Ally Or Enemy

Shifu and the Furious Five were out of town, leaving Po and Leo to look over the Valley when they return. But Leo had also left the Valley after they left. Zeng heard a report of bandits raiding a village from a whole day from where they are. Since the Grand Master and the Furious Five are not here, Leo took it upon himself and deal with the bandits on his own. He knew that he still hasn't apologize to the Dragon Warrior. So, Leo left the Valley to head to the village.

After traveling a few miles, Leo made it to the village at night. But to his surprise, the village wasn't being raided by bandits. He walks up to a young a goose. "Excuse me, but where are the bandits?" he asks her.

"Bandits?" the goose looked confused. "There's no bandits here. We would've sent help if the village was being raided."

"What? That can't be. I received a report that this village was being raided."

"I'm sorry." she apologizes.

"Don't worry about it." Leo turns around and walks away from the goose. He could've stayed and check the village out but there was no sign of a raid in this village. Leo thought this was a little strange. Zeng heard the report. There's no bandit raid. If there's no raid attack, then Leo will just have to head back to the Valley Of Peace.

It was a good night for a walk. Leo left the village and began walking on the dirt path back to the Valley. He kept walking for three hours. Leo was getting hungry and stops by at a tree. There were some apples hanging above him. Before he can pick one, a figure fell from the tree and landed on him. Leo rubs his head and open his eyes to see a young female white wolf laying across on his chest with her stomach. The young wolf opens her brown eyes and gets up.

"What did I land on?" the young wolf wondered.

"You landed on me." Leo spoke up.

She shifted her head to him. "Oh, I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Leo said. "What am I holding onto?"

They both look at their hand and paw to notice the apple in their grasp as the wolf got up from him to let Leo to get up.

"I think you should take the apple." Leo said, removing his hand from the fruit and looks at her.

She was wearing a black sleeveless vest and black pants. She looks back at him. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Leo answered. "I can just get some more from the branch."

"Ok then." the wolf said as she watches him stands up.

Several minutes has passed and the two of them were sitting side by side in front of the campfire.

"So, who are you?" Leo asks the wolf.

"My name is Suki." the wolf introduces herself. "And you must be Leo, the human living at the Valley Of Peace."

"That's right."

"What brings you out here?"

"I came out here to stop a raid from bandits, but apparently there was no raid when I arrived and I was on my way back to the Valley Of Peace. So I decided to stop here and get some apples before finding the nearest inn to rest in. But then you fell out of the tree."

"Sorry about that. I thought I could reach it."

"Don't worry about it."

Then an arrow came out of nowhere and misses them. Three bandits were running towards them as they turned their heads and stood up.

"You got nowhere to go now, you fucking bitch." a ibex said to Suki. "Now give us that pendent."

"Never!" Suki snapped at the male ibex.

The bandits charges at them and Leo quickly drew his sword as the fight began. Leo dodges a spear from boar and blocks the attack. The boar sent in several jab attacks with his spear and Leo blocks them easily. He slices the spear in half before delivering a strong punch to the nose and a upper cut that lifted the boar several feet in the air. He quickly jumps high above the boar and delivered an axe kick to the head and when the boar bounces off the ground, Leo slams the hilt hard into the boar's gut.

His next attacker was a water buffalo with a sword. Leo attacked him as the water buffalo was blocking his sword attacks. He broke through his defenses much more quickly and knocks the sword out. But the water buffalo did a sidestep for a rhino archer to fire several arrows at Leo.

Suki dodges the ibex's kick. She sent out several jabs and kicks that was blocked by the ibex. The ibex thought he had an opening and was going to attack back, but the wolf saw it much more quickly and did a hook punch with a sweep and finished it off with a axe kick to the stomach.

"Gah..." the ibex groans.

Suki looks over her shoulder to see Leo knocking out the archer. The human walks over to them and they turned their heads to see a few rhino guards. They both watch the guards take the four bandits away.

"You weren't bad." Suki said to him.

"You too." Leo said, wiping the blood of the sword putting it back in the case.

"At least I don't have to deal with those assholes anymore."

"You know those four?"

"They've been trying to steal this pendant." Suki takes out the pendant from her pocket. The pendant was blue.

"Is there anything special about this pendant?" Leo asked her.

"This pendant is all I have left of my mother." She answered. "I haven't seen her in ten years."

"No one knows where your mother is?"

"No. She left in the middle of the night when I was ten years old. My father couldn't believe that she left us for some unknown reason. I want to know why did she leave us."

"Who knows." Leo said. His stomach lets out a growl.

"Looks like we should eat now." Suki smiled. She cuts the apples into several slices and made some rice with soybeans.

While they were eating dinner, Leo learns that Suki is from a village that was near the forest. She is the granddaughter of the village elder. After her mother's disappearance, Suki began her Kung Fu Training on her own. She made several friends and helped protected the village from several different types of bandits. Leo was impressed, he'll admit. But he was also surprised to hear that Shen and Sying visited the village several years ago to recruit the entire village. Suki and her best friend, Thorn, fought against those and won the battle. Sying swore they will pay when China is under control before Shen and himself left. They were never seen again until several years later that Gongmen City was under the control of Shen and Sying with their new weapons. She also told Leo that he is the second human to meet here in China.

Leo explains that he, The Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five have heard the news of Thundering Rhino's death and they traveled to Gongmen City. He killed the prince and destroyed his new weapons to keep China safe. After eating supper, the two went to bed. The next day, Leo and Suki was walking on the dirt path in a large open field.

"How far is your village?" Leo asks her.

"About four days." Suki answered.

"Not bad." Leo said. But when he turned his head, there was a person wearing a long black robe. He couldn't see the person's face because the hood was lowered.

"I can't believe you fell for that trick." the person said.

"What are you talking about?" Leo sneers at him. "And who the hell are you?"

The person lets out a small chuckle and removed his hood, revealing his face and spiky short indigo hair. "The name's Scarlet. I hope you got that down in your memory." Scarlet tapped the side of his head. "I'm surprised that you got the report of a village that was being attacked by bandits, which clearly didn't happen."

"You're the one who did that?"

"That's right." Scarlet folded his arms. "Guilty as charged."

"Why the fake report? What do you hope to achieve?"

"To test your skills." Scarlet smirks at him. He takes out a very impressive sword. There was a green emerald embedded in the hilt of the sword plus a chain that has the symbol of Yin and Yang. Scarlet jumps in the air and attempts to slice Leo.

Leo was quick to draw his diamond sword and blocks the attack. Suki was about to help, but Leo raised a hand. "Don't. I'll handle this." Leo pushes the sword out of way. He threw in some quick jabs with the sword and a spinning hook kick. But Scarlet blocks the attacks and countered back with his spinning hook kick at Leo's kick. Scarlet tried to cut Leo, but Leo jumps backward to dodge the cut and threw his sword at Scarlet.

Before the two warriors can attack, another person landed in between them. This person was wearing the same robes as Scarlet. The person faces him. "You had one simple task to follow, Scarlet." the person said with disappointment. "Deliver it to him and report back."

"Oh ho." Scarlet chuckled as he drops his stance. "Don't worry about it. I was going to it after I test him."

"You know very damn well that testing Leo is not part of your mission. Now, give it to him."

"Fine."

"I don't want anything from both of you bastards." Leo growled. "And who are you and how do you know my name?"

The person turns around at Leo. "It's a little too soon for you to learn my name and that is not something I'm going to answer. And besides, I think you want to hear this message."

"And what message is that?" Leo asked.

"The message is this; "Get strong"." Scarlet replied.

Leo looks at him confused for a bit. "What?"

Scarlet snaps his fingers and a black portal appeared behind him. They quickly rush into the portal and the portal disappeared before Leo or Suki can stop them. Leo picks up the sword.

"What the hell was that about?" Suki wondered. "And what about that message?"

"I don't know." Leo crosses his arms. "This is the first time I met those two. And I don't think this is the last time we'll see them. But the message... It doesn't mean anything to me."

"It could be a trick."

"Maybe. But we should head back our village before we get unexpected surprises."

"Good idea." Suki smiled. "I hope we meet again."

"See you."

Zeng was sweeping the floor in the Hall Of Heroes until the doors open. He sees Leo walking into the hall where Shifu was waiting for him by the moon pool.

"The village is safe from the bandits?" Shifu asks him.

"There were no bandits attacking that village by the time I arrived." Leo answered. He began to explain what happened.

After Shifu listened to the report, he strokes his beard. "We must be extra careful whenever they reappear. And this message..."

"Is strange and a little confusing, I know." Leo said.

"Did anything else happen?"

"No. That's all there is for today." Leo said. He left the hall to head back to the barracks. Leo didn't join Po and the Five for dinner because he got a quick bite to eat from Mr. Ping's restaurant and report what he saw to Shifu. After taking a bath, Leo sits down and begins to meditate for a few minutes. He was concerned about that message. Was something bad going to happen in the future?

Not bad for this chapter. Those two new characters are mysterious. And it's also surprising that he's the second human that Suki has met. So I hope you enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to leave a review!