The 2 Dragon Warriors || {Human! Crane x Human! Caracal Oc}

Illusion of Control

In the Training Hall, Shifu is seen sitting in meditation, surrounded by numerous lit candles that make an orange glow in the dark training hall. Shifu's inner turmoil caused him to fidget incessantly, and he muttered to himself, "Inner peace... inner peace... i-in... in-in...inner peace."

A very faint flapping sound in the distance does not help matters. It makes his ear twitch a lot for a few seconds before getting fed up; he eventually turns around with his eyes still closed.

"Would whoever is making that flapping sound quiet down!" He snaps at the unknown person To which works as he hears nothing. Just, Silence. Satisfied that the noise is dealt with Shifu resumes his meditation, placing his hands on hips crossed knees as he tries to concentrate. "Inner..." he mumbles to himself as he gets back to meditation.

"WUMP!!" A goose squeak is heard as a person drops in from open ceiling as they fell to the floor causing dust to puff up from the landing along with black feathers. Scowling and fed up, Shifu gets up onto his legs and turns around to see who it is, but his scowl changes into a smile when he sees who it is. It was Zeng, his messenger he sent out ealier who looks like he went through a tornado with his hair all out of hair braid, his hat missing, his clothes all rumpled with scratches and dust cling to the material as he breathes heavy from pushing himself to the limits to fly as he wiped the dried blood from his mouth.

"Oh, Zeng." Shifu sighed in relief as Zeng shakily stood up, huffing and puffing as he pushed his hair from his face. "Excellent. I could use some good news right now." Shifu comments with a smile on his face at the familiar messenger goose.

To which Zeng stares at the master on the stage in front of him, feeling the incoming dread as he opens his mouth to say but hesitates. He has anything but good news, it was horrible and news that he was so lucky to escape with his life.

"Uhhh..." Zeng utters, his voice hoarse from dehydration unsure how to say of the bad news.

💥————💥

Minutes later, Shifu rushes up Peach Tree Hill in a hurry, desperation clinging to his bones to push faster as he scales up the hill to find the grand master. Oogway, standing under the tree like always, slowly performing Tai Chi movements all very fluid and smooth despite his old age as blossom petals float elegantly from the branches around him. "Master! Master!" Shifu panicky yells as he scrambles to run up to his master urgently, where he forgot about his cane to help him walk.

"Hmmm?" Oogway hums curiously as he slowly stops performing and turns around curious as to why his student is here at this time of the night.

Shifu, out of breath bracing his hands on his knees a bit fatigued says out between breaths, "I have... it's... it's very bad news." Wiping the sweat off his forehead as he looked up at his old master with wide eyes to se his master smiling thinking his student was having another rough time training the Dragon Warriors. "Ah, Shifu. There is just news. There is no good or bad." Oogway calmly says in a soothing tone to his anxious student as he holds his staff in his wrinkled hands.

Only to see Shifu staring at him, terrified, with wide eyes as his hands shook as he moved them as he spoke. "Master, your vision...your vision was right! Tai Lung has broken out of prison! He's on his way!" Shifu exclaimed, panicked pointing off to the lands where miles away, his adopted son was traveling to get there. Oogway paused as he took in the information, shocked at even himself that the vision he saw himself came true, as his hooded eyes widened on his wrinkled face. "That is bad news..." he said, holding a long scaly finger to his mouth in thought before looking back at his small student. "If, you do not believe that the Dragon Warriors can stop him," Oogway concludes, which made Shifu enraged at the mention of the duo.

"The caracal and panda? Master, those two are not the Dragon Warriors. They wasn't even supposed to be two, only one. They aren't meant to be here... it was an accident!" Shifu growled, outraged at the prospect of one or hell even both of the siblings being the ones to defeat Tai Lung, his only son.

"There are no accidents." Oogway reminded him with a soothing smile on his face as he leans down with his long neck at his student.

To which Shifu sighs tiredly at his masters words he always spoke of to him, like it was a rule of law, "Yes, I know. You've said that already. Twice." He says this, turning away from his master slightly. Oogway chuckles lightly. "Well, that was no accident either," he says. Shifu looks more defeated and holds up three fingers. "Thrice." He said, done with his master slightly.

Oogway looked at Shifu sympathetically seeing his fears and thoughts of the matter in hand all ready. "My old friend, the panda, and caracal will never fulfill their destinies, nor you yours, until you let go of the illusion of control." He gently explains as he uses his staff to walk a bit closer to Shifu who perks up, skeptical and confused. "Illusion?" Shifu echoed till not turning around.

The old tortoise nodded his head at the comment. "Yes. Look at this tree, Shifu." Oogway urges as he looked up at the tree's branches, where blossom petals continued to fall as Shifu looks up-at the tree as well not seeing what he was going to use it in a metaphor he knows is coming up. "I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time," Oogway said as he admired the pink hue of the leaves.

"But there are things we can control!" Shifu states that before he kicks the tree, a hundred peaches fall to the ground. Oogway gazes at him in silence, a bit annoyed at Shifu's stubbornness. "I can control when the fruits will fall!" he said before a peach fell on his head. He growled as Oogway chuckled.

"And I can control..." Shifu tosses a peach in the air, leaps up, and splits it with a chop, freeing the seed. "... where to plant the seed... hi-yah!" Shifu punches the ground, creating a small hole.  The seed fell into his paw. "That is no illusion, Master!" He stated that before he tossed the seed into the hole,

"Ah, yes." Oogway hummed as he stepped forward, and Shifu began pacing in frustration. "But no matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange... and while one can be sweet or sour you will get a peach or two." He said as Shifu stopped pacing and turned to Oogway.

"But two peaches cannot defeat Tai Lung!" Shifu shouts, frustrated.

"Maybe it can," Oogway says as he kneels to the ground. "If you are willing to guide it, to nurture it, to believe in it," Oogway covers the seed with dirt as he looks at Shifu with pride.

With furrowed eyebrows, Shifu stepped towards Oogway. "But how? How? I need your help, Master," he pleaded. Oogway looked at him with sad-looking eyes. "No, you just need to believe," he said before leaning in towards his friend. "Promise me, Shifu. Promise me you will believe." He pleaded to his oldest remaining student.

Shifu hesitates but manages to say, "I... I will try."

Hearing his words, Oogway smiles in relief. "Hmm. Good," he says softly before slowly getting up. Oogway glances up at the starry night sky; the petals begin rapidly falling from the tree as the wind picks up around them.

"My time has come," Oogway whispers in a soft, tired voice before he turned back to a confused-looking Shifu.

"You must continue your journey without me," he says as he hands Shifu his staff. Shifu confusedly holds the staff for his master, looking at the staff and his master repeatedly. "What... what, wait... what are you?" he stutters.

Oogway slowly begins walking to the cliff's edge. Shifu realizes what he's doing and runs after him.

"Master! You can't leave me!" he yells out, his voice breaking in sorrow as the petals surround Oogway. He stops at the cliff's edge and turns back to Shifu.

"You must... believe," Oogway uttered as he closed his eyes, in peace with his death.

Shifu eyes water as he looks at his father figure dying in front of him. "Master!" He cried out in sorrow. Peach blossoms engulf Oogway as he begins glowing in a lovely blue light. As the winds settle, Shifu stands at the edge of the cliff, clutching Oogway's staff, staring after the mass of petals with tear-filled eyes as the petals float up into the sky.

Oogway was gone.

Forever.