Hey you guys! *Cues the goonies music*
I miss you all so much! First, I hope you'd had a good holiday and a good year. Second, I am so sorry for the long hiatus. So many things have been going on like finishing school, dealing with personal family stuff, and I was trying to get myself back in the grove to write again. Now that the holidays are over it's time to get back to the story. So last time we left off with Shen finished his plans for Gang but it seems the crow got himself spotted and now Po and friends are going on their next adventure.
Also before I forget… Happy 1st Anniversary Kung Fu Panda 3! And today is my birthday yay! So jump right in!
Chapter 13: A Journey of Stress and Hesitation
"Okay let's see what we got…"
Po gathered all of his things and arranged them on the small bed. He taps his chin as he observed the items.
"Blankets check. Map, check. Pots and bowls, check. Tent, check. Rope, check. Cooking utensils, check. Uh, what else?"
The panda bent down and pulled the blankets to see under his bed. He grabbed a few items from underneath.
"We may need a mountain hook," he said to himself while tying the hook to his rope. He pulled out more items out under the bed, nothing but fresh pairs of clean clothes and pants. He stuffed all of his things to his bag, he was about to leave but stopped once he remembered something.
"Oops, almost forgot."
He dashed back to his bed and pulled a large bag from underneath.
"Good thing I saved these extra dumpling for the trip" Po smiled excitedly. He stuffed it in his backpack and exited his room quickly. Viper, Mantis, and Crane were all outside with their things.
"Po, do you have the map?" Crane asked.
"Yep," Po took the rolled-up roll out, "Didn't lose it this time."
"Good. We're going to need it."
"Tigress is already ready and Monkey went to get some food for the trip, we should meet him by the market," said Viper.
"Then there's no time to waste, let's go!" Po cried ready to go on their next mission.
"Whoa whoa hold on, aren't we missing someone?" Mantis asked.
Po made a sudden stop, catching himself as he almost trips on his own feet. He turned around to look at his friends and saw Mantis was right. The panda walked up to the peacock's room and knocked.
"Hey, Shen," Po called out, "Are you ready? Tigress is waiting for us."
"Just give me a minute."
Hearing the bird's tone, it almost sounds like he was upset. Po turned to his friends with a confused look. They only shrugged in response, as they too weren't sure why he wasn't ready.
"Um…okay, we'll meet ch'a outside," Po said before he and the others left the Student Barrack.
In Shen's room, he was pacing and mumbling quietly to himself. He was indeed upset but he was mostly panicking on the inside. From what the female tiger has told them, a couple reported the whereabouts of Gang. While they were making deliveries and passing by a run-down village, they glance at a window only to see a blackbird sitting on the window still while talking to someone. They were sure it was the same crow who attack their village and the couple rushed back to the Valley of Peace.
This couldn't be happening, everything was going so perfect and this happens.
"Damn it, Gang," he cursed bitterly, "How could you be so careless?"
Shen was now regretting putting his trust in the crow. If Gang were here right now he would cut him in half. Now that he was thinking about it, he should have done that from the beginning. Shen wasn't sure what to do if the masters found out. If they do success capturing the crow, they will know their plan and he'll be back to square one. He could already image their anger of his betrayal. Shen couldn't help but wonder how would the panda react. The young bear forgave him and never really hated him, but if he did find out about this, would he hate him then?
Shen stopped when that question entered his thoughts.
"Wait a minute, why do I care?" he said to himself, " They don't matter to me."
Once his panicking decreased he took a deep breath and plan what his next step should be. There has to be another way around this, a way where neither of them would get caught. Then it came to him, Shen could give his plans early to Gang with no one watching and the crow could make his escape. It was so simple that Shen wanted to hit himself for being worried over nothing. He took his notes and rolled them up in a scroll. He carefully hid it in his sleeve while he was heading outside.
"He better not screw this up for me…" Shen thought.
The group said their farewells to Master Shifu and head down the stairs. As they made their way down, Po noticed Shen was glaring at something. He turned to look and cringed, waiting for them at the bottom where the two assassins again.
"Oh no," Po whispered to himself.
"Geez, they're still here," said Mantis noticed them too.
"Just ignore them," Tigress bluntly said not focusing on them.
"Good afternoon masters," Zhēnbâo the elephant greeted, "Mind if ask where all of you are going today?"
"Just on a mission," Po said hurriedly not looking at the elephant in the eye.
"Mind if we come along? You know just to make sure he won't cause any trouble," said Pìqí.
She kept her eyes locked on Shen and hissed at him.
The peacock arced his neck to stare down at the small monkey. Pìqí stared back with a smirk and showed off her threating teeth. He was about to say something until Tigress step forward.
"You wanna make yourselves useful?" Tigress said with the amount of annoyance, "Then stay here and watch over the Valley for a few days. That way you won't be in our way."
Zhēnbâo was not pleased how she was treating them but he sighed and let his friend climbed up to his shoulder.
"Very well, but we will report this update to our Emperor," he said and they walked away.
Po and the others were glad they were gone. The two assassins were now being more of a nuisance to them, they only hope their mission on observing them would end soon. Po turned to see if Shen was okay, the peacock just stared at the ground while walking.
"Hey…" he smiled when Shen glanced up to him, "Don't let them get to you, people are jerks cuz' they want to be jerks."
"Hm, easier said than done," was Shen's response. Luckily he was not too upset on the Emperor's lackeys. His mind was too busy thinking about how he was going to make the exchange with Gang.
They walked to markets where they saw Monkey, buying the food and thanking the market lady.
"All right, you take care now," he said as he walked off and waved to his friends.
"Hey, sorry if I took so long," said Monkey, "I didn't know how many vegetables I should bring for this trip."
"That's all right. Now that we're together, let's talk about the mission" Tigress regarded.
Po handled her the map and she rolled it out, letting everyone gathered around her to look at it. The map mostly showed every village outside of the Valley of Peace, there was also a black line drawn on the map revealing the location of one village they need to go.
"This is the route the couple was using," Tigress pointed out, "They stopped here and that's where they spotted Gang."
"That's pretty far" Crane comments.
"It is. But if we're fast enough we may make it there in two days" Tigress continued, "We need to be careful though, that village is not the safest place and the people over there are not friendly."
"Do think other criminals are hanging around there too?" asked Po.
"I won't be surprised if that was the case. Let's get going before night falls," Tigress said as she got on all fours and took off, leading the way out of the Valley of Peace.
Po and the others soon followed too, rushing out of the village and into the forest.
Throughout the day, the masters have traveled to find Gang. They journeyed through the forest, climb up mountains, and cross the river streams. Of course, they had to stop every twenty minutes for Po who got tried easily by walking. By nightfall, they decided to set up camp and rest.
Po put down his backpack to take out all of his cooking utensils, "Who wants a bowl of vegetable noodles?"
"You know I do" Mantis raised his pincers.
"Monkey, get some wood for the fire" ordered Tigress.
"No problem," he replied, "Lord Shen do wanna come along? I could use some extra hands."
Although the peacock didn't want to, he thought he could use this time to distract himself. He nodded in response.
Both of them adventured in the forest looking for old branches and logs. It was much harder than they thought, most of what they found was tall grass. Monkey climbed up to see if there were loose branches on the trees. Seeing how high he was, an idea hatched in his mind and climbed to the tree next to Shen.
"Hey, Lord Shen."
"Hm," Shen turned around but nobody was behind him. Confused he turned back around only to see something staring right in front of him. Startled he yelps in shock and jumped back. Shen saw it was only the monkey hanging upside down with his tail holding on the branch. Monkey laughed, proud that his little prank worked.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist" he chuckled, whipping the tears in his eyes.
Shen, however, was not pleased, "How dare you pull a stunt like that!"
"I said I was sorry," Monkey was still laughing, "Besides a pull that same prank on everybody else. Their reaction was so priceless like ours."
Shen got up and dusted his robe, still glaring at the primate. The one thing he cannot stand with monkeys is their playful and mischievous personalities, that was the reason why he gathered gorillas for his army instead. The peacock walked away trying to pretend the event didn't happen while Monkey fell to the ground and caught up with him.
"I never thought a master would be such a prankster," he uttered.
"Heh, it's in my nature" Monkey said hearing the comment, "I thought you have a sense of humor."
"Not that kind of humor."
"But I thought you like my prank on Po."
"That's a different kind of humor" Shen hid his smirk remembering the panda's head being stuck in the bucket.
Monkey rolled his eyes and they continued to look for woods. Eventually, they found enough wood to start a fire while heading back to the camp Shen thought he heard a noise from the tall grass. He arched his neck to the source of the noise.
"What was that?" Monkey turned around also hearing the rustling.
"This isn't one of your pranks is it?" Shen questioned.
"No, Mantis is with the others," said Monkey.
The peacock laid the wood on the ground and walked to the grass. As he pulled away from the tall weeds something jumped out. It was a child. The small piglet cried out and tripped to the ground. Shen and Monkey both raised a brow, surprised to see anyone else in the forest.
"Who are you? Why are you out here? " the peacock demanded answers raising his voice. The child stumbled on his words, afraid at the warlord in front of him.
"Hey it's okay we're just travelers," Monkey assured the piglet, "Are you lost little one?"
"O-oh no. I live around here" said the piglet, "I wasn't expecting to see anybody else. I was just looking for wood for my folks."
"You're looking for firewood?" asked Monkey.
"Yeah, our home gets cold at night sometimes."
"Well, we got some."
"What are you doing, we need that wood" Shen exclaimed.
"Relax, we have enough for our fire" Monkey said as he took a few logs out from their pile and share it to the piglet.
"Here you go."
"Thank you, mister" the piglet politely bowed to them.
"Oh before you go, do you know if there's a village around ?" Monkey asked.
"Uh-huh, there a path over the small mountain. But don't stay there too long. Mama told me that's a bad village."
"Thank you" Monkey waved to the small child. The piglet carried the wood with his tiny arms.
"Why did you hand over most of our wood to a peasant?" Shen said, his crest features twitched in irritation.
"I don't know why you are making this a big deal," Monkey disregards, carrying the wood.
"Because peasant is always needy, back at Gongmen there were so many of them. They never stopped requesting food and clothes" Shen said remembering how his parents had to deal with them.
"C'mon Shen, it's not their fault they live like that, always show compassion" Monkey countered, "I had to learn compassion the hard way when I was growing up."
"Really?" Shen questioned, "It seems so easy for you"
The primate stared at the ground with a shameful look in his eyes.
"Well I was kinda like you in a way," he spoke hesitantly, "I used to steal food from markets, make people trip on banana peels, and take off their pants and laugh at them."
Monkey soon looked up to see the peacock expression. Shen was skeptical but the primate guaranteed to him that his story was true.
"It got to the point the villagers sent Oogway to get rid of me" continued Monkey, "I thought I could beat him but I lost. Instead of getting rid of me he showed me forgiveness and compassion. That was the day I decided to be compassionate to others too, I protected my home for a while and when it was all safe and sound I moved on to protect other villages."
This was starting to feel familiar to Shen. Just two days ago the Panda was telling him how much he forgave him and how he'd showed compassion towards him.
He was surprised that this master next to him used to be cruel yet he was forgiving just like he was.
"You know what else I did in my life?"
"What?"
"I try to be a comedian" Monkey sheepishly laugh, "Boy, that ended up as a disaster."
"So you decided to be a kung fu master instead?" the peacock guessed.
"Yeah pretty much, although I still try to make my friends laugh," Monkey smiled, "By the way do wanna hear a joke?"
Shen turned to the primate giving him a look, "If it's bad as you said it is then no."
"Aw, but it may tickle you…feather bone!" Monkey started laughing at his own joke.
Shen's expression had not changed and was not amused by the pun, "I was right, it was terrible."
They came back to the came and gave the wood to Po as made dinner for everyone. It was a calming night so far and Shen did enjoy the warmed vegetables in his noodles. After having dinner everyone went to bed, although Po wanted to stay up more to tell scary stories everyone declined. The tent they set up was big enough for the seven of them and not too crowded.
Shen was the only one awake and he could hear the breathing from everyone else far away. He felt comfortable being away from the group, sleeping in the crowded group would not leave him room for his train. The reason he was still up was something that occurred in his mind. After hearing Monkey's story, he noted there was a pattern happening. He had heard all the stories of the four masters, each one learning from their struggles. Each one with more detail than the stolen scroll he could provide. Confidence, patience, bravery, and compassion. All of those things were what brought them together, and another reason why he could never be apart of it.
Shen reminded himself that it shouldn't matter, yet he felt he understood them by hearing their stories. In a way, they too were trying to connect to him through their conversations. But this made Shen frowned even more, despite being used to them including the panda being around him, it still cannot change anything. Shen felt he already set himself on a path, a path which he can't run from. This path would let him to his new victory and it's was too late to change course.
Realizing there was no point to think of the matter any further, the peacock let his mind and body drift to sleep. Thankfully he had no nightmares during the night.
By the next morning, they were on the move again. They found the path over the small mountain and by a few hours they found the village. Tigress stopped the group when she saw a guard blocking the entrance, they hid in the bushes while Crane scout to the skies ahead. When he returned he landed right behind them, making sure he wasn't seen.
"All right Crane, what'da got for us?" Po asked.
"Well, it's not a small village, but it looks almost in ruin," explained Crane, "Its protect by stone walls, most of the villagers are just these big guys."
"Any signs of Gang?" Tigress asked with hope.
"No, I couldn't spot him. He may be hiding in those huts" said Crane.
Shen quietly sighs in relief, but he was still out of the woods of stress. He needs to find Gang and he was somewhere in that village.
"So let's go in there and take him down," Po cried exaltedly but was hushed by his friends, not wanting the guard to hear him.
"Did you forget, this isn't the friendless place like the Valley of Peace," said Mantis, "We can't just waltz in there."
"We need to come up with a plan," Tigress thought out loud, "Crane was there any gap in the walls."
"Yeah but not big enough for all of us to sneak in," Crane replied.
While the five strategize for a skilled plan, Po gazed to the entrance of the village, thinking of his own ideas. He gazed back to the peacock who was also lost in his own thoughts and his eyes lit up as he came up with an idea.
"Hey Shen, maybe you should come up with a plan this time."
"Huh?" everyone said in unison, even Shen looked surprised.
"Yeah, you come up with great ideas before, so you can come a great plan on how to get in," Po said with positively.
"Po, I don't think this is a wise choice," Tigress said with uncertainty. She still doesn't trust Shen, not after what happened with the last mission.
"C'mon guys, so far we haven't gone into more trouble with him for the past week right?" Po saw everyone had admitted that this fact was sure.
"We already trust each other and I think it's time put that trust on Shen too."
Shen wasn't sure if he should be glad the panda is foolish enough to let him do what he wants or grow concern if they come close to finding out his scheme. But he couldn't help but feel acknowledge. The panda and everyone else is giving him a chance. He glanced up to see them (except for Tigress) staring at him, waiting to hear what he has to say.
"Are you sure?" he said still dubious.
"We wouldn't ask you for an idea if we weren't," Crane shrugged.
"We trust you, Lord Shen," Viper said with a sweet smile.
"You're smart enough to make cannons so let's put that brain of yours in good use," Mantis joking stated.
Monkey gave him two thumbs up, showing he too was on board with friends.
"We're sure," Po smiled giving gave Shen confidence, "Tell us what we have to do buddy."
The guard standing by the entrance tried to keep his eyes open, bored by just standing on one spot. He suddenly looked up to see a large group coming his way. He picked up his spear to make himself look intimating. The people before him were different species wearing long clothing and carrying a bag, they were mostly staring at the ground. He raised a brow as the tall bird approached him.
"Good afternoon sir," Shen said.
"State your purpose" the guard gruffly said.
"We are mere travelers" Shen spoke smoothly, "We traveled very far, to deliver an important package, may we pass through?"
The package was actually Po's backpack under a blanket. He and the five watched quietly as the guard ponder on them. He finally moves away for them to pass. As the peacock thanked the guard, he led the way in the village. Po pulled on his disguise blanket over his head and glanced a little to see the residence.
The village did look like it was becoming ruins as Crane said. Nature has taken over with weeds and large trees covering most of the residence grounds. There was debris of rocks everywhere like there have been fights. Even the stands selling food looked terrible. He heard arguing from the left and turned to see a raccoon and a lizard having a fistfight and everyone else is cheering on whoever they bet on.
Po looked away from the fight and walked beside Shen.
"Nice work Shen, you got us in" he whispered.
"That was just child's play," the peacock didn't think to fool the guard was much of a challenge.
"Well it worked," Tigress whispered almost sounding impressed, "Phase one is accomplished. Now, what's phase two?"
Shen turned to the group and made sure there was no one eyeing on them.
"Alright, we should split up, we will cover more ground that way."
Although Shen was using this tactic to get away from the group. "If they ask questions just tell them we are looking for Gang to give him a package. Keep it subtle so they won't be too suspicious."
Po and the Five hummed in agreement and they split to their own paths, exploring the run-down village. Po walked to a nearby stand looking to see what kind of food they were selling. He frowned, most of the fruit looked rotten like they were sitting there for weeks.
"Can I help you?" the pig behind the stand hoarsely asked.
"Um, My friends and I are making a delivery, have you seen-"
"So you're not here to buy my food?" the pig's brow furrowed.
The panda paused, "Well, no. But I-"
"Then get out of here!" the pig bellowed, not wanting the bear standing another minute by his stand.
Po quickly walked away not glancing back at the jerk, Tigress wasn't kidding when she said the people here weren't the friendliest.
The warlord made his way further deep in the village, looking to see if there were any signs of the crow. He remembered Gang said in his letter he was staying at the blacksmith's home. That was his only clue. Shen thought it shouldn't be too hard since blacksmiths are known to live in larger homes. He held tightly on his scroll under his sleeves, he dare not to let it go until he finally exchanges it. He kept looking over his shoulder as if he expected one of the masters following him.
But then again, they told him that they trust him so why would he think he was being followed. The peacock could only pray to the Gods that the stress is not making paranoid. As he continued walking, he noticed a stand not too far selling weapons. A black-furred warthog was putting up spears and swords for his stand. This has to be the blacksmith.
Shen walked towards it and stopped just as he got the warthog's attention.
"Can I help you?" the warthog asked roughly.
The peacock recalled he was using the blanket as a disguise, he pulled it off his head revealing himself.
"Are you the blacksmith of this village?" Shen spoke quietly.
The warthog put down his spears and turned back to the peacock, his eyes narrowing.
"Who wants to know?" he inquired.
"I an acquaintance of Gang," Shen explained, "I'm here to give you my notes."
The blacksmith blinked like he was caught off guard and turned his head to check if someone was listening.
"You're Lord Shen?" he asked turning his head back to the bird, "I thought Gang was supposed to meet with you a week later."
"There's been a change of plans. They are masters here looking for him, so I took this upon my own myself."
Shen then felt a pitch of anger within him as Gang was bought up, "Where is he by the way?"
"Still resting inside," the warthog pointed his house, "But since you already have the plans with you I could take them off your wings."
Shen couldn't hide his triumphal grin, his thoughts on the crow were long gone. He did it, he manages to get away with this so easily he can almost taste the victory. His new weapons will be made, he will have the Gang and his crows in control and he will soon have his revenge.
So why is he just standing there hesitating?
"We already trust each other and I think it's time put that trust on Shen too."
The peacock felt his body froze as the panda's voice echoed his mind. They trust him, they let him led the way inside the residence, and he had conversations with them on their love of kung fu. And panda, as much he didn't want to admit it, was now individual he had grown used being around.
"What are you waiting for, just give it to him!" Shen's mind shouted at himself.
He shook his head, trying not to think about them. It was like he was trying to convince himself to go with his plan, telling himself that there was no other choice. Shen hasn't noticed the warthog was staring at him, not sure what was going on. He took out the scroll from his sleeve and was about to hand it over when he hears shouting that got everyone around them their attention.
They whipped around to see one of the villagers getting attack by an angry dog behind their stand.
"Please sir," begged the goat lady who was frightened, "I dropped the apple. I was putting it back not stealing it."
"Yeah right!" the dog barked, "Everyone here all thieves!"
He was taking a knife from his pocket to swipe at the poor villager when suddenly he felt something kicked his face and knocking him over. Monkey held him down, giving the poor lady a chance to run off. Seeing their cover has been blown, Po dropped his backpack and the others pulled the cloths off and rushed back to regroup. They strike a pose to the threating villagers. Shen also rushed back forgetting what he was doing.
"They're kung fu masters!" one villager shouted.
This caused all the men to pick up their weapons and surround the group. The blacksmith also joined the villagers but did not show any aggression, knowing that the warlord would not attack him.
"How the hell did all of you get in there?!" cried the dog holding his knife.
"None of your business," Tigress said, "We not here for trouble, we are looking for a criminal who was reported hiding here. Where is Gang?"
None of the men answered her, some muttered amongst each other, some ignore her completely. They seem to be only interested in getting the intruders out of their homes.
"There is no Gang here" the blacksmith spoke up.
Shen glanced at him, seeing he was covering for him and the crow.
"Are you sure?" Po answered back this time, "He's a crow and he was injured the last time we saw him."
"Sorry, there is no one here by that name," the warthog said.
"You're lying" Tigress exclaimed, "I will not ask again. Where is he?"
"Hey lady he said there's no Gang here," said an ox holding an ax, "Not get off our turf!"
"If you won't give us Gang, then will go with phase three!"
Po ran ahead and attack one person holding a spear. The Five already saw that these cruel villagers won't cooperate with them and they too joined the fight.
The men charged at the masters attacking them with their weapons, while the warthog quietly moves out of the crowd.
Tigress threw a spinning kick and one of the attackers, causing him to fall back. Crane stayed on the ground and use his wings to defend himself from the blows the attackers threw at him. Viper mostly slithered around the enemies and soon use her body to tie down three to four men. Monkey and Mantis worked together as always and dodged most of the attacks from a brown bear until Monkey picked a bamboo stick and use to whack at the bear.
Shen blocked a dog's attack, he kicked the mutt out of the way and saw a pig holding a rake coming to him. The peacock leaps up, landing behind the pig and use his wing to knock him down. While fighting he realized he stilled had his scroll with him. He couldn't believe he hasn't given it to the warthog. Why did he let himself get distracted?
Shen saw was still near the house of the blacksmith, he just needed to make a dash over there and give it to him. But he was knocked down, very harshly as he skidded on the ground. He looked up to see the ox clenching his ax close.
"Wait, stop!" Shen tried to tell him he was not the enemy but the ox didn't listen as he was ready to throw his ax down. But he got smack over on the face, skidding away from the peacock. Shen turned to see Po, who used his heavy backpack to take down the ox.
The panda turned to the peacock with concern, "Shen are you okay?"
Po handed his hand to help him up, but Shen refused, not wanting to look pathetic and got up with his own feet.
"I'm fine," Shen said rubbing his shoulder where he was hit.
Both the panda and the peacock then heard a bellowed cry as they turned to see the ox use his ax and slam it down with all of his strength. At first, the two were confused until they realized they were standing almost at the edge of a cliff. Seeing what was happening, Po and Shen took off but the ox gave one last push with his ax to knock them down and the cliff collapse. Both of them felt themselves falling, both gave a cry of fear as they were falling.
The ox was proud of what he did that he didn't see the edge he was standing on gave out and he too was also falling.
Tigress's ears parked hearing the screams. She whirled around just in time to see a familiar bear and bird and the ox falling from the crackling cliff. She dashed over, seeing she was already too late she looked down to see a misty river down below.
"PO!" she called out.
Po found himself underwater.
Holding a small amount of oxygen, he swam upward and felt the cold air rushed through him. Po didn't get enough time to observe his surroundings since he was in river streaming really fast. He holds his backpack as a way to protect himself from the tall swiftly rocks. While trying to keep his head from going under, Po realized he was alone, no was with him.
Eyes wide with panic Po called out.
"Shen!" the panda went under again and gasped for air. "Shen where are you!? Can you hear me!?"
It was getting hard for Po to keep up with the river, the stream kept going up and down not giving the poor panda enough time to at least find land.
"SHEN!" Po cried out coughing out the water.
All of a sudden there was a splash behind him and Po felt something tighten around his neck. He could only glance up to see it was the ox. He was using the staff of the ax, the blade no longer there.
"I-I'm not done with you yet, tubby" the ox coughed out using his wooden staff to choke Po.
Po tried to get him off as he was having a hard time breathing. He struggled from the ox hold but it was getting worse, much worse than being pulled in the water. The panda squinted his eyes to see from far ahead of the stream split into two paths. Getting an idea Po allowed himself to go under and use his weight to knock the ox on the rocks. The ox grunted in pain but it wasn't enough.
Po was running out of time feeling lightheaded from being underwater too long. His last option was to elbow the muscled ox. Heading back to the surface, Po took a big gulp of air, went under again and jabbed the ox with all his might and it was enough to get the ox off.
The ox's back rammed into a rock and headed to the second path of the river, away from the panda. Po wanted to sigh with relief but he was still in danger. With another wave of the stream, Po went under once more feeling he was going to blackout any minute. Before he did felt something grabbing his bag, someone taking a hold of his arm.
He couldn't remember when was the last time he took a long and relaxing nap. He wasn't dreaming but he swears he wasn't sleeping on his bed. Slowly, Po opened his eyes and saw he was right, he wasn't sleeping on his bed.
With a groan, he sat up and rubbed his back. Po noticed that his fur was all wet and matted. He tried to reflect on what happened but the river in front of cached his eyes. He stared at the flowing stream for a second until he remembered what happened. Po scurried away from the river and scanned the area only to see a familiar peacock not too far from lying on the ground.
"Oh no, Shen!" Po was quick on his feet and ran to Shen's side. He grabbed his shoulder to turn his body around, brushing the sand and dust of rocks from his still soaking wet robe.
"How long we were out?" Po thought to himself.
He saw Shen wasn't waking up, carefully he bent over to hear his chest to hear any heartbeat. There was nothing. Po panicked, he was not letting this happen again, he took hold of Shen's shoulders and shook him.
"Shen, Shen c'mon. Wake up. Can you hear me?" Po cried.
But the peacock said nothing.
Po wasn't sure what to do. He places a paw where Shen's heart should be and still didn't feeling nothing.
"Shen, you have to wake up," he quietly pleated, "C'mon buddy…"
Nothing.
Po lowered his head his closing his eyes tightly.
Po hadn't noticed but his paw, still placed over Shen's heart, started to glow. A small golden glow grew over the peacock's chest and then it disappeared. Shen opened his eyes and gasped, he quickly sat up coughing out water in his lungs. When it was over, he steadies his breathing, trying to grasp what happened. Shen felt another presence beside him and whirled around, only to see it was the panda with small tears in his eyes.
Po couldn't help but beamed to the lord in front of him.
"Shen you're alive!" Po cried as he threw himself to hug the bird.
This startled Shen and he reacted by pushing the panda away from him. "Get off of me, you idiot!"
Po fell to the sandy ground but was quick to his feet and push himself back up.
"Oh yeah, you're back" he mumbled and whipped his tears.
"Where are we panda?" Shen asked sounding really tried.
"I'm not really sure…" Po said with honesty.
Now that they were alright and out of danger, the two looked at their surroundings, now realizing they could be anywhere. There was nothing around but thick trees and bamboos. Wherever they are, they were nowhere close to the village and they separated completely from the Furious Five.
OHMYGOD! PO'S CHI POWERS WERE ACTIVATED EARLY! WHAT COULD THIS MEAN? I have no idea XD! Anyway, I had fun writing this chapter and I hope guys enjoyed it too. Before I go and party out on my B-day, I have a fun idea for you guys. So the next few chapters will be focusing more on Po and Shen (which I've been wanting to do for a long time) and want you guys to share what kind of situations these two will get into while trying to make it back home. I few in my head but want to hear ideas just to make up that long hiatus.
Oh and if any of you see any mistakes just let me know and I'll fix it, thank you.
