Chapter Summary - Shall we all escape from reality toward an untold utopia?
Signaling this lost emotion! Warning it might overwhelm you!
A strong draft outside caused his eyes to groggily open, it was still blurry and dark inside his room.
Shifu ran his fingers across his face as he sat up, staring into his own shadow as the tree's silhouettes danced above it outside. There was only a paper shade separating him from the front.
"Why didn't the gong ring?" He asked aloud. 'Right.'
It's still being repaired after the attack.
When the old master finally stood up, his floor was clear of any papers, only his wall held one colorful piece of paper. "Right…Things have changed."
"Things change everyday…What's so different now?" A voice ponders alongside his shadow.
The wind whipped against his green robe so harshly he had to hold those thin pieces of fabric down, it was extremely cloudy this morning and yet he smelt no rain on the way. It was puzzling…
"Rain does not always follow the wind…or rather, is it more common?"
The question went ignored as he briskly walked to the dorms to check on his students, he was sorely tempted to cancel training outside in the case of a bad storm. The training hall would just have to do.
The aged wood creaked under his lithe footsteps, it was deathly quiet in here. Blue eyes darted this way, into the kitchen door with not a soul or crumb in sight and that way to all the paper-thin doors closed as if awaiting him.
A graceful shadow walked beside him on the surface of the walls, passing him by with the soft feeling of a breeze. Curiosity pulled this form astray.
As Shifu drew closer, he could slowly see each of his students' outlines appear at the head of their doors, and yet they did not move. His ear flickered hoping to hear anything, a yawn, mumble, or even a sneeze would do.
But it never came.
"What's in this door?" That same lithe shadow's ear flickered as they filled in what seemed to be an empty space across from the panda.
The familiar silhouette caused Shifu's eyes to stare a hole into that infamous room before averting his gaze as a whole and moving toward the room across from them. "She's not there…She's at home…" He whispered.
"She?" The voice asked.
He'd opened Po's door enough times to give the other Master a moment to collect themselves. He knew when he was coming and yet, that shadow was still tall above him in a way that unsettled him.
With a soft clatter of wood and a shift of paper, the door slid open to reveal; nothing.
His small hands shook upon the edge of that door as he noted, that each door opened at the same time to reveal the same thing.
All but one.
"Why do you avoid this door?" The voice asked.
"It's been months…I know who's in there and it's not her." Shifu slowly walked down the steps from the dorm toward the training hall, as he held on tightly to his robes as the winds whistled harshly in his ears. "It's a new year, season, and day. I can't keep holding onto this feeling."
The shadow stopped as he pushed forward, their head tilting to the side. "You can hold onto anything as long as you want and then throw it aside as if it meant nothing."
Shifu kicked aside the dummy left by someone to hold the door open, a sign winter had truly ended. The flowers were slowly blooming. "It's not that easy…"
The trees swayed, branches and leaves harshly scraping against one another in tandem as he entered the training hall with the dummy dragging behind him.
Yet no one was there.
The training dummy too, stilled with everything inside this building as if it had all gone untouched for ages. He wanted to ask aloud where everyone was but…
He wasn't as surprised as he should have been at that shadow again, of a tiger who he should be waiting at the front gate to greet this morning, training.
"A warrior?" The other shadow inquired as they inched closer to the other shadow, they even leaned back when a fierce kick came too close for comfort. "Interesting."
A warrior. Shifu pondered on that title for a while as he watched the Master he had trained move almost perfectly. 'No, perfect or not. It's still impressive.' He reminded himself, even as she stopped to inspect her paws.
He absentmindedly touched his shoulder. "As an imperfect warrior, I would know."
The sound of a droplet caught his attention, somehow it was louder than the thrashing of the elements outside. It fell from the dark recess of the shadow tiger's form to the wooden floor in a deep shade of surprising color.
"Blood."
He avoided it, just as he had avoided the door, only to be greeted with shadows of those he knew all around him, colleagues, students, and-
The only souvenirs we collect here are bloody knuckles and broken bones.
Shifu slammed the door of the training hall as soon as he witnessed a shadow he wished would rest peacefully and nothing more.
He struggled against the gust of winds outside as he paced past the tattered ruins of the Palace, papers still scattered and fleetingly flying through the air. Wood cracked in the distance, porcelain broke and trickled down aged steps that once gleamed in the sun, now tainted with the smears of battle.
This too, was something he could not hold onto.
"You can rebuild it, buildings are the same as their creators. Temporary."
He ignored that voice, he ignored every marred piece of his home as he went to the one place that was untouched by that scourged demon.
The one place, he had yet to taint with his own heart.
As the cave's natural mouth formed around him, the echoes of the whipping wind's tune slowly faded into the background, but the simple and soft sounds of water did not greet him as they usually did.
The old master stopped at the roar of rushing water that rivaled the Huangguoshu Waterfall, as shadows of his students ran past him.
Only one remained at his side and it reminded him of someone he knew wasn't here yet.
"Do they live far away?"
"No," He answered as he watched Crane fly and land close to the bottom of the cave disappearing into the natural dark walls, he had looked upon and beyond for hours, days even. "She lives nearby with her father."
"Why do you look into the darkness for answers?"
His feet stepped into cool morning water as it rushed and swirled before him, it was so fast it looked white and foamy as it skirted over the mossy rocks of the Dragon's grotto far below the mountains into the misty unknown.
Because it's easier to think.
A wall of water blocked him from viewing the scenery he'd come to know and love, only distorted glances through clean spring water could reveal the dark gray clouds ahead, lightning in the distance.
Disorder.
"You know what you want, so take it. Why bother thinking about it?"
His hand brushed under the strong current from above, mist spilling out below it past his waist and skirting above the water's surface. "Because…" His eyes caught the reflections of his student's shadows, moving about in the background, closer and closer to the dragon that lay in this cave alone. "I drown whatever I want to have. I lack balance. I lack the restraint I demand."
'Now, when I think about it, what happened to that paper Junjie gave me?' The random thought pierced his mind quickly as if it was reassessing everything he had witnessed. 'It should have been on the floor-'
"Who are you?" Shifu tore his hand away from the water, allowing it to flow without any interference as he looked upon that shadow, that held similarities to Tigress but now that he looked upon it more closely. They were different.
"You're just now wondering that?" The stranger's body tilted forward as they walked further into the cave. "I've been talking to you this entire time and now you deem me worthy? All because…" They sounded older, yet carefree.
"I'm not her."
Shifu stilled, unsure of what to do, now he felt truly unbalanced. Perplexed by this realistically uncanny dream. Was it even a dream?
Two shadows he was growing accustomed to, stayed in the back far away from where he stood. They were young wolves, two new students that had joined their ranks last winter due to the Dragon Warrior.
"You want to drown them next?"
Shifu shook his head as he looked away from the two as a familiar shape of heroism walked near them. "They don't need me, they need someone better. I'm not ready."
Especially with Nagua, she was bright and talented.
"Just as she was."
The water shimmered with a soft chime, causing him to look toward the dragon guardian that seemed to also overflow with a gush of water from its mouth, adding more and more to the pools below, hiding away its serpent body. "Yes," Shifu relented, for he knew he could not hide from her true form.
There behind the dragon's maw and before its mighty claw, stood Tigress' shadow behind a waterfall, the water glittered beyond the means of the stalactite above and something more otherworldly, dare he say divine.
The rippling gush of a stronger wave of water made him blink as shooting stars dashed below the surface and the pitch-black darkness blocked even the visuals of the rocks he had once meditated upon day by night.
It was all so much in one moment, as one shadow after the next, his students disappeared to somewhere he could not reach no matter how much he wanted to walk into the mysterious dark deep before him.
Shifu could hear Tigress walk upon the surface of the water, each dip echoing in the cave as she neared the edge of the dragon's waterfall.
He waited with bated breath as Po's shadow led the way for the next generation of Jade Palace masters, the ever-flowing paradise he could not witness.
Tigress too, disappeared with only a white feather left behind in her wake.
Shifu reached out for it.
That old voice came close, so close, he could feel the very twitch of the being's whiskers and the airy almost flowery scent that followed them. "You'll never be ready if you never take that first step. To fear your feelings of love, must be quite the boring existence."
They pushed him into that dark yet starry space below, he could feel the paw pads upon his back as feathers fell from above, of varying colors, some he could recognize, the gray and white of Crane's feathers for one.
But as he drowned he was surrounded by brown, two types of colorful green, a black and white feather that would match a magpie, more gray and white.
White.
"At first I didn't believe you earlier but now I see, misery does beset you." He could almost hear that voice smile as she spoke her last phrase to him. "Interesting yet pathetic."
There was only darkness after that, and a descent that started slow seemed to speed up until-
"Ah!" Shifu scrunched his face up in mild pain as he felt the familiar cool slabs of jade beneath his back. Papers from the night before were scattered around under him as they usually were.
'So, it was a dream…' He sighed and merely stretched upon the floor, noting the wind was still active outside. "Good, I couldn't imagine what I would do if the Dragon grotto flooded that way…"
The old red panda turned his head to the right absentmindedly, sleep threatening to take hold of him again on the floor. Until his eyes laid upon that paper with Junjie's face on it.
A terrible reminder of his early spring of remedial classes for 'Ways to improve his teaching style.' He'd chosen to do it, but he'd hated it because of that fox .
"Hmph." He brushed it aside with his paw, forcing himself to get up slowly and scatter more scrolls across his floor with a clatter until his eyes fell on the one thing that had never left his mind since last winter.
The Chun Lian from last year.
"Right," Shifu sighed as he got up with a sense of Deja vu, heading toward the dorm as he should have minutes ago. "I have to try my best and enjoy this year…" He touched that slip of bright red paper with a wish that only he could grant.
"For myself."
Just accept this evolution.
Author's note - Alright, hello hello how ya doing!? Ya boy is back again, ONCE AGAIN AND TODAY PEOPLE TODAY-I got a new series for y'all. Now, I can't say much as you can see, I'm setting up a lil mystery for you, reader! ;) Are you excited? I am! I won't have a schedule as usual since well no one seemed to care or say they missed it but if you do, just tell me in the comments! I'm always reading and replying to them. If you wanna know what I did last time, it was every Monday or so. Otherwise, I'll just update whenever I feel the chapter is done and ready!
Although, I can give you a couple of fun facts for you to enjoy before I set off!
- Yes, I have Junjie here, I love him too much not to write him. DW I'll make him cool yet in character!
- Some of the lines in this chapter were inspired by Denpa Kanshou (Signal Sentiment) from Idolm ster Theater days!
Otherwise, reader, I must bid you adieu until next time. Enjoy this teaser for the next chapter!
Chapter 2: If you don't you'll be stuck in this dream;
Are you satisfied with this unfulfilled fantasy?
"You forgot your lunch!"
"You mean that time you tried to commit fraud-?"
"There's no need to thank me. It's my job as your teacher to support you."
"How poetic."