Author note: I'm sure some of you want to read more of the main Altered Path series, but I've been doing more brain storming and thought of an interesting story that delves into Po's feeling toward Crane. Let it be known that this story takes place before Summer Festival and the Dragon Scroll
Chapter 1
The day had began like any other, a young panda sat before the door frame of his home eyeing other children running along the clearing pulling against something that flew above them, his gaze soon brought him before his mother and father, he smiled boldly and released a playful cry as he crawled toward him, and then everything became a horrible nightmare, the world he had known for only a short time had been set ablaze with shadowy creatures running down from the hill led by a solid white large bird.
The bird turned on him and cried in an angry voice in words he knew not what they meant, but the shadowy creatures turned on him, raising shiny objects that they used on his fellow kin where afterward they feel to the ground, a strange red liquid flowing from their body. The young infant cried as he saw other pandas fall one by one until at last the white bird loomed over him holding up a strange object. The white bird cackled while saying something and suddenly brought the shiny down…
"NO!"
Po bolted up, his fur covered in sweat. Something pressed against his stomach and looked over to see Tigress beside her. They had been dating for some time now, ever since their sparring match, and since then, they had secretly spent nights together, though reframe from going all the way with her—heck he never once seen her naked—mainly out of respect for Shifu, but also out of memory of Jiao, who at some level still cared for.
"Po," Tigress whispered, her eyelids opened slightly. "Are you alright?"
Po took several deep breaths to steady himself, in doing so it caused the muscles in chest and shoulders to swell, the very sight of which brought about a purr from Tigress. "Yeah," Po said after a while, "I'm fine," he paused to gently remove Tigress's arm and stood up. "I'm going to back to my room before the morning gong."
Tigress was about to say something, but Po had already left the room, calmly closing the door behind him.
The hallway was darker than normal, giving off a strange sense of foreboding, even more so than usual. A chill ran down Po's spine as he glanced from side to side, his gaze coming to a rest at Crane's door. His tired expression became one of confusion as he noticed a faint white mist slipping from under the frame. How much incense can one avian burn? Po came to stand before the door, and slowly reached for the handle, yet before he could open it, the panda was confronted with a blast of cold wind. The icy chill stung his eyes and forced him back. As the wind died down and his vision cleared, Po was horrified to find himself deep in a lush forest, the ground was covered in snow; the deep cold caused his breath to come out as a puffy cloud. His nose twitched as he picked up the faint sense of jasmines.
Mother?
A sudden scream drew his attention and made a mad dash toward the sound of the scream. After running for what seem like several minutes, Po came upon a slopping hill, and gaze down to see a group of wolves gathered around a fallen panda, a small pool of blood formed along her neck, and even stained the wolves' weapons.
"Get…a…" Po sought to cry out, yet the words were lodged in his throat.
Movement from the panda drew the wolves' attention, and one of them stepped forward, the one eye brute snarled as he twirled his sword about until he brought it high above the fallen creature's heart.
No. Po was about to rushed down the hill when he suddenly realized that his legs wouldn't move. The fluttering of wings drew his attention and turned to see a white peacock beside him.
It can't be…your dead.
Shen's red eyes gazed deeply into his own, a look of rage burning with them. "You can't kill me panda," the avian said, "no more than you can kill the wind itself."
With that Shen swiped a feather blade along his neck.
Po woke again, screaming again as he brought his hands to his throat, pressing them close to his flesh, yet there was no cut, no lose of blood, only the dryness of his mouth as he gasped for air. As he began to calm down, Po looked around and noticed he was in his room in the student barracks of the Jade Palace. Turning to the right, Po leaned over to reach under the bed and pulled out an old badly torn bag. It held no real value and much of the stitching had broken, in fact if someone were to anything in it there was a good chance it fall straight through the bottom. The noodle loving goose, Ping had often asked—nah ordered is more like it—him to get rid of the worthless piece of trash, yet the panda could not bring himself to ever part with it. As he held it in his hands, taking in its sweet scent of jasmine that had been laced into the cloth, tears began to fall about his face and gently brought the bag close to his face.
"I miss you so much mother," Po said.
It had been yet another year since his mother had been taken from him from the fiend Shen, and with passing year, the panda had been plagued with the same horrific nightmare of watching his mother slain and be helpless to save her, and with that knowledge, Po's eyes narrowed and turned to the room next to where Crane slept and a sensation of rage began to form. Though they were a team, he could still not bring himself to consider Crane as a friend or willing to turn his back on him. After all he was avian, and nothing ever good came from avians.
