Sorry for the wait, there were a few things I had to sort out.
Yep, I have a thing for ancient mysteries and mysticism. And the mysterious fortress Tujiu so aptly named 'White Fortitude' has both. Nope it's no spoiler, I made it obvious several chapters ago.
Anyway, on with the story!
Mantis, you lucky son-of-a-bean-bun.
This was the most prominent of Po's thoughts as with frozen fingers he scaled the small cliff face that was their last obstacle to the tunnel entrance. With the path they had used the day before destroyed by the landslide, their only option had been to climb. To make matters worse, a blizzard had set in, and now Po, Tigress and Monkey had to struggle with not only a lack of handholds, but half-blindness from the snow constantly flying into their faces.
Not everyone in the group was suffering. In the air above them, Crane and Master Eagle Jr. were hovering, years of experience and training enabling them to stay in the air without being thrown about by the wind. Eagle Jr. had encountered the group on their way out of the fortress, and suggested that he join them so his role in this mission wouldn't be entirely limited to messenger bird.
He had also berated them for going out without the proper gear, as the guys had done the day before…
"We've travelled through this kind of terrain in our normal clothing before." Tigress had replied. Eagle Jr. had shook his head and replied;
"Through the mountains surrounding the Valley of Peace, maybe, but this is the Himalayas. And even for powerful kung fu masters such as yourselves and me, in the Himalayas anything can go wrong."
"Hey, aside from the surprise attack, yesterday's trip went off without a hitch." Po had said. "We'll be fine."
"Oh yes? What if one of you gets injured, and the nearest safe haven is twenty miles away? You can't just head to the nearest village like you can in the Valley of Peace, and back here in the fortress we won't know if something has happened. There's no help if you run into trouble."
"We can take it." Tigress had said.
"At least just take some supplies and warmer clothing." Eagle Jr. had said with the slightest hint of irritation. "Trust me, it's better to be safe than sorry."
A couple more minutes of debating later, Po, Tigress, Crane, Monkey and Eagle Jr. had all left the fortress with small travel-packs full of food, small medicine boxes, rope, and other small supplies. They had also put on coats, such as the dark brown one Po was currently wearing as he struggled to maintain his foothold.
Eventually Tigress shouted out;
"I can't see a darn thing!" She had to yell over the wind. "Crane, are we almost to the top?"
"Just a few more feet to go!" Crane yelled back.
"Thank god." Po muttered.
"On the other hand, Po, you're lagging fifteen feet behind the others." Eagle Jr. added with barely concealed amusement. "Pick up the pace, will you?"
"Darnit." Po muttered, and searched for the next handhold. He had to squint his eyes to keep the snow from flying into them. When he realized that there was no way he could see properly in these conditions, he instead ran his paw over the rough surface of the cliff face. He found nothing to hold on to, mostly due to the fact that he was steadily losing the feeling in his fingers.
Crap. He wasn't sure if he could hold on for much longer.
He was suddenly aware of a presence by his side.
"Po?" Tigress asked. She must have climbed back down when she sensed that Po was having difficulty. "Is something wrong?"
"I can't find a flipping handhold." Po replied. Tigress was wearing a tight-fitting coat of a darker shade of brown, and despite his predicament Po couldn't help but find it quite fetching. "Tigress, a little help?"
"There should be a decent handhold above your head." Tigress said. "It's some ways up, so you'll have to stretch."
"Okay." Po blindly reached upwards but found that he couldn't find it.
He gasped softly when he felt Tigress's warm paw close around his wrist and gently guide his paw towards just the right spot, and only let go when she was sure that he had gotten a good grip. At Eagle Jr.'s insistence, the feline was wearing black gloves.
"There you go." She said.
"T-thanks." Po stuttered. He lifted his foot to a higher foothold and resumed his climb. "See you at the top."
He felt Tigress pat him reassuringly on the shoulder before resuming the climb herself.
Po froze on the spot as he registered the electric sensation from her touch. He waited until Tigress had gotten several feet above him before he spoke to Crane. The avian had been hovering behind him for the past minute after he had also realized that Po had been in trouble, just in case the panda had lost his grip.
"What the heck was that?" Po asked, the wind and snow keeping him from turning his head to look at Crane.
"Believe it or not…" Crane said with hint of shock. "Personal growth."
A few minutes later all three non-flyers had reached the top. Tigress and Monkey each grabbed Po by the arm and pulled the panting panda onto horizontal land.
"Thanks for the… help…" Po gasped as he turned over onto his back. "Darn… so worse… than my old enemy…"
Eagle Jr, who had perched on a nearby rock to keep a lookout, looked at the panda curiously.
"Your old…"
"He means stairs." Tigress said as she knelt down beside Po. "Po, get up. We have a job to do."
"Five more minutes…"
"That's for when you're tired and you don't want to get up." Tigress rolled her eyes.
"Lying exhausted on the ground and not wanting to get up counts, right?"
"Wrong."
Po groaned as he struggled to his feet.
"Wait." Monkey suddenly said. "We shouldn't attempt anything until this blizzard dies out. It's far too risky."
Tigress looked like she wanted to argue, but then she sighed and walked off. As Po watched her retreating back, he was suddenly reminded of a dark corridor in a deserted fortress where he was frantically chasing the woman he most cared about.
Tigress stopped and sat down behind a rock, sheltered from the wind. Monkey, on the other hand, leapt right on top of the rock, and stared silently into the distance. He looked very deep in thought.
Po sat down behind another rock several feet away and adjusted himself until he too was protected from the wind. A moment later Crane joined him.
For some time they sat in silence. Eventually, they noticed the wind very slowly beginning to decrease in intensity, the amount of snow depleting and so increasing visibility.
Po stared at Tigress for a few minutes as he rubbed his paws together to warm them up, then suddenly said;
"Crane, I don't think I can do this."
"Do what?" Crane asked.
"Pretend that I don't have feelings for Tigress."
He felt Crane shift behind him.
"What're you talking about? It was your idea! Besides, you never said you wanted to suppress your feelings, you said to just push them aside and focus on the mission." The avian said.
"I know, I know, I'm just not sure if that's gonna work." Po replied. He kept his face lowered to the ground, eyes focused on his paws as he blew on them.
"What do you mean?" Crane asked.
"I mean that I don't think I'll be able to stop thinking about Tigress. I don't think I'll ever be able to control how I feel about her." Po said. After a moment's pause, he asked. "Crane, do you remember that crazy dream you and me had last night?"
"How can I not?" Crane let out a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold.
"Well, do you remember how we got into the weird secret passage?" Po asked. "We spotted Tigress acting strangely and we followed her into the library…"
"That's not what I remember." Crane interrupted. "In my dream I was following Viper."
This made Po look up.
"Viper?" He asked.
"That's what I said." Crane replied. "In my dream, I saw her in the entrance hall, followed her into the library, and she opened up the secret passage and went into it. That's the last time I saw her before I woke up."
"Weird, Tigress did the exact same thing."
"And when we wake up, we find ourselves right in front of the wall where the passage opened up."
"What the hell is going on?"
"No idea, but can we stop talking about our dreams for now? It's bad enough that I now know what having your neck broken feels like."
"Okay, okay…" Crane said. "But can I ask just one more thing?"
"Go ahead."
"What has our dreams got to do with your feelings for Tigress?"
"You don't get it?" Po glared at him. "Our dreams share one thing in common: we get lured by a vision of our crushes into a secret tomb where we get murdered by a creepy demon thing. It made me realize that my feelings for her aren't to be taken lightly."
"And your point is?"
"This thing… whatever it is we're up against… it has killed dozens of people. What if it gets its hands on Tigress? Or Viper? Or us?"
Crane's eyes widened. He looked away, and Po knew he was thinking of Viper.
"I think I understand what you mean…" He said. "This mission may very well be our last. It's the same with every big mission we go on."
"It may be our last chance to show Tigress and Viper how we feel." Po said.
What were Po and Crane talking about, Tigress wondered as she glanced at the pair hiding from the wind behind a rocker larger than hers. The two men were leaning towards each other, talking in lowered voices that Tigress was unable to discern because of the wind. Said wind was fading now, soon they would be able to resume the journey. As she watched her own breath turn to mist as she exhaled, she decided against asking Po or Crane about their conversation when they got back to the fortress. Whatever they were talking about, it was probably a guy's thing.
As visibility increased, Tigress was able to make out their surroundings. Ten feet to her left was the edge of the cliff they had just ascended. Near the edge was the rock where Eagle Jr. was keeping watch. Right in front of her was a mess of ice and rubble that had once been the path that led down the side of the cliff. To her right was a wide snowdrift that had likely formed as a result of the blizzard and was obstructing her view of the landslide.
Her brows furrowed in concern. In these conditions and this location, a surprise attack could come from anywhere. Not to mention the fact that their enemy was strong enough to throw boulders the size of Po's stomach.
The snow here was partly icy, and crunched slightly when Tigress shifted her legs to get more comfortable. She turned her head and looked up towards Monkey, who despite the wind was sitting perfectly balanced on top of the rock she was sitting against.
Strange. The weather was crappy and moment earlier Po had needed assistance in climbing a thirty foot high cliff. The primate should have cracked a joke by now. Instead he was staring at nothing in particular, his mouth forming a thin line. Why on earth was Monkey so on edge?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a certain panda.
"Hey, the wind's not so bad now." He called. "Do you think it's safe to get moving?"
"Sure." Eagle Jr. said after a moment's pause.
Relieved, Tigress was the first to get to her feet. Monkey leapt off the boulder and landed in the snow beside her.
"Come on, the entrance is behind this snow drift." She said. She, Po and Monkey walked around the snowdrift as Eagle Jr. and Crane naturally flew over.
On the other side of the snowdrift, they found a vast rock wall and leaning against it, a pile of rocks and snow.
"Dang…" Po folded his arms and sighed. "That's a lotta rock."
Tigress stepped up to the landslide and leaned forward as she inspected the damage.
"Looks like it's not so bad." Tigress said. "Probably twenty or thirty tons worth of rock is blocking the entrance."
"Great." Crane muttered. "And how is that not bad?"
"Because most of these boulders are only half my height. With the strongest men, it shouldn't be too hard to move them."
"You're right." Eagle Jr. had also been examining the landslide. "With a good ten or twenty men, we could probably clear this up in three days."
"That's good." Crane said sarcastically. "Aside from the fact that most if not all of the men who have ventured from the army camp have ended up dead."
"Stop being a wuss." Tigress said without so much as a glance. As she continued to gaze at the rockslide, she suddenly frowned.
"Yeah, stop worrying so much." Po chuckled as Crane scowled. "If I see the boulder-throwing interloper, I'll pummel him with my famous Fist of Fury!"
"Whatever." Crane muttered. Tigress ignored him, her mind focused on more important things.
"Something's not right." She said.
"You mean aside from the rockslide that has blocked our only safe route through the Himalayas?" Monkey asked, his tone even more sarcastic than Crane's. That was the Monkey she knew.
"Yes, because the safe route is all that it's blocking." Tigress turned to her friends. "Doesn't that seem odd to you?"
Po leaned against the side of the snowdrift as he looked up at the rockslide.
"You're right." He said with wide eyes. "You don't think that…"
As Tigress's golden eyes flicked to his direction, something burst from the snowdrift, thick muscled arms lunging for the giant panda.
'Fear of Blood tends to create Fear of the Flesh.' Silent Hill.
Totally unrelated to KFP, but I love that quote.
Anyway, HOLY CRAP! PO, PLEASE DON'T DIE FOR REAL!
Ahem. Give loads of reviews and I'll get the next chapter up asap. Bye now!