Learning

I woke up from bed to the clanging of the palace gong. It wasn't as loud as you think. It's pretty high up so people don't really hear it. But I did hear the masters all get out of their beds and say, "Good morning, Master." for Shifu. I didn't think they still did that. I could also hear Po fumbling outside the door, saying, "AHHH! Good morning, Master." I rolled my eyes and sighed as Shifu greeted them. I slowly got up and put on the sandals that Demi provided. They weren't like the band shoes that the others here wore. They were traditional old-fashioned sandals. They looked like they came from Israel or Syria. I stretched and kept trying to think what to do for my predicament. Then I remembered something. I hadn't heard Shifu take the masters out. I looked at my door and could see a large group of shadows. I opened the door to see the masters waiting for me.

"Oh, you're up," Mantis spoke from Monkey's shoulder.

"Yes, I am," I replied, wondering why they were standing in front of my door for me. "What is it?" I noticed that Tigress wasn't there. She was probably training.

"Well, we were wondering if you wanted a tour of the village," Viper asked. Then she remembered something. "Oh! I just realized we never introduced ourselves. I'm Viper, this is Monkey, Mantis, and Crane. You've already met Po and the tiger was Tigress. She's out training." Knew it. I bowed again.

"It's nice to meet all of you in person," I said, "I've heard so much about you." And wrote so much about you, I thought to myself.

"Well, we're glad our reputation precedes us," Monkey said proudly. Viper rolled her eyes. I smirked.

"I've also heard about many pranks and jokes around this place. Like what kind of ingredients are needed to make a monkey completely white," I replied smugly. Monkey looked frightened. I just laughed. "But I would love to see the place."

"Good, we'll go when you're ready," Crane said. I brushed myself with hands and a storm of winds blew away any dirt on me. It also gave Po, Crane, and Monkey 'Wind Hair' and blew Mantis from his perch.

"I'm ready," I smiled. So we went to the mountain, but I descended like Po told me by flying. Using my fire bending, I was able to soar down the mountain. Of course, the brakes were a little shaky and I crashed into a bush. "Ow," I mumbled. When the others came down, they showed me different workshops, carts, places, and attractions. They also showed me the noodle shop where I met the eccentric goose, Mr. Ping.

"Oh Po," He said in his Chinese accent, "You brought customers." I patted myself looking for money. Demi obviously wanted me to also live like a beggar asking people for favors! The rotten demon. Luckily, Po offered to pay for the food. We all sat down at a table as we waited for our food to arrive; Po was working in the kitchen.

"So, Lion, do you have any family," Viper asked very politely and kindly.

"Yes, but they live far away." And in a different timezone. "So I'm kinda by myself."

"Oh, so where have you been," Viper asked. Wasn't this the same question Tigress asked me? Anyways, I said,

"I've been to many places within my country. This is one of the few times I've been outside the country."

"What is it like in Africa," Crane asked. This is where my geographic study of the African continent came in handy.

"Well, Africa is an entire continent. I come from Ethiopia, around the sea. It has lush vegetation and there a lot of different kinds of people and species. It's very hot for starters. The climate is sometimes dry or moist, but since I'm near the sea, it's pretty steady. Beautiful sunsets every day."

"Wow, it sounds very interesting," Po marveled as he came with the food. "So how do you do all those crazy things you do?" I chuckled lightly as I made a little ball of wind.

"I don't know. I guess I was just given this. Kinda like how you have certain gifts, Po," I said.

"Yeah, Po does have a way of surprising us," Monkey added.

"Even if it means him getting into trouble," Mantis butted in. Everyone chuckled.

"Hey," Po protested. I laughed.

"Well, I'm going to go back up the mountain. Thank you for showing me around."

"Are you sure you want to go back up so soon? There are still some other places we could visit," Viper offered.

"No, I'm okay. I'm going to try and get whatever chores Master Shifu has for me done," I said. "See you." And I flew up and off to the mountain. As I got there, I slowly tried to descend in the courtyard. Didn't go well. Because I didn't land like I should with hands as well as feet out, I landed face first. "Ow! How do birds do it?!" I muttered. I got up and went to Master Shifu, who was in the Hall of Heroes. Another thing to note. The jade floor is very slippery. "Whoa!" I slipped right on my back. As I rubbed the pain away, I saw Master Shifu standing over me.

"Not very graceful, are you," He said, having observed everything. I chuckled embarrassedly. "What are you looking for, young warrior?" I quickly got up.

"Oh, I was wondering what kind of 'chores' you had for me." Shifu's ears perked up.

"Well, the Training Hall could use some scrubbing since Po didn't do it last time," Shifu said, very irritated. I bowed.

"Just show me where the broom is and I'll get to it," I said. So Shifu gave me the broom and sent me to the Training Hall. To my surprise, Tigress wasn't there training like the others said. "Where's Master Tigress," I asked.

"She's probably doing her meditation. She's usually doing her meditation training during this time." He showed me where to clean and what to clean and left. Now, I know that I could speedily do this by some super speed power that I may have, but I wanted to do this with my power just to see how hard it was. It took about thirty minutes to sweep the whole place clean. It wasn't as bad as the panda made it out to be. I just had to put back the wooden soldiers in place. "That's enough, Lion," Master Shifu said stopping me. "It looks a lot cleaner than it's ever been. Thank you."

"Have you been there the entire time," I asked.

"No, I just came from my meditation," Shifu replied. "You can rest now." Then he left. Then it dawned on me. Usually, by this time, I would have been at least a bit tired, but I wasn't. Maybe that's why I was able to do it so fast.

"You really did a fine job," Said a voice from behind. I turned around to see Tigress come into the Training Hall. I grimaced. "What?"

"Usually, when you come in here, you train so hard that the place gets messy again," I replied.

"That's not true," Tigress said quite defensively. I never felt threatened by Tigress's aggressiveness while I was here. I guess when you've written somebody so many different ways, you just know them. I just looked at her with a doubtful smirk. "It's not that substantial anyway."

"Have you tried to clean it," I asked.

"Not real-...I didn't come here to be interrogated," She said irritated. I laughed.

"Anyways, it's good to see you. I haven't seen you for the whole day."

"I was training."

"That I know," I replied.

"Actually, I came in here wondering if you could teach me some things," She said. "You must have at least something I can learn from you." I thought about it for a while.

"I do," I answered, "But you're not going to like it very much. It will take you out of your comfort zone a lot."

"I'm willing to do anything to make myself stronger," She replied dignified. I shook my head.

"It's not just that. This is not so much physical torture. This is social torture." I could tell she was confused. "In many battles, you must learn how to sense things. You already know how to hear things very well, but there are ways you can figure out what a person is thinking just by looking at them."

"Are you...trying to get me to be more social," She asked.

"It would help, but I'm taking baby steps here."

"I don't need social graces. Relationships and interactions are just distractions," She said pompously. I sighed. This is going to take a while, I thought.

"Like I said, that's not my main focus." I thought for a while in silent. "Tell you what. When I get more situated around here, I'll figure out what I can teach you." Then something hit me. "Hmmm."

"What?"

"Nothing, Po's coming." I saw Tigress's irritated sigh as the happy cheerful panda came in.

"Hey, Lion! There are these bandits that we found that you could practice on. Please show us some of you awesome skills," He begged. I smiled.

"Sure, I'll be there in a minute."

"AWESOME!" He shouted as he ran back.

"Ah, 'Let the children come to me and deny them not, for such is the key to the kingdom'" I quoted.

"What," Tigress asked.

"Nothing, rambling."

"How did you know Po was coming? I didn't hear him." I was a little concerned about that too. It was the sensing technique that came with the Lion Warrior powers.

"I can just sense people, I guess. There's a lot about me that is very interesting," I said more to myself than to her. Then I saw her famous small smile.

"Well, I look forward to training with you Master Lion," She said about to bow, but I stopped her.

"Just Lion. Don't call me master. I don't like having the title."

"As you wish," She bowed. Then I went off to follow Po.

This was going to be very very difficult. How was I going to get Tigress and Po together? I had a plan in mind. I would try my best to get Tigress more social and in turn, I would try to get Po to act a tad grown up, or just be a little more responsible. Not the best plan per se but it was better than anything I could come up with right now. I would have to get a lot closer to Tigress to understand her, and so would Po. It was going to take a while, so I didn't think much about revising my plan. That's mainly why I was going to teach Tigress. I was simply going to teach her the other Kung Fu styles, like Viper, Crane, and Eagle. You can learn a lot from old Kung Fu movies. Her being able to switch between styles would make her very versatile and flexible. The plan would also get Po to do more stuff. I like the panda, but he does have some minor annoyances. Once Po showed some fun and responsibility, my plan could work.

There were two things that were bothering me. One, if one part of my fanfic came true, what others would? There are some fan fictions I would be devastated if they came true. And what was to say that it was only limited to mine? Then there was the other thing. What did Demi mean by "Help?"

to be continued.