The Art of Being Special
Chapter 1: The Timid Skunk
Disclaimer: I do not own Skunk Fu or any of its characters. They belong to Cartoon Saloon and CAKE Entertainment. However, the story line and any OC's that appears in this story belong to me. And if any names of the OCs' appear in the story that is similar to others, it is merely a coincidence.
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Far off from the valley on the road, similar to the one where Leo and Cheetah once crossed to get home (The Art of Reunion: Chapter 1). From there two other figures walked on the same path with the moon acting out as their only light source. Although they weren't concealing their faces, both were wearing dust brown cloaks around their bodies. One of them was an old looking rat. He was about as big as Rabbit would be, had dark gray fur with a short beard running down his chin, with a walking stick to support himself due to his hunched back. His companion beside him was a very young skunk about the age of 10. This skunk appeared to be female, even though her appearance was almost the same as Skunk but with a few notable differences. For one, her fur was white, her red nose is more of a triangle shape, her hair on top of her head was short and curly, and she also carries a single red rose by her left ear.
"Are we there yet, Master," the white skunk asked in a very timid tone.
"Almost young one," the elderly rat replied as he stopped momentarily and patted her head softly, "And don't worry my daughter everything will be alright."
Not wanting to say anything else that might upset him, the white skunk nodded and continued on the path, while grasping her master/father's cloak.
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It was high at noon at the valley; you could say it has been a pretty normal and typical day. Most of the animals were doing chores, training or just lazing around all day. They had just, once again, defeated Baboon and his plans to take over the valley. The latest plan of Baboon was equipping his army with very thick armor to prevent the animals from causing any damage to the monkeys. It was a good plan, however, it wasn't really thought out well. As it turns out, the armor did make them invulnerable to attacks, it was too heavy for them to move around in. All the valley animals had to do was push the monkeys over making them incapable of movement or action. The monkey's 'ultimate' defense had naturally become their ultimate downfall.
After Baboon's most humiliating defeat, everyone in the valley went back to their own business. For Panda and his pupils they went back to training… well Raccoon anyway. Since Skunk's two hours were up it was Raccoon's turn, though Skunk wasn't too happy when he heard that Raccoon's next training was technique training.
"Man, why does Raccoon get to learn a new technique while I'm stuck on doing those boring breathing exercises?" Skunk ranted, "It not like he needs them. I mean, he already has like about a bazillion kung-fu techniques in his family scroll."
"A bazillion isn't an actual number, dearie,"
The voice came from Swan, an old valley resident way before Tiger and his friends begun training with Panda. She came back home several weeks ago after years of travelling around the world. Panda, an old personal friend of hers, asked her to watch over Skunk and make sure he doesn't cause too much trouble during Raccoon's training session, in other words, babysitter. What the animals liked about her was her kind hearted nature. Whenever any animal has problems they want to talk about, she'd be the first to know. And Skunk has lots of them.
Skunk threw his head back in frustration, "That's not the point!" Then he fell flat on his back and looked at the sky and somehow he relaxed a little, "But, it's so unfair. I have been training with Panda way longer then Raccoon has and he's been training with Panda for six months and he's already doing technique training." Skunk finally let out a sigh and looked at Swan who was listening intently while knitting, "Why is that?"
"Hmm. From what you've told me, it seems that Raccoon is a child prodigy." Swan said thoughtfully.
"Child prodigy?" Skunk said while getting his back off the ground, "What's that?"
Swan hummed, "How do I put it," she mused, "Ah! Well, you see dearie, a child prodigy is something that a young one before the age of fifteen has an extraordinary talent on something that usually takes about years to do."
Swan continued, "But being a child prodigy doesn't always have to be about talent. It can also be about knowledge or something you are capable to do."
"Um, you kinda lost me."
Swan chuckled, "In other words, they either called geniuses or that they are special."
"I see…" Skunk said then slumped, "Then Panda doesn't think I'm special…"
"You are special Skunk!" Skunk flinched at the sudden outburst of Swan. When she realized what she did, she calmed down, "Young one…" the old one placed her wing on top of Skunk's head, "What I learned when I was travelling around the world and from my experience, everyone is special in their own way. You may not realize it yourself, but Panda, the rest of the valley animals, especially me believe you are special." She removed her wing on Skunk's head and gave a warm smile, "After all, you are the valleys most precious gift from Heaven itself."
Skunk finally let out a warm smile, in honesty he never felt better, "Thanks granny. I really needed that."
"Glad to hear it."
"Hey Skunk!" Skunk looked over his shoulder seeing Raccoon calling for him. He turned to Swan who excused him to go; he quickly gave Swan a hug before going to Raccoon.
"Hey Raccoon," Skunk said as both of them high fived each other, "Is it my turn now?"
Raccoon nodded, "Yeah, kind of. Panda also told me to tell you that he needs you to do something. I don't know what it is, but it sounded important. You should go right away."
"Alright," Skunk turned around to wave goodbye at Swan who waved back before leaving.
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Skunk arrived to the dojo moments later seeing Panda with two others with him that he did recognized, as he got closer he could make out what they look like. The first one he saw was an old rat while the other one was…a white skunk! Skunk rubbed his eyes wondering if he wasn't hallucinating, he looked again, yup definitely not hallucinating. He couldn't believe it there is another skunk in the valley, and it is a female too. Skunk felt his cheeks heating up but he managed to shake it off remembering why he is here.
"Master Panda, I'm here." Skunk called out.
All attention turned to Skunk, when the white skunk saw him she yelped and hid behind the closest thing she could find, Panda. Skunk saw this and gave a confused look. And some strange reason he felt kind of hurt, but didn't know why.
The elder rat sighed seeing his student's reaction towards his old friend's student and turned to him, "I am very sorry for my student's behavior. She's just very shy when it comes to meeting different people."
After hearing those words, once again, he didn't know why but he felt kind of relieved, "Oh, it's alright," Skunk said, "But, umm… not to be rude but, who are you?"
The elder rat gave a small smile, "Pardon my manners. My name is Shio from the land called Greenfield," the rat said with a small bow due to his hunched back, "And the one hiding behind Panda is my daughter, Rose. Now, say hi Rose."
The white Skunk poked her head out from her cover, "H-hello…" she timidly said before pulling back when Skunk waved at her.
"Right… so, why am I here again?" Skunk asked.
Panda cleared his throat and began, "Yes, well while Shio and I will talk and catch up on old times, I want you to take Rose and show her around the valley as well as introducing her to the rest of the valley animals. Think you can do that?"
"Yeah, sure, I can do that." For the third time, Skunk felt strange again, but this time he was happy, excited even.
"Good," Panda then lightly pushed Rose away from his back and towards Skunk, and said to her, "Don't worry young one, Skunk will make sure you'll feel right at home."
Skunk gave a big smile, "Yeah, no need to worry," he said as he held his paw to Rose whose face turned red at the moment and reluctantly grabbed his with hers and left their masters.
When their students were finally gone, Panda turned to Shio, "So what seems to be the problem, my old friend?"
Shio laughed lightly, "Nothing gets by you Panda," he said before he sounded a little serious, "You see…it's about my student."
To be continued…
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A/N: The Art of Reunion is on hiatus for now most of it because of writers block. The reason I started to write again was because of the inspiration of Ghost-Peacock another Skunk Fu! Fan from Deviant Art.
I'll try to finish my fics as soon as possible, for those of you that are still waiting for them to finish and thank you for reading them.