"A Bad Night"
"He is so - mighty! The Dragon Warrior fell out of the sky, in a ball of fire!"
Mild chuckles.
"When he walks, the very ground shakes!"
More raucous laughter.
Tigress was watching all of this from a few steps back. Cold air flew past her whiskers as she twitched in annoyance.
"One would think," she began. "That Master Oogway would choose someone who actually knew kung fu."
"Yeah, or could at least touch his toes," Mantis noted atop a rock.
"Or even see his toes." Monkey finished.
A burst of laughter again. The Five walked up the stone steps leading up to the Jade Palace dormitories, tired footsteps pattering behind them.
Unbeknownst to them, laying in the shadows of moonlight and veiled by large rocks - Po and Alf were watching the conversation with a mixture of emotions.
Po stood up from behind the boulder, grasping his large belly.
"Hmph - ergh - " the panda struggled, trying to push his stomach in.
"Po - " Alf started, face-palming almost immediately. "Come on man, this is just - "
"Wait wait wait! I almost can see the - WOAH!"
With a brief step forward, Po fell forwards and onto the hard rock floor - protected only by his projecting stomach. The panda bounced for a few seconds, finally coming to a halt with a sniffle.
"Try being in their shoes," Alf gently suggested, crouching down to meet Po. "They train their whole lives for basically one thing - and none of them end up making it."
Po sniffled again. "Yeah, but it's not like anyone - myself included - actually believes I'm the Dragon Warrior. I mean - I thought the whole point of this was so when we can get some cool autographs and you know - leave."
"Maybe they think they're being disrespected," Alf wondered out loud, gazing at the dormitories as torches were extinguished from behind thin paper walls. "The sooner we leave, the better, yanno?"
"I guess…"
Po nodded his head, nonverbally promising to stay out of the Five's way.
. . .
It took Po all of three minutes to break his promise.
As soon as he and Alf were safely inside the confines of the Jade Palace dormitories, merely two steps away from both blissful sleep (for Po) or hidden rest under Po's cot (for Alf) - Po had decided that he absolutely needed to meet the Five again.
"Don't worry man, it'll be quick!"
"No it won't," Alf reconciled. "Don't try to make this situation un-awkward."
"Come on, it'll be quick…"
Alf followed Po out of the sliding paper walls. The level of risk in doing this stupid a move was greater now, considering that the collar kept an ever-present feeling of discomfort around him. Ever since that morning in the Training Hall, Alf had attempted his best to stay out of Shifu's eye contact and when he was - pretend to work as hard for the Palace as possible. He didn't even think about bringing up the question of taking it off.
Oogway. He's my best bet, Alf thought. There wouldn't be anyone more merciful here…
He turned his attention back to the present, focusing on the dormitory hallway - just feeling nascent in dim torch light.
The rooms were efficient and small, with perhaps just a touch of individuality added to everyone's dorms. The Furious Five - as much as the legend in China might distort - felt oddly normalized and even understandable from this perspective. It felt comforting to know that even after slaughtering entire armies, fighting off hordes of invaders, traveling the entire world and displaying exceptional kung fu prowess - they went back to the same, basic rooms every night for sleeping like anyone else. The one outstanding problem was the lack of clear naming - and this was critical for knowing which member of the Five to approach. Some had seemed more sympathetic to Po over the past week - perhaps Viper and Mantis - but the others kept a cold distance, like Monkey and Crane. Tigress was so aggressively hostile towards them both that Alf had resolved to keep out of her eyesight as well.
"Look, this door has a monkey chasing a scroll! You think it's Monkey's room?" Po queried.
The idiocy of this question astounded Alf.
"No," he responded sardonically. "I think it's Oogway's room."
"Oh dude - should we wake up Oogway?" Po asked back. "You think that's allowed?"
"Po I don't know okay!" Alf harshly whispered. "This Palace has a bunch of symbols that no one understands! Can I go back to my room now?"
"I thought you weren't allowed to have a room."
Alf stood still, recognizing the textured voice immediately. A circular head, framed by yellow fur with prominent eyes, stuck out from a slit in the now-open paper doorway.
"Master Monkey, ah - sorry!" Po let out, folding his arms into a respectful position. "Didn't mean to wake you…"
"Well I'm awake now," Monkey noted, scratching at his tired eyes. "Get in, before you wake up everyone else."
Po couldn't believe what he was saying. Alf couldn't believe that no one had shocked him yet. Reluctantly, he tiptoed with Po into the master's room, taking care to gently slide the door closed behind him.
Master Monkey's room was far from what Po had often imagined it to be. There were more clothes strewn about and less paintings, more half-finished food than weapon racks, and more of a sense of disorganization than discipline.
"How long is this going to go on?" Monkey dragged, leaping softly onto a small cot in front of him. "I mean - come on Po - we appreciate the citizens of the Valley but this…"
"Yeah, I know, I know," Po agreed, nodding his head sadly. "You're right - I don't - I mean, my whole life I've dreamed of - "
"No no no," Monkey interrupted, cackling a bit. "I don't mean that - I mean, isn't it time for you to you know, retire?"
"Thank goodness," Alf suddenly interrupted. "Someone gets it…"
"It's just that we thought everyone sort of understood what's the dealio," Po rambled, tapping his belly lightly to Monkey's amusement. "I'm obviously nowhere near universe warrior level - "
"Dragon Warrior," Monkey corrected.
" - yeah that, but I just thought that maybe I could get some autographs and we could you know - skadoosh."
Po's repeated usage of made-up terms began to confuse Monkey, who looked at Alf for a moment. The boy simply tilted his head downward in embarrassment.
"Listen," Monkey began, leaping off his cot to make eye contact with Po. "If I get you some autographs, will you leave the Palace?"
Po nearly burst from excitement. "YES! THAT'S ALL! OH MY - THANK YOU MASTER MONKEY!"
Alf breathed a sigh of relief. A nightmare was slowly passing.
His fingers idly brushed against his collar - Alf made a mental note to see Oogway as soon as the autographs were given. He prayed that Monkey would get them soon.
"Here's mine straight-away," Monkey began, efficiently scrawling his name on an empty scroll before shoving it into Po's outstretched paws. "I think I can convince or steal the rest of the Five's tomorrow morning…"
"Thank you thank you thank you!" Po let out, breathing heavily and rocking back and forth. "I promise, as soon as I get the autographs I'm out! It's such a supercool honor!"
"Yeah," Monkey continued, a bit repulsed by the excessive flattery. "It's nothing personal Po, it's just that when it comes to defending the Valley - "
"CRANE! GET UP! YOU FORGOT TO COPY THE NEW SCROLLS!"
"YES MASTER SHIFU!"
The sudden onslaught of new voices outside Monkey's dorm - a harsh tone and an obedient one - startled all three individuals. Po, completely oblivious to the amount of harm that could befall all of them, gently peeked at the two shadows from behind the paper doors.
"Are you seriously crazy?!" Alf whispered, trying to find a weak spot in Monkey's walls where he could jump out of. "Po! I'm not getting shocked again! Get back!"
The two shadows retreated into a dorm, and promptly shut the paper door behind them.
"Leave quietly," Monkey commanded, trying to be friendly. "Po, you might be able to make it back into your room before Shifu notices. As for you…"
Monkey's gaze fell upon Alf. "... try to find a way out of the Palace, quietly."
Alf found this somewhat obvious. After a hurried thanks from Po, both intruders gently pushed open the Monkey's dorm door. Alf scanned the open hallway as stealthily as he could.
Open space.
No torches, except for Crane's room.
The two shadows were still inside there.
Shifu hadn't spotted them.
Six doors. Five with torches. The last one had a cool breeze running through it.
It had to lead out.
"Okay this is where we split," Po emphasized, gently traipsing into his room - just a few feet away from Monkey's. "Good luck Alf!"
With that, the panda disappeared behind a swish of paper.
Alf made another check of the hallway.
Shifu and Crane were still inside the latter's room. Shifu sounded angry.
Good. More time.
Alf was far more nimble than Po ever could be. His light frame and quick footsteps allowed him to soar across the narrow hallway, feeling the cool breeze from the exit door hitting him softly before he swung it open quickly, entering, then softly shutting it behind him.
"Now where's the Courtyard…"
Alf felt surprised. There was no full moonlight, cool night air, or visible moon. The rocky, stone steps of the Palace weren't there - his feet still made contact with the bamboo flooring of a dormitory.
He traced the source of the breeze, hoping to find another exit point - but there was none. The breeze was because an open window - just paper cut out of the wall - was in the room.
Also adjacent to the window was Tigress.
Alf froze. The cot she was sitting on wasn't like the others - it was harder and greyer, with visible scratch lines. Her room wasn't like Monkey's - it was dull and bare, with no paintings, food, or even weapons.
It was a room with a cot. And Tigress was sitting on it. Awake.
Orange eyes - framed by an intense, vaguely triangular face with sharp fur lined with black stripes - stared straight at Alf.
It took him about thirty solid seconds to realize he was in Tigress' dorm.
"DON'T LIE PANDA! I KNOW HE WAS HERE! TELL ME WHERE YOUR LITTLE FRIEND WENT!"
Shifu's voice - despite being outside the dorm and in the hallway, with a good twenty feet separating him from Alf - felt harsh and unforgiving.
Alf's fingers instinctually went to the collar.
Not again. He had to do something.
Going outside was suicide. Staying inside was suicide.
"I am so, so, so sorry!" Alf begged, immediately falling to his knees and bowing mildly to Tigress. "Po forced me to come with him and then - well it doesn't matter point is please just let me jump out the window and don't call Shifu over please I'll be out of your hair in a jiff - "
"Shut it, boy," came Tigress' smooth command.
Alf gulped. He stayed in the bowed position, keeping all eye contact with the open window, the ceiling, the floor - anything but Tigress.
He could hear her footsteps approach. She was standing close to him.
"How are you even a Seeker?"
Alf hazarded a chance at looking up, seeing Tigress's face oddly contorted into a slightly amused smirk. He was so paralyzed with fear - with Shifu's footsteps approaching, and the fact that he was still in this room…
"Wha - What?" Alf finally let out.
"The Seekers I studied about were more - " Tigress began. " - well, less pathetic, I suppose."
Alf nodded his head vigorously, keeping a trained ear on Shifu's impending footsteps.
"Yep yep I'm pretty freakin' pathetic," Alf agreed ferociously. "I'm just gonna jump through your window if that's alright with you…"
Alf tried to get up, but Tigress merely stared him down.
There was an odd facial expression with her.
"FLESHLING!"
It was too late. Alf could barely catch a glimpse of Shifu bursting into the room before he felt the crackle of pain again.
It didn't stop this time. The shocking felt more intense.
He held on for the first few minutes.
His mind faded into unconsciousness after that.
A/N
Hello there! Sorry if the chapter felt like it didn't move things really forward - I sort of loved this dorm scene and put my own spin on it.
The real story: So I was writing this chapter, and realized I hit 2000 words already. So I sort of pushed my planned scenes into next chapter... The thing is, I want to keep this fic's chapter length at a good length. Some of my other stories average 5k+ per chapter, and that usually feels a bit long sometimes. That being said, I don't want to keep it too short where people go:
Is that it? :)
So let me know! Let me know how the length is working for you, pacing, more scenes, etc.
In other news, I spent the past few days having an insane amount of ideas which I added to my "story-planning" doc. All I can say is that I'm very, very, very excited to begin fleshing it all out (no pun intended) and look forward to expanding the KFP Universe. Strap in, cuz this one's gonna be a long haul...
And as always, appreciate the support. :D
~TW
