AN: RenkonNairu: Never even occurred to me to call you out on that. I actually think Tai Lung calling her Red is pretty endearing. :) I'm actually glad of the feedback on it, keeps me honest about why I'm doing things.
Guiren will be trouble in the future, that's for sure. The question is when and how? Tao's got a long way to go before she can truly call herself Lord of the Valley of Peace. I'm glad you're enjoying her development so far. I've got a link to a pic of her in my profile, if you'd like to see what she looks like.
--
Chapter Eleven: What Happened at Dinner
"Hey, you're late!" Crane cried, clearing a space for the small mantis to land on the table. Mantis laughed, reaching for the bowl of soup that had been pushed over to him. "Hey, some of us like to actually get clean instead of just splashing the water around and then running off for Po's cooking!"
An fluffed up his still-damp feathers a bit. "Feathers are notoriously hard to clean, you know. Splashing is just about the only thorough way to do it." Chen chuckled, and the mischievious monkey leaned over to pop a particularly large soap bubble that had revealed itself in the bird's wing. "Yeah? Well you need to practice thoroughly RINSING."
Po laughed along with his friends as he doled out more bowls of soup for his friends. "Hey, there's plenty for everybody, despite what Tigress says about me eating all the leftovers." He pointedly dropped another ladle-full in Tigress' nearly-empty bowl, startling her. "Really?" the tiger grinned, "I swear I couldn't tell it." She poked him lightly in the stomach, and he pretended to use his patented 'Iron Belly' move on her.
"Hey, let me tell you a secret that my dad told me once about cooking.."
An looked up from smoothing his feathers. "Is it the secret ingredient?" Po rolled his eyes. "Noooo... it's something just a little more profound than that. Dad says you never want to trust a skinny cook. You know why?"
Blank but intrigued expressions faced him. The panda grinned. "Because a good chef always tastes his food before serving it. And a chef who IS any good should make food good enough that he wants to check it often."
The bear turned back to his bubbling pot, and added a few more slices of turnip to the broth, giving his knife a quick flourish as he finished. "If you see a cook who you don't suspect of raiding his own dishes as snacks regularly, then you should know right off that his cooking just ain't worth it!" Po swung his hips a little for emphasis, drawing a few snickers from the group seated at the table.
The panda filled his own bowl and turned to seat himself, but glanced up at the sound of the door opening. "Oh hey! You came after all! You're in for a serious treat!" The Furious Five all froze at the sight of Lady Tao-hua, hesitating in the doorway. She looked a bit lost and indecisive, almost as if she'd seen or done something that she wasn't comfortable with. "Come on in, come on!" Po enthused, pulling a chair out from the table in invitation.
The tanuki took only the smallest of steps forward, and the panda finally took it upon himself to cross the room, taking her hand to guide her to the seat he'd readied. "Okay, prepare for the most awesome taste you've ever experienced!" Po declared, pushing her up to the table and presenting her with a spoon as though it were a mystical implement to unlock a fantastic adventure.
The five shot each other anxious looks as Lady Tao regarded the bowl in front of her. "Uh... Po... perhaps Lady Tao-hua would prefer to dine alone.. on something a little more.. refined?" Lian suggested nervously. Po shot her a dirty look. "More refined than Secret Ingredient Soup? You gotta be kidding!" The snake glanced at her fellows, who all pointedly refused to take up the cause of helping her out. "Maybe the chef would.."
"Oh he quit."
"He QUIT!?" the five chorused in shock. Po shrugged. "Yeah, apparently the last straw was when I told him Lady Tao was going to try my soup." The panda grinned nervously. "He said that's all anyone wants to eat around here anymore, and he didn't have to stand for it." Tigress groaned, facepalming. "Oh that's great.. that's just.."
"This really IS great."
The five all stared in shocked silence at Tao, who blinked incredulously in response. "I find it to be quite good. You really were right after all, Po." she nodded to him in satisfaction, causing the panda to grin hugely in triumph as he settled into the remaining seat. "Oh you think THIS is great, you haven't seen nothing yet! I've got this idea for a... a sort of stew... and.."
The kitchen door abruptly swung open again, and Shifu stalked into the room. The red panda paused in surprise when he saw that his own seat had been taken by the tanuki he'd been hoping to get through the rest of the day without seeing, then side-tracked pointedly to the seat that Po hastily vacated.
"Shifu, you're such a bully.." Tao murmured, stirring her soup a little. Shifu's large ears flicked fully erect, then slowly slid back until they laid nearly flat against his skull. "Bully, am I? I'm not the one who invited myself to sit in someone else's seat!" Tao looked up at him with a smirk.
"Aren't you?" she asked, indicated his position at the table with a wave of her hand.
Shifu fumed silently, barely reacting to the bowl of steaming hot noodle soup that Po gingerly placed before him. "Shouldn't you be off in the dining hall, being seen to by chef Cai?"
Tao returned her gaze to her own bowl before replying. "I hear he has recently quit." She fought the urge to snicker at Shifu's "Gods, what have I done to displease you?" expression that he shot at the ceiling like a marksman's arrow.
"And at any rate, I was invited to try your dragon warrior's excellent cooking. Besides the fact.." the tanuki slowly and deliberately stood, glowering openly at the red panda. "I am now master of the Jade Palace, and I assure you Shifu... I shall go wherever I wish within its' walls."
Shifu growled and stood as well, ignoring his food. "No, let me assure YOU, Lady Tao-hua... I will tolerate none of your usual disruptions. I will put up with no antics as we repair the Jade Palace today."
The Furious Five abandoned all pretense at dining to vacate the table. The tension in the air was thicker than Po's hand-rolled noodle dough. Tao walked over to jab a finger at the kung fu master. "You will not be repairing the Jade Palace today, Shifu." Shifu bristled, and matched her angry stance with one of his own. "Oh won't we? And why is that?"
Tao grabbed his arm, and physically pulled him from the room behind her. The six masters quickly followed, catching up to the two as Tao dragged Shifu to the top of the thousand steps and pointed down into the village below. "The people need their homes more than the palace needs cosmetic work! The roads need reconstruction more than we need a roof when the rainy season is months away!"
Shifu snatched his arm away from Tao, and growled at her. "We will see to the people when the palace is-" Tao bared her teeth and loomed into his personal space. "We have walls and most of a roof! From what I saw in town as I entered, there are people down there with nothing!" The red panda and the tanuki stood nose to nose, snarling in each others' faces for several tense moments before Tao broke his gaze.
"Do as you will, Shifu. But I will see to it that my people have shelter if I have to bring them all up here and house them in the Hall of Heroes to do it!" With that, the tanuki began gingerly making her way down the mangled stone staircase. Shifu growled in reply. "Suddenly they are YOUR people when you have not seen them for nearly thirty-five years? We have protected them all that time, and they are our people more than yours!"
Tao paused, but didn't look back as she replied. "And yet I am more concerned about their welfare than you? How tragic. I wonder how you live without a conscience, Shifu."
The small grandmaster physically recoiled from that accusation, then he set his jaw determinedly and began trailing her down the steps. "I AM concerned, Tao-hua! I am concerned enough that I trained the furious five to protect them! I have trained the dragon warrior to defeat the great evil that threatened to extinguish all life in the Valley of Peace! I have taken over in Master Oogway's stead to safeguard their well-being from the threat of invasion!"
His blue eyes narrowed down to slits as he faced her. "And NOW I am apparently entrusted with keeping an eye on you, while taking care of their needs! The Jade Palace is looked to with pride by all the valley, its condition and sanctity is tantamount to the emotional well-being of all who dwell here!"
Tao leveled her bronzed glare to the red panda before responding. "There is something you learn on the run, Shifu. Something that the inhospitable streets teach those who dwell there. Pride does not keep you warm at night, nor does it shelter you from the sun or wind. It does not feed you or dress your wounds. My father, the emperor's greatest warlord, died in a hovel in a state tantamount to poverty. I will see no one else in my charge do so."
It was apparent that her words had hit home, from the way Shifu's grim expression had turned indecisive. Finally, as much as it obviously pained him to agree with her, he glared up at the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior. "Fine! All of you! Into the village and begin evaluating the needs of the villagers. Anyone who has room and a sturdy house should take in whoever they can." He turned to face the village below, and clasped his hands behind his back.
Even with this change of opinion, his posture made it clear that he was unwilling to concede that this had not been his plan all along. "Anyone who has no shelter and cannot be housed otherwise... bring back here." The six masters saluted with a bow, and leapt off down the thousand steps.
Tao-hua and Shifu watched them go silently for a moment before the new lord of the Valley of Peace drew closer to her adversary, reaching out to tug gently on the trailing ponytail on the back of his head. "Thank you, Shifu." she murmured with a smile. The red panda grumbled in response, refusing to move until she'd returned inside the palace and left him in peace.