A/N: Surprise! I skived off homework and finished this chapter early, so heeeeere ya goooo! Anyway, I'll start off by warning everyone: this chapter is just a long-ass conversation between Lin and Tai Lung. I'm not exaggerating. That's the entire chapter. Are you excited? I am. Take my hand, and let us continue on our journey.
Disclaimer: Kung Fu Panda and a number of slave laborers are the property of Dreamworks.
Chapter 7: Man Shall Not Live on Bread Alone
It was a quiet, humid night, and the sky was incredibly clear. Lin thought that it was a good night for a walk, especially after being cooped up indoors all day. She wasn't exactly an outdoorsy type of person, but every once in a while she needed some fresh air. She'd found a garden she hadn't known about before, snacked on a peach, and was able to clear her head. She was on her way back to the barracks when she heard a noise coming from the direction of the building.
"What the...?" Lin paused for a moment; she thought she saw movement on the roof of the barracks, but perhaps it had just been her imagination. It was pretty late at night, and even though she wasn't quite tired yet she knew that shadows could still play tricks on her eyes. But then she saw movement up there again, and then gleaming at her through the darkness, two bright yellow eyes. "Holy shit!" she exclaimed, looking around to see if there was a loose branch or something to be used as a weapon.
"I won't tell Master Shifu you said that in front of me, again, if you don't tell him I'm up here," the creature called down to her.
"Tai Lung?" She paused in the middle of hoisting a branch off the ground. "Is'at you?"
"Yeah, it's me. Who else would it be? And keep your voice down, you know how good Master Shifu's hearing is."
She squinted up at him, trying to see him more clearly. "What're you doing up there?"
"You can come up and see, if you want. I climbed up that tree in back and jumped over, but you'll probably need a ladder to get up here."
"How hard can it be to climb a tree? I used to climb trees all the time, back in the day." She made her way through the bushes to the other side of the barracks, proud that she'd managed not to trip over anything. When she caught sight of the tree Tai Lung was talking about, though, she had her doubts. It looked easy enough to climb, but the tallest branch was pretty thin, and far enough away from the roof that she would need to jump. Still, she'd already said she would climb the tree, so her pride prevented her from going back for a ladder. "I'm comin' up!" She called.
Tai Lung stuck his head over the edge of the roof to look down at her just as she started climbing the tree. "You sure you can do that?"
"I'll be fine," she huffed, pulling herself up through the branches. She made it alright to the top branch, but had a little bit of trouble trying to figure out where to go from there.
"You're doing pretty good so far," Tai Lung complimented, though he was still poised tensely on the edge of the roof.
"How'd you get out to the end of this branch and jump over there?" She eyed it warily; the branch looked like it might snap under her weight, but Tai Lung had managed it and he was larger than her already.
"I dunno, I just kinda... Did." He shrugged. "Try going a little faster."
"Easier said than done." She didn't trust her own balance enough to stand and walk on the branch, so she remained sitting and shimmied toward the end. It sank ominously, but didn't seem to be breaking. She got as close to the end of the branch as she dared, then slowly and carefully attempted to rise to her feet. "Spot me," she ordered, and Tai Lung immediately held his arms out.
"Just jump, don't think about it. It's easier that way," he advised.
Lin managed to get up onto her feet, and held her arms out at her sides to keep from falling. Then she bent her knees, readying herself for the jump. As she did so, she heard the branch crack behind her. She wasn't normally one to panic, but she felt her heart leap into her throat and jumped for it against her best judgement. "Agh!"
Tai Lung somehow reached down and caught her by the arms, then hauled her up to the roof. The branch she'd been on trembled, but stayed in place.
"I'm gonna use a ladder from now on," she huffed.
"Good idea," he agreed, breathing deeply. "That scared the shit outta me."
She gave him a light smack on the arm. "Don't swear."
"Yeah, yeah."
She searched her mind for something to say and ended up repeating herself. "What're you doing up here?"
He shrugged. "The view's nice, there's fresh air, and nobody bothers me. Except you, but I don't really mind."
"Well, when you live with other people, solitude is pretty nice." She laughed a bit, remembering her own family. "I had two brothers and five sisters. Growing up, I wanted to hang myself half the time."
"Yeah, I would, too." He snorted, shaking his head. "But so far it's been okay, having one extra person around."
"Glad to hear you don't despise me yet." She chuckled, and then they fell into an awkward silence.
She used the opportunity to take in the view. She could see down the steep hill the barracks had been built on a little way, before the landscape disappeared into mist. However, the skies were quite clear and from the roof there wasn't nearly as much foliage obscuring the view.
"Hey, look over here." Lin pointed to the sky, though she knew it probably wouldn't be much help. "That's Mars, right there. It's just a little bit red, if you look closely."
"Mars?" Tai Lung stared up at the sky, raising his eyebrows.
"Y'know, the Earth's closest neighboring planet. Mars! It's named after the Roman God of war. And over here, this flickering one, is the Earth's other neighbor, Venus. Venus is named after the Roman Goddess of looooove." At that, she grabbed Tai Lung around the neck with one arm and rubbed the top of his head with her fist.
"Get offa me!" He pushed her away, but he was grinning. "How do you know all that stuff, anyway?"
"I been around a coupla times," she replied, then decided to change the subject to avoid more questions. "Y'know, I ain't really seen any other workers around here. What's the deal?"
"It's kinda one of those weird things when they're not supposed to be seen." He shrugged, leaning back. "Don't ask me why. It'd be nice to have more people to talk to."
"Huh." There was one other thing she was curious about. "And how come you're here alone? I mean, why're you the only student?"
"I dunno." Tai Lung shrugged. "I don't really ask a lot of questions. Master Shifu's high-strung enough without me asking a million things."
She laughed at that; it sounded like he was worried that Shifu would have a heart attack if he asked too many questions. "Y'know, kid, sometimes I wonder how you do it. Then I remember my mother."
He snickered along with her at that. "Now that you mention it, he is kinda like an over-bearing mother."
"Yeah... But y'know, most of the time they act that way 'cause they love ya. It's easier if you remember that." She thought that maybe, for once, she should say something nice about Shifu. At least for Tai Lung's benefit. "My parents didn't think I could do anything on my own. At least Shifu believes in you."
"Yeah, I guess." He rolled his eyes at her.
"Want some friendly advice?"
He nodded.
"Don't ever guess- know. Even if you don't really know." She paused at the blank expression on his face. "Got it?"
"Uh..." Tai Lung narrowed his eyes and scratched his head. "No."
"Just always be sure of yourself," she replied. "It's easier said than done... But if you act like you're sure of yourself, then you'll feel it, too."
"Okay, I get it now." He leaned back a little bit, grinning. "Tai Lung, the Dragon Warrior. It's got a nice ring to it."
"I hate to break it to you, kid, but dragons aren't real." Sometimes Lin wondered if she would ever come to understand the kung fu world, at least enough to carry on a conversation with a martial artist.
"The Dragon Warrior isn't actually a dragon. It's whoever Master Oogway gives the Dragon Scroll to, and the Dragon Scroll holds the secret to limitless power."
She raised her eyebrows at the description. "So whoever becomes the Dragon Warrior is supposed to be the best warrior in the whole world or something?"
"Yes!"
"No such thing," she dismissed immediately.
"Yes there is!" he argued loudly, then stopped and took a deep breath and continued speaking much more quietly. "Master Shifu says so, anyway."
"There's no such thing as a 'best' at anything, even if you do get some mystical scroll," she insisted. "No matter how good you are, you're never the best. Either there's someone out there who's better 'an you, or you're just not the best that you could possibly ever be. There is no pinnacle for anyone or anything. That's the nature of sentient life itself."
Tai Lung just stared at her, a horrified expression on his face.
"That's right, you just got schooled, sucka," she added for good measure.
He laughed, shaking his head. "For a minute there you sounded kinda like Oogway. Except more bossy."
"Man, not me. Oogway's been around a long time, he's got that wise thousand-year-old man thing going. I'm just... I dunno. Here." She leaned back and looked up at the stars, and for a split second she wondered what she would be like when she was an old woman. She had always hoped for violently senile, but wise and all-knowing sounded nice, too.
"How old were you when you left home?" Tai Lung suddenly asked.
She was snapped out of her musings by the question, and it took her a moment to think up an answer. "Older 'an you," she replied. She didn't like to talk about the specifics of her past; nothing beyond the occasional anecdote about her family, anyway.
"Aw, c'mon."
"I was fourteen when I left home, and if you wanna know why it's because I felt like it and if you wanna know where I'm from it's nunya business. Satisfied?"
"You didn't have to get so snippy about it," he grumbled. "If I could, I'd do what you do."
"Cook for a smart-mouthed kid and an uptight kung fu master?" She elbowed him and grinned, but he just shook his head back at her.
"No, travel! I bet you've been all over China by now. All over the world."
"Eh, not as much as you'd think."
"Master Oogway says that traveling like that teaches you a lot of stuff. He says it transforms you, or something." Tai Lung shrugged, looking embarrassed. "I just think it'd be fun."
Lin tried to think of something wise or reassuring to say to him, but she wasn't too good at being reassuring. She could handle making people feel bad, it was making them feel good that escaped her. She settled for a little of both. "Trust me, it's not all it's cracked up to be. You should appreciate having somewhere to go while you still can."
"So you don't like to travel?" he asked.
"It's not that. It's just... Sometimes, even when you like something in your life, you get tired of it. Like eating the same thing at every meal. But I try not to have regrets."
"No regrets, huh?"
"Yeah. Y'know, sometimes in life you gotta make choices, and either way you can go, you think you might have regrets. So whenever I gotta make a choice like that, I pick whichever one I'm most curious about. It's better to have a bad experience than to wonder what you coulda done. You get me?"
"I think so."
"So maybe traveling around had its downsides, but if I'da just stayed in one place, I'd always be wondering what it'd be like to travel. Life is all about taking chances, kiddo, and as long as you learn something there's no reason to have regrets."
"D'you still have regrets anyway?"
"Yeah, I do. The things I regret, though, are things that I didn't do. Things I was maybe too afraid or too careless to do. But at least I know now not to hesitate, and to go after what I want."
"Wow." Tai Lung stared up at the sky for a little while, his eyebrows furrowed. "There's something I wanna do... But I don't know if I can."
"What's that?"
"I wanna master all one thousand scrolls of kung fu."
"Then do it! That's all there is to it. Not everything in life's as complicated as people say." She gave him a hearty pat on the back and grinned. "And don't ever let anyone tell you that you ain't good enough."
"I need to show humility, though," he grumbled. "That's what Master Oogway says."
"I don't see why you can't humbly follow your dreams."
"Yeah, but you're pretty, uh... Not humble." He winced a little as he said it, apparently worried that she would get angry.
"You think so?" Lin had never really stopped to think about whether or not she was humble. Self-reflection wasn't exactly one of her strong points. Although, she supposed that never admitting she was wrong and her unnatural desire to start fights could translate into pride. "Huh. Y'know, I never noticed. Good lookin' out, kid."
"You're not mad that I pointed out one of your many faults?"
"Whaddaya mean, one of my many faults?" She gave him a poke in the side, just for that.
"Hey, that tickles!" Tai Lung shimmied away from her, shielding his side with his arms.
"Listen, Mr. Dragon Master of a Thousand Scrolls, or whatever- I don't care how all-powerful you get, I only have like two flaws tops and you better remember that." Lin feigned and indignant sniff and stuck her nose up in the air. "And my only other fault is that I'm just too great to be comprehended by mere mortals such as yourself."
"Wow, you really are full of yourself." He laughed when she stuck her tongue out at him.
Lin would have laughed as well, but she found herself instead stifling a yawn. "Well, I think that's enough wisdom della Lin for one night. You gotta get to bed."
"Aww, c'mon," he pleaded, his eyes growing wide into a sad kitten stare. "I won't tell Master Shifu if you don't."
"That's just creepy in the dark. And no, you can't stay up." She stood up and brushed herself off, wondering how she was supposed to get off of the roof.
"Are you going to bed, too?" he asked, crawling toward the edge of the roof.
"Kid, I only go to sleep when I pass out from exhaustion," she answered honestly. "Now... Get me a ladder."
He stood up straight, folded his arms behind him, and gave her a stiff bow. "Yes, Master."
"Yeah, you're hilarious." She stretched out her back, relieved to feel her spine crackle. "I know you're just stalling so you can stay awake."
"Fine," Tai Lung sighed, then jumped off the roof.
Lin leaned over the edge to try to catch a glimpse of his kung fu moves, but she couldn't see him, even with her eyes adjusted to the darkness. It still felt weird to her to live around people who could disappear within the blink of an eye, and whatever else they could do. Maybe it was just being around the same set of people for such a long time that was getting to her; it had been a while since she'd stayed put somewhere. At least, not since she'd been a student. She actually enjoyed staying at the Jade Palace, if she was going to be completely honest. Still, every day that passed gave her more reason to worry.
She decided to stop thinking about it, at least for a couple of weeks. There was nothing she could do except stay put, and worrying definitely wasn't going to help her pass the time. She'd just have to keep a watchful eye on her income, and wait.
A/N: That life advice totally couldn't be skewed in any way other than good and awesome, amirite? Anyway, I promise that there will be more than one conversation in the next chapter.