Storm Clouds

°•| Echos of the Past |•°

   "Aaaoo... whoohoo... EEEee... hee-hee... I thought you said acupuncture would make me feel better." Po winced from his place on the floor of the barracks as Mantis popped up from behind him, holding a handful of needles in his claw and sticks Po again.

   "Trust me, it will. It's just not easy finding the right nerve points under all this–"

   "Fat?"

   "Fur, I was gonna say fur."

   "Sure you were." Po replied dubiously while Mantis once again moved behind him in search of the correct nerve.

   "Who am I to judge a warrior based on his size? I mean-look at me." Mantis muttered as Po attempts to look for Mantis on the opposite shoulder.

   "I'm over here." Mantis stated while jabbing another needle into Po.

   "Ow!"

   "Maybe you should take a look at this again," Viper suggested softly while holding up a diagram of acupuncture meridians onto which someone has overlaid a drawing of a panda, "And try to be quiet, Jia just managed to get Lei settled into bed, we don't want to wake him up."

   "Oh! Okay." Mantis muttered while quickly crawling down to look at the diagram and grab more acupuncture needles.

   Monkey wss meditating in his room, and Crane was doing calligraphy in his when Po's yelp distracts them and causes Crane to smear the ink onto the floor and Monkey to plug his ears to stifle the noise.

   "Ow! Don't ... Stop it, stop-Yow!" Po said through a laugh before wincing once more, "I know Master Shifu's trying to inspire me and all, but if I didn't know any better, I'd say he was trying to get rid of me."

   Po chuckled while Viper and Mantis shared a look before smiling awkwardly, causing Po to stop.

   "I know he can seem kind of heartless–" Mantis began as he jabbed another needle in Po, causing him to flinch, "But, ya know, he wasn't always like that."

   "According to legend, there was once a time when Master Shifu actually used to smile." Viper added quietly.

   "No." Po stated in disbelief.

   "Yes." Mantis confirmed.

   "But that was before..." Viper continued while hesitantly looking around.

   "Before what?" Po asked as he leaned in closer, enthralled.

   "Before Tai Lung." Tigress stated while entering the room after slamming the sliding doors open.

   Crane's shadow is silhouetted on the wall from his room as he warns, "Uh yeah, we're not really supposed to talk about him, especially with Lei so close by. I don't think Jia-"

   "If he's going to stay here, he should know. And Lei is fast asleep." Tigress states, cutting Crane off.

   "Guys, guys. I know about Tai Lung. He was a student," Po began, trying to ease the tension only to fall victim to Tigress' intense gaze, "-the first ever to master the thousand... scrolls of... kung fu... and...then he turned bad... and now he's in jail." Po trails off as Tigress approaches him while shaking her head at the panda's ignorance.

   "He wasn't just a student. Shifu found him as a cub. And he raised him as a son. And when the boy showed talent in Kung Fu, Shifu trained him. He believed in him. He told him he was destined for greatness."

   Shifu's gaze flickered to the entrance of the Jade Palace as he approached cautiously. He soon found a baby snow leopard cub nestled on the steps, his innocent shut as he whimpered softly.