Told you there would be delays.

I was hoping to get this out in July, trying to get a chapter out each month. However, as mentioned previously, this was originally supposed to be chapter one and with this now being chapter two, it just didn't seem to end right for a long time. In the end, I combined chapter two with some parts originally from chapter three, and I think it now ends well.

Also as previously mention, I've been on a lot of night shifts on ICU at the hospital where I work. Plus, it was my birthday in July, I have been on holiday with family to Lanzarote and it was my mum's birthday recently. Wow, I have been busy.

Good news is I have gotten a few chapters done or almost done while I was on the plane to and from holiday, but I'm still going to space out the releases to give myself a chance to catch up with later chapters.

Hope you enjoy chapter 2!

Chapter 2: Fragility of Peace

Two years had passed since Po defeated Kai in the spirit realm and became a true master of chi. Since that time, things had been going well for the Dragon Warrior. For starters, Po had started to embrace being a teacher and with help and guidance from Master Shifu, he was shaping up into becoming a fine teacher. This was partly due to Shifu deciding to gently guide and ease Po into teaching, instead of throwing him in at the deep end as he had initially done. This approach had definitely helped Po to improve his teaching style and it meant that the Furious Five suffered less to none training injuries, much to their delight.

Another positive result of Po defeating Kai and simultaneously returning and teaching the ways of harnessing chi, was that a great age of peace had come to pass. With positive energies of life flowing through the whole of China, the world seemed more brighter than ever. Bright colourful flowers were blooming all over the land and the citizens of China seemed to be happier and healthier than before, with many feeling at great peace.

To top it off, the emperor of China had ordered a mass crackdown on criminals and criminal activities. This meant that a vast majority of bandits, thieves and other mass of criminals were either locked up in prison, in hiding or had gone straight.

Since the world was experiencing peace, Po decided to take a vacation to see his panda dad, Li Shan and all his other panda friends and family in the secret panda village, that was hidden high in the mountains, and he had not come alone. Po had also invited the Furious Five to come with him, who had happily agreed to join Po to get some rest and relaxation themselves.

Mr Ping, Po's adopted goose dad had also been invited to join them on vacation, but he had declined. Tourism had increased in the Valley of Peace recently and he wanted to stay behind to sell noodles to the masses. Po tried to delicately tell his dad that with him and the Five being on vacation, there may be some complaints, as Po and his friends were the main reason for the increased tourism. True to form, his dad did not listen. Therefore, Po reluctantly decided to let his dad find this fact out the hard way.

The Five were all now off separately doing their own thing. Monkey was telling jokes to a small crowd of pandas who actually didn't find his jokes to be awful, Viper was ribbon dancing to entertain some of the panda children, Crane was doing some painting, Tigress was busy playing with little Lei Lei and Mantis was unsuccessfully trying to help some of the adult pandas to relax with acupuncture, which Po knew from previous experience was not a good idea.

This left Po, who was trying to relax in a hammock that was tied up high in the bamboo, as the sun began to set. Although Po was glad that he had come to the panda village to see everyone and that the Five were having a good time, Po was not fully relaxing as he should have been in that moment. He couldn't help thinking back to the conversation he had with Master Shifu before he left for the panda village with the Furious Five. Shifu had not liked the idea of Po and the Furious Five 'abandoning their duties' to go on a vacation. Which had resulted in Po to take a stand and try to talk his way into persuading Shifu to let them go on vacation.

"All due respect Master Shifu, it has been months without so much of a bandit attacking anyone. The Five and I have been training hard for no real reason and we deserve some time to kick back and relax."

This point did not go over too well with Shifu.

"No real reason? Peace is a fragile thing, Po. All it can take is for one action to tip the balance of harmony. I fear that the world is out of balance. For there to be harmony, there must also be darkness, not just light. This age of total peace and pleasure will come to an end eventually, and you and the Five must be prepared for anything when it does".

Reluctantly, Master Shifu had allowed them all take a week off in the panda village, before they were to return to their training and duties at the Jade Palace. He most likely only relented when the rest of the Furious Five chipped in to argue the point that a vacation would not only allow them all to replenish their spirits, but also help them protect the citizens of China and the Valley of Peace more efficiently, due to be well rested.

Yet, as Po laid there in his hammock, he found himself thinking that there was some truth in his teacher's words. Po could not explain it, but he sensed something was off recently. He thought that maybe becoming a master of chi had somehow helped him to sense the positive and negative energies that flowed all around China. It was as if he too sensed a darkness coming, a darkness that he had not felt before. This was making him question his decision to come here.

Although, it could just have been Shifu's words making Po feel that he was sensing something, that was probably not even there. Although Po knew Shifu had not meant to make Po feel guilty and that he was only looking off for the safety of the Valley and China, Po could still feel the pang of guilt lingering from his teachers words.

Po was thinking about cutting the vacation short, when his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his dad's voice.

"Foods ready! Come get it while it's hot!"

With the call of food beckoning him, Po gracefully leaned himself to the right, falling purposefully out of his hammock and he started to roll down the hill, letting the hill do all the work. Po's rolling had indeed improved since he first started to learn how to act like a panda. Especially when it came to steering and having a clean and fluent roll, however he still had trouble with trying to stop. After reaching the bottom of the hill, he accidentally rolled too far and ended up underneath the table. He also accidentally banged his head numerous times on it before eventually emerging from underneath the table and taking a place at it.

Soon all pandas and the Furious Five had gathered around the large table and began to dig into the many dumplings, vegetables and noddles provided. All the pandas started to use their paws to cram as much food into their mouths as they possibly could. The Five had opted to use the chopsticks that they were advised by Po to bring with them. Although Po had embraced the panda way of eating with his paws, he was surprisingly not stuffing his face. Instead, he was slowly picking at his food, an act which had not gone unnoticed by his concerned father.

"Son, are you okay? You are hardly touching your food."

After hearing this, the Five immediately stopped eating and talking with each other and turned to look at Po. If Po was off his food, it was not a good sign. Although sometimes it was hard to tell. Po would also eat a lot when he was upset, and sometimes he would not eat when he was upset. On this occasion, it was the latter.

"Uh oh, it's not a good sign when Po goes off his food." Monkey said in a cheeky manner, trying to lighten the mood.

Although deep down Tigress knew and appreciated Monkey's attempt to make light of the situation, she couldn't help, but shoot him a warning look. To Tigress, this was a very serious matter.

This was not the first time she had seen Po troubled. Like the time she caught him fighting with the mast on the way to Gongmen City, after Po was surprisingly shocked that he was actually adopted by his father, who was a goose. Then there was the time when they both fought against each other in the Gongmen City prison, where she attempted to stop him from leaving the Gongmen City prison, after he refused to reveal why he had gotten distracted and let Lord Shen get away. Then finally there was the time he was not thinking straight, when he was training to fight against Kai without mastering chi first.

Once again, something was troubling Po and during a golden age of peace, the panda should have little to no worries. And that's what worried her.

"Po, are you alright?" Tigress asked, in a concerned tone.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Po said quickly, trying to reassure his dad and friends. "I'm just thinking about what Master Shifu said before we left the Valley of Peace. I'm just wondering if we should cut the vacation short, or not?"

The Five all glanced at each other. They were present with Po when he tried to convince Master Shifu to let them all go on vacation. They had heard what Shifu had said to him, before the Five stepped in to back up Po, which helped in securing some time off for their vacation. Even if it was just a week.

"Buddy, you did the right thing convincing Shifu to let us come here." Mantis reassured his friend. "We needed this."

"Mantis is right, Po." Crane confirmed, placing a wing around the panda's shoulder. "We haven't had any time off since… actually we have never really had time off before".

"What!?"

The Five and Po looked up to see that all the pandas were staring at them in complete shock. Relaxing and taking it easy was the very existence of a panda. To not be allowed any time to relax, sounded like a complete nightmare.

"That is the burden of being a Kung Fu Master." Tigress explained to the pandas, as she played with little Lei Lei and her stripy baby, who had just pulled herself up onto Tigress's lap. "The duty and responsibility to serve others, often comes at a cost to ourselves."

"But you do find moments to experience pleasure and spend times with the ones you love." Viper said, trying to keep the mood positive.

Viper thought back to the days she spent with father. Although her father would spend most of his time defending their home, he would always find small moments and windows of opportunity to spend time with Viper, and with her mother and sisters.

"Exactly, you just have given us a longer moment to have some fun, and we are grateful." Said Monkey, who was on the opposite side of Po from where Crane was, and had placed a paw on his shoulder, also trying to comfort the panda.

As the Five continued to comfort Po, Li Shan approached his son and the Five, bringing over a large bowl stacked high with dumplings to the group.

"Well son, just remember that you and your friends are all welcome to stay in panda village, as long as you need to." Li Shan reassured the group in a welcoming manner.

"Thank you, we are very grateful." Tigress said thankfully, while bowing her head slightly in respect.

The rest of the Five nodded in agreement and soon Po started to feel better, his hunger rapidly returning.

"You guys are right." Po agreed, picking up the bowl full of dumplings that he planned to mostly devour all by himself. "Besides, it's only for a week. What could possibly go wrong in a week?"

Night had fallen in the land of China. While the rest of China was sleeping, a collared black crow, with a white V-shaped collar on his neck feathers, was awake and was sitting around a dying campfire. Qiang was his name, and he was an old crow warrior who had seen a fair amount of conflict in his life, which was symbolised with his one damaged eye covered by a black eye patch. He also continuously wore an old set of black amour, which he tried to keep in the best condition he could, considering his circumstances.

He had no permanent place to call home, with all his mortal worldly possessions contained in a wooden cart. He did not live this life alone. His son was sleeping soundly on the same wooden cart that carried all the belongings the two owned, and the belongings of his wife who had passed on. After losing his wife and the mother of his son, the two only had each other, and they were constantly on the move from one village, town or city to another.

There was a reason for this. He had once served for a royal family, far away in Tianzhu City. He had been a loyal general and followed every order without question. Until the time came, when he was ordered to do something that he could not bring himself to do. He then took his wife and child and left the city and his life of being a general behind him. Yet, the anticipation of retaliation from the royals he once served had never left him. It was why he remained dressed in amour, always awaiting an attack to happen, especially now.

He could not say for certain why it was now he was expecting of an attack to happen, but he could just feel it in the air. A storm was coming for the two of them, and he knew of one warrior who could help them. A panda kung fu master who owed him a favour.

Meanwhile miles away from the old crow, a white fox with black marking in her fur was awoken by nightmares that plagued her mind. Her name was Jia Li. A skilled healer who could usually keep her nightmares at bay with her many remedies, and yet not even her potions could keep her current nightmares away.

As she tried to calm herself from her nightmares, a strange feeling had overcome her, and it unsettled her. Unable to drift herself back to sleep, the female fox made her way from her bedroom and headed for the kitchen area of the house. She then made herself cup of tea to calm herself and took it outside on the porch of her home.

She stood and allowed the cool air to brush against her fur, closing her eye as she tried to enjoy the feeling. Yet, her mind was still troubled. She tried to calm her emotions, control them. But panic and fear rose and bubbled inside of her. She silently and deeply sighed, and continued to sip her tea, trying to calm the storm in her head.

For she had dreaded the day things would change in her life again. It had all started when she was still a child. She had lost her parents after they were wrongfully arrested, and she never saw them again. She would have shared the same fate as her parents, if not for a porcupine know as Yaozhu. He was able to get her to safety, while her parents gave them time to escape. Yaozhu then gave her a home, just like he did with the abandoned or orphaned children he found and provided for, as best as he could. Jia Li always remembered him fondly and was very grateful to him for all he had done for her.

Then a few years later, when she had just turned sixteen, she was forced to leave Yaozhu and her second home behind her. She had no choice but to flee the city and during her escape, she would experience the worse night of her life, which had plagued her mind ever since. She was then forced to pick herself back up and make another life for herself, rebuilding an old farmhouse all by herself, with nothing, but her bare paws.

Then twelve years after that, her life changed again, but for the better this time. The day an injured and sick stranger was discovered, who would become a dear friend and confidant to her. She thought about her friend, as she continued to drink her gradually cooling tea. He was away in Gongmen City and she did not have a clear idea of when he would return. She wished he could be here now. He would know what to do.

After taking a moment to think everything through, she decided the best thing to do was the continue on as normal. However, she did have an escape plan in place, just in case anyone from Tianzhu City finally came for her, after all these years.