The Invisible Tiger Demon

"Alright, listen up." said Sifu Adam. A young Sifu of young Children at the Woo Ching White Crane Moh Goon Clinic. "Everyone change into your uniforms now. We need to leave in about an hour, but we have to do a lion dance for our school first before we leave. So we need to be ready to do that now." Sifu Adam was wearing his uniform already. In his hand he held a Tiger fork, and was mounting two swords on it, daggers, and a red flower as was done for the traditional lion dance.
Sifu of Young Children was running the show today.
Among the adults that day were
Uncle Tony of Electricity and Stories
General Ching Hou Gum McCarthy (Ching Golden Mouth McCarthy) of the Gong and flooring

Today there were not that many Sifus, in fact there were not that many students. They were very short handed.

The children changed into uniforms and were getting ready in their places.

Lion Heads
Dennis and Kelly to the second Lion head.
August and Mark Wu to the first lion head.

Crying and whining rang in the room. "I don't want to be head, I don't want to be tail. I don't know what I'm Doing!"

"Kids, we are short handed. Follow along and do what you can. Stop giving me...you know what"
"Compost." Said Dennis.
"Dung" Said August.
"Shhhh-" said Mark Wu
"Right, Compost." Continued Sifu of young Children. "Now enough of all this compost and do what you are supposed to do. "

"Instruments get to your places!" commanded Sifu of young Children,
"Win in the Center as Drum,
General and Uncle Tony on the left for the Gong,
Sup Yut, Play Cymbals."

"Everyone quietly to their places while I light the incense.
Kelly help me Close the door first."
Kelly was the nine year old sister to ten year old brother August and only girl in the group.
She sometimes had a temper, and once started a fight insisting she was August's older brother and therefore outranked him.

Around age 12 were Mark Wu, Dennis, Sup Yut, and Win. Win was suposedly captain of the team. Though he was a clown most of the time. He had lion danced since he was three.

Sifu of Young Children leaned the school's Tiger fork against the wall and reached for the incense. He found that strangely, it was not the incense they normally used. The Guan Yin brand incense was nowhere to be found. This other incense glimmered and felt to almost vibrate in his hand. Perhaps it was just him.
Incense is incense, after all and they had to get going.
He lit this incense, but before he could bow, it had all burned into smoke immediately.
Strange. He looked around.

Suddenly Dennis cried out and clutched his chest as he flew into the mirror, shatterring it. Kelly ran to his side. The room was filled with panic.
Sifu of Young children took handfulls of fallen ashes from burnt incense that had not been cleaned from the floor and threw it scattering around the room. Finally it hit its mark, revealing a something where there had appeared to be nothing; A Tiger Demon, standing as a man in the center of the room.
The Tiger Demon opened his mouth to speak but Sifu of young Children thrust the Tiger Fork into his mouth. It cut the back of the Tiger Demon's throat, but the Tiger demon suddenly shifted shape, increasing in size looking as the front part of a tiger but having a back that fanned out like a Cobra. It snapped its head and took the Tiger fork along with Sifu of young children's left arm into its jaws.
Sifu of young children was knocked back and fell into a deep meditation to try and slow his bleeding.
His left arm had sprung to life on its own when it came into contact with the Tiger demon's blood. It grabbed one of the swords and began cutting the Tiger Demon from the inside. The Tiger demon tried to shift shape again but was still being wounded. It reared back to snap again to kill the Sifu of young children when a horned Lion like the Lion heads used in the lion dance appeared in the room as well and one rammed his horn into side of the Tiger Demons neck.
Mark Wu picked up the Crystal that lay on the window sill and began beating the demon's head with it as Win tried burning it with the lighter for lighting incense. The children did not know it but the demon was terrified of crystal and the Tiger fork. These two things weakened him to the point where Wins fire began to show the demon's true nature, and he began burning like paper at his edges. He shifted shape again to extiguish himself and tried to flee.
But Mark Wu, Crystal in hand, grapped its tail and followed. A monk in robes holding a fan of leaves appeared and sat on the horned Lion. He waved his fan over Sifu of young children and Dennis and their wounds were healed. Though Adam was still minus one arm. Sifu Adam continued to meditate. Uncle Tony and General Ching sat next to him and began to meditate as well.
Time seemed to stand still. Everyone wondered where Mark had gone.
Sup Yut vomitted in anxiety. Dennis withdrew into himself.
"What are we gonna do about Adam's arm?" said August.
"You all will go and deal with the situation." As the monk spoke everyone realized the voice was quite feminine then suddenly masculine. It was old and then suddenly young. The monk floated into the air and one face appeared to be myriad faces looking in all directions reflecting all forms as well as seeing all forms. Under the robes, the body seemed to be still and in action at once.
The children saw beauty as well as terrible ugliness. It seemed to be too much to take and everyone quickly lowered there faces to the ground, daring not to look at the figure too closely. Indeed, everyone thought that if they looked again that they may lose there life.
"Hah" said the figure and the image focused into one young and beautiful woman but not too beautifulGrey eyes focused black and armor focused into flowing robes changing as the colors of the sky at dawn. Her black hair hung about her wildly and yet beautifully.
She waved her fan over the lion heads bringing them to life.
There was a head of many colors and a head of red and black. Both were the size of large wolves.
"Now go!" Her voice boomed. They turned around and saw a portal forming in the incense smoke. A doorway, now a gate, floating in space, the other side opening out onto a lake.
The woman leaned against her lion who lay down on the Moh Goon floor.
"I'll watch your school for you and make sure that Time doesn't teal anything."
With that August, Kelly, and Win passed through the portal. They were not quite sure what their goals were, nor were they sure what force they had. Somehow they were supposed to fix a situation which they didn't quite understand.
Meanwhile Mark Wu followed the invisible Tiger to another world and another time.