Budding Emotions
Chapter 14: Precious Memories
Monkey then flipped jumped backwards as he felt Lily's blade grazed his chest. Lily then continued with thrusts towards Monkey's ribs, as Monkey dodged them with quick speed.
"I can't believe she's attacking this fast, what is this girl?" Monkey thought as he grappled the blade before it reached his face and jumped over Lily, landing on his tail.
The others watched as the two then continued their struggle, Po felt bad for not being able to help, but at the same time he felt happy that he got to see one of the Furious Five in action.
Shifu had pondered over this fight for some time now, as he thought "One look at this girl's body structure, I knew she was a quick attacker, and since Monkey is our quickest warrior, this should be an interesting fight.
Monkey then saw an opening and grabbed Lily's tail, and spun her around until she stabbed her sword into the ground, stopping Monkey as she looked over to him.
"Cute and strong, I was right to pick you giggle" Lily said.
Lily then tried to make a quick slash at Monkey, as Monkey then let go of her tail and jump back, he then saw that a slight cut mark was on his left shoulder.
Lily regained her stance and frowned as she said "It's too bad I have to fight you though"
Monkey then felt a blush on his cheek as she said that, but he shook his head and regained battle stance. Monkey then leaped as Lily did as well and once again made the first strike as Monkey pushed the blade away quickly and made a strike for her right arm, as she then fell down but flipped over and landed gracefully. As Monkey landed he had one question in mind this whole fight.
"Who did you learn these techniques from?" Monkey asked
Lily then frowned as she said "You should know, didn't you already meet him?"
Po's eyes widened as he remembered, "She used to be Lao's adoptive daughters who trained under him"
Monkey now understood and got into stance and said "Then why did you cross him?"
Lily got into stance, as she pushed away the sadness she remembered during that day back then and smiled as she said "No more talking! Let's have fun!"
Monkey then got prepared himself, as he glanced over at the others, all looking at the two fighters strangely.
"They must be thinking of the same question I have for her" Monkey said as he then realized Lily was already about a foot close to him, as she then pushed her sharpened blade towards Monkey, as blood flew in the air, the group were surprised, Po then yelled "MONKEY!"
As the blood landed to the ground, the group saw that Monkey had jumped far back away from Lily, and he was clutching his right hip, as blood leaked from the cut.
"She was that fast? Only a master of swords work can move quickly like that…I see the training of both Lao and Jing Fei has made them far than just formidable."
Lily then swung her blade to the other side, flinging away the blood on her blade to the ground.
"You shouldn't really underestimate me, I'm really fast you know" Lily said as she readied her blade.
Monkey then stood with one hand still holding his injured hip as he held the pain in, struggling to now show weakness his foe.
"That was…urgh…impressive" Monkey said, still struggling to hold the pain in.
Lily looked at Monkey in curiosity as she said "You know you're holding up pretty well for someone who just got a big cut."
Monkey laughed lightly and said "Well they don't call me the master of the monkey style for nothing you know"
"Let's see you prove it then" Lily said as she charged.
Monkey then gave one last pant as he then let go of the wound and readied for Lily. She made a quick low strike as Monkey bended back to dodge it, as he then regained balance he felt a sharp pain in his hip as he blocked Lily's blade before it reached his chest and brought it near his side, while holding her other hand with his free arm, they were now in a lock.
As Monkey struggled to keep Lily occupied, he got an idea and said "Hey grunt what do I have to do to get another prize in this game of yours?"
Lily then smiled and said "Welllll… OOH! I know! How about this, if you can kiss me and beat me at the same time, then you get to name your other prize"
Monkey then frowned but blushed at the same time and said "Wow, isn't that kind of grunt drastic?
Lily giggled and said "Well it's my game after all"
Lily then tried to do a sweep kick but Monkey released her and flip jumped back to dodge her quick slash.
Monkey panted as kneeled and clutched his wound again; it was bleeding more than last time now. "I have to finish this quickly…" He thought.
Monkey then stood and said "Alright…fine, I'll take the challenge."
The others hung their mouths open as Monkey said that, Shifu's eyes twitched as he thought "What is he…"
Monkey then gave a confident smile as he readied himself and looked directly at Lily. Lily then smiled back as she blushed a little but frowned a little.
"Why did I choose him? I don't want to…" Lily thought in her head as Monkey charged.
Monkey decided to try a karate chop first as Lily blocked it with her free arm and swiped at Monkey's feet while Monkey jumped up landed on her sword, as he then quickly punched her face, sending her sliding back.
Lily then regained herself and charged again, this time with quick speed as she then dashed towards him and slashed two times at him, as a bit of fur was lost with each slash as Monkey dodged them.
Lily then delivered a flurry of quick thrusts as Monkey dodged with great speed, their quickness was like a blur to the group, Lily then stopped suddenly and did a surprise horizontal slash, as Monkey flipped over and stood on his hands, and grabbed the sword with his feet, Monkey smiled as he then swung his feet over himself, flinging Lily over as well. Lily then landed safely as Monkey then regained himself and got into stance.
"YAHHH!" Lily yelled as she then spun her sword in the air and dashed at Monkey as and swung the spinning blade at Monkey, and as he dodged he was cut at the left cheek, leaving a small but noticeable scar. Lily then slowed down a bit with the spinning, Monkey then saw this chance and grabbed Lily's sword at the handle, meeting her hand with his as he then pulled her towards him and pressed his lips against his.
"WHAT THE…!?" Po said
Shifu and the others gasped as they saw Monkey had kissed Lily for some time, Lily simply closed her eyes as Monkey then broke the kiss and disarmed her of her weapon while she was distracted, and jumped kick her all the way to the wall. Lily then landed on the floor, quickly returning to reality as she saw that Monkey was already in front of her, and holding her sword against her throat.
"I'm sorry, but it is your game's rule" Monkey said with a blush.
Lily then blushed and smiled as she said "Alright, I guess you win, oh man! I should've picked someone else!"
Monkey smiled as he helped her up, sheathing her blade for her as she stood. Blood then started to spill from Monkey's mouth as he kneeled to the floor, clutching his hip wound that was bleeding very much now.
"Monkey!" Shifu yelled as he ran to him as well as the others.
Lily helped Monkey lie down as Shifu then took a roll of bandage fron the inside of his robe.
Po stared at him in confusion as Shifu replied "I always come prepared"
Po then returned his attention to Monkey, he was hurt bad, and if the fight went on any longer he surely would've died.
"Ummm…You okay?" Po asked while looking at the wound and its size.
Monkey then lifted his head towards Po and said "Well gee Po, do I look ok?"
Po then was feeling worse inside as he stared at those wounds and said "Well…just hang on, I…I don't want to lose another person close to me."
Monkey then realized how Po's feeling right now and said "I'll be alright Po, don't worry."
Viper approached Po and said "Don't worry Po, we'll get her back"
Po then released a small smile as he remembered once again the memories he shared with her.
Po and Tigress were sent to get groceries for the Jade Palace to last another week or two, and they were passing through the food stands.
Po was examining the beef meat in front of him as Tigress rolled her eyes and said "Will you just choose one!?"
Po then turned to her and said "Be patient, making good noodles also means good ingredients, and besides, it's not even close to dinner time yet, we still have time."
Tigress then looked at the meat with Po and said "Honestly, it does not take this long just to buy stuff for noodles"
"Who said anything about noodles?" Po said as he finally found the meat he wanted and handed the money to the food stall man and placed the meat in the bamboo basket Tigress was carrying.
Tigress raised an eyebrow as she heard this; Po always made noodles for dinner. "You're not going to cook noodles anymore?"
"Well I'll still make them, just today I want to try something different, like that beef and vegetable rice bowl that most of the towns people eat." Po said as he walked over to the vegetable stand.
Tigress sighed as Po took a look and saw a clean and fresh piece of celery and cabbage and grabbed them and said "Yes! Sweet, these will be perfect!"
Tigress looked around and tapped Po's shoulder and said "We better hurry, people are starting to stare"
Po looked behind him and saw that Tigress was right, most of the people were whispering to each other and staring at them.
A pig woman approached Tigress and said "Ah Master Tigress, it is an honor to see you here" the woman then bowed in respect.
Tigress then said "No need for formalities, I am just here for an errand."
The woman looked beside Tigress and saw Po, putting the vegetables in the basket, the woman then smiled and said "Ah, I see, so you are here to shop for groceries with your boyfriend."
Tigress then blushed and shook her head and said "No! It's nothing like that, we are just fellow kung fu masters "
Po did the same as he blushed as well and said "Yeah, it's nothing intimate or—"
The pig woman smiled more and said "Oh don't worry, it's fine, even kung fu masters find can find love in their life right? Well, I must be going now, good bye!"
Tigress looked the other way as Po grazed his arm, both of them blushing as they were near each other. Po had loved Tigress, but he never expected someone would actually think they would be together.
"W-Well, it was just a misunderstanding right?" Tigress said
"O-Oh yeah, totally! Us together? Impossible right?" Po said
"Y-Y-Yeah, absolutely" Tigress said
Po felt terrible inside when he said that, he's been feeling horrible every time he realized they may never be together.
Po then headed to the rice stand and said "One bag of rice, please"
The stall man then grabbed a hefty bag of rice and placed it on the stall table and said "Here you go"
"Thanks" Po said as he handed the man the money.
Po then tapped his fingers on the rice bag and said "Sooo…ummm…Tigress, what do you look for in a guy?"
Tigress was shocked by the question and asked "Why do you want to know?"
"W-Well, you know, I haven't really got to know you yet and so I just wanted to know, that's all" Po said nervously.
Tigress then sighed and said "Well, he'd have to be skilled in martial arts and be intelligent…"
Po was a bit under confident about those conditions but listened as she continued.
"And be strong…" Tigress said
Po then sucked in his gut to make his chest bigger, but it just resulted in the belly bouncing back down.
Tigress then finished "And oh yeah, he'd have to be a kind man"
Po then smiled and said "Wow, you really have a unique taste for men"
Tigress scoffed and said "What about you?"
Po then grabbed the rice bag quickly and said "HEY! It's getting late, let's go back."
Tigress then cracked a small smile and headed towards the Jade Palace with Po. As they walked she said "If you fall down the stairs again, I'm only coming back for the rice bag."
"Ha Ha, very funny" Po said as Tigress smiled again.
Po smiled as well as he finished remembering when Shifu finished bandaging Monkey and stood.
Shifu wiped the sweat from his forehead and said "He'll be fine, but he needs to rest, any further actions could reopen his wounds"
Monkey lifted his head and said "But, I want to go…argh…on with everyone"
Viper helped Monkey's head down and said "Don't try to move, rest up for now"
Monkey had nothing to say, as Lily looked upon him with worry, as Monkey said "About my other reward…"
Lily then said "Oh…right, what do you want?
"Tell me and my friends why you crossed your father Lao" Monkey said plainly.
Lily then looked away sadly, as she closed her eyes and sighed, and said "Fine, you won so, I'll tell you."
Everyone listened as Lily told her story.
"…Back in our home town, everything was peaceful, until our mayor died, leaving taking the peaceful era with him, as his corrupted son took the seat as mayor."
Monkey listened, as he turned his head towards Lily, and saw small tears dropping down on her face.
Lily wiped her eyes and said "Ever since then, all the new mayor cared about was getting money, and not for the town, but for himself…he was a spoiled brat, but no one dared to rebel against him because of the rhino guards he hired"
Po then asked "Rhinos? You guys have the same type of guards don't you?"
Lily nodded and said "Chor Gom prison offers their men for hire for a hefty price, but they are good for keeping intruders out."
Mantis scoffed and smiled as he said "Not really"
Po laughed and said "Yeah, we totally kicked their—"
Shifu glared at him again as Po said "Sorry, go on"
"The rhino guards pretty much ruled the town, they took things without a single word and said they mayor let them, and they were right, the brat mayor didn't care for the town, as long as he got his money." Lily clenched her fist as she then continued "Soon my parents would fight about leaving, my dad would want to leave, while my mother wanted to stay, in her home town."
Lily then started to cry again as she said "The fight worried us all, that our family would tear me and my sisters apart, and then, a few days later, our worst fear happened."
Monkey frowned as he knew what she was going to say next.
"My parents then resorted to violence, when we found our mother's body, she was brutally hit on the head, and it traumatized us for life" Lily said as she held back her tears.
Po looked away as he felt sorry, listening to these types of stories always made him feel worse, he didn't like bad news, even though all his life he's been getting them.
Lily sniffled and wiped her tears again as she continued "After that, our father was no where to be seen, he had fled, and so…we did the same, we loved our mother very much, so we buried her before we left, but as we left, the sadness in our hearts never went away…and then, as we were about to starve to death, we ended up in front of a big dojo near the Ancient's Highlands, and that's where Lao found us."
Monkey raised his head again and asked "He treated you guys like his daughter, and taught you to be strong, how could you leave him?"
Lily grazed the sleeve of her suit and said "It's not like I hated him! It's just…both of my sisters agreed it was the right thing to do, and Jing told us we could help build a better world, where everything would be peaceful again…"
Shifu walked towards her and said "No matter what you do, the world is not suppose to change for one or a group of people, it is what it is, you must face reality."
"Easy for you to say! You never lost someone you treasure most!" Lily said.
Shifu's eyes widened as he frowned and looked downward as he said "Actually…I do"
Lily's then looked at Shifu and was silent, wanting to take back what she said. "But regardless, I have moved on, for my new students, and because they need me as I need them"
Po and the four smiled as Shifu said that, Lily regained herself as Shifu said "You just need someone to give you a meaning to live"
Po nodded as he knew what Shifu meant, Tigress was everything to him, and he couldn't let that go.
Lily smiled as she then said "Thank you…and, you can go forward now."
Shifu nodded as he leaded the group towards the door, running as they knew they were almost out of time. Po looked towards the sky and saw that the darkness was slowly fading.
"No! We're losing time, god I hope she hangs on!"
Meanwhile at Tigress cell room…
Tigress was finishing one of her flurry of combo strikes as she then flipped over and did a swipe kick, as she then stood and panted heavily.
"There's not much room to train in, but it'll have to do" Tigress thought.
She then heard foot steps coming as she then sat down, acting helpless as always when Jing came to check up on her.
The door opened and Jing was there, Tigress clenched her teeth, as she was sick of seeing his face.
"So, how are you feeling, scared?" Jing said as he held his spear.
Tigress only gave a cold glare, as she said "No, only when I see your face."
"Ohh, feisty are we? Well, I just came to deliver good news…for you of course." Jing said
Tigress kept her guard up as Jing then slowly approached near her.
"A group of intruders has infiltrated the fortress, I suppose you know them?" Jing said
Tigress's eyes widened as she thought "I-It can't be—"
Jing read her face and said "Yes, they are indeed your once fallen comrades."
Tigress then felt a breath of relief as she thought "So they survived, thank god…"
Jing then approached near the door and said "I just received word they defeated one of my best warriors, persistent aren't they?"
"Ugly aren't you?" Tigress said calmly.
Jing only chuckled and said "Oh maiden, you act so aggressive, and yet stay so calm, it's remarkable really"
Jing then headed out the door and said "Don't get too confident on your comrades though, they'll be quite surprised when they see my next two warriors, I'd bet they just be dying to meet them."
Tigress's eyes widened as she headed for the door but the guards quickly closed it, locking her in again as Tigress pounded the door with her fists, only to have failed again. She sat on the floor and thought "Po…please, be careful…"
Back at the mansion entrance…
Lily had followed the group as she carried Monkey and set him to lie on the wall near the entrance as he was still resting.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of him" Lily said
Shifu looked at her out of doubt and said "Are you sure?"
"Look, he defeated me, if I killed an injured warrior, I wouldn't have a warrior's honor" Lily said
"What honor? You assisted I wiping out almost half the people of this Highland" Shifu said sternly.
Lily then looked down out of guilt as Shifu then looked away and said " I will trust you to take care of him, but if you lay even the slightest tip of your sword on him, I won't show mercy."
"Shifu…it's ok, go on, I'll catch up later." Monkey said as he laid against the wall.
Shifu nodded and then opened the entrance as the others followed him inside.
Lily still had a look of guilt and sadness as Monkey then tapped her shoulder as she sat near him and said "Hey…what's with the sad face?"
"What your master said was true…I have no honor" Lily said
Monkey looked at her as she started to frown more and said "I helped in the invasion, but I didn't kill anyone, I just scared them out, but that didn't change the fact that I helped in almost wiping out a town."
The cross bow archers once again approached Monkey as Lily then ordered them to back off and went elsewhere.
Lily smiled and said "Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you"
Monkey laughed as she then said "What's so funny?"
Monkey smiled and said "You do have honor, you're helping an injured warrior, the enemy at that, and you stuck with the warrior's code and not harm me, even when you have the chance."
Lily smiled and looked at Monkey with happiness as she then said "Well, I'm feeling kinda cold tonight, and I don't have my teddy bear so I guess you'll have to do!"
Lily then quickly hugged Monkey as Monkey almost jumped up in surprise, as she snuggled him as Monkey then held her in his arms. Monkey cracked a smile as they both held each other, Monkey had forgotten all about his injuries.
The crossbow archers watched from the roof tops and one of them said "What is Mistress Lily doing?"
"Maybe…seducing the enemy?" Another archer said
"Yeah, that's gotta be it" The first archer said.
Inside the mansion…
The group looked around as they saw a straight path ahead, and as they reached the end they found a large sliding door, and a lever beside it, Shifu opened the door as the others quickly got into position, but there was nothing inside.
"This must be a lift" Crane said
"Let's go" Viper said as she slithered onto the lift
Everyone went into the lift as Po walked inside, almost taking up the entire space as Lianne crawled from behind him and to a clearer area in front of Po.
Shifu then flipped the switch and jumped on before the elevator took off, and closed the door, as the lift went up towards the mansion.
Shifu was crammed between Po and Lianne as Lianne said "Well isn't this déjà vu?"
To be continued…
Yes yes, I know I'm sort of slow at updating but I have to take breaks, and that includes food and sleep and video games, but I will try to be faster in the future. For those of you who already figured it out, yes I am making MonkeyxOC, beautiful isnt't it, well, R&R!