Kung Fu Panda: The Hunt For The Heir (OC x Tigress fanfic)

Chapter 5: Thread of Hope

:4 hours later:

Here Hunter finally stood. The entrance to the Valley of Peace. The Thread of Hope was stretched out before him, waiting for him to cross it as he had quite a few times previously. The journey across was one he had, as mentioned, taken many a time before. It was almost always to visit The Jade Palace and receive a Collection Contract from Master Oogway himself to find and retrieve a Kung Fu artefact. The contracts from him were hardly ever dull, that was for sure, and it was always worth it. Casting his eyes to the sky, Hunter saw there were no scouts overhead this time. In fact, from what Hunter knew, he had been granted the privilege to seamlessly come and go from the Valley by Oogway, with the Chih Kuan Crane Clan who guard the Thread allowing him passage without question, even when they were scouting overhead, even if they weren't currently. Although the last time he'd crossed it into the Valley, he'd left with something that wasn't his to take. It was time to rectify that mistake.

Or, well... not quite time yet at the least. Despite being so close to the Valley, Hunter didn't feel like attempting the rather taxing journey across the rope bridges and rocky islands that made up the Thread of Hope today, so instead he set up camp near the bridge's entrance, poised to set off on the journey across right away when he woke up. Besides which, Hunter was sure that the servant had stopped off somewhere for the night himself since he'd lost track of him a few miles back, so there was no great rush to get there. With this timetable in mind, Hunter set about making camp and within half an hour he'd made a roaring fire to keep himself warm from the rapidly approaching winter season, having clearly done this kind of thing many a time before, and not 10 minutes after that he also had a tent set up for himself too.

Crouching next to the firepit, he rubbed his hands/paws/talons together and held them up to the warm flames as the wind chill swept over him and a tiny shiver ran down his body. He was used to the bitter cold, even sleeping in it without a tent or decently warm clothes wasn't a strange occurrence to him. In fact, it was something he was all too familiar with. Taking a moment to appreciate the shelter that his tent provides as well as the comfortable bedding and warm fire he had, Hunter then sat down next to said fire to stay warm, huddling up to himself as he looked into the bright orange flames dancing and crackling in front of him. Truthfully, Hunter had always felt more at home right here, in the wild among the feral animals and dense woodland, where it was easy to disappear and be free from everything. He felt like he belonged here, away from everyone else, from all the others. It wasn't like he was ever welcomed among them anyway, so it made little difference to him.

Pfft, home. What a novel concept that was to Hunter. He had no home. Nowhere he considered home, anyway. Not anymore at the very least. While he might have felt something close to it once or maybe twice, it wasn't a feeling he was truly familiar with. It was a word that held very little meaning to Hunter. Sure he may have somewhat settled in Taidao, but it never felt like 'home' to him. Unless it did and he just misunderstood the concept of what makes something feel like home... He wasn't really sure either way.

Shaking his head and focusing on his current situation, Hunter began to wonder what would happen tomorrow when he visited The Jade Palace once again. He hoped Oogway would allow him the chance to atone for his misdeeds at the very least, although he would also understand if he just immediately threw him in prison instead. But really he truly wanted to retrieve the Sword of Heroes for the Masters before that happened. And what would she think of him...? Knowing he'd stolen from her home? Looking down in shame for his actions, he was about to go to his tent and call it a night, but before he could, he heard something move in the woods nearby, grabbing his full attention.

Hunter took no chances. Standing up in a ready position and now on extreme alert, he scanned his eyes around the edge of his campsite... Then he saw them, moving shadows, shifting around him in the darkness... He was prepared to fight... Not yet drawing his sword if he didn't have to. He was always prepared to fight... It was then that a Crane of the Chih Kuan Crane Clan stumbled into Hunter's firelight, the Crane's wing looking broken and the man himself looking beaten to hell and back... As Hunter cast his eyes around, he noticed he was surrounded by a further three wounded warriors... "May... May we share your fire?" one of them asked, shivering in the cold of the night. Even their feathers were no match for the chilling breeze around the Thread of Hope without shelter and with their injuries.