Hello, folks! I've just realised that there's a part of the Yeti's appearance that I've kept forgetting about! Just so you know, it's wearing plain black pants.
Keep reading!
"You mean up there?!"
Po stared up at the naturally formed shaft of ice, squinting from the beam of daylight that shone down on him and Tigress.
"There?!"
Though obviously narrow enough to shimmy upward with their hands and feet, the shaft looked like it was a hundred feet up.
"UP THERE?!"
Tigress lightly tapped Po on the back of his head before he could start panicking.
"Yes, up there." She said calmly. "This is the end of the tunnel and there's no other way out. Unless of course you want to cross the pit again and take your chances in the other direction."
Po stood rooted to the spot, grumbling under his breath, before he replied.
"Noooo…" He said.
Tigress shook her head and jerked her head in the direction of the shaft.
"After you."
Monkey had no idea how long he had been silently pursuing the Yeti down the side of the mountain.
Weighted down by the crossbow and dual sword, the primate was having trouble keeping up. The Yeti wasn't exactly running, but it was moving at a quick pace. The only explanation Monkey could come up with was that it was in a hurry. Perhaps it sensed something coming its way, a storm perhaps. There was no doubt now that the wind was getting more aggressive, and there was no way it had sensed Monkey's presence.
If it had, the snow would stained red with blood by now.
At one point, the Yeti stopped in its tracks, and Monkey felt his heart skip a beat. He gripped the handles of the swords, preparing for a fight. Instead, the Yeti simply knelt down and picked up a long narrow stone that resembled a stick. It examined it for several seconds. At a distance of forty feet Monkey couldn't tell what was so important about it. All he could make out what that the stone didn't look naturally formed. It had smooth edges and sharp corners. One end had been sharpened down into a point. The work of a stone carver. Suddenly the Yeti stood up, tucked the stick-like stone into its belt, and resumed its journey. Monkey set off in pursuit.
Through his hatred, Monkey felt oddly impressed at the way the Yeti maneuvered over the rough landscape. There was grace and precision in its movements, as if it knew the mountain like the back of its massive hand. Which it probably did. Once it unexpectedly jumped over a flat stretch of snow without losing momentum, which upon Monkey's close examination turned out to conceal a crevasse.
Sometime after the discovery of the crevasse, Monkey suddenly realized that they were heading in the general direction of the fortress.
Hell.
If the Yeti had indeed finally decided to attack the fortress directly, someone was going to get killed.
Po. Mantis! Master Shifu!
Monkey reached for his crossbow. He couldn't let that monster reach the fortress and cause havoc. He had to end things, right here, right now. Even if it meant that he himself would get killed in the process.
His other hand reached for the crossbow strap across his chest…
And froze when the Yeti suddenly stopped in front of an unremarkable boulder twice its size and draped in thick white snow.
Monkey stayed where he was, one hand still on the crossbow and the other still on the strap.
The Yeti reached out and brushed away the snow from the face of the boulder-
No, not boulder. Building.
A pair of stone doors was quickly unveiled as the creature continued to brush away the snow. The doors were covered in ancient carvings depicting a group of sturdy looking large creatures kneeling before a central figure that had been carved to look like it was on fire.
"What in gods name…" Monkey started, then quickly silenced himself.
The Yeti stopped brushing away snow once the door was fully revealed, and pulled out the narrow stone it had acquired earlier. After a moment's pause, it jammed the pointed end into the crack between the two doors and forced them open.
"So that's what you wanted it for." Monkey muttered.
Those doors looked like they would have opened if the Yeti just used its hands. Why use a stupid stone?
The Yeti stepped inside and pulled the doors shut.
Monkey ran forward and put his ear up to the door.
He heard a cold voice on the other side.
"Stay out of my way."
Then silence.
Monkey scowled and pulled at the doors.
They didn't budge.
Monkey pulled harder.
No movement.
Monkey's heart sank.
The door didn't feel so heavy he couldn't move it. It was being stopped by something. Like a bar.
The long stone.
Monkey slammed his fist on the door.
"You knew I was there all along, didn't you?!" He shouted. If the Yeti was still there, it didn't answer.
Monkey pounded his fist again and stepped back from the door.
"You want to play like that huh?" He growled. He pulled out a small dagger from his belt and fingered the blade.
It was time to show that murderer what kind of opponent it was dealing with.
Su gripped the wooden pole tightly, her small feet shaking at the very edge of the gear.
"Okay…" She said. "Here… we… go!"
She stepped off the gear.
At once, her paws began to slide down the pole at a scary speed, her legs dangling beneath her in the darkness. Su held on tight, praying that her paws wouldn't start to sweat. For an eternity she descended into the abyss.
And then her feet hit the hard cold floor.
"Great. So far, so good"
It wasn't until she let go of the pole that she realized how steep the floor was.
With a squeal Su lost balance and fell backward, landing hard on her back. In seconds she was sliding head first down an invisible slide, unable to see where she was going.
Su opened her mouth to scream, but before the sound could come out the slide disappeared. She fell for one second before she hit the floor with a soft thud.
At first she just lay there in the silence and darkness. And then the soreness came and she moaned.
"I hate heights." She said. "They're the worst."
She got up. At least she wasn't hurt.
"Atchoo!" She sneezed unexpectedly. She rubbed her nose, and the bottom of her paw brushed against something light and fluffy. It was caught in the collar of her tunic, had been tickling her nose when she was getting up.
Su pulled out the object, and when she held it in her paw she realized what it was.
"A feather?" She muttered. "Crane's feather! He and Mantis fell down here!" She looked out into the darkness, as if she were expecting to see them. "Crane? Mantis?"
Neither of them answered.
Su gulped. Her heart was racing. She wished she had never stowed away in that cart.
"I can't stay here." She eventually said. "No way but forward." She started walking slowly. For how long it was impossible to tell. At some point her foot glanced the fallen spyglass that had miraculously survived its fall. Su picked it up and clutched it to her small body, feeling some relief as she continued to walk.
"So this is how it feels to be all alone in the darkness." Su said to herself in a sing song voice. "Man, it sucks. It sucks. I hate this. A stay arrow in the training hall I can deal with. But a stray child? If I ever have kids, I'm gonna make sure they never become stray children. Ever."
She was babbling, but babbling was better than no sound at all.
Bump.
Su had reached a flat stone wall.
At first she felt dismay that her path was blocked. Then she realized this wall might be what she needed. If she felt along the wall, she may come across a door or passage. Maybe even a set of stairs! Immediately Su reached out with one paw, her other still clutching the spyglass, and started walking along the wall at a snail's pace.
Eventually she began to sing. It was a soft little lullaby her mother always sang to her, and she could remember it like she remembered her own name.
"The moon is bright, the wind is quiet,
The tree leaves hand over the window,
My little baby, go to sleep quickly,
Sleep, dreaming sweet dreams.
The moon is bright, the wind is quiet,
The cradle moving softly,
My little one, close your eyes,
Sleep, sleep, dreaming sweet dreams."
She was about to repeat the song when the sound of scraping rock make her blood freeze.
She opened her mouth to call for Crane and Mantis, but stopped herself. Something was telling her that making a sound was a very bad idea.
The scraping sound stopped and then Su could see light emanating from an opening in the wall that had opened up right next to where she was standing. The light was getting bright, and Su saw a shadow in the glow. A massive shape that she had seen before in a burning building.
The cub clapped her paws to her mouth before she could start screaming and flattened herself against the wall as best as she could, clutching both her lucky coin and the spyglass like they were stuffed animals.
And then the Yeti emerged, holding a red lotka paper lantern.
Su bit her lip behind her paws as she fought to keep from whimpering. She felt her eyes watering. The scariest monster she had ever seen was literally three feet in front of her.
It held the lantern up, illuminating the edge of the slope she had slid down earlier. Then it turned and made its way through the darkness. As it moved, the light briefly illuminated gears of various sizes and other parts of the machinery that was currently still and silent.
Su slowly lowered her paws.
She had to make a decision.
Either she could let the Yeti leave with the only source of light around and try to find a way out on her own, or she could follow it and hope it would lead her to an exit.
Su remembered the terror she had felt when she first opened her eyes to pitch darkness, and made her decision.
The cub took a deep breath and followed.
When Po poked his head out of the top of the shaft, he had never felt so glad to see the light of day in his life.
The panda quickly pulled the rest of his body out the hole so Tigress get through, and looked out at his surroundings. There was no familiarity in the frozen landscape.
He heard a grunt behind him as Tigress pulled herself out the shaft.
"We made it." She said. "Now where the hell are we?"
"I can't see Viper, anywhere." Said Po.
"She probably did the smart thing and stayed where she was." Tigress replied. "Let's not waste any more time. We should find our way back to her."
Po nodded in agreement.
The Yeti stopped in front of what at first appeared to be a plain stone wall. It raised its lantern, and Su realized that it was the bottom of another slide, which according to her sense of direction was exactly parallel to the other slide.
Maybe this slide leads up to the second tower. Su thought. She stayed some distance back, away from the edge of the lantern's bubble of light.
As she looked on, the Yeti raised a hand and pressed on a single brick in the very center of the wall. Then it stepped out of the way as an entire column of bricks began to push themselves out of the wall. Before Su's eyes a staircase was formed, leading up to the slope, which in the lantern's light had now become a set of stairs itself.
"Wow…" Su whispered as loud as she dared.
The Yeti made its way up the stairs, the bubble of light growing smaller and higher as it ascended.
It wasn't until the light was the size of a plate that Su gathered the courage to begin climbing the steps herself.
"Are you sure this is the right way?" Mantis asked skeptically.
"It's a ramp, isn't it?" Crane growled with exertion as he climbed upwards through the abyss. How in god's name he was managing it even he himself did not know. He had no idea what he was using for footholds. All he knew was that Su was lost somewhere in this godforsaken place and he and Manti had to find her.
Speaking of Mantis, the bug was still clinging to Crane's shoulder and continuously voicing his concerns that they were going the wrong way. His incessant worries and questions weren't helping the avian's concentration, and he was this close to telling Mantis to stick an unmentionable in his gob.
"Su!" Mantis called out. When he received no reply, he asked; "What if she's knocked out?"
"Then it would be hopeless to look for her in this darkness." Crane said. "We stand a better chance of finding her if we find a way out and come back with lights."
"Shifu's gonna kill us when he finds out."
"I know that."
"He'll make a table ornament out of my hide."
"So what?"
"He'll make a feather hat out of yours."
"Shut up, Mantis!"
"Sorry."
That was when Crane's foot somehow hit solid- and flat- ground.
"I think we've reached the top." He said.
Making sure Mantis was still with him, Crane continued on, relieved that he was once again walking on normal flooring. At least until he bumped into a wall.
"Darnit!" As it seemed, Mantis had hit the wall head first. "Now what?"
"Hang on…" Crane tapped the wall. Just as he thought, it was hollow. "Mantis, would you care to do the honors?"
"Anything to get out of this place!"
Crane felt Mantis leap from his shoulder and- CRASH!
Light exploded in Crane's face as the wall in front of him came crashing down in a cascade of bricks and rubble. When the dust settled, Crane carefully stepped over the pile of rock and blinked in the light of a nearby lantern.
"I told you we were going the wrong way!" Mantis exclaimed.
Crane's jaw dropped as he saw the countless crates that filled the massive hall of the left hand tower. The tower that was clear on the other side of the fortress.
"How the hell did we get up here?!" Crane said to himself.
"Who cares?" Mantis demanded. He was standing on one of the bigger crates. "Let's tell Shifu what happened so we can get a search party down there to find Su!"
"Okay." Crane said.
They made their way through the maze of crates and barrels, all the while hoping that Su was alright stayed that way until they found her, until Mantis suddenly stopped.
"Hey Crane! Check this out!"
"Mantis, we don't have time for-" Crane stopped when he saw the small pile of barrels tucked securely in between two big crates.
"Powder kegs?" He spoke. "I thought all the powder kegs had been destroyed in the fire."
"Look at the dust." Mantis replied. "These were here long before the explosion. They were probably never stored in the other building."
"Yet the wood looks almost brand new." Crane said. "That means they came here along with the rest of the army's supplies."
"Then Tujiu would have known about this. That jerk's a compulsive liar, I'm sure of it."
Crane was about to comment that no-one had seen Tujiu since the destruction of his private study when the world suddenly turned upside down.
What the heck?!
It took a moment for Crane to realize that something was dangling him five feet in the air by the legs, and judging from the size of the hand gripping him, it wasn't Mantis.
"Oh sugar honey ice-"