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The Furry and the Furious
Taste the sting of my steel!” grunted a rhino captain as he slammed his playing piece down on a game board.
“Nice move, Chief,” said his opponent, a rhino guard.
They were watching over a bridge on the Chinese border . . . but it was a quiet night.
Then a stone tumbled down from the rocky cliffs behind them, and the two rhinos looked up. A small emperor tamarin monkey with a white beard was bounding across the bridge toward them.
“Border patrol! Identify yourself!” demanded the captain.
“Fools! You are like worms challenging a large dog or perhaps a midsized cow,” said the monkey, his voice full of contempt. “You are helpless before me—Pai Mei, high priest of Abusive Lotus!”
He struck a kung-fu pose.
“Pai Mei? Wasn’t he that traitor who tried to destroy the emperor?” the guard asked.
“Get him!” yelled the captain.
They charged at Pai Mei, pointing their spears at him, but the little monkey backflipped out of the way. Then he kicked the spears out of the rhinos’ hands and posed again, holding his paws in front of him. They glowed white with mysterious energy.
Pow! Pow! He struck each rhino once in the chest, and the great beasts toppled over, groaning.
“Now, you unworthy soapmongers, direct me to the kung-fu master known as Shifu,” Pai Mei demanded.
“Shifu?” the captain replied, his voice shaking with fear. “He’s in the Valley of Peace.”
Pai Mei grinned, satisfied. “He shall be my next miserable victim,” he said, and then leaped away.
“Next victim?” the captain asked, puzzled, turning to the guard. They both looked down to the spot where Pai Mei’s glowing paw had touched them, which was now white from the heat.
BOOM!
A blast sent the rhinos flying off the bridge, into the valley below.
“Ugh,” the two rhinos groaned.
So much for a quiet night.
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