Rest in the Arms of a Warrior

IV. The Edge of Exhaustion

It was early in the morning. The sun had not yet risen, allowing Po to finally wake up with no need to squeeze his eyes shut. 

Last night was rough. He hit and slammed the obstacles in the training hall with all his fury. It looked like a mess and upon returning to the barracks, he had found that the Five had already eaten and were already sleeping since probably an hour before Po had decided to go sleep.

Po quickly rose up and stretched, his muscles creaking yet again. He quickly left his room and went for a quick breakfast at the kitchen. 

After eating he quickly left the bowl and utensils at the counter, quickly cleaning it before leaving for the training hall, well, what was left of it anyway.

The dragon warrior ran along the rocky path to the courtyard, through the courtyard and into the hall.

*What can I start with today?* Po thought. He scanned around the hall to look for objects that will do for the morning. He had to choose between spike clubs, wooden clubs, bamboo staffs, maces, the panda door stop, and mannequins. 

*That will do!* Po gladly thought as he went for the abandoned mannequins that had been standing in a corner, collecting dust over who knows how long. The panda touched the head of one of them, covering his fingers with dust. Po scraped the dust off his pants and decided to bring them out to the courtyard. That way he can clean it more properly and at the same time train more properly.

The sun had still not risen, leaving the courtyard in an ambient dark purple tone.

Po placed the mannequins into position and quickly blew on them to get rid of most of the dust. And so he grabbed the mace he had placed on the ground and went into a defensive position.

The dragon warrior closed his eyes and took deep breaths. "1."

"2" He said as he tightened the hold of the mace.

"3!" He finished as he ran for the mannequins, performing a somersault above one of them while striking it mid-air with the mace, shattering it into pieces. "That's one!" Po said as he went for the next one.

"That's two!" He said as he quickly spun around and used the momentum to obliterate the next mannequin.

"And, that's three!" Po said as he performed a direct continuation of the latest move and shattered another mannequin with a side-hit from the mace.

Then, a figure emerged through the gates to the courtyard, a figure with black training trousers, yellow qipao with red decorations, black stripes, orange fur and amber eyes. 

"Po!" she yelled, causing the panda to stay put, looking back to see Tigress standing on the gravel, glaring at him.

"What?" Po asked, looking confused.

"Stop. No more." She said as she walked toward the panda. She looked quite furious. Tigress walked up and poked Po's abdomen. "You didn't listen to Monkey or your fathers."

"Wait how do you know about me and my fathers conversation yesterday?"

"Monkey never left, I made him jump onto the second floor and listen."

"Wait, you did? Oh wait that explains the sound I heard up there."

"Mhmm. Please, Po. Just take a break. You don't even listen to your fathers. Something must have happened on your way back because there's no reason for you to not have listened to them."

Po sighed. "I mistakenly listened to two villagers down there who said that I haven't been in the best shape lately. I can only wonder why. I need to train more."