Happy anniversary, Kung Fu Panda 2! Can you believe it's been 13 years? Time flies. . .

This chapter reached more than 6k, so I split it into two parts. The other one featuring a special guest will be ready this final week of May. Onward to the journey!

— GrayZ

Volume Five: The Shadow

Chapter XII

Captain's Instrument

June 11, 1211

"Great! We'll be at the deck in the moment," Po smiled before the Captain beckoned his nod before heading to the main deck.

The panda's thought was clouded with slight tiredness from a rude awakening. Though Po's sight became foggy before he began to blink several times, clearing his vision. Once prepping for his travel pack after tying his cape, he thought of wanting to get back to sleep and witness what he saw in this odd dream. Without giving his contemplation, as soon as one of the avian crewmates proclaimed — LAND HO! — the Dragon Master continued and woke Crane and Shen in their quarters.

The airship hovered over the nearest hill as the fires underneath the behemoth balloons hissed to silence, landing on the clearing. Po reached the main deck before the two avians followed from the basement stairs. Mid-morning blanketed the bright yellow sky, dominating their sights as the warriors shut their eyes briefly.

Whoa. . . What a sight!

The Dragon Master surveyed the scenery with regard, though his gut reminded him to cheer up with his new adventure, the feeling of excitement. "Is this the place?" Po asked the Captain.

"That's right. Welcome to the Jin Dynasty. The land of former enemies," the canine answered, guiding them to the plank. "Walk on two miles to the North. From there, you will arrive in Kaifeng."

The avian with a conical hat had his talon scratched on his chest. "So, what happened to arriving at the location we are supposed to go?"

"This is the safest route my ship can land here, Master Crane," the Captain explained. They walked down the stairs ramp before the soft grass soil. "The Emperor of the Jin Dynasty will send his avian soldiers and cut off my balloon ropes if the ship goes to Zhongdu or near their military bases. This area is as far as I can go."

"Can they do that?" Po asked, and the Captain gave him an odd eye, giving the panda a cringy wheeze. "Yikes. I sure hope we don't mean to harm everyone else here and there."

"Oh, well," Crane puffed his sigh. "Long walks are ahead of us. Let's get going then."

"Let's get going is my middle name," Po simpered, his fist nudging Shen's shoulder. "Ready for an adventure?"

"I suppose so," the peacock said calmly.

"Dragon Master. Master Crane. And Shen, I wish you three good luck," the Captain bowed to the warriors. "Happy trails."

The warriors gave farewell to him before Po, Shen, and Crane began to stroll on the uneven, dry dirt road. Far off to the site of the Northeast emerged the town. The first place to visit toward the unfamiliar that no warriors of the Song Dynasty had ever been far to the North. Kaifeng.

Kaifeng, Henan — JIN DYNASTY

Before entering the broad town, he saw random people walking in random directions. Po looked at the airship floating away into the misty clouds, wishing he and his comrades could fly more to the North as he strongly desired. Despite the fact that the former enemies of the Jin Dynasty had their terms, unlike the Song, Po comprehended the Captain's issue rather than taking risks. Po found ahead of him, when surveying the courtyard roads and large banners of the Jin Empire that more than a hundred avians in their armors and helmets observed the streets, and most in different outfits patrolled the corners before the small paths.

Before them, walking ahead of the behemoth temple that perched on the boulder, was the Gulou, the light emerald roof shimmering, the red columns bearing three roofs. Upon the temple were guards watching the civilians below.

"Wow! This place is not so bad after all," Po gaped, and Shen kept his neutral glare forward rather than staring at a few people's sights near them before the three entered the structure's archway.

More than a thousand pacings later, deep in his gut, the Dragon Master broadened his green eyes when finding the next courtyard with crimson houses when walking through the public area, with countless citizens in Ao coats and long skirts of gold, red, and light brown. "Look! Check it out, guys!" Po pointed at the market store close by, which the front itself had a signboard labeling the General Store. Not only did the place have the sign, but the other showed the vast river of dark yellow surface with white ripples streaming. "We can go across from there!"

"Let's get the map from there before we go on the bridge across the Yellow River, Po," Crane asserted.

"Right," Po nearly forgot about mentioning the map they required to guide where they could lead to different places.

Sauntering across the public courtyard, filled with wonder and awe, Shen heeded a well-crafted instrument that the seller (a musician) wished customers to buy, promoting one after the other. At one time, the avian dreamed that he could play the erhu instrument somewhere underneath the tree and observe the night sky where the velvet-white stars hovered and silky cinnamon streams blanketed the apotheosis constellations. Shen often spoke to the Soothsayer once, saying he was willing to hear nature that rarely shared its heavenly rhythm from afar, out of place, and nowhere from the mystical dimension. Shen could not say what the music was like, but the instrument had six strings with tuning pegs, unlike erhu.

Unlike the kind from here, a red fox with dark orange ears purchased the instrument before the peacock. Still, the land was unfamiliar to him, as if the domain had thousands of dark emerald trees all over the boundary before the silver-white peaks, and building structures sighting at the behemoth courtyard were. . . odd, which towered like columns, triangular cone roofs, and pointy arrow pillars on the sides. Rain showered under the silver clouds, and Shen was unaffected, being soaked with his feathers and robes. But the young one himself was ahead of the bird after handing light silver coins to the doe musician seller behind the wooden counter stand.

From that time, Shen felt that the senses of breathing mints of fresh air and the hills of bluebonnets before the lonely tree with the fox fiddling his guitar strings were hauntingly vivid compared to this reality.

"Hey, Shen."

The panda nudged the bird's shoulders, and Shen blinked his eyes, turning to him after having a slight daydream. The bear made his smile with dimples. "I got you something."

"What?"

"Look at my bean bun. Isn't that cute?!"

The bear showed it a bean bun with two diminutive orbs and a carrot-like beak on his paw. "What on Earth?" Shen trailed his silvery voice off, his beak drooping to his feet as his eye pupils shrank.

"Do you like this?! I had to buy some sustenance and made this one for you!"

"What. . . Is that thing?"

"Your gift," he simpered.

"I don't accept gifts," he shut his eyes and shook his head.

"Aw, come on!" Po moved forward to where he could meet Shen's eyes. "Don't you know who this is?"

"Who?"

"It's you," the panda beamed.

The peacock grunted. "Nonsense," Shen looked away.

"Hey," Crane was approached to Po's right and asked him. "Do you have the map?"

"Oh, yeah," the panda rummaged his patched luggage and brought the scroll out. "I got it from the store."

"Then set sail. . ." the peacock stammered, which had Crane overhear him. With the same sinister voice that mimicked the same a decade ago, the avian master leaned his wing toward himself, but the peacock quivered his head. "Nevermind. We should depart."

"Wait! Don't you wanna see the play over there?"

Crane looked to where the play was at the other side of the courtyard, where pedestrians observed the actors in their lamellar armor costumes and performed their dances with fake blades while in combat. "That looks entertaining, but I don't think there's time for that, Po."

"Aw! Why can't we be entertained for a little while?" the panda begged as Shen rounded his eyes in slight annoyance.

"Entertained is a strong word, buddy. Besides, we have a friend to visit?"

Despite wanting to wane solemnity in his mind and theirs, Po knew that their mission (hopefully Po's last for his goose father's sake) to inspect the Song Dynasty's Emperor's daughter was more consequential than letting themselves get distracted. Po sloped his flabby arms down and started strolling with the avians. "Okay. . ." The bear's expression beckoned to a glee figure. "Time for a swim then!"

"Ha!" Crane chuckled and gave him a pat behind the panda's back. "That won't happen."

Neither will. . . Shen expressed but comprehended his teacher's hype and enthusiasm.

Only for a short time, about more than two thousand hikes trekking over ridges, which slow their paces every time while climbing, the group peered at the notch where the light beamed its afternoon crepuscular beams and shadows touching the heart of the narrow. The breeze stroked Po and Shen's garments, the western sun beaming down on their exhausted faces. Po pinned his staff beside him, observing Crane under the sky's silky white sheets that spread and dissipated.

Down to the heart of the narrow, the mist streaked its soft turns and ambled, following the eastern winds as one of these small pagoda tower roofs appeared with a delicate glow of gold. Far down the northern outskirt, displaying the majestic horizon of twilight that the moon bathed behind the shrouded gray clouds, Po started the fire on the small campfire within the forest. Crane spread the goza sheet before tapping on the material, straightening the rest while eliminating the wrinkles; as the cleaner himself, the way Crane had always inspected dirty marks before cleaning all with a water bucket and a mop, the avian was always into his natural type on spreading the goza before going to bed. As for Shen, though wary at times throughout the nights, he adored solitude, his mind flooding with bitterness and regret after he saw the goat with wide horns earlier.

Sensing that the subject was only an elderly citizen, there was nothing more to expect than the other, who the peacock used to know too well. Shen thought he could dream about Mali - the Soothsayer, who had children spending hours traveling across alleyways and miniature roads. Everywhere Shen and his wolf brother went with the children under the royal guard's supervision, the young Prince was the only one complaining about "wood board signs" that made him discomfort, too young to comprehend the outside world. At the same time, the rest had joy, marveling at the scenery before the eastern sea with orange sails. There were too many signs, as Shen regarded them, but the croaking woods and whirling chains clutching the boards made him trigger that day.

Gradually used to traveling more, Shen was no longer triggered by intense sounds in his proximity.

"Alright! The fire is lit," Po hurled his fists in the thin air. He began to open his traveling pack. "Now, where were we?"

"Um. Haven't we left from the city back there?" Crane asked the bear.

"Yeah. I'm certain we took a hike from the bridge like hours ago."

"Did we? Because we are in the same place with the same bark tree that is like the shape of a broken claw," Crane pointed at the fragmented log near the hill. "So. . ."

"We are?" Po said, surprisingly pondering. "Man, I blew it."

"I sincerely hope we don't get lost for nothing," Shen lowered his sigh of hopelessness.

"Oh, no, Shen. There's no need for that one. Besides, there's confidence in us!" Po chirped, beaming while digging his paw in his bag.

"I have no doubt," Crane understood, extending his wings with inspection.

Inside the bag, Po rummaged his paw through all the things he could bring on his journey: his pictures of two dads, the Furious Five, Grandmaster Shifu, a handful of action figures, and sets of their clean clothes and the strings (for drying fabrics outside). Without digging in, Po pulled his breath into his lungs.

"Yikes! What did I do with the map?" Po bent his eye and the other with uncertainty.

Stammering, Crane rotated his whole head sideways in confusion, glimpsing at Po. "Didn't you give the map to Shen?"

"Oh, yeah!"

Smirking before wetting his lips with his tongue, Po dug into Shen's lengthy sleeve, his fingers rummaging in various reverberations of clings and paper taps. "Ah-ha!" the panda caught a large wrap of the map with a black string.

"How did—what?" Shen peeked in his sleeve, and the fabric had two large pockets full of items as Po filled in the rest. "Panda?"

"Shh."

The panda hushed him, but Shen only gritted his teeth, staring at Crane coldly. The avian master chuckled and coiled his head in shyness.

"Maybe Po. . . Po did put some of his metal stars in?"

"Aw, Crane!" Po grunted, his paws slamming his knees.

"Po, could you elaborate on what you did to my sleeve and how?" Shen asked.

"I told Viper to do the honors on threading the fabric, so I had hoped she made you the sleeve pockets for traveling purposes," Po clarified. "And these pockets are my idea, Shen. At least you got some goodies or something. You never know what you gonna need."

Again, Shen inspected his sleeves, reflecting on Viper's gifted talent for repairing and modifying cloth materials. But how could the serpent master do with her tail only? How did Viper use strands and needles?

"Odd," Shen breathed out, still observing the pockets while querying himself. The enigma of Viper's sewing skill remained unclear to him.

"Details!"

Po untied the string and laid the map on the small boulder. The map illustrated the complex details of the Yellow River sighting before the last three towns farther north, full of terrain curves, the water swirling, and the star, which pinned directly to the third town. The capital city name of the Jin Dynasty was called "Zhongdu."

The map had a coordinate indication with the arrows of the plus sigil, indicating the North, South, West, and East. Po surveyed the main roads in red, guiding easy paths to small villages before the three cities.

"Okay. Let's see here," Po held his index digit and browsed the Jin Dynasty, nudging the paper. Crane finished inspecting his wings and zoomed his head closer to Po. "I say us three left town from here, right?"

"Right."

"And I assume that we took a quick detour to the North," the panda assured, his thumb and index caressing under his jaw. "Man, I like to go back to that place where the play shared their story about the river beasts who enjoyed entertainment. That's so wicked. Is it?"

"That story seems a myth, though," Crane regarded, his talon scratching his chest. "Here, I think I want some tea."

"You want some? So do I. That'll keep us concentrated," Po smirked, gesturing at the peacock. "Shen, could you bring me my handful of raspberry tea tags and a pan?"

Shen deadened his grunt. "No wonder you have a hard time reaching your bag right next to you," the peafowl said, digging his talon into the bag and rummaging.

The bird's foot touched something wrapped and felt like a solid rock, though Shen sensed a square shape and a couple of instruments. This object had the peacock gradually broaden his crimson eyes with wonder, allowing him to pull out and find what appeared to be a wrapped device. A toy? One of Po's latest action figure designs?

Po, keeping his calm posture to figure out where to lead to the North, looked at the Jin Dynasty's capital city before the Great Wall, which lay beyond the next continent of Inner Mongolia. "Look at this, Crane," he told Crane to inspect the road. "This path looks promising, right? So, while we can find the big road, this one will guide us to Zhongdu. No questions asked."

"Po, are you sure we are traveling on the right track?" the avian scrutinized the map, his eyes zooming closer to the guidance. "This path doesn't exactly guide where the Jin Dynasty is, but if this map gave us the wrong direction, you'd have to ask citizens for directions."

"Excuse me."

Po and Crane turned to Shen, who held his glare at the panda, displaying the two an enigmatic piece. "Po, what is this thing?"

"Um. . . my awesomeness toys?" Po guessed.

"Not from the bag. That one."

"Huh?"

Po stood and checked what Shen carried. Displaying his odd face with concern, the panda inspected the fabric's surfaces before removing the shrouds. One way and the other, removing the cloth, Po's eyes reflected with a shiny gold. The whole forest was reverberating from Po's deafening gasp. "NO WAY! It's a compass!"

"A compass?" Crane stammered, surprising.

"Oh, no! Captain forgot to have this!" Po widened his eyes. "And now he and his guys will not know where to fly!"

"Wait," Shen gestured his wing to a halt, attempting to find words to query his teacher. The peacock, though demanding answers, stared at Po. "Panda, did you steal it?"

"What? No!" Po quivered his head into innocence. "I would never steal, Shen. How could I? I didn't know about this."

"Hold it, Po. Get a load of this."

This call prevented Po and Shen from questioning before answering; the panda and the peacock glimpsed at Crane, who surveyed a parchment note at the nearest edge of the ties inside Po's bag. The note included the purple string.

"It looks like your 'customer' left a note to you," Crane figured.

The avian handed the parchment to the Dragon Master, though his eyes still locked on the string, which, due to its color, seemed to be rare for tailors collecting them. Po untied the string, opened the message on his paws, and scrutinized the Captain's Mandarin handwriting in charcoal onyx.

Dragon Master

I was hoping you could find this note in your bag, and if you did, that's wonderful. Master Panda, you are heading to a dangerous road to walk on. As I was the retired fighter who fought for the Song and was a captive, the land of Jin seeks no strangers. As the survivor, a few enemies treated me well before they released me and the prisoners after the Peace Treaty.

Consider the compass a parting gift. I advise you to use this tool when lost in uncharted areas and unfamiliar terrain. Wherever the compass points to the magnetic guide, regard it as a map. I hope you and your friends go to Zhongdu together.

Have safe travels, Dragon Master, and to you two, Master Crane and Shen.

Captain Hao

"Quite a fellow, isn't he?" Shen pondered.

"Definitely," Po beamed, inspecting the compass and the spoon on his paw. He kept staring at it with glee and awe, the gold from the compass twinkling from the misty stars above them. The instrument was marvelous, but the panda glanced at his bag.

"First thing's first, guys," the panda said. "Let's have some tea and focus on the compass."

Certainly, Shen thought.

Not long after the fire seethed the water in the pot, ridding the elements to make the liquid clear and drinkable, Po dipped the pack of teabags in the water and gave them stirs. The smell of raspberry and peppermint puffed in their noses (Po and Crane preferred berry for tonight, and Shen liked mints to freshen his breaths and cool his tender throat). The trio began to survey the compass next to the map; the process for the spoon took moments to rotate on the plate, the metal and magnet shivering with the waves beating against the beachhead. The sound of the spoon's guidance and the movement was soothing before the oval pointed to where the warriors could go.

Po adjusted the map and sat on the opposite side, again reading the compass; when sipping the raspberry, licking his lips while concentrating, the panda read the indicator, and the spoon pointed in the same direction.

North, a few degrees to the East, the panda read.

"Yep! I know which way to go!" Po threw his limbs in the air.

"Congratulations, panda," Shen praised his teacher, sipping his peppermint tea.

"Great!" Crane encouraged his bear companion.

"I knew I could do this! I haven't done this one since —" Po chirped without stopping to think how he mapped knowledge from being lost to found. What drenched his spine with nippy breezes, the two avians gave him their perplexing stares, enhancing their glances with one another. "Nevermind. We travel North in the morning!"

Author's Note:

— I cannot remember where I found the art from Tumblr or anywhere else on the internet, but I wrote the scene where Shen saw his "gift" that made him freeze. If I find it again, I'll mention it in this note.

— Any errors you spot, leave the rest to me.