[Location: Student Barracks, Valley of Peace. 7:00 AM in the Morning]
It's been sometime since Jeyluxhal, the hyena who refused to marry the okapi Ukafiri even when threatened with banishment from the Back Lands to the Outlands by the Lion Guard, escaped to the DreamWorks world and came to the Valley of Peace.
He doesn't do much, just sweeps around the Training Hall, Outdoor Training Area, and the Student Barracks, anywhere the Furious Five; led by Master Tigress, and consisting of Master Crane, Master Viper, Master Monkey, and Master Mantis, were found. He's a common sight for them to see around, even if he didn't talk at all when he was present here or anywhere else.
And when it's said that Jeyluxhal doesn't talk, he doesn't talk. He doesn't like communicating through sign language either, because to him, they're making him out to be a retard whose incapable of speaking. He only communicates through his facial expressions, however complex they were. None of his friends like Kuplinka the jackal, Mwindaji the bat, Zuberi the crocodile, Fahari the genet, and Luthando the monitor lizard were annoyed by his rejection of sign language.
He has no desire to sacrifice himself to marry a okapi he doesn't like, a okapi who is now a old and senile bride who thinks he's out hunting while she stays behind to look after 'their children'. Which were nothing but stuffed baby hyenas and okapis created by Kion and friends, who visited her so often as every two days, made from sticks, leaves, shed fur and skins that were sewn up together with thin tree branch bark. He, on the otherhand...
No. Jeyluxhal isn't shedding any tears for his past life. He's past the point of caring about anyone, even his true love; the jaguar, Hatima. If he got married to his true love, the two lovers would never be left alone by the arrogant, self-altruistic thinking instigators who still think it was his fault that he refused to marry Ukafiri. The lovers would never know peace in that future. If it's possible to have a future with the one you loved.
He doubted she can look at him and see the hyena she loved once again.
The hyena she loved had tan fur, black spots, black dipped socks for arms and legs, a dark brown underbelly, a dark red mantle which was a stripe along his back, a flat dark red mullet with a dark red tail, a pair of black rounded triangular shaped beladdled eyemarks, orange eye sclera for his eyes, red-tinted brown eye irises, black lips, a wet and fogged leathery textured deep shadow around his muzzle; and a many, many slew of red scars and bitemarks all over his body.
Now, he stands with his mantle being longer and silver, his fresh red scars and bitemarks that were all over his body to his black dipped socks and brown underbelly were more grievous looking; some parts of him having bloodied outlined edges with bony plates exposed to the surface. It's clear he's dead, and he carries a permanently etched scowl on his face. He looked like a deathly ill, malnourished, and tired old hyena that was dead but still alive. His sharp, thickened, bear-like claws extending out, incapable of retracting them. He's deteriorated that much.
His eyes regressed and sunken into roughened, red colored eye rings. His face wrinkled with downward facing curved wrinkles on the outer sides of his lips, and upwards on the outer sides of his eyes, with the sides of his snout bridge having wrinkles on the outer sides of his lips too. Yes, he's a decrepit, permanently etched scowl bearing, silver maned mullet and mantled, deathly-ill and malnourished tired looking hyena. So don't judge him for deteriorating this much. It's Ukafiri's fault.
It was on this morning where, as per usual, he was sweeping around the barracks belonging to each of the Furious Five. Except for Tigress' mind you. He can't, for the life of him, get the image of the incident last week out of his head. And you're about to learn what happened.
[Location: Student Barracks, A Week Ago... 10:09 PM]
Per every day's ritual, Jeyluxhal was walking through the barracks. Carrying his broom as always, not wearing a shirt as always, something that threw Monkey off because he's been on him for that. Not that Monkey ever wore a shirt himself, neither did Crane or Po. For Crane, it would've gotten in the way of flying because he's an avian, and Monkey preferred his agility and skill with the bo staff.
Po, on the otherhand, was... because he's Po. He loves his noodles and dumplings, if not his journey to become a master, more than he does dressing for the occasion.
But in regards to Jeyluxhal, it had to do with how much he was showing off his monstrous scars and deep bitemarks, as well as some parts openly showing his bone plating underneath his skin.
He was near Tigress' barracks and, sensing she was inside and retiring for the night, slowed his movement to walking quietly as he could. He hoped he wasn't disturbing her. A master like her could use all the beauty sleep she could get. Jeyluxhal turned around to look at one of the other barracks. So could Viper, he thought with his facial expressions behind his permanent scowl, bless that green tree snake's heart; he heard she was a ribbon dancer once, and she used that to defeat a gorilla bandit in defense of her father.
Who knows if tomorrow's a off-day for her, or Crane, or, god forbid, Mantis.
What happened next with him, if he had seen that four-wheeled skate, made of all four wheels on the corners of a 'ju' shoe from the Qin dynasty left behind so carelessly, on the part of the floor he was about to step on... Some things, dear reader or readers, shouldn't be said outloud to protect the modesty of the fiercest member of the Furious Five.
But for the sake of explaining what the incident was, this is what happened next:
Jeyluxhal slipped on the four-wheeled skate and lost his balance, slipping forward and being thrown forward when his ankle threw the skate backwards. Mind you, he wasn't clumsy, the one who left the skate there was at fault. It was their responsibility they didn't clean-up after themselves.
Lunging out with his arm to grab onto something solid as a reflex, he accident caught onto the rice paper of the shoji door and because it was rice-paper and not solid wood furniture that was sturdier and impassible, he tore down the cloth of the door and fell face first down to the ground with a thud. The sounds of ripping paper were heard on the other side of the barrack, where Tigress was present inside, just as Jeyluxhal suspected.
She chose a bad time to be in a vulnerable and undressed position where she was about to slip out into something fitting for the night. It should be mentioned again that he didn't, much less he didn't 'want' to, see her in that state given the unfortunate timing; he couldn't see her given he was flat on his face, mind you.
Not that it would've mattered. This was a ritual undergone by anyone who wore clothing like Shifu for example, it was a time to rest and he deserved some sleep for the night. A chance to be vulnerable, just for the night.
But what did matter was the common sense and logic that residents like Shifu, like everyone else everywhere in the world, expected privacy in places like bathrooms, public or otherwise, change rooms, bathhouses, and the comforts of their own home. And while it was clear as the sun that this was a complete accident, the context of what happened doesn't always come into the light in the heat of the moment.
Dazed in the blurred double vision of the impact of his face and forehead hitting the floor, the hyena that was Jeyluxhal knew he's in deep shit up to his chin. He could've sworn he heard Tigress shout out "What the hell–?!" because for all his stoicism, he knew what it meant if she shouted this in startled surprise.
It meant that you were dead.
He was only up on his knees when she opened the shoji doors and saw him getting up, still dazed and seeing double colors. The way with how his fur shook and his bristles risen because of his startled shock at seeing her presence only fueled the suspicion that she believed he was 'peeping' on her through a slight gap in-between the door and the wall.
He might've been dazed, but he could see the burning on her expression and her arm swinging towards him, even in a blur he knew her claws were out. She only ever did this if in combat with bandits or with thieves and on one occasion, with Mr. Ping when he tried help in the time when she caught the River Fever; something that was fatalistic to adults but harmless to children, similar to a common cold. At least, that's what she did in her dreamt up-reenactment of that time, when Mr. Ping was a clown and tried to entertain the other members of the Five, while Po and Monkey were out retrieving the Sun Orchid for the herbal tea cure.
He could feel her claws slashing him across his throat, leaving a fresh red clawed mark across it and opening up the vitalities in his veins, squirting blood onto her paw and her face. Jeyluxhal coughed like a madman, throaty and disruptively loud, before he slammed himself right against a wall and fell on his back. Tigress, already realizing her error when she saw the skate down the corridor moments before, as well as assuming he was doing this on purpose, quickly wrapped his throat with a ice-cold and gel-applied choker that acted like a styptic to slow the floor of blood.
With a bloodied paw to her face, stroking her eyes with her thumb and index-middle fingers while the rest covered her mouth, she sighed through her snout. Even though she realized it wasn't his fault, he shouldn't have tried to retain his balance on one leg so haphazardly, it's common knowledge that it would only make it go from bad to worse. Looking down on Jeyluxhal, who was holding onto his neck with the ice cold gel-applied choker on, still coughing like his lungs couldn't grasp for air from laughing too hard, and spazzing from one side over to the other a little, she wasted no time in seeking help right away.
Whoever left that skate there was going to be in a lot of trouble, and they'll answer to her because of this, she mentally noted in her head as she left the barracks.
Jeyluxhal, meanwhile, just rose from his back and kept plopping from all the coughing; inevitably going quiet and breathing brokenly. He stopped moving for a second and just calmed down, not moving an inch and just kept looking up at the ceiling. He didn't want to breathe a drop of condensed mist into the air.
Not a drop of his breath.
Tigress must've returned to her barrack by then, because a shoji door slid open and a soft padding sound was heard approaching him. The sound of scales rubbing together, deliberate and slow, sinuous slither with a subtle vibration in the air like a distant storm. A lithe body and keen, focused emerald green eyes were gliding forward; a scaly body made from lime green, black, brown and white scales, closing in while retaining that signature grace this presence was well known for when fighting.
Jeyluxhal's ear flickered to the sound of each step made being calculated, feeling the gaze on him, and the sense of silent intensity which emanated from whoever was coming towards him. He wasn't about to bite the hand that fed him, if this came to help him, but he would if this aimed to make it worse. Undulating slightly in precise movements, he felt the presence leaning over his chest, on top of his long bear-skinned fur he draped around his waist, and seeing the edge of two lotus flower clips emerging. His vision was blurring, but still opened to see the two emerald green eyes looking down on him.
Intense, quietly concerned, tinged with a hint of worry; authorative, but not explosive or strict. The three white beads on the tail slightly tapping the edge of the floor, swaying rhythmically behind her. In his eyes, he focused clearly and, knowing it was a 'she', the hyena no longer doubted. Master Viper, in the scales to the tendons and the bones beneath, looked down on him; her body raised but not rearing back. Yet, lowering herself to meet eye-to-eye.
He only closed his eyes for a minute, he thought he did, and the next time he opened them, he was inside her barrack. Watching him as she slithered forward, carrying some hot water with painkillers. He did feel Mantis' presence close by, removing the contact points. What he might've said next was something that had the insect perk up and look at him in confusion, yet Viper acknowledged it; however quiet it was he supposedly said.
It was incoherent, but Viper clearly heard. "Hatima, help me" It was those last words before he allowed her to help him drink the hot water that knocked him out for the night, laying on a futon.
'Jeyluxhal...'
[Location: Student Barracks, Present, 7:10 AM in the Morning]
Jeyluxhal heard his name softly called, clearing him out of the incident from the week ago, knowing that Tigress, in her trademark red qipao bearing golden vine patterns with a black trim, held with small metal fasteners with a waist wrap, black silk leggings and black sandals whose soles looked like paw pads, was the one who called out to him.
What a horrible night to embarrass a master in the comforts of her own barrack. The same barrack she, as was mentioned before, expected to have the foreign concept of 'privacy'. A mandatory, reasonable, and fair request, nothing more beyond that which everyone deserved.
He knew what Tigress wanted to tell him. She was sorry. He knows, but he doesn't need to hear them. Her response afterwards to slashing across his throat was enough, and she didn't need to apologize. Discipline can slip, and she can act rashly, as seen with confronting Shifu's hope that turned to despair, Tai Lung, at the the Battle of the Thread of Hope during the Valley Crisis. Her and her comrades egos blinded her to how much Shifu wanted the snow leopard, whom he raised as his son, to be chosen as the 'Dragon Warrior' by Master Oogway. Just how much he was taught, but was raised with unfulfilled promises that were used to raise him for the role.
In the case of the incident with her last night, from a week ago, in the barracks where they stand now, she was justified. And if he just saw that skate carelessly left behind, things could've gone differently. His facial expression, when turning to face her, was more of a question he asked rather than telling her 'just don't' if she wanted to tell him how out of line she was:
'Did you find the culprit behind the skate?'
Jeyluxhal's question, unspoken but expressed on his face, hung in the air. And Tigress, having resolved her regret, met his gaze before she admitted. "Yes"
Her voice was low, but firm with revealing the one behind the accident.
"It was Po" She started, continuing with the panda's explanation, since Po had started using skates to get around faster and practiced by trial and error to navigate the village with them on. "He was rushing to get to the kitchen before we arrived, and forgot about the other one when he came out"
The hyena understood his sentiment – he was good at cooking, having been raised by Mr. Ping since he first found him as a cub, no doubt he's already remorseful for what he did. Jeyluxhal bet that Tigress laid down a smack down of a punishment on him – telling him that he's "grounded", as if she was his mother.
She guessed that's what he was thinking, and shook her head; she would never enforce pure dominance over Po's life. "I've disciplined him, and he's using it to teach some of the younger students about how not cleaning up themselves will kill someone"
Now that she mentioned it, actually...
"Or, almost kill someone; if I hadn't realized what happened" She sighed, turning her head away to the side.
She heard Jeyluxhal walking forward and stroking her shoulder, turning to face him as the hyena nodded, inclining his head down before he walked away to resume his self-applied duties. That expression on his face, before he turned away, which translated to:
'I'll be around, if Master Muhan tries to steal you back from Shifu'
Tigress watched him for a moment, knowing he's talking about the time where she left the Jade Palace to train at the Garnet Palace under Master Muhan. There's no way in Diyu she's going back to that shubunkin goldfish if kung fu is really all she thinks there is to life, and it's unlikely she would take her back after her defiance.
What she does is precisely enough, and at least Shifu can acknowledge her talents. With that, she left for the outdoor training area, to get some fresh air and practice some morning warm-ups. She has ample time for them, the others hadn't woken up yet at least.
The courtyard better not be a mess again, she thought, Tigress wasn't about to use Po's influence on the Furious Five's lack of discipline and downhill commitment as an excuse to go and train at another palace. Not after her ordeal at the Garnet Palace with Mugan. Her title of 'Master' was officially revoked by her.
Jeyluxhal would've hoped for the best for her, but 'hope' was nothing something that was inside of him, he more or less proud of how broken he was as a hyena. All he did was come here one day and swept around the premises in their presence, not saying a word, not speaking once, just tending to himself because it was his turn to think about himself.
No, 'hope' was the first bitter taste of a terrible illusion he's had when he first left them to rot in their hell they created for themselves. The masks had fallen away, and most ironic of all was the last gift he'd been given by Master Viper of all the warriors of the Five:
Memories of his beloved, when she helped him drink the painkiller-induced boiled water. He can measure up to no greater deed than what she did for him, more so than Tigress' resolve by applying the icy cold gel-applied choker around his neck to stop him from bleeding out to death. There may be some hope to him when the coin finally lands on it's edge.