Chapter Five- The Prophecy Begins
When Shifu opened his eyes, his vision was fuzzy and his head hurt. He blinked hard and his vision became sharp. He could see his students standing over him with worried faces and Lin nuzzling his chest. He groaned and sat up.
"Baba?" Lin said, looking up.
"I'm fine." Shifu muttered. "Just fine."
"Don't lie." Tigress snapped. She silently berated herself for being so stern towards her master before saying, "You seemed really hurt."
"I wasn't hurt." Shifu said, standing. He was still as a werewolf. "I just lost control."
"The Werewolf Spirit?" Viper asked. Shifu nodded grimly.
"But now, we have bigger problems." Shifu said. "Tigress and Lin came to me with the prophecy before we came here, and I think now it's coming true."
"The first line says, 'Eight shall go to the house of ghosts'." Lin said. "There are eight of us, and a bunch of ghosts attacked us."
"Wasn't there a line about traps?" Crane asked. "Because Monkey, Mantis, and I got trapped in a soot cellar and then somebody dumped flour on us and made Tigress and Viper think that we were ghosts."
"And Tigress punched me in the face." Monkey added.
"Sorry." Tigress said.
"'Beware of the traps that lie within.' That was the line." Lin said.
"Great." Po said. "The prophecy is coming true."
"What was the whole thing?" Mantis asked.
"'Eight shall go to the house of ghosts
One shall face the terrible host.
Beware of the traps that lie within
One will be confronted by his sins.
To defeat the evil that will show
The heroes must be aided by their foe.
One shall perish to save his friends
Should the ghosts be released, it will all end.
Sadness and grief will follow the end to danger
But joy will come from a powerful stranger.'" Lin recited.
"Alright." Po said. "So the first line is us coming in here. The third line is the Five being tricked."
"So now what do we do?" Crane asked.
"Well, we have two choices." Shifu said, returning to his normal form. "We can try and find a way out of here, or we can find out what the deal is with this house."
"I don't want to stay here." Po whined.
"These ghosts are terrorizing innocent people." Tigress said. "I'm staying."
"All who want to leave raise your hand." Shifu said. Po's hand shot up.
It was the only one that did.
"All who want to stay?"
Everyone's hands but Po's went up.
"We're staying." Shifu said.
"Aw come on!" Po complained. "I don't want to stay in here!"
"Relax, Po." Lin said as they walked down the hall. "Nothing bad will happen as long as we stick together."
Then, another trap door.
Shifu, Lin, Viper, and Mantis fell down and disappeared.
"So much for staying together." Po said as the door closed.
"Now what?" Tigress asked.
"Just keep walking." Crane said. "We have to find them and get out of here."
"But Shifu said-"
"There's no point in staying in this house and running into trouble." Crane said. "If we get out and get to the safety of the Jade Palace, we can think of a plan better." The others agreed and continued, going down the hall and down some stairs.
*****
Meanwhile, Shifu, Lin, Viper, and Mantis finally reached the end of the slide they fell onto when they went thru the trapdoor.
Shifu was first, flying thru the air and crash landing into an old, dusty couch.
"Thank the gods that's over." He muttered, rubbing his head.
Lin shot out next, slamming into an easy chair. She started bouncing on it.
"This is awesome!" she cried.
Viper came out after, slamming into Lin in mid-bounce and sending them crashing over the chair.
"Sorry." Viper said.
"No biggie." Lin said.
"Where's Mantis?" Shifu asked.
His response was Mantis' scream as the tiny bug flew out of the hole and crashed into a bookshelf.
"Ouch." He groaned. The hole from the trapdoor closed.
"Everyone alright?" Shifu asked. After receiving and OK from his students and Lin, the aged master looked around and saw that they were in a library/study. Viper, Mantis, and Lin went to his side. They looked around. Everything was covered in dust and cobwebs. The books, the furniture, the chandelier over head, even the paintings. A few small spiders were seen on the cobwebs. Mantis shivered.
"I hate spiders." He said.
"Why?" Lin asked.
"Well, when I was a kid, there was this spider that lived near my house, and he liked to bully me." Mantis said. "Also, a tarantula killed my parents."
"Oh." Lin said.
"Let's just get out of here." Viper said. Everyone agreed and walked out the door. They walked around, mostly just guessing which way to go, before they found themselves in a bedroom. All that was in there was a canopy bed, a dresser, and a bookshelf full of books.
"This doesn't make sense." Shifu said.
"What?" Mantis asked. "That the people that lived here loved books?" He perused the books on the shelf, blowing away the dust.
"No, not that." Shifu said. "It's the fact that this house seems bigger on the inside than the outside." Shifu looked out the window. "I have a bad feeling about this house."
Suddenly, Viper screamed. They all whipped around and saw the zebra.
"Who are you?" Shifu demanded.
The zebra stared at them for a moment before speaking.
"I am Kivu, the last descendant of this household." He said. "You must leave, for you are trespassing in the living corridors of the High Master." Kivu turned to leave.
"Wait!" Lin cried. "What High Master? Are you a ghost? Wait!" Lin jumped forward to stop the zebra, but he disappeared.
"What was that about?" Viper asked.
The response was a small tornado occurring in the room. The four warriors gathered close together, holding onto the canopy bed. When the winds died, the four of them saw a large cat. It had the markings of a snow leopard, but the mane and build of an adult male lion. He was wearing very expensive and elegant clothes. His face was stern. Shifu walked to him.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I am Dai." The cat said. "What reason do you have to come here and overthrow me?"
"We're not trying to overthrow you." Shifu said. "We just-"
"Silence!" Dai grabbed Shifu by the throat and slammed him into a wall. Shifu gasped, sucking down what air he could. The cat's grip was so strong it seemed unbreakable. If Dai tightened his grip, he could snap Shifu's neck off his spine.
Luckily, Viper moved in, whipping her tail across Dai's face. The snow lion let Shifu go, holding his face in agony. Shifu gasped, breathing deeply. Mantis and Lin went to them, standing ready for a battle. Dai glared at them.
"Don't lie to me!" he roared. "What makes you think you can kill me? I'm already dead!"
"We're not trying to kill you." Mantis said. "The ghosts in this house are terrorizing the villagers in the Valley of Peace."
"I know." Dai said. "I sent them."
"Why?" Lin demanded.
"Because I wish to expand my kingdom." Dai said. "This house is too small for all my subjects. So I plan to scare all the villagers out of this place and take it over for myself."
"You'll never get away with it!" Lin said. "We'll stop you first." Everyone stood in a fighting stance. This was a ghost they could touch, so they could fight. Dai sighed.
"Very well." He sighed. He lunged, and the four warriors scattered.
Viper moved in first, swiping at Dai's feet. Dai jumped up and landed on Viper's head. Viper went down, unconscious. Mantis came in after her, attempting to knock Dai out. But Dai grabbed Mantis and threw him into the bookshelf. Then Dai used telekinesis to make the bookshelf fall on top of the bug. Lin jumped forward to protect Mantis, and the bookshelf fell on them both. Shifu was the last one left. He moved in quickly, landing a kick to the cat's face. Dai fell back, then launched a punch to Shifu's stomach, growling. Shifu went to his knees, the wind knocked out of him. Dai moved forward to kill him, but Shifu went to werewolf form and tackled him. Dai and Shifu started fighting like wild animals. Then, when Shifu jumped onto Dai's back, Dai grabbed the red panda and flipped him over his head and into the wall. Shifu went back to normal, struggling to get up. Dai walked over and used his telekinesis to lift Shifu off the ground.
"You die first." Dai hissed. He used telekinesis to throw Shifu into one of the wooden posts holding up the canopy on the bed. Then he used his powers to lift chains off the ground and bind Shifu tightly to the post. The chains wrapped around his chest, stomach, and throat, squeezing tightly. Shifu gagged and coughed, trying to breathe from the chain around his neck. He tried to break free, but the chains seemed as tight as Dai's grip. Dai reached into his sleeve and pulled out a sword. He thrust it to Shifu's unprotected throat.
"Take a good look around, rat." Dai said, pushing the blade farther into Shifu's neck. A little blood trickled down Shifu's neck to his chest. "This is what will become of your precious Valley of Peace." Dai removed the sword from Shifu's neck. Shifu still gasped for breath.
Dai brought the sword back and used his telekinesis to move the chains so that Shifu's heart was unprotected.
Dai stabbed the sword straight thru Shifu's heart and thru the wooden post.
Shifu gasped. He felt white-hot pain shooting thru his body. The chains were still cutting off his airways, but he knew that it wouldn't matter. He couldn't shout, scream, or even whimper. Shifu struggled to stay alive; to break free; to kill Dai. When Dai saw Shifu still clinging to life, he tried to take out the sword to stab him again. But since the sword was stuck, he took out a knife and raised it high to stab it into Shifu's head.
Though Shifu's sight was dimming, he could see Dai raising the knife, and he braced himself for death. But then, a black and white streak raced forward and tackled Dai to the floor. Shifu's sight was going fuzzy, but he could see a black and white ….thing …..attacking Dai. It couldn't have been Po, for the thing was striped. Shifu saw Dai run away, Viper waking up, and Viper rushing to him, crying.
Then, everything went black and silent.
A/N: I know, you're tired of me leaving cliffhangers and me threatening to kill Shifu. Just bear with me.