Disclaimer: I do not own Kung Fu Panda
As the Sun began to rise, its rays illuminated the earth, showing off its vibrant colors. It breathed life into the grass, serenading each blade with its warmth. This ephemeral sight enthralled many, and would caress the eyelids of beings still abysmal in slumber, certainly a pulchritudinous scene to behold, if one was fortunate enough to see it.
The sleeping warriors were greeted by the embrace of the Sun's warmth, a pleasant way to 'wake on a day such as this. The Sun set a lovely melody for the ardent warriors, but its masquerade fooled them also, for later that day, what was a lovely greeting, would later be a tortuous attack on their bodies.
As the warriors awoke, they were pleasantly surprised to see that the weather had cooperated with them and had even thrown in a zephyr.
Po sat up to stretched, then stood up and looked out his window, he stood there for some time, absorbing the warmth of the sun's rays with a small smile on his face and eyes closed. He inhaled deeply, receiving the wonderful fragrance that was only there on perfect summer days. Po then exhaled and quietly but enthusiastically said, "Alright, let's get this journey started." Although Po was upset about recent events, he could not help but be excited about the journey for he was Po and therefore, was a fanatic of kung fu.
Before he left his room, Po stopped himself and said, "Oh, almost forgot my hourglass." As he grabbed it, it brought to him, nostalgia. He vividly remembered when he had obtained it, all the warriors had returned back from a mission in Piaosa village, and it was Po's birthday. Tigress pulled him aside when they returned to the palace and with a happy smile, said, "Here, Po, this is for you, happy birthday." The hourglass is Po's most cherished item, although, he was not sure what made her decide to get him an hourglass, but nevertheless, it was a gift, and the nicest thing anyone has ever done for him. With a euphoric smile on his face, he put the hourglass into his travel pack and left his room to meet his fellow warriors.
All the warriors met outside their rooms, Tigress went over how they were going to travel. "Alright, first, we will travel south, out of the Valley of Peace, then we should arrive at Zhou River, from there we will be able to follow it, northeast until we reach the frozen mountains, which we will have to climb over. After we get over the mountains we will have to keep heading northeast, but without the river as a guide because it ends in the mountains. If we are heading in the right direction, then we should make it to the forest of the lost souls, though it is too dangerous to cross through so we must go around!" Tigress glanced up and noticed that Po was completely oblivious to their discussion, " Po! Focus!" she shouted.
This caught Po off-guard, "Sorry, sorry." he responded.
Tigress then continued her plan, "Okay, now this forest is about half-way to our destination, unfortunately, I do not know what exactly lies beyond that forest so we will just have to head northeast and hope that there will be no obstacles in our way, any questions?" Everyone exchanged looks briefly, and then shook their heads. Tigress then said, "alright then, let's go." And with that, they began their journey.
When the warriors had reached the valley, the Furious Five stopped, expecting Po to stop and bid his father a farewell. Much to their dismay, Po walked right past his father's shop. The confused warriors exchanged looks and then Monkey decided to speak up, "uh, Po, aren't you gonna say goodbye to your father?"
Po nonchalantly replied, "Already did."
The rest of the warriors shrugged it off and regained their focus on the quest they were on - except for Monkey.
The primate could see right through the panda's deceit for he knew him the best, the only person who knew him better than he did was Po's father. The primate decided that he was going to have some fun and chose to play devil's advocate instead of confronting him, He then asked Po, "Really, when?"
At that, Po became trepidatious and quickly said, "Uh, last night."
"Really, why last night and not this morning?" Monkey questioned.
"Well, I just felt like doing it last night."
Monkey decided to quit beating around the bush and started being his friend, "Po, if something is wrong you can tell me, I only want to help."
"Thanks Monkey, but there is nothing wrong."
Monkey was still unsure but decided against any further questioning.
Once the warriors reached the outskirts of the Valley, Po turned to Tigress, "Okay, where do we go now?"
"Now, we continue to head south until we reach the Zhou River. It shouldn't be much further," Tigress said.
Not long after her comment, the warriors arrived at the river. The river was gargantuan, the largest river any of the warriors had ever seen. The estuary raged with such a mighty sound that common communication became a struggle.
Enthralled by the river, Po took a step closer and lost his footing. With a scream, the terrified panda began to fall.
"Po!" Tigress yelled and then rushed to his aid. She grabbed him by the shoulders and hoisted him back up onto solid land. "Po! You need to pay attention, you almost got yourself killed!"
Po did not respond; he was still too frightened by his near-death experience.
After realizing how terrified the panda looked Tigress calmed down, "Are you all right Po?"
The out-of-breath panda responded by saying, "Yeah, I'm fine now."
"Good." the feline then helped him to his feet. "We need to keep moving if we want to make it to Zhending on schedule."
The warriors nodded their heads and followed their beloved leader.
As the warriors continued their journey Monkey walked over to Po, patted him on the back and in a joking tone, said, "Po, how could you be that oblivious to your surroundings?"
"I don't know, but I'm gonna be focused from now on!"
"Good to know. Wouldn't want to see you die!" The primate said.
"Yeah I wouldn't want to die either!" Po responded.
Monkey then changed the subject, "Hey, Po, let's play a game."
Po, who struggled to hear his simian friend, responded, "What about Crane?"
The primate then shouted, to get his voice to overpower that of the river, "No, let's play a game!"
"Oh okay, yeah wha-"
"Stop!" The frustrated feline snapped, "It's hard enough to concentrate with the sound of the river, let alone you two shouting! We also don't want to give our position away to any assailants! From now on, only shout if it's an emergency, got it?"
Everyone shook their heads in confirmation then continued onward towards their destination.
After around an hour of reticent hiking, Po's stomach growled, "Is it almost time to eat lunch?!" he asked.
Tigress mentally face-palmed, then said, "Po, what part of, 'only shout if it's an emergency' do you not understand?"
Po quickly defended himself by saying, "This is an emergency! I'm withering away to nothing here!"
Tigress gave an annoyed, "Ugh" then said to the panda, "We can eat after another hour of traveling."
"Ugh, really, that's like forever!"
"Yes, Po, we have to cover a certain amount of ground every day if we want to arrive at the city on schedule." Tigress said in an informative tone.
Po shrugged, and then said, "All right." Po, then felt an awkward feeling in the side of his pants. He looked down and saw a scroll, 'That's right!' he mentally exclaimed as he pulled it out, 'Shifu wanted me to read this.' He opened it,
Lessons regarding inner peace
Lesson 1: Prolongation
In order to maintain this sacred art for longer intervals you must first focus solely on breathing. By doing so, you will become engrossed in the cadence of the breaths. This technique will open new paths for students who have achieved inner peace. It will allow for a student to be in inner peace mode for hours, but this technique exhausts chi if used too long.
Po let out a sigh of annoyance and mumbled, "Haven't I already learned this? Whatever, I will just come back to it later." This went unheard by the other warriors due to the river.
After an hour had passed, Tigress stopped, "All right, we can stop to eat now!" Despite the sound of the river, all the warriors heard her and agreed. "We can travel far enough inland to escape the noise of the river, but shall take no longer than ten minutes to eat lunch, Understood?!
The warriors all nodded in agreement, and then went inland. All the warriors had packed themselves something to eat. Everything packed was meant to be a quick snack. Po packed a few peaches, Mantis and Monkey both packed pears, Viper, an apple, Crane, berries, and Tigress, tofu.
Once the warriors had finished their meals, a satisfied Po said, "That was excellent, I'm stuffed."
Tigress gazed up at the sun, "We've wasted enough time." Without another word she gracefully rose to her feet and began to walk away.
The warriors didn't hesitate to follow her and resumed their journey.
After hours of traveling, Tigress glanced up into the sky and noticed that the Sun was dancing on the horizon. She then decided that it was time to set up a place to sleep. She stopped the group, "It's time to get a location set up for sleeping! We will travel inland to escape the clamor or the river!"
"Awesome, Monkey and I will go search for fire wood!"
Tigress responded to Po by saying, "All right, don't take too long though!"
"Don't worry; we'll be back before you can say dumplings." Po said enthusiastically, and then took off with the primate.
The two warriors ran into the bamboo forest and started gathering up the supplies for the fire. Once they had entered the woodland, Po turned to Monkey, abundant with confidence, and said, "Monkey, you can carry the bamboo, I'll do the breaking."
Monkey chuckled and said, "Okay."
The panda then walked over to a bamboo tree and grabbed it with much force, and then began to bend it, in an effort to break it. After a few failed attempts Po gave up and in an annoyed tone, said, "This tree has something wrong with it, let me try another one." Po then attempted to break another tree, but failed yet again.
While Po was shouting in frustration as he was bending the tree, Monkey walked up to him, laughing, and said, "You're doing it wrong."
The prideful panda then said, "Oh really, how do you do it then?"
Monkey then walked over to a bamboo tree and bent it back and forward repeatedly until it broke. Once he did that he said to the panda, "See, Po, that's how you do it, you need to bend it both ways repeatedly."
The panda then tried Monkey's technique and when he found out that it was successful he became embarrassed and said, "Whatever, my technique would have worked, it just needed time."
Monkey then responded sarcastically, "Sure it would've."
"It would've!" Po snapped, "You just didn't give me enough time."
Monkey, whom knew that he was victorious, decided not to comment any further, but said, "I think we have enough wood, here, let's go back to the group and start the fire."
"Sounds good," Po answered and the followed his simian friend back to his group.
Back in the Valley of Peace, in a certain noodle shop, a depressed elderly goose cooked noodles with a face that showed a lack of sleep. Mr. Ping couldn't get the thought of his only son being in the line of danger and regretting his last words to him. Oh, Po, why did you have to go, why did I have to be such a bad father and not even say go bye to you? through his frantic thoughts, Mr. Ping failed to notice that he was burning his noodles. After must frustration, Mr. Ping made a decision, "That's it, I can't do this now, I have to take the rest of the day off." As much as it pained him to do it, he closed the shop and retired to his quarters for much need rest.
Once they had returned, Po burst out saying, "We got the firewood!" which earned surprised and annoyed looks from his fellow warriors, but before anyone could say anything, Po had already put the bamboo in a pile and was trying to start a fire.
Monkey then walked over to the rushing panda and said, "Uh, Po, you couldn't even break bamboo, how do you expect to start a fire?"
An insulted panda then retorted, "Hey, I know how to start a fire."
Before Monkey could respond, Tigress spoke for him saying, "Monkey is right, you should let one of us do it."
Po knew he couldn't argue with Tigress, so he gave up, and in a defeated manner, yelled, "Alright, you win! if you want me to leave then I will!" and ran into the forest by himself.
Tigress then became confused and concerned and was about to run off to catch him, until Monkey stopped her, "I'll go talk to him," he said and ran into the forest after the panda.
Po felt relieved to have finally released all of the emotions that he had bottled up since he had last talked with his father. Po did feel bad for Tigress and Monkey, he wasn't mad at them and knew that they didn't deserve to be treated that way. He then told himself that he would apologize to them later. He then heard footsteps.
As Monkey was running, he was listening carefully for any sign of the panda, and after a while of doing so he started to hear heavy footsteps that he could tell, belonged to the panda; he then called out, "Po!"
"Not now Monkey, I just need to be alone!" Po said.
Monkey then walked over to his panda friend. "Po, you've been acting weird all day, what's wrong?" The primate said.
"You wouldn't understand, no one would," the panda said forlornly.
"C'mon Po, you can tell me, we're buds!" Monkey said in a cheerful way.
Po then said in a compassionate voice, "Monkey, I wish I could, but this time, the best thing for me is to keep it to myself."
"Are you sure?" Monkey asked in a concerned tone.
"Yes," Po responded firmly.
"Alright then, but I want you to know that none of us are trying to make you feel bad, so come back, and we can eat dinner." Monkey said.
With the mentioning of dinner, Po quickly became cheerful, once again and said, "Dinner does sound good."
Monkey then became cheerful as well, knowing that he helped elate his friend. With a smile on his features, he said, "Yeah, let's go eat dinner."
With that, the two warriors journeyed back to their camp site.
Once they arrived at their destination, Monkey announced, "Po is back!"
Everyone collectedly cheered, "Yeah!"
Tigress then approached the panda and put a hand on his shoulder, saying in a friendly tone, "Are you feeling better now, Po?"
"Yup," Po said in his usual demeanor.
Tigress then commented, "Good to know, Dragon Warrior."
Po then announced to everyone, "Alright, I'm going to start cooking dinner," and after a cumulative, "OK," he pulled out the noodles he had packed and began to cook them.
After some time, Po had finished his cooking and said, "Dinner is ready, who's eating?" From his question, he received four responses, one from Crane, Viper, Monkey and Mantis, but none from Tigress. Po decided to ask her if she wanted some of his famous noodles, "Tigress, you want some?"
"No thanks, Po, I have my own meal." Tigress said.
Po then said internally, Darn it, and served the other four hungry warriors.
After the warriors had finished eating, Po asked the group, "So, anybody know anything about this place we're going to?"
"I do," Tigress said.
"Cool, tell me!" Po said enthusiastically.
Tigress then told the story of Zhending. "Once, long ago, before the system of an emperor, in the Zhou dynasty, there was a soothsayer, who foretold that "In many generations to come, there will be born a man, whom will lose everything because of corruption. This man, a descendant of yours (Ji family), will cause the downfall of China." The Ji family denounced the visions given to them, and sentenced the soothsayer to execution for his prediction. The vision that the soothsayer had did partly come true, many generations later, a descendant of the Ji family, a man named Chang became the ruler of the city, Zhending, and became corrupt over power and wealth, so much so, that he paid no attention to his family, which was composed of, two sons and a daughter. The eldest was around twenty years old, the second son was about ten years old and the daughter, who was around four or five years old. The older of the two sons despised the father, and plotted to assassinate him. His plans were successful, and because of them he was killed on the spot by his father's guards. The assassination triggered a chain reaction within the family, the son that was still alive, fled the city in shame and never returned, and the daughter grew up to rule the city, which she does to this very day."
"Whoa!" Po said, "Is that all you know?"
Tigress then responded by saying, "Well, I know that the daughters name is Zhou, and she is loved by the people in that city."
"Interesting, maybe we'll get to meet her." Po said with a glitter of hope.
Tigress then responded by saying, "We should, she will most likely be the one to inform us of our task. If we do meet her, you will not question her about anything personal, understand?!
"Yeah, yeah, I got it," Po said.
"Alright, I think we should be going to sleep now, we have a long day of traveling ahead of us," Tigress said in an informative tone, and on that note, everyone agreed and went to sleep.
A/N:That's the fourth chapter, hope you enjoyed it! The next one should be up in a week.