Po's History

Don't own KFP

I'm studying the Book of Acts in the Bible and this idea came to mind. Though not religious, it is a good time to see how descriptive I can be. Hope you enjoy somehow.

Dear Sadeeq,

Greetings, your dear friend Po writes this letter. I am fine, though starting to feel the tenderness of age. When you first met me, you were intrigued to hear about my famous autobiographies. However, you were very interested in a private story of my life. Though my wife has been resistant against the release of these papers, for memories' sake, she asked our old messenger, Zeng, to copy and translate these words to you. Though I trust that your Mandarin is up to date, there are certain words that are new in your studies. I have inserted commentaries along with the translations to help you understand my history better.

You once asked me a private matter as I mentioned: The training of one of my prized students in my earlier years. The one who's training challenged me and my relationship with others around me. Though it did challenge it, it also deepened it.

In my early years, close to when I defeated Kai, I had figured out the key to teaching Kung Fu. However, before I became Dragon Warrior, I used to write, much like a chronicle-keeper. In these papers, you'll find my youthful voice present. I must say in re-reading some of them, much hasn't changed. As you'll see, this innocent writing as a care-free youth carried over into something different.

Date: Today

Writer: Po

I didn't know what to do at first. When I first wrote a poem for the Harvest Festival, my friends, the awesome Furious Five, said my poem was amazing. I didn't think it was all that, but they seemed to like it. But my friends said that with my 'picturing' skills that I should be a writer. "I don't know what I would write about," I said.

"Just write about whatever you want," Monkey suggested.

"Like what?" I asked.

"A book of poetry, or a songbook, or a romantic drama or-"

"Viper, slow down," I smiled.

"We're not saying that you have to write, Po," My feathered friend, Crane explained. I sighed, thinking about the idea. Even with the teaching and training I did, I still had a lot of time on my hand. The only real work I had was bandit control, training, and... eating. But with the whole collection of things I could do, Tigress said the one thing that seemed to stick with me.

"Write a diary," she simply suggested. I turned my head to her. She was on my right and the whole kitchen in the barracks looked at her.

"Why a diary?"

"Write it for posterity and other people. I'm sure that a lot of people would want to know how the Dragon Warrior grew up," Tigress replied. I thought about it for a moment. It was true. Not that many people in the village really knew anything about me. Though the village is small, most people saw the surface level of my life. I lived in a goose's house/noodle shop. I was like everyone else in the village, except for being the only panda, and I cooked noodles.

That's where people's thoughts of me normally go. It would be good to clear up some things. "That's actually a good idea, Tigress," I replied. Tigress's eyebrow rose up with a small smirk. I don't know how many times I've been frightened and nervous about that smirk.

"You seem surprised."

"No, no, no! I was just-" Before I could "effectively" defend myself, the room erupted in laughter as Tigress comfortingly patted me on the back. Making a fool of myself was something that followed me all the way from the first day of school.

I remember the day pretty vividly compared to the rest. I was a small...er panda at the time; I came to my goose dad's height. I was running around the house, excited about my first day. All my friends that I made around the village would be there. That's probably why my dad had such a hard time putting pants on me. "Po! Get back here!" He screamed as he finally caught up with me and zoomed the pants onto me. I looked down at the pants. They were already stretching at the seams by the looks of it.

"Baba?" I said to my dad, "Why do I have to wear pants?" I remember my dad honking in nervousness as he rubbed the back of his long gooseneck.

"I'll tell you when you're older," He replied. I don't remember how old I was at the time, but I do remember what the first day of school was like. Incredibly funny. My friends were all there, learning our alphabets and numbers like anyone else. For some odd reason, I learned words faster than I learned numbers. I guess that transferred over to my writing skills. Anyways, what made it funny was that all of the kids didn't like the food their parents packed for them, but I did. So I would eat their food for them so they could eat the food that they wanted. I was found out when the parents became suspicious about the kids suddenly liking their food.

Unlike what most people probably think, my childhood life wasn't that horrible. I remember Viper saying she felt sorry that my life in the village was so harsh. In reality, I was the most liked among the villagers. Partly because my goose dad would always have me running errands. So the village knew me pretty well.

What people don't know is how much I traveled. Because my dad's noodle soup was so good, I would get to go on errands outside of the village. And I've traveled far outside of the Valley of Peace. To as far as the coastal line of China. Why bring this up? One day, the Furious Five were training when I noticed Tigress was... rough with her style. "AHH! Easy Tigress!" Monkey shouted as his wooden bo-staff broke in two from the tiger's blow.

"Hmph," Tigress grunted an apology. This caused Master Shifu to break the two up.

"Master Tigress, though your strength was impressive, do be careful when attacking teammates," He ordered. Tigress's face is often hard to figure out. Around this time, which was before Shen attacked us, I began to decode her actions. However, I noticed something immediately when she tried to walk out of the pit. She jerked a bit to the left, dipping a tiny hair every time she stepped on her left foot. As Crane and Viper sparred next, I asked Master Shifu,

"Can Tigress and I be excused for a moment. I need to talk with her... privately." Shifu's left eyebrow rose as he glanced at Tigress. She was behind me, but I could tell by Shifu's face that she was looking confused as well.

"It can't wait until after training?" Shifu asked, probably thinking I needed a 3rd lunch break.

"Depending on how badly it's bent out of shape, no," I replied. We still had forty minutes of training left and I wasn't sure that Tigress could last that long with the injury she had. Shifu's face softened as he looked at Tigress again and then nodded. I turned around and saw Tigress's wide-eyed confused face. This is different from her other confused face. Her "completely clueless" confused face is where she scrunches up her left cheek with a face that just says, "what?" Her wide-eyed face is more like when I hugged her at the pier after defeating Shen.

Anyways, we walked away from the Training Hall and stopped when Tigress told me to. "Po, what are you doing? What do you want to talk about?" I sighed. Nothing got past her.

"Why are you hiding the fact that you're hurt?" I asked. Her wide-eyed shocked face came up.

"How... did you know I was hurt?" She asked slowly. This was a step forward. Most times when she was hurt she wouldn't bother to tell me.

"I know that limp, I've seen a lot of felines with that injury. I could... um... help... if...you're okay with it... Not that you have to or anything I'm just... you know," I stuttered like a bumbling idiot. Tigress crossed her arms and rose her left eyebrow. Her half-lidded eyes always gave me the impression she was either disgusted by me or judging me. But when her devilish smirk came in, that's when I knew I was in a whole different kind of world. I'm in the "the cat will play with her prey" kind of world. A world I kept finding myself in.

"Help me how?" Tigress asked with a smirk.

"Well, there's the... stretch, and then there's the... actually let's just do the stretch," I quickly recovered. I didn't want to tell her about the massage. "So, since we're out in the courtyard, why don't you just sit on the floor?" Tigress looked amused at my nervous behavior enough to trust me. She sat down with her legs stretched out but her upper body propped up on her hands. I sat facing her, asking to lend me her hands. "Now, I'm going to pull you a bit. Let me know when it starts hurting." She gave a short nod. We didn't get far until I heard her grunt. "Okay, now stretch your right side as far as possible." With my help, she did so, "Now, stretch to the left as far as you can." She did so. "Then slowly curl your back out away from me." As she did that, she heard and felt a loud crack.

"AH!" Tigress growled out shortly. I didn't know what kind of face she had on. It looked like a mix between embarrassed, surprised, and relieved. As much as I could tell. For the most part, it just looked like a widening of the eyes.

"Better?" I asked. She nodded her head, not feeling pain in her back anymore. Though she feels no pain in her hands, Tigress does feel pain other places.

"How did you know what to do?" Tigress asked. I scratched the back of my head.

"I um... I had friends," I said shyly. Tigress stood up with me and eyed me suspiciously.

"Po, how did-"

"It was... embarrassing how I learned it," I said. I don't know if I blush noticeably or not, but my discomfort was enough for Tigress to respect the privacy.

But I will write down what happened when I was young here. After that incident, the others started to ask how I knew so much about animals rarely seen in the village, especially felines.

Continued...