Fun fact: in the Chinese Zodiac, the dog is the dragon's mortal enemy.
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Crane was the first to scream in all their shock as their eyes rested upon the billowing smoke.
"You guys go!" he shouted to Po and Tigress.
Po looked back at the damaged village, surprised to find that he was somewhat reluctant to leave. He'd just gotten there after all, and now he was leaving just like Shifu said he wasn't allowed to do. But this was an emergency!
"We'll take care of things here," Viper reassured him as he looked to Tigress to see what she wanted to do. Of course she wanted to race back to the Valley of Peace; no matter how well Shifu and the pandas were probably handling the situation, their children were in danger!
Po didn't have time to get back to the village entrance so its inhabitants wouldn't be frightened of his second form. In a flash of green, he switched instantly from a furry, black and white panda to a scaly golden dragon. The bunny that they'd found underneath the fallen beam flinched and his eyes widened even bigger than they already had been, indicating that he must have seen another dragon already.
"Wait!" he called to Po as Tigress leaped onto his back quick as she could. They couldn't waste any time; every second counted, and every second was a risk that something was happening at that very moment to their family.
Po turned back to face the bunny. He cringed again, his expression fearful of the gigantic dragon before him.
"He said he was looking for you, Dragon Warrior," the bunny informed. Po blinked at the new information. Well, it wasn't entirely new. He'd known thanks to Shifu that there had been a so-called Dragon Slayer on the hunt for him. "His name was Longwei."
"Po, if we go back there now," Tigress said from atop his back, her grip on his shoulders tight, "he'll see you and he'll..."
Kill me? Po said through his mind to hers. I've had a bunch of bad guys trying to kill me before, and none of them actually did. I can handle this guy, and so can you.
Tigress nodded. She knew that Po could handle himself, especially now that he had the form of a dragon. Not that he couldn't before, but enemies tended to just take one look at him and run nowadays, and she had a bad feeling that this Dragon Slayer—Longwei—wouldn't be so easily intimidated by said dragon.
I'm ready, he assured her once again before he bent down to launch himself into the fading sky.
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The Valley of Peace was—once again—a mess. Villagers were scattered everywhere, running for their lives from a big flame that was scorching a part of the forest nearby. Looking up, Po sighed in relief to find that the Jade Palace was still standing. They'd arrived sooner than three days as Po had predicted that he would in dragon form—it had, thankfully, only taken them a few hours to return with his speed in the sky.
He spotted Li among the frantic crowd and his father spotted his large form just as quick, racing towards him and Tigress.
"The kids are safe," he panted, "they're at Ping's with Shifu. The palace was completely evacuated."
"What happened?" Tigress demanded as she assessed the damage around them.
"I don't know," Li admitted. "There was just this huge fire that started out of nowhere in the forest, and we've been trying to stop it from spreading to the palace!"
Po glanced at the trees that surrounded the area. Like Li had said, they were burning to the fullest; if they didn't stop it soon, the Jade Palace would be destroyed once again for the second time since Kai's arrival.
What he didn't expect next was to see a shadow move out of the corner of his eye.
Tigress, he said to get her attention, bending down so that she could easily slide off his back. You go with my dad and help with the fire. I'm going to check out the palace and make sure that no one's been left inside.
"Are you sure?"
I have to check something out.
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The palace was empty and dark. He thought about changing back into a panda just in case the Dragon Slayer truly was around, but he stuck to his dragon form; he couldn't just allow the Dragon Slayer to get away with this so easily. He couldn't just submit and show any fear or submission!
There was the shadow again on the walls, and he was positive that it moved! He growled, sniffing and searching deeper into the barracks. While he was huge in dragon form, he could still just barely fit through the hallways that had been rebuilt for his entire family when Shifu had first allowed them to stay.
He came across his children's room, and nudged the door slightly ajar with his nose. The kids were gone, thankfully safe at Mr. Ping's. Shifu was there along with his dad, and he knew that no harm would ever come to them there. He must have heard Lotus scream in his mind when the fire had broken out and the palace had been evacuated.
It looked like no one had been in their room since the evacuation except for one thing: his staff was gone.
In a flash, he changed so he could fit inside. He searched and searched, desperate to find it—but the staff was gone. He hoped that it was only Shifu who had taken it, but he had a bad feeling that it hadn't been Shifu.
xxxx
The shadow was gone. He hadn't been able to find anyone, and so he ventured back outside to see if the others had any luck with putting out the fire.
But just before he could reach Tigress and the fire, a new voice made itself known.
"Hello, Dragon Warrior."
Po whirled around, coming face-to-face with...
The first thing he noticed was that the Dragon Slayer was a dog.
He was a dog—a reddish-brown dog. A Chinese Chongqing, if Po remembered right from different scrolls that he'd read over the years; it was a rare type of breed that was hardly ever seen. He had ears that stood up straight, and he wore a black vest with a small mark of a golden Chinese dragon in its center that looked just like him—maybe it really was him...he wouldn't be surprised, especially if this was the infamous Dragon Slayer.
The second thing Po noticed was that he had his staff.
"You can call me Longwei," the dog said casually, like he hadn't just stolen something that wasn't even his in the first place.
"...Hey," Po said, already suspicious because of the staff. Wasn't Longwei the one that the bunny had told him about?
"So you're the so-called Dragon Warrior, hmm? I never expected such a big, fat panda to have the honor of such a title."
"I'm not a big, fat panda," Po shot back. I'm THE big, fat panda. "Uhh, you kinda have my staff there..."
"I found it on the ground along here...it must have been dropped in all the frenzy from the fire. I just assumed that it belonged to the Dragon Warrior, if you could tell me where he is."
"Po is the Dragon Warrior," Tigress said firmly, approaching Po from behind. She was back from the nearby forest fire that left the setting sky dank with black smoke—Li was still back there with others who were trying to stop the fire—she'd seen Longwei approach and like Po, had instantly become suspicious. She'd never seen a dog in the Valley of Peace before.
She knew that it probably wasn't a good idea to say so, but it seemed that Longwei had no idea Po could switch between forms.
"Well, I just thought that the Dragon Warrior would actually be a dragon."
Maybe she'd thought wrong. Was he egging Po on to see what he would do?
Po's fists clenched.
She reached an arm down. "Po, don't," she warned, gripping his paw tightly. She knew what he was thinking—that he wanted to transform, and she knew that he knew it was a stupid idea to do such a thing in front of the Dragon Slayer himself.
But Po paid her no mind. The Dragon Slayer had nearly destroyed the Jade Palace—now he was being insulted?
His blood boiled. He told himself to calm down, that it wasn't worth it.
"You're no Dragon Warrior," Longwei snorted in a laugh. "But maybe you've seen another dragon or two around? I've heard that there's a great, golden beast protecting this place."
Po shook his head.
"Well, I've also heard about the Dragon Warrior's offspring. A little boy and a girl, am I correct?"
Po was too stunned to say anything, Tigress included. She gave Longwei a glare, silently warning him to knock it off.
"I could take them off your hands," Longwei offered. "It's too dangerous for them here...you never know what could be flying around."
Tigress growled.
Po couldn't help it, just like when he couldn't have helped it when Kai had sparked his first transformation. Insulting him was one thing, but threatening his kids was another.
Letting go of Tigress's paw, he concentrated on his dragon form. It only took a split second before he was a huge, scaled reptile once again. He growled and charged at Longwei, who only gave him a smirk; he was completely unfazed.
There was a sickening snap as the Dragon Slayer broke the staff in half.
Po's eyes bulged and a searing hot pain flared through his chest. He remembered the first time that he'd snapped his staff in half by accident, and how he had fainted to the floor in his room. He remembered how in the future, Chao and Lotus had assumed that he'd gotten sick when they first met because Lotus had lost his staff and he was connected to it somehow—he knew then that their theory was right.
Green flashed and Tigress could only watch in horror as he changed back to a panda, falling down to his knees with shock etched into every inch of his pained expression.
She caught him just before he could hit the ground, gripping him tightly in her arms. He was lying still with his eyes clamped shut, and Tigress would have feared the worst if she hadn't been able to see him breathing.
The Dragon Slayer grinned. He'd had no idea that breaking the staff would cause such pain to the Dragon Warrior—he'd just wanted to break it before he could have taken it back—but it was a nice surprise. He brought a paw up to his mouth and used it to let out a whistle. Before Tigress knew it, a winged beast flew down out of nowhere and the Dragon Slayer jumped onto its back with scarily accurate precision before she could even think to chase after him.
There was an ear-shattering roar, and Tigress was doubly horrified to see a second winged beast—another dragon—take off from the direction of Mr. Ping's shop with a little shape screaming and struggling in its talons.
She wanted to scream, to run after it, to shake Po awake so he could try and catch up by using his flight...but it was no use.
Chao was gone.