Sibling Rivalry
Chapter 17 REWRITE
Po huffed and puffed as he sprinted. If he made it in time, he could stop the rocks from crushing some of the homes on the east side of the village. He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, the roar of the rocks becoming louder and louder. They saw pandas running away from the east side as fast as they could. It was too late though.
The sound of bamboo, wood, and the tile of the homes splintered and cracked underneath the weight of the fast crushing rock. A heap of dust and dirt filled the air. The Five and Po stopped before the cloud of dust. It was no use going in now, they wouldn't be able to see anything, let alone breathe. As the dust, dirt, and earth settled, the startling sight came into vision. The crushed homes were completely demolished. No object, no wall, no furniture would be saved from this devastation.
Whether it be fate or luck, all the pandas that lived there had escaped and survived miraculously. At least they had not found any bodies..yet.
"Po!" He heard his name called, turning to see his parents running towards him. "Are you and your friends okay?"
"Yes, we're all okay," he calmed them. His father, Klu, turned to the displaced pandas.
"Is everyone alright? Is anyone missing?" The pandas answered: yes, they were alright - no, no one was missing.
"Did you find Lily?" his mother asked. Po shared a glance with the Five who looked at him expectantly. This was his to handle.
"Yes," he said hesitantly. "She's..she's not okay." That was an understatement. "It's hard to say this.. She had a panic attack and caused the rock slide. In her panic, she was overwhelmed and accidentally opened a portal to the Spirit Realm and now she's imprisoned there." His parents stood there in shock. This definitely brought up more questions than answers.
"How could she have caused a rock slide? How did she manage to open a portal to the Spirit Realm? How do you know it's the Spirit Realm? How is she imprisoned there? What's keeping her there? What happened? Why did it happen? How did this happen?" His parents asked, in between panicked breaths, asking over one another at times.
"You need to find Jiānhùrén! The panda spirit. She can help you get her out of the Spirit Realm," Klu realized, turning to Po, some hope coming back into his complexion. The Five and his mother turned hopeful at this suggestion but Po remained crestfallen.
"That's not going to work," he muttered.
"Why not? She's been training you for several nights on mastering your qi. Why wouldn't she help you now?" Tigress asked, a little frustrated. After all, Jiānhùrén is the reason he was being so secretive. If she was going through all this trouble for him to keep secrets and taking his time away from his family and friends, the least the spirit could do is help Lily.
"It's not that simple. Jiānhùrén can't help us," Po answered.
"No, she can. She has already helped this village so much, protecting us from Shen's wolf scouts over the past two years. Surely, she would help you save Lily. You need to go find Jiānhùrén and get her to help you!" Klu argued.
"I can't ask Jiānhùrén," Po asserted.
"Why not?" Tigress hissed.
"Jiānhùrén is Lily." A silence fell over. "Lily is Jiānhùrén. They are one and the same." That..answered some questions, but not all.
"I don't understand," Cari whispered. "How?" Po opened his mouth, paused, before closing it trying to find the right words.
"Lily became Jiānhùrén to help protect the village from the wolf scouts. She cares very deeply about Pandania and everyone in it. She cares a lot more than she lets on. The 'magic' you saw of the earth being manipulated - she was using her qi. Lily is a master of qi - being able to bend it to her will to manipulate the environment around her. She's been teaching me the past several nights," Po went on.
"How on earth did she ever learn about qi? She's never taken lessons with the healers in our village," Cari said incredulously.
"She learned from Āmà," Po answered.
"That's not possible. Āmà passed away when Lily was very young," Klu said, confused.
"Lily figured out how to meditate and meet at the barrier between the mortal world and the Spirit Realm where Āmà resides in the afterlife. Āmà taught her the ways of qi from our ancestors," Po continued.
"She..she never taught me. Or my brother," Klu said, even more confused now. "She was a warrior, a defender, but she never used her qi like the way Jiānhùrén has been able to. Why would she hide an ancestral secret like that?" Po shrugged.
"I don't know. All I know is that Āmà taught Lily and Lily taught me. Āmà is very resolute. She told me about how she was trained by Master Wolf in her prime," Po explained. Everyone looked at him in disbelief.
"You-you talked to Āmà?" Klu asked.
"Yes. Lily taught me how to meditate into the Spirit Realm so I could visit her. Āmà made me promise I'd look after Lily, that I needed to help her make the right choice, that our family is depending on me to help her." Po was completely dejected. "Not that I was any good. I failed Lily. I failed her at the most crucial time when she needed me most. I could save the Valley of Peace, I could save Gongmen City, but I couldn't save my own sister." He felt a paw on his shoulder, yet, he couldn't find the will to look them in the eye right now.
"You did not fail her," Tigress whispered. "You wanted to gain her trust and you did it. She trusts you. Now she needs somebody she trusts to help her with this. You have not failed her. You can still help her. It's not too late."
"You've got us too. We're all in this together," Viper agreed.
"You're leading this mission. Tell us your plan and what to do and we'll do it," Tigress ceded. Po thought for several beats.
Lily was currently imprisoned in the Spirit Realm, in a prison in her own mind. She is blind with at least two apparitions stalking around her, telling her what choice she needs to make..choices..crossroads.
"Look after Lily. She's facing challenges that no one in our family has before. She's coming to a crossroads very soon. Crossroads call for choices. Help her make the right one. Our family is depending on you to guide her," Āmà had said.
"Crossroads..Crossroads call for choices," he whispered, an epiphany coming to mind. "Okay, here's the plan."
Po and Tigress were in the clearing down south, waiting for the rest of the Five to come back with Zulan. Klu and Cari were to stay with the villagers and make a temporary shelter for the displaced pandas as well as evacuate anybody else at high risk of being hurt by another rockslide.
While waiting, there was an air of apprehension, a strain between the two mammals. The feline's tail swished around quickly, showing a nervousness that her face didn't dare tell. He sat down on a medium-sized boulder close to the clearing and the feline sat down beside him, tail still twitching. Po was the first to break the silence.
"Tigress, I'm sorry." The feline waited for him to continue. "I shouldn't have kept the truth from the Five, not my parents, and certainly not you. I was so caught up in earning Lily's trust, I neglected the trust you had placed in me. For that, I'm sorry for taking advantage of your trust and not having enough confidence in us."
"..Us?" she whispered, looking at the boar now.
"Not having enough confidence in our trust, our friendship, our..camaraderie. Tigress, you have become one of my, if not my closest friend. I can't imagine living life without you now. I will never keep anything from you again, I promise. I'm so sorry for not telling you the truth sooner."
She felt a mix of emotions wash over her. Relief and solace that her best friend would no longer be keeping secrets from her. Disappointment at the term friend, conflicted with the possibility of more, and yet the pleasure of reciprocation that she felt the same way about their friendship.
"I forgive you. I understand now why you kept it a secret for so long, even if it was just a handful of days. She needed to trust you. Even though I would've had that discretion between us, I understand why you did what you did. However, you will not be doing that again. Understood?" Tigress eyed the boar carefully.
"Understood. Absolutely. 100%."
"Good." The feline paused before continuing. "Po, you have also become..my closest friend. I too, cannot imagine my life without you in it now. You know this hasn't come easy to me..I didn't have a lot of friends growing up and the few friends I made were when I was a teenager and the rest of the Five came to join me at the Jade Palace. Even then, I kept my guard up a lot. You helped me overcome some of that wall, that guard I had up. For that, I thank you Po. For helping me become a better friend." He wrapped an arm around the feline and held her tightly closely. She leaned her muzzle into the crook of his neck as they stayed in the embrace for several moments before pulling away.
"Thank you Tigress. For everything."
"Anything for my best friend," she grinned before punching his arm lightly. "Don't you dare tell Viper she's not my best friend."
"Oooh, Viper? Viper!" He called out jokingly. She punched his shoulder a little tougher this time, not being able to hide her smirk. He returned her grin with one of his own as they sat there, savoring the moment for what it was, enjoying the calm before the storm.