My dear readers, my absence is not without reason. I have had trouble with this chapter and worry not that this is the end this is only the beginning…

Chapter 6

While they were cleaning up the Training Hall, or at least what had remained, Natani could see Crane stealing glances over at Mei Ling while she was bending over. Natani concluded that even though Crane had deep feelings for the mountain cat he couldn't bring himself to make the first move. Poor Crane…he must have truly deep feelings for her…Hhhmmm…might have to change that. "Crane, can you please help me left this wooden beam, this is one of the last big debris that is left." Crane straightens up and nodded his head while making his way over towards the snow leopard.

What Crane hadn't noticed that there was another beam but smaller just above him, if they were to left the bigger beam underneath the top beam would collapse on who ever was below it. As soon as Crane began to left his end of the beam the one on top began to tip and slid down heading for Crane, Mei Ling saw this and reacted on instinct as she jumped and pushed him out of the way. To be honest Natani would never endanger his family he could have easily sliced the beam with his sword if Mei didn't react but he wanted the cat to jump, or in this case pounced on the avian. After Mei Ling had pushed Crane out of the way they landed in a rather compromising position with Mei Ling siting on top of Crane. Both blushed like mad with a face of shock but it soon turned to a face of rage as they turned their attention to Natani. "Great no I got to run some more…can I have a head start?" Mei Ling looked at Crane, "Three minutes," she answered. Natani was shocked, "Really?" he asked with hope "Seconds, minutes, it's so hard to tell," Crane replied.

Back in the Kitchen

Tigress was enjoying her cup of tea when a screaming snow leopard followed by an enraged avian and feline chased after him. A moment later the mountain cat was dragging a tied up leopard being dragged on the ground as Crane followed behind pecking at the leopards head. Tigress gave another glance before returning to her tea. What a nice evening this is…

What remains of the Training Hall

"Alright Crane what shall we do with him?" Mei Ling ask the bird as the stepped on the leopard again, Natani remain emotionless with a blank face. "We can make him finish the rest of the clean up, then he can serve us until we deem it's no longer necessary." Mei Ling nodded and pulled the leopard to his feet by his vest's collar, "Listen you, you every try to put MY Crane in danger again and I can promise you that you will never see the light of day…GOT IT!" Natani stared back into the eyes of the mountain cat and for an instant his blue eye glowed again and Mei dropped him and visibly backed a step. "Okay, I'm sorry. But I cannot serve you…I will how ever clean up the rest of the hall. Please allow me a second." Crane and Mei Ling watch in amazement at the leopard stood up and broke his bindings and took a lotus position in the center of the hall.

"If I were you, I would stand no more than two feet close to me, the closer you are the better, trust me…" Crane and Mei were hesitant but they did so. As they neared the leopard they could see his black chi begin to manifest around his body. After another couple of seconds he stood up and tense for a punch. Mei Ling and Crane had thought he was going to attack but to their surprise he punched the ground and a black wave of chi exploded and as the wave continued and as soon as the wave settled everything was leveled. The two were amazed at the leopard's ability. "Wait…if you could have done that form the start they why didn't you?" demanded Crane, Mei Ling was still shocked to see that Natani's right blue eye was still glowing.

"Silence you…you will not... I mean that I don't like to demonstrate my ability that much." Natani was clearing struggling with within or something. "Sorry, we didn't mean for you to do that." Mei apologized as she bow her head in shame. "Don't worry about it but I need to talk to Master Shifu now, if you guys are serious about going after my brother than you will need preparations." Crane nodded and began to lead Natani towards their master. Mei Ling remained where she was her thought played the imaged of the leopards glowing blue eye. Those eyes, they are so cold, just like Sǐwáng's but something else about them. Like a longing…shaking her mind clear she followed after the others to see what Natani wanted to talk to Shifu about.

Hall of Heroes

"I cannot grant such a ridiculous request, the sparing I don't mind but this…this is just…insane!" Mei Ling walked into the hall to find the rest of the five starring daggers at the Leopard and Shifu was yelling at him. "Please try to understand that in order for you to battle my brother you must be well equipped, normal weapons will not harm to even touch him." Natani was trying to hold his anger but the master before him seemed set. "We can defeat him without weapons, we will not draw blood just to defeat someone that does the same." Master Shifu had regained his calmness and was now trying to reason with Natani.

"Master I ask not to spill innocent blood but only a little of ours," Master Shifu was now confused and so were the five. "Please explain," Master Shifu was hesitant to hear anything that had to do with spilling blood but Natani has so far proven to be a person of some trust. "My sword as you have witnessed is…unique…but that is only because it was made for and by me, I spilled MY blood for it. And your students need the same if they are to even fight my brother. I'm not asking for much maybe a small cups worth maybe even less for some others," he gestured towards mantis. Mantis could only twitch his antennas in annoyance.

"And how do you suppose we do that," at this Natani visibly shook and he begin to sweat, "We got to go meet my master," Shifu took note of this and nodded, "As long as it will not bring harm to my student or no one else and if it will help us fight Sǐwáng then I guess it's a necessary step." Natani nodded and informed everyone that the journey to his Master would take a while and that they will need to be well prepared for the cold that they will face. It was odd to say the least, Natani would think that a journey to the cold mountains to meet someone that they never even meet before to train against someone that could have killed them if he wanted to, but here they were acting as though it was going to be like a vacation. It would be hilarious if it weren't.

Everyone was getting their cloths and making sure to pack enough to make it their warm but not so that it slows their travel. Natani was still new to the palace so he didn't have much cloths to his name anyways so he was going as he was, Natani was meditation by the peach tree, breathing in the sweet scent as he tried to clear his mind but he could only think about his confrontation with his master, it sent shivers down his spine. "You know if your cold it would be best to go inside," Natani opened his eyes to see Master Shifu standing next to him. Sigh, "I must say I'm rather nervous about this, Master is…a rather odd person…though I swear that he is good at heart no matter what he does." Shifu nodded his head in understanding. "Anyway I came to give you this," Shifu handed Natani a small travel bag, "consider it a gift from everyone. Since you are now staying at the Jade Palace you will need it. Also everyone is ready and awaits us at the stairs."

Natani looked down at the bag then up again to thank Shifu but he was gone, with a smile Natani opened the bag to see what's inside. He was touched beyond words inside the pack were there sets of cloths one was similar to the one he wore now another was a winter version of his clothing and the last was a nice set of dress clothing's. "Wow, I had better put the nice set back in my room, not going to need it." Natani rushed back to the barracks and his guest room to drop off the set and hurried back to the stair to meet up with the others.

Thousand Steps

"Natani, glad you made it, did you like our gifts?" questioned Viper. Natani nodded his head with a smile, "Alright lets get moving we need to head North towards the mountains, it should only take us about three days to reach and maybe less if we can run for some parts." Everyone nodded and followed the leopard as they all descend down the thousand steps. After a brisk walk down the steps Po was panting but insisted that he was able to say good by to his father, tigress wanted to tag along while the others just went to the market to gather their food supplies.

Ping's Noodle Restaurant

It was not really busy like it normally was; there were only three customers. "Po! How is my son doing?" Mr. Ping came rushing towards his son and hugged him Tigress could only smile at the father son relationship. "So, Po had you asked her yet?" This instantly caught Tigress attention as Mr. Ping was talking about a woman with Po. Po was now blushing like a tomato and hurriedly pushed his father into the back kitchen. Tigress was extremely curious as to whom they were talking about, truth is told. Tigress liked Po more than a friend, more than a best friend even. But she always held herself back. Po would not fall for me, not after the way I had treated him after all this time. Tigress bowed her head thinking back to the times she had mistreated Po, until pars of Po's and his father's conversation escaped from the kitchen.

"Dad, she would not go for it," "Them talk to her, you like don't you?" Mr. Ping questioned his son. "No…I love her but think about it I'm a panda dad, a PANDA!" hearing that last sentence almost made Tigress cried, to her that Po, her panda, had feelings for someone else. But she was going to respect who ever Po chooses after all who would choose a monster like her. "Po, I know it's hard to admit to the one's you love. But you will never know until you try. What's worst then getting turned down it never knowing?" Mr. Ping tried to comfort his son. "Fine I guess I can try to tell her, maybe after this trip when things are less tense." Tigress could feel anger, sadness, and hope all well up inside her. Could she be the one? No, she was always mean to him, but how come he like her for her. Because you're a monster that's why… all these questions boiled in her mind until a paw landed on her shoulder.

"Tigress are you alright, you seem…tense?" Po stared into Tigress eyes. Calm jade meet raging ember, opposites that both brought out the good and bad side of them both. With a smile Tigress nodded her head, being glad that she had orange fur to hide her extreme blush underneath.

"There you guys are, your still at Mr. Ping's? Come on we got to get moving!" Tigress and Po turned to find Mei Ling next to Crane as they waited for them to follow. With a nod they both rushed out and headed for the village gates.

Village Gates with the others

"What took so long… never mind we have to get moving, it's already late noon so we lost about half a days worth of travel, we shall travel to as deep as we can into the bamboo forest and make camp there." Commanded Shifu everyone agreed and began to travel deep into the forest.

They had been travelling until the sun was nearing the horizon. Shifu gave to order to begin making camp. "Guess I will start gathering fire wood. Po can you help me?" Questioned Monkey as he stood up. "Yeah, can't make my noodle soup without fire." Po got up and went after monkey. "I'm going to scan the area to make sure there is nothing suspicious around here." Crane flew off to began to scan the sky and below. "I'm going to look around on the ground, Crane and see from above but there are some places he can't see because of the bamboos coverage Mei Ling sprinted and began her quest.

"Guess that's leaves me with Viper and Mantis to set tents and camp." Tigress got up and began to go through the bags that held their belongings.

Monkey was joking around with Po, but noticed that Po was not paying any attention. "Po…Po!...PO!" "Wha' what's up?" Po asked Monkey as he saw a log and picked it up. "Hey, what's wrong since we left the valley you seem off, like you not here?" Monkey was sincerely worried for his friend. "It's just…I having trouble with someone right now…" Po trailed off on that last part but fortunately Monkey was close enough to hear.

"What's wrong, you can tell me…Did Tigress said something mean to you again." Monkey asked as his anger begin to grow. "No...Nothing like that but it does involve Tigress," Monkey waited for Po to go on but when he didn't Monkey had to dig deeper.

"So, what's up with you and Tigress then," with this said Monkey could see Po blush furiously and he pieced it all together. "Ooohhhhh…well, I can honestly say that Tigress is complicated and I have some dealings with women. All I can say is let if flow, you cannot stop a river just like you cannot make it flow faster." Po was shock to hear such wise words from Monkey. "Wow, that was very wise. You should keep things like that in a book." Monkey laughed a little before he produced a small book. They both laughed and the mood seems to rise for them both. That is until they heard a roar coming from their camp. Fearing the worst they rushed back to see what has happened.

Once again I have left a gift for you, but worry not this is only the beginning things are going to start happening much quicker.

Tell me how I did, I know that some scene were really short but I felt as though you reader should know what's going on now to understand what's going to happen later. Also that part with my OC clearing the training was a bit much but I had to find a way to make Mei Ling fear and suspect him of something. That is all I can reveal.

RATE AND REVIEW it helps a lot to know what my readers think so I can either pump things up or ramp things down.