To the current guardians of the Valley of Peace.
It is with great sadness that we inform you that the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five have perished in an avalanche trigger by the enemy. Despite our best efforts, we were ultimately unable to locate their bodies, and we had no choice put to presume them dead.
The Grandmaster and fellow master Eagle Jr. still continue their mission and hopefully will return in a maximum two months time.
Please accept our sincerest condolences.
Instead of the name of the sender, the words 'please turn over' had been written on the bottom. For what felt like the hundredth time, Qiang turned over the scroll.
In the top corner was a smiley face of all things, and a paragraph that appeared to be a confession of sorts. Apparently someone called General Tujiu was responsible for the deaths of over a hundred soldiers in the Himalayas, and that the emperor could be counted on to provide evidence. And at the very bottom was a p.s.: a "Hey dad, see you on the other side".
Qiang had no idea whether or not it was a hoax, but whoever it was should expect a broken face if he ever got his hands on them.
Tired, he shoved the scroll back into its container and glanced over at Pong and his wife. They were in the kitchen, both waiting for the doctor's report and worried about their little girl. Ming was standing at the stove, preparing some tea to give out to her shocked friends. Qiang himself was still stunned that Su would do something so foolish as to stow away in a food cart and get taken to one of the most isolated, dangerous places in the world, but he supposed it wasn't entirely her fault. But that was what was distressing her parents most right now; the fact that Su had been led to believe that her parents had been in trouble, leading her to commit her rash act, had caused them to blame themselves for what she had done. They had always had reservations about letting Su go to the Jade Palace, and in fact, Qiang had once heard them tell Po that the fact he was Qiang's son was the only reason they had let Su go with him and his friends at all: otherwise, they would never have let their child travel halfway across China with a group of people they had just met.
"Mr. Qiang?"
Qiang looked down and found the boy who shared the name of Su's father looking back up at him. The boy was the only other person still in the restaurant. Everyone else had been ordered out after Mr. Ping's collapse.
"Mr. Qiang, have you heard anything from Mr. Ping?" Pong asked. His eyes were red from crying, which wasn't surprising since he had witnessed Mr. Ping's sudden collapse.
Qiang shook his head. Pong looked down at the ground, clearly still upset. Qiang motioned for the boy to take a seat beside him.
"You're friends with Su, correct?" Qiang asked.
Pong nodded.
"Did she ever tell you that back when she still lived in our village, I taught her how to cook?"
"That was you?" Pong's eyes widened. So Su had told the boy all about him.
"Yes, I taught all the children once a week. You see, when you're the chief of the most isolated village in China, you often don't have a lot on your plate."
"Oh." Pong nodded in understanding. He glanced at the upper floor window of Mr. Ping's house, where the doctor was still examining him.
"You know, I'm glad you're friends with Su." Qiang said. "She didn't really have any friends back home."
"Why not?"
"She didn't have the confidence to socialize with-"
"What's 'socialize'?"
"Just a fancy word for talking to other people. Anyway, she didn't have a lot of confidence back then, and she was also far too-" Qiang hesitated.
"Smart?" Pong asked.
Qiang did a double take.
"Yeah, I know she's a brainiac." Pong replied casually. "She even told me how to say 'hello' in Japanese."
"She did what?!" Qiang was astounded. Su had learned to speak a lot faster than the other infant children, but never had she actually spoken another language.
"She taught me what the word 'hello' is in Japanese." Pong repeated. "She also likes to read a lot. Didn't you know?"
Qiang shook his head. He saw that Su's mother was looking in their direction, and wondered if she could hear them.
"We didn't really encourage Su's high intelligence when we first discovered it." Qiang said quietly. "Su's parents decided against it."
"Why?" Pong asked. "Having a super smart kid must be really cool!"
Qiang leaned back against the wall of the outdoor area.
"Like I said, Su had trouble making friends with the other children, and her parents thought it would make things worse if she stood out more than she already did. Besides, high intelligence isn't that much use in an isolated farming village."
"But now she's living in the coolest place in the whole world!" Pong waved his arms in the air. His mind had been taken off the terrible business with Mr. Ping, just as Qiang had intended. "She gets to read and learn a lot of cool stuff, and she even gets to live with the Dragon Warrior!"
Qiang chuckled.
"You really admire Po, don't you?"
"You have no idea." Pong said with an utterly serious expression. "It must so cool, being the Dragon Warrior's dad."
Qiang chuckled.
"You have no idea." He said.
Qiang's ears caught the sound of someone coming down the stairs, and he got up from the stool.
"Stay here, Pong." He said, and walked into the kitchen just in time to catch the doctor, a pig, approaching Su's parents. At that same time Ming lifted a teapot from the bench.
"Well?" Qiang demanded.
The pig shook his head. Qiang's blood froze.
"Is he-"
"He's not dead." The doctor said. "But whatever that scroll said has affected him badly."
"How is he?"
"Are you close to Mr. Ping?" Qiang nodded. "Then you should sit down."
There were no seats in the little kitchen, so Qiang sat on the floor.
"At first, I thought that the cause of his collapse was a heart attack, but upon examining him I discovered something." Qiang waited for him to continue. "It would appear that Mr. Ping has a heart condition, and it's impossible to tell if he was aware of it. Basically, the shock of the news he received has damaged his body to the point that the condition has become terminal."
Qiang gaped. Su's parents gripped each other. Ming nearly dropped the teapot, her brown eyes suddenly wet. Qiang hoped to god that Pong couldn't hear this.
"Are you telling me he's going to die?" Qiang demanded.
"In a month, maybe two, Mr. Ping will…" the doctor stopped, unwilling to finish the sentence.
Qiang was glad he had agreed to sit down. Nearly a year ago, he and Mr. Ping had been wrestling with a wooden spoon in front of a class of young children, little Su among them. Su had liked Mr. Ping and his secret ingredient soup. She would be devastated.
And Po… Po would be so… so…
Qiang covered his face. He felt tears spring to his eyes.
"Can I see him?"
The doctor shook his head.
"He is still unconscious. I don't know when he'll awaken." The doctor picked up his bag. "I'll return tomorrow morning to check his condition. I am so sorry."
The doctor left without another word. He passed Pong, who was still sitting on his stool, his red eyes streaming anew.
"Po…" He whimpered. He imagined the look on his idol's face when he would found out and then completely burst into tears.
Po Ping flung himself at Monkey, fire in his green eyes.
The primate, knowing that he was in trouble the moment he saw Po's expression change, leapt backward just in time. Po came a few inches short.
"Woah! Cool it!"
"I'll cool you in a minute!" Po yelled. "Get back here so I can kill you to death!"
Monkey turned tail and rain, Po in hot pursuit. The panda caught up with him just as they both emerged from the tunnel, and what happened next could only be described as a re-enactment of the battle between Po and Tai Lung. By the time they'd bounced all the way to the bottom of the stairs, both Monkey and Po were black and blue. But that didn't stop the enraged panda form leaping to his feet.
"Do you have any idea what you put us through you golden loony?!" Po shouted. There was pain coming. Po's fists were both aimed at Monkey. Monkey quickly got up and ran across one of the bridges that stretched over the abyss. Po was one of the most determined guys he had ever known, and right now he was determined to beat the primate to a pulp.
"Oh no you don't!" Po yelled and ran after him. Rage gave him speed, and soon he caught Monkey in one of the winding streets of the lost city. The pair rolled across the ground, Monkey trapped in Po's bear hug as they came to a stop next to one of the buildings' outer walls. Po quickly rolled on top and pinned Monkey with his knees.
"You… are… so… DEAD!" Po growled.
"Po, wait!" Monkey winced as the crossbow that was still strapped to his back dug into him.
"Like you waited when Shifu told you to put our safety before your stupid suicide mission?" Po asked sarcastically.
Monkey didn't answer.
"You are gonna wish that you've never been born!" Po raised his fist to pummel his prisoner.
"Po, wait! The Yeti-"
"That's not gonna work, Monkey!" Po snapped. "I'm still sorry about your dad, but it's no excuse to abandon us and put us all in danger! Tigress nearly died because of you!"
"But Po, if the Yeti-"
"Is mentioned once more I will break your face!"
"Po, it's here!" Monkey yelled frantically. "It's here in the city!"
Po's furious expression slid off his face like paper slipping from a desk.
"What?" He asked.
"Po, I saw it! It's here in the city and if it catches you, you're dead!"
Po lowered his fist, dread filling him like cold noodle soup.
"Whereabouts did you see it?"
"The other side of the city. I lost sight of it near the bridge crossroad, and I thought it might have gone through the tunnel-"
"Tigress." Po whispered.
Suddenly the pressure of the panda pinning Monkey was gone: Po was already up and sprinting back down the street. However, the earlier chase had depleted some of his stamina, and by the time he'd reached the last staircase that led to the tunnel Po was panting.
"Tigress!" He called out, careful not to be too loud. "Tigress!"
His heart skipped a beat when he saw a figure slowly emerge from the darkness of the tunnel. A second later he saw it was Tigress.
"Tigress!"
She looked exhausted. She was clutching her side, clearly in pain. She looked smaller than she really was in Po's oversized shirt.
Po reached her just as she looked like was about to pass out, and held her in his arms. To his amazement, she sank into his embrace.
"Tigress, what are you doing in here?" Po asked, his heart still thudding from anxiety.
"I heard you shouting." Tigress replied through clenched teeth. "I thought… I thought that you…"
Po couldn't believe that she had made her way down the steep slope by herself. After a quick check he found that her stitches were still intact.
"I'm fine." Po said quickly. He was about to tell her about Monkey, but then he considered the possible consequences. "I was just trying to find a spoon."
"A spoon?"
"You don't seem to like drinking right from the bowl very much."
Tigress gently pushed away from Po so she could stand by herself, but then she felt the pain of her wounds and she lost balance, forcing Po to grab her again. When he looked into her eyes, he saw that she was in danger of blacking out.
"Tigress, we've got to get you back in the cave. The Yeti's somewhere in the city and-"
"It's still alive?" Tigress stiffened in his arms.
"Yeah. It sucks, I know."
Po was about to lift her in his arms when she suddenly said;
"Monkey?!"
"Darn." Po whispered. He turned his head and saw Monkey a few feet behind them. The panda was too afraid to look at Tigress's expression, but he could feel her fur standing up on end as her initial surprise turned to fury.
"Monkey…" Tigress started pushing away from Po again, and he realized that she was about to lunge at the primate. "You stupid son of a-"
Po barely caught her by the torso as she sprung. Tigress's snarl turned to a cry of agony, and then to Po's horror she went limp in his arms. The pain had become too much for her.
"Crap!" Po breathed. "Monkey, I'm blaming you for this!"
Monkey didn't dare reply.
"Aw man, what are we going to do?" Po muttered, as it occurred to him that the Yeti may have heard their raised voices. "We can't get her back up that slope like this…"
Then he remembered an old plan that Tigress herself had come up with days ago.
"Monkey, come on!" Po lifted Tigress into a bridal carry and began running back down the stairs.
"W-where?"
"We can hide in one of the small buildings until it's safe!"
Po stopped when he realized that Monkey hadn't moved.
"Monkey?"
No reply. Po realized what Monkey was thinking and his temper flared.
"Monkey, if you even think about going after that thing I'll kill you!"
Monkey sighed and followed them.
Luckily for the kung fu masters, the Yeti hadn't heard a thing.
After entering the city through the concealed tunnel that could only open by shifting a massive boulder that only the great strength of his race could hope to budge, his first stop had been the foundry. Luckily the two molds, the massive one and the small one, hadn't been touched. The Yeti carefully opened the small mold first: inside was a golden disk, a medallion, identical to the Seal of Yingxiong which Ember had been unable to destroy. The Yeti carefully pulled out the medallion and stored it safely in a pouch dangling from his belt. He turned to the large mold, and opened it.
He marveled at his own craftsmanship.
Inside was a blade almost as long as his own body, crafted with a hilt that could be gripped by two hands. Of course there were a few finishing touches to be placed: the blade needed to be sharpened for one thing, nothing too difficult.
Once the Yeti had perfected the blade, he set it down on a table and left. He headed straight for the central temple. Though obviously the two intruders had entered its sacred halls, they had been decent enough to not desecrate anything. They had also only explored the upper rooms, and for that the Yeti was relieved. Otherwise they would have found his own private rooms, where they could have all too easily discovered exactly what his connection to Ember was.
Yes, by now it would be no secret to the enemy that he and Ember were connected. And that's why the Yeti could no longer afford to waste time placing fear into their hearts any longer. The time for Plan B had come. It was time for them to die.
The Yeti entered his private rooms and pressed a secret depression on the wall. A concealed door slid open. For a long time, the Yeti gazed at what was inside.
Ember… I'm sorry this is taking so long… but it will all be worth it.
He closed his eyes, and for a moment he was in her world. Fire raged around him but never burned him. Blood pooled on the floor and steamed in the heat. Outside ember snow floated gently from the sky.
Ember… the Yeti thought, rage burning like the fire around him as he remembered that horrible night when he found her, burned and bleeding and almost mad from pain. They are all going to bleed for what they did to you…