Orphaned and sold as a pet before escaping to Shao Mountain, the monks of the Temple in the Woods gave refuge to the Sphynx.  Feigning sleep in the day as he watched the monks practice, he copied their moves at night in the dark empty hallways when the fires burned low.

After years of training in secret, one moonless night a tiger slipped into the temple undetected by the monks.

His nose alone sensed the invisible foe, and the Sphynx dropped from the shadows like a wrinkled grey corpse into a tomb - yellow silk pants rippling in the dark, claws and fangs glinting like the bones of his long dead enemies, Feiyue sneakers flashing in firelight.  Two shapes shifted like water under Anji Bridge in winter, shreds of flesh tufted in tigerfur falling like a snowstorm of red and orange burning at sunset.

When the monks woke in the morning, the Sphynx cat was gone, a tiger shorn and sliced to ribbons lay splayed before the altar, it's eyes wild, wide, and empty. Looking back over his shoulder, Shaolin Sphynx chanted a prayer for his temple brothers and set forth on the high road, called by the rumors of Māo Māo City and a darkness gathering there.