So it turned out I had a cold now, thank you Crane, and was told to get some rest for the rest of the day, maybe tomorrow as well, and I'll be better in no time. A shame too because I was starting to make great progress. Having to block and dodge the dragon blocks, I never imagined that I could do anything close to that with a hundred years. Guess I should be proud. I made a difference to myself and showed what I'm capable of to everyone. I heard the door to my room creak. I looked to the side to see Viper walk in with a box balanced on top of her head.
"Hi Mike".
"Hi Nurse".
She rolled her eyes and set the box down. My curiosity quickly ran out.
"What's the box for"? I asked, pointing to the rectangular object with my tail.
"Mahjong". She pointed out as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. Honestly, I didn't know anything about Mahjong. I only knew that it was a type of board game but that was all I knew, which raised a question.
"How disappointed would you be if I said I didn't know how to play mahjong"? I asked apologetically. This didn't seem to phase the snake much as she continued to talk.
"Not very, I can easily teach you how to play it. What with you being in bed for a while, I can imagine how boring it is just lying there".
"True". I admitted.
Viper then set the mahjong board in front of me and taught me everything I needed to know about the game, step by step. She had to explain the rules several times over before I had a good understanding on what I was meant to do. Apparently it was meant to be played with four people to make it more fun, but seeing how everyone had already made plans for the rest of the day, I guess I was stuck with just Viper for a while. Not that I don't appreciate the company, it's just that getting a cold was sucking at whatever morale I had left.
Mahjong reminded me a bit of cards, without the betting. The most I could get to understanding the game was having to build a four sided city wall to win. Even so, I did begin to enjoy the game more with each passing second. We had a total of three games each which took maybe half an hour or so to finish. I lost every game.
"That went well, considering this was your first time playing mahjong". Viper spoke to cheer me up.
"You're kidding right? You kicked my tail at every game".
"Still, first time Mantis played, he threw the board through the window when he lost".
"That doesn't surprise me". I laughed, imagining Mantis getting all worked up over a simple- well, simple ish game.
For the next hour, myself and Viper began to talk about ourselves. Turns out that Viper was the daughter of a great master and had even saved her own village from a fearsome gorilla bandit with ribbons. I couldn't help but smirk, imagining a huge gorilla get taken down by a young snake armed with dancing ribbons. It was pretty funny. As for myself, I talked about how I had always wanted to be an artist. That was what I was actually studying for until what happened happened. Still, I kept myself from mentioning that part and told Viper more about my family and how she reminded me of my own little sister, just that she wasn't a pain in the ass half the time.
Eventually, I was back to being by myself. Viper had gone to train and I just sat in bed, staring at the ceiling for what felt like hours but was more or less just a few minutes. I decided to fall asleep to pass the time. One good thing about being sick, I fall asleep quicker than I would if I was perfectly healthy.
AN HOUR LATER
I woke up and sat up slowly. I looked round to see that I was still on my own. Whether anyone had come in to find me asleep, I didn't know. I needed to get something to drink anyway, my mouth was dry. I carefully got off of the bed and onto the floor and slithered out the bedroom door. I then made my way into the kitchen and got a small clay drinking cup, filled it, took a sip of water and returned to my room. At least I was about to until I saw the bedroom door move on it's own. There was no wind blowing either. Someone had just sneaked into my room.
I set the cup of water down on the floor and went to investigate. I swung my head slowly between the door to see if anybody was in. There was no one. I slithered in carefully, looking round without a seconds pause. I could hear something moving round quite fast. It began to gnaw away at me. Until...
"HEYMIKEHOWAREYOUFEELING"!?
Something green fell on my face and yelled, scaring the hell out of me. I yelled and swatted the abomination off my face with a hard whack of my tail, sending it through the wall of Tigress's room. I breathed heavily and quickly realized that the green abomination was no other than...
"MANTIS"! I yelled angrily. I watch as the little pest pulled himself through the new hole in the wall and smiled sheepishly.
"Hey Mike, uhh... Just checking in to see how...". Mantis trailed off upon seeing how pissed off I was at him. I almost wanted to strangle him for being such a dick!
"Okay well... Bye"! Mantis sped out of the room before I could unleash my wrath on him. I sighed and slithered back out of the room only to grab the cup of water and headed back inside,slamming my door.
The rest of the day passed quickly. Everybody came at least once to say hi except for Tigress and Mantis so at least I wasn't lonely. I didn't even leave the room again for anything. As it became late, all I could do was hope that the morning would leave me in a better state than I was right now.
MORNING
I heard the bell ring outside and I sped outside the door and greeted Shifu. I guess a good nights sleep was all I needed, I felt more like myself. No headache or blocked nose. I could move round quicker. I looked opposite myself to find Po quite happy. About what I don't know but I had a feeling it had to do with yesterday in the training hall. I looked back to the end of the hallway. Everyone was making their way to the kitchen. I did the same and entered through the double wide door.
Po was already on chef duty as he rushed over to the far edge of the room and prepared bowls of Dumplings for us all. I had to admit, the dumplings were the best things I had eaten in days, save for the noodles at Mr. Pings, so I took what I could and ate quickly. I was done in less than a minute. I shoved the plate away and saw that everyone was staring at me.
"...What? I was hungry".
Everyone continued to eat their food in their own time. Seems that my sudden gluttony has paid the price, waiting for everyone else to eat was just so boring. I would have taken more dumplings but Po was way ahead of me and took the remains and whatever crumbs remained before he picked up his plate and began to lick it clean after finishing. I just looked away, a little disgusted. Soon enough everyone else had finally stopped eating and began to speak. The first being Mantis who I couldn't help but notice was being watched by an angry Viper.
"Hey uhh, listen Mike. I'm sorry for... well scaring you senseless yesterday".
"No problem. We're cool".
I looked back up to Viper who winked. I mouthed "Thanks" and began to plan a little revenge prank to use on Mantis for later. Before I could get far with my planning, The bell rang again and I got up and started to make my way to the training hall until...
"Where are you going"? Asked Crane. I turned back to see everyone still in their seats.
"Uhhh Training"? I said in a simple but unsure tone.
"It's Sunday, we have the day off".
"We- then why the hell did we have to wake up early"? I asked a little annoyed.
"It never hurts to be alert does it"?
"... I suppose".
I felt a little disheartened. After the training session yesterday I felt like I was ready to take on the world. I gave a small sigh, mostly out of frustration.
"At least we'll have the next two days off as well". Monkey pointed out.
"How so"?
"Duh, the winter festival"? Crane pointed out to me.
"Oh, right of course". I lied, making it sound as though I knew what the winter feast was when in all honesty, I didn't know a single thing about it other than it being a feast at winter.
"Remember last year? When Po got Tigress that present"?
"You mean those slippers? How could I forget"? Everyone gave a small laugh except for Po and Tigress.
"Hey come on! How was I supposed to know that Tigress didn't like slippers shaped like pink bunnies"?
While the group laughed at Po's bluntness, I realized that they mentioned the word present. I then managed to put two and two together and realised that the winter feast was in a way, Christmas... My facial expression fell.
"So anyway, Shifu has gotten a place at Mr. Pings this year, and"-
"I'm not going". I blurted out, interrupting Mantis. Everyone, even Tigress, gave me a baffled look.
"What"?
"Are you mad"?
"Wait wait wait. Does this mean I get your winter feast dinner as well"?
"PO"!
"Sorry".
I spoke again to make my point clear. "I know what I said. I'm not going. Period". I then slid out the barracks and left everyone on their own. Usually I love Christmas, I have nothing against it. It's just that, well, this year is different. Very different. I shook the thought from my head and decided to train. Day off or not, I needed to do something to escape the so called joyful season.
I entered through the training hall doors and down the wooden stairs. The building felt cold inside but that probably had something to do with the fact that there's no roof. I set up a punching bag with an old bag filled with sand and hoisted it up in the air with a rope attached to a large beam. Once the bag was in position, I began to whack and jab the bag with my tail, and every now and then, headbutting the thing. In minutes, my hits became harder and harder, trying not to think of the joyful holiday but failing miserably. All it did was send me in a small rage as I lashed out at the bag more and more until I accidentally penetrated the middle with my tail and watched the sand from inside it pour onto the ground.
"Why couldn't I have spent Christmas with them one last time"? I asked myself painfully. I doubted my own family would be just as upset seeing how my "death" had been so close to the holiday. I wasn't the only one who would be suffering.
Another twenty minutes I left the training hall and into my room, ignoring the calls from the five and Po still sitting at the kitchen table, wanting to spend the rest of the day, and the next few days away from anything related to this winter feast tradition.

...

Aaaand another chapter is out. On the next chapter, things will be a little more seasonal. As for why Po is so happy during the middle of this chapter, it has to do with the latest ep of Kung Fu Panda so I won't give any spoilers. But for today, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and I'll get the next one out within a few days. Cheerio.