A/N: This should be obvious. I love Kung Fu panda, and I have all of the movies and the Tigress cosplay costume set and ready to go for Anime Midwest. With that being said, I've deiced to drop by and write my own story for the fandom that I love ever so much. With that being said, I've decided to be a dork and write a TIPO one just for the heck of it. With that being said, lets get on with the story: 'No title yet, but it probably will have one by the time I post this story.'
Destiny Scroll: Chapter 1: Not Your Average Fairy Tale
Every good story typically has a beginning, a middle, and then an end. It also has a very steady rising action, climax, falling action, and a resolve. Those were usually just for children's fairy tales though, because great and life stories never really ended. No, they would just pick up where the original story left off and go from there. The rising and falling actions would be as unpredictable and jagged as a mountain top, climaxes would come with every turn of the page, and the conflicts would never be properly resolved until the end, though even then the story would take off yet again in a new adventure with a new set of characters to follow.
That was another difference, was the cast of characters themselves. In a fairy tale, there was a clear indication that the prince and princess were good, and that the evil witch and the fire breathing dragon were bad. In the story of life, there is no one way to tell the two apart, for the image would change in the eyes of whoever was viewing it. Take for example the lead of this story. A young female tiger, who would no doubt be playing the role of a princess should her story take place in any other realm other than her own. However, that is not the case and while she is a hero to her fellow warriors and those who look up to her, she is just as often thought of as a monster by both those who have known her since she was just a short tempered child in the orphanage and by those who do not appreciate with their evil deeds being thwarted by her.
The same can be said about the prince of this story. A rather lazy and childish panda, who even with the Dragon Warrior title, could still be viewed as a character with little to no importance when it came to things, even by those who were on his side in the scheme of things. When comparing both the prince and the princess, it should be quite obvious that these two are kindred spirits, or at least it should be but in real life, again that distinction is often a difficult one to make. What normally comes along rather quickly in a fairy tale, would now take quite a few chapters and page turns to find. Luckily though, one thing that both reality and fiction have is that sooner or later this realization would have to be made. Thats just the way the story goes, and it wasn't going to be any different for this one.
Though a plot would have to be at least one difference. For everyone's story is different from the others without exception. This one would mainly focus on the heroes listed above, not that they realize it, for to them, this is just what they call everyday life.
"Po! Are you even listening?" Tigress exclaimed upon entering Po's room fully, abandoning her spot in the doorway just for a second and successfully pulling the Dragon warrior back into reality.
The panda, in response, looked up and jumped for two reasons. One being that he, in fact had not been listening to what the other had to say, and also two being that he was so distracted by what ever it was he was just doing that he hadn't realized that Tigress had been there at all. Sitting up quickly, he gulped and searched his brain for the perfect answer, lie, or at least an excuse for this. When one popped up, he quickly took a breath and replied.
"W-what? Oh yeah, I was um... No, I didn't catch that." Po muttered quietly (Nailed it!), rolling up the scroll he had been reading and quickly tucking it back away into its hiding place. "Sorry, I was um... Reading something."
"Well, stop reading it." The tiger huffed disapprovingly, turning back around sharply and quickly walking back in opposite direction which she had come. "And I'm not going to repeat myself again, so just follow me."
"Um, right! Got it, just one second!" Po called, quickly leaving his bed and fully turning to the hiding place he had just tucked his scroll into.
"No! You'll do it now!" The other called after him, her tone full of annoyance towards the panda. "Don't make me come back in there!'
"Just a second!" He exclaimed, his eyes scanning the side of the bed for whatever it was he was looking for.
It was a gold box, placed between the rise and dip that was the underside of his bed, with the scroll crudely laying across the top. Frowning, the panda quickly knocked into into the center of the box, closed it up, and locked it up tight before hiding it once more and quickly starting out of his room after his tiger friend. When he got to her, it became apparent that she had been talking since leaving his room.
"-and I hope you were listening this time, because I'm not going to say it again." Tigress concluded from out in the hallway, causing Po to inwardly cringe.
She might as well have been talking to a brick wall, or to thin air even, because (while it was accidental) Po had not been listening to a word she had said. Sighing lowly, the defeated female turned and looked at the panda once more and over at what ever it was that had his attention captured. It ended up being what looked to be fear and confusion, as the look on his face implied that he still hadn't heard her.
"Ummm..." Po began bashfully.
"Po!" Tigress exclaimed, annoyance flashing across her face. "I repeated myself twice already!"
"W-what? Oh yeah, I um... No, I didn't catch that...Either of those times..." Po muttered under his breath. "Sorry, I was um... Reading something and didn't hear you."
The simple idea of Po actually reading something should have been a shock to the tiger. Keyword being 'should have', but given the already annoyed mood she was in and the mind-set to guess that it was just another comic-scroll, she didn't really care. Sighing heavily once more, she looked at the panda with an 'are you serious?' look before finally speaking to him in a less than kind tone.
"Well, you aren't reading it now, so you better listen up." She huffed disapprovingly, turning around sharply and quickly walking back in opposite direction. "Actually, don't. I'm not going to repeat myself again, so just follow me."
"Um, right! Got it." Po called, glancing back at his room quickly."Just one second. I have to put something away-"
"No! You'll do it now!" Tigress called back, never once wondering what it was the other was doing and instead added in a threat. "Don't make me come back there!'
"Just a second!" He exclaimed once more, unaware that the other had already turned back around and was walking back towards the room.
During the time it took her to get back, Po was already back in his room and on his bedroom floor, quickly arranging the reading material under his bed before rushing towards the door. Distractions seemed to be common with him today, because he was to busy looking over his shoulder at the scroll he had hidden to notice anyone in front of him (again) and ended up running straight into his friend. This time knocking both of them to the floor.
"Po!" Tigress exclaimed in a mix of surprise and anger as she quickly attempted to get to her feet. "What is what you today?"
"Sorry, sorry, sorry!" Po kept muttering as he slowly got up. "Just didn't see you there..."
"Thats the second time in two min- You know what, it doesn't even matter right now." She replied, rubbing her temple with her paw before dropping it at her side. "We have another problem to worry about right now-"
"Like bandits?" Po cut in, suddenly sounding very excited with the pending conversation topic.
Tigress sighed heavily, and then turned once more and started off down the hallway with the panda following close behind her, still waiting for her to reply to his early comment. At last she did, or rather she tried to.
"No, one of the-" Once again, the panda just had to cut in.
"Training?" He still sounded excited for some reason as they turned the corner and started down another hallway.
"No, Po would you jus-" If he cuts her off one more time after this then there was going to be trouble.
"Did Monkey get his head stuck in the honey pot again?" His excitement was dropping but her annoyance was growing.
"Again? When did he- Never mind." She sighed before holding up her paw to keep him from cutting her off again. "No, the problem is that one of the scrolls is missing."
"Is it the one about flying kung-fu!?" Po asked, having yet to learn from that one (if it even existed, as he had only heard legend of such a thing).
"No." Well, that was a relief.
"The mindslip one?" A shake of the head answered this. "The dragon scroll?"
"Isn't even in the same vault as the other ones." She reminded him, getting yet another sigh of relief from him.
"Well, if it isn't any of those ones, then which is it?" Po asked curiously as the two finally made it to the hall of scrolls.
Everything looked pretty much in place. All of the slots and storage boxes for scrolls seemed to be filled with the right amount and nothing looked out of place at all. Turning to the other, the dragon warrior rose a curious eyebrow in her direction before finally voicing his confusion, or rather simply restarting his earlier question.
"So, which is it?" He asked slowly as he watched Tigress enter the room and quickly begin to flip through a few of the scrolls in a nearby box.
"A very important one." Well, that reply certainly surprised him, for it was not in Tigress's character to give such a barren response.
"Whats it about?" Po asked again, following his friend's lead and flipping through random scrolls in random boxes.
"Nothing! Its just an important one." The tiger replied quickly. "Just look for one with silver paper and golden n-"
Po tensed up a little at the description of the scroll his friend was looking for. It sounded so oddly familiar, and yet he just couldn't bring to memory why that was. Eh, he then figured that maybe if he knew a little bit more about the scroll then he might be able to put a name to it.
"If its about nothing then why is it so important?" Typical response from Po.
"Look, it just is. So help me find it and don't read it when you find it."The tiger sighed loudly as she rubbed her forehead once more.
"Why can't I re-" Now it was Tigress's turn to cut Po off.
"Ugh, its not in here!" She groaned after dropping the scroll she currently had been holding back into its box. "I'm going to go look for it else where, just remember what it looks like."
"Got it." Po nodded, turning back to the bin he had been looking in and waiting for the tiger to leave.
Once she was out of the room, Po turned around and sat with his back to the box he had just been looking in. Folding his hands under his chin, he began to thing of the description of the scroll once more. All the while, he was still trying to remember where he had seen it.