Chapter 4

Training

Two Days Until Tournament

ThaiLaan lay on her bed, paws behind her head, eyes lightly closed, as always. Mei, on the other hand, was sitting in a creaky, wooden chair that sat right across from the window that gave view to the whole camp.

Mei Ling looked out, into the dim night, eyes half-open. Her paws were neatly placed on top of her most prized possession at the moment; a hat. But not just any hat at all, it was Crane's hat. The wind slowly blew through their room, from one window to another. It felt nice and cool against her warm, just cleaned fur. As she stroked the hat, she scanned the academy grounds. Only a couple candles were lit in the dark skies, probably from those early-risers such as her. And outside of the tall buildings, there were tall, sloped mountains crowding around the overtaking, breath-takingly colourful trees.

A shivering noise came from her fellow room-mate. She looked back, and saw the snow leopard, crawled up into a ball, with clattering teeth. Getting up, Mei set the hat down, and quickly yet quietly made her way over to her friend. Taking one of the warm, fluffy blankets from her own bed, she walked over to ThaiLaan. Looking over her, she nearly squinted. There was a scar that ran right down the back of her neck, and ended at her shoulder. She tilted her head in concern, but didn't bother to wake her up just to ask about it. She swiftly put the blanket over her tense body, to cure the shivering that finally passed.

The mountain cat examined her friend once more, before slowly getting back to her rightful place at the creaky, wooden chair set right next to the window. Getting there, she picked up the hat, once again. Examined it even closer. Crane... I'll finally get to see you again, just a couple more days, and I can see your face again... She stroked the hat. And return this to you, of course. She lightly smiled, as she leaned back in her chair. Just a couple more days... Closing her eyes, she rested her muscles and mind, and slowly drifted off to sleep once again, with thoughts of meeting her friend, once again, in time.

DOONG!

Both the cats eyes shot open, as they looked around. As if on que, the morning bell rang for them to get up.

ThaiLaan grunted. "Great. Just what I need, is early training..." She got up off the bed, just as Mei Ling began to rub her eyes.

"W...what...?"

"Crane, wake up, we need to go train... Crane... Crane!"

Crane shot his eyes open, and lifted his head, to see his room mate staring at him in the eye. "What is it, Xiang?" He let his right foot down from its resting position, and flapped a couple time to loosen up his body.

"Our master wants us up bright and early today for training. Says he wants us ready for that tournament thing that starts soon." The puma stripped off his clothes, and put on his newly-washed uniform.

"Really? Sounds bad..." Crane replied with an itchy voice, stretching.

"Why?" Xiang turned and asked, scratching his bare abs.

"They're going to work us hard all day! They probably won't give us any breaks at all." Crane changed into his uniform as well.

"Guess so." After putting on his tops, he walked over to the kitchen of their room, and looked at what there was to eat. He then glanced at the crane. "Want somethin to eat?"

"No I'm fine, thanks." Crane walked over to the window, and looked out, finding the sun wasn't even out yet. It wasn't even close to being risen.

"C'mon Crane, you gotta get some muscle into that skinny body of yours..." He chuckled, as he lit a flame with the motions of his fingers.

Crane squinted, and flashed his wing towards his room mate, as the wind quickly blew out the candle he just made. "I'm the only bird in this camp, so don't give me a hard time." He said in a likely, glad manner, as he headed out to stretch.

"So he walked out on you, just like that?" Mei Ling raised an eye-brow.

"Yeeah. But it was much more dramatic than that." She said in a light tone, not bothering to smile. She took another bite of her flat bread. "And you? Any hidden love stories you'd like to tell?" She smiled.

Mei looked away, and looked up, as if not to even think about telling her anything. "I uh... well I don't know."

ThaiLaan lowered her bread from her mouth. "What do you mean, you don't know."

"I mean, I don't know." She looked back at the snow leopard. "I've been close to a couple friends, and at times I think about my relationship with them, but..."

"But..." ThaiLaan leaned in closer. "...what?"

Mei shook her head. "It's nothing, really-"

"No no, please tell. I'd love to hear."

"Well..." She hesitated her words. "There's this guy I met, back when our academies were together, and he was really nice."

"What was his name?" ThaiLaan peeked.

The mountain cat looked at her. "Crane. He was my best friend. We've always had the right things to say to each other," She chuckled. "I remember the first time we met..." She began to move her eyes off into the distance.

"Hello." I said nicely to the bird who lived right next to me, as he almost closed his door. "What's your name?" I said smiling, as I leaned against the door frame to my dorm, crossing my arms.

The bird looked up at me, as he flapped his wings a little to keep himself steady. "Crane," He almost seemed to study me over. "And your's?"

"...and...?" ThaiLaan spoke.

Mei blinked, and looked back at her. "And... he was, just a good friend of mine. That's all."

A pause swept over them.

"That's it?" ThaiLaan asked questionably. "There's no break up, no... no hook up, no separation, no nothing?"

"Why would it matter?"

"Well, if it's that unimportant, then why would you even bring it up?"

"Well, you wanted me to bring it up." The cat chuckled.

"Ah, I forgot. Well, go on, there has to be more, since it's that unimportant." She urged.

Mei blinked. "Well," She sighed, and began to think back again... "He was the closest guy-"

"Guy?"

"Yes, guy that I've ever met..."

"May I come in?"

He thought for a second, then looked inside of his separate dorm room. "I would rather you not..."

"Oh, alright, well I'll just..." I slowly turned and began to walk back into my dorm. He just seemed to stand there, staring at me in confusion. Or, was it?

"Mei Ling." He softly asked.

I turned around, to see him half smiling, in his own politeness.

"You can come in for a little while, if you want..." He seemed to look around, as I gladly stepped in.

"Ooohohoho, so you're that kind of animal, are you..." ThaiLaan winked.

Mei poked her ears up in reply. "What? No! We were only teens, I didn't know anything about that, then..." She looked at her room mate. "I was just coming in because there was nothing else to do, anyways."

"Mei, you do know that you're still a teenager." The snow leopard spoke.

"I'm almost twenty, thank you very much."

ThaiLaan just grinned. "Mmhmm. Go on."

Mei Ling rolled her eyes, and began once again.

I looked around, finding his room was completely spotless and tidy. "I see your room is completely spotless and tidy," I looked back at him. "I'm guessing you like to clean?"

"Me? Oh yes! I do like to clean, but... but not here. I- I mean I do clean, but out there, not, really..." He chuckled, as he stuttered his words. "I got hired for cleaning here, and I-I'm just new. This, is kinda my first time staying here."

"Really? So you're saying you're not training with us?" I asked, just to be sure.

He nodded willingly. "Just the janitor." He chuckled lightly, in a sweet manner.

"Mei, you do know that this guy's a crane. Mountain cats like you shouldn't like cranes. And he's a janitor!"

Mei Ling snickered. "I don't like him that much. And besides, who are you to judge the animals I may consider loving?"

ThaiLaan blinked. "Was that a question?"

"And I walked out on her, just like that." The puma stretched his hamstrings.

"Seems harsh." Crane stood up, after stretching his lower legs.

"Yeah well it's just something you have to do. You don't love 'em, you ditch 'em." Xiang cracked his neck with the simple tilt of the head. "Have you ever broken up with somebody before, Crane?"

Crane thought back, and shook his head. "No, not really."

The puma seemed to stare at him. "You're saying the girl made the move?"

"No, I'm saying I've never had a girlfriend, is all."

Xiang's mouth hung open. "You're.. you're kidding me, right? You're a what... twenty-four-"

"Eighteen."

"Eighteen year old bird, and, and you haven't had a female? Ever?"

"Never ever." Crane closed his eyes, while shaking his head. A thought then slapped him in the face. He opened his eyes, and quickly looked away. "Well actually, there, was this one time..."

"Tell me, man." Xiang interrupted, as he leaned against a wooden pole. "I got time."

"Oh, really?" ThaiLaan squinted. "So you're saying he got that close, but then just pulled away? What kind of guy is this?"

"The protective kind." Mei smiled. "It was our first time meeting, Thai-"

"It's ThaiLaan."

"Right. But he didn't get any closer because he barely knew me."

ThaiLaan sat there, looking over her room-mate.

A silence passed over them, as they looked at each other.

"I say you should have kissed him-"

"I know, right?" Mei shot back, smiling.

It was after I had finished the course, she wanted to see me, that one last time...

"Crane..." A voice called for me. I turned around, to see Mei Ling slowly making her way towards me.

I forced a smile, already knowing that I would be gone by the next day. "Hi, Mei-" She wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug.

"I'm really going to miss you, Crane..." I could feel a tear touch my shoulder. She was crying. She was... crying!

I wrapped my arms back around her. "I'll miss you too, Mei...-"

"So this is like a break-up, then?" Xiang raised an eyebrow.

Crane picked up his head. "What? No, we weren't even like that!"

"Then why'd she hug you?"

"It was just a goodbye hug, that's all." Crane frowned.

"Mmhmm." Xiang leaned back onto the pole. "Go on."

"No, I can't go on." Crane said hesitantly.

"Why, 'kuz you don't wanna talk about your love life?"

"No it's not that," He half-chuckled. "It's because our master's beckoning us to get a move on." He pointed to their trainer with his eyes, as Xiang turned around, to see an angry Rhino master, arms crossed, foot tapping.

"To the work room, you two. Extra push-ups for being late!" He yelled, as he walked away.

Xiang rolled his eyes over to Crane. "Thanks for getting us in trouble, Crane." He brushed past his room-mate.

"Hey it wasn't my fault!" He turned around, to find his friend walking off. "Xiang!" He flew off.

Mei Ling and ThaiLaan began to walk outside, for their daily run. As ThaiLaan quickly put up her hair, Mei Ling looked out into the mountain-scape. Squinting at the sun, which was now just rising up from the mountains, she sighed. The mountains reached tall and mighty, and their white heads represented that fall had not ended, yet. The trees all around were still filled with colour; brown, red, even yellow, from the Aspen trees. This was the time of the year that everything was just beautiful the way it was. It wasn't too worked on, yet it wasn't too natural. It was just.. right...

I sat upon my window seal, leaning against a wall right next to it, as I stared at him. He was simply doing his work, as usual; mopping the floors, sweeping the teeth, and raking the leaves. He seemed to pick the perfect spot to rake the leaves, too, considering it was the most beautiful. Two colourful, proud and majestic aspen trees stood tall amoungst a beautifully calm lake in the distance. And below those trees, I would always sit at night, just to think about my day, and many other things that was going on in my life...

Once finishing every job, Crane went back to raking even more leaves, around another dorm.

I breathed in softly, as the settle wind brushed my fur back. I raised my shoulders in delight, as the cool breeze touched my body. My dimly striped fur brushed back ever so calmly, as I waved my furry tail in pleasure. I slowly opened my eyes, and blinked a few times, before looking back at that janitor.

He was staring back at me, as if stunned in amazement. I guess he quickly found out what he was doing, considering his blushing and raising of the eyebrows, because he turned around, as if to show he wasn't looking at me. He picked up his dropped rake, and once bending over, he fell. Into the leaves he raked up.

I giggled a little, and looked away, as he quickly skittered himself out of the big pile of colourful leaves-

"Mei...?" A voice poked. The mountain cat blinked, and turned around, to see ThaiLaan's snow-white hair up and ready. "You coming?"

"Uh- yeah, yeah, I'm coming." She began to walk towards her, and start to jog with her as well, all the while looking back at the two golden-lit aspen trees amoungst the majestic, emerald lake behind them.

ThaiLaan chuckled. "Ready for a long day of training?"

Mei hesitated. "Not really." She replied, half-smiling.

And there, she ran, away from the place she first came from, away from the confusion, away from the agony and pain of the truth. With tears in her eyes, she sobbed, all the while stumbling in the dim of the morning.

The skies were cloudy, and the ground was moist from the dew of the night. A little path was cleared in the grass, where the little snake sat, settled next to a tree; her only safe place. She couldn't stop the tears from spilling out of her blood-shot eyes. She couldn't stop the thoughts of what may become of her and her now widowed mother. She couldn't stop...

The girl blinked, and turned around. And there, he sat, looking at her with his pitiful and care-filled eyes.

"What do you want-" She hiccuped her words.

He just walked up to her, hands behind his back, eyes locked. His gaze seemed to strike her, but she didn't want to look into his eyes any longer; she just wanted to be left alone. "You knew this day would come."

She quickly closed her eyes in response, and looked down. "I know,... but why now? Why not tomorrow, or... the day after?" She began to cry in her own agony, once again.

He took hold of her, and pulled her into a light hug. "That is what you would have said yesterday, or the day before." He held her close to comfort her, as he closed his eyes as well.

"I just don't want him to leave me... I wanted to confess so much to him..." She painfully whispered, as her fang-less mouth shivered.

He hugged her tighter. "I know, I know... your father was a great master, and stood tall and close to me, but I need you to stay calm, I need you to stay with me... this day will pass as a vile memory, and that is all." He answered with a steady and whispering voice.

Viper smiled through her flowing tears. "You sound just like him, Shifu..."

A.N. So basically you get it, they TRAIN the whole day. Sorry I took so long to update, I've just so much on my hands right now. Well, keep reading, and this story will soon tie into some other stories that I will soon announce... And don't worry, I'll try not to take so long, updating chapter 5 and such.

-Skyy.