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KFP - Origins - Chap. 8

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Rated "PG" for violence and some frightening situations.

Kung Fu Panda: Origins
Chapter 8: An Unbeatable Foe

Tigress was the first to brave the fragile surface, darting across the ice to aid her master and fellow student. Her feet nearly slid out from under her as she tried to pry her claws under the floe to hoist it up. “Help me!!” she snarled over to the others.

But though the young warriors fought and struggled, the floe wouldn’t budge an inch, as if it had frozen straight back into place. Tigress’s next desperate act was to drop and plant her ear against the ice, listening closely for struggling sounds in the water. “Got ‘em!” she confirmed to her fellow warriors and stood in stance above the ice. Unleashing a roar, she clenched her fist and careened it into the frozen surface.

Augh!!” she snarled again and yanked her sore paw back, ears flattening at the throbbing sensation in her knuckles. The ice looked a lot thinner than it was, and her fist – even with all the feral strength she could once never control behind it – had only left a few small cracks on the frozen surface.

“Where are they??” Viper panicked, looking around through the ice.

“Here!” Monkey frantically called over. “I found them!”

They rushed over to the simian, immediately spotting the red panda under the ice. “Master!” Viper yelped. “Can you see us??”

It was like looking through fogged glass – all they could make out of Shifu was the outline of his head and his paw against the ice. A faint trace of black and white below him implied that Po was there as well. They could hardly make it out as Shifu began to motion feverishly towards the center of the pond. The Five quickly observed that that particular area had more cracks and breaks in the surface, and they quickly remembered that, of course! – The pond had frozen from the shoreline in, so the ice in the center was the thinnest!

The warriors dashed desperately for the median, knowing every second that passed was one more that Po and Shifu were forced to hold their breaths.

“Wait, wait!” Crane called above the clamor. “All at once this time! One! Two!”

Then, with the force deserving of the word “furious”, the five simultaneously thrust their fists – and fangs, in Viper’s case – forcefully into the ice, punching a hole straight through. Tigress kept her arm submerged, reaching in so far her shoulder touched the icy surface. Her paw swung through the water desperately, searching for another to grab it.

The silence was deafening, the wait unbearable. Then, within ten seconds, Tigress abruptly felt the grip of a bristly, bony paw around her fingers. The feline warrior gave a startled yet relieved sound, already pulling them towards the surface as fast as she could. Shifu practically exploded above the surface with a deep gasp, Dragon Warrior in tow. Po couldn’t move faster in clamoring out of the fishing hole and onto semi-solid ground.

Wasting no time, the Five hoisted them up out of the water and rushed them back towards the shore, narrowly avoiding another break-in of ice. Wet clothes were removed and blankets, coats, anything available were used to bundle the two pandas up. They then quickly found shelter off the wet snow and under a ridge of rock, where there was drier stone to sit on. By the time they had gotten a fire started, it was snowing quietly and the rushing adrenaline had seized.

Master and student were hunched over under their blankets, both wordlessly staring at the dancing flames slowly swallowing the kindling into embers. Viper hovered over a cooking kettle and was going back and forth out of the small camp until she came forth with the fruits of her labor – two steaming hot cups of tea.

“Drink,” she urged, handing a cup each to the soaked pandas.

Po looked at the little brew of brownish liquid. “What is it?”

“Pine needle tea. It doesn’t taste very good, but it keeps the heart going.”

How bad could it be? Po nonchalantly pulled his blanket further over his shoulders and took a sip…and his face instantly distorted in disgust. “Peh!!

“Told you it didn’t taste good…” Viper sang. “Finish it if you want to feel your legs again.”

Po did as he was told, cringing at every sip of the nasty liquid. He cast a glance over at Shifu, who drank his share quietly with obviously the same dislike. He couldn’t tell if his master was mad at him or just thinking hard… He seemed strangely placid sitting and sipping his tea…almost like it was an art. The experience had obvious left its mark on him… Even Po knew how close to drowning they could’ve come.

But, it didn’t sway Shifu so easily. The moment everyone had dried off and warmed up, Shifu put them into pairs for sparring. He would not have his students lose valuable training time. “Besides,” he reminded them. “It will keep the blood going.”

At the point that he paired Po and Tigress for a fight, he had them practice the routine from the festival – or at least the parts Po kept messing up in.

“Keep your feet moving,” Shifu reminded the panda. “They won’t give you time to bounce back in combat, so put pain from your mind.”

The panda was determined, that much was certain. He bit his lip, blocking and chopping and pulling out every trick in the book he knew…yet he couldn’t resist that one little thing that got Tigress’s fur frizzed more than anything.

The feline gave a startled yelp when she realized she was being swung around by the tail - AGAIN. “Po!!” She again leaped into a flip, and again she dealt him a doozy of a headbutt.

“Oww!!” Po was free to express his discomfort without an audience around, stumbling back on his haunches. “I-I’m sorry, you’re so easily irritated by it!” he hid an amused smile behind his headache. “It’s funny!”

“Do it again and you’ll have a facial scar to explain to your grandchildren!”

Enough,” came Shifu’s peremptory command. The red panda rubbed his temples. He felt like he hadn’t fully waken up from last night’s sleep. “…That’s enough practice for now, students, we need to move on. Roll up camp.”

Giving Po one more irritated glare, Tigress turned and followed her master’s orders. The panda gave a pout and glanced down at the snow beneath his feet.

Then – quite suddenly – Tigress gave what was probably the most girly squeal she’d ever uttered when she felt something wet and freezing cold hit her in the back of the neck and seep down her back. She spun around.

Po smirked and stuck his tongue out at her like a child, a few bits of snow still clinging to the black fur of his paw.

Oh. No. He. Did. Not.

Her ears folding back, Tigress calmly bent and scooped up a giant heap of snow. Maintaining her placid expression, she strode up to Po and rubbed the icy bounty in his face. She quickly followed this with a sweep kick to his feet, making him fall on his tail. Ha. Payback.

“Nnnph!!” Po rapidly wiped the snow from his face and grinned mischievously, packing it in his paws and flinging it at Tigress. The experienced feline warrior rapidly dodged the projectile like it was one of the swinging clubs, and it was by a splat followed by a low grunt that Po realized he’d just hammered Mantis.

“…Ah…” He shrunk back upon receiving the bug eyes of impending doom. “Honest mistake!” he defended, “And an admirable aim, you have to admit!”

“And why is that?” Mantis narrowed his eyes, just daring him to finish that explanation. “Cause I’m small?”

“No!” Po said quickly, paling slightly. “I wasn’t going to say that!”

“I'm sure..”

The panda pointed to Tigress, stepping back quickly to escape any oncoming attack. “Hey, blame her, she’s the one that got out of the wa--EE!!”

“ACK!!!” Viper coughed as the 280-pound panda landed on top of her. “OW, Po, get off!!

“S-Sorry!!”

“AMBUSCADE THE DRAGON WARRIOR!!!!” Monkey hollered.

And from there, things simply escalated into a full-fledged snowball fight – Po being the center of it. Shifu opened his mouth to stop his students, to tell them that they were again acting like children and that they were wasting time. After a moment, however, he merely gave an exasperated sigh and shook his head. Let them unwind…

Po scooped up another snowball in his paws, narrowly ducking out of the path of Monkey’s. “C’mere, Banana Fur!!” he grinned, flinging his weapon at the primate. Monkey leapt out of the way just in the nick of time. It barely skimmed the very tip of his ear…

…Before finding its target smack in Shifu’s face.

There was one collected gasp as all six students stopped dead in their tracks and looked over at their master, who hadn’t done much more than blinked at the impact. He pursed his lips in irritation, but didn’t say anything. His ear gave a slight twitch, shaking off a bit of snow. Shifu then slowly turned his head and glared over at his newest student out from under his snow-crested eyebrows and ears.

“…Oooh…” was all Po could say as his ears went back.

Shifu only continued to glower at him as he had when the Legendary Urn of Whispering Warriors had crashed to the floor and shattered into pieces. Even as he stood and nonchalantly walked away, he never uttered a word.

Po seemed to sink into the snow as the Furious Five turned to look at him with stares of shock.

The panda’s mouth hung open. “Uhhhh… Acciden—!”

He was quickly interrupted by the snowball that came flying out of Shifu’s paw like a season-winning fastball from Babe Ruth, smacked Po dead-on in the schnoz, and sent him crashing to his back on the snow.

Leave it to Shifu to take something as innocent as a snowball and transform it into a combat-worthy weapon.

From the ground, Po made a sound that bordered somewhere between a whimper and a groan. And without another word, Shifu put his arms behind his back in his usual, masterly way before turning for the camp.

His other five students watched him leave. And although they couldn’t tell for sure, they could’ve sworn that they had seen their master exact a triumphant smirk from his lips as he turned away.

But what had been the cheer and relief of the crisp winter morning had become a blinding blizzard by the evening. The blistering winds made travel difficult, and consolidation had to be made for a couple of the party members’ safety. Mantis was riding on Monkey as usual, but the small insect had burrowed himself in between his friend’s windbreaker and the fur on the back of his neck, trying to keep as warm as possible. Viper was in a similar position, settled in her coils in Tigress’s hood.

Shifu led the group across the relentless path, using Oogway’s staff to try and cut a trail for all of them. He glanced over his shoulder every few minutes and counted, just to make sure all of his students were there. A debate raged in his mind on whether or not they should try and find shelter or move on to make up for lost time. He had two cold-blooded students that could only stand the frozen conditions for so long – they needed warmth and fast. Yet, here in the midst of a blizzard, shelter couldn’t be found unless it was a few inches in front of you. They could’ve been a stone’s throw away from a safe, warm village or in the middle of nowhere, Shifu could only guess which. His old leg injury, courtesy of Tai Lung’s angry paw, had been agitated by the icy water that morning and had hindered the old master’s strength all day. Still…he had to endure and lead his students on until they found shelter. There, Mantis and Viper could rest and Crane’s injured wing could be spared of the frigid winds.

After another half-hour of trekking through the snow, Shifu stopped. This was becoming madness. Izotakeshi could be doing anything or killing anyone with the sword by now… But if they didn’t stop soon, they risked their very lives to the storm. And if there was one thing he’d learned in the past year, it was the realization of how invaluable his students had become to him. If anything happened to a single one of them…

“Po, Tigress, Monkey!” he called back, causing the three mammals to obediently hurry over. “Start digging,”

“Huh?”

“We need shelter now, Po, start digging!” the Grandmaster repeated and quickly started working alongside his students to dig out a refuge. Eight frozen paws later, they had created a makeshift snow cave.

The entrance tunnel took a slight dip down to begin with, then it came up again to make somewhat of a shield against any wind that tried to blow in. The four warriors then dug out a hole just large enough for all seven of them to fit into. Shifu dug out a ledge on the wall to hold the humble lantern they had brought along.

The lot of them had to huddle together to retain collective warmth – it was their only hope to survive the night. Shifu curled up into the tightest ball he could, laying his ears back and bringing his tail around to cover his nose. He wasn’t feeling like himself at all… Something about this whole ordeal was somewhat…confusing and yet, all he could think about at that moment was getting warm again.

While the snowstorm raged outside, the old master and his students hoped that clear skies would be waiting for them in the morning and finally, slowly fell into a restless sleep.

TBC...
Well, I wanted to finish this chapter before I started classes......but oh-well. ^^; I hope and pray this doesn't read as rushed as it felt. Finished it in time to go celebrate my mom's birthday today. :D

And if anyone makes any dumb or immature comments about them all sleeping in the same place at the end of the chapter, I will tai-bo you SO quickly. :sarcasm: When you're out in freezing conditions like that and you want to live to see another day, your only hope for warmth is each other.

And the same goes for taking their clothes off after pulling them from the ice. When someone falls through the ice like that, wet clothes HAVE to be taken off as soon and fast as possible, otherwise their chest can practically freeze from the wet and cold and they could die.

Previous chapter: [link]
Next chapter: [link]

Izotakeshi (c) :icondolphinmoana:

All other characters in this chapter belong to Dreamworks Animation
© 2009 - 2024 FaithFirefly
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TC-96's avatar
SNOWBALL FIGHT!!