Emperor Xian did not return Tujiu's greeting. Instead, he said;
"What's the death toll so far?"
Tujiu fought back a scowl. As much as he hated to admit it, Xian had good reason to be angry with the general.
"None dead today." He said simply. "Would you like to sit down?"
"As a matter of fact, we would."
Xian sat down on one of the wooden chairs circling the table in the centre of the room, and silently gestured for his companions to do the same.
"Nice place." A panda who could only be the Dragon Warrior said as he sat in between Grandmaster Shifu and Master Tigress.
"It is a magnificent architecture, isn't it?" Tujiu asked. "If you didn't know it was centuries old, you'd think it was brand new. I've even given it a name: Báisè de Gāngyì."
"'White Fortitude.'" Shifu translated. "Well chosen."
"So you're General Tujiu, right?" The panda asked with a grin. "It's awesome to meet you." He stood up from his seat to salute the general then sat back down.
"And you must be the Dragon Warrior." Tujiu said after returning the gesture out of politeness. At first glance, the panda didn't look like much, but years of experience had taught him to never judge a book by its cover. "Meeting you is a far greater honor. Would you mind introducing me to your comrades?"
"Oh yeah!" Po opened his mouth to say more but then Shifu held out a hand, silencing him.
"I will do the introductions, Po."
Po's face fell, but sealed his lips and allowed Shifu to introduce each of the Furious Five. When he reached the last two companions, Tujiu nearly choked on his rice wine when he saw the elderly goose and the small panda girl.
"What are they doing here?" He asked in disbelief. The girl shrank under his glare.
"Never you mind that." Shifu said gruffly. "There had been a misunderstanding. Don't ask for the details."
"I probably wouldn't want to know anyway,"
"They won't be here long." Xian added. "First thing tomorrow I'm having a small traveling party take them back home. Am I right, Di Tan?"
"You always are." Di Tan replied.
"Anyway, these are Di Tan and Su." Shifu said. "Su here is also a student of the Jade Palace."
"Hello." Su said meekly. Tujiu didn't bother looking at her.
"Right, now that introductions are over, why don't we get down to business?" Xian asked. "I trust that you are well aware of why we're here?"
"Yes." Tujiu muttered, eyes narrowed. Of course he knew. He even had a message sent to him about it. Twice.
"Good." Xian turned to his companions. "I must ask that everyone aside from Master Shifu and Master Eagle Jr. leave this room. We and the general are going to have a little chat."
"Oh man, I can't wait to take a look around this place!" Po was grinning as he stood up again.
"Colonel Sao, give them a tour of the fortress and then take them to their rooms." Tujiu said, reminding himself that the panda had been chosen by Oogway himself, so was not to be judged too quickly.
Colonel saluted him, then quietly led the warriors and two citizens from the hall. Once the door was shut behind them, Xian leaned forward on the table, brown eyes narrowed into slits.
"You owe me an explanation, Tujiu." He said with a voice that could cut through stone. "Why have you disobeyed my orders to retreat from the site?"
Tujiu took a deep breath before answering. This was it. His future as commander-in-Chief depended solely on whether he was able to convince Xian and Shifu of his story.
"My deepest apologies, your highness." Tujiu said. "I confess, I received your orders. Believe me, I wished to obey, but with my men venturing out into the wilderness and never coming back, I didn't dare take the entire army away from the safety of the fortress. Even with the great number we still have, it was too risky, especially since this bandit gang consists of such strong warriors."
"Bandits?" Shifu stared at him. "After all that has happened, you honestly still think that mere bandits are behind this?"
"Of course." Tujiu replied. "I mean, what else could it be?"
Shifu bit back a crude answer.
"If you were worried about any more of your men getting killed, then why didn't you say so in the first place?" Xian asked testily. "Why didn't you reply to my messages? Do you realize that if I was anyone else I'd have you thrown in jail by now?"
"I do realize that." Beneath the table, Tujiu clenched his talons. "And I did reply. Did you not receive my message?"
"I didn't." Xian said. His glare had not softened since their conversation started.
"The message must have been intercepted." Tujiu sighed.
"Really? That's your excuse?!" Xian suddenly stood up, his eyes suddenly blazing with tea-colored flames. "Dozens of lives have been lost because of your brilliant idea to bring a battalion of men into a freezing isolated area without planning ahead!"
"Emperor Xian..." Shifu said. Xian ignored him, his burning gaze fixed on Tujiu.
"Why did I trust you, Tujiu?" Xian's voice was rising. "Why did I let you talk me into this? I could have seen that this would end badly, why did I do it?!"
"Xian!" Shifu raised his voice higher, effectively bringing silence back into the room. "Please calm down."
Xian glanced at Shifu, then back at Tujiu. After about a minute, his furious expression softened very slightly and he sat back down.
Tujiu had been completely unfazed during Xian's outburst. At first glance, you'd probably have thought that he was smirking. But then the smirk was gone and replaced with a slightly remorseful expression.
"Your highness, I truly am sorry for this insubordination." He said quietly. "And I take full responsibility for the fatalities, but wishing won't bring them back." Xian's face hardened again at this statement, but Tujiu continued. "I don't mean to overstep my bounds, what with you being the emperor and all, but now is not the time to be assigning blame."
"Emperor Xian, he's right." Shifu said quickly when the tiger opened his mouth to reply. "If we want to end this crisis quickly we have to work together. And that means not starting an argument five minutes after we arrive."
At first, Xian looked like he was going to snap at Shifu. Instead, he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, mentally counted to three, and when he opened his eyes again his expression was calm.
"You're right, master." He said. "I apologize for my outburst. But I still find Tujiu's explanation hard to accept."
"I don't blame you." Tujiu said 'sadly'. "Nothing I can say will change the fact that I made a mistake. But believe me, I never intended for any of this to happen."
"Is there anything you can tell us about whoever is behind these deaths?" Shifu asked.
"Only that it is very likely a bandit group consisting of one if not more very strong animals located somewhere in the western area of this mountain." Tujiu said.
"That's it? After all this time that's all you have?" Shifu was incredulous.
"I'm sorry, but so far no-one has faced these bandits and lived to tell about it."
"Fair enough. You said the culprits were likely located in the western area. How can you be sure."
"Most of the fatalities occurred in that region. I'm very sure."
"Do you have a plan?"
"I'm afraid devising a fool-proof plan to combat this kind of enemy has been unsuccessful so far."
"Then let us begin discussions..."
"Wooooaaaahhh!" Po's jaw dropped and his arms dangled limply as Colonel Sao led the group from the baths to a three-storey room even bigger than the Jade Palace library. "Is this the biggest library you've ever seen?!"
Before anyone could stop him, the panda rushed to the nearest bookshelf, pulled out a scroll and almost tore it open in his excitement.
"Po, be careful!" Viper scolded.
"The History of the Gilded Emperor." Po read aloud with a huge grin. "Oh man, only three copies of this are in existence!"
"Put that back." Tigress scowled.
Po put the scroll back, but then a second later rushed to the next shelf along.
"How to make Hypnotic Elixir." He glanced at his friends. "Was Scorpion here?"
"No." Colonel Sao replied.
"Oh good."
"Please be careful with these artifacts, Dragon Warrior." Sao said. "They are very old and potentially very fragile."
"Oh yeah. Sorry." Po's excited expression faded a little as he replaced the scroll with much more care than before. "Hey, what are those?" He pointed to a series of shelves on the opposite side of the first floor of the library.
"Those are books, Dragon Warrior."
"Really?" Po's eyes widened in wonder. "Is it alright if I take a look?"
"If you are careful, then I don't see why not."
"Awesome!"
While Po rushed to examine the books, Crane finally gave in to temptation and flew up to the third floor. After a minute, he called down to the others.
"Wow, there's a whole section on calligraphy and painting here! I'm definitely liking this place!"
Intrigued by Po and Crane's interesting findings, the other warriors (and chef) slowly ventured into the library. While Colonel Sao stayed by the entrance in silent observation, Di Tan travelled to the far end of the first floor where he discovered an entire shelf full of cooking scrolls. Delighted beyond measure, Di Tan grabbed an armful of scrolls and sat down on a nearby bench. Colonel Sao was sure the aged goose was secretly copying the scrolls' contents on the back of his apron, but seeing as they were harmless recipes he said nothing.
Mantis and Monkey, meanwhile, decided to leap their way up to the second floor (ignoring the stairs entirely) where they found every kung fu master's wildest dream: the fortress's very own Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu. As Mantis examined a scroll on nerve attacks, he vaguely wondered why Monkey seemed far more interested in the mythical creatures section.
Viper, in the meantime, had been busy examining a scroll depicting a love story on the first floor when Crane suddenly called down to her from the third floor, claiming to have found an outdoors observatory. Somewhat surprised that Crane had known about her very secret interest in astronomy when no-one else did, Viper was now currently exploring the large balcony with barely suppressed pleasure, especially when Crane mentioned an astronomy section that would teach her how to use the massive circular instrument.
"There's going to be a full moon tonight." Crane had said. "Maybe with a little luck we'll finally see the moon rabbit!" Viper had laughed merrily at that statement.
Back on the first floor, Tigress had decided to stick with Su, so the little girl wouldn't be all by herself in this massive place. After a little curious browsing, she and Su had discovered a section on fairytales and children's stories and were now sitting side by side on a bench, having a pleasant time reading about the moon rabbit and the qiulin and the warriors of old.
They were just about to begin a tale involving the mythical bird fenghuang when a cry suddenly echoed throughout the library.
"Hey, what's this?!"
Everyone looked up from their reading.
Still standing by the shelf full of books on the first floor, Po was now staring at a large opening that had suddenly opened up in the wall. Colonel Sao's eyes momentarily widened, but a moment later he relaxed as he realized that Po had merely discovered the other secret passage.
"What happened, Po?" Tigress called from across the hall.
"I pulled on a book and this door suddenly opened!" Po exclaimed, slightly freaked by the sudden occurrence.
"My apologies, Dragon Warrior." Sao stepped forward. "I forgot to tell you about the second library."
"Second library?" Monkey asked as the rest of the Furious Five gathered in the main hall. Di Tan remained where he was.
"Its a slightly smaller library full of very unusual scrolls and books."
"What do you mean by unusual?" Mantis tilted his head.
"Have a read and you'll see what I mean."
"What the heck's this?!" Po suddenly cried out again. The panda had already entered the second library, which consisted of the same architecture albeit with two floors instead of three, and had pulled out a book. "This writing's all weird."
Everyone gathered around the panda, and saw the unusual symbols written across the pages.
"Any idea what this is?" Crane asked.
"I'm afraid not." Sao replied. "Every single one of these books is written in a language different from ours. So far we have found seventeen different languages in these pages."
"Is there any way to translate them?" Viper asked. Next to her, Su stared up at the book Po was holding. She could not see the pages, but when she looked straight up she could clearly see the front cover.
"Not without expert help."
"Sorry, but there's no way anyone is going to figure out what this says." Po flicked through the pages. "Look at this! What kind of language is this supposed to be?"
"Latin!"
Po stopped flicking and looked down at Su.
"What did you say?"
"Latin." Su pointed at the book in Po's paws. "That's the language."
"Is that a kid's slang for gibberish?" Mantis chortled.
"No. That's the name of the language."
"Are you sure?" Sao frowned as he gazed at the writing.
"Yeah." Su said. "Look on the cover. It says Naturalis Historia. Written by someone named Pliny the Elder."
Su suddenly realized that everyone was staring at her like she had grown seven heads.
"Uhhh... that's what it says."
They stared.
"I'm probably wrong, though."
They stared.
"Please forget what I said!"
They stared. Su began to get scared by the expressions on their faces.
"Su..." Tigress paused. "How did you know that?"
"Don't you all know latin too?" Su asked in confusion.
They shook their heads.
"Oh, you never found Oogway's library did you?" Su exclaimed as realization dawned on her.
"W-what library?!" Now the grown ups were confused.
"You know, the library behind the palace library!" Su said. "I found it a month after I came to the palace. It was behind a door hidden behind this big statue."
"Woah, how come we never knew about this?" Mantis exclaimed in disbelief.
"I'm sorry. I thought you guys already knew." Su replied sheepishly.
"What's in this library?" Po asked, a huge grin beginning to grow on his face.
"Well, you remember that time when you told me how Master Oogway had travelled all over the world before coming to China and creating kung fu?"
Viper, the warrior who had told her the tale, nodded.
"Well, in this library there's a load of stuff he collected on his travels. Some of it's really old. I found a few scrolls saying how to translate loads of languages into mandarin. I thought it was really cool, so I decided to learn them. I've gotten the hang of four languages so far."
"Oogway had a collection of stuff from his travels around the world?" Out of everyone, Crane looked the most amazed. "We've got to take a look at that when we- woah, wowowoah wait, backup!" He suddenly yelled. "Do you mean to say that you learned four languages in only six months?! How's that possible, you're a seven year old kid!"
"Actually I'm turning seven in two months." Su said. Crane's jaw dropped, and Su started to get angry. "I'm not lying! I did find a library and I did learn four languages!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Sao said suddenly with a slight sneer. "Do you really expect us to believe this nonsense?"
Viper, Tigress and Po gave Sao dirty looks, but it was Su who replied. Only it was not words of mandarin. A series of strange words, unintelligible yet nothing like gibberish floated from her lips. Only a few words were spoken, but it was enough for everyone to start staring at her again.
"That's greek for 'Are you calling me a liar?'" Su said in normal mandarin, a look of indignant anger on her cherubic features. "Do you want me to say it again in japanese?"
Sao merely stared back at her. Su's sudden foreign outburst had left everyone looking like they had been smacked in the face with a rake.
"Guys..." Po said, breaking the silence. "We have a child prodigy among us."
Tigress was about to speak when Master Shifu and a pair of soldiers entered the room.
"Ah, there you are." Shifu said. "I've just finished discussions with the emperor and the general."
"You have a plan?" Tigress asked.
Shifu shook his head.
"Without more information on these killers we have little to no clue how to combat it." Shifu said. "Our first task will be to find more information."
"What do you want us to do?" Viper asked.
"According to the general, the culprit appears to be based in the western area of the mountain. I want you to scout the area, and report back in one hour."
"Yes, master." The six warriors bowed to their master and headed towards the exit. Shifu suddenly held out a hand to stop Tigress.
"You stay here. Viper, you stay with her." He said. "Scour this library and see if you can find any helpful information. Su can help you."
"Yes, master." Tigress fought to hide her displeasure at being left behind as she, Viper and Su headed away from the exit and towards one of the first floor shelves of the first library.
Sorry if this story's dragging a little these last few chapters, but I needed to get character introductions and location descriptions out of the way. Don't worry, the action is going to pick up a little more from now on.