The Jade Palace was a place of calm tranquility, constantly made contradictory by intense physical labor. It was a place of meditative peace, where its residents perfected their abilities to fight. A mountain palace, that taught people how to throw someone to the floor in three moves or less.
Po rarely thought about it that deeply. He knew Kung Fu inside and out by now. It made sense to him that self-improvement, be it physical or not, would require both loud, high energy exercise rooms, and more introspective quiet areas. The chef in him likened it to broth-less noodles and noodle-less broth. You could do one or the other, but it was much better balanced together.
Balance was always one of Shifu's, and by extension Oogway's, chief lessons. Inner peace, the acceptance of oneself, and the need to push forward we're all key ingredients in making the flavor of one's soul. It was what added heat and depth to the proverbial soup of consciousness.
It was a good thing that such lessons were everywhere in the Jade Palace, because at the moment Po felt about as balanced as a one-legged chair during an earthquake.
He ran through the halls and gardens of the palace, yowls and shouts escaping him as if he were being chased.The groundskeepers, by now well trained to the Dragon Warrior's ways, moved precious decorations and fragile plants out of his way, hardly sparing him more than a passing glance or a roll of their eyes.
It was as Po barrelled through the doors into the east wing, rounded the corner on the left, and shot down the hallway after making two rights, that he caught a familiar glimpse of orange fur. Said orange figure spotted him a moment later, barreling towards her at high speed. 'Tigress!" Po said, digging his heels in an attempt to brake himself.
Tigress' eyes went wide, and in a moment of instinct, braced for impact. Po's body was grabbed and turned around before being set down firmly.
Po stood still and blinked for a second. "Oh good, I found you!" His next words spilled out in a single breath. "I need your help, but I kinda need you to promise not to hate me first, because I feel like you might hate me a little bit if I just come out and say it, but I really do need your help and-"
"Po," Tigress said firmly. "Breath. Slowly." After Po did, and stopped shaking so much, Tigress continued. "Now, from the top, what were you saying."
Po sighed and hid his eyes. "This is gonna take a bit of explaining. Okay, so, you remember Temutai, Warrior King of the Qidan Clan, right?"
Tigress nodded. "That yak that you had to challenge for the princess, right?"
"Yeah, that guy. Big dude, big voice, ego more inflated than a lantern. So, I got a letter a few weeks ago from one of his guys. Apparently he got engaged."
"Temutai. Engaged," Tigress remarked drily.
Po shrugged. "I know, weird right? Guess there's somebody for everybody. Anyway the thing is, he has a sister apparently, and he wants her to marry someone in the Valley so he doesn't have to worry about trade dealings and stuff." Pink started to creep its way up Po's face. "Temutai wrote me last week and said that apparently I was his first choice. 'My sister is a warrior of the Qidan clan, so she must marry a warrior!' That's what he said, anyways."
"I. . . see," Tigress said. "You didn't accept, did you?"
Po scoffed. "No, no! You kidding me? Of course not!"
Tigress wanted to feel relieved, but instead her gut coiled. "So how did this lead to you needing my help?"
Po's face went from pink to red. "See, that's kinda the thing. I couldn't just tell him no: Temutai's an actual king, and an egomaniac besides. So, I had to find a way to tell him no, but gently. I knida just. . . wrote him back the first thing that came into my head." Po stole a quick glance at Tigress, whose face had grown from passively concerned, to hard and searching. Po took another breath. "I told him I was already married."
