Yuè was standing in the middle of the training room punching a training dummy to pass time as well as stay in good form. For the past seven days he'd run out of ways to try to escape, mostly due to the fact that Shifu or one of the Furious Five caught him. Knowing he was beat, he decided to spend his recovery time doing something more productive. He'd been training since he'd woken up that morning and decided to take a breather, stretching his arms and shoulder. His bones cracked from stretching, "Ugh, still sore." he groaned. He turned around to see the large wooden doors of the training room open. A smile creased his muzzle when he saw who entered the room.
"Hello there. What brings you here? Come to see me train?" he asked, Tigress scoffed quietly as she walked to a dummy used to practice Wing Chun. The dummy had three arms and three legs, which represented an opponent's body in various positions and the lines of force the body can give out. She began striking the arms then the legs in a routine rhythm. "Wing Chun, eh? Maybe you could show me some moves? I'd love to see your form." Yuè said. She ignored him and began to strike the dummy faster and harder. He walked across the room and stood arms length behind Tigress. "You know, I read in a scroll that Wolf style and Wing Chun are very similar. Maybe we could spar sometime? I could show you a few moves." he said in a low seductive voice.
Tigress quickly turned to face Yuè, growling lowly, "That's it!" she said as she threw a punch at the wolf. Yuè redirected the punch to the dummy she was punching, "Woah! Okay, I'm down for a little roughhousing." he said getting into his fighting stance. Tigress turned around with a furious roundhouse kick. Yuè dodged it with a backflip landing on his feet and backing up, rubbing his shoulder from straining it.
Tigress ran at him, growling furiously. When she got into range Yuè lunged at her, tackling her to the ground and pinning her arms to the floor. "Boy, you're a fiesty one. I like it rough." Tigress's eyes widened at the comment. She pulled her legs forward and wrapped them around Yuè's neck and threw him off of her.
The wolf flew half way across the room, landing with a thud. Tigress quickly got to feet as she saw him stand up laughing. "Oh yeah, I love it when they play rough." Tigress roared and charged Yuè again, claws unsheathed and running on all fours. The grizzled wolf smirked at the master's rage and got in his Wolf style stance, "Here kitty, kitty." he taunted adding more fuel to Tigress's anger. Tigress jumped forward and tackled Yuè to the ground, her claws digging into his flesh and drawing blood. She raised a hand to scratch at his face. Yuè dodged the swipe by flipping her off him and got back into his stance.
He paused for a moment to look at the scratches on his arms, "Damn. Kitty got claws." he said grinning, "I like." he charged at Tigress on all fours. When he got close he jumped forward, left arm reached back for a punch. Tigress stood and intercepted the punch, twisting Yuè's arm and pulling it to his back. "Well isn't this a predicament." he joked. Tigress growled and reached a hand back, palm open with her fingers curled for a palm strike. She thrusted her hand forward, landing on Yuè's left shoulder with a sickening cracking sound as a pained yell escaped his muzzle and his arm went limp.
In the dining hall...
"That wolf really is persistent." said Viper. The other members of the Furious Five and Po were all enjoying a lunch of jiaozi. Crane was released from the infirmary three days earlier and was still recovering from a bruised wing, now bandaged and held in a sling. "Yeah, I can't believe he tried to fool Shifu with that sleeping dummy trick." Mantis said while eating a dumpling. "Hey, anyone know where Tigress is?" Crane asked. Everyone looked around the table and only shrugged in response. Suddenly a bloodcurdling scream was heard. The Five and Po quickly jumped to their feet and ran toward the source, Po turning back to get his dumplings before going back to join the others.
Back In The Training Room...
Yuè looked at his limp arm and turned back to Tigress with spiteful eyes, "WHAT THE HELL!" he roared as the doors to the training room flew open, Shifu and his other students standing in the doorway, Shifu with a disappointed look on his face and the others gasped at Yuè's arm. "Tigress! What's the meaning of this!" Shifu demanded. "Yeah, the hell was that for?!" Yuè chimed in. Tigress only got angrier and began to approach the wolf quickly, claws drawn, "Be glad I only dislocated your arm you b***." she said as she raised her hand for another punch. "Stop!" Shifu commanded, Tigress froze in place and put her hand down to her side, claws sheathed.
Mantis jumped over to inspect the damage done, making sure the arm was only dislocated. "Don't worry about it." Yuè said brushing off Mantis. He grunted as he shoved his arm back into place with a loud cracking sound, "See? Fine." He turned to see Shifu scowling and reprimanding Tigress, "Is there any reason you attacked Yuè?" Tigress looked off and sighed before focusing her eyes back to her master, "he was saying...things about me master. I couldn't let him disrespect me like that." Shifu raised an eyebrow and look over at Yuè who only waved when he saw Shifu look at him, "What sort of 'things'?" he asked, more so at Yuè than Tigress. "Just a little harmless flirting." Yuè chimed in as he flexed his arm and fingers to make sure they still worked properly. Shifu only scowled at this, "I will not tolerate such behavior in the palace. Tigress, your attack on Yuè was uncalled for and you've only shamed yourself. For that, you will be cleaning the training room and the barracks for the next five days as punishment." Tigress bowed, "Yes Master Shifu." He then turned to Yuè, "I've given you three simple rules and you've already broken two of them in less than a week." Yuè chuckled, "Not exactly my best record-" he said before being cut off, "I will speak to you further in private. Come with me. The rest of you may continue what you were doing." he said, Po and the others all bowing before leaving the training hall.
In Shifu's Room...
Yuè sat in front of Shifu, who was rubbing his temples to will away a headache. "Why do you insist on being defiant?" he asked, breaking the silence. "Maybe it's the rules you set. If there's one thing no one should do, it's try to put a wolf on a leash." he stated. Shifu looked up, "Put you on a leash? I set those rules to protect both you and the people of the valley from you." Yuè chuckled at this, "Protect me? Please. I can protect myself." Shifu prodded his injured leg with his walking stick, eliciting a pained groan from Yuè, "Hey!" Shifu stood up and walked behind him prodding a bruise on Yuè's back, earning another groan, "The only reason I'm protecting you is so you go on this crusade of yours to save your daughter. If she really is missing and you want to find her, you won't be any good to her dead." he said sternly. Yuè looked down, ears pressed against his skull.
"Fine. What would you have me do then?" he asked. Shifu walked back in front of him, "I want you to follow the rules and let your injuries heal. You want to be out of here as fast as you can right?" Yuè nodded, "Then stay out of trouble. And next time something like this happens, I will leave you out on your own and whatever happens will be your fault." With that Shifu dismissed Yuè.
At The Student Barracks...
As Yuè slept that night he woke from a terrible nightmare, his daughter was in danger and he couldn't do anything to save her. She was helpless and he couldn't do anything. He got up from his bed, shirtless and wearing a pair of light brown pants, and walked into the hall, his limp nearly gone. As he walked it seemed he hit all the creaky floor boards, he only hoped he didn't wake anyone.
He walked outside to see a full moon high in the night sky as millions of shining stars twinkled around it. He turned to his right to see a peach tree that seemed to glow in the moonlight. He walked over to the tree and stood at the edge of the cliff it was planted on. He stared up at the moon, "I hope you're listening Li." he said to someone not there as he sat down on his haunches. He lifted his head and howled into the stillness of the night. When he finished he stood back up, "I hope you heard that baby girl. Daddy misses you very much." he said turning back to walk to his room.
As he walked down the hall the doors to the other rooms were slightly ajar, but he either didn't notice or didn't care. He slid open his door and walked in closing the door behind him. Yuè stood in the middle of his room as a single tear fell from his shining golden eye. He wiped away anymore that may appear from his jade colored eye. He curled back into bed, tail tucked between his legs and ears flattened, as he drifted back to a dreamless sleep.
"Did you hear that?" Monkey asked the other occupants of the barracks, "I wonder what that was all about." Viper said. "Some wolf thing I guess." Mantis chimed in. Tigress scoffed, "I don't care what it was. He woke me up." Po yawned, "Yeah, maybe we should get back to sleep." Everyone nodded and said their 'goodnights' as they slid their doors closed and went back to bed.