The Tales of the Dragon Warrior

Yellow Eyes and Messages

(The picture above is Guan)

Zeng Chang really hated his job.

At first, when he was young and just starting out, it hadn't been that bad. Running to and fro around the Jade Palace, carrying messages from master to master had been easy, if a bit tedious.

But then, as the years went on and he grew older, his legs grew weary of all the running. He wanted to retire, or at the very least get a new job, but alas, it wasn't in the cards. Because Shifu's potential look of fury when he found out his most reliable messenger was quitting was something Zeng never wanted to see. He liked living, thank you very much.

Nothing scared him more than Shifu, which Zeng thought was extremely irrational. Shifu was a kung fu master, a sworn protector of the Valley of Peace and its inhabitants. He would never truly harm Zeng, but Tai-lung...

The incident with Tai-lung was the thing that had brought Zeng the closest to quitting that he had ever come in his career. He had walked for two weeks to carry that message to Chorh-gom, and when he had gotten there he had been greeted by glares and yells by the guards, who were less than pleased by Shifu's lack of confidence in their abilities and the prison's facilities. They had practically forced him to tour the place, ranting on about Chorh-gom's inescapability... only to end up eating their words not fifteen minutes later when Tai-lung escaped.

The escape itself was so fast and eventful, Zeng could barely remember who did or said what through all the shouting, explosions and crashes, but he could recall what happened afterwards.

Zeng could still remember it with startling clarity. He had been blasted onto the snowy ridge of the mountain Chorh-gom lied within by one of the prison's self-destruction mechanisms. He had been one of the lucky ones, most of the guards were sent plummeting to their doom by the blast.

His ears were ringing, he was shaking from fear and the cold, but Zeng could feel the footsteps coming. He had looked up in horror at the very man who the prison was built for; Tai-lung.

He was just as the rumors described. Tall and muscular, so sturdy that he paid no heed to the cold, even in his shirtless state. His teeth-no, fangs were bared in a cocky grin, his hair white as the newly driven snow. His yellow eyes glowed like a snow leopard on the prowl for quarry, and it had appeared he had chosen Zeng as his next meal.

(The eyes were what got him the most. Every bit of that man was terrifying, but you could see in those cold eyes he had no remorse. They weren't human, at least not to Zeng)

The broken chains on his wrists rattled as he grabbed Zeng by the neck, firm enough to keep him from getting away, but soft enough that he wasn't being choked. Then, for the first time since his escape, Tai-lung spoke.

"I'm glad Shifu sent you. I was beginning to think I had been forgotten", the man said, giving Zeng an easy going smile that wouldn't have looked out of place on his face five years ago. Before his incarceration, before his rampage. Then, the smile gained a cruel edge, and whatever sense of ease Zeng had been lulled vanished with the howling wind. This wasn't Tai-lung Zhanshi, the son of Shifu who had cracked jokes with the palace servants; this was Tai-lung, enemy of the Valley of Peace, and quite possibly Zeng's own killer.

"Run back there and tell them; the real Dragon Warrior is coming home.", the man hissed, before throwing Zeng onto the ground and watching him scramble to flee, all emotions leaving his face as he did so.

The whole time, Zeng didn't look back. He was afraid of what- of who he might see if he did. But Tai-lung didn't follow him. He must have wanted to give him a head start, to instill worry into Shifu and the others, or perhaps he decided he just wasn't worth the effort to kill.