Standard disclaimers apply, I don't own Kung Fu Panda or the characters, except the ones of my own invention, so please don't use my Ocs without my permission. Thank you.
Okay, now that the legal stuff is done...I apologize if a lot of what Sun Bear says is somewhat confusing; a lot of his character is based off of a priest who used to preach at my church (before I left organized religion); he was a cool guy, and very fond of the Socratic method of teaching. Thankfully, the Father was nowhere near as short-tempered or violent as Sun Bear is...(kinda defeats the purpose of being a clergyman, doesn't it?)
Anyway, I hope this chapter answers a few questions. Its shorter than most of the others, but I hope its enjoyable anyway.
Chapter 11: The Phoenix's Nest
The air in the empty crypt hung stagnant and silent, the panda and snow leopard still completely stunned, breathless, their brains still struggling to comprehend even as the old ursine master waited patiently for them to recover. The shock of the revelation was enough to send both warriors faltering on their feet.
Sun Bear, however, was proactive enough to clear his throat as he blew out the candle.
"Well done, gentlemen; bravo indeed," he said, setting the candle on the altar.
"How did you know we were here?" Po asked, still looking rather guilty.
"I went to check on you," he said, glancing at Tai Lung, "and found that neither of you were in your cells, so, I deduced that you had come to the library. You left a light in that back room, and I knew from the disturbed dust and my old journal you left on the desk that you had entered the secret passage…and were probably stuck back here."
"You got that right," Po nodded. "But, um, we can totally explain about all this…"
"Oh, there's no need," the old master said, glancing about the room until his gaze settled back on Tai Lung. "I've figured everything out already. I may be old, but I'm not senile. I was wondering how long until you found this place, or some other clue I left behind. Still, you discovered the secret long before I expected you to. For that, Tenzin, I applaud you…or should I say Tai Lung?"
That got the snow leopard's attention: "You know who I am?"
"Know?" The old bear laughed harshly. "Are you kidding? I've been waiting for you these last forty years. You put on a good deception; I admit I had no idea who you were when you first arrived, but it wasn't until I looked back at Oogway's letters that I put the final pieces together. Not to mention, you are very much like your mother."
Tai Lung felt his throat constrict with emotion. "…You knew my mum?"
"A lifetime ago…well, a lifetime for you, perhaps," the bear chuckled. "I knew she was a prodigy with kung fu, and died young. I had heard rumors she had been married, but I never knew she had a son. Before all that, she came here, once, on the urging of her teacher…"
"Auntie Wu?"
"Good lord, that old bat's still alive? And is Lien still going by that? Not surprising; that was a moniker she picked up in her youth. Always had a rather maternal streak about her…" He drew closer, looking into Tai Lung's face. "Yes, very much like your mother…you have her eyes. I thought I recognized them, when you first arrived, but I couldn't place it. I had my suspicions, but I didn't believe it possible until you used part of the Lotus Style against me. Nima was quite the warrior herself. Quite a bit of fire in that one…and quite a bit of fire in you…" he stepped away and hid his hands in his sleeves. "Quite a bit of fire, indeed. I was a fool to ignore all the signs, the omens…
"You see, the entirety of the legend is as follows: the Phoenix Warrior had to go through a complete rebirth of the soul…though of course literally dying and coming back to life helps. He had to be buried underground for a generation, and rise from beneath the earth into a new life. I should have known…" he shook his head in disbelief with rueful smile, "I should have known when I first heard of your escape…"
Still confused, the snow leopard said, "I'm not sure I follow you…"
"Then perhaps Shang—or, rather, Po—would oblige?" Sun Bear offered. "You seemed to figure things out rather quickly, didn't you?"
Po looked at Tai Lung guiltily, then cleared his throat and told his friend, "Um, well…yeah, I heard all the legends and stuff, and remember what we read in the journal about the Phoenix Warrior, how he was supposed to die and be buried for a generation…and I think that's proof that you are the new Phoenix Warrior."
Tai Lung furrowed his brows in uncertainty. "Po, I didn't die, and I was never buried…"
"Actually…you did, and you were."
Tai Lung raised a brow.
Po continued by asking, "How do you define a generation, as happening every…?"
"Every twenty years or so, I suppose," the snow leopard answered. "But that still—"
"And remember you keep saying that you 'rotted' in jail for twenty years?" the panda pressed. "Your prison was inside a mountain, Tai…which is technically underground… And when I used the Wuxi Finger Hold on you…well, you technically died…"
The realization visibly dawned on his face, his amber eyes widening with awe. It seemed too good to be true…he refused to believe it. They were legends, sure, but that didn't make them fact… "This is some sort of joke." He turned to Sun Bear. "This can't be real."
"It is real," the old bear said. "It is happening; this is no dream. The signs all point to you, Tai Lung, just as the signs all pointed to Po. Oogway made a wise choice in a successor."
Even as Po's face warmed with a modest blush, the color quickly drained when the old master's words struck him in an odd way. "Wait…a successor? Am I supposed to be the Grand Master someday?"
Sun Bear stared at him, an incredulous and somewhat horrified look on his face. "You mean…he…" he shook his head and exhaled heavily. "He never told you?"
"Never told me what?" Po asked with genuine confusion.
"That you…he…" Sun Bear raggedly sighed and finished quickly. "Po…Oogway was your predecessor. He was not just the protector of the Dragon Scroll…he was its author. Oogway was the first—and before you, the only—Dragon Warrior."
This, if possible, shocked them even more. But as they shared astonished, disbelieving looks, both of them thought it over.
Oogway had always been adamant that the Dragon Warrior be a tactful person, one more concerned with peace and diplomacy than with conquest and power. That was the reason Tai Lung had been denied, and why Tigress had been denied the Dragon Scroll. But surely, the creator of kung fu would have chosen a successor who actually knew how to fight, didn't he? But perhaps that was the method to his madness, because choosing a big fat panda to be the greatest warrior in kung fu history was, by and large, complete lunacy.
But strangely, it started to make sense. Tai Lung—and Shifu, Po was sure of—had never seen the tortoise lose his temper. Even when Tai Lung had been mentioned, Oogway had never said a cross word about him. Po wondered if the tortoise had ever said a cross word to anyone in his whole life. He had always been patient, kind, endearing, and never looked down on someone for lacking something…just like Po.
While this was starting to make sense to Po, Tai Lung was reeling with this discovery. No wonder he'd been denied the Dragon Scroll! He had never listened when Oogway said knowing how to fight wasn't enough. Knowing when to fight was of greater import…but that was a lesson Tai Lung had always ignored.
"But I don't understand…why lie about it? Why hide it?" Po asked.
"This is not the place to speak of these things," Sun Bear said, drawing his robes around him. He cast a quick glance around the crypt and beckoned them. He reached into a jar by the door and extracted a handful of sand and dust to extinguish the flames. "Let's retire to someplace a bit more private…and a little less morbid…"
He took them to his personal quarters, which, though cramped, was still substantially bigger than the cells belonging to the other monks. The room was about the size of two cells put together, which wasn't that big at all, yet Sun Bear had managed to have both his pallet and a low table for his use. The table was covered with scrolls and bound books at the moment, which he began to pick up and place to the side. He invited the two warriors to sit at the table while he tidied up.
"Make yourselves at home. Now that we can be completely honest with each other, it may make your training easier and more efficient. Oh, and while we're in here," he said with a quick nod to Tai Lung, "I won't count any swears that go towards your Swear Jar tab."
"Thank you."
"Now, the journal you discovered," Sun Bear explained as he stacked books and scrolls in the corner, "was a ruse meant to throw people off. I couldn't help overhearing you before you fell behind the wall—you were correct in that this place was designed as a fortress, to protect the Phoenix Scroll and my true identity. The Jade Palace has numerous defenses courtesy of the natural geography, but the Phoenix Temple is sadly lacking there."
"I call Bull," Po protested. "This is one tough mountain to climb!"
"I concur," Tai Lung agreed.
"Aside from the altitude," the ursine master said with a strained tone, "We had little in the way of defense. Fortunately, this mountain has many natural caves that we've utilized over the years for storage and evacuation if necessary. Fortunately, no one has been foolish enough to attack the monastery in five hundred years. Those stories about mountain spirits and ghosts haunting the slope tend to deter less scrupulous men."
"So there aren't any spirits guarding that pagoda, are there?" Tai Lung questioned.
"Of course there are," Sun Bear snorted. "Phoenixes guard that pagoda."
Both younger warriors stared at him. "You are pulling my leg, surely?" the snow leopard asked.
"I am not. The Phoenix and her descendants guard this place and its secrets, just as the dragon and his descendants guard the Jade Palace. You may not always see them, but they're there. The strength of your powers, Po, is in direct correlation to your proximity to a dragon. That is how you were able to defeat Tai Lung so easily before—you were close to the home of a sleeping dragon, while he was far away from the homes of the phoenixes.
"Tai Lung on the other hand, your powers should not have started to manifest until you came here…but that doesn't appear to be the case. Phoenixes live in deserts, mountains and places of heat. Dragons live in forests, waters, and places known for cold…"
"And Chorh-Gom was in a mountain in Mongolia," the snow leopard gasped. "Does that have anything to do with my escape?"
"Oh gods no," the master laughed. "You did that yourself—and good show, by the bye."
"Erm, thanks? But…how do you know all this about me? You've never met me before now."
Finishing his cleaning, the old bear clapped dust off his hands and sat opposite them at the low table. Sun Bear's dark eyes bored into the snow leopard's as he explained.
"Tai Lung, I kept in close correspondence with Oogway for many, many years, and especially all throughout your training," the old master said. "He told me of the day you'd been discovered on their doorstep. Later, he told me that, when you were younger, he thought he'd found the Dragon Warrior—his successor—at last. I still have his letters, if you're interested in what he said about you. But as you grew older, survived your teenage years, became a young man, he noticed changes in you…"
"Darkness," he sighed, with mixed depression and aggravation. "He saw darkness in me."
"Yes, but it was a darkness he recognized, a darkness he had seen in an old friend of his," he said with an ironic smile. Sun Bear said it straight, "He told me you were not cut out to be the Dragon Warrior…but that you were a prime candidate to be the Phoenix Warrior. We started making plans to have you sent to study kung fu with me once you had finished mastering the scrolls, but you had gone berserk before Oogway could completely explain these plans to you. In the end, that was why he denied you the Dragon Scroll. It wasn't that you weren't worthy—you were worthy, but not of that scroll. You have to understand," Sun Bear said, looking extremely contrite. "He and I only wanted what was best for you. I should have known, from the first time he wrote about you, what you were capable of…"
"Capable of being a monster," the snow leopard muttered.
"If you'd listen," Sun Bear growled, "and stop being so impatient, perhaps you would realize what I'm trying to tell you, you middle-aged fool!"
"I am not that old!"
"Yes, you did terrible things," Sun Bear continued, "but you can't hang yourself on that. You need to let it go. What's past is past, you can't change it, so there's no point worrying about it. Now, be patient…I'll answer all your questions tonight, if you'll permit me…"
Po immediately launched into a volley of queries: "How are you so old and still alive? Where's the Phoenix Scroll? What's the secret of the scroll? How did you and Oogway meet? Was there really a Great Fight? How many other secret passages are there? How did you really know where we were and who we were? How come Tai never heard of you before now? And how come you never visited the Va—"
SMACK.
"OW!"
Sun Bear nodded at Tai Lung. "Thank you."
The snow leopard cracked his knuckles after having slapped the panda on the side of the head. "My pleasure."
Po rubbed his head and glared at him. "You bastard!"
"If you would keep your mouth shut and let the man talk," Tai Lung said with a sigh, "He just might answer you!"
"Hey, I just wanted to make sure he knew all our questions before he got started!"
"I'm sure he's going to have a question and answer session, Po!"
Sun Bear's already short fuse flared, and he brought out his trusty bamboo staff to bop them both on the head. With two well-aimed whaps he silenced their burgeoning argument. "Will you stop? Have some dignity; you fight like an old married couple!"
"We do not!" Tai Lung snapped.
"And where the hell does that thing keep coming from?" Po demanded, pointing at the staff.
The snow leopard muttered, "He probably pulled it out of his—" Then he mewed when Sun Bear glared and raised the staff again to bring down on his head.
"Would you like to finish that sentence, Tai Lung?"
"No, sir," he answered contritely.
"Good." The old master laid the staff across his knees and cleared his throat. Noting how the panda and snow leopard appeared to give him complete undivided attention, he began his tale:
"Oogway and I had known each other since we were both young men, and when he passed over into the next world, I knew immediately; there are certain bonds far stronger than mere friendship and fraternity. We had known each other for so long, we could read each other's minds…"
"You mean it seemed like you could," Po said.
"No, we could actually read each other's minds." Sun Bear tapped the side of his head. "We had a link, he and I, and we could communicate over great distances without even speaking a word. As we grew older, and lived farther and farther apart, our link weakened; we couldn't read thoughts, but we could read emotions. I knew something awful had happened to him about twenty-five years ago…it was a feeling of utmost disappointment and sorrow…and I didn't find out until later that it was about Tai Lung's rampage and imprisonment. Consequently, I knew he had discovered his successor when one day, about four years ago, I felt suddenly very light and happy, more joyful than I had been in years—that was the day he chose Po to succeed him. And the day after that…" he sighed and shook his head. "Well, I knew what had happened then, too."
Both younger warriors shared a quick look then stared down at the tabletop. Sun Bear coughed and wrapped his robes closer around himself.
"I will go into more detail about that later on. For now, allow me to answer your questions. As for why we lied about our true identities, well, we had many enemies, and we could not tell anyone about the secrets of either scroll. The Dragon Scroll contains much more power than anyone will ever know, but it is not particularly dangerous. The Phoenix Scroll on the other hand…well, that's a completely different beast. The secret of the Phoenix Scroll would revolutionize the world, shake empires to the ground and bring the most hardened men to their knees…" he paused, seeing the effect of his words on Tai Lung's face. "We had to pretend it was myth. We had to spread the myths of the Dragon Scroll, to make it out to be something mythical, fantastic…fake. You know the stories of thieves and the like trying to take the Dragon Scroll by force? What do you think would have happened if they had come here for the Phoenix Scroll?"
"Disaster," the feline said. "It would have meant the end of China…"
"Perhaps," the old master shrugged. "But both Oogway and I had our reasons for keeping our real identities a secret, even hundreds of years after our enemies' deaths."
"Because of the Great Fight?" Po asked.
"Among other reasons," the old bear nodded at him. "Which means that I should probably tell you the whole story, so that you both understand what was at stake then, and what is at stake now." He waited until they had gotten comfortable, then began his narration:
"The legend I told you when you first arrived was true. There was a time before China was unified under the Imperial banner that it was in complete chaos. However, the fact is, gentlemen, I was simply in the wrong place at the right time… The short story is that I was on the run from my homeland. I had escaped from prison—escaped my own execution, actually—and decided to throw off my trackers by going North through the mountains, thinking that it wouldn't be so bad; how big could any mountain ever be…?" he smiled ruefully at the jagged peaks visible through the single open window. "When I say I was young and stupid, I heavily emphasize 'stupid'."
"What did you go to prison for?" Tai Lung interrupted, already finding interest in the sudden similarities the two shared. The parallel swiftly turned eerie:
"I was imprisoned, and nearly executed, for murder," Sun Bear said.
Tai Lung averted his gaze, his ears lowered in shame.
"Yes, I am ashamed of my actions, too," Sun Bear said truthfully, and almost gently. "But though it happened very long ago, that does not excuse my sins any more than shame excuses yours. The fact you know what you did was wrong is the first step.
"I somehow made it through the range of the Himalayas alive, and when I arrived near the border of China—right in the village at the foot of this mountain—I was skinnier than I am now, and, well, I'm sure I looked like hell. But I happened to have arrived at the worst possible—or best possible—time. A regiment was attacking the villagers, pillaging, looting…you name the clichés, they were doing it. Well, murderer or no, I still had morals. I fought the regiment, beat them back, killed a few—including their commander—and sent them packing. I somehow survived. Divine intervention, or sheer dumb luck, I've no idea. Either way, what I did that day would haunt me the rest of my life. As soon as the fray was over, the villagers told me they had prayed for a deliverer, and when they needed it most, there I was. I had heard of phoenixes in my homeland, and the legends are more or less the same…but being a heavenly warrior made flesh? Still, no matter how I denied it, they didn't believe me; before I knew it, I was the sovereign leader, the one even the elders came to for advice. I was twenty-one at the time."
Po let out a long, low whistle. "That's young."
"Yes, Po Ping, that is very young. Political power was something I never wanted, yet I got it. I started to become a recluse, an effort to get away from the stresses of it all, and partly because I was guilt-ridden thinking of these people worshipping a murderer. It still makes my stomach turn to think of it…
"I made myself a small house on this mountain—it's still standing, serving as a gatehouse to this monastery—and I holed myself up there. I lived alone for about five years. In those five years, though, I began to notice quite a few changes in me…abilities that were physically impossible, surreal dreams that became reality, and most distressingly, the ability to heal my own wounds."
Tai Lung perked up when he heard that last one. "Healing?"
"Yes," the old ursine nodded at him with a rather proud smile. "I should have known back when Little Brother's fever suddenly disappeared, and when Po's ribs were suddenly uninjured. I knew you had treated him after I left…but I didn't truly pay attention until you were hit by that flaming arrow; the place you were hit should have struck your lung, or at the very least ruptured an artery. In short, that was a kill shot, and yet you not only survived, but you just stood up and walked off the field. The ability to heal is one attributed to the Phoenix…healing through its tears. That's the trick: you cannot heal others on command; you have to have an emotional connection with them, you need to pity them."
"So you started getting really cool abilities," Po said, "What happened next?"
Sun Bear stared out the window again, a slight, nostalgic smile on his face. "I saw the Phoenix. It was a marvelous thing…the statue in the higher pagoda, which I will eventually show you, is as close as mortal hands can depict such a wonder. It said nothing to me—nothing needed to be said. It was a sign that I was the peoples' protector, and they needed me to bring them peace. They needed me to restore balance to the karmic cycle. They needed me to purify China of the hatred and fear it had stewed in for so long. It was not until after this appearance that my, ah, otherworldly abilities began to truly manifest.
"When I had beaten back the regiment before, it was mostly dumb luck and good reflexes. I didn't know any more about being a warrior than a boy who gets into fights in school yards. But suddenly, I came upon this knowledge of a fighting form I could use…and even more remarkable, I sensed that I was not the only one aware of this fighting style.
"Before long, word reached me about two people who would forever change the course of my life. The first was a warlord, the eventual instigator of the Great Fight. The second, of course, was Master Oogway. Now, I knew more about the warlord than I did about Oogway—of the latter, all I knew were rumors; of the former, I knew everything there was to know. I had fought him before, and though we were mortal enemies, I believe he backed off after he realized I would most certainly kill him if I felt like it. I was a threat, but apparently, Oogway was the bigger threat.
"I learned of a plot to kill this great man, as they were calling him, this visionary. I didn't know Oogway; I just knew he was an innocent victim. I didn't know he and the warlord had once been allies, and that the warlord had turned on him…none of that mattered. To this day, I don't know what drove me to journey to Oogway's home, but journey I did, and long story short, I saved him. I'll spare you two the gory details."
"But why would Oogway need saving?" Po asked. "He created kung fu!"
"At that time, he had not; at least not completely. He was developing the idea for it, and looking for a place to 'unlock the mysteries of the universe'. He was odd, but he was harmless, and I appreciated his upbeat, if unorthodox, attitude; it was a pleasant foil to my cynicism. Anyway, we decided it would be better to travel together to find this place he was looking for, lest he suffer another assassination attempt. Our travels eventually brought us to the Valley of Peace, where, on Wu Dan Mountain, we camped for…it must have been a few years. I can't remember. While there, we learned from each other, taught each other, and, once Oogway had unlocked the secrets to harmony and focus, we learned and developed kung fu. I was his very first student.
"His specialties were all the more defensive, deflecting motions. He studied the way the mantis struck, the way the crane's wings flapped, the way a monkey jumped from tree to tree. I, on the other hand, preferred the more aggressive forms. My style was—and still is—nothing but offense. Snake style, Tiger, Leopard…the strength and speed behind each of them were more suited to me. I'm hot-blooded; always have been, always will be, and I'm not ashamed of it.
"After our time on the mountain, we had become…'best friends' I guess you could say. We had our disagreements, we had our fights, but we were there for each other. He told me the secret he eventually locked into the Dragon Scroll, and served as my spiritual advisor. Young as he was, he was always like that, and would continue to be. He loved helping people, and nothing brought him more joy than seeing smiling faces, and children…oh, he loved children! You should have seen him; he was so excited to have something to teach, something with such profound wisdom, he wanted to build a school to teach everyone, from the poorest farmer to the richest prince…"
Po and Tai Lung both noticed the fond, wistful smile that spread unabashedly across the bear's wrinkled face as he recalled the good times he had shared with his oldest friend. Sun Bear chuckled and shook his head, "He was like that until the day he died…Heaven bless his soul…"
"…But the Jade Palace was built soon after, wasn't it?" Tai Lung asked, shocking Sun Bear out of his memories and back to the matter at hand.
"Yes, that's true. It seems our warlord 'friend' decided to have another go at killing Oogway, and me as well, so he and his army invaded the Valley of Peace. I believe it goes without saying that Oogway defeated him—I'm still not sure exactly what he did or how he did it, but with one motion he created and applied a kung fu move so powerful it formed the chasm now known as the Devil's Mouth."
"Oogway created that chasm?" Po gasped. "The chasm the Thread of Hope crosses?"
"The same," said Sun Bear with a nod. "After he saw what destruction it caused, he vowed never to use that move ever again. Kung fu very much a double-edged sword, as the saying goes. Oogway's plan was to create a natural barrier that would prevent any future invasion to the valley, but it caused such upheaval to the natural landscape that he recognized someone with less conscientious intentions could use that same move for unspeakable destruction. So that technique died with him.
"Well, either way, the citizens were so grateful for his help, they built the Jade Palace in thanks; they intended it to be a palace worthy of the Emperor of China. Oogway never saw it that way, of course; he was one man, a simple man, who had no use for hundreds of rooms and treasures galore. He saw a greater use for it than a private residence. He finally had the school he had envisioned, and began teaching kung fu immediately. I stuck around for a while, mostly doing administrative work while Oogway taught young warriors. But I quickly got tired of that and began teaching as well. Its funny how that works…I used to abhor the idea of teaching little brats, and yet as soon as I started, I came to love it.
"Once I knew enough, I theorized that opening a sister-school would be a good idea so we could spread kung fu across the country. Oogway agreed, so I set out to find an ideal location. My travels took me back to the mountain where I had seen the phoenix…" he hesitated, setting his jaw. "When I got there, the village was gone. Everyone was either enslaved or killed. The warlord was deliberately calling us out, threatening to do the same to every village in the country until he had control of all of Asia. I sent word to Oogway, who immediately answered the call, and brought an army with him. Leading them was a young peasant, a student of ours, a fellow who became the Emperor and progenitor of the current dynasty, but I'm getting ahead of myself."
"Was this the Great Fight?" Po asked.
Sun Bear nodded, suddenly grave, "Yes, yes it was. It was a bloodbath, on both sides. You've seen my journal—my memoir, actually—so you've got a good idea how awful it was. The warlord's entire army was annihilated. Most on our side were sent to meet their maker over the course of that hellish week. Even we barely survived, Oogway and I. In fact, I was mortally wounded while protecting our dear friend and favorite student, the future emperor. It was Oogway's quick action that saved me—there was a spring he discovered on this very mountain, a spring that could heal any wound. He used its waters to seal up my wound but, when I was at the Gates of the Afterlife, he forced me to drink some of it. Well, that did the trick. Neither of us realized until much, much later what had really happened."
"It was a Spring of Eternal Life," Tai Lung finished. "Anyone who drank of its waters would be young forever…but that was just a myth, right?"
"Are you saying I look old?" Sun Bear glared.
"You've been alive for over one thousand years—of course you look old!" he shot back. "But I admit you look pretty good for your age."
"Thank you. But you are mistaken about that spring," Sun Bear continued, "It was a spring that could heal all wounds great and small, but it did not ensure immortality. All it did was slow the progression of age. All things that live will die—that is a given. Some just take longer than others to meet the ultimate fate." He sighed. "When Oogway discovered what he had done…well," he smirked humorlessly. "Tell him not to do something, and he'd do it anyway—he could be more stubborn than my self, sometimes. In short, he drank the spring's waters as well…"
"…So that you wouldn't be alone," Po finished. "He knew why immortality was actually a bad thing. Everyone you knew—your friends, your family, everyone—would grow old and die…and you'd still be young. You'd be all alone without him." The panda hesitated. "That's one heck of a sacrifice."
"That it was," the old bear nodded. "As a tortoise, he would have lived to be perhaps one hundred years old without the spring's waters, but he wanted to be sure I was well taken care of, and would never suffer loneliness. That was the 'curse' I spoke of in my journal. When I found out what he'd done to himself, I was furious; I refused to talk to him for years, though I eventually forgave him. For the past thousand years, he had been that one constant companion, the only one on the face of this earth who understood…"
"But he eventually died," Po said. "Master Shifu said he just…dissolved into flower petals and became the stars."
"A fitting death for the very first Dragon Warrior," Sun Bear explained. "Dragons represent the water that gives life to the earth, which bears the plants that sustain us…and if the stories he told are true," he said with a sharp look towards Tai Lung, "then that peach tree sustained you all throughout your childhood."
Tai Lung crossed his arms and stubbornly replied, "Say what you want—those are the best peaches in China."
"Okay, I get the 'earth' thing, with him being a tortoise and all," Po said. "But becoming stars—wait…" he groaned when he realized: "Duh…dragons are also associated with heaven…"
"Exactly," Sun Bear smiled. "But you have a valid point—Oogway did die…and soon, so shall I."
"But you drank that water," Tai Lung protested.
"And you found that spring beneath this monastery, Tai Lung," the old master said. "In fact, that passage behind the bookcase was carved from this mountain by that spring's waters. It dried up decades ago. In order for us to prolong our lives, we needed to drink from it every hundred years…ten drinks for ten lifetimes…and once we discovered the spring was drying up, we knew we had to find successors to protect China after we died.
"The Great Fight was terrible indeed, and yes, we faked our deaths—for so long, we referred to ourselves only as the Dragon Warrior and Phoenix Warrior. Hardly anyone knew our true identities, and the ones who would have revealed us all died in that battle. I thought it was a cowardly thing to do, but Oogway had a good point: we had far too many enemies after that battle, and in order to protect our friends and students, we needed to keep up appearances that we were just simple monks teaching martial arts. Our identities as the two greatest warriors ever to defend China had to remain secret, so all documents, all records and paintings of us in our regalia, we either hid or destroyed. We even changed our names for good measure. After that, all the legends that sprang up about the two warriors were of our invention…"
Then the old bear chuckled. "We started a contest, he and I, trying to outdo each other on what impossible things we were capable of. I started with 'power over life and death' and 'controlling fire'; he had his 'hearing a butterfly's wings beat' and 'seeing light in the darkest cave'. He ended up winning for the 'limitless power' bit. I was pretty annoyed about that; I mean, how can you top that?"
"Ability to heal the sick is pretty good," Tai Lung offered.
"Not to mention your own wounds," Po pointed out. "But does that mean none of those things are possible?"
"Judging by your tone, I'm assuming that you've actually experienced it." Sun Bear paused. "Po…did you actually see in the darkness of that cave?"
"Well…not really well, but I could see enough without bumping into anything. And," the panda said, "I haven't exactly heard a butterfly's wings beat…but I have been able to hear things from a great distance." And he had…somehow. After Dalang had broken Tigress's heart—for the first and last time, if he knew what was good for him—Po had discovered the mourning female just by listening to the wind and hearing her sobs, and followed the negative energy he felt straight to its source. And somehow, in all the time he had spent at the Phoenix Temple, he could tell if someone was sneaking up on him. He could hear footsteps from yards away, and sometimes from clear across the monastery. And for some inexplicable reason, he had certain…feelings. Like premonitions, a sense that something had happened or would happen. He stopped short of calling them prophetic visions; that was more Oogway's territory. But somehow…the panda had developed a sixth sense that Oogway himself had been known for.
And suddenly, Tai Lung felt much the same as the panda. He had exhibited those 'rumors'. In his fight with Shifu after his escape from prison, Tai Lung himself had wielded pure fire in his very hands and used it as a weapon. Those blue flames should have seared the flesh right off his bones, but they didn't. He hadn't even felt any heat! He had also conquered death and risen above it. How many people had actually survived the Wuxi Finger Hold? Only him. He had risen from that veritable tomb that was called "prison", and in a wave of fire and destruction, he had…almost quite literally…risen from the ashes of Chorh-Gom's destruction.
Sun Bear seemed to see right through their thoughts. "As incredible as all this sounds, you must both understand…my friend Oogway was right. Nothing is impossible. Something might not be very probable, but it is never impossible. Mortals have the potential to do amazing things, if only they focus on it. The truth of the Dragon Scroll is simply this: Anyone can be a hero, and anyone can do the amazing feats that you both are capable of."
"So what's the secret of the Phoenix Scroll?" Tai Lung asked.
"Nice try," the old master said with a smirk. "And that's a subject for another conversation. It is late for both of you, and we have much to do. You have been here two weeks, and I have laid the foundation for your training to begin in earnest. By my estimations, we only have two weeks to teach what takes years. So, both of you, to your beds; by dawn, your training will intensify."
They hardly slept that night, and were awoken hours before dawn by First Brother. The old lion actually smiled at them this morning and took them directly to breakfast. Evidently, Sun Bear had told him who their visitors really were, and the lion was more than happy to treat them less as honored guests…and more as family. "You're in for a treat," he said. "A couple of our brothers went down to the village last week for ministry and came back this morning with donations from the villagers. How does rice with egg and sliced vegetables sound?"
"What, you're actually feeding us now?" Tai Lung quipped.
The old lion chuckled. "Heavens, I hope so—you two have gotten far too thin for my liking. After breakfast, though, Master Sun Bear would like to see you separately for private training sessions today. Master Sha—er, sorry, Po—you will train with him this morning. Tai Lung—that is your name, right?—you will have him for the afternoon. In your downtime, you are to practice what you've learned. That is his plan for today, so eat well—you'll need the energy."
Breakfast was a simple affair, but even the addition of scrambled eggs and pickled vegetables to the rice—and salt!—was a welcome change, and, much to the warriors' surprise, a luxury. Po never would have thought salt and soy sauce—hell, even having egg in his breakfast—would have been a luxury, but when he glanced over at Tai Lung to see how he was eating, he was surprised to see him taking his time, savoring each bite like it was his last meal. Then the panda's stomach turned, recalling that, while still in prison, the snow leopard had probably treated every meal as a last meal. The more he thought about it, the more the panda remembered that, since he'd known him, Tai Lung had always eaten that way. He didn't scarf down his meals like a starving wolf (like Dalang did), nor did he ruminate and wax poetic about food in general (as Po's dad had done while growing up). Did twenty years in lockdown make him appreciate such simple things all the more? For the first time, Po felt extremely guilty for taking for granted such things as a filling meal and warm bed.
After breakfast, they reported to Sun Bear, who gave Tai Lung a reading list and instructions to visit the library and learn as much as he could about phoenixes and certain kung fu schools; Hung Ga and Northern Shaolin featured most prominently. In the meantime, the old bear would work with Po on practical application of kung fu.
Unfortunately for Po, "practical application" meant getting his butt handed to him by a guy one thousand years his senior. Not since his first training session with the Furious Five had Po been so beaten up. With every hit Sun Bear got in during the hour-long sparring session, the more Po noticed just how much Tai Lung had in common with the old ursine. For one thing, Sun Bear could be a real bastard. But Po already knew that. He was also brash, aggressive, yet coolly confident in a way Tai Lung never was. Did it have something to do with being around the block for one thousand years that the old master felt—perhaps rightly so—that he knew more than enough to warrant this confidence?
"Your stance is off, Po, turn your feet out. More. More! Good, bend the knees, lunge right, fists up. Now hold. What does this position remind you of?"
He answered immediately: "The Warrior Pose! I knew that yoga would help!"
Sun Bear smiled, "That it did. I learned it from a traveling monk from South Asia about nine hundred years ago, and I'm glad I did! Daily practice has made me more limber now than I was as a child. And see how your balance has improved? A marked difference."
"Y'know, I also gotta say," Po said slowly, "It is really, really weird that you're suddenly being so nice."
This made Sun Bear laugh, but Po didn't see the joke. Instead, he had a feeling that he had spoken too soon.
"Oh, not to worry, Dragon Warrior," the old bear assured, "Soon enough, you will learn that I can be a real hard-ass."
"Two jiao."
"I'll knock it off your tab."
"I don't have a tab."
"After this morning's lesson, you will."
"Okay, Deal." Po turned on the balls of his feet and blocked Sun Bear's strike with his forearm, twisted and grabbed the other bear's wrist and jerked. Sun Bear, as agile as a cat, moved with the momentum Po had created, rolling over the panda's back. Po caught his ankle and yanked him back down to earth, but Sun Bear returned his block with a high kick, which Po block with his palm, thrusting down sharply. The old master, surprised, fired back with a sharp open-palmed thrust to the panda's chin; Po arched his back then back-flipped, landing in a split then propelled himself back up into the Dragon Stance.
Sun Bear stood back and lightly clapped. "Very well done. It seems my instincts to teach you yoga have significantly affected your more gymnastic abilities."
"Howzat?" Po asked, wisely not letting up his stance.
"Flexibility notwithstanding," Sun Bear pointed out, "You're more aware of your center of gravity, and your breathing has made it possible to do what you just did without getting winded. The reason we lose our breath when exercising is because we are not using our breath correctly. That," he suddenly kicked high; Po caught his ankle, but Sun Bear picked himself up and executed a flawless roundhouse kick—which Po dodged effortlessly. The old master smirked when he landed and straightened. "That, and your reaction time is also greatly improved."
"But that doesn't have anything to do with yoga, right?" Po asked, letting go of his foot. "I mean, we're always moving so slowly in yoga. How does it make me quicker?"
"Because it teaches you to listen," he said. He made a dismissive gesture. "Sparring is over for the morning. Let's continue to the next lesson. Now, because my old friend departed before he could accurately explain the Dragon Scroll's secrets, or the abilities of the Dragon Warrior, the rest of our lessons will deal exclusively with just that."
"But, um," Po stumbled along behind him. "What does listening have to do with being fast?"
"It doesn't," was the answer. "It makes you smarter, in more ways than one. Don't worry, I'll have this conversation with Tai Lung later. People, I've noticed, are rather fickle: When they want something, like money or food, they don't go out and get it themselves through dedication and hard work. They think that asking a divine being for a blessing of money or food is all that they will need…then they either get angry when they feel they are ignored, or despondent when the feel they are unworthy. Now, what do you think is their biggest mistake?"
"They…aren't doing anything for themselves. They just depend on someone else to do it, right?"
"Well, yes and no—the problem is that they keep asking, and asking, and asking, then protest when they don't get what they want. 'I prayed to get a position in the government, but now I'm a laborer'. 'I prayed for seven healthy sons, but all I get are daughters'. What they all have in common is that they always talk…but never listen."
"…Okay, I really don't follow you."
Sun Bear sighed. "We are always asking, but never listening. Prayer is not a one-sided communication to Heaven, but too many people treat it that way. Prayer is a conversation with gods and nature, but most mortals only wish to tell their part and not bother listening to the other side. That is why we meditate. Prayer is when we talk to the gods. Meditation is when the gods talk to us."
Po's expression brightened as he got it. "That's why Shifu keeps telling me to meditate!"
"Exactly," Sun Bear said with a smile. "And, in fact, this is the same conversation I had with Oogway when he first taught me meditation…verbatim, oddly enough."
"What else can you tell me about him?" the panda asked. He followed Sun Bear back to the courtyard with the posts. The old master paused just short of the closest post and heaved a heavy sigh. Po felt bad for bringing it up. "You really miss him, don't you?"
"When we lose something, there is inevitably an emptiness that follows," the old master despondently replied. "No mortal likes that feeling. We eat so we do not feel empty inside. We drink so we do not thirst for anything more. But once that fullness is taken away, if we are not careful, we starve." Sun Bear shook himself out of it and addressed the Dragon Warrior. "Oogway was, in a word, patient. He never acted unless he knew exactly what he was getting into. For the most part, you are of the same mind, but you haven't always been thus. If I am right, you literally dropped into your title because you wanted to 'see the Dragon Warrior', and, when you couldn't get through the door in more logical manners, used fireworks to propel yourself over the wall—"
"Okay, that's really creepy, how did you know that?"
"—Let me finish. Then you decide to show off to the Furious Five—who rather dislike you at this point—and then get your butt handed to you on Shifu's obstacle course…" here he made a face and said, "I apologize for that—I'm afraid a lot of that is my influence. I guess Shifu decided to take it easier on his students."
"Knowing what I know now about you, I can safely say that."
"Great, he's training a bunch of wimps. Fantastic."
"Hey!"
"No offense to you and your friends, of course. Now where was I? Ah, yes, then you just jumped into training with the Five, not realizing you were a complete novice going up against five highly-trained killing machines…then later you ran right into Tai Lung to fight him without really knowing what to expect—"
"Seriously, how do you know all this? This is getting really, really creepy."
"The point you need to take away from that is this," the old bear sharply said. "You can't stumble into things and hope they turn out for the best. That's how you did it with Jiao Shen, and you nearly died."
"We had a plan!"
"And had Oogway seen it, he would have ordered you not to use it!"
"How the hell do you know all this?" Po angrily asked.
"Three jiao," Sun Bear tallied.
"Aw, damn."
"Three fen."
"Aw c'mon, man!"
"Do you really want to know how I know?"
"Would be nice, yeah."
"Hop up onto the first post and I'll tell you."
Po stared at him a moment, then obeyed, keeping in mind the last lesson he had learned here. He waited until he had balanced himself on the top of the pole, then Sun Bear joined him on an adjacent post.
"As I stated last night, Oogway and I had a…link. A sixth sense, but also an alternate form of communication. We could hold entire conversations without opening our mouths. We could convey fear and joy without changing our expressions. I couldn't see what he saw, but before he passed, he 'told' me of how he found you, and how you were acclimating to your new lifestyle. He had more encouraging words for you than I would have had. But I could tell that he was severely worried, that you were very much a novice. But he saw something in you that he believed also existed in Tai Lung. Are you familiar with the legend of the red thread?"
"Of course," Po said. "But I thought that was to connect two people in love?"
"Not necessarily. It can, and it is usually insinuated as such, but it more or less means that you and he are two halves of one whole. You are - in a purely non-romantic sense - each other's soul mate."
"Um...just an FYI, we're both straight."
"What part of non-romantic was I unclear about?" Sun Bear growled. "You two are alike in many ways, and unalike where you each lack what the other has. You lack Tai Lung's aggression, but he lacks your patience, for example. You are at once alike, but also like yin and yang; you are both physically white and black, showing your dual natures, internal and external. The Dragon and Phoenix are two halves of the same whole, just as you are. Alone, you are both capable of great things, but when you joined forces to defeat the Jiao, you became capable of amazing things. Oogway and I were similar: alone, we could do great things, but together we were much, much stronger.
"You two are already very close, as good friends should be, but I can sense that there is something holding both of you back. By the time you leave, I hope to awaken the mental link in you both, so that you have that to protect yourselves with outside these walls."
"So what's holding us back, d'ya think?"
"My guess? You are both keeping secrets from each other, terrible secrets. You are not openly honest with each other."
"Hey, we're plenty honest!"
"So why are you so hung up about being mistaken as a couple?"
"Because he's married, and that would be an awkward New Year's dinner."
"Always have an answer for everything, don't you?"
"Yeah, and so did Oogway."
Sun Bear stared back at him, stunned that he had been so caught off-guard. "Touché, Dragon Warrior. Getting back on topic, during the course of your training, we will break down those barriers so you two can grow stronger than before, but before then, you need to be completely comfortable with knowing each other's deepest, darkest secrets."
"Don't you think we might have good reasons to keep those secrets?"
"Reason hardly ever factors into anything at all, in life or in fate."
"So you don't think everything happens for a reason?"
"Destiny is destiny, Po. I've been around a long time and even I don't know everything, and even if I could still speak to Oogway, I've a feeling he wouldn't know anymore than I do right now. Sometimes, coincidence happens. Sometimes…" he said with a shrug. "Shit just happens. I'll knock six jiao off your tab."
"I don't have a tab going."
"You do now. Do you have your balance?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah."
Sun Bear nodded once. "Good. On one foot, hop over to the next post."
"What happens if I fall?"
"Has your father never taught you that lesson? If you fall, you get right back up."
Po looked back at the closest post, then took a deep breath. He slowly let it out, then bent his knee to prepare for the leap. He knew hesitation could cost him, but he paused anyway, waiting until the thudding in his chest slowed. He jumped, and successfully landed on one foot on top of the post.
"I did it! Heck yeah, man!"
"Good," Sun Bear said, following him by effortlessly hopping over to the pole next to him. "You strike me as a real people-pleaser."
Po blushed, "Well, I try..."
"Then stop trying."
Po frowned. "What? Why?"
"Both you and Tai Lung have significant personal flaws that are holding you back. In your case, you try to please everybody you know and everyone you don't know."
"But isn't that a good thing? My dad told me that making others happy is a good thing and you should always try to do that."
The old master sighed through his nose. "I am not saying your father is wrong; having empathy for others is a grand virtue. But Po, I have noticed this in you since you arrived, and through our talks: Living your life by trying to make other people happy is making you miserable. Nothing you've ever done has ever been for you, it's always been for someone else. My advice to you: be selfish for once. Don't give a care what people will think, they are entitled to believe what they want, but that doesn't make them right. Live your life for you. Your duty is to no one else but you."
Po gave him a confused look. "But if I'm the Dragon Warrior, shouldn't I put others' needs before mine?"
"Would you put others' safety before your own?"
"Isn't that how it works?"
"I used to think that; Oogway, however, taught me 'it is better to be a living coward than a dead idiot'. Do what Tai Lung did to escape from Chorh-Gom. Could he have attempted to escape long before he did? Certainly. Why didn't he? Because he knew it wasn't the right time. He needed to wait long enough for his guards to get complacent, to forget that he was dangerous; unfortunately, he had to wait two decades for that to happen."
"The fact it took so long probably says something about him, doesn't it?"
"Quite possibly, which reminds me that I ought to go check on him now; its almost time for his training session to begin."
Po nodded, and prepared to hop over to the next post, "Okay. I'll still be here."
The old master stared up at him. "What are you doing?"
He hesitated. "Don't you want me to get to all the posts today?" Po asked.
Sun Bear looked puzzled. "You mean in one day?"
"Yeah."
"Why are you concerned with twenty posts when you can only stand on one?"
As the old bear turned to collect Tai Lung for his training session, Po stared at the nineteen other posts, then swore, "Son of a bitch."
"Five jiao," the old bear tallied. "While you're ruminating over our lesson, I'd like you to go to the library and look up texts about Dragons, but also texts about Tai Chi and Ba Gua. I believe these two forms will appeal to you just as they appealed to Oogway. Now, if that will be all," he said as he picked up his staff and began to walk away to collect his other charge, "I will see you at dinner."
Tai Lung rubbed his tired eyes and leaned his elbows against the table. There was more concerning phoenixes than he expected, but there was also a hell of a lot to remember. For one thing, he had no idea how many cultures outside China actually believed the mythical firebird existed. Something that intrigued him most was the notion that a phoenix's call sounded like "the most beautiful of music which mortal hands can never make". It lived for five hundred years then expired in a fire of its own making, only to be reborn as a chick from its own ashes. It was a personification of sunlight, and of what one author (translated from the original text) described as the Sacred Triad: Life, Death, and Resurrection.
As varied as these cultures were, they - almost alarmingly - shared the same myths: it was a firebird, that made nests out of sacred herbs and grasses, that it brought great blessings to its protectors and grave doom to its captors. When he read that last part, he felt a chill. He'd hardly call himself a blessing (well, before he got married, he briefly considered himself a blessing to women everywhere, but Mei Xing beat some modesty into him), but as far as the Anvil of Heaven was concerned, he was most certainly a curse.
His readings surprised him and gave him pause. How was it, that so many different cultures with starkly different religions, all believed in phoenixes? And in said cultures, he also noticed parallels to dragons he was familiar with, but in that case, many were feared, monstrous creatures. The instances of malevolent dragons outnumbered the instances of benevolent ones. This made him worry. He remembered Sun Bear's warning about Po being most corruptible because of his innocence. Judging by the illustrations of dragons from faraway places with strange tongues and stranger cultures, Tai Lung feared how he would be able to keep Po from turning into monsters like the ones he saw.
Someone coughed behind him and he looked to see one of the scribe monks pointing him to the door. The snow leopard took this as a cue to put his things away and go meet Sun Bear for his private lesson. But one last time, he looked down at his book on phoenix mythology...and paused to read a strangely familiar passage:
The Firebird, commonly associated as the greatest enemy of the Deathless. To have a Firebird on your side is to gain protection from the Deathless's wrath. Only an egg-layer can lead you to the source of the Deathless's soul, locked inside an egg. The diety of Life-Death-Rebirth thus triumphs over the Deathless.
Somehow, and he couldn't explain why until much later, that passage suddenly seemed so significant to him. He closed this book and left it where it was, then quietly asked one of the scribes to leave it out for him, that he wished to see it later. When he got outside, he was hit with a blast of cold air and a sharp wind, but if anyone else in that courtyard noticed, they didn't show it.
Odd, but oh well. He took a few steps forward, and nearly tripped over something in his path. A small something, a fuzzy something. He looked down and smiled at Little Brother, who only glanced back up at him before returning to what had occupied his attention before the snow leopard's arrival.
Tai Lung knelt next to the tiny red panda, who looked up only briefly then went back to making shapes in the dust. Tai Lung noticed that the little swirls and curlicues made rudimentary pictures—the child was drawing. He chuckled; it seemed he wasn't the only artistically-minded warrior.
He reached out his hand and drew a quick picture in the dirt. The child watched until he was done, then peered at the picture and smiled. It was a "sketch" of a red panda in a monk's habit. Sharing a smile with the snow leopard, the child brushed his hand over the dirt, erasing his own drawings to draw a big cat-like creature in similar dress. When he started poking his little finger in the dirt to make spots, Tai Lung grinned and laughed. The red panda child pointed at the picture and gave him a gap-toothed grin, the holes evidence of missing baby teeth.
"Very good—I think it's a good likeness, don't you?" Tai Lung joked, making the child giggle. Tai Lung erased his own picture and drew another, a landscape of sugarloaf mountains and rough, verdant forests. Then he put in a tiny square house at the base of one mountain. He pointed to it and said, "That's what my home looks like."
The red panda quickly erased his rough cat picture and started drawing what looked like rice terraces. He too drew a small house and pointed at it, with a small, sad smile on his face.
Tai Lung noticed it right away. "You miss it, don't you, your home?"
The child nodded, and sniffed, wiping away a couple tears.
"Is this where your family lives?"
The child hesitated, then shook his head and wrote a single character in the dirt: "fire".
Tai Lung felt a chill, getting a sickening sense of déjà vu, and asked, "And your family?"
He heard a little sob and the child furiously kicked and upset the dirt, angrily erasing the picture of his lost home, even as he started crying. The snow leopard suddenly recalled a similar situation, not too long ago, when he learned from another panda about the loss of her family. Wordlessly, as he had done then, he reached out and held the child, despite the fact the novice was punching and kicking, having no other outlet to express his anger and sorrow.
"I understand," Tai Lung said soothingly. "I lost my home and family, too. It hurts, doesn't it?"
The child nodded, having settled for loud sobbing, and the snow leopard realized this was the loudest the child had ever been since he'd known him. "I know it hurts, but its all right…it will be all right."
Someone cleared their throat and Tai Lung looked up, spying Sun Bear standing in the doorway. A single soundless communication passed between them and the old master beckoned the feline to follow him, and bring the crying novice with him. The snow leopard noted how sorrowful the old bear looked…a far cry from what he had seen thus far in his character. He followed, still holding the little red panda in his arms, until they reached the dormitory. Sun Bear cocked his head at the child's cell, then walked off; Tai Lung took the hint and put the tot in his bed, drawing the blanket around his trembling little body. When Sun Bear arrived a short time later with some hot milk tea, the cub sullenly drank it, then cried himself to sleep.
"You got more out of him in five minutes than I have in five months," the master suddenly whispered, once he was sure the novice was asleep. "I would have never thought to communicate that way. All he ever does is pantomime."
"He was like this before?"
"Someone brought him here six months ago, saying he had wandered into the village. Most assumed he was an orphan; we took him in, because the wide world is no place for such a small child on his own."
"You don't know what happened to his family?"
"I assume there was some sort of conflict, and that contributed to either their dying, or his separation from them. As to what specifically happened, well, Little Brother isn't talking. I don't even know his real name. We just call him Little Brother."
"Poor tyke." Tai Lung looked down at the little red panda and felt a tightening in his chest, and he didn't realize until that moment why he felt so attached to the child. Little Brother acted like he considered Tai Lung a father—his father. Hadn't the snow leopard acted the same way around Shifu during his childhood? Hadn't he worshipped his 'Baba' as all little boys were supposed to, and looked up to him with such undying adulation and uninhibited belief that he was infallible and unbreakable? Tai Lung caught himself wondering if that was how his own son would be…following his father around, mirroring his every move, making a running jump and hugging him every time he saw his baba and emulate him in every possible way? The last thought made him shudder…recalling his own sins and the awful punishment they had led to. No, that would only happen to his son over his own dead body.
"For his sake, I hope Little Brother never makes the mistakes I did." The snow leopard paused, then rested his elbows on his knees. "Looking back, I know I deserved to go to prison."
"And the fact that you realize this is proof enough that you are reformed. I admit you are a perplexing man, Tai Lung. Just when I think I have you figured out, you surprise me."
"How do you mean?" Tai Lung asked, turning to look at the old master. "I'm still arrogant—"
"I think 'overconfident' is a fairer measure of your personality. Not that I blame you—not entirely. True, you are very gifted and talented in kung fu, so you have good reason to be confident in your abilities. But pride is the downfall of the greatest general, and the ruin of the most exalted emperor. I'm told Death is the great equalizer…but I believe Pride is far greater."
"But being proud of your accomplishments is a good thing," Tai Lung argued.
"And I agree with you there," Sun Bear said. "It is good to be aware of your talents—it is in our natures to desire to be good at something. But when you begin to get boastful…"
He stopped when Little Brother stirred and whimpered in his sleep. Sun Bear tucked the blankets tighter around the cub in a shockingly paternal way. Tai Lung, certainly, had never expected the old master to show anything more than distant concern for anyone under his command. To see this great master leaning over a crying child and offering comfort as only a grandfatherly figure could changed quite a few of the snow leopard's perceptions.
Sun Bear gestured to him and they both left the cell. He beckoned Tai Lung again, who followed, feeling slightly wary. He'd learned early on from Po that when Sun Bear wanted to speak to them alone, he was usually digging for information that they weren't willing to give.
Sun Bear led him to a courtyard Tai Lung had never seen before, where in the middle of a bare garden stood a giant elongated boulder lying on its back. Sun Bear approached it, bowed reverently to it, then ran his hand over the smooth façade. "This rock has been here since the temple was built. This is the site of the original pagoda—it burned down about five centuries ago. This altar is the only thing that's left of it."
"Why not rebuild the pagoda in the same spot?" the snow leopard asked.
"It burned down," Sun Bear said. "The monks took that as a sign that the Phoenix was unhappy with its location, so they moved—"
"But isn't that the point of the phoenix legend?" Tai Lung reasoned. "It bursts into flames when it dies, but it doesn't come back to life in some other place. It comes back to life in the same place where it died. If they were going to rebuild the pagoda, it should've been built right here."
Sun Bear froze, staring in mute shock at the ancient altar as this point of view sank in. And when it did, it proved just how caught off-guard he was: "Well, I'll be damned."
Tai Lung had no small measure of satisfaction in responding with: "Three fen."
Sun Bear sent him a nasty look, but sighed and relented. "Fine, but in lieu of my contributing to the Swear Jar, how about I dock three fen off your tab?"
"Double or nothing."
"Done."
"You're being rather agreeable today," the snow leopard said suspiciously. "Are the planets in retrograde? Some sort of alignment I've missed? I know there hasn't been an eclipse."
"I'll ignore your sarcasm if you follow a single order."
"All right…" the feline warily agreed.
Sun Bear pointed at the altar. "Try breaking this rock in two halves."
"…That's it?"
"That's it."
"No."
"Excuse me?"
"I said no. It's never that simple with you—you always have an agenda!"
"Tai Lung, just hit the damn rock!" he snapped. Then he paused, and grunted in annoyance. "If you'll ignore my outburst, I'll knock six more fen off your tab."
While still dubious of his intentions, Tai Lung stepped up to the altar and held his fist directly over the stone. Taking a deep breath and letting out a mighty roar, he slammed his fist into the rock—
Sun Bear hesitated, then relented, "Go ahead, I won't penalize you."
—and the feline let out a string of strong, hot-blooded curses as he nursed his aching hand. "I knew it!" he accused. "I knew there was a catch!"
Sun Bear sighed raggedly and approached the snow leopard. "You expected a catch, and here it is: No matter how many times you hit that rock, it will not crumble."
"I broke my hand so you could impart that? You sodding bastard!"
"I'll grant you that one, I deserve it; but I must emphasize that you cannot expect satisfaction from achieving something that is impossible."
"Nothing is impossible, isn't that what you said?" Tai Lung said, still nursing his aching hand, now throbbing with white-hot pain. "I can turn that rock to gravel if I wanted to; I've done it before to much larger rocks than that! Anything is possible."
"Perhaps, but not by mortal hands." The old bear came to stand next to the feline and peered into his face. "Gods help you," he suddenly chuckled, "you're a perfectionist."
"That's a good thing," Tai Lung growled, still nursing his throbbing hand. "I don't know why people make such a big deal of it! I'd rather be a perfectionist than a slacker!"
"So you'd rather spend your life reaching for something that can never be, only to be disappointed each time you fail? When the alternative is to keep your expectations low, so that when you surpass them, you can rejoice in them?"
"I was always told that having low expectations was a bad thing."
"Then your teachers were all full of snot."
Tai Lung gaped at the old bear, who snorted. "People who strain to accomplish impossible goals will never be truly content, and people who measure their own self-worth based on terms of productivity and accomplishment are, frankly, the most miserable kinds of people I know."
"I'm not miserable."
"Are you not? Since you got here, I have noticed high rates of anxiety, depression, and obsessive behaviors; and your narcissistic tendencies barely require mention."
"Well of course I'm anxious," the feline snapped. "I'm miles away from my very pregnant wife, there's some bloke who's out to destroy everything I hold dear, and I can't figure out the kung fu you're trying to teach!"
Sun Bear used his staff to gently coax Tai Lung away from the stone altar. "Forgetting kung fu for a moment…you don't make a career of kung fu, do you?"
"No," he paused. "I'm a cook…chef," he swiftly corrected.
"Hm, interesting," the bear nodded. "Going from a destroyer to a creator—quite a drastic career change. Are you any good?"
Tai Lung smirked, "I can make the best crab wontons in China."
"Careful of that ego—I don't think your head can stand to get any bigger."
"Don't believe me?"
"I believe you—that's perhaps the first boast I've heard from you in three weeks. Were you truly arrogant, I would've known the first day. Do you strive to be perfect in that as well?"
"Of course—people expect perfection in taste and presentation…"
"…Despite the fact that it all ends up in the same place anyway."
"Are you demeaning my work?" the snow leopard demanded.
"I'm keeping you realistic. Surely you know that there is no such thing as perfection—it is a myth. Now I'm more curious as to who taught you such habits?"
The answer was obvious, of course, but Tai Lung wasn't willing to play the blame game…
Oh who the hell was he kidding?
"Shifu, he taught me to be perfect in everything I do. Anything less would be disgraceful."
"Moron," Sun Bear snorted. "You can tell him I said that."
"He'll be thrilled to hear it, I'm sure."
"Undoubtedly; I'm certain he tried to be a perfect parent too. The problem is…what?" he probed.
Tai Lung warily answered, "…Perfection doesn't exist?"
"Good. And whenever you strive for perfection, what happens?"
"You…fail?"
"You fail, miserably, heartbreakingly, and all-out disgracefully."
"Not one to mince words, are you?"
"To call him a failure as a parent is erroneous," Sun Bear continued as though he hadn't heard him. "Because you still turned out alright…well, you could have turned out worse. So take a lesson from his mistakes, not just your own. Don't try to be perfect…just try to be good."
"But 'good enough' is never good enough, and 'almost' only ever gets you 'almost'."
Swiftly losing his patience, Sun Bear whacked him on the side of the head. "NO. I am putting my foot down, right now. As your master—for I am your master now, Heaven help us both!—I order you to stop trying to achieve perfection!"
Rubbing his head, the snow leopard snapped, "So what do you want from me?"
"I want you to be happy, you idiot!"
He was struck speechless by this confession, and had he the ability to speak, Tai Lung was sure he wouldn't have known what to say in the first place. Sun Bear cleared his throat and continued his lesson:
"I want you to be happy. As I stated, measuring your worth by your accomplishments will never make you happy. Let go of that, let go of those expectations, and let go of those impossible goals. How can I help you if you won't help yourself? And how can you help yourself if you don't allow yourself to grow? Your perfectionism is holding you back. Remember that self-made prison I told you about?"
"You're saying my perfectionism is that prison?"
"Precisely. Let it go. Once you do, you'll be amazed how free you feel..."
He was abruptly interrupted when someone called for him from the cloisters: "Master Sun Bear! We need you in the pagoda!"
Sun Bear rolled his eyes and turned to look at First Brother. The old bear replied with strained patience, "Can this wait, First Brother? I am in the middle of something."
Tai Lung noticed the old lion was ashen-faced, and looked harried and concerned. "A thousand apologies," the lion said, "But Master, this needs your immediate attention."
The old master suddenly picked up on the lion's apprehension. "What's wrong?"
First Brother glanced at Tai Lung, then back to his master, "I'm not certain that...well, present company being..."
Sun Bear looked back at Tai Lung, then responded, "Tell me on the way. Tai Lung, stay here, perform some tao lu and practice your yoga until I get back. Fifty Sun Salutations until then, then do whatever you want. I will come get you before supper." Then he gathered his robes and staff and marched over to First Brother and quickly muttered, "Lead the way..."
Tai Lung waited until the old bear had left the courtyard before walking up to the abandoned altar. He intended to practice his forms and stretches, but not before examining the altar closer. It was cracked in places, crumbling at the corners, but that didn't change anything. He felt something here. He had felt something since walking into the monastery in the first place. There was energy here, but nothing like chi, nothing like any vibe he had ever felt. There was—for lack of better word—magic here.
He placed his hands palms down onto the altar, feeling something—warmth—seeping into his hands. It wasn't hot, but to his astonishment, the stone was not cool at all. Even more astonishing, the hand he had used to punch the rock was no longer hurting. He pulled away and stared at his hands in the dying light. They were…glowing.
What the devil is going on?
The wind suddenly picked up in the courtyard, and he heard…singing. The same singing as in the secret tunnel, the night before, the same singing from the crypt, now weaving in and out, echoing in the cloisters. It got louder, and a whoosh of air behind him made him jump and whirl around. The singing abruptly stopped.
"Hello?" he called, his eyes warily scanning the courtyard, his voice echoing off the walls and cloisters. No one greeted him, and the silence was oppressive. Then he felt his fur standing on end…and that he was being watched. Slowly he turned, looking over his shoulder, and froze.
He felt both excited and dreadful, winded but that he could breathe for the first time. He doubted his eyes could truly see what he was seeing. Perched on the altar, it had the head and wings of a pheasant, the body of a mandarin duck, the long legs of a crane and the trailing tail of a peacock. Its feathers glimmered like gold and rubies, and behind its eyes burned a heated soul, passionate and firm, and the fire in its eyes reminded him so much of the occasions he had seen that fire in his own reflection.
The phoenix lowered its head in a slight bow, and when it straightened to fix the feline with a straightforward stare, Tai Lung could hardly move, let alone breathe. A beatific smile spread across its beak and a feminine voice responded to his shock:
Welcome home, Phoenix Warrior.
"Now tell me, what's going on?" Sun Bear demanded in the secret hall. First Brother shadowed him, and the lion was absolutely beside himself as they reached the Northern Pagoda:
"We've been robbed: the statue of the Sacred Bird is gone!"
Sun Bear stopped short in his shock, causing First Brother to bump into him. "Gone? How could it be gone?"
"It vanished! The altar boys said it was there this morning when they laid offerings, but when they came for noon prayers, the statue was gone! I fear to implicate anyone in this crime..."
"It isn't a crime," Sun Bear whispered. "Has anyone touched the altar since its discovery?"
"No, sir. Why? Sir!" First Brother called when Sun Bear broke into a run. The lion stumbled after him, but for his age, the old master was remarkably fast. He reached the upper courtyard and crossed it, marching straight up the pagoda stairs and into the inner sanctum. He brushed right past Brothers Two through Five, ignoring their questions as he strode straight up to the altar. As surely as First Brother described, the magnificent statue of the Phoenix was gone. The box containing the prophetic scroll was still there, but in the place of the statue was something far more remarkable.
His breath caught in his throat, and if he could have died of shock, it was certainly a shock well worth it! The old bear reverently came forward and gently picked up the sacred relic and ran his fingers over it. Breathless, he held it up for the other senior monks to see.
The five seniors collectively gasped and immediately sank to their knees in worship.
The golden feather in Sun Bear's hand was glowing. He stared at it, but didn't see it; his mind was elsewhere, thinking that for the first time in hundreds of years, the Phoenix had finally spoken to him again. This was one of the signs, he knew, all a part of the prophecy. He thought he would never live long enough to see this day...perhaps just as Oogway believed he would never see the day he named his own successor. This golden feather was proof, undeniable proof, to the old bear that his time was quickly coming to an end. Whether Sun Bear - or Tai Lung - was ready or not, the time had come. She had decided it was so.
Okay, a few more references...Sun Bear's "Why are you so concerned with twenty posts when you can only stand on one?" is a quote from one of my favorite books: "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore; I HIGHLY recommend it! The flames in the crypt actually wasn't inspired by National Treasure, but by Indiana Jones (I can't remember which movie it was, though).
All of the mysticism and "history" are mostly from my research and creative license, respectively. My conclusions on the special abilities are purely based on my own brand of logic...if it can be called that /shrug/
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. I hope to have another chapter up soon.