The Ticking Contingent: The Countdown vo.2

Balancing Act

......Four years later......

Po woke up to the sound of the gong ringing loudly throughout the entire valley and he sat up from floor with an exhausted sigh. His neck hurt from falling asleep in a weird position. The Dragon Warrior cracked out the knots and stood up to look around the room and stretch out his arms. He hadn't meant to sleep past the gong, though he was sure the Five wouldn't mind. They had made mention that they had a nice time sleeping in a little later than usual, though not by much since Po's body was acclimated to the early wake up time in the years he had been at the Jade Palace. Today would definitely be a later training day. He didn't mind it though. He needed a second to wake up.

"Po?" came Tigress voice from the Sacred Hall of Warriors.

Po smiled a little to himself. Of course Tigress would be awake to check up on him. She woke up before everyone else. As per usual.

"Coming!" Po called out with a yawn. He opened the door to his room, originally Shifu's before his recent retirement, and spotted the master lingering around the front waiting for him.

"You look tired," Tigress observed, before Po could even greet her.

"What do you mean?" Po started to protest, but immediately yawned.

"I knew it. Why are you so wiped out?"

Po opened his mouth, yawned again, and then quickly said, "I was...up all night."

"Why on earth were you up all night?"

"Oh. Uh, well, I wanted to...learn new teacher chi things so I stayed up studying cool kung Fu techniques and older lessons."

Tigress eyed him suspiciously.

"Okay. Fine. I was up re-enacting the epic battle of Golden Onyx Valley and the ten thousand bandits of the Dark Chasms."

"That sounds more realistic."

Po chuckled sheepishly and quickly changed the subject by remarking that he was hungry and could use some breakfast. Tigress smirked at him in amusement, but agreed and followed after him down the steps of the Sacred Hall of Warriors and over to the kitchen. Nobody was up yet, so it just left the two warriors in the kitchen to talk while Po made breakfast. The two soon sat down and ate and were soon joined by the Furious Five, having just woken up and being more than willing to chat for a while. Once breakfast and conversation was done, Po and the Five did some brief warmups in the training hall and some meditative training before Po made his way down to the Valley of Peace to help train some of the villagers some new chi moves. The five had started picking up on these new moves relatively quickly, especially Tigress who already had a few under her belt well before Kai showed up. (Shifu remarked that certain tiger style moves required high levels of concentration and chi, and considering Tigress' quick learning and practice, learning these things so early wasn't too surprising). However, the villagers were still learning basic kung fu alongside the chi lessons, so it took a little longer to get the hang of these moves.

Today, Po's training class involved his dad (as always), his dad (on a slow restaurant day that he could easily take an hour or two off for), two of the local kids, a baker, Mr. Mulan who ran the apple stand, and Big Fun who had been dating Mei Mei since they settled into the Valley of Peace. They were having their training class by one of the rivers since Mr. Ping had trouble concentrating when there were too many potential customers around him in the more busy areas.

"Okay, so I think you've all done well with the basics I've shown you," Po told his group of students once they had all lined up in their meeting spot. "It's time I show you some new stuff! Remember, you most likely won't get it on the first go. You'll get used to it as you work it into your own style. And for anyone who does get it on the first or second go...be nice to everyone who's still working on it."