AN*
Sorry for the late Chapter! Freak thunderstorm hit and not out internet. Hope this chapter makes up for the wait. If not then i'll do a double update tomorrow. Enjoy!
Chapter 3
Fire
At the peach tree of heavenly wisdom sat a small red panda on top of a staff. His eyes were closed as he meditated to the descending sun. A low rumble woke him from his trance and he glanced down the cliff to notice a large panda fly out of the bushes a few yards away. "Po?" The aged grand master looked at the stumbling panda as he got to his feet. Po bowed to master Shifu. "Good afternoon master, sorry to sound rude but I really must leave before-OOMPH!" Shifus eyes widened as his adoptive daughter tackled the panda and the duo went tumbling back into the bushes. He chuckled lightly before returning back to his meditation session. Life was good. his daughter and the rest of the five was happy, he was at peace, and Po was truly living up to the Dragon Warrior title. A smile appeared on his face as a single thought blossomed in his mind. They were family. They had been just comrades in arms until Po arrived. After that fateful moment everything changed. The smile faded as a new thought blossomed. A thought of little panda and tiger cubs running around ripping off his mustache and pulling his beard. With that the master shuddered and sighed. He definitely was going to have to meditate longer to rid himself of images of a pregnant Tigress.
A few miles from the outskirts a group of merchant men were making their way towards the valley. They have done this for as long as they could remember and as usually it remained peaceful. One of the goats in the back smoked a large pipe . He puffed on it for a few until he noticed it had stopped smoking. "Cheap piece of...hay Cho! Remind me to pick up some more tobacco and a new pipe at the valley of peace alright?" A pig a few feet in front of him turned around to look at the goat. "I toldja that thing was worthless. Waste of 30 yen." The goat rolled his eyes and threw the pipe into a bush and continued walking. Unbeknownst to them the force of the pipe hitting the ground allowed a tiny, red ash to fall out. The ash glowed orange before slowly beginning to dim as it died. Just as the ash began to grow cold and turn black a small gust of wind blew on it and moved it a few feet over, on a patch of dead grass. The grass immediately ignited and a small fire ensued. If the group had been paying attention they could have easily extinguished the small brush fire, but alas fate would have other intentions as the group was nowhere near the area anymore.
The sun had set by now and the valley of peace and its protectors had gone off to bed. The fire feed on the grass and began to spread in search of more food. The fire followed the wind and latched onto anything that it considered food. Smoke rose up into the sky as the fire consumed everything in its path. The fire stayed low to the ground at first and only burned the stems of trees and plants, but soon it sensed there was more food higher up and began to climb up the trees as it swept across the area. Slow at first, but faster and faster and the fire gained more sources of food. The dry foliage and density of the jungle created a feeding frenzy for the fire. In a few short minutes an entire acre of forest was already ablaze. At this rate, in an hour or two the fire would engulf the valley of peace in its sleep. Fate would take a turn for the better though as a gust of wind changed the direction of the fire, but that did not stop it from spreading towards the Valley. If anything it simply delayed the inevitable.
The next day Master Shifu awake with a happy sigh. It was the same routine as always, up two hours before the gong for morning meditation at the peach tree, greet his students and assign them their training, eat, then back to meditation. The perfect life. Master Shifu made it up to the Peach tree and sat in a lotus position as he began to meditate. Just before he entered his trance he noticed a small orange glow off in the distance. He stood up and stared at the ominous, almost heavenly glow that illuminated the land in the distance. 'What in the world? What is that? Too early to be the sun...' As he stood there wondering what the glow was the wind had once again changed direction bringing the smoke, and fire, towards the valley and jade palace. The wind brushed threw Shifus fur as he sighed happily at the light breeze. That was until he noticed something in the air. Taking another sniff he noticed it smiled almost earthly, like wood or maybe freshly cut bamboo. His eyes widen as he became aware that it was in fact smoke he was smelling. Master Shifu went rigid and dropped his staff as he now knew exactly what the orange glow was. "May the gods be fortunate and bring us rain." With that Shifu ran as fast as he could to students barracks. They needed to evacuate the valley of peace before it was too late.
Hope you enjoyed that chapter! I tried to give the fire its own personality. If you didn't see it then I'll try to do better next time. R&R!