Finally got the courage to do it. Not extremely long, but I'm leaving tomorrow; won't be able to write for a couple of weeks, but I think I have a pretty clear ide of what to do next, now that I've reached the principal plot.

Big thanks to all of you reviewed, favorited and/or followed, it means a lot to me! c:

Chapter 9

When I woke up the sun was already up, which means I stayed asleep longer than usual. I don't think anyone will criticize me for this though, because they all know what happened yesterday. I managed to sit on the side of the bed, and afterwards I tried to rise from it. I could stand, but I needed the wall's help. I didn't feel good, and I didn't look good either, but anyway. II walked out in the corridor, only to find that all of the Five were gone already. But of course, it's normal, as I remembered that tomorrow the Dragon Warrior would be chosen. They needed to be prepared.

I suddenly realized that I was hungry. Not that much, but I was. So, just as any morning, I went to the kitchen. I was surprised to see that things were normal, I mean, I've never been alone for breakfast but I wasn't feeling out of place. It means that I'm starting to feel at home at the Jade Palace. I slowly ate whatever I could find – that is to say, a bowl of rice and a few other things.

After breakfast, I felt that maybe I could walk to the Training Hall; anyway, I didn't want to stay alone. I won't do anything today, but for me it's better not to spend a day alone, because I hated complete inactivity. In the Hall, at least I would have techniques to observe, people to talk to. On my way to the Hall, I had a few difficulties to keep on walking, but I felt that it was beginning to get better: if I'm lucky, I will have fully recovered tomorrow. Anyway, I managed to reach the Hall. I entered without a noise, not wanting to disturb them.

I approached the obstacles slowly, and I sat on the side. They were there, practising at their usual spot. Concentrated on what they were doing, each of them was moving, dodging, hitting, in an expert way. After a while, they stopped for a pause. That's when they noticed my presence. I smiled, but with a gesture of my hand, I told them not to stop for me. They understood and quickly got back to training.

Soon enough, I decided to do something else. Of course, today my possibilities were quite limited: I certainly couldn't go to the city or something like that. But I could get back to my old hobby. I got up slowly and got out of the hall. Walking was painful; luckily I did not have to go a very long way to find my instruments. I decided that I would play anything that crossed my mind this afternoon. Now, in normal times, I would have walked to the Tree, but today would be an exception; I opted for my own room instead. I spent a long time there, experimenting new things, something new compared to the traditional pentatonic scale. It was not easy getting away from it – most of my instruments were only prepared to play specific sounds, which is what made it difficult. In the end I managed to find an instrument that could play something different from this scale, so I kept on playing it until I found other combinations, new things.

I lost myself in the experiment, and I didn't see that the sun was soon going to disappear. I didn't realize it was late until Monkey got knocked on my room's door.

I said, "Come in!"

He entered and answered, "Well, you'd better come out, because otherwise we're going to have dinner without you. Need help to get up?"

"I would appreciate it."

He helped me up and we went to the kitchen. Effectively, everyone was here already. Long story short, we had dinner, with the small talk it involves. Nothing fairly interesting happened, really. They simply told me they were ready for tomorrow. I replied that of course I would not demonstrate tomorrow due to my condition, but also (I kept this to myself) because I didn't want people to know me. These guys are really famous in here, and I don't want to be as much as they are.

After dinner, everyone went to sleep. Tomorrow was a big day for them, and I understood that they wanted to rest. I respected that. Nothing disturbed our sleep this night.

As a proof that I was already getting better, I woke up in time the next morning. Anyway, the ceremony does not take place too early, but it's just that the Five need time to prepare. As we went to the kitchen for breakfast, I noticed that I could walk much more easily than yesterday. I was happy about it, because it meant that I would be able to attend the ceremony today.

After breakfast we went to the arena. There, people started to arrive and prepare for the ceremony – musicians, servants... The Five started to bring the equipment with which they'd be demonstrating. I wanted to help them, but they told me that they'd be just fine without me. That didn't keep me from feeling like I wasn't doing what I was supposed to. The wait got me thinking about who would be chosen. Of course, I would really like Tigress to be the Dragon Warrior, because I think she deserves it, and if it's the only way to make Shifu proud of her... But of course it could be any of them. Moreover, as far as we know, it could be anyone! After all, Oogway never said he would choose from the Five; he only said that he would choose someone to be the Dragon Warrior.

Time passed, and soon everything was set. They were ready, the servants were ready, the musicians were ready, Shifu and Oogway were ready... It was nearly eleven o'clock; the doors of the arena opened and people started coming in. Seeing that I was already sitting and waiting for the ceremony, some villagers gave me a few odd looks, but I didn't care much. No one could know me and that was exactly what I wanted.

Then, it started. The doors closed. Their arrival was announced; we saw them coming in the arena very quickly, seemingly flying (which was true for Crane) and demonstrating their physical and technical abilities. In the end, they were all lined up, taking different poses. It was a great and promising start, really; surely it made quite a show for the other spectators. Then they started to perform individually, with the devices they brought before the ceremony started. What they did probably looked extremely complex to anyone, but I knew better. I could see that it was easy for them, and that they were only doing it to amaze people. At this moment I understood that the choosing of the Dragon Warrior was never really about their performances, but about Master Oogway's decision.

Therefore, anyone could end up getting the title. Anyone.

When it was Tigress's turn to show what she was capable of doing, she was interrupted by Master Oogway, who said: "I sense the Dragon Warrior is among us."

Immediately, Shifu silently ordered the Five to get in line in front of Oogway, and then announced that Master Oogway would choose the Dragon Warrior now. To make the moment all the more memorable, musicians started playing as Oogway walked down the stairs with his eyes almost closed, as if he were trying to sense who the Warrior was. Now that he was down the stairs, he went in front of Tigress, and I thought maybe that was it. But then we heard it.

We heard someone screaming and fireworks exploded in the air. The screaming continued and the... object that had been sent in the air started to fall down – eh, there's no escaping the laws of nature! – And it landed just under Oogway's finger. Now that it was immobile, we could see what it was more clearly: a ball of black and white fur, which seemed to be a big panda. He was unconscious at first, but when he woke up and saw Oogway's finger pointing at him, he started to say that he was sorry, and he didn't mean to get in here. Master Oogway's only response was: "How interesting..."

As the panda was trying to get up, Tigress spoke up: "Master, are you pointing at... me?"

Oogway answered: "No, him!"

The panda was stunned: "Me?"

Then Oogway used his staff to raise the panda's paw in the air and claimed, "The Universe has brought us the Dragon Warrior!" At this moment my only thought was What?! And I think the Five and Shifu shared this thought; I didn't need to be a psychologist to see that they were clearly upset, and did not believe what Master Oogway had just said. Unfortunately, the servants interrupted this moment of disbelief and one of them did the signal, the one that made all the ceremony continue as if everything had been normal, even though it clearly had not been.

I rose from my seat and made myself the most discreet possible. I had to join them now that the public ceremony was over. What would happen now that this panda had been chosen?