A Little Nap

The group was completely tired. The fight with the Wang Raiders had taken all of two days. Somehow they were still standing, but barely. Po, Tai Lung, and the Furious Five all managed to get themselves up the Jade Palace steps, though the panda collapsed at the last step. "Po, come on. We have to move," Tigress grunted, fighting the sleep deprivation as weakly as anyone else. The panda only mumbled against the dust and picked his head up. Grunting and groaning to his feet, he moved like the undead, slow and stumbling.

The Jade Palace grounds was laid out almost linearly. The Hall of Heroes in the Jade Palace building stood atop the steps facing the north. Then the barracks were behind it, and then the Training Hall towards the south; the area where Master Shifu trained Po was south behind the Jade Palace Mountain.* Because the team's fight was to the south of the Jade Palace, they had to pass the Training Hall in order to get to the barracks.

Suddenly, Po's eyes lit up. He made a tumbling B-line for the Training Hall and turned left. The others heard a loud crash. Tai Lung and Tigress both sighed and rubbed their faces. They walked into the hall and saw Po lying face up on a large soft mat. This was Lei Lei's play area when Tigress was babysitting her. The already snoring panda didn't seem to care.

Viper's eyelids were barely open as it were. She slithered up to Po. The others thought she was going to wake him up, but she simply moved onto Po's belly, rolled herself into a bundle, and laid her head to rest. "Viper, what are you doing?" Tigress mumbled.

"Po is the softest warmest thing here and I'm too tired to go up another step. Goodnight."

"Come on, Viper, you can't-" Before Monkey could say anything, the snake shut her eyes and fell straight to sleep. The others looked at each other. The pains and aches in their body clawed and gnawed their resolve. Tigress felt pain she hadn't felt in a while. Her mind trudged through sticky mental slough just to think.

She gave a large sigh and walked over to the panda and snake. Laying on her side, she rested her head on Po's rising and falling belly at the upper left corner. The warmth and soft fur put her mind at ease and she fell asleep. Tai Lung rolled his eyes and rested next to Tigress at the lower left corner of Po's belly. His back pressed up against Po's belly and his head dipped while his eyes quickly nodded off to dreamland. Mantis found a spot in Viper's snaky bundle to lay his head. Monkey and Crane chose the right side of Po's belly and laid their backs like they were reclining into a chair. Their heads rolled back, and they all fell asleep at once.

Morning came, and Master Shifu searched the Jade Palace grounds for his students. After looking in the barracks, the silence caught his attention. He knew they would be extremely tired, but after seeing room after empty room, he began to wonder if they even made it up the mountain. He walked out of the barracks and looked at the Training Hall. "They couldn't be training. They should be resting by now," Shifu muttered. He decided to check anyway. Trudging up the steps to the Hall, he opened the doors and heard a loud collection of snoring coming from the left. He saw the pile of warriors napping atop Po. Shifu sighed and smiled. He grabbed some blankets from a nearby closet and spread them over the team.

When he got to Tigress and Tai Lung, the felines, in their sleep, grabbed Shifu and nuzzled him into their embrace. The poor red panda was stuck. He could get out, but it would wake them. Sighing and smiling, the red panda decided to nap with the group, letting them have a full recovery.

Continued...

*A/N: I HAVE FIGURED IT OUT! I figured out the layout of the Jade Palace. The Jade Palace mountain faces the north. All the scenes we see of Po's training in Kung Fu Panda 1 happen behind the Jade Palace to the south. The Jade Palace with the Hall of Heroes comes first facing the north. Before it is the courtyard where they chose the Dragon Warrior. Behind the palace is the barracks which has two stories. Then comes the Training Hall. I honestly don't know where the Peach Tree is. From the first movie, it's hard to tell, but by the 4 it seems to be a little to the front of the Jade Palace Hall of Heroes. I had a long airplane ride and decided to sketch up a layout. This also means that Kai had to have come up the backway to get to the Main Hall of Heroes, coming from the south and past the Training Hall and the barracks? I guess there's another set of stairs?