Love of the Dragon Warrior

Kung Fu Kickoff, part 1

The masters and the girls soon settled on a different topic of conversation and began discussing it in length for the rest of the meal. Once dinner had finally ended, Madame Zhou remarked that she was off to bed and headed out and over to the barracks. Tigress did the same as she wanted to do some meditation, considering that the training hall would soon become occupied. Po asked how Neikan was from their talk yesterday, curious to know if Tigress would mention the bet she and Neikan underwent. However, Tigress simply said that it was nice and that she and Neikan planned to keep talking once Neikan's briefing sessions finished up at the end of the week. Viper got up to do the dishes with Crane quickly offering to help while Monkey decided to tell one of his funny stories. Po waited for a little bit to hear a story or two before getting up from the table and heading over to the training hall with the girls who wanted to learn kung fu. There was definitely an excitable line behind him as they made their way over, but thankfully Master Leopard was pretty good at keeping control of things and helped the girls to keep themselves from screeching as they made their way over to the training hall. When they finally got there, Po stopped and turned to them.

"So....Ordai mentioned wanting to go first...." he offered. "And Destiny second....does anyone else have a particular order they want to go in?"

"Can I go next?" Lu-Shi and Song asked at the same time, glancing at each other as they did so.

"I've never done kung fu, so maybe I should go last," Jai-Rong suggested. 

"Well...that depends," Tai Lin admitted. "What are we doing?"

"I say the Hearts of Yin and Yang," Master Leopard piped up with a smile. "It can let Po practice more at his speed and let the rest of us have a turn trying them out." 

"Um...I'd have to ask Shifu," Po protested quickly. "I hardly know how those things work!" 

"I remember how to pull them apart and put them back together. I can go last and help to put everything away. And if Shifu asks, I put you up to it." 

"Oh....um, sure okay," Po agreed. Secretly he was very excited to keep practicing with the weapons, but he also knew that Shifu was very picky about people touching things without permission, and he was nervous about the grandmaster discovering amateurs using his weapons and punishing Po severely. 

"Alright then," Master Leopard said, interrupting the panda out of his thoughts. "So Ordai can go first, and then Destiny. How about then Lu-Shi goes and then Song? And then Tai Lin and Jai-Rong? And I'll go last." 

"Sounds like a plan to me!" Lu-Shi exclaimed. "I get to warm up!" She then proceeded to head over to the far side of the outdoor arena and began to practice some of her stances, calling out loudly to ask if anyone wanted to practice with her. Song obliged her with an amused smirk on her face and Po and Ordai headed into the training hall. Master Leopard followed after them to remove the extensions from the weapons in order to give the two much needed practice with the bases, after which she left them alone. 

"Okay," Po said, holding the weapons carefully in his paws. "So...which one do you want to practice with?" 

"I like the fan," Ordai said immediately, taking the dark blue fan from him. She stumbled a little, not aware of additional weight it had, but she soon had it steady in her paws. "I don't know any kung fu stances I'm afraid," she admitted. 

"I'll show you." 

Po got into a basic fighting stance and watched as Ordai tried to copy him. She was a little unsteady on her feet, but she was also very new to kung fu, so that made sense. 

"You have to bend your knees a little," Po told her, noticing that she was a bit stiff. "If you're too stiff, you'll be easier to knock over." 

"But I thought kung fu was about being sturdy," Ordai said with a confused frown. "I saw the way you and your friends kick each other."