Crane's Discovery
Warning: What you are about to see if my writing on...drunk but not drunk energy. I was in a mental fog (Get your sleep ladies and gentlemen) and for the life of me could not make heads or tails of what I wanted this story to be. What you are about to read is simply the raw connections that my brain managed to stitch together in what we collectively call in our society: A story. Enjoy :)
"Three cheers for Po!" Shouted the crowd. They would've flung the panda high into the air if they were able to lift him. The panda shyly waved his hand, nervously thanking the small village he just saved. Tigress crossed her arms as she watched, smiling along with the other Furious Five. The panda looked over to where his friends were and gave a sheepish smile over the screaming crowd. Monkey and Mantis laughed at the panda's shyness while Tigress gave an endearing smile.
"It's a good thing we got here when we did," Crane said. "I'm not sure how Po would've managed if he didn't get word of those bandits moving in."
"I'm sure the local authorities would have done their best," Viper smiled. "We keep forgetting that there are people here to protect the villagers. We're just the cavalry."
Tigress nodded quietly. "Come on, we should get back to the Jade Palace."
"What about Po?" Crane asked.
"Leave him to his fans," Mantis chuckled a bit. "He's earned it." But Crane glanced at Tigress who simply nodded in agreement to their simian friend. As they walked on and returned to their home, they found that Po didn't return until morning. In fact, it wasn't until Crane bumped into Tigress the next day that he even knew about it. She stood in the kitchen, fretfully tapping her finger against the wooden table.
"Hey, Tigress. What's wrong?"
"Nothing, nothing. Po just came... late last night."
"Is that a problem?" Crane asked. The tiger slowly looked at her avian friend. "Right, this is Po we're talking about," He sighed. "So, what new paranoia do you think it is now?"
"I'm not paranoid. I just find it weird that... this is becoming a pattern."
Crane rose an eyebrow as he grabbed a mug and poured some water before sitting down across from Tigress. "Pattern, what do you mean?"
"Don't you think it's weird that Po keeps staying with his fathers' shop every time we have a large bandit or villain problem?"
"I... I didn't notice."
Tigress glared hard into the wood like it would combust at any moment. "It's strange. The first time it happened, I dismissed it. But this is the sixth time it's happened."
"Why don't you just ask-"
"I did," Tigress interrupted. "And he says he was tired and didn't feel like going up the mountain."
"And you doubt that because?"
The silence stayed on Tigress for a while before she lifted her head and sighed, looking a bit relieved. "You're right. It's not like Po to hide secrets."
"Not that he could anyway," Crane chuckled. Tigress returned with a small smile. "How about this? The next time it happens, I'll make sure he's not doing anything in the middle of the night. And I'll warn you if there happens to be a lady involved."
Tigress narrowed her eyes. "Why would a lady be involved? And why would it bother me?"
Crane shrugged as he stood up, never having drunk any of his water. "I don't know. Why else do you have to be suspicious of what Po does at night?"
Tigress's snarl echoed in her throat and the kitchen, and the bird quickly went away.
No one, except Po, seemed surprised that another bandit raid started up in the Eastern part of the Valley of Peace. After quickly neutralizing the threat and getting praise from the villagers, the Furious Five retreated to their home, except Crane. He gave a nod to Tigress who nodded back and walked away with the others. Slipping into an alley, the bird watched as Po thanked and greeted each and every person and then headed to his father's shop.
Po stretched and rolled the aches and pains from his shoulders and back. "Hey, dad? I'm going to the Lao mountains again."
"Again? Po, is there a lady friend that you're not telling me about?" Mr. Ping smirked, wiggling his aged eyebrows. The panda chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.
"No, no, nothing like that. I just need a breather from everyone, you know. Alone time."
Both Crane and Mr. Ping rose their eyebrow. "You want... alone time? Po, are you okay? Did a nasty bandit hit your head again or-"
"Daaaaadd. It's not like that." The goose still eyed his son suspiciously as he grabbed a large bag of food and went on his way.
Crane stood on the corner from the goose's entrance. He grimaced to himself as the mental cogs started to churn his stomach.
Three issues made this bad.
One, Po was hiding something.
Two, from the size of the bag of food, it involved someone else.
Three, no one else seemed to know about it. Crane quickly took to the skies and followed the panda. Po traveled deep into the bamboo woods and along a winding river that slowly turned into a creek. The thickness of the forest changed from bamboo shoots to dense oaks and cheery trees. But after an hour of walking, Po's feet diverted from the well-worn path to a snowy gray mountain with thick gray clouds. A blizzard started to rage on, but the panda didn't seem to mind. What did worry him was the direction of the sun. It was about high noon.
"Ugh, I'm gonna be late." He scaled the mountain further and further, slipping several places before the snowy incline started to level out, and the blizzard calmed to a gentle breeze. "Geez, we really need to talk about meeting somewhere else." The panda could feel the chill snap from the summer-like lowlands to the arctic north of the snowy barren ice land that he traveled.
Ahead of him was the silhouette of the rest of the mountain. In the mountain's wall was a cave that seemed to glow. "There he is." Po headed into the cave and gave his black and white fur a fierce shake. "BRRRRR! I know you're built for this, but you've got to teach me how to live here."
"So you don't freeze to death?" asked the snide cave dweller. Po rolled his eyes and sat on a small flat rock placed near the fire of his cloaked friend. The cloaked figure was just the same height as Po, though not as big. As Crane stood in a place where he could hear them without being spotted OR frozen, he saw Po's back with the cloaked figure facing him, tending to the fire with a stick. "Were you followed?"
"Does it matter?" Po asked. The cloaked figure lifted his head a bit.
"You sound tired... and pessimistic."
"I didn't know that the Shang bandits were going to attack again. I thought we took care of them."
"That was my fault," Sighed the cloaked figure. "I forgot that they had a small cell just outside of the regions. My... apologies."
"I'm just tired," Po finished, gazing out the cave. The snow slowly dripped from the milky sky.
"Po, just say it."
"I just don't like being Dragon Warrior sometimes. The praise, the glory, the fame. It gets old really really quick."
"Well, I'm more than willing to-"
"No," Po firmly said.
"Hmmm," The figure grunted, displeased.
"Come on. With the amount of misery you hear from me, do you honestly want this gig?"
The figure stared into the fire for a while before giving a light chuckle. "No. I don't think I'm at the age where I can take a cannonball to the stomach and still live."
"Exactly," Po sighed. "I just... need a breather from it all. The praise, glory, responsibilities, the constant target on my back, the fact that I can hardly enjoy just cooking with my dad like old times, no more love interests, dates, crushes-"
"You had all of that before?" The panda glared at the chuckling figure. Crane's eyes squinted; the figure's voice and laugh all sounded familiar. "Why tell me?" The figure asked.
"You're the only one I know that doesn't care about me," Po said seriously. Though his face was covered, the bird could see the figure was slightly surprised by the lift of his head. "For once I'd like to just be in a place where I can be upset and not worried about. I don't want people worrying about me."
"But you don't want to be alone either."
"I know what being alone for a long time can do to you. You and I know that place," Po said, staring straight at the figure's face.
The figure stayed silent for a moment before finally removing his hood. Crane held back his gasp but his eyes widened.
"Just because I know it," Said the snow leopard. "Doesn't mean I'd take care of you."
"I know," Po sighed, looking back at the snow. "Sometimes you just need to get away from it all, but still have someone there to help ground you, you know?"
"No... I don't." Po looked back at the former Kung Fu warrior. "If I had someone to ground me instead of Shifu's constant delusional insistence that I was supposed to be the Dragon Warrior I-" Tai-Lung stopped himself and sighed. "Well, you know."
"No, I don't," Po smirked. The snow leopard chuckled a bit, watching the snow outside.
"What about the tiger? You two seem close."
"Stalker."
"You told me to keep a close eye on the criminal underbelly," Tai-Lung replied. "That's why you took me out of the spirit world. I have to know what's going on everywhere."
"Not on the light side."
"Po."
"It's... complicated." Tai-Lung rose an eyebrow with no amusement on his face. "It's just... she can do things like you're doing and listen, but... I... I don't know," Po groaned into his hands. "I like her okay? But I don't know if I should tell her. Honestly, I just want to be sad without anyone trying to lift me up or worry about me. Sometimes I just want to be sad. It's... hard to explain."
The silence stayed in the cave. The snow stopped falling outside. The crackling fire snapped the wood as quietly as it could without disturbing the panda and snow leopard.
"Why are you scared?"
"What if she doesn't like me back?"
"I'm pretty sure that if you don't come clean soon, she'll like you a whole lot less."
Po rose his head. "Why?"
"Because she obviously sent one of her friends to follow you. Isn't that right, bird?" Crane's heart leaped out of his scrawny chest. "I know you're back there."
"Bird? Crane!"
Slowly, Crane came from outside and walked in. "Hehe, hey."
"What are you doing there?" Po exclaimed.
"What is Tai-Lung doing alive?!" Crane remarked. Tai-Lung calmly watched as he ate the food that Po brought. The panda sighed. "He's your informant for what happens in the criminal world? Why?"
"Because he's a criminal."
"No duh," Crane blurted out. "And why do you trust him?"
"Because he and Shifu can put me back in the Spirit world at any time," Tai-Lung casually said. Crane glanced at the snow leopard. His face had gotten rounder and his eyes, normally filled with envy and rage, were wide and content.
Probably because he was eating Po's cooking.
"The real question," The snow leopard mumbled with his mouth stuffed with food. "Is why you're here spying on Po?"
"Tigress sent me. She wanted to make sure that you weren't doing something you shouldn't do," Crane glared.
Po glared back. "I'm not a baby, Crane."
"And you didn't think to tell us that Tai-Lung is here? You're using a criminal to find other criminals!" The bird exclaimed. "Why don't you use other spies? Or just have Shifu use-"
"Those people don't know how the underworld works. Tai-Lung does," Po sighed, sitting back down. Crane sat next to him, carefully eying the snow leopard cleaning himself of food. Tai-Lung simply glanced at the bird, shrugged, and continued on. "A while back, we started noticing that criminals were getting bolder. They started making fortresses out of the villages. We couldn't take the fortresses down without hurting the people inside. And... a lot of the Emperor's experts... started labeling the villagers as... a lost cause."
"What?"
"The Emperor's men couldn't seem to get into some of the more secretive and elusive criminal rings," Tai-Lung explained. "Apparently, the Emperor thought that any particular spy would do the trick."
"But there was no one could do it... and come back alive," Po sighed. Crane's eyes widened. "That's where Tai-Lung came into the picture. It took a lot of my dad's noodle soup and some fighting... more of the noodle soup," Po mentioned, glancing at the snow leopard's slightly full gut. "But we convinced him to get on our side."
"And Shifu is okay with this?" Crane asked.
"Shifu... doesn't know," Po replied. The bird glared. "How in the world am I supposed to tell Shifu that the adopted son that he messed up is alive? No offense, Tai."
"None taken," The snow leopard shrugged.
"Why are you on board with this?" Crane asked the snow leopard.
"Another chance to put things right? Plus, had I known about Mr. Ping's cooking, I probably would've given up on my grandeur for revenge and glory a while ago," Tai-Lung chuckled, but the bird kept his even stare. He sighed, finally warming his hands by the fire. "It's a chance at something new. Something I never thought I'd do in my life. And after the whole Kai incident I... mistakes were made on my part. I know that. And if the Dark Dragon Warrior can keep things in order, then so be it."
"The... Dark Dragon Warrior?" Crane looked at Po and then at Tai-Lung. "Please tell me that's not your nickname in the underworld."
Tai-Lung groaned with a slight wince. "The name... stuck in the more secretive criminal rings. And... it does make sense." The bird only rose his eyebrow. "Blame the panda. He came up with it."
"It sounded cool!" Po exclaimed. Tai-Lung closed his eyes with a deep sigh of prideful regret he could feel all the way inside of his stomach.
"So you two are some weird yin and yang of keeping things in line?" Crane asked. Po and Tai-Lung looked at each other. The snow leopard shrugged with a small smirk and went back to tending the fire. "Okay, so you need Tai-Lung, or at least someone like Tai-Lung. Why not tell us?"
"The fewer people involved, the less likely someone can use it against us," Tai-Lung explained. "Plus, Po is worried about what Tigress would think."
"I am not!"
"But at this point," Tai-Lung continued, "I think Crane's right. You should tell at least Tigress."
"Why?" Po asked.
"Because she'll be the one most against it. I can see sentimentality barring Shifu from being upset, but... Tigress... from what you've told me about her, it seems like you should tell her sooner rather than later."
Po sighed, "It's going to hurt."
"Not as much as when she learns it from someone else. Better for it to come from you. Being afraid of conflict in the present doesn't help you with the war ahead." Tai-Lung pointed out. The panda slowly lifted his head from the ground and gave another sigh. Tai-Lung looked out the cave. "It's getting late. Here's the movement of some of the groups I've been keeping track of."
"Great, the Emperor's crew should be able to stop some of them once I get these back."
"What about that surprise from earlier?"
"That," Tai-Lung grimaced to Crane, "Will have to be looked into. They shouldn't have moved that quickly. I'll probably need some help infiltrating more social circles."
"I've got some friends in the Southern region, near the Yang River. I'll send them an invite," Po sighed. Tai-Lung and Crane rose their eyebrow. "What?"
"You have other friends that are crooks?" Tai-Lung asked.
"That are working for you as spies?" Crane added.
Po shrugged. "I've got a lot of people who know me. What can I say? I get around."
Tai-Lung was the first to shake off his shock. He noticed the hiss of the growing blizzard. "It's getting late. Come on, we should leave."
"And from now on, can we find a place a little... warmer?" Po shivered.
"Sure, I'm certain that Mr. Ping's shop will be very welcoming," Tai-Lung smirked. The panda huffed while Crane couldn't help but cover a half-laugh from his beak. "See you later, Po. Master Crane." The bird gave a respectful nod before the two left the cave and back into the white plains.
*****F*****
"And that's why... He's alive," Po finally finished. Tigress's angry glare had stayed on Po the entire time, for about thirty minutes. She sat across the table with her arms crossed while Po twiddled his thumbs on the table. Crane quietly watched the "conversation" on the other end, gulping and darting his eyes between the two warriors.
"And Master Shifu doesn't know about this," Tigress asked. Po shook his head. "How long has this been going on?"
"Two months? It happened really fast and we were in a desperate time that... could've ended badly."
"You didn't trust that we-"
"I didn't want you guys getting hurt and me not knowing," Po said with a hard enough glare to surprise Tigress. The panda sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I just... It's hard being Dragon Warrior alone. I keep getting dragged into things that I can't say no to and... keeping secrets from people I care about. It's hard." Crane looked at Tigress. Her furrowed eyebrows finally broke up as she took a deep breath. Getting up from her chair, she rounded the table and gently hugged Po. "I know you don't like him."
"That's an understatement."
"But it has been working."
"Po," Tigress paused. "I don't know what all goes in your head, but your heart has never led anyone astray ever. And that's all that matters."
Po beamed brightly as he hugged her back. "I'm still in trouble, aren't I?"
"Actually, no."
"What?" Crane and Po spoke up.
"It's just..." Tigress frowned a bit. "I never thought I'd see the day you'd act like me... so serious."
Po sighed. "Being honest here, I think that's why I do go to Tai-Lung. Sometimes, I... I just need a vent. Sure I like doing all of this but... It's a lot. And... I'm sorry."
Tigress gave a small smile. "It's okay, Po. It's okay. But next time, you come to me, not Tai-Lung. Can you promise me that?" Po slowly nodded.
"So now what?" Crane finally spoke up.
"Now, we train, and make sure we can move quickly enough to fight anything that comes our way... together," Tigress said. Po nodded with an eager smile. The panda got up and walked over to the Training Hall, but Tigress stayed back.
"Is there a real reason why you're not that upset, Tigress?"
Tigress sagged her shoulders and turned to her winged friend. "Po is right, Crane. We may need Tai-Lung for this. I just... didn't think he'd ever change. Does he really like Mr. Ping's food that much?"
"He was talking with his mouth full, Tigress," Crane said in a serious tone, though the feline couldn't help smiling. "Whatever Po and his dad's food did, it was enough to change that guy's heart."
"Hm," Tigress hummed. "Come on, let's go train."
The end
