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The wolf boss stood ready, ears pricked as he awaited the prince’s signal to charge. He and his pack watched the small village in anticipation. It was surrounded on one side by rice fields as far as the eye could see, and on the other by the woods where they were currently hiding.
The wolf boss didn’t know the reason behind the attack, nor did he care to. All he knew was that the prince himself had come down to give them an order, and that was plenty enough. He could only imagine the crimes these pandas must have committed.
The wolf boss could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he chased after his prey. One of the pandas had managed to slip away into the forest while he was still distracted by the hit. He felt a warmth running down his face, from where his eye used to be. It probably should’ve hurt. It probably did, but the adrenaline was keeping him from feeling anything at the moment.
He leapt at his prey, mouth gaping open as he aimed for the kill, and missed. Having only half his vision was proving to be inconvenient, but he would have to manage. He heard footsteps quickly approaching from behind as his prince passed him with a group of wolves by his side. The Wolf Boss picked up his pace as he heard another peacock cry, signaling to follow.
“Banished!” The Lord declared, his word final.
A look of betrayal and confusion painted the prince’s face before quickly being replaced by absolute fury.
“Fine!” he yelled back, turning to leave. “But know this, father. Someday I will return! And all of China will bow down at my feet.”
The prince walked away. He did not call for the wolves to follow him.
The mission they had been on had taken two weeks. Two weeks of Shen having complete authority over them; two weeks of hell. The way to the village was long, and they hadn’t been allowed to have breaks with the hurry the prince had been in. The journey back was no different; they hadn’t even been given time to even deal with the casualties. The prince had been too excited over his successful genocide.
The prince walked away.
The wolf boss followed.
It’s all for the pack.
That was what he had been reminding himself since he started working for Shen.
The wolf boss watched as the flames roared, turning the once tranquil village into nothing but piles of ash. Lord Shen had wanted their metal, and they had declined, mistaking his command for a request. The wolves had been sent to threaten, just to burn down the place anyway for having dared get in the way of the Lord’s mission in the first place.
This was not a first. There was no reason for the wolf boss to feel any worse about it than he had for others. He had killed and burnt way more than he could count, all in the name of Shen’s stupid revenge plot. But he refused to feel guilty. It was not his fault. His choices were either to continue serving the madman who treated his pack like dirt, or attempt to leave and end up getting them all executed. So it didn’t matter if millions ended up dead, he would do what it takes to protect his pack.
All for the pack.
The wolf boss rushed up the stairs as fast as he could. He and his men had just returned from their last raid, and the wolf boss still shivered to think about what he had just seen. He had wasted no time and immediately run off to deliver the news.
He finally reached the top of the staircase.
“Lord Shen! I saw a panda!”
“A panda!?” Lord Shen cried as he lunged at the wolf boss, pinning him to the floor by the neck.
“A kung fu warrior,” the wolf boss gasped out, “it fought like a demon! Big and furry... soft and squishy... uh, kinda plush and cuddly.”
Lord Shen’s stare could’ve burnt holes through him. “There are no more pandas,” he corrected slowly.
“Even with his poor eyesight, he can see the truth,” cut in the soothsayer, tapping her cane over his bad eye. He growled and attempting to move, but Lord Shen kept him down. “Why is it that you cannot?”
Lord Shen looked back down at him. “Find this panda and bring him to me!” he ordered as he pushed the wolf boss away.
“Yes, sir!” replied the wolf boss as he stumbled, rushing back down the staircase.
The Wolf Boss watched, terrified, as the Dragon Warrior made his way towards Lord Shen with ease, punching his way through his men like they were nothing. Nearly all of their ships were destroyed, and wolves were dropping left and right; it was horrifying.
“Why aren’t we firing?!” demanded Lord Shen, voice laced with an unfamiliar fear.
“They’re taking out our gunners, sir! They’re getting close!”
Lord Shen only repeated his command, apparently having deemed what he’d said as an invalid excuse. His voice had only grown more fearful. Only upon realizing that did the wolf boss understand what he actually meant.
“But, sir! We’ll kill our own!”
“I SAID FIRE AT THEM! FIRE!”
He sounded completely insane. The wolf boss looked back at the man he had been serving for over 20 years. His face was filled with more terror than he had seen on anyone, and his voice had started to go rough from all the panicked yelling. The wolf boss had killed and maimed and destroyed countless lives for this man. All for his pack.
Always.
For.
His pack.
And now? He was ordering that his pack be killed.
The Wolf Boss looked up at Shen from where he stood and stared him dead in the eyes as he threw down his torch. “No.”
He might as well not done anything. Lord Shen had him dead on the ground before he knew what happened, then leapt from the platform over to his corpse and lit the cannon himself. In the end, he ended up with both dead in his pack and the blood of thousands on his hands.
Perhaps it had been too little too late. Retribution for all the lives he had ruined. His surviving men wouldn’t even know of his little rebellion, of how he had died at the hands of the man they had sworn to serve.
However, if it had been important enough to be a scene in the movie, then perhaps it hadn’t been meaningless after all.