Chapter 28 : Running out of time

Monkey moaned and groaned as he opened his eyes. He sat up slowly and stretched out his muscles as he cracked his bones before glancing at his surroundings. Viper, Mantis, Hai and Lee were still asleep soundly on the floor. Crane was the only one who was sleeping with a standing position, with one of his legs lifted up a few centimeters off the floor.

Wait a second! Where's Po?

Someone touched his back. Monkey turned behind over his shoulder and found the panda.

"Oh, you Po," he said with a sleepy smile. "Good morning, buddy." But when he was saying that, Po rapidly placed a finger on his lip, signaling him to silent.

"Shhh … Monkey. We got to leave now," the panda whispered.

"Huh?" Monkey cocked his head to one side, confused. "Now?"

"Yes. Now."

"Well," the primate pawed his head slightly, still feeling a little dozy. "I'll get the others up then."

Monkey was about to shake Hai's shoulder when Po suddenly stopped him from doing that. "No. Don't!" he whispered. "Hai and Lee are not going with us."

The primate stared at the panda with an upset look. "Okay. But why?" he asked, taking a look at the two mountain cats. "They're with us, right?"

"They'll just ruin our plan," Po explained. "Remember ; our mission is just to rescue Tigress, not to burn down a palace. We must go now. The sooner we're back to the palace, the sooner Tigress we will get."

Monkey gave a shrug. "Like you said, buddy." He then approached his sleeping friends and patted them on the backs slightly.

The snake, crane and bug yawned in unison as they opened their eyes.

Mantis rubbed his eyes with his pincers. "Is it morning yet?"

"Hey. C'mon. Po wants us to go now," Monkey told them.

"Just five more minutes." Mantis said that with a yawn. He was about to get back to sleep.

"No, no, no." Po stopped the bug from sleeping again. "Come on, guys. We can't just waste more time."

"Why are you in such a hurry?" Crane asked, yawning tiredly. "Can't we just wait for them to wake up?" he gestured to the two mountain cats.

"No," Po replied. "We'll go without them. We have our own mission and will not be joining in with theirs."

"Something changed your mind, Po?" Viper asked.

"No—I mean, Yes. Oh, look. You see, I was just talking with Long and—"

"Long?!" Monkey cut off, exclaiming. "You mean Long the dragon from a thousand of years ago? He's been dead a long time ago, right?"

"Yes. But he came to pay me a visit last night and ordered us to stop Tigress from being evil."

Crane, Monkey, Viper and Mantis looked at Po with an awkward gaze.

"Okay. Talking with a dead one ; I must say that's another weird of you," Mantis commented.

"No. I am serious."

"That was just a dream, Po," Viper said.

"But it was the real Long. He used to visit me in the dream recently."

"So, you're like having a ghost dragon as your guide now?" Crane asked, chuckling.

The panda nodded.

Mantis grinned. "Very funny."

"Come on, guys. You got to believe me. It's true," Po went on desperately. "Oh, well. Forget it. We're going now."

The four stared at each other, shrugging.

"Well, you're the leader, Po," Crane said. "We'll do what you say."

"Great!" Po exclaimed excitedly. "Now let's go before they're up."

Slowly, the five warriors crept through the room. They stepped their feet carefully, avoiding themselves from bumping or tumbling into something. As they reached the door, Po opened it and exited the old building along with his comrades.

No one knows between them that Hai and Lee had been already up when they were talking about the dream Po had. The two mountain cats were just pretending to sleep. And certainly, they heard everything, which gave them a clue that the friend Po was trying to rescue was actually a tiger, and that Po was not only an ordinary panda. He was more than that.

Lee opened his eyes, still lying his on back to the floor, staring up at the ceiling blankly. "You heard them, Hai?"

His brother, who was lying beside him nodded. "That panda is able to talk with Long. Doubtless, he's the dragon warrior, trying to save his own archenemy."

"Do you think what I am thinking?"

"I guess. We should go after them."

TLoTDaTT

The sun had just risen and the morning had come. Po and the four were hiding behind a building. They were just a few blocks away from the palace. But it was not easy to get there with tens of villagers on the street and around marketplace. It was impossible to appear themselves in front of them.

Po noticed there was a quiet alley heading directly to the palace. He gave a signal to his friends to follow him. "This way."

The four followed Po, creeping and trying their best not to be seen by anyone. Everytime they saw one or two tigers walking past them, they instantly hid behind a wall or a stall.

When they were about to enter the alley, Crane surprisingly saw tens of warships with its armada about leaving the dock. He patted his wing on Po's shoulder rapidly.

"Hey. Look at that." He pointed away at the ships.

All of his friends noticed what the crane was looking at.

"Warships?" thought Po. "Why?"

Suddenly Mantis exclaimed with his widen eyes, realizing something terrible. "Oh, No! This is not good!"

"Huh?"

"They start to invade China!"

The warriors froze.

"Come on. We have to stop them!" Monkey exclaimed, starting to go after those warships.

"No. Whoa… whoa… whoa… hold on, buddy," Po grabbed Monkey's arm. "We're not going after the ships yet. Not before we find Tigress."

"But they're moving to start a war, Po. We can't let this happen."

"We can wait for it. But we can't wait much longer to save Tigress."

"Po is right," Mantis said calmly to Monkey.

"But China is in danger," the primate groaned.

"Well," Mantis turned to Po. "Monkey is right too."

Viper hissed to the green bug. "Be quiet, Mantis. You're not helping."

Mantis turned to his friends. "Viper is right. I am not helping—."

Four pairs of eyes stared at the bug sharply, hinting him to silent.

"Uh… well, okay," Mantis chuckled in embarrassment as he covered his mouth. "I'll just shut up now."

Po returned looking at his primate friend, continuing to explain. "Listen, Monkey. I want to save China too ; it's our duty as the legendary warriors of China. But we're really so close to get Tigress back and can't waste more time. Besides, we cannot stop those army from conquering China without Tigress' help. We'll need her too."

Monkey sighed, admitting that Po was right. "Up to you, buddy."

Po smiled. "Alright everyone. Let's get to the palace."

The panda and the four ran through the quiet alley freely. And because there was no anyone else besides them in that road, they were not worried about being seen by the tigers in that land.

As they reached the mouth of the alley, Po turned his head to the right and to the left, assuring himself that everything was safe before giving a signal to his friends to get out of the alley.

"That's the palace." Viper pointed the end of her tail towards the biggest building before them.

Po turned to his friends. "Listen up everyone, we must to be extra careful. No more beating up any guards. Try your best to not be seen or we'll end up in a prison again."

The four nodded in understand.

They returned to creep to the palace. What surprised them when they reached the palace's yard was that they didn't find any guard or soldier anywhere. The yard was awfully dead with no one around except them.

"Where's everybody?" Viper asked, hissing and observing watchfully at her surroundings.

"No idea," Crane replied. "I swear there were too many soldiers here yesterday."

"They're not here, don't you know that?!" Mantis exclaimed out loud. "They're in the ships along with the army in order to start the war!"

"So, no soldiers and guards here?"

"Maybe."

Po's smile widened. "This is awesome!" he wawled cheerfully. "We got lucky! Now we can easily get into the palace without being afraid of being caught by the soldiers anymore."

"Man! You're so right."

Though there was no any guard and soldier around the palace, but still they were wide-awake since they were worried about getting caught or seen by someone in the palace. They tried to find a way in to enter the palace without attracting any attention.

Unfortunately they hadn't known yet that Tigress they were looking for was not in the palace. She was with the armada, sailing through on the Chojiang River to the Great Valley to lead an attack.