"That was kind of uncalled for." Crane said as he rubbed his sore neck.
"Oh, it was called for." Xian said without so much as looking at the avian. His attention was more focused on the foot of the stone spiral staircase that would take them to the top. "You know, Master Shifu told me about your little blunder in that panda village."
"How was I supposed to know that Mr. Ping would take offense to someone calling his soup bland?" Crane demanded.
Xian looked at him blankly for several seconds, then shook his head and started up the stairs. Crane wondered what the heck his problem was, and then realized the stupidity of what he had just said.
"Because he's a chef, of course…" He muttered, and began to follow.
The tower of the main building was situated right above the throne room, and consisted primarily of a single spiral staircase and a circular room at the very top. The room itself was bare and covered in dust that must have built up over decades. Because there was nothing of interest in the tower, it had been mostly ignored by Tujiu and his soldiers, so it was unlikely that anything had been damaged or tampered with. However, it also made it a little harder to find whatever it was they needed to located the lost city.
Quickly they travelled up the staircase. At one point Xian began to fall behind.
"Xian?" Crane stopped a few feet up.
"Not as young as I once was." Xian muttered. He took a deep breath and resumed walking.
They must have been about sixty feet up before either of them spoke again.
"Xian, I want to ask you something."
"What's stopping you?" Xian asked, the tiredness that came from climbing a hundred foot staircase was making him a little irritable.
"Why do you hate Tujiu so much?"
"Have you forgotten what he has done here?" Xian replied coldly.
"That's not what I meant. From the way you talk to him, it seems like you've been holding a grudge against him long before this whole incident. What's going on between you two?"
Xian stopped walking.
"Now is not the time to tell you that." He said firmly.
"Fair enough." Crane said, not wanting a knife to be pressed to his throat. "Let's keep moving."
"By the way, what's with calling me 'Xian', all of a sudden?"
Crane froze. He had completely forgotten that Xian was the emperor.
"Oh, I'm sorry, your highness!" He said quickly.
"Don't be, I don't blame you for forgetting, what with my current attire." Xian said with a small smile. "I actually kind of like it. To be honest, I was starting to get a little tired of everyone I run into calling me 'your highness', or 'your eminence', or 'our great golden shining empress.'"
"Our great golden what?" Crane actually did a double take.
"Don't ask, some ambassador said it while having one too many drinks."
"Oh." Crane said slowly. "Hey, I think we've reached the top."
Sure enough, they found themselves in an empty stone room five steps later. They looked around, but saw nothing that could be combined with a spyglass. Not even a window to look out from. The room would have been pitch dark were it not for the single wall torch blazing quietly."
"Well, now what?" Crane asked.
"Crane, is the air a little thinner here?" Xian asked. "You're the best one to judge."
Crane paused.
"Only a little, but not enough to make you pass out."
"Then we've got to go higher." Xian said.
"How? There's no other door."
"Then look for one." Xian said simply, and began feeling along the walls.
"Excuse me?"
"There's a secret door in the library and the machine room. What's to say there isn't one here?"
"Okay…" Crane muttered and began running his wings along the walls. He couldn't feel the rough texture through his feathertips, but the cold practically radiated from the walls. He thought of Viper, and Tigress and Po, and hoped that they would find out about the storm in time if they hadn't sensed it coming already.
"Aha!" Xian suddenly said. "Crane, over here! It's-" There was a scraping of stone, and suddenly Crane was nearly deafened by the roaring wind that suddenly filled the room and ruffled his feathers. Dust flew everywhere, going into his eyes and into his beak. There was a slam and then all was still again.
Crane turned to face Xian. There was an expression of shock on the tiger's face. His fur and clothes were a mess.
"What the hell was that?" Crane asked.
"Er, I… I found the door." Xian said.
"Oh, great." Crane replied. "Let's get going, and open the door a little slower this time, okay?"
"Okay." Xian said, and turned back to the stone circular handle he had pulled slightly out of the rest of the wall. He turned it, and slowly pushed the door open.
At once they were assaulted by fierce wind.
"Oh crap." Xian said, his voice barely audible over the wind, as he saw how high up they were. "Oh crap!" Down below, the courtyard looked like it was the size of a square shaped plate, the people mere black dots against the snow. They were currently standing on a narrow stone stairway moving along the exterior wall, a flimsy chain rail the only thing between them and deal by falling.
"Oh crap!" Xian said again. "Okay, I can do this…" He began making his way up the stairs.
Crane was about to ask why he was so freaked out, when he remembered that unlike himself, Xian was a land animal. He probably wasn't used to this kind of height.
Just like Crane wasn't used to climbing up tall staircases rather than merely flying.
"I'll just scout ahead." Crane called over the wind.
"Knock yourself out." He thought he heard Xian reply.
Crane took off into the sky. At once, even though the wind was more aggressive up here, he felt a rush of joy. He hadn't flown for days, and he missed it.
The stairs ended at the top of the flat roof of the tower. The top room was now directly below him. There was nothing to use a spyglass on here, but what was there was-
"Oh man, he is not going to like this." Crane muttered so softly the wind drowned it out.
At that moment he heard Xian calling out to him; he had almost reached the roof.
"Crane, are you there?" He shouted. "Crane, we don't have a lot of-" He stopped dead. "Oh bugger."
They were both staring up at a narrower stone tower located in the center of the roof that looked to be at least fifty feet high. There was no door, only a small ladder that stretched right up to the very top. Whether or not it was safe was impossible to tell.
"I hate this place." Xian said. "I really hate this place."
"Do you want me to carry you up there?" Crane asked.
"No, it's too risky in these conditions." Xian said. He very reluctantly stepped up to the ladder. "Just stay close, okay?"
"Okay." Crane said.
"Here goes…" Xian said. "If you were here, Yujin, you'd be up and down in two minutes flat."
"What was that?" Crane wasn't sure if he had heard him right.
"Nothing!" Xian replied. "Let's get this over with!"
He started climbing.
When Eagle Jr. went to check on Su, he found her on the balcony with the astrolabe, pulling absentmindedly on the levers that controlled the various metal rings. She was very quiet.
"Su?" He said.
"Yeah?" The cub replied without turning her head.
"It's getting very harsh out here. Why don't you go inside?"
Su didn't answer.
"Su, it's quite cold out."
"I like it when it's cold."
"Hey, what's the matter?" Eagle Jr. asked.
"Nothing." Su said simply.
"Then let's go inside." Eagle Jr. said.
"Okay." Su allowed Eagle Jr. to lead her back inside. She didn't utter a single word as they made their way down the spiral staircase to the bottom floor.
"Actually, can I stay here for a bit longer?" Su asked unexpectedly, causing the eagle to stop.
"Sure, just don't stay too long. It will be night soon."
Su grabbed a random scroll, sat down on a bench, and started reading. Eagle Jr. was about to leave when he noticed that she wasn't truly reading the scroll. Rather, she was staring at some space above it.
"Su, come on." He urged gently. "What's wrong?"
Su sighed. It sounded very unchild-like.
"Master Eagle…"
"Eagle Jr."
"Whatever." She said. "Am I losing my innocence?"
"Losing your innocence?"
"A long time ago, I was told that when you experience something both scary and real at the same time, you realize that the world isn't as nice as you thought it was, and it changes you. For good or better depends on the person. A few days ago, I was already aware that there are some bad people in the world, and bad things happen because of them, but until now it hasn't really had an effect on me."
"So what has changed?"
"Ever since I got approached by a Yeti twice in once week, I've been thinking more and more about the bad stuff. And when I think about the bad stuff, it makes me feel bad. And sometimes I act bad."
Eagle Jr. frowned.
"What do you mean by acting bad?"
"I got mad at the Yeti and yelled at him."
"You what?"
"He said he wouldn't hurt us if I gave him the spyglass. It reminded me of how he had lied to you guys before and I got mad. I yelled at him." Su looked angry with herself. "How stupid is that?"
"Su, don't be too hard on yourself." Eagle Jr. replied gently. "You're a little girl. You can't always handle your emotions no matter how mature you are."
"If I didn't already know that, I would still be wondering why Po had a fight with an action figure the other day." Su said. Suddenly she gasped. "Oh! I did it again!"
"Did what?"
"Said something snide! I've been doing that a lot lately!"
"Wait, is that the change you've been worrying about?" Eagle Jr. chuckled. "Su, that's not exactly being scared into catatonia."
"Might as well be! I don't even recognize myself anymore!"
"Being sarcastic isn't the end of the world." Eagle Jr. said. "Why don't I take you to Di Tan for some sweet tea?"
"Sure, okay." Su said. "Does it have to be sweet?"
"Why, don't you like sweet?"
"As a stereotypical kiddie's drink, yes."
"Aren't you a bit young for the more bitter tea?"
"Aren't you a bit old to be whining about your bad wing all the time?"
There was a pause.
"Good comeback." Eagle Jr. muttered. "Okay, why don't you try some green tea?"
"Sounds good to me!" Su smiled.
"And while we're there I'll get my bandage changed. It's getting filthy."
Su put the scroll back on the shelf and along with Eagle Jr. left the library. They had just stepped through the archway when Eagle Jr. froze.
"What?" Su asked.
Eagle Jr. was staring down at a trail of blackened, charred footprints starting from the archway and disappearing ten feet away.
Crack!
"Damn!"
Xian lifted his legs just in time as the bottom half of the ladder collapsed from beneath him and crashed to the roof below.
"Xian, are you okay?" Crane called. He was hovering in the air behind Xian, ready to catch him if the rest of the ladder gave way.
"Okay!" Xian said, and continued climbing.
He reached the top with no other incidents, and clambered over the stone edge and quickly wrapped his arms around the wooden flag pole in the middle of the little platform. This time there was no fence or railing whatsoever, and he was wishing that he was back home in the imperial palace, watching his guards chase a hyper Zan around the entrance hall.
He heard a tapping sound next to him. Crane had touched down.
"Hey, look at this." He said.
Xian turned his head. At one corner of the platform was a metal object that consisted of a short pole, two flat discs on top, one vertical and one horizontal, and a space in between that looked perfect to fit a spyglass into.
"Perfect." Xian muttered. He slowly got to his feet and moved around the flag pole until he was right behind the stand. He pulled out the spyglass and set it in between the disks. He spotted two screws in the sides and twisted them until the spyglass was perfectly fastened in place.
"Xian, there's numbers on these disks."
Xian turned his head and saw that Crane was right. A series of numbers was ringed around the outer edge of both disks. He pulled out the sketch of the tower and examined the numbers at the top of the page.
Horizontal- 40, Vertical- 105.
"Looks like this works in angles." Xian whispered. So all he had to do was turn the spyglass until it was pointed in the right angles of both disks.
"Here goes…"
He turned the spyglass horizontally until it was pointing in the direction of the number forty on the bottom disk. He then turned the spyglass vertically until it was facing in the direction of the number one hundred and five on the disk next to it.
He put his eye to the spyglass, but all he saw was blurriness. He adjusted the little levers in the side of the spyglass until the image cleared.
His jaw dropped.
"I'll be god damned."
"What?" Crane shouted over the wind.
"Look." Xian said, and moved around the flagpole so Crane could look through the spyglass.
"What? All I can see is a pile of rocks on the mountainside."
"To be more precise, it's the result of a landslide." Xian said. "Look harder, but don't move the spyglass."
"Wait…" Crane said. "What's that above the rocks? It's a piece of an archway!"
"A big one. Looks a lot like an entrance, don't you think?" Xian asked.
"There's writing on it." Crane went on. "'Place of Peace.'"
"Think, have you heard that phrase before?" Xian asked. "In a story perhaps?"
"Well I did hear Shambhala being mentioned before…" Crane looked up sharply. "No way!"
"That's why the Yeti is trying so hard to get rid of us!" Xian said triumphantly. "It doesn't want us to find the lost city!"
"That's incredible!" Crane said. "How did you figure out this fortress was connected to Shambhala?"
"It wasn't me." Xian replied.
You were wrong about one thing, Su, Xian thought. You are perfect.
"How exactly does this help up find Po and the others?" Crane asked. "The entrance is blocked."
"Here." Xian handed him the drawing while keeping one arm wrapped around the pole. "There are numbers on the bottom of the page as well."
Crane looked at the numbers, then turned the spyglass to the appropriate angles. He looked through. He frowned and adjusted the little levers.
"Hey, there's a cave over there!"
"A cave?"
"Yeah. From its location you get a perfect view of this fortress!"
"It might be a backdoor." Xian said. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I'm thinking that we should start looking for Po and the others now."
"You can see for miles up here." Xian said. "Shouldn't be too hard."
"We'd better hurry." Crane said. "The storm's almost here and it's getting dark."
And so they searched the landscape around them, Crane searching through the spyglass and Xian using his bare eyes. Suddenly Crane shouted.
"I found them! They're just a hundred feet below the cave! Wait… what the hell?! Viper's not with them!"
"What?!"
"I don't see Viper! Something must have happened to her!"
"Calm down." Xian said, though he too was worried. "Look, with the ladder out I'll need you to help me get back down. Drop me off at the library balcony and then go and warn your friends. Don't try to come back here, you'll never make it before the storm hits."
Crane nodded quickly. Xian was right, panicking would get them nowhere. He lifted himself into the air.
"Grab my legs and I'll pull you down."
Xian did as he was told, and had just been lifted into the air when they heard a voice shouting down below.
"Hey! Guys! Guys, what're you doing up there?!"
Crane looked down at Xian.
"Is that Mantis?"
Darn, not as well written as the other chapters.
Oh, and to the anonymous reviewer from chapter 54... I think you may have misunderstood something. Su did not stop shaking after a few minutes, she stopped shaking a few minutes before that scene in the kitchen. So she had been shaking for at least a couple of hours. Hope that clears things up.