Outside the window, the horizon was suddenly ablaze as the sun rose over the cragged mountain peaks. Daybreak.
The light shone through Xian's eyelids, rousing the tiger from sleep. He sat up in his bed and rubbed his temples. His other paw gripped his locket. It had been a terrible night. The nightmares had started up again.
Xian didn't bother with his morning workout today. Instead he walked straight into the bathroom, leaned over the basin and splashed his face, the cold simultaneously shocking and refreshing. He looked up into the mirror and took in his features. Water dripped from his fur. His face looked thinner from stress and lack of eating (he hadn't eaten much of his tsampa last night). The sleepless night had left dark shadows under his eyes. The Yeti had done this to him, and he had brought the Yeti on himself.
That monster had him and half the people he cared for trapped. There was only one way to escape, to save those who were still left, and that was to forsake all the luxuries of an emperor and go back to the basics of a kung fu warrior.
It was time for the fortress of White Fortitude to start living up to its name.
Su bumped into Emperor Xian in the corridor just outside the entrance hall, just as he was pulling on his vest, accompanied by Master Eagle Jr. Aside from Su and Di Tan, who was probably still in the kitchen, the main building was more or less empty. No-one knew were Monkey had disappeared to, and Masters Po, Tigress and Viper had set off first thing this morning in search of him. Crane and Mantis were in the topmost room of the right hand tower, trying to figure out what the mechanical room was for, and if it would be of any use to their survival. Master Shifu was currently overseeing the activity in the foundry. Tujiu and Sao were god knows where. As for the soldiers, they were busy gathering everything from soup to weapons and transporting it all into the storage warehouse in the left hand tower. As for Xian himself and his feathered friend, they were just about to go and meet with Shifu.
But first he had to let Su know what was going on.
"Good morning, Emperor Xian." Su bowed formally, as Tigress had taught her to do. "Where is everybody?"
So no-one had told her of Monkey's disappearance yet. Xian sighed and knelt down so he was more her level.
"Monkey has… wandered off and gotten lost." He said. He wasn't sure if telling a little girl that Monkey had plans to hunt down and kill his father's murderer would be a good idea. "His friends have gone out to look for him."
"Will they be back soon?" Su asked. She let out a tiny yawn and rubbed her eye. One small black paw held together the blanket that was wrapped around her. Despite the negative emotions swirling inside, Xian couldn't help but smile at the sight.
"They should be back by nightfall." Xian said. He motioned for Eagle Jr. to go ahead without him. Eagle Jr. nodded, bid the girl good morning and walked off.
"I hope they get back before the storm comes." Su said.
"Storm? What storm?"
"Oh damn!" Master Eagle stopped just short of the entrance hall and made his way back to them. "My most sincere apologies, your highness, I forgot to tell you in the chaos of recent events. Just before dawn our scouts spotted a winter storm about eighty miles south east of us."
"Is it relevant?" Xian asked.
"Probably. Our scouts say that it's a blizzard, and a very dangerous one. By dangerous I mean powerful winds lasting several days."
"That bad, huh?"
"Yes, and it's currently moving in our direction."
Xian froze.
"Oh god." He whispered in horror as a series of metal images were displayed in his head. "If Po and his comrades get caught in it…"
"Calm down, there's still the chance that the storm will change course." Eagle Jr. said.
"But in the meantime, someone's going to have to go out there and warn the search party." Xian said. "Who else knows about the storm?"
"Aside from Su, Shifu, Crane and Mantis know. I informed them the moment I received the news."
"And what did Shifu say?"
"He said that if the storm is still heading in our direction after twelve hours, Crane is to go out and bring Po and the others back."
"Good." Xian said. "Go on ahead. I'll catch up once I've finished talking with Su."
Eagle Jr. disappeared down the corridor.
"Mr. Emperor, is something wrong?" Su asked.
"Nothing's wrong, Su." Xian replied gently. "It's just that I'm going to have to ask you to stay here in the main building for the time being."
"Is it so I don't get in the way of you guys preparing for battle?"
"Yes, I- wait a minute, how did you know that?"
"I may be a kid, but I'm not stupid." Su said with a small scowl. "We're stuck here with a giant monster trying to kill us. I know what that means."
"I see…" Xian murmured. "If you've already had breakfast, why don't you go to the library and do some more reading?"
"I'm about to go there now." Su said, suddenly brightening up again. "Last night, I found something pretty weird, and I wanna see if the library's hiding anything else!"
Xian's ears pricked in interest.
"What did you find?"
"Come with me, I'll show you!" Su led Xian back up the corridor and into her guestroom. A minute later she was placing a spyglass in his paws.
"You say you found this in an astrolabe?" Xian was astounded.
"Yep." Su said. "Those little levers on the side seem to change how far you can see through the lens."
Xian put the spyglass up to his eye and soon realized that she was right. He collected himself and looked back down at Su.
"Well… first of all… I'm impressed- no actually I'm amazed you learned how to use an astrolabe so quickly… and second… do you have any idea what this spyglass could be intended for?"
"I have a few ideas." Su said. "There's still a couple of things I need to do before I know for sure. I don't want to say anything yet, but if I'm right we might be able to figure out the true origins of this fortress!"
"So everyone's got something worthwhile to do but me." Xian muttered. Su's excited smile fell.
"Did I say something wrong?" She asked. Xian pulled his head back. He hadn't expected her to hear that.
"No, nothing's wrong." He said quickly. Su looked strangely deep in thought.
"Nobody blames you, you know." She said quietly.
"Excuse me?"
"About the medic dying. It's not your fault." Su said.
Xian merely shook his head.
"I know you're trying to comfort me, but you might as well save your breath." He said. A second later he realized that may have been too harsh so he tried again. "You can't understand. You're too young. You don't know what it's like to lose someone you couldn't protect."
Su tilted her head. Suddenly her eyes watered and she put a tiny paw on Xian's arm, the one that was still holding the spyglass.
"No, I don't." She replied softly. "But my daddy does."
Xian's grip on the spyglass loosened.
"What did you say?" He asked.
"When my daddy was a little older than me, he lost his mommy and daddy in a bandit raid." Su said. Her grip on his arm tightened. "Mr. Qiang, the leader of the village I used to live in, said that daddy was really sad afterward, and it wasn't until he met mommy that he got better." Xian gazed down at her, listening in silence. "But then a few months before I was born, mommy got sick. I overheard about it from a group of gossiping old ladies. They called it consumption, and the village healer said that mommy was gonna die from it no matter what daddy did."
Xian's mouth slowly fell open as he imagined it; a male panda sitting hopelessly by his wife's bedside, helpless as she coughed and coughed into a bloodstained handkerchief. The spyglass slowly slid from his grasp and clattered to the floor. But then he remembered conversing with Shifu and his students at the Winter Feast, and when they told him about their adventure in the Shidao Mountains, they had made it quite clear that both Su's father and mother were alive and well.
"What happened?" He managed to whisper.
"Mommy got better a little while after she got pregnant with me." Su said. A tear slid down her cheek. "I know it doesn't really change the fact that I don't know how you feel… but after seeing the look on daddy's face each time mommy so much as sneezes… I think I've got the general idea."
For what felt like an eternity, all that could be heard was the sound of the soft wind outside.
"Anyway!" Su suddenly leapt to her feet, startling the emperor. "I've a confession to make!"
"You do?" Xian asked.
"Yes. You know the other night, just after that building blew up, I kinda eavesdropped on you guys talking."
"You did?"
"Yeah." Su wiped the tear from her cheek and looked up at him sheepishly. "I woke up when Master Shifu and Mr. Tujiu started arguing about something. I listened outside the door for a while, but then Po and Mr. Tujiu started shouting at each other, so I got scared and went back to bed. It was about then that I found that box of scrolls."
"I see." Xian had been saying that a lot lately. "I forgive you for eavesdropping."
"By the way, I found some of the stuff I overheard to be very useful." Su said as she leaned down and retrieved the dropped spyglass.
"You mean for this theory of yours?" Xian asked. "What is your theory anyway?"
Su checked that the spyglass was undamaged before answering his question.
"If my theory is correct, the library possesses a couple of tools, including this spyglass, that are required to find the Yeti's hiding place, solve one of the greatest mysteries in Asia, or both."
"What?!" Xian grabbed Su's shoulders. "Are you serious?!" In his wallowing in guilt and anger, he had completely forgotten about Su being a genius.
"People are getting hurt, so yes, I'm being serious!" Su huffed. "There's just a couple of things I need to do before I know for sure."
"Just a couple of things?" Xian said.
"First, I need to head outside and use the spyglass to check something out. Then I need to go to the library to check something I might have overlooked."
"That all?" Despite himself, Xian felt excitement welling up inside him. if this child did indeed possess the answer to their salvation… "Alright, go on and confirm this theory of yours! If you need help with anything, speak to Master Crane and Mantis. They'll be in the left hand tower! Tell them that I'm ordering them to give any help you need!"
"Mr. Emperor, are you okay?" A very perplexed panda cub asked.
"I'm fine!" Xian stood up. "I'm sorry, it's just that…" He sighed, and this time he was smiling. "If you're right… there might still be a chance to set things right."
"Oh." Was all Su said.
Xian knelt back down to her level and gently placed a paw on her shoulder.
"Su, thank you for giving me some genuine hope. And don't worry. Whether your theory is right or not, I'm going to get you back home if it's the last thing I do."
Without another word he left the room and made his way down the corridor hall.
He moved so briskly that at first he didn't notice the red panda leaning against the wall.
"Master Shifu!" Xian stopped in his tracks. "What are you doing here?"
"Eagle Jr. told me you were in the middle of a conversation with Su. I came over to see what was going on."
Xian noticed that Shifu's large ears were flattened against his head.
"You overheard." It wasn't a question.
"Yes." Shifu replied. "I think I'm beginning to understand why she acts so mature at such a young age."
Xian nodded.
"The more I get to know about her, the more I'm starting to think that being a brainiac has nothing to do with it." He said. "What's the situation so far? I overslept."
"The foundry's fully up and running and most of the supplies are within the fortress walls." Shifu replied. "All that's left if to set up a plan of defense."
"Good, good." Xian replied. "Have you figured out what that mechanical room at the top of the right tower is for yet?"
"No, but whatever it is, it is far more sophisticated than anything I've ever seen. We should probably leave it alone for now. Meddling with the machinery may cause more harm than good, anyway."
"You're right. What do we do in the meantime?"
"Arrange a meeting with some of the higher ranking soldiers and discuss a strategy."
"We should bring Colonel Sao too. He's too close to Tujiu for me to trust him, but he's the highest ranking officer aside from that vulture so we don't have much of a choice."
They continued their discussions as they walked down the hall. Xian looked back just in time to see Su poke her head through the guestroom door, spyglass still clutched in her paws.
The Yeti gazed at the pool of orange molten metal in the larger vat in satisfaction. It was ready.
He pulled a chain and the vat tilted, the spouted side of the vat pointed down in the direction of the mold that lay on the ground before it. The Yeti took a moment to sigh, slightly displeased that the foundry's machinery was so old and decayed that he had to use such cruder methods, before pulling the chain a little more, allowing the contents of the vat to pour into the mold in a steady stream.
Once he was done, he released the chain, checked that the molten metal was safely pooled in the mold, and then moved on to the smaller and far more important vat in the corner. The gold inside had turned to liquid. It wasn't glowing, but it wasn't any less hot. Carefully, the Yeti tilted the small vat, and the white hot contents trickled down into the small square shaped mold.
The Yeti made sure that both mold were secure and unlikely to spill or topple over. It would time for both to cool. Normally he should sit and watch over the molds in the interests of safety, but he didn't have time today. The storm would reach his location in a few hours. He had to hurry.
The Yeti made his way out the old city and up the spiral stone staircase that led to the cave.
Luckily there was more than one way to infiltrate the fortress.