Strength In Unity

Chapter 4: Trauma

It wasn't cold,

Some would probably call it chilly but that was mostly thanks to the breeze coming from over top of the mountains to his side blowing past him.

It didn't bother him though, his focus was on something else.

Standing near the edge of the stairs of the Jade Palace was the youngest wolf of the pack, staring down at the illuminated village.

These people are good, kind.

I'm..

Something else.

I'm not like them, I don't want to be...

I Don't...

He was distracted as a sudden leaf crunched from behind him, sending an ear cropping up to catch the source of the sound. He knew someone was watching him, listening to him, listening to his thoughts.

With a single sigh he narrowed his eyes as he continued to stare down at the valley. "Why are you here?" Thinking it was the panda, come to usher him off to bed to keep in line with all the rules this place carried. Instead he was greeted with an unexpected striped master who calmly walked up beside him.

"Sometimes I don't get to sleep very fast, I like to come out here and watch for anything coming in that shouldn't." Hearing this, the wolf's eyes glared down into the valley.

"Like me."

"I didn't say that did I?" Tigress stated as she looked over at the wolf who stared down at the city, not taking his eyes off it. She pondered for a moment if he was still upset about the training hall incident. She studied the wolf's body language, he seemed tense, his paws curled as if he wished to lash out at any minute.

"Why are you out here?" She asked again, hoping for a decent answer this time, it was late and her patience was getting low.

The wolf raised his head up staring straight outward. "I don't belong here." He said

"Well Po doesn't seem to think so, why do you think you don't?" She asked, coming up next to him, he turned to her and then growled lightly. "I can't stand seeing the children here, all the happy people, it's too much."

"Why?"

"BECAUSE!" He suddenly barked, "Because I don't want to remember what I did anymore!" he growled, his fists curling tight. Frustrated the wolf grabbed at his fur atop his head and ran his paws down his muzzle, breathing shallowly. Tigress could see something had truly gotten inside this child's head, it attempt to darken his soul.

"Tell me what you did."

The wolf went silent.

"You can't hold this inside forever, now tell me." The wolf's breathing seemed more labored, he turned away from her as he began fighting off the sensation of his eyes watering, making him glare harder and grit his teeth.

"I was only eight, I was barely able to even carry a sword, we got ordered to invade this one small village to get materials. There were two little rabbit kids at this one village we were sent to.." He stopped for a second , feeling a chill crawl up his spine as he recalled the evening. Wiping his nose, the wolf sniffled and growled again, as if trying to intimidate his emotions from showing.

"*Sniff* Shen demanded everything had to burn..." Tigress listened without word as the boy kept speaking, she could see this tale would not carry a happy ending.

"We broke up into groups and surrounded the place, everyone started burning stuff, people were yelling, crying, some were already dead just lying out in the open." The wolf maintained a focused angry stare out in front of him, feeling the feline's eyes on him as he spoke. "I went off on my own and broke into this one house...there were two...two little rabbits huddled in the corner, scared and trapped. I couldn't see anyone coming to get them, Shen wanted us to kill all of them, even the children." The canine hesitated for a moment, causing the feline's eyes to go wide with shock,