The world around them seemed to quiet down in complete silence. The kung fu warrior knew all too well that something was wrong.
And just as he expected – but to the wolf's surprise – a group of people came out of the woods. They were a ragtag bunch of boars, lions, and deer. They held blunt weapons made of wood and metal. The two were immediately surrounded. Yut immediately had his back leaning on Tai Lung's.
"You're a bit unlucky, friend," a distinct female voice echoed out from the crowd of bandits. A lioness wearing short revealing clothing, but majority of her fur was still covered with a loose set of cloth that draped from her shoulder. "It appears you're our evening victim. I was hoping for fatter loot, but you'll have to do."
"This isn't a sensible choice I tell you," Tai Lung said, standing still compared to his quivering partner.
"Aha, but it's not a choice for you to make, now isn't it?" she replied with a mocking tone. "But where are my manners. I'm Katherine, but you can just call me Kitty. I may not be the most infamous bandit leader, but I'm definitely the best."
"Good to meet you," Tai said in a sarcastic tone. "Now, tell you're groupies to get out of the way."
"Groupies!" A certain boar blurted out in anger, almost rushing in to attack before Kitty stopped him.
Kitty walked in front of the boar and closer towards the two. "Now now, I'm being more generous than usual today, and it's best not to test me," she said. "I have a proposition, you see. You drop all your money right now, and maybe – just maybe – I might leave unharmed. If not, then my men will beat you down, and you lose your money either way. So, what do you say?"
"I prefer the part where we don't get beat up," Yut mentioned from behind.
"Well then you're not so fortunate, Kitty. We don't have any coins," Tai Lung answered.
"Hmm…" Kitty looked at them with a contemplating look before slowly walking further away. "We can't be too sure, now can we?" she said before letting out a sigh. "I guess there's only one way to find out."
She gently tapped her fingers onto a boar's shoulder. "Get them."
"You people really have no idea who I am anymore, don't you?" Tai asked, raising an eyebrow. "I'm telling you for the last time, it's a bad idea."
"Hah! Look at this guy talk!" The boar mocked, making the others jeer in unison. He raised his wooden bat up and swung it down.
Tai Lung let out a sigh.
As the bat moved down, Tai Lung sliced his fist through the air. His fist hit the wooden bat spot on, but instead of making the bat bounce back to the boar his fist broke through the wood and dove towards his face. The boar flew back and landed unconscious.
Everyone stood silent in awe and shock. Kitty gave a disdained look at Tai Lung. The snow leopard gave back a smirk. Kitty shot an angered glance to the men around her, signaling them to attack. The bandits let out a battle cry as they charged forward.
"Stay down," Tai said to Yut. It took Yut a few seconds to assimilate what he said. When a deer charged towards his side, Tai Lung grabbed him and threw him. Yut quickly ducked down as the deer flew to his direction. He looked back to see him land towards another boar.
Tai leapt into action. Kitty quickly ran through the crowd of bandits. Two lions came in charging towards him. The leopard jumped up and slammed the two lions' heads towards each other, slamming them into unconsciousness. The other bandits who were nearer to Yut ignored the wolf as they came charging towards Tai Lung instead, provoked by his actions.
The kung fu warrior punched and kicked every passing individual. A deer lost an antler after being kicked towards a tree. A boar lost both his protruding teeth after being roundhouse-kicked to his face. Tai Lung almost enjoyed beating up all the poor men. A large lion came in with a giant iron hammer. He swung it down heavily, pushing some of his own comrades backwards. Tai evaded it before running up the handle of the hammer with his nimble skills. He kicked his feet down into the lion's face and he slammed into the ground with a loud thud.
Yut ran towards a tree to hide from the brutality. Tai picked up the giant hammer, struggling a bit before he threw it towards a group of other bandits. They easily gave in from its weight. From the fallen bandits was Kitty, standing behind the rest.
"Retreat!" she sounded as she made her move to run away. All the other able men ran off, picking up a comrade if they could. Before they knew it, most of them had already scattered off. Some were still left unconscious on the ground.
Tai turned back to see Yut hiding behind a tree. "Come on," he said. "Let's get out of here." The wolf quickly followed, trying not to step on anyone lying on the ground.
The pair hastily made way out of their encounter, hoping not to encounter any other danger. On their way, Yut was again preoccupied with an incessant amount of chatter.
And when night came, Yut was still talking about what happened. He bragged a lot about Tai's skill. The snow leopard smirked as he listened to him. Yut continued to say how awesome he was; that, he could get used to.
"And they were all just no match to you!" Yut bragged, making Tai Lung feel strangely humble.
"Heh, they were just weak. A lot weaker than those rhino guards," Tai replied, the orange glow of the campfire reflecting in his eyes.
"Yeah, but dude! I keep forgetting how awesome you are in a fight," Yut continued to praise. Tai Lung smiled with a small "hmph"
"Settle down," he soothed. All the time he was trying to make someone proud, Tai Lung never learned how to react when someone praised him like that. It seemed awkward; he wanted to brag, yet he also wanted to be modest. It was a confusing sensation.
Tai looked up towards the beaming moon, basking its eerie glow down to them. If it were all just for light, they probably wouldn't have needed to make a fire. The light of the full moon was enough to illuminate their surroundings. "It's getting late. We'll be leaving early in the morning, so you'd better get some sleep."
"But I'm still not-" before Yut could finish his sentence, he immediately let out a long yawn. Tai raised an eyebrow and wore a smug looks on his face.
"You were saying?" Tai remarked. The wolf in front of him pouted and sat down near a tree.
"All right, fine," he said, positioning himself comfortably. Before he closed his eyes and dozed off, he told his traveling companion good night.
As the minutes past, the fire that gently burned away the cold had died down. Tai Lung was left to stare up at the sky. He gazed at the amount of the stars. Strangely, he thought, how you'd know that although they stayed still in their place, they were changing in their own way.
He wondered if he could have been like that. Staying still for all that time, why didn't he? Maybe it was because, he didn't want to change? Or perhaps he has been changing, into the person he is now.
Tai Lung let out a cold sigh. "What am I going to do now…?" he wondered. He was left off in a blank slate. Maybe only a few people would recognize him. His life was utterly unfulfilling. He gazed at the stars, his thoughts strayed away as he laid under the cold night sky.
"H-hey… Tai?" Then, a certain voice peeked out of the moonlit forest. "Are you… still awake?" Tai Lung craned his head up to see the wolf gently looking at him with drowsy eyes.
"What?" Tai Lung asked.
"Umm.. c-could… could I-" Yut muttered in an embarrassing tone. "Could I… umm… sleep next to you?"
The cold winds blew across them, and without blanket or fire the night was as cold as the Tavan Bogd Mountains. Tai Lung looked straight into his eye while Yut stared back. The wolf earnestly did so with his arms around his chest. "…please? It's… really cold…"
Only a child would request something like that. But I guess for a person like Yut, it couldn't be helped. "Do what you want," Tai said, turning on his side. Yut beamed up before crawling from the other side of the dead campfire. The wolf lied down next to him, already feeling his warmth emanating. Although Tai Lung faced the opposite direction, that unmistakable warmth was already tingling through his fur. A gentle warmth that reminded him of the previous night.
His thoughts focused solely at the time when he woke up to find himself wrapped around his arms, and not the event of the night before. A stray thought passed through before he fell asleep. "I'd want to wake up like that again…"
The snow leopard turned his head to see the wolf already fast asleep beside him. The sound look on his face, a word quickly spanned through his mind. "Cute."
Tai Lung quickly perished the thought. What was he thinking? He faced upwards, trying to avert his gaze from the snoozing wolf. The clear dark night sky entranced him once again. While sinking his gaze into the dark abyss, he remembered a little proverb back when he was a child.
"Dreams are like the stars; but infinite to imagination, but finite in reality. It's impossible to count them all, so we can only follow the brightest that we see"
"So what star am I following now… master?" Tai Lung muttered to himself. He turned his when he heard Yut's voice.
He could hear him muttering inaudible words. "Talking in his sleep, huh?" Tai could start to feel the wolf's own body heat. Sharing each other's warmth, that's what lovers commonly do, right?
Again, Tai Lung quickly discarded the idea. He turned his gaze away from the wolf, facing towards the opposite direction.
But the warmth of his friend was still there. Tai Lung could now barely feel the frigid cold of the night. The pleasant sensation slowly lured him to his dreams.