The Ticking Contingent: The Countdown vo.2

From master to master

When the five had left the Jade Palace, Po had waited for a bit, double checked his schedule with Mrs. Jun, and then gone on a long walk to visit master Shifu. He lived in the backwoods by the Jade palace now, enjoying the serenity that came with relaxing and listening to nothing but trees rustle in the wind. He had initially been pretty bored, as was expected of a long retiring master. But he had gotten the hang of chi, was spending more time with his flute, and even had long tea talks with tigress and taught some herbalism classes. So he was doing okay.

Po approach's the small house and heard Shifu playing the flute. The old master finished a song, but surprisingly ignored Po and glanced up at the sky with a sigh. Po got closer and soon stepped on a branch on the ground, startling Shifu out of his thoughts.

"Oh Po! I beg your pardon I didn't see you there!" the old master exclaimed.

"That's okay," Po promised. "You good? You looked a little out of it."

"Oh, no. I'm fine. I was just thinking. That's all. What brings you over here."

"I wanted to ask a question. Since you've done so much training and I know I was kind of a pain when you trained me...." 

Shifu eyed him but then relented and said, "Why don't we talk inside?" he suggested. He led Po inside of the small house where the panda could see that he had already prepared a pot of tea for himself whenever he came inside. The former grandmaster gesture for Po to sit down and he poured the two of them a steaming cup of tea. "What seems to be troubling you?" he asked. 

"So...we have a new trainee in the Jade Palace," Po began, but Shifu interrupted him and said that Tigress had already mentioned this to him, so he was aware of Zhen's history and less than appealing attitude. 

"Let me guess," he said. "You want my advice on how to handle her?" 

"Yeah," Po admitted. "I mean, I've already talked to dad and I know that everyone is different! I guess I just need ideas on how to get her to respect me. I feel like I've tried everything except yelling and I don't think that's gonna' get me anywhere." 

"You can't force someone to respect you," Shifu told him simply. "Respect has to be earned through consistency and through example. Not everyone is going to want to follow that example, however hard you try...." He grew silent for a moment before redirecting his mind back to the conversation. "What you do have to realize is that you cannot force Zhen to do anything. I couldn't force you to be exactly like the Five since you have a different sense of discipline. You're motivated by different things. What you must focus on is what she is already capable of doing, what she loves, what moves her. Then you can work that to your advantage in training. That is the advice I offer you." 

Po frowned, but sighed and said he'd think it over. It wasn't the most helpful advice, but then again it was Shifu, and Shifu learned all the cryptic stuff from Oogway. "While I'm here, since I'd hate to dine and dash," he added, hoping to switch subjects. "How have you been?"

"Perfectly fine. Tigress and Lei-Lei come over to visit and I'll get a house call from Viper and Crane every so often. Haven't seen Mantis or Monkey in a while, but maybe eventually they'll remember to stop by. I heard you're a stricter master than me. I'm impressed." 

"I'm not strict. I just don't believe in having too many days away from training unless it's necessary." 

Shifu chuckled knowingly. "I see that lesson is well ingrained in you head," he noted. 

Po scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Kinda' hard to forget getting my butt kicked by amateur bandits," he admitted. 

The two talked for a while and shared the rest of the tea that Shifu had prepared before Po bade him farewell and headed back to the Jade Palace, promising to visit him later when he was able to. He tried to think over the advice that Shifu had given him, but it was kind of hard to since Po had never been the cryptic riddle guy. It had pretty much been exactly what his dad had said. 

And I don't know much about Zhen since she isn't the sharing type, he thought to himself on the walk back. I know her parents are dead and she loves the thieving clan like family...I guess I could talk to her about that. But what would I even say to her?! I could use them as an example, but she sees them all the time and she hasn't changed much since she got here. I don't want to say old habits die hard since Monkey used to be the prankster kind of guy too, but for someone so interested in learning kung fu, she loves to actively avoid it like the plague!

Po suddenly stopped in his thoughts and in turn stopped walking. He thought over the last thought he had, thought back to Zhen and her fighting style. Then slapped a paw to his head. 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!