Chapter Two: A Simple Mission
The Dragon Warrior watched as another bolt of lightning struck the mountains beyond. Sitting patiently, he gazed at the darkened horizon from the rear courtyard of the Jade Palace. The storm had been encroaching in on the Valley of Peace slowly over the past hour, and it was almost ready to unleash its fury upon the pristine terrain below. He marveled at the spectacle of it all: the heavy clouds seeping over the peaks in the distance, the strikes of white fire lashing the landscape like a whip. A sudden gust of wind unsettled his fur, and announced that the moment he had been waiting for was nearly here. Making sure to maintain a composed Tai Chi stance, the panda gently placed the jade staff he received from Master Oogway in the Spirit Realm on the ground.
His eyes closed, Po breathed in as deep as his lungs would allow and readied himself for his inner peace technique with a slow drag of his right paw pad. His entire body was loose and relaxed, but he ensured that every slight movement was fully intentional and controlled.
That's it... focus...
And then, without even having to look, he saw it: the first drop of rain plummeting toward him. Its presence was more a feeling then something he could see, and he knew exactly when and where it would fall. His figure recoiled ever so slightly, and his arm extended up to meet it in stride, halting its descent with his paw.
Gotcha.
His limbs working in tandem, Po moved the drop towards the core of his form with an immaculate grace about his motion. The sky had opened now, and a cascading deluge engulfed him. There were countless drops of rain torrenting against his fur, but he did not feel them; he was fixated inseparably on a single orb out of an infinite stillicide of water. He passed the drop between his arms, slowly working it toward the ground. Not even the vicious lightning strikes nor the roar of thunder nearby could rouse him from the trance. He was making sure to take his time, as he derived a unique pleasure from this part of the technique. In this perfect moment there was no discord; there was only tranquility. There was no right or wrong; only the pure balance between them. The panda could now see every facet of his own being coalesced at once - visions of friends and family, successes and hardships, failures and great triumphs. Po had come to learn that inner peace was in fact a mirror, not of the body but of the soul; it was the truest way of understanding oneself.
At last, Po surrendered the drop of liquid to the growing stream around him and the visions ceased. As he opened his eyes once more, he took in the undeniable power of nature. Despite the hail of water slicking down the entirety of his fur, he was sporting an ample smile. Every time he practiced this technique he was reminded of how he had defeated Lord Shen, saving China and Kung Fu itself in the process. Even after thwarting the Beast of Vengeance, he still considered it his greatest triumph.
Po regretted that with his more recent mastery of Chi, he had less and less chances to bring himself to this ultimate spiritual balance. As he mulled over this last thought, it finally dawned on him that he was now hopelessly drenched, the fur on the undersides of his arms hanging down as it absorbed the water. He retrieved his staff and made a quick break for the shelter of the Hall of Warriors... or whatever was left of it; the repairs were coming along slowly after Kai had taken out most of the first level of the palace.
The only light in the entire room came from the candles surrounding the Moon Pool at the far end of the half-collapsed hall. As Po approached the illuminated area through the ruins, he became aware of the fact that a red panda had been watching him with amusement; he had seen how hastily Po had barged in and comically tripped over debris several times to escape the onslaught of water.
Leaving a trail of puddles in his wake, the soaked bear still gave his master a proper greeting with a bow.
"Good morning, Master Shifu."
Shifu returned his bow and motioned for him to come closer to the candles to dry off a little. The red panda had seemingly found the only place in the room where rain wasn't trickling in, the sound of rushing water audible all around them. Po noticed that his master was sitting on the fallen golden dragon head that had once held the Dragon Scroll in its jaws; the metal that comprised it was starting to oxidize slightly as the months of exposure to the elements wore on. Gathered around the area were the surviving artifacts of the Hall of Warriors.
"Practicing Inner Peace in a lightning storm again?"
"What? No, I was jus-" Shifu's devilish smirk had revealed itself in full force. "Okay, yeah. You got me."
The red panda smiled and raised his brows at the bear's sudden confession. Po was an unbelievably bad liar.
"Oh, nothing to be ashamed of, Dragon Warrior. That is, at least, until a lightning strike turns you into an ash pile."
The two exchanged a little chuckle. It reminded Po how much better life had been at the Jade Palace since Shifu had lightened up some; he did have to admit it wasn't a great idea to keep going out into lightning storms, though - it would be a very un-poetic way to top off.
"It's just that we haven't been doing anything interesting around here lately, so I've been kind of bored."
Shifu's face grew serious once more.
"Bored? The reconstruction of the Jade Palace is ongoing, and you still have to continue your meditations on Chi..."
"Well... yeah." Po looked down at the ground, brushing the floor with his footpaw in muted annoyance. "That's not really what I meant."
The red panda exhaled audibly, but retained an even temperament.
"Ah, I see. You are longing for duties of the 'punching and kicking' variety?"
Po nodded quickly.
"In that regard, I'm afraid I cannot help you... but there is this." he said, revealing a message scroll from behind his back and tossing it nonchalantly at the Dragon Warrior.
Po snagged it from the air with ease, and was predictably ecstatic at the news of a potential task beyond the typical monotony of life at the palace. The Jade Palace Masters hadn't had a real mission for some time now, not since the arrival of Kai. Of course, there was always the usual bandit raid to keep him and his fellow masters occupied, but they were almost always small-time pushovers that caved instantly to the masters' skill in combat; in fact, most of the time they would just give up without a fight. While it was great that the local lowlifes knew just how amazing you were at handing out ass-kickings, this was significantly less fun.
"Yes! Finally!" He pumped the air with his fist. "It's zombies, isn't it? Punching dead guys is the best!" he mused, beginning to unravel the scroll.
"It is not zombies."
"Ah, then it's The Crustacean Menace of Zhejiang!"
"It is not… whatever that is… either."
As he read through the first part of the written message with the usual pleasantries and formalities, the giant panda proceeded to start rambling about increasingly obscure and ridiculous enemy hordes, much to his master's annoyance. But when he had reached the actually relevant part of the letter, Po gazed up again at Shifu, looking altogether deflated.
"That's it?" he asked, internally hoping he had been given the wrong scroll.
"The task, Dragon Warrior, is actually quite simple."
Po gazed off to the side in disappointment.
"That's the problem - it's just a delivery errand."
The red panda master folded his arms behind him, smirking once more. "Is it now? You may wish to finish reading before reaching such conclusions."
Po perked up once more with his usual insatiable curiosity, delving right back in to finish the letter at once. It took only another few moments before he knew what his master had been alluding to.
"Wait - the Dagger of Deng-Wa? But I thought-" Po started, mind racing with purported legends of the mysterious weapon.
"It has been located at last." Shifu answered, cutting him off. "Someone in the city of Xiangyang has put it up for sale to the highest bidder. The Master's Council believes that if these rumors are true, the best place for such a weapon is under our protection, for safekeeping."
Po nodded in agreement, quickly moving the open scroll in his paws to avoid a falling drop of water.
"I want you to find the current holder of the relic, compensate them handsomely, and return with it so we may keep it safe here in the Hall of Warriors." the red panda finished, looking at the destruction around him with a sigh, as he was reminded how much things had changed of late.
"Awesome!" Po exclaimed, disrupting his thoughtfulness. "But… Master Shifu, isn't that thing kind of, you know, dangerous? Isn't that what the evil Deng-Wa warlords used to nearly conquer all of China?"
"Yes, that's the one; the dagger has had many users over the ages. I suspect Master Oogway had a record of the relic's true origin, but as you can see, the Jade Palace Library… no longer exists. The weapon's unique power has not been seen on the battlefield in over two centuries."
"How does the power work?"
"No one really knows. It has the reputation of making its wielder nigh invincible; I suspect it has some kind of Chi enhancement, but it's just a hunch. The only thing most scholars are sure of is that the dagger has a unique design: the blade is unusually curved, like a snake."
"That's like, super cool…" He saw Shifu's brow furrow at him. "…in a frightening, evil-y, bad kind of way, of course!" Po had caught his tongue, chuckling nervously.
"The weapon has never once been used for good, so 'cool' is hardly the best term for it."
Shifu leaped atop of Oogway's staff and looked the bear eye to eye, annotating each word with his features to make sure he was perfectly clear.
"You should take every precaution when transporting such an artifact. In the wrong hands, the weapon would cause complete chaos."
"Yes, yes - okay!" Po exclaimed, raising his paws in understanding. It seemed to persuade Shifu to back down.
"The journey to Xiangyang will be a long one. You may select two of the Five to go with you; the rest will remain here with me to maintain the peace and continue reconstruction efforts."
While the Dragon Warrior had been at least momentarily subdued by his master's proximity and serious demeanor, when hearing the last part he became elated once more.
"Alright! Road trip!" Shifu started to frown again. "I won't let you down Master Shifu! One seriously spooky shiv coming right up!"
And with that, the masters exchanged bows and Po started out of the hall, the storm outside having lightened up enough for him to make it to the barracks unscathed.
"I have every faith in you Dragon Warrior." Shifu said, too quiet for Po to hear, as the panda was already outside.
Gods, I hope he takes Tigress with him. She's the only one I trust to carry that thing.
Po didn't exactly have the best record with Kung Fu artifacts. The red panda glanced over at the particularly unlucky Urn of Whispering Warriors with a pronounced cringe.
Author's Notes:
- This will be, without a doubt, the shortest chapter I will write for a long time; I liked the way this scene ended so I made it a chapter break, but it will be very rare for me to post something in the future where the actual content amounts to less than 2K words
- One of the hardest things for me in writing this is trying to create authentic dialogue for Po - he is completely unpredictable at times, and this makes simulating how he would react to certain situations somewhat difficult
- The only thing that is comparable in relative difficulty is trying to approach the extremely complex psyche of Tigress, but you will get to see my feeble attempt at that next chapter :)
- The Crustacean Menace of Zhejiang... now that is what I should have wrote my fanfic about!
- Please let me know what you thought/what can be improved in a review! ;)