Hello there!

I'm so glad you decided to tune in to my little story! You all made this happen, so thanks again!

Oh, by the way, I recently discovered something interesting. In the LoA episode "Bride of Po," the female goat who Po's going to marry (I forgot her name) has a kidnapped brother named Shao. I can assure you that my OC has no relation to this other Shao (who's also a goat). I honestly didn't know of this character's existence until I was researching that episode. Why am I researching that episode, you ask? Oh, no reason… ;)

On with the show!

Gongmen City-Noon

Lianmin walked with a quick step whenever she was on the hunt, and today was no exception. Peng did his best to keep up with her, but she was on that goat's trail, and she wouldn't be slowed down.

It was noon by now, and Lianmin and her son walked through the streets of the city. It was eerily quiet. The people had been mourning Master Croc's untimely death for the past week. They shut themselves in, didn't go to work, didn't do anything. The people became afraid, even if they didn't show it. Their protector had just been murdered inside the top of the Tower of Sacred Flame. If he wasn't safe, then how were the people safe?

Croc's funeral would be held sometime in the following week. No one understood the reason why. They didn't know that the funeral wouldn't be open-casket, neither would it be a cremation. It couldn't be. Shao's proximity to Croc's face had taken care of that.

Lianmin had dragged Peng over to Gongmen City as fast as possible. Her home city wasn't far away, so they arrived in only a day or two, after travelling with little rest. She had asked her superiors back in Ningjang for a scroll of recommendation, just so the city officials and Master Ox would accept her help. The recommendation wasn't really truthful. It described her as a "valuable asset to her city in aiding in the reduction of wanted criminals." It didn't mention anywhere that she would always find her prey when she set her mind to it. If she wanted to find someone, she found them. It really was that simple.

At first, they had gone to the Tower, meeting with Master Ox. The kung-fu master looked like he hadn't slept in days, which was probably true, as his best friend had just been murdered in his sleep. The conversation had been brief. She introduced Peng and herself and, after expressing her condolences for Master Croc, stated her purpose in coming, offering her recommendation. After he had read it, he approved her to ask any questions to anybody she wanted in the city.

Of course, she asked Ox to recount his memory of what had happened on that fateful night. While his knowledge was limited, he told her all he had seen.

She had then been set loose, where she really went to work. Peng did his best as his mother frantically went from place to place, asking questions to everyone. It wasn't that she ran, it was just that her stride was long.

The first person she went to was the master of servants during the day-shift.

The young sheep had been quite depressed, as she had figured out by now that the person she let in the building had been an impostor, and had killed Master Croc. She was able to offer his description of him, but they didn't learn anything new. Only that he was a young male goat with pale white fur. That was all they ever learned about this mysterious assassin.

After speaking with the master and learning her story, she went to the cook who had given him the tour of the building. She too was depressed, but her story offered little insight, as he had been silent for all of the tour.

By far, the most enlightening conversation was with the Soothsayer.

She actually came to them while they were finishing their conversation with the cook. She had patiently waited for their conversation to end before approaching the mother and son.

"I understand you're looking for the goat?" she had asked the two.

"That's right," Lianmin had replied, unsure of who stood before her.

The Soothsayer had suffered just as much as Master Ox had been suffering. Not only did she have the death of a person she considered a son, as she had been with them ever since him and Ox began training under Master Thundering Rhino, but she also had to deal with the guilt of letting Shao out of her grasp. She had him, she could have turned him in, but she had wanted to believe that her words of warning might have persuaded him to go home. To avoid the fate that lay if he continued. That terrible, terrible fate.

"Who are you, if I may ask?" Lianmin asked the elderly goat.

"I am the Soothsayer here. I have watched over the masters of this tower for years. I've known Croc and Ox since they were children. I knew Master Rhino when he was a young man."

Lianmin nodded. "And do you have some information you think might help us?"

The Soothsayer slowly nodded.

"That's good. Perhaps we might learn something new. Tell me, did you see this assassin?"

The Soothsayer's brows raised. "See him? I spoke with him."

Lianmin had been shocked. "What!? What do you mean you spoke with him!?"

The Soothsayer had been rather blunt in her answer. "That's exactly what I meant."

Lianmin was silent for a few seconds as she tried to process that in her head. "How!?" she finally managed to get out.

"My child, I did not earn my name for nothing. I was born with the ability to glimpse into the future. It is my job here. They ask me what I see in the future. However, the future is a fickle thing. It is always moving, always shifting. It is never certain. There is never one set path: there are nearly infinite possibilities. It's only a matter of singling out the most likely one."

Lianmin tried to digest her words. "Wait, so you knew Master Croc was going to be…" she didn't have the courage to finish that sentence in front of someone who knew him since he was a child.

But the Soothsayer shook her head. "No, I did not know that. As I said, I cannot see everything. Sometimes I cannot see important things." The memory of the panda village flashed through her mind. She had always regretted making that foretelling with Shen's parents. If she hadn't, the pandas would still be alive, and the Dragon Warrior would still have a mother. Ironically, he probably wouldn't have been the Dragon Warrior, and who knew what would have happened then?

"But I foresaw his presence in the Tower on that night, and I knew he would create a path of fate that would destroy himself and many others around him," she continued. "I knew that he would be in the Tower, and I searched for him throughout the day. When I found him, I tried to give him a chance. I warned him of the fate he was making for himself. I simply couldn't have him arrested without giving him a chance to rethink his actions. Without giving him the chance to turn back."

The Soothsayer gave a heavy sigh. "But, I suppose I was wrong. He did not listen."

Lianmin had listened in shock. She had the goat in her grasp, the leopardess thought incredulously. And she let him go? Even though she knew his path led to death? For an instant, she had been angry. If the Soothsayer had only had him arrested, Master Croc's death could have been avoided. Why hadn't she done it? Was giving an assassin a chance worth more than Croc's life?

But, as she spoke, and Lianmin saw the heaviness with which the elderly goat spoke, she could feel the sorrow and regret coming from her. She knew that everything she thought, the Soothsayer had also thought. She knew that the Soothsayer was wishing she could go back in time and undo her actions; that she could just go and simply call for the guards.

Lianmin nodded in understanding. "I see. Thank you for your time." They turned to leave, but the Soothsayer called out to them.

"Wait."

Lianmin and Peng had turned back around, Lianmin raising her brow in anticipation of what she had to say.

"Please, I need you to find this person. I do not know everything about the path he is on, but I know what it leads to. I beg you, you must find him."

The leopardess nodded, a little apprehensive at the prospect of having such risks at stake.

"I know that his next move will be against the Jade Palace Masters in the Valley of Peace. I don't know how long it will be until he strikes there. Perhaps tonight. Perhaps in a few months. I do not know. Go to the Valley of Peace. Warn the Jade Palace of the coming threat. Please," she added at the end, throwing all her desperation into that last word.

Lianmin could only nod again. "We will find him," was all she had said. With that, she left to finish up her questioning of the Tower servants and was now on the streets.

She had been silent since they had left the tower, but Peng had something on his mind.

"Hey, mom?" he asked. Lianmin, lost in thought, heard him, but did not respond.

"Why are we going to the dock?" he asked. "The goal lady already told us that his next move is going to be in the Valley of Peace. Why don't we just go there now?"

Lianmin quickly replied, "Because I want to know how he escaped the city. Leaving by water would have been the smartest choice, and if we can learn what kind of boat he had, we may be able to learn about our target. Was it a simple, cheap boat? As if our target was a simple, ordinary person? Or did he have something specialized? Does our target have wealth? You heard about the death-blow he dealt to Master Croc. He had some kind of weapon. A weapon on one has ever seen before. How did he come by it? There are many questions still to be answered, Peng."

After walking through the silent streets, they finally reached the dock. Lianmin looked around, searching for a small hut or house. She eventually found what she was looking for: a small hut close by the dock. She quickly walked up to the door, Peng following close behind, and rapped on the door.

After a few seconds, she heard some shuffling sounds, and the door was opened by an older goose.

"May I help you?" he asked in a kindly voice.

Lianmin pulled out her new scroll of recommendation, given to her by Master Ox, approving her to explore the city and ask whoever she wished whatever she wished. She handed it to the goose.

"I'm coming from the Tower, and I'm investigating the late Master Croc's death. I need to ask you a few questions."

Instantly, the goose's eyes grew as wide as grapefruits. His beak opened, but no words came out. Lianmin put her paws forward to try to relax him.

"Don't worry, I know you have no involvement," she began, and the goose gave a sigh of relief. "But I have reason to believe that the person who assassinated Master Croc left on this dock in the middle of the night."

The goose, relieved that he wasn't under suspicion for something he didn't do, was more than happy to comply.

"Oh! Of course! What can I do for you?"

"You are the harbor-master of this dock, are you not?"

"I am."

"And do you keep logs of when boats enter and leave this dock?"

The goose nodded.

"I would very much like to see that, if you wouldn't mind."

He was eager to get the law away from him, as it made him nervous. I wasn't as if he had ever done something illegal in his life, but he didn't want to risk anything.

He quickly took a few steps backwards and grabbed his log off of his small desk where he spent most of his waking hours. He quickly came back to the door with it in wing, and he handed it to Lianmin.

"Thank you," she told him. She looked down at the log, and Peng looked over her shoulder so he could also look upon it.

It was a simple log sheet that contained the dates that the boats on each individual tying stump, which were numbered, had entered or left.

Lianmin put her finger on the top of the list, walking back to the end of the dock in the process.

"Tying mast #1," the most recent log on it read. "Medium size pleasure boat. Red paint. Two triangular sails. Entered: Thursday night. Left-" It was blank. She looked up from the sheet, and saw the very ship on tying mast #1. It was Monday now, and Master Croc had been killed on a Thursday night, so she knew this couldn't be the boat that carried the assassin away.

With an understanding of how the log worked, Lianmin flew through the log, searching for anything that didn't add up. Everything seemed to be in place until she reached the seventh mast.

"Tying mast #7. Small fishing boat. Brown wooden hull. No paint. One triangular sail. Entered: Last Tuesday morning. Left: last Wednesday."

But something clicked in Lianmin's mind. If the fishing boat had been small, then why was it gone for so long? Determined to find the answer to her question, Lianmin shouted over to the harbor-master-

"Hey, could you come over here for a second?"

The goose, glad to comply, quickly waddled his way to her.

"This fishing boat that's supposed to be here: do you know anything about it?"

"Oh, of course," the goose replied. "An older pig makes that piece of junk float. He goes out to fish every once in a while, more out of hobby than need."

"And how long does he usually stay away for?"

"Hmm, maybe about a day."

"A day!" Lianmin shouted. "It's been five days since this boat left!"

"Well, that is rather unusual. I've never known him to be gone for more than a day and a half, and that was only because he was having the best day of his fishing career. But five days? That doesn't seem right."

Lianmin stayed silent for a second, dumbfounded at the goose's reaction. He had been gone for five days and that only seemed unusual to him?

With a slight smile, she handed the log back to the goose. Then, she looked out onto the river before her.

"When does the next ferry leave for the Valley of Peace?" she asked.

"Umm, tomorrow, I think?" replied the goose.

"Good," she said. "We need to be on it."

The Dragon Grotto

Shifu opened his eyes from his peaceful meditation, only to find the source of the noise that disturbed him to be his foster daughter and the Dragon Warrior. Now what could they have walked all the way up here for, the aging master wondered?

At least, he didn't know immediately, as Po and Tigress had let go of each other's paws the second they had rounded the corner of the grotto.

"Yes, my students?" he asked in a very teacher-like tone.

Both of them were silent for a second, as each had been hoping that the other would go first. When neither did, Tigress finally broke the silence.

"Master,-" she began, but she stopped. She realized something in that moment. She wasn't asking her master for his blessing in marriage, she was asking her father for his blessing in marriage. So, she started again.

"Baba," she started. Both Shifu and Po's eyebrows raised in the air, shocked at the pronoun. Shifu hadn't heard it in many a year, and Po had never heard it at all.

"We have something we need to tell you," she finally managed to get out.

Meanwhile, Shifu kept a straight face, but he was so confused right underneath his mask of calmness. Why had she called him that, he wondered? It was true, his and Tigress' relationship had shifted away from the teacher-student relationship they had been using before Po arrived. After he came and changed all their lives, their relationship had improved, but Tigress had never called him "Baba" recently. It made memories flash through his head. Memories of a young, joyous tiger cub, happy to have a home and a family, but also a young teenager that he had treated like a student. How did he not see that before, he wondered?

Finally, Shifu managed to reply with, "What is it?"

Tigress, in classical Tigress style, decided to come straight to the point.

"Baba, Po and I… we..." Tigress took in a deep breath and let it go. "We're in love," she finished.

Those words seemed to hang in the air forever, bouncing back and forth around the stone walls of the Grotto. Time seemed to come to a stop as Po and Tigress waited for his reaction.

At first, Shifu did not move. Then, he finally broke into a sad smile.

"Congratulations. You have my blessing."

It was now the lovers' turns to be shocked. That was not the response they had been expecting. They had been expecting resistance; they had been expecting that classic Shifu stubbornness. They thought he would say that they were partners in the fight against crime, they couldn't love each other. It would be too dangerous. They had been expecting something, anything. But his immediate blessing had not been what they were expecting.

In their silence, Shifu decided to explain his thoughts that he had been keeping locked within himself for so long.

"Tigress, there is something I need to tell you."

Both Tigress and Po had an idea of where the conversation was going, so Po took a few steps backward, walking back to the trail, and quietly threw a soft "I'll give you some space," over his shoulder.

As he rounded the corner and was out of sight, Po did a fist pump and did a small victory dance. His joy was eternal; his happiness would not be denied by anything. He danced all the way back to the barracks.

Meanwhile, in the Grotto, Shifu had started the conversation.

He had needed to tell her this for a long time, but he could never find the courage to say it. Now, he felt as if he didn't say it now, he never would.

"Tigress, I'm sorry," he began, his usually stern voice growing soft with tenderness. "I have made many mistakes in my life. I'm afraid that I was never a good parent, to either you or Tai-Lung. You see, I gave Tai-Lung all my love, but I also put my pride in him, seeing his accomplishments as my own. If he became the Dragon Warrior, then I would have been the one who taught the Dragon Warrior. Now I know that I tried to mold him for that title more for my own sake than for his."

Tigress was all too aware of the swing that Shifu's conversation was about to take.

"And when Oogway denied him the scroll, it only proved my master's words true. He was willing to hurt other people, including Oogway and I, to get that scroll. So when I brought you home from the orphanage, I believed that I needed to raise you in a different way. But that is where I made a mistake. I confused my pride for my love. I believed that I had shown him too much love, and that it had somehow poisoned him. I believed that love was not something that warriors such as ourselves needed. So I denied you love."

At this point, both father and daughter's eyes were welling with tears.

"I thought that I was doing what was best for you. I thought that I, by denying you love, would grow not to love. And if you didn't love, then you would never be hurt, as Tai-Lung had hurt me. Not physically, you see, but emotionally. I loved him, and it crushed me when he threw that away. I didn't want anyone to throw away your love like that and break your heart."

"But I was wrong. I now understand that love only makes us stronger, not weaker. When we have something to fight for, something to protect, then we will fight with all of our spirits. Oogway tried to tell me this, but I didn't listen. I believed that he had been able to transcend our mortal limitations and gain such insight into the universe because he had never given his heart to another. But what I didn't realize was that his heart did belong to another. It belonged to life, and to the people of the Valley. Master Oogway may not have settled down with someone whom he loved, but he did love."

"But now, things have changed. Oogway introduced Po into our lives, and his rather… unorthodox ways," he added with a light chuckle. "But I think, one way or another, Po has changed all of our lives. He has made us see the folly in our ways, and has shown us what life is really about. It is not just about protecting the Valley: it's about having a reason to protect the Valley. And I don't think we had that before Po arrived."

Shifu hopped off of his staff onto the rocky floor, now looking up at Tigress.

"And now it seems like you and Po have found love in each other. While it does not come as a shocking surprise-"

Tigress' ears turned red. She could never thank the gods enough for blessing her with orange fur.

"It is still my honor to give you my blessing. And now, daughter-"

Tigress suddenly felt a warm sensation, as she couldn't remember the last time he had called her that.

"Can you forgive me for my terrible mistakes?" Shifu's eyes did manage to hold back their tears, but Tigress could see the effort he had to put forth to prevent them from bursting through.

Tigress could only smile as she bent down to hug her father.

"Of course I forgive you," she said through her sniffles. "I love you, Baba."

While their size differential made hugging difficult for Shifu, he did his best to cling to the back of her neck as he softly replied, "And I love you, my daughter."

And, that concludes the latest chapter! Hope you found it to your liking!

Keep being awesome!