Strength In Unity

Chapter 18: Bad News

Standing in the training hall with arms behind his back, a red panda paced back and forth methodically. So many questions he faced, so many problems in one place it seemed to nearly whiten his tail rings with stress.

"Oogway what on this earth would you have done? *sigh* The villagers are in danger, the prison is completely crowded and I have one of my students injured, what does this all mean?" He asked mouth less skies that only stared down at him in silence. His vision clouded with images of the valley, people running away in terror, screaming that hurt his soft big ears from all the suffering of his people. As he did his best to maintain his composure, there was a knock at the large doors behind him.

"Enter if you must." He said in a rather frustrated voice (though who would blame him?) Two wolves came inside dragging a limp body of one of the terrorists along with them.

"What are you doing here with him?" The grand master demanded as they approached him.

"The Boss Bear says to bring this one to you, the prison is full." The short red panda pinched his brow as he felt his paticence thinning by the minute.

"Po, his name is Master Po. *Sigh* I should've expected that to come up. Drop him there, search him for weapons and leave him with me." The wolves complied, letting go of the fox only to here a small thud as his head hit the wood floor. The shorter wolf ran his paws up and down it's robe, feeling for anything that shouldn't be there. He undid the black belt that held the robe together and gave one final look before standing and nodding to his partner. Turning around they wolves left the captive fox with the grandmaster in the Training Hall. Shortly after their departure, the fox came to, rolling on his side and coughing. regaining his vision, the black eared canine moved to stand when he felt the edge of some kind of stick tap his shoulder.

"You will not stand, not in this place, you will not even speak nod if you understand." A commanding voice said behind him. While he could feel his muscles tense up, the order was clear. The fox nodded and the staff left his shoulder, walking around to face him, stood a red panda in a red well worn robe with a green sash running over it. The Grandmaster he'd first seen when they had reached the top of the stairs. Staring at him through the half broken mask, one eye visible while the other shrouded in darkness, the fox followed the red panda as he paced back and forth before him. Stopping momentarily he turned back to the fox, stepping up to him they stared eye to eye.

Shifu searched the single window into the soul of the prisoner, his sight greeted with shadows in darkness encircled with a deep red ring. From what he could see, there appeared to be little sanity left in the eyes of the twisted soul. The fox's eye would spasm every so often, darting to random objects. It was as though an instability was becoming more common among this species, having recalled the first one they'd imprisoned. This drew dangerous conclusions if he was right. There was another intrusion on the master's concentration as Zheng came waddling in, a message tucked firmly under his wing.

"Master Shifu!"

"Yes Zheng what is it?" He demanded, the messanger bird stepped up closer nervously as the kneeling fox's face turned to him, only to look back away as Shifu's staff kept him in his place.

"Ahem-I who is that?" The goose shuddered pointing at the masked fox. Shifu stepped between him and Zheng,

"Zheng FOCUS! What is it you came to give me?" Shifu said impatiently, the nervous goose shakily handed the grand master the scroll. Unrolling it he noticed the royal emperor crest at the top of the page.

A letter from the Emperor.

The grand master's eyes widened as he breezed through the scroll. At the end of the page he lost his grip and dropped the paper roll to the floor.