Hello there!
So, you may have noticed that I pushed back Supper's Ready to make room for this. Today's edition is named after Genesis' Watcher of the Skies (but you probably already guessed that. You strike me as a smart person). Why did I do this, you ask?
Well, first of all, the song itself is the first one of their album Foxtrot, and has, to me, become the very definition of an album opener (remember how I said I listen to entire albums at once?). It's literally the perfect way to begin a journey. Especially since Supper's Ready (the song, not my one-shot) is the last song on the album. It's like, when I listen to Watcher of the Skies, I enjoy it a lot, but there's also the underlying tingling sensation that I'm going to get to listen to Supper's Ready at the end. The entire album is just perfection for me, and if I'm going to open up this collection, the honor should go to Watcher of the Skies.
Well, the story isn't going to write itself, is it? Hmm…
I don't own KFP or associates or Dreamworks (what!? You didn't know that?). This takes place during KFP 1 itself.
On with the show!
The watcher of the skies. Watcher of all.
Or, at least, that was what they thought about when they saw him.
He was… a simple man, but also a complicated one. His understanding of the universe was probably unmatched in the entirety of China, or perhaps even the world. But it was the little things in life, the tiny, itty-bitty things that he noticed that simply flew over others' heads. Like the stars.
Up by the small cliff, an old, old tortoise sat by a familiar tree, his legs folded up, his claws peacefully placed over his lap, his shoulder leaning on the tree. For most, a tree was still a fledgling sapling if they had planted it in their lifetime. But for the tortoise, the tree was an old friend, one he had met early in his long life. For Oogway had planted the Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom almost a thousand years ago.
What was it like, they sometimes asked him? What did it mean to live so long? To see so many people around him be born, grow up, and die? He usually replied with some kind of riddle or question, because he knew that the answer could not come from his mouth, but rather from their own spirits. There were no sounds he could utter with his tongue and vocal chords that would give them the revelation they so desired.
When they asked him, it always seemed negative. Watching his friends die. What they never realized was that he got to see so many different generations of friends live. Over the millennia, Oogway had amassed quite the collection of both friends and enemies. Tales of his life could fill books upon books upon books. But it was his friends that he liked to focus on and remember. Did he miss them? No. Did he mourn them? No. He rejoiced the fact that they were here in the Mortal Realm and that they now peacefully lived in the Spirit Realm with their own loved ones.
It had been hard at first. His two hundreds and three hundreds had been rather rough years. The cycle of life and death had only just introduced itself to the tortoise, and he had been blind as to its meaning. What could it all mean, he wondered? What was life all about? What was the point of life if we were all just destined to die anyway? And if we were destined to die, then why did we cling to life? And why did people suddenly throw away that instinct when a loved one was in danger?
Oogway had so many questions when he was younger, but there had been no one to answer him. He had pondered, and pondered, and pondered, but he discovered that pointless pondering only left him with a headache, an empty stomach, and duties that still needed to be done. It wasn't enough to merely think about life, he needed to live it.
And so he had. For a few more hundred years, he began to watch as the cycle of life, death, and new life repeated itself. And with every cycle, the pain of lost friends slightly lessened, and his understanding slightly grew.
In a sense, it was truly unfair. It had taken him hundreds of years to understand it all. He knew that Shifu desired, above all, an understanding of the universe such as his own. He had tried his best to explain it to Shifu, but once again, the answers lied within Shifu himself, and there was nothing that Oogway could say that would make him understand. How would Shifu, who had a more normal lifespan, ever have enough time to experience it all? The tortoise had once spent twenty years in a cave, just meditating. Shifu didn't have that kind of time. If he tried it now, he'd probably be dead by the time the twenty years was up.
It seemed so ironic for people that for one with such complex knowledge and wisdom, tiny things could bring him joy. Things like sitting outside at night, his back to the tree, his staff by his side, looking up at the stars. A cool wind blew, lightly blowing the sash slung across the front of his shell.
Few people appreciated the stars the same way he did. It wasn't as if he merely looked up at them occasionally and said to himself, "Oh, that's pretty." He could sit for hours at night, staring up and soaking in that moment forever.
It was a very strange position to be in, because people thought it strange that he enjoyed such little things. In fact, it was he who found it ironic, because he knew that everybody carried the answer to their deepest questions with them, and they often dangled in front of their faces. But it couldn't be that obvious, could it? Surely, they said, the meaning of the universe must be so complex and so unbelievably intricate that it must be studied by the world's top scholars and debated and pondered and investigated and questioned.
Oogway had once thought the same way, but he realized at the ripe age of six or seven hundred what his meaning was, what his purpose was. It was difficult to grasp only because of its wonderful simplicity.
The tortoise loved life, and one would think it sad that he was about to leave it. A millennium. That was how long he had lived. He knew the meaning of his life. But he also understood the importance of the end. The inevitability of change.
And he was not afraid of death. He welcomed it as an old friend. He had many, many friends he was due to catch up with in the Spirit Realm. His parents were there, waiting for him. He was ready.
But he just wanted to see the stars one more time. They were so beautiful, he thought. Their shine, their glow, their shimmering. The way they covered the night sky as if they were decorations just for him. Connecting together to form all kinds of images and depictions. It was perfect.
It was so fitting that his final moments spent alone were ones spent looking up at the sky. As he continued to stare, he eventually heard the expected sound of hurried footsteps. He smiled, as he knew what it was. It was Shifu, coming to tell him that Tai Lung had escaped. But what Shifu didn't know was that he had left the solution to his problem back at the kitchen with a pair of bowls stuck to his chest and noodles forming a fake mustache.
Oogway knew he would realize that the panda was the solution eventually. But as the footsteps grew ever louder, the tortoise gripped his staff with his claw and stood up, casting one last glance at the night sky.
The watcher of the skies. Watcher of all.
And that will kick off this collection! I am so excited for this! This is going to be awesome!
(Oh, and for a little teaser, our next little story will be called "Starless." Yes, just like my name!)
Keep being awesome!