The Tales of the Dragon Warrior

Monkeys and Woodcarving

(The picture above is Master Shifu, minus the ears)

Guan tossed and turned nervously in his sleep. He felt subconsciously like he was being watched. His tossing and turning was soon put to a stop, however, when two arms tightened around his waist, followed by some incoherent mumbling by the owner of said arms, which woke him up. Guan blinked blearily, the sun hurting his eyes for a moment. Once his vision came into focus, however, he was greeted by a terrifying sight.

Hou was standing over him with his bo staff in hand, and a murderous look in his eyes. Guan started shaking with terror as without a word, the usually talkative martial artist raised his staff over his head with both hands, aiming to brain Guan over the head with it. In the few seconds all of that occurred in, Guan frantically started trying to explain himself.

"W-wait! Hou, I can explain! Sh-she was cold and she asked me to- ", he started to explain, trying to squirm out of Jade's hold to no avail. Hou's shadowed eyes remained furious.

"Excuses.", he scoffed, but just as he brought the staff down, Jade started groaning and fidgeting. She was waking up. This causes Hou to halt his strike when the staff was mere inches away from Guan's face. Guan cracked open one of his eyes, which he had squeezed shut when he realized his friend was going to strike him, before sighing in relief that he was indeed, not going to get smacked with a piece of wood.

Jade blinked her eyes opened and yawned. She had slept peacefully last night, but had gone to bed at around four am, and now she was waking up at what was likely the usual barrack-wide wake up time of six am. She had gotten little more than a nap. Noticing she was waking up, Hou gave her an innocent closed-eye smile and put both hands behind his back, hiding his bo staff from view.

"Good morning, Jade. Did you sleep well?", Hou asked kindly. Guan looked up at him in annoyance, not appreciating his innocent act after nearly getting assaulted. Jade removed her arms from Guan's waist and sat up, causing him to feel more than a bit disappointed at the lack of physical contact.

"Better than I usually do. How did you know I was in here?", she asked groggily. Hou kept smiling at her.

"I saw you weren't in your room and came to ask Guan if he knew where you were. Clearly, he did.", Ho answered, giving Guan a pointed glare. Guan yelped quietly and hid himself under his covers. Jade gave him an odd look, wondering what had him so spooked, but said nothing about it.

"Okay then. Did you need something?", she asked, wondering why he was searching for her in the first place. Hou chuckled.

"We have morning bo staff training today, silly. Or did you forget?", the young man teased gently. Jade groaned and ran a hand down her face.

"Right, how could I forget? I'm so sorry Hou, I must have gotten the dates mixed up- ", the pale girl started trying to apologize, but Hou just waved her off.

"Hey, no worries! We all forget things sometimes. I'll leave, give you some time to get ready.", the man said. Jade nodded.

"Alright. See you in a few minutes.", she bade, and then he left. Jade looked down at the lump of blankets that was Guan with a small smile, patting the part of it she assumed was his head.

"Thanks for last night, Guan.", she said, before getting up and leaving for her room. Under his blankets, Guan was a red-faced, sputtering mess at the softness in the girl's voice. He was suddenly very grateful he had decided to hide his face.

—-------------------------------------------------

"Why are we heading up here? The training hall's back there.", Jade asked as she climbed up the stairs to the Sacred Peach tree. She was back in her fighting clothes, but had slipped on her green hoodie over her sports bra and had her hands in the pockets. Hou just looked back at her and smiled.