Hello everyone! This is Colan writing this, and I have to say that this chapter took a loong time to make! But it was worth it in the end. We are both really happy with how this chapter turned out! Hope you all like it, and we will see you in the reviews!
/Colan :3
Dreams of Control
Chapter Three; Pack light, ready for fight.
Cola Drinking Cats
Po's stomach growled from all the noodles he'd eaten. It made him run slower as the pain coming from his upset stomach made it hard to concentrate. Why did this happen right after he met his father? Couldn't this person waited to send the letter so the food could've digested for a little bit? And why couldn't pandas have wings? Or maybe the ability to run on four legs like cats?
"Come on Po! Hurry up!" Crane called for his friend.
"I am… trying… to…*cough* Crane! It… It's... kinda hard!" Po said as loud as his lungs could muster. His throat burned from the running. Po looked up toward the Jade Palace to see for how long he had to run. Almost there. Po smiled to himself as he saw the palace closing in. Curse these stairs! If he'd tried to run up only two years earlier, he'd be a panting ball of fur a third of the way up. His training really had paid off.
Only two minutes later the two of them were up the stairs. Po bent over, panting.
"We don't have any time for that Po! Come on or Shifu will kill us with training!" Crane said, pushing on the panda. "I swear he'll become your personal sparring partner for a month again." Crane threatened, still doing his best to push the large panda in the right direction. But it was no longer necessary as the panda quickly sped up. Shifu as a sparring partner? For a month!? That'd be his funeral for sure!
He sped up and started running across the yard before kicking open the large doors to the Great Hall. Inside, the rest of the Furious Five stood alert in front of Shifu who didn't even look at the newcomers.
"You're late." The red panda spoke as he watched them when they both got in line. Po was still a bit behind. He was panting heavily.
"I'm sorry Master." Crane said as he bowed to Shifu. Shifu nodded and looked over to the panda, who was folded over, trying his best to get the control of his lungs back.
"I.. I'm s... Sorry.. Master…" Po said as he stood straight up, still exhausted, but at least he had it partly under control. He straightened himself as much as he could and stood between Monkey and Viper. Shifu frowned.
"You must learn to be on time, no matter what. When you get back, your punishment will be to mop the entirety of the Great Hall." Crane started to bow, but Po cut him off quickly.
"Wait.. When we get back? Get back from what?" Po asked, watching his master. Shifu looked to the end of the hall where the door to the basement and dungeon were.
"Zeng! Come out here." He called. The door opened, and out came a goose. He was carrying a scroll in his grip and quickly waddled over to the red panda. Shifu muttered a "thank you" to the goose as he handed over the scroll before walking off again. Shifu opened the scroll and started to read out loud;
" 'Hello. My name is Lee Chan, head of the hidden village between the mountains. We tried our best to conceal ourselves from the outside world, for reasons who are classified, but now a clan of bandits are threatening our village and we can not fight them off by ourselves. Our village is lacking in warriors and the numbers of the bandit clan is too great for us to handle. That is why I am asking the Dragon Warrior as well as the Furious Five to help us with this threat. Our village lies a distance away from the Valley of Peace. The journey ahead will take about a week if traveling at quick pace. Follow the Zhú trail until you come to a large waterfall with a stone shaped like a pig's nose. Go through that waterfall. Do not worry for there will be a cave within it. Then just go with the cave until you come to an opening. There you will find our village. Please come quickly, I fear that we can not hold out for much longer'."
Shifu was quiet for a couple of seconds to let all the information sink in. Then he continued, rolling the piece of paper back to a paper roll.
"Everyone shall start their packing. You will all leave tomorrow morning."
"Yes, Master!" Everyone said in synchronization, and left for the living quarters.
As Po walked toward the living quarters, he heard the other five talk about the journey ahead. Normally he would participate in their conversation, but… He felt too out of it to get into it, so to speak.
"Hey, Po! You have been so quiet, what do you think of this mission?" Monkey asked.
"Oh… Erhm… It will be awesome to do something, but we're still having a break, so it is a little sad that it had to end." Po shared, clearly sounding uninterested in the topic.
"Hey Po… How are you feeling? You're never this… silent." Monkey said, his face coated with expressions and marks of concern. Couldn't everyone just stop mentioning that?
"I have been having some trouble sleeping. Don't worry about it." He said plainly as he walked into his room. Monkey didn't find the answer fulfilling.
"Come on, Po! We are your friends! You should be able to tell us what it is." He said, the other four backing up monkey.
"Guys, I am feeling FINE, alright? Yes I have trouble sleeping and it is making me a little tired! Can you please drop it now?" Po said, clearly annoyed at the anthropoid's questionnaire.
"Okay! Sorry for caring!" Monkey said, leaving the doorway and went toward his own room. The other four went toward their own dorm room as well. Tigress lingered a little longer though, eyeing the panda, but eventually she left as well without uttering a word. Po gave out a small sigh and continued his packing.
Finally done with the packing, Po sat down on his bed. He went through everything he packed one more time;
Extra pants, extra sandals, a blanket and a pillow, leftover dumplings, vegetables(like radishes and potatoes), a water pouch, five extra water pouches and a box of matches.
He had everything packed and ready. Po looked at his pillow. He wanted to rest his head on it so badly, but he knew that those nightmares would just appear. Maybe he could just… stay awake? He'd done it before, so why couldn't he do it again? But what would he do up anyways...
Wake one of the five? No, he couldn't disturb them.. He had to come up with something outside the living quarters, away from his sleeping comrades. He frowned as he opened the thin paper slide door and peeked out. Coast is clear...
Maybe he could sneak over to the peach tree? Spend his night there? No, Tigress would probably see him there. It was her main meditation spot after all… Curse nocturnal felines!
'What about… no… How about… Noooo!' He thought angrily. He couldn't do anything without either notifying one of his sleeping comrades, running into the night active Tigress, being incredibly bored or having to walk away from the Jade Palace.
Po thought of every possible thing he could do but he only found obstacles that would make it impossible for him to do anything without being caught. He made an irritated groan, but as fast as he noticed how loud it sounded, he slapped a hand over his mouth and wished he hadn't ever done so. He heard a something move in the room beside him, but as fast as the sound had appeared, it vanished and the room turned just as silent as it had been before. Po sighed and closed his mouth, making sure to be as quiet as possible. He had to do something, but he had to get some rest before tomorrow too! His mouth turned into a bigger frown as he pondered about what he should do.
'Maybe I should ask someone for help? No, then I'd have to tell them… Maybe… Maybe I need to sleep away from my room? But where...'
Po thought as he went through his options again. Then he came up with his solution.
'The Dragon Grotto!'
He was onto something. The Dragon Grotto wasn't very far away, and he doubted Tigress ever would go there. It was calm, peaceful…
He had to go there. Po stepped outside the room through the still open door and stepped carefully on the floor boards, going along his usual 'Non-creaking' route, but slightly quicker than usual, before hurrying out of the wooden building that housed his fellow teammates. He doubted Tigress was out already. She had to sleep sometime, right? Maybe she caught some hours in the evening. Then again, she was good at stealth so she may have snuck out already.
If that was the case, he had to hurry.
He quickly entered the yard and went outside the gates before taking up a small path just beside them. The path was hard to navigate in the darkness of the night, but he tried his best. After a few trips over roots and squeezes between trees later, he was there.
'The Dragon Grotto...' He thought as he marvelled at the sight. He had been there before, sure, but every time he still could only look in awe at the magnificent cavern. He smiled as he looked along the edges of it. Plenty of soft moss, roof above his head, calm air… It was perfect.
He walked along the edge of the cavern and found a mostly moss covered smooth stone surface. It would have to do. He quickly sat down and felt the moss against his palms. It was soft, slightly damp. But he couldn't care less. He smiled and laid down, placing his paws under his head as he laid on his side and quickly drifted off into the mindless land of dreams and sleep.
-{~^^~}-
Po woke up by a terrible chill running through his spine. It wasn't a normal shiver, this was something else. It felt… out of this world... In weird way. He touched the ground while slowly opening his eyes. He didn't feel any of that soft moss or the smooth stone beneath it. The only thing he felt was hard, cold dirt. He sat up and looked around, seeing nothing but a weak light some distance away. Po narrowed his eyes to try and see what was emitting the light.
"Hello?" The panda called out, but all he heard was his voice's echo. Po stood up and walked towards the light, trying to find any clues as to where he were.
But as he tried to walk closer to the light, it went further away from him. He walked faster but it just made the light go faster as well. Then he stopped. The light was a strong yellow. It hurt to look directly at it. He huffed and braced himself before starting to run towards the odd looking light. But just as he thought he was coming closer, it disappeared. It was now all black around him. Nothing but black for miles on end.
"Wha…" He mouthed. It was a pitch black darkness, yet he could still perfectly see his paws, stomach and… well, everything. Like he was… Illuminated. Po blinked and then started to walk straight ahead towards where the light once had been. After walking for five minutes without anything new happening, he started running. He ran and ran, but quickly noticed something else… He wasn't getting tired. He felt like he could run for miles without panting once. He smiled and sped up. Still nothing. At least he didn't need to worry about being tired. Then the world shook.
"NOT SO FAST!" A deep and loud voice called out. The black around started to shatter like broken glass and fell down. Behind the large chunks of whatever it was that fell down, there was a forest. A red forest.
"Oh not again…" Po exclaimed. He recognized this too well.
"What do you think you are doing?" The voice echoed out as the last shards of blackness fell into the ground and vapourized into a black cloud that quickly rose up to the heavens before disappearing completely.
"Getting out of here!" Po shouted at the entity, wherever it may have been. He turned around several times always expecting the creature to be right behind him.
"That will not be possible. How can you get out of here when you are dreaming? This is your dream, is it not?" the voice called out.
"I know that this is my dream! How can I be fully aware of everything, but not wake up?!" Po shouted, his voice coated with confusion. Po had a lucid dream once before… Or a beginning of it anyways. But he woke up as fast as he realised that he was in a dream. In this dream he had full control over his body and thoughts, but he still couldn't wake up. Last time it took him 3 hours to wake up. And now he has to travel to that village in need, too! He could only imagine how much "fun" this mission would be with only restless or nonexistent sleep.
"Why are you doing this?" Po asked as he looked up and around for the voice, but just as all the other times he had done so, he saw nothing.
"Finally a question worthy of answering! But then again… What is the fun in answering it in a simple way?" The voice spoke ominously. Po narrowed his eyes.
"And what do you mean by that?" He said, simply looking up into the sky. He knew that he wouldn't be able to see this mysterious entity.
"It is simple. I will answer it with a small… riddle. Just like every other bad guy there ever was." The voice chuckled.
'Great...' The panda thought. Just what he needed.
"And here goes… 'The nonexisting sleep makes you weak, just when our paths will meet.. Then your inner lights will go off, and my wrath will become your new path.' "
"What? Where in the universe does that possibly make sense?" Po shouted. He thought this was incredibly stupid. His whole body agreed with him on this. Why make it complicated with a riddle?
"That is all I will say young warrior. Now… have fun making it in time." The voice spoke. Po could hear him smiling as he spoke.
Po was ready to say something, to speak back, when he felt the world shaking beneath his very feet. He ran toward the trees, but when he got close they pushed him back into the same clearing he was trying to run away from. As he touched the ground with his paws, it felt sticky. Like when you had boiled sugar and got it on the paws. Disgusted, he tried to lift them up, but they wouldn't budge. They were stuck. Po was frightened and started to drag and pull as hard as he could, but nothing could make the ground release them. Suddenly, he realised that in his panic, the ground had started swallowing him. He got terrified and started to move around as much as he could. It wasn't to any use as he only sank deeper and deeper into the dirt he stood on. He gave out a last scream before he was completely drowned in the solid ground.
Oooh… Exciting, huh? Well, the real exciting parts has yet to come! Thank you all for your awesome reviews and your amazing support for this story!
/Colan :3
