The Curious Tale Of Momoda

Ourselves

Autumn, winter, spring, and summer passed over the world twice. Seasons brought changes to the Valley of Peace. The dark blue skies lawned the heavens as the sun slowly rose above the eastern hemisphere. The bird looked across the sea of trees and bamboo. He had been on the trail for a while, but the excitement boiled up in him and he took to the air. 

That and his feet were getting tired. 

He soared over the green-filled basin where something among the sea of trees caught his eyes. "Is that... is that, Monkey?" He said. "Monkey!"

The figure waved his hand. "Hey! Crane!" shouted the simian. Monkey clambered down in one bound as the bird swooped to a landing. They bowed out of formality and custom. "Aw, come in here, you."

"Ack!" Crane yelped but laughed as he and Monkey hugged each other. "It's good to see you, Monkey. How have you been?" 

"Great! Great, never thought I would be the type to do kwoon work. But my students seem to learn something from me," Monkey replied; kwoon means Training Hall.

"What do you mean?"

"It's hard being a teacher."

"Yeah, I know. Oogway and Shifu made it seem so easy."

"Ha! Well, Oogway did anyway. Shifu looked like he would pop a blood vessel any time Po would mess up."

"But what's wrong with being a teacher?" Crane asked as they walked towards their destination. 

The simian warrior huffed, "Other than people don't take me seriously? You should see me train them. I'm a whole different person when I'm training these guys." 

Crane smiled, "You often have to be in order to get them to learn."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm hard on my students. They're like me in every way, almost."

"That bad, huh?"

"Hey!"  

"I'm kidding," Laughed the bird. They slowed their pace a bit. 

"Sooo," Monkey smirked. "How's the miss?" 

"I knew you were gonna ask about that," Crane sighed with a smile. 

"Come on, man. It's been two years and you got married a year ago. How has married life been? You know, asking for a friend," Monkey said with a cheesy smile. 

Crane rolled his eyes. "It's been nice. And with the baby on the way-"

"A baby!?" 

"Oh... I didn't mention that in my letters?" 

"No! It's bad enough that you didn't invite us to the wedding!" 

"I told you. Min and I didn't want that many people. Besides, trying to get everyone to meet up is like trying to grab hay in a windstorm."

"Alright, alright, I'll give you that," Monkey sighed. "Still. But that's great! Have you thought of a name yet?"

"Not yet. We're taking things one step at a time right now," Crane smiled. 

"Hm, I know that," Monkey sighed. They took another step. The bamboo stalks separated to the familiar cozy village resting at the foot of the high mountain that pierced the clouds. Wide smiles came to the warriors' faces. Crane felt his feathers bristle a bit as his heart rested comfortably somewhere in the bottom of his ribs. His feet began to ache more. Probably because they knew the same thing Monkey knew. 

"We're home," Crane smiled. Monkey sniffed the air hoping to smell something deeply familiar. "Hope Mr. Ping's open by now. It's still early."

"Man, I miss Po's and Mr. Ping's cooking. I can't wait to get some food."