Li looked up at the sudden, distant scream. He took his _ out of the earth and curiously turned his eyes on the farthest rice field in the village, and saw smoke. The scream cut off very abruptly, but was followed by more. Snarls and the smell of burning wood drifted into the village.
A wolf crested the hill, summoned two fireballs in his hands, and lit the ground on fire.
At once, several pandas were batting out the flames with bursts of air, a wave hitting the wolf and pushing it backward down the hill. The hill was suddenly alive with wolves and, following them, fire, flames bursting over houses and shacks. Pandas of all ages ran out of the flaming buildings, heading for the treeline. Li clenched his paws around his rake and spun it like a staff, putting out as many fires as he could. He ran through the masses of fleeing pandas and made it to his house just in time to see a wolf leap at his year-old son, the baby huddled around his doll. In a burst of fear and rage Li slammed the head of the rake into the wolf's face, sending it flying backward, blood running from one eye. Li saw his wife take up the baby and he bid her to run, promising to himself that he would find her after the fight. The sound of little Lotus's cries rang in his ears before it disappeared into the woods, and Li focused on the wolves before him, snarling as a peacock knifed a good friend of his. The heat of the burning village began to sear at his fur but he pressed on, sending sharp gusts of air and burning cinders against any wolf he could find, until finally he had to fall back, or burn to death. Li gave one last hit and fell into the trees, snow falling from the branches onto his smoldering coat. He quickly turned into the lee of a boulder as a group of wolves ran past, his arms spasming from the unexpected fight, only now feeling the pain of burns and pulled muscles. Li looked into his village, the light of the fires searing his eyes through the shadows of shimmering ruins and the silhouettes of unmoving bodies, before turning around and heading further into the woods. Ignored the nagging pains , he began looking for his wife and son, and prayed to every spirit he could think of that they had found safety.
Thirty years later
"S'cuse me, pardon me, coming through-"
A large black-and-white shape inched his way through a shop made for much smaller creatures than he, bumping into customers as he went.
"Hey! Watch it, Po," a pig said angrily, slapping him in the stomach. He tried to suck up his gut to get through the aisles, dishes of food balanced on his paws, and felt something warm and wet on his tail. Behind him a young rabbit gasped.
"Oop," he gasped, removing his tail from her soup. She made a face at him and waved her small paw, bending the liquid out of his fur.
"Thank you, ma'am, and a thousand pardons-"
A crash of cymbals interrupted him and he turned to look at the entrance to the shop, where a brightly-colored pig was sticking up a poster, five silhouettes draw upon it.
"What?!"
Po ran through the mass of customers and examined the poster with growing excitement. The Furious Five were going to perform today! For the title of the Avatar, the legendary bringer of balance, the protector of peace! Po felt his whole body whoop with excitement and clambered back through the crowd, shooing them out of the shop.
"Everyone! Everyone! Go, get to the Jade Palace!"
The customers began to scramble, stuffing the last bites of food in their mouths and grabbing their respective children from the tables. Po could not contain his excitement.
"We've been waiting a thousand years for this, just take the bowl," he said to one child who was choking down his meal. He grabbed a pile of coins from a little old lady and shoved them back into her moneybag, gently ushering her out the archway.
"This is the greatest day in kung fu history," he said, "Don't worry about paying, just-"
"Po! Where are you going?"
Po skid to a halt just inside the arch, grimacing at his father's voice. He turned around and tried to shuffle out a little further.
"To the…Jade Palace…."
The elderly goose set a large pot on a cart and pushed it toward Po.
"You're forgetting your noodle cart!" he said. "The whole Valley will be there, and you'll sell noodles to all of them!"
"But…"
Po looked into his father's eyes and faltered, clamping his protests down. He'd kept his love of kung fu and the bending arts secret from his father for ten years, for the most part, and he could not look into his father's eyes now and tell him that he'd rather attend the tournament as a fan than a noodle-seller. Mr. Ping thought the whole kung fu obsession was a phase, second to his son's love of noodles, and Po did not want to disabuse his father of that notion, knowing how it would hurt him. Po took the noodle cart out of his father's shop and began the long haul up the Thousand Steps, wishing he could leave both it and his dad's expectations behind.
At the top of the staircase, inside the courtyard, hundreds of people waved and cheered, nudging each other for the views and dodging around playing children. They were the descendants of the villagers who had built the Palace and its grounds in honor of Master Oogway and his services to the Valley, and they, as well as the rest of China, had been waiting for the arrival of the next Avatar for nearly ten centuries. The Avatars of old had been fierce, wild warriors, commanding great power and respect as they travelled the lands, bringing balance to places and people who needed it. The cycle of Avatars had broken almost a thousand years ago and none had surfaced since. In their absence, the great Master Oogway had developed a fighting style capable of giving even the smallest of peoples power enough to fight, defend, and protect themselves and the incapable, until the Avatar returned and once again fought for balance in the realm. It was said that the Avatar could master all four elements, not just one, and go between the mortal and spiritual realms, but a lot was said about the Avatar; by popular opinion they could also fly, rise from the dead, and predict the future, depending on who you asked.
The only one who really knew for sure was the ancient tortoise himself, and he had never been inclined to tell.
Oogway made his way down another set of stairs, lined with geese in teal robes, their necks bowed.
"It is a historic day, isn't Master Oogway," said the red panda at the bottom of the steps, bowing slightly.
"Yes," said Oogway, "And one I feared I would not live to see. Are your students ready?"
"Yes, Master Oogway," said Master Shifu. He was brimming with both excitement and fear, but he kept himself outwardly calm and composed, not wanting to ruin the day by being nervous in front of his students. Oogway smiled slightly at this. Shifu had never really been one for calm. The tortoise turned to the red panda.
"Now notice, old friend," he said. "Whomever I choose will not only bring peace to the Valley, but also to you." He turned away and looked over the crowd, gazing at the hundreds of faces, and the five people they surrounded. Yes, he thought, a very historic day indeed. The red doors to the courtyard started to close, and the tournament began with the presentation of the masters. Young Crane started things out, flying in excellent formation, dodging rockets with ease and grace as he bent the air to put out the flames.
Master Viper was up next, two dozen archers aiming for her thin form; she twisted around the oncoming arrows, each coming so close that the crowd would call out, until she curved at the just the last instant, the tip of her tail lashing out and breaking the shafts. She called forth a stream of water from a provided jug and froze several arrows in place, at last sending out a burst of snow to cover the cheering crowd.
Oogway serenely watched the performances, smiling at the progress and achievements of each student. Every once in a while he noticed a tingle on the edge of his consciousness, a little nudge that told him the Avatar was near, and then it faded halfway through Master Mantis's display. Oogway closed his eyes and mentally felt around the entire arena, feeling the energy of every pig, goose, and rabbit present. Somewhere, the Dragon Warrior waited. He could feel a tension in the air, as if section of the entire Universe seemed to be holding its breath.
Then, as Master Tigress began to fight, he felt it. A fleeting but strong presence that seemed to ring within the energy of the world.
He held up his hand, and all fell quiet.
"I sense the Avatar is among us," he said to Shifu. The red panda nodded solemnly, and gestured to his students.
"Citizens of the Valley of Peace," he announced as the five masters lined up in the middle of the courtyard. "Master Oogway will now choose the Avatar!"
Cheers rang out and Oogway brushed aside a brief glimmer of annoyance, trying to get a feel for the presence he had felt through the noise and confusion. He began to perform a sequence of tai chi, feeling the energy in his body reach out to the faint spirit he had sensed, and he blocked out as much of the noise he could, concentrating on the energy. It finally began to come closer; he noticed peripherally that there was some sort of commotion going on, but he ignored the sounds and the spikes in energy. He reached out as he felt the chi in his body draw towards the spot directly in front of him. Suddenly the ground shook beneath his feet as something heavy impacted it, and he opened his eyes.
Oogway saw something he had not seen in many, many years.
A young panda laid face-down on the ground before him, smelling of soot and fire. He twitched and dizzily shook his head, looking around with bleary eyes and a pained face.
"Oh….whazgoinon…"
The panda's head swung around, and stopped an inch before Oogway's outstretched claw.
"What're you pointin'…"
His eyes widened.
"OH! I'm so sorry! I just wanted to see who the Avatar was," he said, backing up on his knees and paws.
"How interesting," Oogway muttered, examining the panda's face. Images of golden palms and fire began to dance behind his eyes.
Behind the panda, Master Tigress stepped forward.
"Master are, are you pointing at…me?" She asked, placing a hand on her chest. The panda stood up and nodded enthusiastically. A warmth swelled in the tortoise's heart as his sight was overtook with a vision in black and white and golden light.
The pandas of old healing his wounds – and a dragon made of chi, soaring through a realm of broken light; a village destroyed by fear and flame – and a dark shape in the middle of the sea, throwing balls of fire from its hands; a panda standing before a swarm of shining palms, its paw glowing brighter as it smiled at a tiger; a peaceful figure in a straw hat, a jade staff twirling in its paws, bending the air as it turned.
"Him!" Oogway said cheerfully. The panda frowned at him.
"Who?" He shifted; Oogway's claw followed him, and again as he moved back.
"You," he said with a smile. He pushed his staff under the young panda's arm and raised it in the air.
"Me?!"
"The Universe has brought us the new Avatar!"
Oogway felt a great deal of energy stumble and twist at his announcement, despite the cheers from the crowd. He saw Shifu gimping toward him and he held back a grin at his disturbed face. No matter how fun it was to annoy the red panda, now was not the appropriate time. Oogway began to walk back along the line of students.
"Master Oogway, wait," yelled Shifu as a palanquin raced along the courtyard. "That's the bringer of peace and balance? That flabby panda is the answer to our problem?" he whispered hoarsely.
"You were about the point at Tigress and that thing fell in front of her – that was just an accident!"
"There are no accidents," Oogway muttered, feeling as much of the panda's energy as he could while the palanquin stumbled past him. Much of the panda's chi was blocked; it would take quite a lot of work to make it flow again. Shifu had his work cut out for him. Oogway smiled to himself as he slowly left the courtyard.
Perhaps now was the appropriate time.
Shifu had the feeling that Oogway was laughing at him. He watched as the panda raced around the Sacred Hall of Heroes, screeching at every relic he saw, breaking the Urn of Whispering Warriors, and suggesting retrieving the Dragon Scroll by means of a damn trampoline. Oogway was laughing at him. The Universe was laughing at him. Six top-notch students, two of them adopted by him personally, and all of them had been beaten to the ultimate title by some idiot who thought strapping rockets to a chair was a solid idea.
It was enough to make him scream. He led the panda to the training hall, ignoring his every question and exclamation. He knew that having the beast show up would be an insult to injury to his students, but he wanted him out of the Jade Palace as quickly as possible. There was no possible way that this tubby imbecile would be able to navigate through the obstacle course, and within the hour he would surely give up and get out.
Shifu violently threw open the doors and led the panda inside, gaining a moment of satisfaction as his star student destroyed a swinging club and a flaming piece of wood hit the panda on the forehead.
"Let's begin," he said, watching as his students left the obstacle course and began to cool down.
"Wait, wait, wait," the panda said, halting in astonishment. "Now?!"
"Yes, now," said Shifu tersely. "Unless, of course, you believe the great Oogway was wrong, and you are not the Avatar."
The panda chuckled nervously, bringing a hand up to his chest.
"Well, I mean, I wouldn't say that, but I don't know if I can do all those moves…"
Shifu limped over to the side, where his students were gathering.
"Well, if you don't try, you'll never know, will you?"
To his surprise, the panda pointed at the training dummy, going on about a level 'zero'.
"That is for children," Shifu said dryly as his students joined them, coming to get a look at the new Bringer of Peace and Balance. "But, if you insist…"
"Wow, the Furious Five," the panda said, a grin alighting on his face. "Oh, you're so much bigger than your action figures. 'Cept for you, Mantis, you're about the same…"
Action figures? Was this serious?
As Shifu watched the panda smack-talk the children's training dummy, he knew it could not be. This had to be a cosmic joke; there was no way he was seriously expected to train someone who honestly smack-talked a training dummy.
As he had hoped, the panda was caught by the dummy's rebound when he finally punched the thing. Shifu noted the casual strength in the punch, then disregarded it, the lack of precision and aim overriding any use Shifu could have gotten out of the power the panda had. He watched with satisfaction as the flabby creature tripped and blundered his way across the obstacle course and absently wondered if he was a tad cruel, before deciding that, yes, he was. He felt a complete lack of sympathy as the panda was bruised, burnt, smacked, thrown, and hit in the groin, and as the pathetic thing dragged himself with one hand across the floor, Shifu could sense little bits of karma piling up against him; he ignored this, feeling he was owed a little bit of nastiness for being asked to train the world's laziest, most incapable creature as its savior. If he was going to hell, then, Shifu thought, he was taking the panda with him.
A/N: I have to admit, Shifu is not my favorite character and I like making him suffer, but writing his meanness is a bit satisfying.
So, I wondered what would happen if the KFP characters could bend, and what the Dragon Warrior/Avatar would be like. I'm trying to stick more to the story of KFP, but with bending added, perhaps a bit more spiritual mumbo-jumbo, but I don't want to stick to the script so much that it's just a badly-written novelization. I had a lot of trouble with writing in 'Dragon Warrior' instead of 'Avatar', so if I skipped one please let me know.
I like the idea that Po is actually a lot stronger and more agile that he or anybody else realizes. Not only does his size give him an advantage, but with the work he does in the restaurant (serious cooking is not a job for wimps) he's actually pretty powerful. He punched the dummy with enough force that the rebound sent him, a 260+ pound panda, flying backward. He had the strength to pull down an entire tree when he was trying to see Tigress's performance, he breaks the chains on the kitchen door, he breaks the entire kitchen, etc.
I'll invite you now to remember that KFP characters are surprisingly hardy, and pandas in real life are very durable; even the babies who fall, tumble, roll off of things, and land on their heads bounce back just fine. They're the Nokias of the animal kingdom.