(A\N) Disclaimer :
Kung fu panda 1&2 © dreamworks
Chronos's name and conceptual looks © sega (chronos's NON-CONCEPTUAL LOOKS © me and my sis!)
CLAIMER:
Everything else that has anything to do with Chronos and the storyline © me!
As always, BIG THANKS TO MY AWESOME SIS FOR HUGE NECESSARY CHANGES! And this time also for doing all the work of translating!
P.S. אם מישהוא מעוניין בתרגום של הפאנפיק לעברית, פשוט חפשו בקטגוריה של קונג פו- פנדה בעברית.
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IMPORTANT- I'v updated my avatar; there's a drawing of Chronos, not a sprite- an actual drawing according to what he looks like in the story! Due to fanfiction's sprite rules (not larger than 150 pixels) it's not the best quality, I'll try to post a link to the full- size pic. Simply have a look at my profile! i'v worked a whole week on this one!
Enjoy!
Chapter six- the fear tests
Chronos wasn't proud about the night before, actually, he wanted to bury himself the minute he woke up in Tigress' room. 'Stupid visions, I can't believe that I almost killed tigress last night' He mentally kicked himself. 'Why in the world did I do that?' Suddenly, a surge of pain shot through his head. 'Agh' he grabbed his head 'better not to think about it now.' It was as if something didn't want Chronos to think about it. He just laid there and waited for Tigress to wake up.
"Now that I'm finally healed…" Chronos stated contemplatingly. "I think I should go see Shifu, and ask him to teach me. I'm sure he knows more than I do." He was laying on the slinger on his stomach, one hand under his chin, staring at the floor, his tail swishing slowly from side to side.
Tigress sat on her bed, stretching her arms in front of her with her fingers combined, making crack noises from her knuckles.
"Well, you could try. But I have to warn you: his trainings aren't what to be called 'fun'." Tigress smiled remembering how Po was on his first couple of days as the dragon warrior.
…
It was breakfast, Chronos tried as hard as he can to ignore Po.
They ate casually, but there was tension in the air. Monkey decided he was sick of it. A cunning smile spread on his face. He sneaked over to Crane's left side and tapped his right shoulder, near Po.
At first Crane ignored it, but after the third time he punched Po's shoulder 'in return'.
"So that's how it goes, eh?" Po said, smiling devilishly.
"Skadoosh!" he kicked lightly Crane's chair and the avian fell loudly to the floor. "Man, what was that?" Crane yelled. The fight evolved fast, filling the kitchen with noise and turmoil. Everybody was drowned into it, except for the girls and Chronos, who wasn't in the mood for a fight for an obvious reason.
"Men." Tigress said in Viper's ear, which nodded in agreement.
The fight went on until Monkey accidentally kicked the table. All of the plates moved a bit but miraculously stayed on the table, except for Chronos' which slipped to the floor with a horrible shattering noise.
Chronos did nothing, sighed annoyed and bent his ears in chagrin, his gaze not moving from the table.
"Oh, sorry." Monkey said, taking out a new plate for Chronos, but the main bowl was already empty.
Po looked around, and finally took his overflowing plate and put half of it to Chronos' plate.
"Don't worry, I haven't touched it yet." He said friendly when Chronos looked at him, utterly surprise.
The tiger stared at his plate self-conscious and murmured, "…thanks…"
…
Chronos entered the cavern in which Shifu spent most of his time, known as 'the cave of peace'.
Shifu was there, naturally, standing in an impossible balance, on the tip of his staff.
A tiny twitch occurred in Shifu's ear, and Chronos figured he heard him.
"Master, my name is Chronos…" he stopped, not sure to how go about it.
"Yes, Panther, continue," Said Shifu, not moving a single muscle.
"I'm not a panther!" Chronos said immediately, a bit annoyed.
Shifu opened his eyes, leaped off his stick and circled around Chronos, scanning him closely.
"Yes, I see…" he said, murmuring to himself other unrecognizable words.
"Who taught you fighting?" Shifu asked him.
"A giant turtle." He answered, eyeing the red panda who was still walking around him.
Shifu stopped circling around Chronos, a serious expression forming his features.
"Until when did he teach you?" he asked, Chronos sighed.
They sat on the ground as Chronos began telling him his life story.
"I need you to help me get rid of these visions." Chronos concluded, "That's why I need you to teach me."
Shifu was shocked. Seeing his expression, Chronos started to feel irritated.
"Can you tell me what is going on?" he said impatiently, noticeably unhappy with not being told of what's happening.
"You learned from non-other then Master Oogway." Said Shifu.
"So my dad's name was Oogway?" he frowned, not quite grasping the importance of the news.
"Grand Master Oogway was the inventor of kung-fu, and he was the one who taught me."
It was Chronos turn to be shocked. "Grand master Oogway? Huh?" Chronos repeated Shifu's words, getting more and more confused by the minute.
"So you're saying, that the one who taught you, was the same one who taught me?" he said, a bit shocked, and finally realizing the reason for Shifu's awe.
The red panda nodded, remaining silence.
"We'll start tomorrow." The master concluded, still a bit amazed, and went back to his meditation.
Chronos got back to Tigress' room and stretched over his slinger.
"Well? How did it go?" she asked when she found him there.
"Not bad, I start tomorrow." He answered staring at the window, "he agreed to help me with the visions." In spite of the good news, his face wasn't enthusiastic.
"Those are good news, aren't they?" Tigress patted his shoulder encouragingly.
"Well, yes…but.." Chronos said, shifting his eyes to her and back to the floor. "But I'm not sure that even he knows how to solve my problem."
His last words stunned the feline, and a bit angered her, but despite that she tried to remain patient. "Master Shifu helped all of us, he'll be able to help you too." She sounded a little stern.
"Try to sleep, believe me, you'll need it." She said with a slight chuckle while she cuddled in her bed. They greeted each other goodnight.
…
For a week Chronos got back every day exhausted, collapsing to his bed and cuddling to himself, too tired to say anything more than a simple "goodnight" or to even cover himself with his blanket properly. Every night, after he fell asleep, Tigress covered him with his blanket with a smile. 'This is really not like me' she mused in one of those days, While falling asleep herself.
…
Shifu and Chronos were standing in front of each other, ten meters apart on a vast field on the top of the mountain near the village. The grass was green and nice-looking, the wind gently whispered among the many tiny plants, which bended in response. It looked so inviting that Chronos was thinking he should spend more time outside, because he really liked this place.
He sniffed the air, clearly enjoying the moment before dropping into his stance out of habit. To his surprise Shifu simply laughed.
"We're not doing that today." He said smiling at his pupil. Strangely his smile reminded Chronos of Oogway, but he shook it.
Shifu gestured to his left, Chronos followed with his eyes. There were about ten hoops standing in the field, each in different height but all with a tube attached to them. Shifu snapped his fingers and the hoops burst in flames.
"I'm going to give you a series of tests. In each of the tests you will have to overcome some kind of fear." Chronos made a childish face and then smiled. He began to run and with agility jumped through one hoop after another, 'it's not any more difficult than jumping between rocks back at home' he thought.
But he almost missed at the last hoop and burned a spot on his arm, a bit below the shoulder. He clenched the wounded area and growled when he landed. Shifu was quick to help him, and bandaged the area with soft leaves that grew there.
"Well," Shifu said smiling when they started toward the palace, trying to light up the mood. "You passed."
When they got to the palace Chronos walked straight to tigress' room, the burn on his fur showed noticeably.
Tigress startled at the sight of it. "What happened?" she asked, visibly concerned.
Chronos smiled internally. Suddenly he fell to the ground, groaning, "Bandits… ambush…"
Tigress gasped with shock, but before she had a chance to say anything he quickly stood again. "Just kidding." He grinned, brushing the dust off of himself.
"What!" Tigress shouted. "Do not scare me like this again!" she punched him hard in the shoulder, then bent with pain, hugging her arm. "Ouch!.."
Chronos was speechless, confused with her reaction. "Sorry..." he looked aside feeling bad, "umm… but it's not… like I punched you… so…uhh" he stopped.
Tigress made a face, but when she realized how ridiculous it was (and also the pain in her arm dulled) she burst out in laugh, and Chronos found himself laughing with her, obviously relived.
"…but seriously, don't scare me like this." She regained composure after a couple of breathless minutes. "So what actually happened?" She asked, remembering the original topic of the conversation.
"Today I went through the first test in order to stop the visions, 'The fire test'." He emphasized the quotations with his fingers.
"It wasn't so hard… except for this burn. I lost focus for a second." Chronos approached the cabinet and took a new bandage out of it, moistened it and wrapped it over the burn.
Tigress blinked with surprise. "Well," she said shortly after.
"I hope Shifu knows what he's doing."
…
Outside the rooms, was a very stunned snake. 'Did she just-' she stopped, unable to complete the thought due to shock. The sound of Tigress' laugh wasn't a common event. 'Wow, there must be something about this Chronos guy.' She thought while slithering to the training dojo.
…
Few weeks of more hard training went over Chronos.
Shifu and the tiger were standing now on the verge of a wide river that was the outcome of a waterfall that started at Shifu's cavern.
The river was waist level, pretty clear, and the flow was slow. Most of the river was shadowed but there were some not-so-big spots where the sun glistened on the water.
Chronos looked at the river with reluctant eyes. He blinked. 'Hell no.'
"Let me guess, the next test is water and it's going to happen now, isn't it?" said the tiger, sighing.
Master Shifu smiled. "Yes, your next test is water. You ought to get inside and then back out."
"Seriously?" Chronos dropped his shoulders, clearly not liking the idea. "It's not like I'm afraid of water, but still, I don't really like it…" he stopped, feeling a chill going through him. "And when can I stop?" he asked without much hope.
Shifu smiled with his usual tranquility.
"When I see no hesitance. Every twitch, every delay, even the slightest, that can suggest hesitation – you'd have to jump again." Shifu smiled, enjoying the priceless expression on Chronos face when he heard the last words.
"Do I have to?..." he asked although the answer was obvious, and sighed.
"Let us begin." Shifu announced, obviously amused.
Chronos was walking from side to side on the bank, studying the water.
The expression on Shifu's face didn't change. Finally Chronos jumped into the water. He jumped out immediately.
Chronos looked to Shifu. The poor tiger was soaking wet, and he hated that feeling.
Shifu studied him. "Again," he said.
Chronos got back in immediately, but there was still hesitation in his movements. "Again." Shifu repeated.
"But you weren't even looki-" "again!"
Chronos already knew to say the words with the Master.
"Again!"
"Again!"
"Again!"
All day went like this, it was a day of horrible wetness.
Three days passed and Chronos was beginning to think that it wasn't so bad after all, even nice considering the fact that it was the hot season.
The fourth day came and found Chronos at the bank, waiting for Master Shifu.
He walked a little to fill the annoying boredom. It was hot and Chronos was tired of waiting.
He stared at the river carelessly, and when he felt the gathering heat he finally told himself, 'eh, why not,' and jumped to the water.
The feeling wasn't as bad as before, it was even rather refreshing. The black tiger jumped in and out a few times. Even though the whole experience was odd, he liked it.
After a few minutes he heard slow clapping. "Congratulations, you passed." Shifu said as he came out of his hiding place. "You just love to torture me, don't you?"
Shifu chuckled, "it's a master's thing."
Chronos got out of the river, and shook the water quickly; his fur becoming puffy and messy as he did, making him look like a fluff ball.
"Master," he said while running his hands on his fur, straightening it up, "Can you teach me how to swim?"
(A\N) thanks for taking the time for reading, and again, thanks for holding on through my slow updates (you know, school, building a computer, my sensei is making me work my butt off, homework, tests, nothing big.)
In Israel we use meters as distant unit, and I have no idea how many feet is one meter. So- I used meter.
The part of Chronos looking like a fluff ball- think of Simba from 'the lion king' in the song 'Hakuna Mattata' when they got out of the water and he shook all the water off him and his fur went 'Puff'.
And put some attention to the jokes - I'v read my chapter about five times over and over adding them.
And again - check out my songfic "pretty woman"- if you liked Tigress X Chronos you should like this!
Thanks again for all my readers - YOU GUYS ARE PURELY AWESOME!
