The Yeti closed his eyes in frustration.
The cub was shaking like a leaf in his grip, and the two masters were beginning to stir.
The child had flung the spyglass somewhere to the left. If he was quick, maybe he could grab the bag of powder kegs, locate the spyglass and leave-
"It came from up there!" Shouted a voice somewhere down below.
The Yeti growled. The child's attempt to draw attention to herself had worked. He had to leave now.
He released his grip on the girl and retrieved the bag of powder kegs. He turned back to the two masters. It considered the heavy crate it had dropped in its attempt to silence the girl's screams. Just kick it in their direction. Instant death.
And then the voices got louder and finishing the masters off was no longer an option. The Yeti snarled, glanced at the girl one more time, then took off, back through the hole in the wall and down the stairs. He didn't relight his lantern until he reached the bottom. He then pressed a concealed button on the wall and the stairs retreated, once more becoming a smooth steep slope.
The Yeti quickly made his way through the dark corridor until he found the opening in the wall he had entered from. He stepped through and pushed the stone door closed.
There. Now the soldiers couldn't follow him.
The Yeti slowed his pace as he walked through the dark passage.
How did the child of all people solve the astrolabe puzzle? Only the Dragon Empress and a select few other people knew about the contraption's secret purpose. How did a little girl who couldn't be any older than seven work it out?
It didn't matter any more. What mattered was that the artifact that could lead those trespassers right to the lost city was in their hands. Maybe they knew how to use it, maybe not. But when the time to attack came he would have to track that child down and take back what was his.
Yet… he felt no anger towards the child. In fact, he felt some amusement as he remembered how she had stood up to him. He had met veterans of the ancient wars that had shown less courage.
As the Yeti neared the exit, he felt a severe chill coming from the draft seeping through the doors. He probably had a little less than an hour before the storm struck. He had to hurry.
He reached the doors and removed the narrow stone holding them shut. He opened the doors and stepped out.
He felt the slight tug of a tripwire on his shin.
Before the Yeti could react, he heard the twang of a crossbow and then a thunk as the arrow slammed into his shoulder.
The Yeti snarled in pain and pulled out the arrow, taking a piece of his fur with it. The arrow had been no more harmful than a pinprick, but almost at once the Yeti knew something was wrong. His vision was beginning to blur around the edges.
Poison.
The arrow had been dipped in poison. Whoever set the trap was shooting to kill, and the Yeti suspected that he knew who it was.
Despite the slight dizziness, the Yeti spotted a yellow shape leaping down from his hiding place behind a rock and pulling out a crossbow from a lower gap between two rocks. The primate reloaded the crossbow and fired.
This time the Yeti was ready. He twisted his torso sideways, and the arrow missed and lodged itself in the rock behind him.
The primate paused to reload again, and the Yeti quickly took the time to pull out a tiny bottle. Having dealt with imperial soldiers countless times in the past, he had extensive knowledge of the weapons the army used, including the poisons they dipped their arrows into to ensure fatality.
The Yeti took a few drops of the antidote and almost immediately his vision cleared. Just at the primate readied his crossbow and took aim, the Yeti turned around, grabbed the protruding end of the arrow in the rock, and flung it in his direction like a throwing knife.
Whoever said time stood still ought to be tossed off the highest cliff into the deepest ocean.
Monkey had barely a second to realize that in firing a second time he had given away his position before he saw the arrow he himself had shot flying right back at him.
With an animalistic screech he flung himself backward, the back of his head hitting the ground as the arrow soared right over his face and disappeared into the distance. Luckily he had kept his grip on the crossbow so it was still in his hands as he leapt to his feet and aimed again.
Two seconds. It had taken Monkey only two seconds to dodge the arrow and recover. But in that time the Yeti had already disappeared. Its footsteps faded into the distance until the world around him was silent once more.
Monkey barely stopped himself from tossing the crossbow down in a rage.
"Darnit! Crap, crap, crap!" He realized he was shouting and stopped himself. The last thing he needed right now was an avalanche.
Twice now the Yeti had outsmarted him. He had never anticipated that the monster possessed the antidote for the poison his arrows were dipped in. He felt sick. All that waiting for nothing.
But it wasn't over yet, he reminded himself. It wouldn't be over until either Monkey or his father's killer was dead.
Monkey retrieved the rope he had used as a trip wire and untied the end he had attached to the crossbow's trigger. He folded and tied the rope into a bundle and stuffed it into his pack.
It wasn't until he hoisted the pack back into his shoulders that he noticed the strong wing ruffling his short fur. In his single-minded focus on waiting for the Yeti to re-emerge from its hiding place, he hadn't noticed it until now. It wouldn't be long until the storm hit.
Darn it. I won't get another chance today. There's not enough time for another attack. But perhaps if I pick up its trail, I might just have time to track it to its lair and head back here before the storm hits. That passage looks like it would make a good shelter. What was that monster doing in there anyway?
With that in mind, Monkey decided that making sure the passage was indeed safe would be his first priority. Cautiously he slipped through the gap between the two stone doors and entered the darkness. Along the way he picked up the arrow the Yeti had pulled from its shoulder and discarded on the ground. Though the poison was now useless, he would need all the arrows he could get.
With slightly shaking wings, Di Tan stuffed the pack with snow until it was bursting, tied it closed, and handed it to Master Crane. Crane took the pack with his talons and pressed it to his head.
"Uuuuhhh…" He groaned.
"I don't think I'll bother asking if you're feeling alright." Di Tan said sympathetically. "The medic says that it's unlikely that you have a concussion, but you should take it easy until the throbbing dies down."
"Thanks, doc."
"I'm a chef."
"Oh, right. Sorry."
"Hey, chef. What about me?" Mantis was lying on the floor right next to Crane, legs and arms splayed out as if he were trying to make a snow angel.
"Hang on for just a moment." Di Tan said. He took a second pack, scooped up some more snow from the bucket a soldier had graciously brought up without asking, and a minute later Mantis was groaning under the weight of an ice cold bag roughly his size.
"I'm sorry about this, but whatever the beast did to you has bruised every bone in your body. At least it would have if you weren't a bug."
"Thanks anyway, doc."
"I'm a… whatever." Di Tan sighed. Correcting two beaten up boys every five minutes wouldn't be worth the hassle. "Now that you're both feeling a bit better, why don't you properly explain what happened? I'll relay it to Master Shifu later."
Ten minutes ago, the aged goose had left his room and stepped outside for some fresh cool air to clear his head after his chilling conversation with the injured soldier. As he pleasantly wandered along the exterior wall of the building, staying out of the way of the soldiers as they busily set up the defenses, Di Tan had heard the scream of a small child coming from the left hand tower. In minutes Master Shifu, Emperor Xian and a dozen men rushed into the building, where they found Masters Crane and Mantis lying dazed among scattered barrels, and Su sitting between them rocking back and forth and hugging her gold coin. The little girl was currently in the kitchen, wrapped in a blanket and sipping sweet tea, explaining to Shifu and Xian what had happened. Master Eagle Jr., meanwhile, had gone with several men into the hole in the wall. Di Tan didn't expect them to return without empty hands.
Crane winced as he told Di Tan about the collapsing floor in the machine room, and their ordeal in the darkness afterwards. He went on to explain about their climb back up the slope, which turned out to be the wrong one, and how they broke down a wall and found themselves in the warehouse, clear on the other side of the fortress.
"We came across some powder kegs in the corner, and the last thing I remember was something grabbing my legs." Crane said. He winced again and pressed the ice pack to his skull.
"Take it easy." Di Tan said, and turned to Mantis. "Mantis, what happened after that?"
All he heard was a muffled sound coming beneath the pack. With another sigh Di Tan lifted the pack off him.
"After that, that thing flung Crane into a pile of barrels, knocking him out cold. I tried taking it down with pressure points but its skin was too thick." Mantis spoke more clearly. "Then it grabbed me and everything went black. When I came too, we were surrounded by soldiers and the Yeti was gone."
"Di Tan, where's Su?" Crane asked. Di Tan smiled slightly at his concern for her.
Sometimes the old goose forgot that kung fu masters were more than just warriors.
"Su's alright. Miraculously we were able to interrupt things before the Yeti could hurt her. She's currently explaining her version of events to your master."
"Oh thank gods…" The two masters looked a little more relaxed.
Di Tan chuckled to himself.
"Boys…" He muttered. "Always trying to make themselves look tougher than they really are."
"It grabbed you?!" Xian snarled.
"Yeah." Su said. "It didn't hurt, but it was really scary."
"And what happened after that?"
"The Yeti told me to give him the spyglass again, but I threw it away. The he heard you coming and ran away."
"With a sack of powder kegs?" Shifu asked.
"Yeah. That's the end of the story." Su said. "Can I go to-"
"Just a moment, Su." Shifu said. "You said that the Yeti entered the building through an opening in the wall."
"Yeah. I heard a scraping sound and then I saw him come through a hole in the wall."
"So there may be a secret passage down there." Xian said, sharing a troubled look with Shifu. If it was true, then there was no telling how many passages into the fortress the Yeti could use. "And you followed it up a set of stairs?"
"Yeah. He pressed on a spot on the wall and some stairs appeared." Su said. "I didn't want to be stuck down there so I followed him. Did I do something dumb?"
"No, Su. We would have probably done the same thing." Shifu said. He was impressed that Su had recovered so quickly from such a terrifying experience. She had stopped shaking a few minutes ago, and was now sipping her tea as if she was merely playing with her dolls rather than relaying her encounter with a murderous monster.
"Are you sure you don't want some sweet tea?" Su asked. "There's loads in the pot."
"We're fine, thank you." Xian said with a small smile. "What about you? How are you feeling?"
"Okay." Su said. "I'm probably gonna get nightmares when I'm older, though. Nothing like a little post-traumatic stress disorder to give you an excuse to stay up all night."
"Tell me about it." Xian muttered.
Tap, tap!
"Come in!" Xian called.
In walked Eagle Jr.
"We searched everywhere." Eagle Jr. said. "No sign of the Yeti or the opening in the wall Su mentioned."
"Then the Yeti's probably long gone." Xian said. "And sealed the passage again as it was leaving."
"Speaking of which, that hole your students made is being repaired as we speak, and your students are almost fully recovered."
"Have they been moved out of the tower, yet?"
"They're actually outside. They insisted on getting some more snow for their ice packs. Oh by the way, any idea when I'll get to take off these cursed bandages? My wing is itching like hell!"
"When the medic says so." Xian replied bluntly, then turned his attention back to Su. "Look, Su. We need your help."
"Is this about the spyglass?" Su asked.
"Yes." Xian gently pushed the spyglass across the table towards her. A soldier had come across the spyglass while they were searching the left hand tower to make sure the Yeti wasn't hiding anywhere, and Xian had taken it off his hands before it could disappear again. "It's time you explained to us your plan to find the Yeti's lair."
Su picked up the spyglass and looked through it. She fiddled with the tiny levers. After a moment she sighed in relief, as if she had been worried that it may have been damaged.
"Okay." She said. "Can we go to the library so I can explain it properly?"