KUNG FU PANDA: Kung Fu White Tiger.
Chapter Three: Broken Memories and Final Wishes.
Jade Palace: Student Quarters.
The gong went. It was time to get up.
The Five rushed out of their rooms, backs straight and expressions stoic as Shifu waited. "Good morning, Master!" they spoke in complete unison. Shifu was just as grumpy as usual, as he ordered for the Five to get to the Training Hall on the double.
When they reached the Training Hall, they were a bit surprised to find Lotus already there, helping Ping with breakfast. Or at least, trying to help, but Ping was insisting that he'd cook, with Lotus laughing merrily, making Tiger feel jealous of the goose.
Shifu was feeling something else entirely. "What are you doing here?!" He demanded, scaring the white tiger and the goose out of their wits.
"Ah! Oh, good morning Master Shifu. I just thought I'd help Ping with breakfast." she answered as Ping approached Monkey.
"Made your favorite Master Monkey! Banana glazed noodles!" Ping cheered, making Monkey smile.
"Oh, yeah!" he grabbed it and started wolfing it down. He noticed the stares, and shrugged. "What? I'm a monkey." Shifu scoffed, before turning to Lotus.
"Maybe as a Physician you would be permitted for such tasks as breakfast, but not as a student. You think you can preform a full split stirring noodles? It takes years to develop one's flexibility! And years longer..." Shifu tosses two plates into the air and snaps his fingers. Tiger crouches down, hoping to somewhat impress her, before leaping into the air. "to apply it in combat!" And delivers a split, kicking the plates and shattering them, before landing back on the ground with grace.
Lotus had to admit she was a bit impressed, but she didn't show, and that left Tiger with a disappointed huff. This girl was hard to appease. The crumbs of the two plates rained down on her, one big one hitting her head with a thunk. She grumbled, picking it up and planning on pelting it at the tiger master.
"Put! That! Down!" Shifu demanded, stepping forward, ears folded in irritation. "The only souvenirs we collect here are bloody knuckles and broken bones." Lotus rolled her eyes.
"Ptff, you should talk to interior decorator about that." Shifu then smirked, and Lotus sighed. She should have kept her mouth shut.
"Let's get started." and with a click of his fingers, class began.
First it was her against Viper. The others lined up beside Shifu, as Viper got battle ready and Lotus got ready to defend herself.
"Are you ready?" Viper asked, not wanted to catch her off guard.
"Yeah, let's do-WHOA!" Viper suddenly knocked her off her feet with her tail. But before she could hit the ground, Viper poked her in the stomach, forcing her into somersaults, before Viper slammed her body down.
"Sorry, Lotus! I thought you said you were ready." Viper defended, hoping she didn't hurt her too much.
"I'm fine, Viper. Nothing the Physician can't fi- oh wait, that's me." Lotus giggled, and so did Viper.
Shifu sneered and clicked his fingers again for attention. The two girls turned to him and bowed their heads.
"Monkey! Staff spar! Go!" Monkey nodded and grabbed two staffs, tossing one over to Lotus.
"I'll go easy on you, alright?" Lotus smirked at his mocking tone, "Don't even think about it, Chimp."
"Oh-ho-ho! It's on now!" he did a little acrobatics, before swinging. She blocked a few, but couldn't stop the few swift ones that came after. But otherwise, they were having a good laugh. But Shifu wasn't happy about it. The Jade Palace and the Training Hall wasn't a place for fun! He snapped his fingers once more.
"Lotus! You, Crane, the Jade Tortoise of Wisdom. Now!" the two nodded and rushed off into the hall. After a few moments of finding balance on the bowl, they got ready.
"Don't be nervous. Your going to do fine." Crane assured her, making her smile gratefully. "Thanks Crane."
"Fight!" they began to move, but as soon as they did the bowl tipped and Lotus fell in, producing laughs from everyone. Everyone except Shifu and Tiger of course. Tiger because he was too taking in by Lotus's musical laughter, and Shifu was just getting madder and madder at the fact his students were no longer taking their lessons seriously.
Now it was Lotus vs Mantis. Mantis didn't want to hurt a fellow healer and friend, but Lotus didn't want him to go easy on her either. Kinda regretted it later on. Mantis was moving to fast for her to even notice where she went. Shifu chuckled in satisfaction when she hit the floor, hoping now she'll give up the Warrior title. But then she giggled once more. Apparently Mantis hit a funny bone.
Shifu sneered, "I have been taking it easy on you, Lotus." the white tiger raised an eyebrow in disbelief. That was easy? "But no more. Your next opponent will be me." What? The Five exchanged looks. They almost didn't want to look.
"Step forth." Lotus did as instructed, before Shifu began to spun her around uncontrollably, before slamming her body to the floor. Monkey and Mantis winched. That had to sting.
"The true path to victory is to find your opponent's weakness, and make him suffer for it." Shifu told her, bending her arm to wrong way and lifting her head up. Lotus grunted in pain, and Crane blocked Viper's view of the fight with his wing.
"To take his strength and use it against him." he tossed her around some more, before slamming her body to the ground once more. "Until he finally falls... or quits." he then pins her down, waiting for her to forfeit.
But she said nothing, and actually tried to struggle. Shifu grunted in anger and lifted her upright, before kicking her, sending her flying towards the Training Hall doors. They opened on impact, and she landed near the top of the steps in a bruised and broken heap.
Shifu grunted and went off somewhere. The Five stayed where they were, the only noises being Lotus's heavy, wheezy breathes of pain. She was holding her ribs as she tried to get up, only to whimper in agony as she fell back down.
Tiger's heart was clenching in his chest as he approached her. He held a hand out to help her to her feet, before she shoved him off roughly and harshly, provoking gasps from the others.
"I don't need your help." Lotus gritted through her teeth, before moaning in pain again. Viper and Mantis made their way over.
"Sweetie, don't strain yourself. Mantis get your medical supplies ready. And she might need the acupuncture needles." Mantis nodded, scattering off to the Student's Quarters to get his medical supplies ready. Before meeting the Five, he was a doctor, so both he and Lotus know a thing or two about medicine. "Monkey, Crane, help me get her to stand." the two nodded, before hoisting her arms around their necks, as much as they could due to different heights. But it was straining her ribs and other injuries.
Monkey then felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up to see Tiger. He gently pushed him aside, giving Crane a look, before lifting and cradling Lotus in his arm bridle style.
"I said I don't need your-"
"Lotus." she stopped at his strained and pleading tone "Please, just this once. Let me do this." Lotus was quiet, before she sighed and buried her face into his vest, making his cheeks warm before he continued down the stairs towards the Students Quarters.
"What's wrong with me?" Lotus thought to herself. Normally she would rebuff his advances regardless of whatever tone he used, and her heart was starting to race and she felt her face heat up. Then she heard something else and listened closely.
"And what's wrong with Tiger?"
His heart was racing too.
Student's Quarters
"Ow! Mantis, that's the fifteenth one you've misPLACED!"
"Sorry, OK? It's just not easy finding the right nerve points with all these stripes. Like, is it around the area with white or is it around the black parts?" he stuck another needle into her back, quite close to her neck, making her cry out.
"Maybe you should have another look at this." Viper told the bug, holding up a diagram of the tiger body.
"Ah! OK." he then went back to work as Monkey and Crane watched from the sidelines, winching each time Lotus let out a pained yell.
"I don't know what the heck Master Shifu was doing." Crane mentioned, and Monkey laughed.
"If I didn't know better, I'd say he's trying to get rid of her!" he laughed, but no-one joined in. Viper gave him a sharp glare, Mantis tried to seem oblivious by continuing the acupuncture, and Crane just directed his attention to something else. Lotus was gazing at the ground.
"Shifu wasn't always like this, you know." the four looked over to her, confused and concerned, wondering where she was going with this. "There was once a time when Shifu used to smile all the time."
"Wow."
"Seriously?"
"No way!"
"Are you reeling us in again, Lo?"
"It's the truth. But that was before..." she trailed off, but Viper slithered closer. "Before what?" before she could answer, Tiger barged through the door.
"Before Tai Lung." everyone looked wide eyed at the forbidden name.
"I thought we weren't supposed to talk about him?" Crane said. Viper shrugged, "Well, Shifu isn't here to stop us." Monkey then laughed.
"I know about Tai Lung. He was a student here. The first to master the thousand scrolls of Kung Fu..." Monkey went silent when Lotus stood up and approached him. "But he turned bad, is now in jail and..." Monkey's voice went quivery as Lotus continued to stare.
Only Oogway, Shifu, Lotus and Tiger know the real story behind the snow leopard.
"Tai Lung wasn't just a student. Once, long before any of us were born, Shifu found him in front of the doors of the Jade Palace, a cub and all alone. And so he raised him as his son. And when the boy showed a passion for Kung Fu, Shifu trained him. Believed in him. Told him he was destined for greatness. And with each day that passed, Tai Lung got stronger, faster, smarter. But it was never enough for Tai Lung." everyone was staring wide eyed as Lotus retold the story that awakened very dark memories.
Tiger then continued when he noticed she couldn't go any longer. "He wanted the Dragon Scroll. But Oogway saw darkness in his heart and refused. Outraged, Tai Lung laid waste to the Valley. He tried to take the Scroll by force. And Shifu had to destroy what he had created." Tiger recited as he remembered how Tai Lung bursted through the doors and went for the Scroll and Shifu jumped in to stop him.
And hesitate. "But how could he?" he lamented, growing sad as he remembered how Shifu just shut everyone out that day and in turn he shut Lotus out.
"So Oogway was forced to step in when Tai Lung could not be deterred, and he was taken away to prison." Lotus went on, before sighing. "Shifu loved Tai Lung like he had never loved anyone before." she stopped, giving Tiger a brief look, "Or since." Tiger looked away, not willing to face the stares he was giving. Lotus sighed, before pulling the needles out of her back, and walking out of the room.
The Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom
Lotus was trying to relax. Trying to find that Inner Peace thing that Oogway spoke of, but she didn't think it would be so hard. So many questions were burning into her mind and it was driving her crazy. Why was she feeling so conflicted and weak? What are her feelings towards Tiger? And what was his feelings towards her?
"AGGH!" she growled, curling her fists, punching the tree, making a few peaches and petals fall.
"You know, some of those are probably bruised now." Lotus jumped, but relaxed when she saw it was only her grandfather. Lotus chuckled, before standing in front of him, rubbing her arm.
"How did you do it, Grandfather? How did you find inner peace? I need to know."
"Need to? Or want to?" Oogway asked, still smiling.
"I don't know. Both? All I know is that all these confusing emotions is tearing me apart! What is with me? What's with Tiger?! When did life get so complected?!" Lotus exclaimed, falling to her knees and covering her head in her arms.
"When you aloud it to." Lotus looked up at him through her fetal position, confusion in her expression.
"What?"
"It became complicated when you refused to make sense of the situations that cross you." Oogway said, walking past her until he reached near the end of the cliff and he began some slow, calming excirises. "You could have taken care of all these emotions years ago, if you aloud yourself to do two things."
Lotus raised an eyebrow, skeptical but curious. "What?" Oogway smiled and turned to her.
"To listen. And to believe. Promise me, Lotus. Promise me you'll try to listen and believe." he begged. Lotus felt so vulnerable at that moment and just couldn't say no.
"I'll try." Oogway smiled.
"Good. Now run along now. Isn't it time for dinner?" Lotus smiled, before turning back as she walked away.
"Are you coming, Grandfather?"
"Not tonight, Lotus. Goodnight my flower." Lotus smiled.
"Goodnight Grandfather. Love you." she hugged him, then rushed off to the dining quarters. Oogway smiled sadly.
"I love you too, my Flower."
How was she to know that Shifu had later appeared to Oogway with bad news.
Or that was the last time she and Oogway would ever see each other for a very long time.
