What did you think of that beginning? Pretty intense, huh? Don't worry, there will only be occasional violence in this story, as I wish to keep it at a low T rating. Anway, please review, because I want to know how I'm progressing.
Po Ping, former worthless cook at Mr. Ping's noodle shop and now mega-awesome Dragon Warrior, knelt on the edge of a small snow laden cliff watching the inhabitants of the Wing Chao village going about their daily lives. On his left, kung fu masters and Furious Five members Crane, Viper and Mantis gazed intently at the small alleyways twisting between the rustic wooden houses, searching for signs of trouble. On his right, kung fu masters and Furious Five members Tigress and Monkey did the same, silent and watchful. As for Po himself, he kept his dark green eyes on the main street which cut through the middle of the village. Despite the mission at hand, he couldn't help but admire the red, green, blue, purple and gold colors of the decorations that the villagers were busy setting up in preparation for one of the most popular festivities of the year: the winter festival.
Po's eyes briefly flickered to the avian and snake sitting next to him. In the two seconds he looked at them, he saw that while Viper was concentrating entirely on the village streets, her bright azure blue eyes flicking left and right in between alleyways, Crane's light brown eyes were constantly glancing at her, taking in her black and brown swirling tattoos and her pinkish white lily decorations. Crane's eyes glanced, unexpectedly locked eyes with Po's. Blushing slightly at the realization that the panda had been watching him, Crane tore his eyes away, focusing his attention on the village.
The corners of Po's mouth twisted into a small grin as he too returned to watching the village.
It was no secret to all but Viper that Crane had a certain thing for the snake. For as long as his friends could remember, Crane had been secretly admiring Viper when he thought no-one was looking. It had become increasingly obvious ever since the Temple of Heroes debacle that occurred six months ago, when Viper had been seriously burned by a fire trap and Crane had given up his own hat to help her recover.
His friends reacted to the avian's secret crush in various ways. Monkey and Mantis, who as students could be considered the 'class clowns', would almost always catch Crane in the act of admiring her. Ever since the first time they caught him, the two jokesters would tease Crane at nearly every opportunity, though as his friends they respected him enough that they didn't say anything that would make Viper realize what they were joking about. Tigress would merely roll her eyes whenever Monkey and Mantis started joking, and otherwise have nothing to do with the affair. Po, who only months ago had ended a very brief relationship with a panda named Ming, would take the supportive approach, occasionally urging Crane to tell her how he felt. Each time, Crane would shake his head, tell Po that now wasn't the time. But Po still kept urging.
"Any sign?" Tigress suddenly asked, interrupting Po's thoughts.
On both sides of her, her friends silently shook their heads.
"Keep watching." Tigress said. "They may attack at any moment."
Her friends nodded, and returned their gazes to the village streets.
Early this morning, Po and the Furious Five had received an urgent message that Fung and his croc gang were causing trouble in this very village. Po and the Five had rushed from the Jade Palace as fast as they could, Po huffing and puffing several feet behind the others, but by the time they'd got there Fung's gang had disappeared. The shaken villagers had told them that Fung had managed to take a few things and escaped. After some quick thinking, Tigress came to the suspicion that Fung would attack the village again in order to steal some more valuables, and with that they'd climbed up to the top of the small cliff, and they had been sitting there ever since.
The atmosphere at the top of the cliff was dull rather than tense, so Po took a deep breath and uttered what he hoped was a sensible conversation starter.
"So…" He muttered. "Are you guys looking forward to the Winter Feast tomorrow night?"
It was a few seconds before someone answered.
"Yes." Viper replied. "
"Are we having it at your dad's restaurant again?" Mantis asked.
Po glanced at Tigress before answering. He had half-expected the striped feline to shush him at once, but she kept quiet, seemingly tolerating the conversation because it wasn't affecting their concentration.
"Nope." Po replied, keeping his voice down. "Dad's having some work done on the outdoors area, remember? We're having it back in the palace this time."
"Aw nuts." Mantis scowled. "I was hoping for some Dragon Warrior's Soft Crunch Noodles."
"Hang on, you didn't let me finish." Po muttered. "Dad's going to be the chef preparing the feast this year." Mantis's scowl vanished.
"What about the traditional choosing of the chef?" Viper asked. "It doesn't seem fair if you just pick your father, right?"
"Oh we're still having that." Crane spoke up. "After the Gongmen City Kung Fu Academy was built, Storming Ox and Croc became its masters, and one Master Boar joined them not long after. That means we're having thirty two masters instead of twenty nine."
"Because of the change, more food will have to be prepared." Po said. "That's why we're going to hire a second chef to help my dad with the cooking. A new golden ladle has already been made. Speaking of which, I don't want any of you guys waving to me during the contest!"
"Why not?" Mantis asked.
"Because last time someone waved, I waved back and accidentally disgraced a chef!" Po retorted. "Right, Monkey?"
He turned to glare at the primate who had made him accidentally give an innocent chef the Hun Shu Wave of Dismissal… and stopped glaring when he saw his expression.
"Monkey?"
Monkey didn't answer, his mind seemingly elsewhere. His brows were furrowed, his eyes narrowed, his mouth pressed into a thin line.
"Monkey, are you okay?" Po asked. When Monkey still didn't reply, the panda glanced at the comrades on his left side. "What's up with him?"
"Not now, Po." Mantis suddenly looked nervous.
"But-"
"I said not now!" Mantis snapped.
Po immediately silenced himself.
After a minute's uncomfortable silence, he spoke up again.
"Soooo…" He hesitated. "What about Su? What's she going to be doing while we're all at the feast?"
It had been six months since Su, a shy, sweet little panda girl from Po's birth father's village, became a student at the Jade Palace after Master Shifu caught her performing a perfect split while reaching for her lucky coin. In that time, Su had proven herself to be quite skilled. Even better, for the first time in her life she was able to gain the courage to make friends: Pong, an eight year old piglet who was Po's own student, had forged a bond with her two days after her arrival.
"She's going to be staying in the student barracks with Pong all night. Sorta like a sleepover." Viper said. "Zeng's going to watch over them."
"You're wishing you could join them, aren't you?" Po grinned cheekily.
"Oh shush!" Viper's cheeks turned pink.
"Oh come on… two adorable kids sleeping peacefully in their beds in the same room! You must admit that you wanna be there!"
"Po, I swear…"
"Quiet, all of you!" Tigress suddenly hissed. "Look."
That was when they saw a group of half a dozen crocodiles slowly creeping through a small alley in the direction of the main street, the one at the front wearing a traditional Chinese helmet. Fung was making his move.
"You were right, Tigress." Monkey spoke for the first time in hours. "They've come back for more."
"Remember the plan. We ambush them in the main street." Tigress spoke quietly. "Po, you and Crane and Mantis take the right side. The rest of us will take the left."
"Finally, it's go time!" Po got up and along with Crane and Mantis made his way down the hill that sloped down the side of the cliff. Two steps down, Crane suddenly called to him.
"Po watch out for that ice patch!"
"What ice pa-"
Po slipped and began rolling down, his fur collecting snow as he tumbled and turning the black parts of his fur to white. By the time he'd reached the bottom he'd turned into a giant snowball.
Guess it's just one of those days, he thought as Crane and Mantis reached him, struggling to suppress their sniggers.
In the Training Hall of the Jade Palace, Grandmaster Shifu watched as little Su and Pong took turns 'sparring' with the training dummy. The sky, visible through the open roof, was blue dotted with oddly shaped balls of white. The aged red panda stood perfectly balanced on the tip of Oogway's staff, half meditating, half watching.
As he watched, Pong gave the dummy a kick to the 'stomach', making it sway back and forth a few times, then stepped back to let Su have another go.
As Su timidly approached the dummy, Shifu smiled as he remembered the first time she had ever sparred with it.
It had been one week after she had moved into the Jade Palace. Once they were sure that Su had fully adjusted to her new home, Shifu and the others had brought her into the training hall to begin her training. After teaching the child a few tai chi moves, which she excelled at in minutes, Shifu had her face the dummy. Just like the Dragon Warrior had done long ago, Su had nervously nudged the dummy with her fist, making it sway slightly as it was doing now. Shifu, with more patience and compassion than he had shown the last panda he had trained, urged her to try again. When Su punched again, this time a heck of a lot harder, the dummy had swung all the way back.
To the surprise of the kung fu warriors watching her at the time, Su had leapt to the side before it could swing forward and hit her. An admittedly clumsy child, Su had lost her balance while leaping and ended up lying in the corner of the room. When Shifu and the others had rushed forward to make sure she was alright, they'd found that Su had discovered something that had been lying in the dust behind the weapons rack she had fallen next to. Hysterical laughter (not from the highly dignified Shifu) had ensued when that object turned out to be the tooth Po had lost from his first spar with the dummy.
"Come on, Su!" Pong spoke suddenly. "You've done this before: hit the dummy!"
"B-but…" Su gulped. Her peasant's dress had been replaced with a blue vest that matched her eyes and dark brown pants. "What if I knock it into the wall again?"
Shifu blinked.
Since he'd left the task of teaching Su to Po and the Five, Shifu didn't have an entirely precise opinion of Su's progress. He'd been meaning to check in at some point, but his duties as Grandmaster meant that he'd never got round to it.
He leapt down from the staff, grabbed it before it could topple, and made his way over to the two children.
"Pardon me…" He spoke politely. "But did you just say that you knocked that dummy into a wall?"
"Um… er…" Su hesitated, looking positively terrified.
"You are not in trouble." Shifu said. "I just want to know if what I heard is true."
"Y-yes." Su muttered.
"Could you do it again?"
"Huh?" Su looked at him confusion.
"Do you think you could knock the dummy into the wall again?"
"Er…"
"Just do what you did before and hit it. I would like to see exactly what you did."
"Go on, Su." Pong murmured.
Su gulped again and walked over to the dummy. She took a deep breath, and punched it right in the middle. She cried out when the dummy shot back and struck the wall, knocking a spear from the rack.
"Woah…" Pong gaped.
"I'm sorry!" Su cried. "I'm doing it wrong, aren't I?"
"Su, what you did is not wrong." Shifu said.
Su stopped wringing her paws.
"It's not?" She asked.
"No. In fact, what you did was exemplary." Shifu took this moment to smile. "There are few children your age that I have met that are capable of such strength and precision."
"R-really?" Su's eyes widened in surprise.
"Yes. Of course, there are a couple of things you need to improve on."
"What, Master?" Su asked.
"First, put yourself in the stance that you make after you strike the dummy. In the meantime, Pong could you continue practicing with the dummy while I instruct Su here?"
"Yes, sir." Pong bowed and headed over to the dummy.
Su did as she was told, positioned herself with one leg in front of the other, her right fist straight out in front of her.
Shifu's own eyes widened as he recognized the pose.
Th-that's the pose Tigress used to make!
"Master, are you okay?" Su asked.
Shifu realized that he was staring, and shook off his surprise. He approached until he was standing right next to Su.
"First thing's first, your arm should be a little straighter than that." He said. "It's pointing a little to the right."
Su nodded and moved her arm a tiny bit.
"Is that better?"
"Yes. That's more like it. Also, your front leg is not parallel to your back leg."
"Okay, give me a sec to get it right…" Su lifted her foot a little and set it in the right position. "Is that right?"
"Excellent. Try and keep that proper position in future."
"Yes, Master."
What a well-behaved, dedicated student, Shifu marveled as he returned the spot on the floor where he'd been meditating. Just like… just like…
Shifu suddenly found it painful to finish the thought.