Your Own Kind of Strong
The boat slowly drifted down the Yellow River, winding north through sharp valleys and flat meadows, to the high flat plateaus that lined the river, drifting onward as the water lapped underneath it. Po stood at the front, looking down the turns of the river. "What are you looking for?" Said her voice. Po smiled as Tigress walked up beside him.
"Just... a little nervous. After what Platon said about your mom, I'm a little worried to meet her."
"Haha!" Sho laughed, sitting a couple of feet near the mast. "I told you you'll be fine. It's us that should be worried. She's notorious for pounding us into the dirt because of our mistakes."
"She was your trainer?" Tigress asked.
"More like our mother and dictator," Sho groaned. "I can already tell she'll wallop me for taking on the King of the Bandits."
"You think you're in trouble," Lion spoke up from the helm. "I'm going to be torn to shreds. I was supposed to find Tigress ten years ago." Sho noticed the wolf's hands twisting the wooden pole that pushed them along.
"That's not all you're worried about, is it?" The bear asked. Lion looked at his ursin brother, pursing his lips. "What's the matter? You're more tense than usual."
"You would laugh."
"That's never stopped you."
"True," Lion sighed. "I'm... worried... I'm worried about seeing my wife."
Sho's jaw dropped as he bolted off the floorboards. "You have a wife! Since when!?"
"About three years ago?" Lion sighed.
"Who?"
"You know, that wolf you met."
Sho's eyes grew wider. "You asked HER to be your wife?!"
"Why are you shocked?"
"I just... she was... uh..." Sho looked to Po and Tigress for an answer, but the two were as clueless as could be. The bear finally just sighed. "Well, now I know why you're worried."
"Why?" Tigress asked.
"Three years away from your wife?" Po interrupted. "For that long, you... start to wonder if you still have a wife to come home to."
They all heard the wolf's whine. The tiger walked over to Lion, resting a firm hand on his shoulder. "I think you'll be fine. If she loves you, she'll wait for you."
"Yeah," Sho said, "I remember how she was. Trust me. You don't have anything to worry about."
"I'll believe it when I see it." The boat continued on, drifting. Sho stretched his arms and rested near the edge of the boat, looking down the winding river. He smiled. Something very small and graceful that contrasted his robust nature.
His normal nature anyway.
Po stood beside him. "You're smiling."
"And?"
"It's different. It looks... real."
Sho sighed, "For a long time I've been struggling to be something real. Either it was a fake soldier, a spy, a puppet, or a bandit, I was always someone else's person," he paused to look at his reflection in the semi still water. "But ever since you broke my hammer, I've been forced to make my own person. Heh, I guess I should thank you for that." He punched the panda in the shoulder.
"Hehe, you're welcome?" Po rubbed his shoulder until the shadow of a tall mountain spread over them. They came closer to the shore. The flat-topped mountain stood at the very northern tip of China. They docked the ship near a small wooden dock, old yet still in use. Po looked at the mountain. It rose like a wall up to the sky. And as Tigress jumped onto land, Po glanced back at Lion. "And how exactly are we climbing this?"
"You're the Dragon Warrior. You should be fine," Sho laughed.
"Hmph." The panda crossed his arms in a fit.
"There's a secret path up. We have to walk a bit," Sho said. Lion grabbed a thick brown cloak from the boat and handed it to Tigress, who quirked up an eyebrow.
"I want to surprise Li. Plus, this is might be good for you. You don't need a bunch of people staring at you."
"Won't they stare if I'm wearing the cloak?" Tigress asked. Lion was about to answer, but no words came out.
Because she was right.
The brown bear rolled his eyes. "Let's stick with trying to surprise Li." Lion nodded with him. They walked over the rocky shore that only stretched from several yards between the mountain and the river. Dirt and rock in a deep gray littered the shore until they came to a large boulder pressed against the wall. Sho pushed the boulder aside and in it stood a dark hole, with the faint sound of a droning emptiness, like the sound of a large cathedral when no one is there. Lion shivered. "What's wrong?"
"Getting... flashbacks."
"Don't worry," Sho smiled. "This time, I'm going down with you."
"That's not comforting, actually."
"Just get moving," Sho grunted. The two went forward. Tigress saw Po hesitate.
"Po?"
"Just... scared," He gulped. Tigress, with her hood up, smiled underneath and grabbed his hand.
"We're in this together."
"Right, right," Po breathed out his stress, as much as he could, and descended into the cave.
But the cave did something weird. As they traveled, Po noticed the cave's walls lined with torches, but he also noticed the further they went in, the more he was panting. "Are you okay?"
"We're... going... uphill?" Po gasped a bit.
Tigress rose her eyebrow. "How do you know that?"
"My panda asthma." Tigress rolled her eyes. "It's weird because... it doesn't feel like we're going up."
"This route is actually a spiral up, but it's so big and the incline so small so that we can transport carts and stuff," Lion explained. They moved on, once Po got better, and traveled up, higher and higher until they saw the sun shining at the end. Po shielded his eyes from its brightness. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw an outstretched plain of green with small puddles dotted around like fresh dew. Tents and bright stony houses crowded around the circular cave opening. A small rolling hill stood on the left with trees lining the right of the settlement, but the sun seem to touch the grass straight down the middle of the village.
They stepped onto the plain. Laughing kids ran about; the smaller ones played in the little puddles. Bulky rhinos, bulls, tigers, and lions sat at a table playing Mahjong while their wives shouted for them because dinner was ready. Dumpings and stir fry soy filled Po's nose, and he saw that food cooking from an old wolf just outside of her house. Crested Serpent Eagles, birds Po had never seen before, swooped in low, doing aerial feats. The panda looked at Tigress, whose dropped jaw and wide eyes mirrored his own. "This is awesome!" Po exclaimed. "This is so cool! OOh! What's that!"
"Po, focus. Before we can do anything here, we have to bring Tigress to her parents," Lion said. They followed the wolf down the village, which got closer and closer together until they reached a house marked by a bright red banner with a tiger on it. The house was made of stone like the others, only two floors. In front of the house stood a woman placing her clothes on a hanging line. She looked seasoned by life's cares but her beauty was still radiant, and she carried an air of silent power that Po could sense from the decreasing five yards. Po tilted his head. She was shorter than Tigress, something he didn't expect. And he hadn't expected her to be... so beautiful.
"Whoa."
"What's the matter?" Tigress whispered to Po.
"Nothing, I just... didn't expect her to be... like this."
"Like what?"
"Well, I just... she's very pretty. I mean she's basically a shorter you. I see where you get your looks from."
Tigress rose her eyebrow with a smirk, but Lion voiced her thoughts. "That's her mom, panda. Try not to hit on her."
"No, no! That's not what I... ugghh," Po groaned. As they finally neared the house, the tiger woman looked up from her work.
"Li! It's great to see you," Sho said with a bouncy tone that didn't impress the tiger.
"I wonder what she's going to say about the heirlooms," Lion whispered to the others as Sho tried his best to land on good terms with the silent feline.
"That reminds me, you said that all the leaders have heirlooms. What's the tiger's heirloom?"
"The tiger doesn't have an heirloom," Lion answered Po.
"Why not?"
"It's good to-" Sho stopped when a leg swept his feet, a punch tossed him up into the air, and a fist rammed straight into the ground, producing a crater in its wake.
"She doesn't need one," Lion grimaced to the panda.
"Got it," Po squeaked.
"Ow," Sho grunted, struggling up to his feet. "You... still pack a punch." The tiger grabbed his ear and pulled him up to his feet. "Owowowowow!"
"Sho," She said in a melodious yet still firm voice, "What is this about you being a bandit?"
"Ah, uh, well-"
"I taught you better than that," She glared up at him. Sho took two cautious steps back.
"Well, I'm... king of the bandits. That helps, right?"
"I don't care, I brought you up better than that," Li growled.
"She trained both of you?" Po asked Lion.
"Trained and raised a lot of us," Lion whispered. "Li is basically everyone's overbearing mother."
"And is there a problem with that?"
"DAHH!" Po, Tigress, and Lion jumped back when they realized Li had crossed the crater between them and her quicker than they could blink. Po saw the faint trace of her shadow trying to catch up with her, making him gulp. She had a shorter fuse than Tigress. Po had to be very very careful with her.
"No, no, no," Lion spluttered out. "Of course not, Mrs. Li." The tiger threw a punch that Lion jumped out of the way for dear life. "DAH!"
"Hmm, your speed has definitely improved, but you can't dodge all the time."
"Hehe, duly noted," Lion timidly laughed. "Hehe, good to have you back, Li."
"So, what news do you bring, King of the Demons," Li muttered out with a roll of her eyes. "Still playing with flies, hm?"
"Mrs. Li, please," Lion groaned. Tigress smiled a bit under her cloak. Something about the wolf's mannerisms was comical and yet pity-inducing.
"So... any word on your search?" Li asked with her arms crossed just like Tigress. Po had to shake his head a few times to make sure he wasn't looking at an older version of Tigress. Had he skipped time or-
"Well," Lion interrupted Po's thoughts, "Platon is... gone."
Li rose her eyebrow. "You killed him?"
"No... uh... he's... given up serving the Emperor. He says sorry for everything he's done and asks for forgiveness and YIPE!" Lion jumped back from Li's punch to his heart. "Mrs. Li!"
"You should have killed him right there and then. You and your mercy for him have gotten you into too much trouble AND it's made you delay your search for too long!" She growled low. "I don't understand why you don't just finish him in his sleep-"
"He's still my father, Li!" Lion shouted. "In the end, he's still my father, someone I looked up to. And after my parents..." The air cooled his temper for a moment. It seemed to do the same for Li. A small raise of her eyebrows with a less hard frown.
The same thing Tigress would do to a lesser extent.
"I understand," Li sighed. "So he's not serving the Emperor?"
"No, he's going back to his homeland in the west." That made Li's jaw drop a bit.
"Why?"
"Did you tell her why Platon left Emperor Fu?" Sho asked, clutching his stomach but still held his smirk on his lips.
"Uh... well," Lion nervously rubbed the back of his head. "The Emperor thought that the... Emerald of Jai-Yin was the source of our strength... so that's why he attacked us. Platon didn't know that that's why until... now."
Li blinked several times, staring at the wolf. "Uh... Mrs. Li... are you-"
BAM!
"Oh wow!" Po squeaked in a high-pitched voice. There, in a crater of his own several feet behind them, was a punched wolf groaning in pain.
Li growled and snarled, "And you didn't kill this man after the fact because of mercy, is that it!?"
"Not... really," Lion grunted, remembering how much he was laughing.
"We left EVERYTHING because this man wanted a GRAB THE FLAG TRINKET!?"
Lion grunted out of his crater. "But yeah, Platon nearly killed the Emperor for that, too."
"He would've if we didn't stop him," Sho grunted.
"You should have let him," Li growled as Lion limped back to the tiger and fell onto his knees.
"I'm sorry I'm so weak, Mrs. Li. I really am."
"Now my only daughter is somewhere, maybe not even alive because of this, this-" She stopped when a gentle hand rested on her shoulder. She looked back surprised when she saw Po's hand there. She looked at his wide soft smile full of understanding. She couldn't place it, but something about his smile calmed her.
"I can vouch for both of them. Lion did everything he could. He was put in jail, hunted down, lost a lot of good friends, and even became a hated bad guy for years. They didn't know, and I know that all of this was pointless, but don't take your frustration and anger out on them. You know they don't deserve it," Po said.
Li looked back to Lion shivering on the ground. The tiger sighed and helped Lion up to his feet. "The panda's right. You two are hurting just like me. I'm sorry."
"How did you do that and teach it to me now please," Sho whispered to Po.
"I have no idea," Po murmured back.
Li glared at the brown bear. "Of course, you don't really have an excuse."
"I know," Sho sighed. "I was... stuck trying to figure out an identity that was someone else's. Now," He looked at his hammer. "Now I know who I am."
Li's eyes widened. "What did you do to your hammer?"
"The same thing happened to my dagger and to Platon's sword," Lion said.
"What happened?" The Bear and the Wolf pointed to Po, who shrunk into his shoulders. Li crossed her arms. "You broke our ancient weapons? Why?"
"It wasn't my fault. I-I-I was just trying to protect China and... stuff."
"Hehe, he's right, Li," Sho said as he joined their circle. "He was fighting me to claim my bear title, which he won. He... would've been the next Bear Titleholder."
"Would have?" Li asked, doubtfully.
"He's Po, the Dragon Warrior," Lion explained. "In his fight with Platon, he managed to break both Platon's sword and my dagger... by accident."
"How did he break them by accident?" She asked in disbelief.
"Honestly, we're still trying to figure that out," Sho replied. "The important thing is that because he's defeated us and broken all of our heirlooms, he's the fabled warrior that would bring in a new era of Jai-Yin warriors. For us, that just means a new era has come in for the Jai-Yin. A new beginning."
Li silently looked at the two. She still held her doubts. It was obvious by the hard glare and raised eyebrow she had. Po gulped nervously as she smirked at him. "So... you're the legendary Dragon Warrior?"
"Hehe, yeah."
"One of the strongest warriors out there?"
"I... wouldn't say strongest really. More like...biggest?" He replied patting his belly. Li's smirk widened with her short laugh. Tigress stifled her own laugh.
"Hm."
"An-And, it's nice to meet WHOA!" Po blocked a swift punch to his gut with his hands, barely shielding the blow from his body. Po squinted and gritted his teeth as Li pulled her fist away. "Ow."
"Ow?" Repeated Sho as his eyes widened. "That punch usually has people either whining that their bones are aching or vomiting that they missed." The panda shook off the pain. "You've definitely gotten stronger if you can take that. Even Platon had problems just flinching that off."
"Still hurts," Po grunted.
Li laughed, placing a firm hand on his shoulder, "I like this panda. He's strong, obviously kind, ... and easy on the eyes." She smirked, gently patting the panda's cheek.
"Ah, hehehe," Po felt his cheeks warm up as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Down panda boy, down," The wolf smirked.
"Now," Li said, stepping in front of the cloaked person. "Who's the person in the fabric? Are you trying to sneak Platon in-"
"NO!" Lion, Sho, and Po exclaimed, afraid she would hit Tigress!
"This is... um... Tigress," Lion replied. The tiger uncloaked herself with trembling fingers and stood, tall yet silent in front of the older tiger. Li's eyes slowly widened, taking in the feline's whole frame. Her mouth slowly dropped. The tiger looked familiar. Very familiar. "She's the Master of Strength, part of the Furious Five, and... she's your-"
"Lily!" Li wrapped her arms around Tigress. Li only stood half a head shorter than Tigress, but the feline tried her best to pet her head like she did when she was a baby. "It's you... it's really you."
"Li!" called a large deep voice from inside the house. Out came a mammoth of a tiger, so tall that he could eat off of Po's head! The panda felt very very small. And very very afraid. The vision of him being torn apart between these two tigers flashed in his head as the large tiger walked over. "Li, what's wrong?"
"Qiang, this... this is her... this is our Lily."
Qiang dropped the sword he had been sharpening, which also frightened Po. He ran over to his daughter, wrapping his bulky, strong arms around the both of them. The big tiger's eyes welled with tears streaking down his cheek and onto both of them. They didn't mind. They were crying too. "You're here, my little Lily," Li cried, "You're finally here."
"I'm... really really sorry it took so long, Mr. Qiang and Mrs. Li," Lion bowed his head. "I know that I should've looked more but I was-" His words stopped when two arms hugged him.
"Thank you, Lion," Li whispered. "Thank you for finding her. Thank you for taking care of her."
"Well," Lion chuckled a bit. "I didn't really take care of her. Master Shifu of the Jade Palace raised her, but Po basically protects her." All cats zoomed in on Po, who stiffened. "He fights alongside her. They're close friends."
"And other things," Sho smirked.
"SHHHH!" Po hushed. Qiang stepped up to him and bowed from the head to the waist.
"Thank you," He boomed in a deeper voice than Platon's. "Thank you for protecting our daughter."
"It was nothing really ooh!" Li hugged him as well, catching the panda off guard. "I uh thanks," Po smiled, slowly hugging back.
"So," Li smiled smugly as she pulled away, "You and my daughter are dating?"
"Ahhhh umm... does saying yes get me eaten?"
"Po!" Tigress shouted.
"Hey! That is a serious question! I am scared!"
Sho bellied up in laughter while Lion snorted. A wide humorous smile graced Qiang's face while Li couldn't hold her laugh behind her hand. "He's perfect for our daughter." Qiang quietly nodded with his wife. The mother tiger looked at Sho and Lion's wounds and sighed, "Come on, I think you two need some medical attention."
"Ah! We're good!" Sho and Lion spluttered. Po chuckled. If Tigress was harsh with her medical attention on him, he could only imagine what the mother was like.
"I... actually need to... go."
"Where?" Lion asked Sho. The brown bear stood tall, taller than he normally did. "Oh... To-Akan, your father. Do you want me to go with you?"
"No. I should do this." Sho walked away to another large house on the plains with a bear banner on it. Lion sighed.
"He's grown. A lot," Qiang mentioned.
"Yeah, he kinda has this eating thing where-"
"Stop being a wisecrack Lion," Li calmly yet firmly said. "You know what he means."
Then Po spoke, "Uh. I think that's just him, you know? Without anyone or anything trying to tell him to be someone else. What you're seeing isn't some puppet of Platon or a kid pretending to be king. That's Sho, whole and complete." Po smiled.
"A journey you and him both share?" Tigress said, walking up next to him. "Finding yourself? Being true to yourself?"
"Yeah." The wind howled a bit, just enough to grab Po's attention. He couldn't help but smile.
Sho walked to the house, holding the shortened hammer in his hand. Taking one deep breath, he knocked on the door. "Coming, coming," Came a worn voice. A brown bear with white speckles of fur opened the door. His bear was tied into a sharp goatee, but his eyes had many lines underneath. He squinted them. "Sho?"
"Father."
"What are you doing here?" He spotted the broken hammer. "What happened to your-"
"I... I am no longer the title bearer of the Bear. Each of the heirlooms has been broken, meaning a new era of Jai-Yin has come in. I... I want that era to be... a place where I am fully me." Sho gave the hammer to his father. "I'm sorry for disappointing you, father, but... I can't be who you want me to be anymore. I can't be who anyone wants me to be anymore. I want to be... me."
The old bear was quiet, still. A faint gust of wind disturbed his beard.
But a warm smile broke onto his face as he dropped the hammer and squeezed his son in a hug. "That's all I ever wanted you to be."
Sho shut his eyes. The flood gates of his eyes were too much. He started to cry. Wrapping his father in a hug, the two bears embraced each other as father and son.
"Come on," Lion said, "Let's leave them. Why don't we have some of your cooking, Mrs. Li?"
"Of course, that's if you don't throw up this time," She smirked.
"That was one time and you did too!"
Li smiled and looked at her daughter, "Tigress, hm? A little archaic and on the nose but... it does suit you better than Lily, I believe."
Tigress smiled back, heading into the house. She noticed a black and white figure not coming with them. "Po? Are you coming?"
"Huh? Oh I'm coming, just... give me a sec," Po smiled. The tiger nodded and went inside. Po looked around the village, seeing all the species and people living in harmony with each other. A tiger and bull butted heads together in an arm-wrestling match; two women, a duck and a leopard laughing with their pig and rhino friend; and a small pudgy panda carrying a log with the help of his wolf friend.
It was strength, but it was also peace. "Ow," Po looked down at the thing that kicked him. "Uh... hey?"
"Hello," said a small bunny boy, jabbing Po's leg with his small little punches. "I've never seen you here before."
"Yeah, I'm... new. My name's Po."
"I'm Shin. Are you strong?"
Po smiled, sitting down to his height. "Yeah, I guess I'm strong. I beat Sho, Lion, and Platon."
"You beat the traitor!" Shin gasped. So that's what they called him? "He's almost as strong as Momma Li."
"Well, I also stopped Mrs. Li's punch. It stung a bit."
"WHOOAAA COOLL!"
"I know right!" Po matched his energy.
"Do you think I'll ever be as strong as you?"
The panda smiled. "If you work at it, you'll become your own kind of strong."
Continued...
