Chapter Twelve: The Goddess Scroll

TGIF EVERYONE!

Thanks for Yen's backstory, SHIFUFANGIRL1! Wow, I need to make a nickname for you...

Well, here's chapter 12!


"Attention, students!"

Shifu awoke us early in the morning. Everyone ran from their rooms and faced him.

"Good morning, master," we said in unison with everyone else.

Shifu put the gong down and began pacing the hallway. "Everyone, get dressed," he announced. "And meet in the Hall of Warriors. We have something very important to present to a few very important warriors here at the palace."

"Wait, we do?" I asked. Everyone looked at me, smiling. Except for Nicole and Trinity, who looked just as confused as I was.

Shifu nodded. "Humans, please come wearing the nicest things that Mr. Ping has given you," he ordered. "Hurry!"

We scratched our heads in confusion and went into the room to pick out what to wear. Trinity wore a sleeved, jade green, ankle length Chinese robe, with matching sandals. She had her hair down.

Nicole wore a light blue, short, one sleeved, knee length Chinese robe with matching sandals. Her hair was in a low bun.

I wore a blood red, sleeveless Chinese robe that was in between my knees and ankles. I had matching sandals on my feet. My hair was curled.

"I wonder what Shifu wants us for," Trinity said, putting her younger sister's hair in a bun for her.

"Maybe to award us with something," I suggested. "Otherwise, he wouldn't have us wearing nice clothes.

They shrugged and we walked down the hall, to the Hall of Warriors, where everyone was standing around the moon pool, watching us walk in. Shifu was closest to the pool, holding a wooden staff- Oogway's staff.

"Welcome, girls," Shifu greeted us. "Please, stand next to me."

We stood in front of the moon pool, with myself in the middle of us. I could see my reflection in the pool and smiled. I looked pretty- prettier than I had ever seen myself in the past year.

Shifu closed his eyes, and it seemed to be getting pretty dramatic up in there. He said, "Thousands of years ago, when Oogway first established this palace, he made a golden dragon's mouth above the moon pool in the hall of warriors. Contained within the dragon's mouth were two scrolls. Not one, but two."

Everyone in the room, except for Shifu, gasped dramatically. Two scrolls? But then, where was the other one?

"First, Oogway put in the first scroll," Shifu continued. "He made a small hole in the mouth of the golden dragon, and put it inside of the dragon. Next he put the second scroll, the Dragon Scroll, inside of the dragon's mouth. The Dragon Scroll has already been presented to the Dragon Warrior. But we must present the final scroll, the Goddess Scroll, to the three Dragon Sisters."

Shifu put his staff into the air. A swarm of lilies flew from the moon pool, up to the dragon's mouth. They danced around the mouth, as if performing a rain dance. Then, I saw a small hole appear in the back of the dragon's mouth. A scroll, with a blood red container, fell from the hole. The lilies caught it, and floated down to Shifu. Shifu took it, and the lilies splashed back down into the water.

Shifu looked at the blood red container. "Contained within this is the Goddess Scroll. It is the legendary scroll that Ai, the Japanese goddess of love, created for Oogway. It has been opened by every single ancestor of the Dragon Sisters. And now, Kelsi, Nicole, Trinity, it may be opened by you."

There was a moment of silence before Shifu continued. "They say that when the Dragon Sisters open up the Goddess Scroll, they would be able to see the goddess Ai, and speak to her. But… nothing happened with the Dragon Scroll, so I… never mind."

Shifu handed it to me, and I took it. I opened the container with ease, and handed it to Shifu. I came face to face with the Goddess Scroll. The handles were a shining silver, and the scroll itself was shining gold. Trinity and Nicole leaned over to see.

I slowly opened the scroll, waiting to see the goddess Ai, to meet her, to experience meeting her, talking to her… I expected to come face to face with a reflection of myself. But I didn't.

It was a paragraph of dull, pink letters. I pressed my jewel to the scroll and they turned to English.

Ai and Oogway shared feelings for each other, loving one another, hating everyone whom dared to hurt the other. And the feelings that they shared for one another will come between you and a male being on one of the two worlds, in Ai's power…

All of a sudden, a figure rose out of the moon pool. This figure was a ghostly white, and transparent. It looked exactly like the statue of Ai that was in the royal palace.

The figure reached out a hand. All of a sudden, our surroundings faded and turned into a room full of gold items, glass walls, and a pool similar to the moon pool, and a tiled floor.

I saw Trinity and Nicole. But the other masters were nowhere to be found.

The ghost figure of Ai had gained color and was now opaque. Her hair was now blue, her dress was red and blue, her skin was a light, peachy color, and her eyes shone a sparkling aquamarine color.

Ai smiled at us and nodded, not saying a word. The goddess walked to a golden throne with red velvet seating and slowly sat down in it. She turned to us.

"Welcome to my home, Dragon Sisters," she smiled at us.

Everything was silent for a moment. None of us spoke. Ai chuckled.

"That was the same response that Katia and her sisters gave me," she said on a soothing, motherly voice. "You need time to digest what has happened to you. Sit down. Girls?"

All of a sudden, hundreds of lilies rose up out of the pool and flew to the end of the room. When I observed them closer, I realized that they were tiny humans with lilies growing on their backs! The tiny humans were dressed in small, red robes, and looked identical from a far distance away. They fluttered all around the room, one of them occasionally darting back into the pool.

"My pets, I need three chairs for our lovely guests," Ai called out. "May you get them, please?"

"Yes, Ai-sama!" hundreds of tiny voices called back. Half of the tiny humans flew around the pool, and put their hands out. Three chairs similar to the one Ai was sitting on appeared out of nowhere, floating above the pool. The tiny humans grabbed the chairs and brought them to Ai by flying.

"Place them in front of me, dears," Ai ordered them. The fairies followed the goddess' command, and placed the chairs in a semi-circle around Ai. Then they continued to flutter around the room, darting in and out of the pool.

We sat in the chairs, confused and scared. Ai looked at us with welcoming eyes and a sweet smile across her lips. Her expressions calmed us down a bit.

"Um, hello, Miss Ai," Trinity said. "We hate to bother you, but… why are we here?"

"Ah, yes," Ai said, sinking down a little into her chair. "Why are you here?… You opened the Goddess Scroll, the one I gave to my lover. It has been opened several times by your ancestors, girls, and it must be opened by you."

She looked around, sighing. "This is one of my many rooms within my palace. When the Dragon Sisters open the scroll, they come here. I knew that Shifu would give you the scroll today, so I came here to wait for you." She stopped to smile at us. "We are in the afterlife. All gods and goddesses of every religion are here."

"Wait," I said, stopping her. "Does that mean that the god that we worship lives here?"

She nodded. "If a group of people believe in that god or goddess, they are born," she said.

"So technically, every god and goddess of every religion ever existed is here," Nicole said.

"That's one way to put it," Ai said. "The only things that can bring you into the afterlife are death and the Goddess Scroll. You are not dead, girls."

We sighed of relief. I was thinking that the scroll killed us. But, if it did kill you, if every single one of my ancestors opened it, how was I born?

"Why did the scroll bring us here?" Nicole asked. "Wait… no, I should rephrase that… Why did you make it so that the Dragon Sisters would come here?"

"Better," Ai said, winking at her. "Every Dragon Sister must learn about how to achieve inner peace from me."

"Inner peace?" Trinity asked.

"Let me explain," Ai replied. "Each famous warrior must find a way to achieve inner peace. For example, you may have heard that the Dragon Warrior learned to fire cannonballs back to his enemies twice as fast, correct?"

We nodded, remembering the sequel of the movie.

"That is how the Dragon Warrior achieved it," the powerful goddess explained. "He learned that you have to believe in yourself to become strong, and that you need to find your inner strength, and that is how he achieved inner peace. For the Dragon Sisters, it's a completely different story. We need to do different things to achieve inner peace, things that involve love for others."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well," the goddess replied. "The Dragon Sisters live in the human world, but train in the animal world. Every Dragon Sister is faced with a choice- should they remain in the animal world or stay in the human world? Falling in love will help you make that decision."

"Love?" Nicole asked.

"Love," Ai replied. "A few thousand years ago, I fell in love with the great master Oogway when he was a young man. He returned my feelings, and I loved him. I decided to come down to Earth for a few centuries to be with him. When he started training the five, I went back to the afterlife to be with my family members. My heart ached of sadness. I wanted to be with him. I wanted to spend the rest of his life with him. When he died soon after, I spent more time with him in the afterlife."

She sighed, remembering her past life. "I finally decided to stay in the afterlife with him, and I achieved inner peace. For humans, it's different. When their lover dies, they cannot be with them until they die. It could take years for that to happen. You girls will soon be faced with the decision of choosing where you would like to spend the rest of your lives. It will be hard until you find love. Where your love is may determine where you want to spend your lifetime."

"So what you're saying is that we will be wondering where we want to spend our lives, and when we fall in love, wherever that person is from may be where we spend our lives," I confirmed.

Ai nodded. "Every single one of your ancestors has chosen to live in the human world," Ai said. "So did Katia. She loved Bao, the teenage warrior at the Jade Palace when she first went there, and when she went to the human world, she never truly achieved inner peace, because her heart secretly longed for Bao."

She gazed out of the glass walls. Outside was a big meadow, with golden palaces in the distance. One of them was most likely hers.

"If one of you chooses to live in the animal world, then I will make it that time in the human world will pass when you are in the animal world," she continued.

"Wait, what do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh!" Ai smiled. "You have no idea of it yet. Well, when all three of the Dragon Sisters go into the animal world, time in the human world stops completely. It seems like no time at all is passing in the human world, but in the animal world, time is still passing."

We looked at each other and sighed of relief again. Our families weren't calling the cops everywhere and they weren't freaking out! That was a huge weight off my shoulders.

"Reflect on this for a while, girls," Ai said. "When you fall in love, the decision will be easier. But please try and make a choice that will help you achieve inner peace, like the Dragon Warrior has. I will see you later in life, young ones."

And with that, everything went black.


So, how did ya'll like it? (And no, I'm not southern, I don't normally say 'ya'll'). Please leave a review! BYE!