I didn't want to leave you guys hanging on nothing, so I continued the story as soon as I could. Here's the result!

Chapter 7

Yet again, no dreams this night. It had been at least two weeks since I had a nightmare or anything like that. Knowing that strange visions wouldn't come back each night was pleasant; I could go to sleep without being concerned. I remembered that yesterday evening, Oogway had said that I was now a master; that was great, but of course it didn't mean I didn't have to get up on time! As every morning, I got up and got ready, waiting for the gong. As I heard it I rushed out of my room and started, "Good mo..."

I stopped because today was no ordinary day it seems. The Five were already up and waiting for me in front of my room! I was confused there. So I tried to "communicate" hesitantly, "Uh... Hi?"

They all burst out laughing and I didn't even know why! When they stopped, they just said in unison, "Congratulations for becoming a master!"

"Well, thanks but how do you know that? Who told you?"

Monkey answered, "Shifu woke us up earlier this morning and told us the news!" Then Viper said, "Why didn't you tell us last night?"

I replied, "Maybe because once I got back to the kitchen, you guys weren't here, and I didn't want to risk waking anyone up. After all, this is only about me, isn't it?"

"That's where you're wrong." Tigress said. I didn't really expect that from her but anyway. She stepped forward and continued, "Now you're part of the team. How could this only be about you when it's so important for us too?"

That made me smile. I mean, that's not something I'm told every day, right? Of course they smiled back. So I just replied, "I guess you're right on this one..." I literally had nothing to say. How could I possibly react to this? They were showing me that I now had something I haven't had for years: people to count on. Real friends. Or a family... I wasn't going to cry, but under the same circumstances, I'm pretty sure some people could have.

Mantis suddenly ended the small silence, "So now what? Are we the Furious Six or what?"

I replied, "No, we're not. Doesn't sound well." This commentary made them laugh a little.

"Come on, today is still a training day, isn't it? We'd better grab something to eat really fast and get to the Training Hall."

"Agreed."

And that's how the day started: we all got to the Training Hall, motivated as ever. Shifu and the Five taught me lots of things, as always; I learnt moves from Tigress, as she told me that since I was a tiger too, I should know this. I paid attention and watched everything very carefully as she easily destroyed a wooden structure... in one punch with both of her paws. It seemed so easy for her! She came back to me and told me that since I had already done some strength training with them, it should not be too difficult. "Just concentrate on the amount of strength you put. If it is enough, the effects are devastating. If not, well, you may hurt your paws a little."

I wasn't sure about what she meant by 'a little', but I tried. On the first time, I couldn't get to the same result as her. And well, it did hurt when failing... But she simply crossed her arms and said, "Again." So I tried again, again and again throughout the morning. As time passed, I felt the pain of the failure reducing. I didn't say it out loud, but I knew it was probably a good sign, some kind of progress already. I took a short pause to go drink some water and rest for five minutes, while Tigress got back to training with the rest of the Five. After this short period of time, I got back in front of the wooden dummy.

I concentrated on what I was about to do; preparing my paws, I rushed forward and struck it.

And this time I destroyed it. I sent chunks of wood flying through the room. Seeing this, they came by to see what happened. I was still impressed by what I had just done; I was sure doing a lot of progress in a very short time. Tigress stepped forward, smiling. "See? It wasn't that difficult, was it?"

I smiled back and answered, "You're right, it wasn't. I just needed to repeat the move a lot of times, but now it's alright." I wouldn't admit it, but my paws still hurt a little. It was a lot less than what I had felt on the first try, but it was there. But that's not important anymore; I made it, right? As they got back to their own training, I got another dummy just to check if I really got the move right. As I performed the punch, it worked again. Good, that's one thing learnt this morning!

In the afternoon, I was told by Shifu to work on my defence reflexes. For this, he asked to train in the Gauntlet of Wooden Warriors. Since the first time I went through it, I have learnt lots of new things; hopefully I will perform even better this time. I got in front of the Gauntlet, and Shifu asked me to make it spin, so I hit the arm of one of the 'Wooden Warriors'. Of course, the whole thing started spinning like crazy. I concentrated on the rotations and began to step forward.

I managed to block most of the hits, but that wasn't enough; I still got struck a few times. On the bright side, it also helped on pain tolerance... When I got to the other side, I had not been that bad, but I knew I could do better. After all, I succeeded in learning a powerful technique this morning, so I should be able to master the Gauntlet. Of course, this implied going through it a countless number of times. But I had all afternoon for this, and I also had the certitude that I would be able to cross it without getting hit (at least, one day I will...).

So that's pretty much all I did in the afternoon. I soon made some progress but it wasn't perfect, so I continued crossing it again and again, until the end of the day. In the end, the number of times I got hit had significantly reduced, although it was not zero. Yet I was happy with this improvement; I could wait until next time to get a perfect run. After all, I have all the time I want now...

We stopped training in the evening and got to the kitchen, talking together about what we'd done today. It's funny how each day is the same as the others, but still different in our minds; we never talk about the same things. We got to eat and I left early; I felt like I needed music tonight. So I picked up a few instruments and got to my regular spot, the peach tree hill. These nights were not as cold as they used to be when I first arrived to the Jade Palace. I started playing anything that crossed my mind, still keeping a form of control over it. As the sun stepped down and escaped the day, I put an end to the melody and turned around, only to face the Five, who had followed me here. No one was saying anything; everyone was just enjoying the calm evening. Unfortunately, it couldn't last longer. I calmly said, "Time to go to sleep now, guys."

On these words we all got back to the barracks and to our respective rooms. My sleep was left untroubled that night.

On the next morning, everything was just as usual, except for one thing: Mantis and Monkey mischievously decided to perform a sneak attack on Shifu. Of course, all of us went along with their plan. We got in position. Shifu was playing a little song with his wooden flute. Under other circumstances, I would have listened to it, but right now I had something else in mind. I waited for the signal. Soon enough I saw Mantis jump in. In the next second, each one of us was trying to hit Shifu. Everything went very fast, but even alone against the six of us, he managed to block each and every hit we ever tried to land. Once we stopped the attack, Shifu said, "Good job, students... if you were trying to disappoint me!"

Of course. We had not managed to hit him even a single time. He started to correct our mistakes, until Zeng came by and told him that Master Oogway wanted to see him. Master Shifu immediately stopped what he was doing and walked up to the Hall of Warriors.

"I wonder what this could be for?" I said. Crane replied, "I don't know, but it must be something important, or else Oogway would not call for Shifu at this time of the day."

We nodded. What would this all be about? I guess we shall just wait and see...