Love of the Dragon Warrior

A day to never forget

The next morning, Po woke up with a start after hearing Monkey loudly scream in his face, "POOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"

The master jumped and fell out of bed, hitting his head hard on the ground.

"Owwwww!" Po groaned. "Monkeeeeey...."

Monkey snickered. "Sorry, buddy," he apologized. "But we have an entire day to hang out and I don't want to waste one minute of it!" He then grabbed Po's arm, yanked him to his feet, and began to quickly drag him out of the barracks.

Po stumbled about for a bit before he was finally able to get his feet moving in sync with his friend's running speed. He was then dragged over to the kitchen where the rest of the Five were waiting for him.

"Good morning Po," Viper called out cheerily as she served everyone breakfast. "I hope you slept well."

"I slept fine," Po answered, casting a look over at Monkey who snickered and sat down. "Well, mostly."

"We figured we'd better wake you up," Crane explained as his friend sat down. "You know, just in case you overslept and your food got cold."

Tigress rolled her eyes. "I'm sure he could smell it in his sleep," she commented, tossing a  dumpling into her mouth. "Or maybe you all forgot about the sleepwalking incident the third year he was here."

Po chuckled. "I forgot about that," he admitted. He stuffed a few dumplings into his mouth and swallowed before adding, "So, what's the plan for today?"

"A tour around the village," Monkey said immediately before anyone else could speak. "Mantis and I were thinking about spinning around in the Jade Tortoise again, for old times sake. And then we can hike to the Wu Dang mountains and have a picnic, and then maybe we can play some checkers and chill in the barracks."

"Sounds like fun," Po said with a smile. He frowned. "Just don't try and ask for embarrassing stories from dad," he warned.

"They won't, we promise," Tigress assured him. "Right, Crane?"

Crane nodded. "We've kept them in check for three years and we can keep on doing it," he seconded. "Don't worry about it."

Monkey and Mantis smirked, but they didn't say anything in reply.

As soon as the masters finished up their breakfast,  they all walked out of the Jade Palace together and walked around the village as Monkey had promised earlier. (Of course, it  was somewhat difficult what with almost every single villager crowding around Po to say hello and convince him to stay). However, they managed to stop by a few flower shops,  greet Mrs. Quall at the gift shop, buy some fruit at the various vendors around the village, and even said a brief hello to Mr. Ping. After once again getting swarmed by villagers and being bombarded with questions left and right, the masters finally finished their greetings and shop tours and headed back up to the Jade Palace.

"Mmm..." Po said, his mouth stuffed with chocolate from one of the candy shops. "Thif ith dewiciouth! I wove flavr ov th muth!"

"I'm sure you love it, Po," Tigress told him. "But can you swallow first and then talk? It's hard to hear you."

Po nodded and made an effort to swallow the huge mass that was in his mouth. Crane glanced around at the group. "Hey, where'd Viper go?" he asked.

The masters looked at each other, towards the top of the stairs, and then at the bottom of the stairs. Viper was no where to be found.