Betrayal
In a dark hole, he saw the light piercing down on him. "GET UP!" Shouted a loud voice. His eyes, blinking at the bright light with shadows covering the sun, looked down at his damaged royal multicolored clothes. A rope was lowered. Slowly, he wrapped himself around it.
Who was pulling him out? He was a heavy person and yet he floated to the top without trouble.
But when he got to the top, his heart fell to his feet. Large giants of pure vibrant color glared down on his form with their white pupil-less eyes. The colors burned like fire, and they towered over Po like a mountain. The rope around his waist tightened and shackles clamped around his hands. "Come!" Shouted a giant of flaming green, vaguely in the shape of a feline.
The prisoner desperately looked around. "Guys! Guys!" He shouted. Where were they? Where were his friends?
He found them. And when he found them, he wished he hadn't. Another giant, red in color and deer in form, gave a small bag of yuan to his friends. The tiger's hands stretched out and received the bag, giving the rest to her friends.
The prisoner's eyes watered. His lips moved to speak, but no words exited his mouth. His friends looked at him. He knew those faces. Faces of disgust, annoyance, and rage. He looked at the tiger's face. She only turned away, waving her hand dismissively as he was hauled away into the darkness. "No," He whispered and cried, "No." He looked back at the giants of colorful fire. Slowly, they began to change into something else. Into...
Dumplings?
"WAAAAAHH!" Po bolted up in his bed. The night moon was still high in the sky. The darkness of his room felt alien. The panda shuffled to his feet and felt himself all over. Was he really here? Was he alive? Was that a dream?
Or a vision?
"Nah, no no, no," Po shivered. He shook his head over and over. "Come on, brain, stop it." Slowly, he got up and walked out of the room. His mind still teased him. It questioned and filled him with doubt and worry to the point Po's vision spun. The panda slammed his hand onto the barrack wall. He gulped and steadied himself. When the floor wasn't spinning anymore, he journeyed on. He gasped with each step. Several times, his noodle legs nearly sent him face first to the ground. He stiffened what muscles were listening to him and struggled on. He finally collapsed into a chair in the kitchen and sat in the darkness. No light, no lantern. He simply sat, breathing in the cool, still air.
His eyes stared hard at the table. Time didn't move. He didn't know it was morning when it came. He wasn't even sure if he could blinked. He wasn't sure if he could ever close his eyes again. He wasn't sure of the space around him. Was it safe? Could he truly call this place home? He wasn't sure at all.
He became aware of time, space, and matter all at once when something like an icy knife touched his shoulder. "WAHHH!" The panda jumped clear out of the chair and readied his attack on the assailant.
"Po?"
His eyes blinked. Several times over until the pain in them was gone. It was Tigress. It was only Tigress. Po covered his eyes to give them some kind of rest. "Oh, it's just you, Tigress."
"Po, are you okay?"
"Huh?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," Po said. He kept shaking his head over and over. "I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay."
"Po?"
"I'm okay," Po took deep long breaths, finally stilling his flying thoughts. He finally came back to earth. It felt... heavy. No. His body felt heavy. Like it was made out of lead. "I'm okay, sorry for being jumpy."
"Po. Are you okay?" She asked again more seriously. Po looked at her for the first time. Her eyes looked... was that fear? But Tigress didn't know fear. Or at least, that's what Po thought. The panda shook his head.
"Yeah, just a... really really bad dream."
"About what?"
"Umm... nothing," Po said quickly.
Tigress crossed her arms and glared. "Po, I've never seen you that scared and that... angry before. If it is a serious problem, then tell us."
"Yeah," said a kind serpentine voice from the doorway. "We'd love to help." The rest of the Furious Five crowded around Po as the panda sat back down in his chair.
"What are you all doing up so late? Did I wake you guys up?" Po asked. He'd hoped that the question would divert some suspicion off of him, but it didn't seem to work.
"Po, it's morning. The sun's up," Crane said. Po looked around the room. His eyes had only seen Tigress and the table before then. Now he saw the light flooding into the little kitchen and the weight of sleeplessness barreling down on him.
The panda yawned and wobbled. "Oh."
"Po, you mentioned a bad dream," Tigress reiterated. "What was it?"
"And how bad was it? If you've been up all night," Viper trailed off. Po looked at all of them. His lips bent into a frown as he stood up. He walked, only a little bit. Enough to give him some space between himself and them.
"I... I had a dream," He started. "I was in a pit. When I was pulled out, there were these massive giant things with flaming bodies in different colors. They had a rope around me and were going to take me away as a slave."
"That sounds intense," Monkey said. "Maybe you shouldn't eat so late."
"Monkey, that's enough," Tigress hushed. "Po, what about the dream was so disturbing?" The tiger tried to rest her hand on Po's shoulder, but he instinctively moved away. The tiger widened her eyes but said nothing. Po had never been this distant. A cold wall seemed to barricade him off from them, from her.
"The... giants didn't kidnap me," Po said with a trembling voice. "They... bought me. They... bought me from... you guys." They all gasped. "You sold me... you sold me like a slave. You wouldn't even look at me." A few tears dripped down Po's face. "All because I was the Dragon Warrior."
"Wh-why do you say that?" Viper asked.
"My royal clothes were torn up," He said, turning around to face Tigress. "By claw marks."
The room didn't move. Po scanned each of their faces. Viper looked horrified, much like an old grandmother who witnessed a tragic scene. Mantis's jaw dropped almost as far as Crane's beak. Monkey looked around the room at his friends, trying to find someone who could say something; he never liked tense situations like this.
But Tigress. Most people might say that Tigress didn't express many emotions. But Po could see horror, pain, worry, shock, and dread just in her eyes.
"Po," Tigress said in a low voice as she grabbed both of his shoulders so that he'd look at her. "I... we would never betray you like that.
"And we would never sell you like a slave," Monkey said with surprising seriousness.
Po offered the smallest smile they had ever seen. "Thanks guys. I... I know that, but-"
"Do you?" Tigress asked. Her eyes glared deep into his. "Do you know that we would never betray you?"
"Uuuhhh yeah?"
"You don't sound sure," Tigress said, crossing her arms.
"Y-Yes," Po quickly said. "It's just... The dream doesn't really bother me. It's the thought."
"Of what?"
"The thought that you guys would do something like that. But... it also makes me realize that... I took the Dragon Warrior title from all of you, not just Tigress. And... I'm sorry."
"Po," Tigress said, not letting everyone fall into another space of silence. "You didn't take the Dragon Warrior title from us. The Dragon Warrior title was yours from the beginning. We just didn't realize it at the time."
"Some of us still don't," Mantis murmured to Monkey. The tiger glared at the bug, effectively shutting him up.
Whether or not Mantis was talking about himself or Tigress, Po never really found out.
"You are the Dragon Warrior. And we're proud of you," Tigress smiled. She hugged him, surprising everyone in the room into silence. When she finally released him, she wore a frown. "But... do you feel your dream was a vision?"
"Nnnn not really," Po said, more unsure than scared. "Once the giants of color and fire turned into dumplings, the dream kinda lost all of its fear factors. Hehe."
Everyone laughed. Just a little.
The tiny smile on Po's face worried all of them. Po sighed, struggling to put on the face for bravery. Whatever that face looked like. "I know you guys care about me and look out for me," He continued, "It's just... I guess I don't want you guys thinking that I'm all that just because I'm the Dragon Warrior."
"But," Tigress said with a little more lift in her throat than normal, "We would never get to know you if you weren't the Dragon Warrior."
"Yeah, but what if I was just... you know, one of those remote warriors, or traveling warriors. You guys have all been working for the Dragon Warrior title and I... just came in and messed everything up."
"Po," Tigress said, grabbing his shoulders to face him. "We've been over this several times already. You didn't mess up anything."
Po made a deadpan look.
"Okay, you made a lot of... Nonprofessional mistakes, but that could've happened to anyone."
"Did it happen to you?" Po asked.
"Well, not that bad, but OWWW!" Monkey shouted as Viper whipped him with her tail. "But that doesn't mean that it matters."
"What matters is that you managed to learn from your mistakes and save the day countless times. Not only have you helped the valley, but you've helped each of us individually with our own problems," Tigress said. "So don't ever think that you stole anything from us. In fact, you've gifted us with so much more than you think."
Po's eyes watered and dripped as he sniffled loudly. "Wow Tigress, that was the most beautiful thing anyone has ever said to me."
"Really?" Viper asked. Everyone turned to her. "I mean, people haven't said... you know, more than that? Like you're caring or brave or just kind?"
"Eh... hehehe, not really," Po said, scratching the back of his head. "The most I've gotten from people is a 'thanks' or 'really appreciate it'. Even though people know me in the village, they don't really... you know... know me."
"Well," Tigress said after a pause. "I think we should change that."
"How?" Po asked. The tiger only smiled.
"Come on. Let's get to the Training Hall. We'll go easy on you since you didn't sleep."
"You going easy on me?" Po repeated with a small smirk. "I don't think you know the meaning of the word."
"OOooooooooooh," The rest of the Furious Five chanted.
Tigress smirked back, "Well, we'll just have to see then."
The panda's nightmares never came to be. In fact, if anything, he was closer to his friends than he could ever dream.
The End
