Return to Lee Da
Part One
Shifu and Po walked thru the village, on their way home from grocery shopping. Po carried a basket of vegetables and spices in one arm and a bag of rice under the other, both for their dinner that night. Shifu was talking to Po about the panda's training.
"Dragon Warrior! Master Shifu!"
A small rabbit girl rushed up to them. She held a scroll in her hands and was panting.
"Something wrong?" Po asked.
The girl caught her breath and handed Shifu the scroll in her hands. "Somebody gave me this scroll and said it was for Master Crane. Can you give it to him?"
"Of course." Shifu nodded. The girl bowed and rushed off. Po and Shifu continued their journey to the palace.
"What do you think the scroll's for?" Po asked.
"Who knows?" Shifu replied. "The scroll's for Crane." The two of them got to the Jade Palace and Po got to work on dinner. Shifu waited until the Five had come to eat before giving Crane the scroll. The avian took the rolled up parchment and started reading while Po served the food. However, by the time his food had been passed to him, Crane's expectant smile had turned to extreme worry.
"Something wrong?" Po asked as he sat down. Crane set the scroll down, his eyes full of concern.
"Crane, who did the scroll come from?" Shifu asked. All eyes were on Crane.
"It's from Mei Ling." Crane said. "She says that the academy's in trouble."
"Lee Da?" Mantis said. "But that's one of the best kung fu academies in China! The only thing that can cause trouble for it is a natural disaster."
"Well, Mei Ling says that there's something attacking it." Crane started walking off, leaving his food untouched. "I have to go help."
"Wait." Monkey said. "Let us come with you."
"No!" Crane said hurriedly. "Lee Da is my academy, and I can take care of it myself."
"Will you at least wait until morning to leave?" Shifu said. "You can't fight if you're tired from flying all night." Crane was reluctant, but he agreed. Instead of eating, he went off to his room.
"Poor Crane." Po said. "What do you think is attacking Lee Da?"
"Probably just a bunch of bandits." Viper shrugged. "It'll be a breeze for him."
"I don't think so." Tigress said. "After all, it's so bad that Mei Ling had to send word."
"Some bandits." Mantis muttered.
The next day, Crane stayed behind after everyone else had gone to train. He walked off to his room and packed a bag. He packed a knife, some shurikens and kunai, and a spare pair of pants.
A knock came to his door. "Permission to enter?" Po's voice called.
Crane shook his head. "Come in, Po." The portly panda stepped in with a somewhat goofy smile.
"Hey." He said. "So, you're heading off?"
"Yep." Crane nodded.
"Out to save your academy, help your friends…" Po rocked back and forth on his feet. "Good luck!"
"Po, this isn't going to become a reenactment of our first talk, is it?" Crane asked.
"Nah." Po laughed. He pulled out a package and handed it to his bird friend. "This is food for the journey. You know, cause you never know when you're next meal will be."
Crane smiled and stashed the food in his pack. "Thanks, Po."
"Not a problem." Po shrugged. "I hope you and Mei Ling can work this out."
"I do, too." Crane said. "When I read her letter, it was like she was in a rush to write it; like something was coming for her."
"You two care for each other?" Po said mischievously.
"We're not in love!" Crane snapped.
"Sorry!" Po said. "Well, good luck. Kick some bad guy butt for us, who have to stay home and let you have all the fun." Po laughed as he walked off. Crane rolled his eyes and chuckled. He slung his pack over his shoulder and placed his hat on his head. Then, he walked outside and took a deep breath, still very concerned for his academy. As he prepared to take off, he heard a voice.
"Crane!"
The avian turned and saw Master Shifu run up to him, a pack slung over his shoulder. "I'm coming with you."
"With all due respect, Master, I can-"
"I know you can do it alone." Shifu interrupted. "But even if you don't want me coming, I'm still following you." Crane sighed and took off, his master running below him. They journeyed towards Lee Da, hoping that they weren't too late. After a few hours, they rested.
"What do you think is attacking the academy?" Crane asked. He was currently pacing back and forth in front of his master.
"It's probably just bandits." Shifu said. "And if it's worse, then it's probably the Wu Sisters or Great Gorilla."
"In that case, we should hurry." Crane said.
"Very well." Shifu said. "It does sound like Mei Ling was urgent." The two journeyed on. After a while, Shifu called Crane down from his flying, telling his avian student that flying would take up too much of his energy. Crane was reluctant, but agreed to walk alongside his master. It took about a day and a half to get there, but the two warriors were surprised at what they saw. The school still looked like it always did; uniform, neat, and strongly structured. There were two differences: nobody was around and some of the trees around the school were destroyed.
"This doesn't look very good." Shifu admitted.
"Well, today is usually the day the master would give us a day off." Crane said hopefully. "And the trees could've broken because the students were using them for training."
"Now you decide to remain hopeful?" Shifu said. Crane shrugged. The two of them walked down towards the academy. But they stopped abruptly when they found the bridge to the front gate completely destroyed. It was at least twenty feet to the doors, and the waters below didn't look promising.
Shifu knelt down and studied the edge of the bank. "It looks like the bridge never existed."
Crane stared worriedly at the doors to his old academy. "There aren't even pieces of the bridge there, either." Shifu stared at the waters below them, which were green like swamp water.
"We'd better get over there." He said. Crane nodded and knelt down as Shifu climbed onto his back. The avian flew off, but barely got halfway across the waters before a weighted net came out of nowhere and fell on top of Crane and Shifu. The two masters plummeted into the waters below. They barely had time to react from the net before they went under the cold waters. Crane tried to get free, but failed. Shifu wasted no time in rummaging thru his pack and pulling out a dagger. He sliced thru the ropes until there was a hole big enough for him and Crane to slip thru. Shifu surfaced and coughed, spitting water out of his mouth. He looked around and then dived when he didn't see Crane. He found the avian struggling to swim up and the old master saw that Crane's foot was caught on the net, and the net was tangled in some wood at the bottom of the water. Shifu swam down and freed Crane before the two swam up again.
"What was that?" Crane coughed.
"Not sure." Shifu said. "But we're going to find out." The two of them swam to the school and Crane managed to fly up, open the doors, and help Shifu up. The masters still had their things. But the two of them and their stuff were soaking wet. Shifu and Crane walked into the school cautiously, but it looked like a ghost town. The rooms, training grounds, and courtyards were completely deserted. The two masters stopped at the testing area.
"This doesn't make sense." Shifu said. "Unless they evacuated for some reason, then I don't see how we could've been attacked."
"It couldn't have been one of the students who attacked us." Crane insisted. "They all know me too well, and they should know you anywhere."
"That doesn't explain why we were attacked and almost killed." Shifu protested. Suddenly, his ears perked up. "Somebody's watching us." He whispered. He raised his voice a little. "Stay here, I'm going to check the mess hall." Shifu walked off, leaving Crane alone. The bird master looked over towards the obstacle course near him; the same one he had gone thru to get into the academy in the first place. He smiled as he stared at the bright red flag at the other end. He remembered Mei Ling and her encouragement. Mei Ling wasn't just the only girl in the academy; she was, for a while, Crane's only friend.
A loud noise made Crane jump. He spun around and his eyes widened when he saw Shifu fighting a cloaked figure. Crane quickly jumped in, helping fend off the rogue warrior. But the cloaked person acted fast. They kicked Crane to the ground and then gave Shifu a kick that launched the master into the obstacle course.
"Watch out!" Crane warned. Shifu moved just as a log came towards his head, which he blocked. He moved his foot before another log could crush it. The cloaked figure jumped into the obstacle course and landed on top of one of the spires, snarling at the master. The figure lunged, and Shifu moved fast. The figure had to dodge whatever the course threw at them and attack Shifu at the same time. Shifu had to do the same while dodging the attacker's moves. Crane only watched, not wanting to risk anything. The cloaked figure jumped onto a swinging log while Shifu was busy blocking a log spinning toward him. The figure rode the log until they came to the old man. The figure jumped towards Shifu, kicking him into another spire. The figure moved in for the kill, but Shifu found that he was at the base of the red flag. He pulled it from its case and threw it at the figure's covered face. This distracted them long enough for Shifu to swipe at their legs and pin them to the ground. In the process, the figure's hood had been knocked off.
Shifu found himself staring into Mei Ling's ferocious-looking face.
"Mei Ling!" Crane cried.
The Chinese mountain cat finally got a good look at the people she had been attacking, and she was shocked. Shifu helped her up and the two of them walked over to Crane. Mei Ling kept staring at the bird, like she was trying to decide whether she was dreaming or not.
"Crane?" Mei Ling finally asked. "What are you doing here?"
"You sent us a letter, saying you needed help with something attacking the academy." Crane told her.
Mei Ling slapped her forehead. "Master sent that letter. Ugh, when will he realize that I'm not a child anymore?"
"Mei Ling, what's going on?" Shifu demanded. "The bridge is completely destroyed, you attacked us, and the place is deserted."
Mei Ling looked around. "We shouldn't talk here."
STAR STAR STAR STAR STAR
"It started about a week ago." Mei Ling said. She was sitting on the floor, leaning against her bed. Shifu and Crane sat across from her.
"Master called us to the courtyard." Mei Ling continued. "He said we had a visitor, so we lined up in the courtyard. We were all hoping it would be Crane; we hadn't seen him in years. But instead of Crane, we had a lady come in. She was this beautiful caracal woman wearing a green silk dress. She had these piercing green eyes that reminded me of a forest." Mei Ling sighed. "Our master approached the woman and demanded to know why she was there. The woman said, 'I ask for only one thing: the greatest warrior here. Give them to me and I will leave in peace.' Our master asked for the reason, but the woman wouldn't say. So the master dismissed her. The caracal said that if we didn't do as she asked, there would be dire consequences. Our master said that if she gave the reason for what she wanted, he would reconsider. Again, the woman refused. So the master told her to leave or we would force her to. The caracal woman pointed to our master and us and said, 'You will regret this!' Then, she stormed off. The next day, at sunset, something big attacked us. Whatever it was kept up the attacks for at least a week, and whenever we tried to fight back, none of us came back without being wounded."
"Where are the others?" Crane asked.
"After the last attack, our master evacuated the place." Mei Ling said. "I managed to hide and stay behind. I will not abandon this place."
"Why not?" Shifu demanded. "You could be killed the next time this thing attacks."
"This is my home!" Mei Ling snapped. Shifu looked at Crane.
"Mei Ling's an orphan." Crane explained. "She lost her home and family to a fire."
"I wandered around for weeks before Master found me." Mei Ling said. "He took me in and gave me a home. I'm not abandoning it now."
"Then we'll help you fight." Crane said.
"Wait a minute." Shifu stopped the two. "We still don't know what we're up against. What exactly is this thing we're up against?"
"I'm not too sure." Mei Ling admitted. "It was pretty big and it had some major claws and fangs. When it roared, it sounded like a combination of a bear, a bat, and some sort of cat. It hissed like a lizard."
Shifu's eyebrow rose. "That sounds a little far-fetched."
"Even I have to admit that it does sound crazy." Crane said.
"You don't believe me?" Mei Ling growled. "Wait out in the courtyard at sunset; the beast will come."
"Fine." Shifu said.
"I don't know." Crane said uneasily. "Maybe I'll go alone. Just in case."
"You're crazy." Mei Ling said.
"Don't worry." Shifu said. "We'll be ready to help if you need it."
Mei Ling cast a glance outside. "Best put your plan into action." Everyone looked out the window and saw that the sun was setting.
Crane flew off and stood thirty feet from the gate and waited. Shifu and Mei Ling waited on a balcony behind him, ready to help. Mei Ling's claws were digging into the wood.
"Would you relax?" Shifu said.
"I can't." Mei Ling said. "Just wait until you see the beast."
They waited….and waited…and waited…for hours on end. After a while, the sun set, and it became dark. Crane lit the lanterns around the courtyard. Soon, however, Crane got a little tired. He turned to his master and friend. "Are you sure it comes at sunset?"
"Yes." Mei Ling called.
"Well, why don't we retire?" Crane said. "We'll check again tomorrow night." Mei Ling was reluctant, but agreed. She turned and walked off. Crane started to walk off, but Shifu was frozen in his place.
"What's wrong?" Crane asked.
"I'm not sure." Shifu said. He leaped down from the balcony and landed softly on the ground. "I'll be right back." He walked off towards the gate and opened the doors. Shifu stared out into the darkness. Then, there was the sound of splashing and Shifu jumped back.
"Look out!" he yelled. He and Crane stood side-by-side as something big came thru the gates.
With the lanterns on, Shifu and Crane could finally see what they were up against. The creature that was facing them had the head of a cougar, the body of a bear, bat wings, and a lizard's tail. It was at least twice the size of Po. The creature's piercing green eyes glared at the two warriors before it, and it hissed, like a lizard, as Mei Ling described.
"Ok." Shifu finally said. "This is new."
"Should we fight it?" Crane asked, taking a fighting stance.
The creature answered the question by pouncing towards the bird. The two warriors split up and moved in to attack. But each time they moved in, the creature would swipe its claws and snap its teeth, making them jump back again. Crane tried to dive bomb it, but the creature whipped its tail around and sent Crane hurdling thru a wall. Shifu was distracted and got pinned to the ground by the creature's large paw. The creature leaned down and stared at the red panda, growling deep in its throat. Shifu stared into the creature's sharp green eyes, inwardly a little scared. The creature looked up and saw Mei Ling and Crane coming. The creature glanced at Shifu one more time before running off into the woods.
Shifu sat up and stood, watching the beast disappear. Mei Ling and Crane stood beside him.
"What was that?" Crane asked.
"I'm not sure." Shifu said. "But I have a feeling it's connected with that caracal."
A/N: How do you like that? Until the next part.
BTW, Happy Birthday to me!