Chapter 2

Xiao was sitting on the floor in the centre of her room, her numbers scroll spread out before her and two empty plates sitting next to her. Xiao had already lost interest in numbers, and her eyes began slowly drift around the room looking for distractions.

It was filled with empty bowls and kung fu memorabilia, much like her daddy said his had been. However, unlike daddy's old room, hers was neat and ordered. On top of her chest of drawers was a collection of action figurines daddy had carved for her, all of different Kung Fu masters. She had Master Ox and Master Rhino and Master Croc and Master Chicken (Xiao loved Master Chicken) and Grandpa Shifu and loads of others. However, on a special shelf, were four very old, well-kept figurines, the oldest in the collection, and one relatively new one, split into groups of two. On one side were figurines of Uncle Mantis and Uncle Crane, and on the other side were Uncle Monkey and Aunt Viper. And in the centre, pushed together, were the two figurines Xiao prized above all else: the ones of her parents, the legendary husband-and-wife protectors of the Valley of Peace, Master Po, the Dragon Warrior, and Master Tigress, creator of the Tiger style of Kung Fu. Whilst daddy's figurine was fairly old and had a few scratches, mommy's figurine was newer and fresher (daddy said he had given the first one to another panda before Xiao was born) and was the best painted one of the entire collection. Xiao hardly played with mommy's figurine. She was terrified of damaging it.

On one of her walls was a painting of all three of them, daddy with his arm around mommy, and mommy holding her so she was the focal point of the portrait, with daddy supporting her back with his other hand. She didn't remember this being done, but that was because she had only been about two. But it was still special to her. It was one of the very few pictures of them all together as a family.

As her eyes drifted back to the scrolls, Xiao was beginning to feel like her daddy had tricked her, because numbers sure didn't seem like real training. No master could put up with training this dull. She had tried to make it fun by using dumplings to make the numbers, transferring them between the plates to make up the totals, but that had just made her hungry. Now she was full and sleepy. As she stared at the page, trying to stop her eyes from closing, she looked up and around at the training hall. It was larger than before, and blurrier. Suddenly, loud booms echoed out of nowhere and the room moved around on its own, as if Xiao was looking through someone else's eyes, to reveal a large, blurry figure attacking a training dummy with incredible force, making those grunting noises you make when you're trying really hard to hit something. Xaio saw a hand reach out and recognised it as her own, vaguely registering that it was much smaller than before. Somewhere inside of her she heard a small voice, her voice, call out.

Mama

The figure stopped for a moment, breathing heavily, staring at the dummy with its fists clenched. Suddenly its tail raised and it flew at the dummy with even more force, its grunting getting louder, until it was shouting. Xiao didn't like the shouting. It was so angry, but at the same time, it was really… sad. It was getting loud, very loud, and scary. Suddenly, Xiao heard her own voice again, beginning to cry. At this the figure suddenly froze for a moment, then turned and looked straight at her. After another moment, the figure ran towards her, towering over her, and reached down with both hands. Xiao felt the giant and distantly familiar paws wrap around her middle, and she floated off the ground and towards the blurred figure's face, enough to vaguely make out the orange, white and black. Then she heard another voice, as if from a long way away…

Shhhhhh It's okay Xiao…

Xiao started awake, still on the floor of her bedroom. She had been dreaming about mommy again. Xiao didn't like those dreams. The memories always made her sad. They reminded her that she didn't really know where her mommy was, or even who she was. She had disappeared when Xiao was young, and the few memories she had of her were kind of blurry and most of them involved watching her train, and her family hardly talked about her. She always wanted to ask, but she felt that the others, particularly her dad, would get sad if she did. She could tell that they sometimes thought about mommy as well, because the feeling in the room always got really serious, or they would look sad for a moment before saying nothing was wrong, and Xiao didn't want to make them more upset. And yet, though she tried to hide it, it made Xiao upset to have all these unanswered questions about mommy flying around inside her head and the memories of both the times she was there, and the times that had a big empty space where she should have been. The birthdays, the day trips, her first day of school, the drawings she'd bring home to show only one parent…

Xiao looked up at the family portrait. Even though they were all smiling in the picture, something about mommy's expression really bothered Xiao at times, like there was something missing from it, but she wasn't sure what it was…

She was startled when Uncle Mantis suddenly jumped in front of her.

"Hey kiddo! Has to see you studying with my own eyes to believe it! How's it going?"

"Really, really dull."

"Yeah I feel ya, Xiao. I hated school as well. All those long, boring classes (that and the other kids always tried to squish me), but mostly the classes! Lessons droning on and on…"

"Not helping Uncle Mantis..."

"Oh right, sorry. Anyway, it's dinner time! Your dad's made your favourite, tofu stir-fry!"

"Great…" Xiao said, absently. Mantis froze in concern. Xiao didn't seem interested in food, which meant something terrible might have happened.

"You ok? Usually by now your halfway down the hall!"

"Oh! Uh… yeah I'm fine!" Uncle Mantis' eyes narrowed as he studied her for a moment carefully, as if he could sense something was up. Part of her hoped he would keep asking, and then she could finally have an excuse to ask about…

"Ok!" He chirped brightly, frustratingly convinced, and playfully leapt onto her head. "Now, race you to the dining room!" He leapt off and charged down the hall.

Still mildly disappointed but not wanting to lose or (obviously) let her stir-fry get cold, Xiao ran after him.