Inspired by a Kung Fu Panda story on Chinese New Year.
Chapter Six- It's Time
The next morning, Shifu woke up and found himself next to the fire, which had long since been put out. He realized then that he must've cried himself to sleep. He sighed sadly, remembering the day of Mei's death. Shifu still couldn't erase the terrible scene from his memory; seeing Mei's corpse all bloody with a knife in her heart. Shifu shivered, thinking about how he almost met the same fate if Tigress had not come and saved his life. Shifu remembered seeing Destiny do the same thing to Mei that she had done to Tai Lung's parents, and he wondered what Destiny had done when Po performed the Wuxi Finger Hold. Shifu froze in thought.
Was that the reason Tai Lung was here?
Shifu had to shake off the thought when Tai Lung came out. After a quick breakfast, Shifu continued to read.
*****
When I was nineteen, I experienced the best Year of the Dragon of my life.
But it was also the most terrifying.
I wasn't helping to set up the festivities; I was mastering the 998th scroll of kung fu. 998 down, just two more to go. After going thru the technique at least twelve times, I mastered it, and moved on to the second to last scroll. Mei came in then, smiling broadly. I smiled back. Ever since that kiss she had given me just three years before, we've been dating and having a lot of fun. The only problem was Shifu, who pushed us to work hard on our kung fu training. So we only got to have a date every two weeks, on the only days we had some free time. Most of our dates were spent on the roof of the Jade Palace, looking out into the starry night.
"Still studying?" She asked playfully.
"Duh." I said. "I'm so close to done too." The looked at Scroll Number 999 and scoffed. I performed the technique three times before getting it right. I pulled out the final scroll, but Mei stopped me.
"I'm afraid the last scroll will have to wait." She said. "Shifu needs us." I groaned, but set the scroll down and followed Mei to the Training Hall. Shifu and Destiny were waiting for us. Shifu looked troubled.
"Is there a problem?" I asked nervously.
"Well, yes." He said. "Destiny…uh…"
"There's going to be trouble tonight at the celebration." Destiny said. "Every year, evil spirits get a chance to escape and wreak chaos in this world."
"That's why we always put up those little luck charms?" Mei guessed. Destiny nodded.
"Apparently, some evil warrior spirits are going to escape, and they're going to attack the palace." Shifu said.
"This is why we must stop them from coming to this world." Destiny said. I laughed out loud.
"How in Heaven's name do you expect we do that?" I said. "We don't even know where they come out."
"I do." Mei said. We turned to her.
"You do?" Shifu asked.
"Yeah; every Chinese New Year, I see these bad spirits coming out of this cave." Mei said. "I guess it's the exit."
"Do you still remember where it is?" Destiny asked.
"Yeah, it's about a mile from here." Mei said confidently.
"Its official: we set off tonight, at sunset." Destiny confirmed. She left then, talking to Mei. I turned to Shifu.
"But sunset is an hour away." I said.
"We'll just have to use that hour we have to prepare." He told me.
"But what about the Thousand Scrolls?" I protested.
"You can continue studying them tomorrow." Shifu said simply before he left. I realized then that he didn't know I was on the last scroll. I sighed, but joined him, Destiny, and Mei as they walked to the Sacred Hall of Warriors.
"Now, it's not easy to defeat the deceased." Destiny explained to us. "They can easily harm us, but we cannot harm them as easily. So we'll need weapons that can destroy the deceased."
"Such as?" I questioned.
"The only weapon that can truly destroy the spirits is your qi power." Destiny told me. "I can help you unlock it, but it will be very hard to control, considering you haven't done it before." Destiny looked at each of us in turn with a dark look. "There is a fifty percent chance that you could die from too much power." I almost told Destiny that there wasn't a single chance in the world that I was going on with the plan, but before I could, Shifu stepped up to the king cheetah.
"I'll go first." He offered. My eyes widened with shock.
"Are you crazy?" I exclaimed "Did you not hear what Destiny said about dying?"
"If it'll save the Valley of Peace, I'll do it." Shifu said. "It's my responsibility as its guardian." I wanted to protest, but Destiny had already started a chant in a language I didn't recognize.
"Verlos die krag per hierdie gees." She said. After repeating the chant three times, Shifu dropped down to his knees, holding his head. After a minute, Destiny stopped her chant, and Shifu sighed with relief.
"Did it work?" I asked worriedly. Shifu looked at me with a crafty smile, and then pointed his palm towards me. Suddenly, I wasn't touching the ground, and I yelped as I saw a white, mist-like cloud lifting me up. The others laughed for a minute before Shifu set me down.
"That answers your question?" Shifu laughed. Destiny moved on, unleashing the qi power from me and Mei. The pain was excruciating for about thirty seconds. But it felt like thirty years. But I managed to hold it in. Turns out each of our qi powers had a different color. Shifu was white, Mei was green, and Destiny was gold. My qi color scared me a little; it was black.
But I shook it off. With Mei in the lead, we all ran off to face the evil spirits. Mei led us a mile away from the village, deep into the forest. When we stopped, we were outside a cave. But it was so small that you'd have to be the size of a baby badger to fit thru the entrance. We all waited near the entrance as the sun set. When the sun had finally disappeared, the spirits came forth.
The spirits were just regular evil warriors. But they were white and translucent. They still had their weapons with them. Most of the warriors carried broken weapons and shields. Both the weapons and the spirits were covered in ghostly blood.
"Now!" Destiny commanded. We raised our hands and unleashed our qi power to lock the entrance. Destiny told us that all we had to do was focus on locking the gate, and she'd to the rest. Our combined qi color clouds formed a wall at the entrance to the cave.
"Seehond hierdie deur ewig." Destiny spoke in the strange language. The qi clouds formed a solid wall and disappeared. The spirits tried to move thru the gate, but they were unable to.
"Now, they will never bother us again." Shifu said confidently.
"What about them?!" Mei exclaimed, pointing behind us. We all whipped around and saw four evil warrior spirits that got past us. I almost cursed, but I knew Shifu would've slapped me silly. So the four of us ran after the spirits. We managed to get ahead of them and we engaged in a qi battle. Mei fought an alligator, Destiny fought a gorilla, Shifu fought a crocodile, and I fought a komodo dragon.
We were winning, but I could tell that Mei was losing. I was too. The croc was obviously a good fighter, and I couldn't help but wonder how he died. Luckily, Destiny and Shifu had finished off their warriors and helped. Destiny joined me and Shifu helped Mei. Finally, the croc got a good hit to my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. Destiny was hit away from me and into a tree. Shifu was slammed into Mei and they went flying off in one direction. Both the croc and the gator came at me at once. I used my qi power to fight them, but I could feel myself getting weaker. I was using too much of my energy. The two of the spirits felt me weakening, I knew it. They were playing with me; soon, I'd be too weak to fight, and they'd kill me.
Sure enough, I got so weak that I couldn't lay down a punch. I just swung my arm and the gator and croc would step back casually. The croc slammed me against a tree and slammed his hand into a pressure point on my neck. I tried to breathe, but I felt no air going in or out of my lungs. The gator raised his sword up to kill me, and I knew it was the end for me. But I also knew that Destiny would take care of Mei and Shifu.
Then, right before the alligator could lay down his death blow, a large black streak tackled him and sent him hurdling into Destiny, who killed him instantly. Then the black streak came again, slamming the croc spirit to the ground. I could feel myself slipping into unconsciousness. I looked up to see the black streak was a black wolf with a white star on his chest the size of a polar bear. I saw the wolf kill the croc spirit and come toward me. That was all I saw before I passed out.
*****
When I woke up, I couldn't see much. Just a bunch of blurry shapes. I blinked about a million times before I saw Mei standing over me. The Jade Palace doctor, a vixen named Yun, was treating my wound from the pressure point. When Mei saw me awake, she hugged me tightly.
"Oh my gods I was so worried!" she said. "Are you alright?"
"Mei, I'm fine." I grunted. "Really." Mei let go and smiled.
"Well, can you blame me for being scared for you?" she asked. "I mean, I know Destiny said you would live, but I didn't believe her."
"You hardly ever do." Destiny said as she walked in.
"Where's Shifu?" I asked, remembering the lard wolf.
"He's fine, but he'll be asleep for the rest of the night." Destiny said. I sighed with relief.
"Well, I guess you are no longer in need of my service." Yun said. "You'd best be on your way."
"Sure." I said. I hopped out of the bed and ran to the Sacred Hall of Warriors. The thousandth scroll was still there, waiting for me. I looked at it and started to practice.
But the last scroll was hard. I kept doing it over and over again, but I couldn't get it right. But I wouldn't give up. I kept trying. Like Shifu always told me, "Fall down seven times, but then get back up eight times." So I did. I kept going and going for hours. Finally, I got it. I breathed deeply, praising myself for completing all the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu. I was officially the Master of the Thousand Scrolls. I looked outside and saw the moon in the sky with all the stars accompanying it.
I had to tell Shifu.
He had to know.
So I grabbed the last scroll and ran quickly but quietly to his room. I walked in quietly and roused him from his sleep. He looked at me with extremely tired eyes.
"Tai Lung?" he groaned. "Go back to sleep. It's the middle of the night."
"Shifu, I wanted to show you something."
"Can't it wait until tomorrow?"
"No."
Shifu sighed, but sat up and took the scroll from my hands. He opened it and looked at it. Immediately, all his tiredness went away.
"You completed the Thousand Scrolls?" he asked me. I performed the final scroll in front of him. He smiled broadly. I sat back down in front of him.
"Are you proud?" I asked nervously. All of a sudden, I was a little kid in front of his father. Shifu smiled and ruffled the fur on my head.
"Make sure you're presentable tomorrow." He said. "It's time for you to be presented to Master Oogway."
"Will I get the Dragon Scroll?" I asked excitedly.
"We'll have to see about that tomorrow, won't we?" he said. I bowed and walked out of his room. Once outside, I leaped into the air and whooped for joy. In my celebrating on my way to my room, I woke up Mei. She came out of her room, still dressed in a white nightgown kimono.
"Tai Lung?" she yawned. "What is it?" I picked her up and twirled her around, kissing her.
"I'm going to be the Dragon Warrior!" I exclaimed. "I've complete all the scrolls of kung fu!" Once Mei had realized what I was celebrating for, she shrieked and celebrated with me. We kept it up until Destiny told us to go to bed or we'd wake up the entire Valley of Peace.
The next day, I took a bath, got dressed nicely, and Mei and I walked to the Sacred Hall of Warriors. Shifu was waiting for us.
"Mei, I think it would be better if you stayed outside." Shifu suggested. Mei didn't protest.
"Besides, I have to get something from my room." She said, looking at me with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "A little gift." With that, she walked away. Shifu and I walked into the hall, where Oogway was waiting. Shifu stood beside him and I stood in front of him. Oogway raised his hand and closed his eyes. I knew he was studying my qi power. I glanced at Shifu and smiled. Shifu was all smiles back. I looked to Oogway as he stopped.
"Your spirit and qi is strong." He said. "That is one of the requirements to be the Dragon Warrior."
I smiled, knowing I would be the Dragon Warrior and finally get the Dragon Scroll.
"Destiny has gone to your future and saw what you will do as a kung fu warrior." Oogway continued.
I already knew what I would do after I got that scroll. I'd make Shifu proud of me, Mei would be impressed with me, and Destiny will have done her job by finally sealing my fate.
Oogway looked to Shifu. "I'm sorry. But he is not the one."
A/N: You can guess right now that the next chapter is going to be Tai Lung going to Chor Gom Prison. The chapter might be a bit short. Just a warning. Now for the African translations.
Verlos die krag per hierdie gees- Release the strength within this soul.
Seehond hierdie deur ewig- Seal this gate forever
FYI: The black wolf was Shifu in his werewolf form.