Chapter Sixteen: Old Village, New Surprise

"C'mon!" Po shouted. "We're almost there!"

Vixey looked annoyed and turned to Crane.

"For once, he's right," she breathed.

"It should be right over this hill, right?" Tigress asked, gesturing at the slope several yards ahead.

"Should be," Vixey answered.

Tigress turned back to watch Shifu's progress. He'd gotten faster since his injury, but still seemed to be straggling and in some amount of pain. She stood and waited for him to catch up, walking with him.

Po stopped just before he could climb the hill and went back to the two.

"You doing okay, Shifu?" he asked.

"I'll be fine," Shifu huffed.

Then he looked up. Tigress saw it, too.

"Is that smoke?" she asked.

Po turned and looked, too. Visible above the trees, there seemed to be smoke from a small fire, likely within the borders of the old village.

"Um, Po?"

The three Masters caught sight of Vixey.

"This village isn't abandoned," the fox said awkwardly.

Shifu climbed to Tigress's shoulder, who ran with Po up the hill. What they saw startled them.

There were dozens of makeshift campsites, each with one to three tents surrounding a campfire. The old village seemed to be overrun by many people of many different species, all of them looking very run down.

"Where did these guys come from?" Po asked.

"They look like refugees," Jin said. "What do you think, Shifu?"

Everyone turned to look at the red panda, but they only saw Tigress. They looked around, panicked, for a moment before they all caught sight of him. He was speaking to the people in the nearest set of tents. The patriarch of the group, an old, ragged bunny, looked very relieved to be talking with Shifu, while the old Master seemed quite disturbed. The students walked to their Master to find out what's been going on.

"Thank you for explaining," Shifu told the bunny before turning to his students. "It appears that everyone has come to escape Ruili. None of these people should give us trouble."

The Masters looked around at the refugees in sorrow.

"We should see if we can give them immediate help," Viper suggested.

Shifu nodded.

"I will rest here," he said. "Distribute as much food as we can spare to these people. We can do at least that much."

His students nodded and parted ways.

"I'm sorry," Vixey said. "That's all I have. I'll see if the others have any food left."

The remaining refugees looked sorrowful and returned to their families. Vixey looked around a little bit before returning to Shifu.

But then she stopped. Her fur stood on end and she started shaking. She stared at several small figures around a fire a distance away from her. Polecats.

She stood still, fists clenched, for a while before Tigress finally found her. Tigress noticed her behavior and looked at what the fox was looking at. She, too, froze, but then she caught herself and relaxed.

"Vixey, stop," she said quietly, yet firmly. "Now isn't the time for this."

Tears started to form in Vixey's eyes and hatred was clear on her face.

"Th-they..." Vixey started. "It's... it's them...Th-they k-killed..."

"Just stop and go to Shifu," Tigress persisted. "Now."

Vixey didn't move. She seemed to not know what to do.

"Now," Tigress repeated.

Vixey stayed in place for a second before slowly moving away. She turned away from the thieves and quickened her pace. Then she ran.

Tigress looked at the Polecats. She felt a small amount of fear worm its way into her heart. Then she disregarded it and walked toward the group.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in," one of the thieves said without looking up.

Tigress expected to hear a snicker from the other thieves, but they all remained silent.

"What are you all doing here?" Tigress asked carefully. "What happened to you?"

"As if you don't know," the same Polecat grumbled.

Tigress fell silent for a short while. Then the Polecat stood up and faced her.

"When you got Huang Zu sacked," she started, "we had to find a new employer. No one could really give us any big jobs. Not until Ruili found us."

"She attacked you?" Tigress asked.

The Polecat looked sorrowfully at her feet before looking up.

"Not immediately," she continued. "She hired us, and we thought nothing of it. She and our leader arranged a meeting with the rest of us."

"Promised us a large payout," one of the other Polecats spoke up. "We were generally excited. It had been so long since we had real work."

The first Polecat was silent for a little longer, as if haunted by something.

"When Tui introduced her..." she started. "It was all so fast. We almost didn't see it."

A haunting silence spread as all the Polecats seemed to shiver. When the first Polecat couldn't find the words, her companion continued for her.

"That otter killed Tui Dong," he said gravely.

Tigress froze, the look of horror on her face. Tui Dong was dead? She could almost foresee what came next.

"We were all shocked when we saw her fall," another Polecat added. "By the time we roused ourselves, we could only run."

"Those golden cats were coming down hard on us," the second Polecat continued. "Many of our own were killed. Some were captured and may be in scattered prisons. We lucky few..."

He looked around at the handful of fellow thieves.

"Well, alive and free or not," he continued, "we don't quite consider ourselves lucky."

The first Polecat remained silent, though tears were coming to her eyes.

Tigress thought carefully about what she should say next.

"It seems we're both on the same side of this battle," she said. "We've all had a great deal of hardships."

"You know nothing," the first thief snapped.

Tigress looked at her in slight surprise as the other Polecats looked down or away.

"I am Taopa," the thief said. "I was once Tui's second. And her niece."

Tigress remained silent as Taopa angrily wiped her tears away.

"She raised me as her own," the thief fumed, "and that coward took her away from me!"

"I'm sorry for your loss," Tigress told her patiently.

Taopa scanned her face for any sign of insincerity.

"After all we put you and your kind through, you offer peace?" she hissed. "I find that very hard to believe."

"Years ago, I would have responded very negatively," Tigress told her. "My training allows me to let go of old conflicts. I'm not afraid to let this one go. We may not have agreed in the past, but now, you may want to consider even a temporary alliance. For your aunt's sake."

She bowed to Taopa and left her in confused silence.

Po had long since run out of food to give to the refugees. He wandered between tents and around congregations in search of something to do to help.

Then he heard a growl that sent a chill up his spine. He turned to see what it was.

A short distance away was a large group of wolves. Shen's troops. A small number was tending to their leader's needs. The larger wolf seemed to still be wounded from Shen's blades.

Po panicked. What were they doing here?! His mind said run while his body remained motionless. Somehow, he started moving again, but not enough for him to pick up his feet and escape. He looked around aimlessly for an exit route.

Then he decided: he was the Dragon Warrior, so he'd walk right up to those wolves, demand to know why they're here, and make his triumphant exit, should they attack.

Halfway there, he asked himself what the heck he was doing.

But then he focused on his goal. He'd confidently start the conversation, showing no sign of fear. He and the other Masters beat these wolves before, so they can do so again.

Then he was reminded that he was by himself, but there was no time to turn around. He was already too close to decide to remain silent and leave.

"Wh-what're you g-guys doing here?" he said, trying to control himself.

The wolves didn't seem happy to see him. But they didn't look like they were in the mood to maul, either.

"You?" Boss Wolf started, eyes wide. "I might ask you the same thing."

He coughed heavily, prompting one of his underlings to help him.

"Nah," he said gruffly. "Nevermind. I don't want to know."

Po struggled to find something to say, but just stood there awkwardly, lips moving without sound.

"... Listen, I..." Boss Wolf continued hesitantly. "I wanna apologize for what we... what we did to you. And the others..."

Po was almost knocked off his feet upon hearing this. Was he really...?

"I always felt something was wrong," Boss Wolf said. "I just... didn't have the guts to speak up."

The looks of the members of his pack gave the impression that they agreed with him - and that he was being sincere.

Po stood frozen, no longer afraid of these wolves. He was still trying to understand everything. They were regretting working for Shen? What a... shock.

"I wish there was something we could do to make up for it all," Boss Wolf continued. "But I bet there's nothing that can fix it. Nothing at all. We'd be lucky if even you forgave us."

"I forgive you," Po said simply.

There was a drastic reaction from each wolf. Boss Wolf nearly fell off his stump while the other wolves looked at Po with such speed and force that, had they been close enough to bump heads with each other, they could've knocked each other unconscious.

"W-w-w-what?!" Boss Wolf exclaimed. "You forgive us?! Is this a trick?!"

The wolves now seemed hostile. But Po didn't show any sign of fear.

"You regret it," Po said. "You guys wish you'd never done any of those murders and you're saying you want to make it up to me? I think that's enough for forgiveness, don't you?"

Boss Wolf gawked at the big, flabby panda in front of him. His underlings seemed similarly in awe.

Seeing that the wolves were shocked speechless, Po started backing away awkwardly.

"So, uh," he began, "I guess I'll go then..."

He hesitantly turned away and hurried away as inconspicuously as he could possibly be. He was close enough to having a heart attack as well, so he wasn't quite as inconspicuous as he'd hoped.