Rou, Xue, Gu and the other ten imperial soldiers that General Tujiu had ordered to investigate the western area of the mountain trekked slowly through the foot-deep blanket of snow that covered everything in sight. The group of thirteen soldiers had brought enough weaponry to take out a fifty-man unit, if there was one out here in the white wilderness.

Rou, a stout mountain cat who was used to this environment, tightened his grip on his jian sword out of unease, the double-edged blade glinting in the moonlight along with the pair of daggers dangling from both sides of his hips. The heavy helmet he wore blocked the peripheral vision in the very corners of his eyes, so he was forced to turn his head every now and again for signs of movement in the rocks surrounding them. None so far. But still, Rou could not help but feel that they were being watched. He was unsuccessful in dismissing that thought. Five minutes later, his neck began to ache from the constant turning of his head, and with a hiss of frustration he removed the helmet and tucked it under his arm, freeing his ears. Fortunately no-one told him to put it back on again. As he flicked a bit of snow off the helmet and continued on, Rou thought of his home at Kabuki Crest, situated at the very base of the mountain. He mused how massive this mountain was compared to the crest.

Xue, a komodo dragon far less used to the snowy climate, cursed under his breath as another shiver ran through his body. He proceeded to pull out his own jian sword, kneel down to pluck a small rock from the snow, and start running it down the blade as if hoping that the movement would bring some warmth back into his bones. The grating, scraping sound of the rock sharpening the sword was loud, especially since everything else was silent. No wind blew snow and ice at their faces. The snow did not crunch beneath their feet. The clouds above made no sound as they floated across the sky, threatening to block out the full moon and what little light they had. While briefing the soldiers, Colonel Sao had made it quite clear that they were not to take any torches in case they gave away their positions. That justified the no-light rule enough to keep Xue from opening his mouth to complain. But still, Xue greatly preferred the warmer climate in his home village situated near the Forest of Isolation, where the sky darkened and the rain fell only once every seven days.

Gu, the aged grey heron in charge of commanding the group, turned his head to look back the way they had come. Even in the near-darkness, he could still see the fortress in the distance, the tiny windows lit and occasionally flickering. He turned back to the route ahead, and pressed on, keeping an eye and ear out for signs of an enemy preparing for an ambush. Gu was forty-nine coming on fifty, but his superior had said himself that he was far from losing his touch, a compliment that Gu remembered with a slight smile. Indeed, he was nowhere near retirement. He didn't feel tired, he could still lift three times his own body weight, and every swing of his sword still hit its mark. Suddenly feeling that he needed to prove it, he pulled out one of his daggers and tossed it at a rock ahead of them. It sank perfectly in the crack of the boulder, a perfect hit. Once the group reached the boulder, Gu swiftly removed it with one tug. I still have a few years left, he thought as he put the knife back in its sheath, and then froze as he heard the tiniest scrape of rock coming from the left.

"Stop!" He hissed to the men behind him. They all stopped dead, the air suddenly thick with apprehension.

"Up left." Gu whispered, a wing reaching for the knife he had thrown seconds earlier. "I thought I heard something."

He heard a clink of metal as the soldiers followed his gaze, staring up at the rock formation staring down at them. The result of a landslide a few weeks back, hundreds of boulders were piled up on top of each other, nestled perfectly in one of the deadly crevices that the soldiers had been repeatedly warned about ever since they had set up camp in the abandoned fortress.

Five seconds passed… ten… fifteen… the soldiers slowly relaxed. Lowered their weapons.

A false alarm.

Maybe.

"Let's keep moving." Gu said. "We're approaching the third site."

To decrease the chances of getting lost in the Himalayan Mountains, the soldiers had spent the first week setting up markers all around the fortress within a two mile radius, for the purpose of guiding a soldier back should they ever get separated from a unit and get lost. After another seven days of finishing the construction of the supply building and securing the fortress, they began sending men out to set up the three mile markers.

That was when it started happening.

Men sent out to set up the markers never returned, and those that eventually did were often found dead. Of course, General Tujiu had been trying to keep word of the murders from getting out, but soon rumors began spreading throughout the fortress and the army camp stationed next to it. Rumors that Gu had previously thought to be just horror stories told to freak out the less courageous soldiers (not that he was once of those said cowards), at least until he himself discovered the eleventh body last morning while patrolling with his unit. He would ever forget the head lying two feet from the neck, the odd fact that the helmet was nowhere to be found…

Colonel Sao had told them that the perpetrator was mostly likely a gang of mountain bandits, judging from the missing items at the scene of every murder, though the only way to know for sure was to venture to every site and conduct a more thorough investigation, or better yet find the bandits' hideout. Gu had dealt with bandits before. Brutal thugs who viewed murder, theft and torture not as crimes, but as hobbies. It was for this reason that Gu had brought his special poisoned knives for this particular mission.

"Sir, I see the marker!" cried a voice behind him.

Gu turned round, followed Rou's pointed finger, and saw the flagpole standing on a raised mound fifteen feet away, the red flag hanging limp in the windless air.

"Right, good work. The area where the body was discovered should be around here somewhere…" Gu said.

"How will we know if we've found it, sir?" Xue asked.

"We were told to mark each spot with the deceased's weapon after the third body was found." Gu said. Right as he said this, he spotted the jian sword sticking up in the air, the blade stuck deep in the earth beneath the snow. "We've done this before at the first two locations. Search for clues to find out what did this. Remember, no-one is to go anywhere alone. Understood?"

The soldiers nodded and spread out.

Rou and Xue headed to the flagpole, having noticed that it was not standing properly upright. Upon close inspection, Rou noted;

"There's blood spatter on the pole." Rou said, taking care to not touch the pole as he stepped closer for a better look.

"Do you think you can figure out what caused it?" Xue asked.

""I come from a long line of trackers, so yes." Rou replied without looking at his comrade. "This particular spatter consists of many tiny dots. Do you get what that means?"

"I don't come from a long line of trackers, so no."
"It means that this blood was spilled the moment the victim was struck." Rou said. "Remember, the medic said that this particular soldier was killed with a blow to the head. Shattered his skull and sent blood everywhere. There were no other injuries, so I'm guessing that this soldier had been taken by surprise."

"Go on." Rou's detective work always impressed Xue in any situation. "If the soldier was taken by surprise, the sword isn't in the sheath?"

"Remember when we found this guy a few days back?" Rou asked, remembering with a slight chill how their daily patrol ended early upon discovery of the body. "His sword was lying a few feet away from him, clean of blood. I guess that the poor guy barely managed to draw his sword before it was thrown from his hands when the killer struck him."

"Hey!" Gu suddenly shouted from thirty feet away. "Stop talking and start searching!"

"Just tell me the short version." Xue muttered. "What happened here, and how does it help us figure out where these bandits are?"

"Since the body was found several feet from the pole, I think the killing blow sent him flying." Rue said quickly, pausing to blow on his paws which were finally beginning to feel the cold. "Taking into account the lack of evidence of fighting, and the pole being lopsided… I think that the soldier was in the middle of stabbing the marker into the ground when the killer surprised him. The soldier barely had time to draw his sword before the killer struck him. The guy was sent flying."

"Nice thinking there." Xue replied. "What does this have to do with finding the bandits?"

"That's what is worrying me a little…" Rou said. "Remember that this soldier was a gorilla."

"So?"

"So… gorillas are among the toughest animals around." Rou said. "Imagine what kind of strength it would take to kill one with one blow to the head. Even Master Tigress of the Furious Five couldn't do it!"

"Maybe it's an elephant?"

"Elephants prefer colder climates." Rou said.

So do komodo dragons, Xue thought.

"So? I'm a reptile, yet I'm here!"

"But you're a soldier on a mission. You're only going to be here for a little while." Rou replied. "Mountain bandits tend to set up permanent hideouts, unless by chance said hideout is discovered. And an elephant bandit would never set up permanent residence in such a cold place."

"So if an elephant bandit didn't kill him, then what did?" Xue said, getting a prickly feeling at the back of his neck as he slowly began to realize what his comrade was getting at.

"I'm not sure… but whatever it is, it's not a mountain bandit."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it…" Rou glared at Xue. "If these bandits wanted to take stuff, why didn't they take the weapons of the soldiers they killed? Why is always something else, like a piece of armor, or the underclothing?"

"Maybe they have enough weapons."

"Heh, like that would matter to them! And what about how bloody these murders are? Even a mountain bandit couldn't butcher like that! Didn't you see the bodies? All the dismembered limbs had been ripped off by hand!"

"But if it's not a mountain bandit, then why did the colonel tell us that it was?"

"I'm not sure. Either they decided to blame the murders on a mountain bandit…" Rou's eyes narrowed. "Or there's something the colonel and the general aren't telling us."

Xue gulped, just as a large cloud finally drifted over the glowing moon, enshrouding it and casting the soldiers in near-opaque darkness.

Crunch.

A soft crunch, the unmistakable sound of feet stepping down on snow, came from somewhere nearby and Rou and Xue whirled around, pulling out their swords.

Crunch. Crunch.

Gu and the other men, nearly invisible in the darkness, stared at the two, slightly confused.

"What is i-" Gu began to speak.

"Hush!" Xue snarled.

The crunching slowed to a stop, from how many feet away they couldn't tell. The soldiers barely breathed. Complete silence and darkness filled the air.

For a moment, nothing went wrong.

And then a scream emanated from the soldier at the very back of the group, a scream that stopped as suddenly as it started.

"And then there were twelve." Rou whispered.

"ATTACK!" Gu hollered and took to the air as his men quickly obeyed and unsheathed their weapons. Rou and Xue leapt down from the raised mound and quickly joined the group, swords raised high. As Gu flew into the air, he caught a quick glimpse through the darkness of something quickly approaching the group. His blood froze as he made out an incredibly tall figure with thick arms and a domed head. And then the figure reached the group and the screaming began.

Gu nearly fell from the sky as he was forced to watch, unable to pull out his knives in fear of hitting his own men. He watched as the figure tore through the group of eleven, slaying all in less than eight seconds. He watched as it sent Rou flying into a boulder with a crunch. Slammed Xue down on the flagpole.

Slowly, Gu's mind kicked back into gear. He wouldn't watch any longer. He had to get back to the fortress and warn the others.

As the figure below finished off the wounded, Gu spun around in the air and took off. His heart thudded against his hollow ribs. His breathing was fast and ragged.

He kept flying. Nothing attacked him.

So this creature can't jump, huh?

He turned his head just in time to see the boulder flying at him.