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KFP - Origins - Chap. 2

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Rated "PG" for violence and some frightening situations.

Kung Fu Panda: Origins
Chapter 2: Ready or Not

“When I said five minutes,” Shifu droned, “I meant five, not fifteen.”

Po bit his lip from where he stood on one foot with his bowl of rice on top of his head. Standing on one foot wouldn’t have been bad in itself, but Shifu had ordered him to do so while holding an eagle claw stance. The stance required bending forward with your torso nearly parallel to the ground while almost crouching to the said dirt on one foot and the other folded across your knee. To complete it, the arms were held out to the side in a mimic of eagle’s wings and the hands were tensed in a clawed position.

It was a terrible stance to be forced to hold…as Po now had to do for the extra ten minutes he had absentmindedly choked his leash with. The panda’s ankle wobbled and he bit his tongue determinedly, almost cross-eyed as he tried to see the bowl on his head.

“You’re thinking about it too hard,” Shifu frowned. “Don’t think about the food.”

Po’s arms wobbled a bit. “But th-that’s what you’ve always told me to do!”

“You won’t always have a snack around to look forward to the next time you’re fighting off bandits. What then?”

Po pouted. “I could fight without food if I had to.”

“Hmm…”

“I could!”

“The day you prove yourself, Panda, will be the day that you defeat me in a match…without the incentive of food,” Shifu announced with a simper.

Po waved his arms, almost losing his balance. He grinned to himself once he steadied himself again. “So what’d you wanna talk to me about?”

“Ah… Perhaps you want to finish what you’re doing first.”

“Meh, try me.”

Shifu sighed to himself. Well, he asked for it… “How much do you know about your family, Po?”

“Not much…” the panda answered nonchalantly. “It’s been me and my dad as far back as I can remember.”

“Your dad… Meaning Mr. Ping…” The old master shook his head. “…Don’t you have any idea who you are?”

“Course I do,” Po was obliged to inform him. “Ping Po, Dragon Warrior, the first panda to ever be schooled at the Jade Palace.”

“No, Po. You’re not the first.”

Shifu’s only response to this was a sudden blur of black and white that crashed back onto the ground in a flurry of fur. The master calmly caught the bowl of rice in his hand, not a single grain out of place.

Po lifted his head from the ground. “Wait, what?

“You are not the first panda to have trained here.”

…Explanation, please?? Po’s wide-eyed stare read.

Shifu came straight out with it. “Your father trained under Master Oogway. I knew him personally.”

“My father?” The panda’s brow arched. “Master Shifu, my father has never remotely touched kung fu, my whole life he’s never even…”

He paused upon noticing the disparaging, glazed-over look in his master’s eyes that he’d seen before. It only took Po a few moments to piece things together.

Oh…

…Oh, man…

…Oh, snap.

Not a goose. Not a goose.

Aah, CRUD.

“You didn’t really think that you were Ping’s actual son, did you?”

Shifu’s question barely drew the young Dragon Warrior out of his daze. “Wha…I-I mean, yeah I knew that he couldn’t have actually…I mean… You knew him??”

“Chang was a devoted warrior. Also a rather stubborn one… ” The master rolled his eyes, his tone dripping with sarcasm on his next statement. “He and his brother were a regular comedic duo…”

“B-Brother?” Po stuttered. Now he had an uncle in the picture, too?

“Kasem,” Shifu replied. “He and Chang were the some of the most talented and yet most immature students I’ve ever trained. They were constantly at each other’s throats and pulling prank after prank. I don’t know how they managed to train day in and day out.”

Po’s jade green eyes were still wide from the general shock of it all. “Well…why’d I end up with a goose?”

Shifu shook his head, a twinge of sadness in his voice. “…Sometimes our paths are altered at the expense of ourselves, and of others.”

Po had a feeling he wasn’t going to like this. “…Meaning?”

His master didn’t answer him at first. “…Po, have you ever heard of the Ju-long Alliance?”

The panda instantly and subconsciously slipped into fanboy mode. “Aw, yeah! The Battalion of 1,000 Ages! They’re the guys with totally awesome weapon tricks and—”

“First off, let’s get one thing straight, Dragon Warrior,” Shifu interrupted. His ears were folded back against his head, an indication to Po that he had struck a nerve. “The Ju-long Alliance is in no way, shape, or form, ‘awesome’. They are thieves and murderers that have terrified and taken the lives of hundreds, man, woman, and child alike!!” he barked.

Forget touched, that nerve was tweaked.

“Izotakeshi is their leader. He’s the one that killed your parents. They died trying to protect you from the Alliance.”

Po was nothing short of thunderstruck.

“Now you tell me how ‘awesome’ you think they are now,” Shifu challenged.

That hurt. That really hurt. “I… I-I’m sorry, Master…”

Shifu kept his glare ever so slightly before it faded off. “…Never had I seen two people more in love with each other than your mother and father, Po. Lady Fei was more than just Chang’s mate… She was the love of his life.”

Fei… ‘Flying’.

“…What…” Po could hardly get a word out, “…wh-what was Lady Fei…like…?”

“She was beautiful… Always wore a Persian lilac behind her ear.” Shifu gave a small smile. “You do have her eyes, I see it now. Chang was right.”

Po bit his lower lip slightly. How do you respond to a comment like that? He didn’t know a thing about his mother’s eyes… Apparently, she had green eyes too?

“Chang and Kasem left the Jade Palace that night as if it were any other day… I don’t know what happened between then and the report of the aftermath… All I know is that your parents fought to the end for you, Po… They gave their very lives for the greatest gift they deemed themselves to ever have been granted… And here you are.”

And Po was rendered wordless. He stared down at his feet – or what would’ve been his feet was it not for his trademark paunch. For some reason, he suddenly felt dirty. Not dirty as in wretched, but dirty as in…grimy.

“Anyway…” Shifu shook his head with a twinge of sadness about him. “That’s all I really wanted you to know…  You’ll be named a man very soon, Po, and Mr. Ping and I have agreed that you have every right to know about where you came from.”

“…Th-Thank…you…Master…” Po gave a bit of a limp salute. I think?

“Go on and watch the rest of the fireworks,” Shifu dismissed him. “I’ll see you and the others by the gate in a few moments.”

After his master left, Po looked up at those bursts of light in the sky. Throughout that fateful conversation, they had illuminated the dark street in flashes of every color imaginable.

Yes, enjoy the fireworks, little orphan Po.

He subconsciously picked up a helping of rice in his chopsticks and had started to bring it to his mouth…then stopped. He frowned and forked the utensils back into the bowl.

Now that he thought about it…his appetite was shot.

TBC…
‘Ello!! :) Just so ya’ll know, it may be a while before Chapter 3 comes around… I have finals next week. *slams head repeatedly against brick wall* But Chapter 3 will be when the action really takes off, so stick around! :D

BTW, I really appreciate it to whoever had written a review so far! :love:

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

Benjirou, Taplo, Lin Lin, Li-hua, Chang, Izotakeshi, and Fei all belong to me! :D All other characters belong to Dreamworks Animation.
story (c) DolphinMoana
© 2009 - 2024 FaithFirefly
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PrinzeBurnzo's avatar
Awww poor Po!! Shifu really tells it to him straight! Lol! I love this! Can't wait for next chapter!!