Greetings, reader friend! Apologies for the delay, some last minute changes (and personal problems) that made the chapter late, but don't worry Sunday of this week, you'll get your chapter.
As always my thanks to Starless Echoes for being my beta reader (he has to put up with me poor guy). And thanks to HanMan99 who is now following this story. A little clarification, for this chapter change of point of view I wanted to see how Julian's presence impacted this world, so expect a change from time to time, but the story will focus mainly (let's say 70% of the time) on Julian, the rest will be shared between Tigress and my future antagonist (I want to give depth to this one, not just say oh it's meant to be mean, but don't worry it will be very brutal). And just so we're clear, this chapter takes place the during the chapter 3. Some answers to some of your comments
Guest : "Will Julian become an animal? If yes which, wolf or white tiger?"
Answer : I don't think so, it's not in my mind.
HanMan99 : "I'm really liking this story so far. It's nice to see a protagonist that is vulnerable and is having trouble adjusting to an entirely foreign environment. Many 'transported into another world' stories seem to have the protagonists adjust almost immediately and without hiccups (when there is a lot of entertainment and value found in the clash of cultures/worlds) This story feels really fresh. I can't wait for the next chapter! Instant fav and follow from me."
Answer : So this is going to be a bit long, so if you want, you can ignore all the bold text. So already thank you for appreciating my work (I hope not to disappoint you), and concerning your remark, I totally agree traveling in dimensions in this way must mean a brutal change of environment, nobody can adapt to such an environment in just two days, how many stories or movies tell the story of a hero who lands in an unknown world, who at the beginning is in Oh! No... mode and then some moment later mmmh anyway. There are so many possibilities to write a story where the hero suffers from the lack of his missing world, we could start in a depressive state where the hero although doing all the efforts can't adapt and ends up committing suicide, or we could start in a more classical way by making him adapt but with a lot of time and effort, or why not make him go mad and enter into a destructive rage, that will transform the protagonist into an antagonist. There is nothing more satisfying than to see the hero suffer, not for sadism (although...) but to see that he is also human, prey to doubts, weaknesses that can imprison him in a destructive spiral, as much as we simple human are confronted.
Here, have a good reading !
My chest rises and falls gently in a slow rhythm. I got up early to meditate under the peach tree. I used to do it regularly but last night I had a sort of premonitory dream... or vision. What little I can remember of it was a vision of a village in flames and a creature I couldn't recognize. It was frightening, it was unlike anything I know or ever knew. It was in the middle of the blaze, attacking and destroying everything in its path with extreme ferocity. I tried to fight it, but as soon as this thing saw me a sheet of darkness spread around me and suddenly invaded me. Fear, anger, sadness and despair were the only feelings I could feel; some kind of chains were wrapped around my wrists and legs, I was like a prisoner of my own feelings, and I could not remove my bonds. Then, without knowing why, my body was filled with an immense pain, and I suddenly woke up in my room in sweat. I did not understand the meaning of this dream, this vision, if there was one. I couldn't go back to sleep, so to clear my mind I decided to meditate for the rest of my sleep cycle.
Continuing my meditation, my mind was slowly calming down. I could feel the wind caressing my fur accentuating my state of well-being. In a few days, it would be three years since Master Oogway had left us. Now it was up to Po to take his place as a great master and teach us all there was to know about Kung Fu, but it would still take time. Master Shifu hasn't stopped training with him, preparing him, since he defeated Kai. A smile appeared on my face. The poor guy keeps complaining and whining, he works twice as hard as before and has to take everything he does seriously, something that Po still has a hard time with, but after all Po is still young and has a lot to learn just like me. Opening my eyes again, I could see my daily sunrise starting its next cycle.
"Beautiful!" The view is breathtaking. Every morning since I've been living in the Jade Palace, I'm here to meditate and see my sunrise. It's something that has always calmed me down and put my mind at ease, even when Shifu kept pushing us, overtraining us, but since he found inner peace, life at the palace had become much more pleasant. My eyes scanned the horizon again, a thin layer of mist that enveloped the valley began to slowly disappear as the bright star rose into the sky. Life in the village also began its new cycle: the villagers opened their shutters and began to walk down the streets and alleys towards their fields or their street shops. Today was going to be like the previous ones, we were going to help the workers to repair the palace, which was still heavily damaged since Kai's attack. Shifu had given us the right to stop our trainings for the time of the works, a kind of forced rest, but Po and Shifu had been training together since then, so with the four others we decided to help the workers to speed up the works, and with our help the time of the works was reduced by three. A few more days and we will finally be finished, so we can resume our training. A smile of satisfaction could be read on my face, before the sound of the gong brought me out of my reflection. My ears turned backwards, having a hearing as precise as mine was extremely useful. I stood up from my position noticing that the sun had almost finished its ascent, its gentle warmth slowly began to penetrate my fur, warming my body. After a few moments of contemplation, I slowly walked towards the kitchen to have my breakfast.
Taking a relaxed step forward, I approached the kitchen. The smells of various foods and spices filled the air outside, my nostrils tingling with happiness as I approached. Po prepared food every morning, he was a great cook, much better than any of us, after all his father was one of the best restaurateurs in the village, as animals from all over the valley come to eat at his place and I even heard that some animals come from the farthest reaches of China exclusively to eat a dish at the goose's place. This possibility had marked my mind, to make hundreds or even thousands of kilometers just to go to a restaurant! It was beyond me... It is true that Ping's cooking is excellent, but it is just a restaurant! But... I stopped this thread of my thoughts, admitting that after all, we have the chance to live in the same village as Ping's restaurant, and Po invites us there every weekend, just before our day of rest, and I have to admit that every time it is a great pleasure to eat there. Being now in front of the kitchen door, my paw made it slide to the left, inside were already all the others sitting at their respective places, Po was cooking in the small kitchen on the right side, the five turned around. Po as usual was the first to greet me, waving.
"Hi Tigress! I made you some tofu and jasmine tea as usual." He continued to juggle the kitchen utensils, making them twirl in the air, before catching them and using them again to prepare the morning meal. My gaze shifted to the others. Viper was the second to speak to me.
"Have you been meditating, Tigress?" Stepping inside the room, I closed the door behind me, moving inside, past Mantis and Crane, to sit next to Viper. Sitting down on the bench, I began to move the various bowls and cups in front of me.
"Yeah, that was pretty relaxing." I didn't add anything more, but I could see Viper looking at me with suspicion. How could she possibly know? The possibility that Viper knew I lied disturbed me for a moment, but after all we've all known each other for a very long time, we're family, I shouldn't be surprised that Viper knew I was lying to her. Refocusing my gaze on my food so as not to say more or in this case not to add more to his suspicion, I didn't want to talk about my strange dream to Viper or to any of the other Five for that matter, the only one I could talk to about it is Shifu, and by the way where is he? I raised my head and looked to my left and right, he wasn't there. It's strange, he is always there to share breakfast with us, it's not his habit. Before I could say a word, Crane spoke up, putting his bowl on the table with his paw.
"If you're looking for Master Shifu, he said he had something important to do before he came to eat." I looked at him for a moment before nodding my head in agreement. I looked back at my meal, grabbing my chopsticks with my paw, I began to eat my tofu freshly prepared by Po. The rest of the lunch went on in a great silence, everyone eating and drinking quietly, which was quite nice from a personal point of view. Po kept manipulating and juggling his cooking utensils, after a while he stopped, walked over to the table and put all his plates, bowls and cups on it. He ended up sitting right in front of me watching his plates carefully, I could count thirteen of them in front of him, which is not unusual for him, he's quite a big eater, even if I have to say that he usually puts in a little more plates and food than today. Continuing my meal, I could watch Mantis watching Po carefully.
You're on a diet Po? I usually count fifteen! Now there are ONLY thirteen!" He and Monkey laughed, the others smiled and looked at Po with great amusement, and a small smirk formed on my face. I took my cup of jasmine tea and drank some of its contents. Po leaned forward and looked at Mantis
"AH, AH, AH, very funny Mantis!" He said with a mischievous look, before a hint of fear crept into his voice, "It's just, uh... Me, deciding to go on a little diet..." I put my cup on the table totally surprised because Po had just said, besides I think I'm not the only one, the others looked at each other surprised, before watching Po again with still the same amazement on their faces.
"Did you just tell us that you were on a diet Po? " Crane asked cautiously. Po didn't know where to put himself anymore, he looked extremely embarrassed by the situation, he looked at all of us with great suspicion.
"Yes, of course! I found that during my fight with Kai, I lacked..." He searched for words for a moment, looking up to the ceiling. I could see that he was sinking into his own lies. I'll help him a little.
"... Punch I guess." I said while taking some of my tofu back. He stood up abruptly from his chair, moving the table in the process which spilled some of my tea on my jacket, and with a sudden gesture he pointed at me.
"YES! That's what I meant! Punch!" He exclaimed loudly, I glared at him, letting out a slight growl. Realizing his somewhat disproportionate reaction, he slowly sat back in his chair, pulling the table towards him to put it back in the right place. I picked up my cup of tea to find that it was now completely empty, put it back down and huffed in frustration. I looked up to see that Po was drinking his mushroom soup, everyone had gone back to lunch satisfied with the answer Po had provided, all except Mantis, turning my gaze to my right, I could see Mantis thinking about something, he was gently smoothing his mustache from left to right with one of his claws, nodding slightly up and down. After a brief moment, he pointed one of his claws at Po.
"Are you sure it's not more for a certain Song, who we saw recently, Po?" A wide smile now brightened his face. Po inadvertently swallowed too much of his soup and began to cough, before spitting it all out on me, my face was completely soaked and noodles were now on my hair, my eyes froze I looked straight ahead of me with a stoic air, Po continued to cough strongly, but this time in the direction of the ground. Monkey had the look which oscillated between me and Po, surely expecting a reaction from me, I was just waiting for my moment to strike, and I can admit that it would hurt... very hurt! Po sat up, continuing to cough a little before his gaze locked on me, an apologetic smile slowly forming on his face.
"Hey... Tigress! Uh..." Then he pointed at me "New haircut! Huh, it looks good on you" He said with a laugh, which didn't seem forced at all. But before he could add anything else, I got up from my chair curtly, the wood creaked on the floor, Po immediately stopped his silly laugh, his look had changed, he was wondering what I was going to do to him. I moved calmly to the side of the table and approached him, my eyes never left him. Everyone in the room tensed up, Viper tried to intervene but to no avail.
"Uh... Tigress you know you should..." My glare fell on Viper, she stopped her sentence. While my gaze refocused on Po, I slowly grabbed one of Po's bowls in front of me with both paws, my nose twitched at the smoke of the broth, I could tell it was noodles that had been boiled with various aromatics, pepper, ginger. Smelling more I recognized some other flavors, sesame... mmmh a bit of star anise this meal sounds delicious what a shame to have to spoil it! I brought it to my height and stared firmly at Po for a while. The silence was total, no one dared to say or do anything, Monkey swallowed, having his eyes wide open, poor Po was terrified about the real nature of my intentions, he had moved back from his chair and stood with his back arched backwards in the futile hope of escaping his fate, everyone was expecting to see Po suffer my reprisal and that's exactly what I wanted, to create the surprise effect Suddenly, I threw the bowl in the air, all the occupants of the room observed attentively my gestures, I placed myself in position of defense clenching my fists in front of me, the bowl continued its race in the air until the moment when it began its fall, just before the bowl fell on the table, I carried out a kick of turned over, propelling the bowl and all its contents of all my forces in direction not of Po, but of Mantis which surely did not expect what was going to arrive to him. The bowl flew from one end of the table to the other, spinning on itself before finally hitting Mantis head on, he fell on the chair that was behind him, the bowl bounced on the floor before ending its race in a corner of the room, Mantis quickly resurfaced, he was totally soaked and covered with noodles. Everyone in the kitchen looked at each other dumbfounded, before Monkey broke the silence that I must admit was a bit embarrassing.
"Ah! My man! You've been on this one!" While removing the noodles from his friend's back he added with amusement "You know better than to mess with Tigress though! "Mantis was already cleaning up his face, carefully wiping his shell. He looked at me for a moment, a smile forming on his lips.
"Well! I must admit I didn't see that coming, well done Tigress!" Indeed, it was totally planned, old man. Patting Po on the shoulder, I replied.
"You don't think I was going to hold Po responsible for that" showing my still wet face with my claw "You're the one responsible with your stupid jokes" I added with a slight smile. Po was fascinated by the scene he had just seen, he was excited as a flea.
"Whoa! That was awesome Tigress! I didn't see that coming either!" Even after all this time with us, he was still so easily impressed.
"Indeed that was very impressive, Master Tigress." Shifu spoke loudly, my body tensed abruptly, I quickly turned around and bowed to greet him. Noodles flew in front of my vision, swaying from right to left. I quickly wiped my face, removing the noodles on my fur with a quick motion, throwing them on the ground.
"Master Shifu." We declared in unison. How could I not hear him? He slowly hobbled across the room and stood right next to me. I was still in the greeting position, but my eyes kept watching him. What was he going to do? This time the roles were reversed, and I was now wondering what would happen to me. Shifu looked at me for a moment before grabbing one of the bowls of Po that was on the table.
"Nice shot, master Tigress! But if you had placed your strike better, you could have made the bowl fall on the table instead of on the floor..." he slowly swirled the bowl mixing the ingredients inside, he then brought it to his mouth and drank a few sips, savoring for a few seconds the dish, then he raised his head.
"... Like this!", I could see a slight smile on his face, so he was not angry with me. Then he jumped in the air, leaving my greeting position, my body quickly straightened up, my eyes never left him. He spun around quickly before hitting the center of the bowl with one of his paw palms, propelling it directly onto Mantis, who took it again with full force, falling back onto his chair, but this time the bowl spun in the air before falling perfectly onto the table. Mantis got up from his chair, groaning not in pain, but in frustration. Everyone in the room was confused again because they had just happened, including me. Did Master Shifu just do what I saw? My eyes went back to Shifu, I was watching him carefully, a satisfied smile was on his face. A laugh suddenly broke the silence, I turned my head sharply, it was that of Monkey, he was laughing on his chair, before everyone ended up accompanying him in heart, even I began to laugh slightly, Mantis did not know where to put himself, his shell color and change from green to a light brown, he finally began to laugh at the grotesque situation, after a brief moment of general laughter. Shifu turned to me before observing the others, his look had changed, he looked... worried! What could be worrying Master Shifu? He hobbled to his right before finally speaking up.
"Students! I..." he was silent. I held my breath, and I could tell that everyone else was also paying close attention to what Shifu was about to say, laughter gave way to silence. He swallowed a little before saying, "I recently received a message from an official of the imperial army... "The emperor! What did the emperor or whatever his title wanted from Master Shifu? The emperor's army has never contacted us before! They must be really desperate. "... You are aware that some villages on the border have been suffering from raider and thief attacks for many years?" I and the others nodded, this was nothing new, the looters and thieves guilds that lived across the border regularly caused us problems, attacking and looting nearby villages before returning to where he came from using the border as a shield, the imperial army soldiers could not cross the border without prior permission, preventing any retaliation against these bands of bandits. The emperor could not put a garrison in each village near the border either, it would literally be the whole army of China that would be needed! Watching Shifu carefully, I saw him pull a scroll from inside his robe, he unrolled it slowly before starting to read it.
"By order of the Emperor of China,
Me, Commander Zhao, have the immeasurable sadness to announce the destruction of Sha Tin Village, Tuen Mun, Xinxiang, Baoding and the port city of Fuxin..."
"What...?" Crane abruptly cut off Shifu "How... How is this possible? How could so many villages fall so quickly! What happened to the villagers?" My eyes froze, Crane was right, I couldn't even imagine what could have happened to them. Everyone in the room was silent, Po had suddenly taken his serious look, Shifu cleared his throat before continuing to read the message.
"The emperor in his immense desire for justice has decided to strike down his miserable miscreants, by destroying one of their camps established outside our border. Having obtained the support and backing of the Grand Vidame lord of the neighboring region, my imperial forces and that of the Grand Vidame will attack the enemy camp simultaneously, thus putting an end to their wretched exactions against the empire. The attack will be supervised under my command and will be carried out in two days.
Nevertheless, it has been found that last night an animal of unknown origin tried to enter the mountain village of Yingzou while my army and I were camping a few miles away. According to the first findings, the locals saw a kind of creature without hair, with long claws instead of claws, uttering monster-like cries and speaking in an indescribable and incomprehensible language. Moreover, according to them, it was wearing a kind of bloody animal skin. The villagers are terrified and are holding me and my army back, imploring me not to abandon them to the hands of the "scarlet demon". I therefore ask for the support of your greatest warriors, whose exploits have travelled all over China, to help this village and thus allow me to apply the will of the emperor.
I will meet you in the village of Yingzou to give you all the instructions and information about the creature before I and my army leave to do our duty!
Commander Zhao of the fourth and sixth imperial companies."
My gaze was troubled. This thing, this creature, looks strangely like the one I saw in my dream... What could it mean? I must tell Master Shifu about it. Other questions came to my mind, was it a dangerous threat? Are we dealing with a new Kai? I began to observe the others, they looked just as lost, all astonished as I was, all except Po who had lost his serious look and was starting to stomp impatiently on his chair, it is true that we hadn't seen any action for weeks, as if the bandits had calmed down or had disappeared since Kai's attack. And to hear that someone needed our services was something to be appreciated, despite the context. Suddenly, Po broke the silence with a voice full of joy.
"The Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior vs the Scarlet Demon! That sounds super cool!" Then rising from his chair, he looked at master Shifu with a beaming smile, "When are you sending us, master?" Shifu was silent, it was strange, fighting this kind of thing was not foreign to us. So why did Shifu seem to be so hesitant to intervene? He slowly folded the scroll before putting it away inside his robe, he hobbled towards the door and stood facing all of us, watching us carefully, I could read the worry in his eyes.
"Master? Is everything all right? "I asked worriedly. He looked at me, a smile forming on his lips, before finally speaking.
"I don't know what this... thing is, but ever since I received this message early this morning, I have been reading Master Oogway's scrolls over and over in the hopes of finding out the truth." Lowering his gaze to the ground, he admitted, "But I have found absolutely nothing, this... this is not normal! "He raised his eyes, observing each of us for a moment, before continuing his speech" I don't want to put you in danger, but knowing that this is a request from an imperial official. Unfortunately, I can't refuse him my help, so the five of you will go to meet him and clear this up..." I looked at him carefully. The five of us? That means he's going to leave someone here. But who? The answer to my question soon came. "... Tigress, Viper, Monkey, Crane and Mantis will leave for the meeting with Commander Zhao. If you prepare now you can leave this afternoon and join his army tomorrow morning."
Po breathed in exasperation.
"Master why..." Shifu cut him off quickly.
"No! I need you here to provide a rear guard for the village, in case any bandits get the idea to attack us." He turned around, slid the door open, just as we all thought Shifu was done he continued with a hint of irritability, "And anyway you still have to do your training! This is too important." He passed the door frame and closed it quickly behind him. Po sat back in his chair and sighed in frustration.
"I've been training for weeks! And now that he has something interesting, I'm forced to stay and train again!" He abruptly put his arms on the table making all the bowls shake, he continued to sigh in exasperation. I stood still and understood his feelings, having the opportunity to do something, but being forbidden to do so, reminded me of the time I disobeyed Master Shifu regarding Tai Lung, and my stupid intervention almost killed us all that day. Viper slid to the side before facing Po.
"Po, I know you'd like to intervene, but Shifu needs you here. It could be dangerous." Po turned his head and watched Viper.
"Yes... I know but, I... I could never forgive myself if something happened to you..." he left Viper for a moment before looking at each of us, "Knowing that you're on the other side of China, and I'm stuck here! Reminds me of Kai when he attacked you while I was in Panda Village... I... I don't want that to happen again. We're family." As soon as Po finished, everyone's eyes darkened. He was right, it was obvious, we were running a great risk by going without Po. I lowered my vision to the floor, another thought came to me, I never thought that Po would say such a thing one day. My eyes moistened slightly, we were a family... I thought I was the only one to think such a thing. Raising his head the others still had a serious look, Crane drank his tea from time to time, Viper did not know what to say and remained frozen on the spot, Mantis continued to clean himself, but with less enthusiasm than before. Monkey looked straight ahead, totally silent, then he started to look to his left and right.
"You want to make us cry, buddy!" Then looking at me "Look even Tigress is crying" My body froze, I blushed unconsciously, the others began to look at me. Not letting myself be destabilized for a moment, I growled slightly, then showing my face with one of my claws.
"That's because someone I won't name sprayed my face with spicy broth!" Crossing my arms over my chest, I stood and watched Mantis, who had not followed the conversation at all, continuing to remove the noodles and dry himself off. When he realized that everyone was watching him. He looked at us completely confused.
"What?" Monkey laughed slightly at his friend.
"Oh nothing! Then he got up from his chair and invited Mantis to climb on his shoulder. I'll help you wash up a bit before leaving" Mantis jumped on Monkey's right shoulder, and they left the kitchen towards the bathing area. Since I absolutely had to go see Shifu, I took my chance and also started to leave.
"I have to go see Shifu before I get ready, I'll see you later." But before I could leave, the kitchen Po called out to me.
"Tigress, as you go to see master Shifu try to convince him to let me join you, I..." He stopped, saying no more words. I looked at him for a moment, before smiling.
"I'll try, Po, but I can't promise you anything."
"Trying is enough for me, don't worry..." Then observing his plates, he took them all, holding them between his fingers and putting them on his forearms before going to one of the kitchen cupboards, opening it and putting one by one the plates inside "... I'm not very hungry anymore, I'll go and meditate a little. "Then he left the room, going out the door of the gardens. He had not even finished his meal, it must be worse than I thought! Taking advantage of this moment, I slipped out of the kitchen and headed for the Hall of warriors, leaving Crane and Viper in the kitchen. Walking quickly, I crossed the palace from one end to the other. Entering the hall of warriors, I noticed that many scrolls were lying on the floor, some were completely unrolled, others were piled up in a big pile to the right of Shifu. My gaze now turned to Shifu who was sitting in the middle of the room on the stone floor, reading one of the scrolls, I slowly approached him. He closed the scroll and put it on his left. With a fluid movement his ears swiveled back.
"Tigress, why did you come to me?" He didn't even have to look at me to know it was me, do I have a quirk when I move? I'll have to ask Shifu later, it might be helpful for me to be more discreet. I continued to approach him before stopping in front of the pool that was at the back of the room, Shifu had lit all the candles that were located around it, their soft lights gave a calm and relaxing atmosphere to the room. My vision turned away from them to face Shifu, I was searching for my words, I did not know how to start the conversation. He stood up using one of his paws on the ground to help himself, his eyes continued to watch me, he looked worried by my presence, he approached me hobbling slightly before holding one of my paws.
"Tigress... What's wrong? I see you have a problem." I watched him hold my paw, having him now as a confidant, as a real father, rather than a teacher, than a master was something I appreciated immensely. Four years ago I didn't feel the need for it... Well, I would say I was hiding it from myself, but now I can't do without it. Sometimes, I consider it as a form of weakness that my enemies could exploit, so I continue from time to time in spite of everything to hide some things, but this was different, it is much too important! If I didn't tell him about my dream, some of them might get hurt, or worse, killed. I looked him straight in the eyes, I could see in his iris the worry that was slowly growing.
"Master! I have to talk to you, it's very important." He let go of my paw, probably surprised by my request, before pulling himself together.
"Yes, of course!" He pointed to a place on the floor where there was a cushion, "Sit down. I walked over to the cushion and sat on my knees, Shifu placed himself in front of me, his body slumped gently on his cousin, before his gaze settled on me, a warm smile appeared on his face. His paw rose up, his palm opening towards me, he presented me with a kettle surely filled with tea and hot water
"Some tea?" I nodded my head, and he handed me a cup, placing it right in front of my cushion, before taking the kettle and filling my cup and his.
"Thank you master." I grabbed my cup, a thin smoke of steam billowing out of it. Blowing lightly on it, I brought it to my mouth before drinking a mouthful. It was white tea, it's not one of my favorites, but it's still enjoyable. The hot water flowed slowly down my throat, it was still very hot, I almost burned myself. I put my cup back on the floor to let my tea cool down a bit before drinking it again. My attention went back to Shifu, he hadn't touched his tea, his eyes were locked on me, his hands were clenched on his knees, I could see that he was tense and that he was only waiting for one thing; that I tell him my problem. I breathed in strongly, my shoulders, my chest contracted, my mind was gone to find a solution to the way to bring the thing. Then some words came out.
"Master, I... I had a strange dream last night." Turning my gaze away from Shifu I lowered my eyes to the ground, "I wouldn't tell you about it if I didn't think it was important, at least at first I did, but since you came to us with this strange matter and well..." His paw slowly reached out before landing on my right knee, I lifted my head.
"You can tell me anything you know?" I smiled at him in response before grabbing my cup of tea and drinking some of it, I put it back on the marbled floor. I then began to explain to him in detail my dream, at least the little I remembered, he listened to me with great attention, he did not say any words during my long monologue, just nodded and drank some of his tea. As soon as I finished, he stood up, walked over to me and put his two paws on my shoulders.
"Thank you for telling me about Tigress." And he hugged me. I was taken by surprise, I didn't expect such a reaction from him, a feeling appeared inside me that wasn't unpleasant, it was even very appreciable, I don't know how long our embrace lasted, maybe a few seconds, maybe several minutes, but whatever, I strangely wanted this moment to never end. Shifu finally withdrew and returned to his position." I understand your concern and in view of what you just told me, I am more and more worried by the situation." He huffed in exasperation, his shoulders sagging. "But as I said, I can't refuse the request of an emperor's official." I nodded slowly, Shifu obviously couldn't refuse such a request, but could he at least send Po with us to help if it ever went wrong?
"Master, I thought we could go with Po, he is the only one who knows how to proceed with this kind of creature." His gaze went blank for a moment as if he was completely lost, as if he didn't know what to do. Shifu swallowed before taking his cup and taking a sip. He kept his cup in his paw before looking at me.
"I know, and I wish he would go with you, but like I said, Po has to stay here to defend the valley, and I can't send him alone or with half of the fives, the ones that stay won't be enough to protect the valley..." He closed his eyes, his ears went back, he put his cup on the ground. "I... I'm getting old, the fight for me is over. I'm sorry, but Po can't go with you, he has to stay." My ears snapped back as well. Shifu was right, the valley must be protected by all means even if it means putting us in potential danger on one of our missions. He couldn't help us, I'm sure he would have if he could.
"I understand Master, I..." I felt a paw land on me, reopening my eyes I could see Shifu standing in front of me, his eyes looked wet, was he crying?
"Make me a promise, Tigress! Don't take any unnecessary risks there, sometimes the easiest solution isn't necessarily the best, okay." I smiled at him and nodded in response. His paw withdrew from me, he breathed a sigh of relief before moving to the door to go outside, as he walked he addressed me. "You should go get ready, the others must have already finished, and don't forget your promise." He then left the room, I had been sitting on my cushion thinking about what Shifu had told me. After a brief moment of emptiness, I got up and went to my room.
I didn't have much stuff, so it didn't take me long to get everything ready. Walking out of my room, I could see that Viper was waiting for me outside.
"What are you doing here?" I was surprised, his tail started to shake slowly, it was usually one of the signs of his nervousness.
"Well, I wanted to know if you were okay, you've been spending a lot of time with Shifu, it's just that..." She stopped talking, catching her breath "If you need to talk I'm here" I watched her for a moment, before kneeling down on the floor putting myself at Viper's level, I smiled warmly at her.
"I know, I will, don't worry, but not now." Her facial scales contracted, to form a sort of serpentine smile, she nodded before sliding across the floor towards the gardens.
Once outside, I could see the sun almost at its zenith, it must have been eleven o'clock or maybe more, so we headed for the outside exit. All the others were already waiting for us with a little bundle, except for Po, who was standing at Shifu's side. I approached the group, Viper slipped behind me to position himself next to Crane. Po and Shifu looked at me, they were not smiling as they usually do when we go on a mission, I could feel a deep sadness in their eyes. Shifu looked away, addressing the whole group.
"Student! It's time for you to leave, be careful out there, we don't know if the creatures really exist and what their real intention is. His gaze fell on me for a moment, before returning to the center of the group. "So don't take any unnecessary risks." Po stepped forward slightly.
"Good luck guys! I have to stay here to protect the valley, so think of me and bring me back a souvenir, eh!" Ending his sentence with a slight embarrassed laugh. We all nodded our heads in agreement, the mood was heavy, dark, no one had the heart to laugh, even Mantis and Monkey refrained from making a joke. I leaned forward, greeting Po and Shifu, before the others imitated my gesture. We all walked through the door and started to descend the thousand-step staircase, I turned to watch Shifu. I waved my paw at him before continuing my descent.
"I will keep my promise, master... Don't worry."
I joined the others, and began our journey to Yingzou village.
And here it is the end, a lot of things to say today and still I controlled myself because otherwise it would have been a chapter much too long, as always if you have questions or interrogations on certain elements ask them to me, I would answer them, if you find certain thing has to say them that will allow me to improve my skills of writings. See you Sunday for new adventures, always further, always higher, always stronger. This is Noxymilien, end of transmission.