Secret Scroll
Leo was asked by Po and Shifu why does he have bandages on his palms and thought he and Tigress was going out for dinner last night. He told them simply he cut himself last night from training and lost track of time. For the next several days, Leo and Po trained together and spar as Shifu watch them. Whenever training was over, Leo would go to the Peach Tree or the Dragon Grotto for meditating or go to the library through the day and night. And every night before the Dragon Warrior goes to bed, he can see Leo's shadow by the light in his room.
The Dragon Warrior thought Leo should hang out with him down at Mr. Ping's noodle restaurant for a game of mahjong for a little while. But Leo refused to join Po and his father to play mahjong. Po wasn't surprised at Leo's answer. Leo refused to join them to do something fun when they get a break, even on the weekends. He only joined them during training, meditating, mealtimes and missions, even festivals or the Peace Jubilee.
Several days have passed and Po just got to the Jade Palace after helping his dad at the restaurant in the morning. He heard some footsteps and turned around to the Furious Five.
"Hey guys." Po smiled. "How was it?"
"It was great, Po." Monkey said.
"We did wish you and Leo came with us, but after what Crane said about you fighting Temutai and saving Shifu, Temutai picked a bad day to attack." Mantis said.
"It's a good thing too." Viper smiled at Po. "Good job stopping Temutai."
"Thanks." Po said. "Leo should've seen Mrs. Gao and Mr. Yang helped me when you went to the levitation demo."
"Speaking of Leo, where is he right now?" Crane wondered. "Library?"
"He's at the Training Hall with Shifu right now." Po answered. "Shifu and Leo is sparring at the moment."
"Then let's go see them." Monkey said.
Po and the Furious Five heads over to the hall. When they arrived at the stone courtyard, Shifu was closing the door to the Training Hall. He turns around and sees them.
"Hello, Master Shifu." Viper said.
"Hello everyone." Shifu greeted. "I hope you had a good time with the levitation demo."
"We did." Monkey smiled.
"Po told us what happened when we weren't here." Crane said.
"Luckily, Po took care of Temutai with some help." Shifu said. "Since all of you are back, we can begin training tomorrow."
"Did you and Leo finish training just now?" Po asked him.
"We just finished training about twenty minutes ago." Shifu said.
"I see." Tigress spoke up. "Then where did Leo go?"
"The Peach Tree." Shifu answered.
Tigress made her way to the Peach Tree as the sun begins to set. Arriving at the Peach Tree, Leo's back was to her, and his sword was in the ground close in front of him. As she approaches behind him, Tigress cleared her throat. "Hello, Leo."
Leo opens his eyes and looks over his shoulder to see Tigress standing behind him.
"Tigress." Leo said. "When did you get here?"
"Not long." Tigress replied, sitting down next to him.
"How was the levitation demo?"
"It was good. We flew around the village a couple times."
"Nice."
"Leo, I have a question for you."
"What is your question, Tigress?"
"Where were you that night and why did you stood me up?"
Leo didn't say a word and looks down at the ground. He knew that question was going to be asked to him. Ever since Enya's sudden appearance made him not to show up for dinner that night, Leo knew that Tigress wanted to know why he didn't show up that night. But Leo knew what Enya is capable of. And Leo spoke.
"I lost track of time that night." Leo replied with an answer. "Because something needed my attention that night."
Tigress looks down and notices his hands was covered in bandages. "Leo, why is your hands covered in bandages?"
"I cut myself when I toss my sword in the air." he lied. "I thought I grabbed the hilt, but I grabbed the blade instead."
"Is that why you stood me up?" Tigress asks him, looking in his eyes.
"And there's more." Leo continued. "I received a vision. I couldn't tell what it was. All I heard was faint screams of terror. But it went away after I came back to the Jade Palace."
"I see."
"I'm sorry about the other night." Leo apologized.
"Don't worry about it, Leo." Tigress said, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "I know you didn't mean to stand me up."
"Thanks." Leo kisses her cheek. "We should head back to the barracks now since we got training tomorrow."
The next morning, Leo and the Furious Five were sparring with one another. Po bursts through the doors, telling Shifu that Kwan The Unkillable is coming to the Valley Of Peace.
"Kwan The Unkillable?" Leo wondered. "I don't believe I heard that name before."
"Kwan is a professional kung fu wrestler." Monkey explains to him. "He's Po's hero."
"I've seen Kwan's show." Tigress said to Po. "It's staged. It's fake. That's not real kung fu."
"If knocking a hundred ninjas in single file isn't kung fu, I don't know what is." Po smiled.
There was a knock on the door and Crane opens the door to see a female pig. She was wearing a indigo hanfu dress with orange branches and a red waistband.
"My name is Bai Li." she introduce herself. "I'm looking for the Dragon Warrior."
Crane didn't say anything as he looks at her. His heart was beating faster then he spoke. "Yo-yo- you have a nose."
Mantis snickered as he watch Monkey gets slapped by Crane.
"I am the Dragon Warrior." Po said, stepping in front of Bai Li. "How may I be of assistance to you citizen?"
"I have been sent by Kwan the Unkillable." Bai Li answered, walking up to him. "Kwan requests the pleasure of your presence and Leo at his match." She takes out two tickets.
"Kwan knows who I am?" Po gasps. "And he thinks my presence is a pleasure?" He takes the tickets and backs away as Crane stares at Bai Li.
"We look forward to seeing you there." Bai Li said, closing the door.
"Hello!" Crane said to the door.
Po enters the hall with the tickets. "I got an extra ticket if anybody-"
"I'll go!" Crane quickly shouted and grabbing the extra ticket.
"Sweet!" Po smiled. "Looks like all three of us are going to the match."
"Who else is going with you?" Leo asked, approaching behind the Dragon Warrior.
"You." Po answered, turning around to Leo with Leo's ticket in his paw. "Kwan wants you to be at his match."
Leo looks down at his ticket then looks back at Po. "Sorry Po." Leo apologized. "But I'm not going to watch Kwan."
"Why not, Leo?" Po wondered.
"Tigress and I will be sparring later." Leo answered. "I have a very busy day ahead of me, Po."
"Oh." Po said. "Ok."
After training was over, Po and Crane went to Kwan's match and Mantis was hopping over to his room to relax. Leo was in the library reading through the scrolls. He stayed in the library until noon. Tigress and Viper, however, was heading to Leo's room. Viper knocks on his door.
"Leo, it's almost time for sparring." Tigress said.
No answer. But when Viper knocked again, the door opened. The two kung fu masters enter the room. There was only his bed in the center of the room. Besides the bed was a shelf of several scrolls. These scrolls contains kung fu moves, weapons, healing, meditating and acupuncture. They were separated under each category on the shelf. The masters knew that Leo never skip a scroll. He would read these scrolls whenever training is over, go on missions or meditating.
"Leo's not here." Viper said, looking around the room.
"He must be at the stone courtyard right now." Tigress crossed her arms.
"Then let's go." Viper said.
Before they can go, they heard something.
"What was that?" Tigress wondered, looking around the room.
One of the scrolls fell off the shelf. Hopping out of the shelf, Mantis found his needle.
"Huh?" Mantis asked confused, looking up at Viper and Tigress. "What are you two doing here?"
"We could ask you the same thing, Mantis." Tigress said.
"I'm in here getting my needle." Mantis said. "Because Po needed it for a prank on Monkey. What about you two?"
"We were wondering if Leo was in his room." Viper explained. "It's almost time for him to spar with Tigress. Do you want to come watch?"
"In a sec." Mantis replied, hopping back on the shelf. "I need to find one more needle here on the shelf." He picks up a scroll and pulls out another needle, but then he lost his balance that sent some of the scrolls onto the floor.
Viper removed a scroll to allow Mantis to get up. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Mantis replied. "I should clean this up before Leo sees this."
"We'll help you." Tigress said.
The three masters picked up the scrolls and puts them back on the shelf.
"Mantis, you should be more careful." Viper scolded him.
"Sorry, but I think we missed one." Mantis pointed out. "By your feet, Tigress."
Tigress knelt down to the scroll by her feet. "This scroll wasn't here with the others." She said, looking at the scroll. "And it's open a little bit too."
"You didn't see this when you were finding the needles?" Viper asked Mantis.
"Nope." Mantis said.
"Leo must've drop it before he joined us this morning." Tigress said. "And there's a word on it."
"What does it say?" Mantis hops onto her shoulder.
"It says "Secret"." Tigress read the word.
The three masters looks at each other in confusion before looking back at the scroll. Before Tigress can open the scroll further, she heard Leo's voice calling her from the stone courtyard.
"We'll think about this later." Tigress informs her friends. Placing it back on the floor where she found it, the three masters left the room.
Leo turns around and saw Tigress, Viper and Mantis entering the courtyard. "I was wondering where you were, Tigress."
"I was doing some meditating in my room." Tigress replied.
"That's good. Did you two come to spar?"
"No, Leo." Viper answered. "We're here to watch you and Tigress spar."
"Alright then." Leo said.
Viper and Mantis heads over to the steps as the two warriors stood across from one another. They both got into their tiger stances and Tigress began the sparring with a palm strike. Leo grabs her wrist and spun around to deliver a punch to her back. He jumps high in the air to deliver an axe kick, but Tigress blocks the attack. Leo did a side kick to her, but the attack was blocked and grabbed by her paws. She swung him around once before tossing him several feet away from her.
Leo lands on his feet and blocked her punches. She sweeps him off his feet, but Leo used the backward fall to do a back flip with a kick. Tigress got kicked in the jaw and landed on the ground, but she quickly got back up. This time, Leo did a jump knee strike kick to her stomach that sent her flying back several feet away from him. Viper and Mantis saw Leo had an opening, but he didn't attack and allowed Tigress to get back on her feet. Leo charges at Tigress.
Before his punch landed, Tigress caught his punch with her paw, jumps over him, quickly slams Leo into the ground before placing his arm behind him and her knee on his back.
"Not bad, Leo." Tigress said to him. "You were doing good till I caught your last punch."
"Thanks." Leo said.
Tigress lets him up.
"You did good in the sparring match too, Tigress." Leo said, turning around to look at her.
After Leo left the stone courtyard, the three masters talked about the scroll they found in Leo's room.
"What kind of secrets do you think Leo have on that scroll?" Viper wondered.
"I'm not sure." Mantis said. "Maybe a secret kung fu move."
"I don't think it's a secret kung fu move, Mantis." Tigress replied.
"Then what do you think?" Mantis asked her.
"It could be something to do with his past." Tigress replied.
"You mean like his fear of tigers?"
"He got over that fear, Mantis." Viper said.
"Leo did told us he used to live in the orphanage before he lived with his master." Tigress said. "Ever since we saved China, Leo has been spending time in the library."
"That's true." Viper said. "He spends more time than any of us in there."
"Leo doesn't talks about his past that much." Tigress said. "He only talks about it under dire situations."
"You mean when we went to Gongmen City." Viper said.
"Yes." Tigress nodded. "His dreams, visions and Panther."
"You know, come to think of it, we were all surprised when we saw another human and Leo was shocked to see Panther." Mantis said.
"I know." Viper said.
"We were surprised and shocked when we met Panther." Tigress said.
"I think I got it." Mantis said.
"What is it?" Tigress asked.
"Leo must be doing a secret prank!" Mantis exclaims.
The two girls look at each other before looking back at Mantis.
"When has Leo ever done a prank before?" Viper asked him. "He never done a prank before."
"And we never see him do it." Tigress added.
"How about this one then?" Viper suggested. "Leo might be doing some secret training."
"Secret training?" Tigress wondered.
"Viper, I don't think Leo would be doing some secret training." Mantis chuckled.
"What do you think, Tigress?"
"I'm not sure, but I think there's something else going on with him." Tigress said. "We'll head to the library and find the scrolls that he read in the past couple of months."
Tigress, Mantis and Viper were in the library, going through the scrolls that Leo read in the past couple of months that afternoon. So far they haven't found something.
"I don't think we'll find something in these scrolls." Mantis said.
"Let's check the scroll we found in Leo's room." Viper suggested. "Perhaps we'll find something."
As they left the library, they walk over to the student barracks. Tigress opens the door and three masters went inside Leo's room. The scroll was left where it was. Picking up the scroll in her paws, Tigress looks at Mantis and Viper, both nodding that they were ready. Tigress looks back at the scroll and was about to open it until a voice spoke.
"What are you three doing in here?"
Tigress and Viper turns around to see Leo standing in the doorway.
"We wanted to talk to you about this." Tigress said.
Leo notices the scroll in her paw. "I see."
"The three of us couldn't help but think if you're doing some secret training or a secret prank." Mantis said.
"I'm not doing a secret prank, Mantis."
"Secret training?" Viper asked.
"No, and I'm not cheating on you, Tigress." Leo assured her.
"Then why does it say "Secret" on the scroll?" Tigress asks him.
"Give me the scroll and I'll show you." Leo offering his hand.
Tigress gives Leo the scroll. He opens the scroll and shows it to them. On the scroll was nothing besides that one word on the scroll.
"So, it's nothing?" Viper asked.
"Not anymore." Leo replied. "I was going to write a scroll that's called "Secrets To Life Itself"."
"Oh." Mantis said as Leo walks by and sets the scroll on the shelf.
"We're sorry about this, Leo." Tigress apologizes to him.
"Don't worry about it." Leo assured them. "Even though I'm a stranger here, strange things happens to follow me."
"Thanks, Leo." Viper thanked him.
Leo watches them leave his room.
Before Tigress left the room, she looks over her shoulder and said "We'll see you at dinner."
Leo nodded his head as Tigress left the room and closed the door. Putting a hand on his chest, Leo took a breath of relief. He looks back at the scroll and picks it up with a bottle of ink and a brush. Setting them down in the center of the room, he sits down with his legs crossed and his diamond sword laid across from him on the other side of the scroll. Leo picks up the brush to get ink.
"It's better this way." Leo muttered as he began.
I had this idea for a while now. It took me some time to get this idea to work. But it did work out. So the next chapter is going to get really interesting and I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and don't forget to leave a review!