The Ticking Contingent: The Countdown vo.2

Not so different

Po stood still in absolute shock, feeling the stinging pain on his face. A large lump started to form in his throat and it took everything he had to swallow it down. Considering everything that had happened at the Jade Palace within a span of six years, it was kind of surprising she hadn't lost her cool at him earlier. Say, more in the beginning. Now? Right here and now was a surprise. However, Po blamed a lot of this on himself. He wasn't trying to complain! But all he could think of was...what would he do if it was just him? 

How on earth did Oogway manage doing everything by himself? 

Po thought that over, still standing frozen to the ground. Oogway didn't always have students. How did he manage protecting the valley all by himself? He was eventually interrupted out of his thoughts by the stinging and made his way to the kitchen to get some medicine and maybe grab a snack. He didn't feel like making dinner right now. His mind hadn't really cleared up since yesterday. He was a still stunned. Tigress had almost clawed him once, but that was a moment of pure vulnerability ruined by Mantis' acupuncture mistake. Now was...different. And Po felt he should have just kept his mouth shut. Let them walk. It wasn't the first time he had to deal with weird things by himself. Shifu was never one to chat, and Tigress wasn't much different. The peach doesn't fall far from the tree, turns out. He supposed he could have waited and talked to the Five, but they had been masters all their lives. And Tigress was right; they didn't start out at the Jade Palace like he had. Crane trained at an Academy before transferring to a second temple and then eventually was transferred to the Valley of Peace. Viper took over protecting her village until her sisters were old enough and it was fine for her to help someone else. Monkey had done something similar, and Mantis had protected multiple villages and even held multiple jobs before training at the Jade Palace. So for them this wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Just another stage of their job. 

Po had never done that though. He was expected to be the one and only master of the Jade Palace. he had gone from idolizing the Five to viewing them as friends. And now his friends were leaving. 

No one had ever left before. Even his dad, who he found, came to stay with Po. 

Po wasn't used to losing people. 

Would they even write? 

Would they remember him? 

Would they still care? Or was he a passing friend they'd vaguely remember in a few years? Shifu never discussed past masters Oogway had trained. Did they keep in touch? 

Po winced as he finally cleaned off the wound and bandaged it up. He then grabbed a basket and threw some apples into it before heading off in the direction of the Sacred Hall of Warriors. Once inside, he noticed Mrs. Jun sitting at her desk and tried to keep the wound hidden from her sight. However, Mrs. Jun was picked as an advisor for her keen eye, and so Po couldn't hide the wound for long. 

"Oh my dear! What happened to your face?!" she exclaimed, seeing the bandage across Po's cheek and nose.

"Oh...just...a sparring wound," Po lied, not wanting to get too much into what happened. Nor make Tigress look bad. "Kinda' common." 

Mrs. Jun looked suspicious. "Are you sure?" she asked. "You look really wounded. And I don't mean physically."

"I'm...I'm okay. Really," Po lied again. He quickly grabbed the green and blue scrolls from Oogway (they were now placed on the wall by the moon pool) and then quickly ducked out of the Sacred Hall of Warrior before Mrs. Jun could ask him any more questions. The master made his way up to the Wu Dan mountains and settled by the Pool of Tears and began to look through the scroll, hoping for some more direct advice. Or at the very least an example of what to do. Po went carefully over the blue scroll, detailing all of Oogway's adventures before he finally started to train new students. The first thing Po noticed was that Oogway's first group of trainees weren't actually students serving in the Valley of Peace. Most of them were either refugees or leaders over a certain province who wanted more help in trying to protect their own people. Like Oogway, they were one person against a whole army, or even one extremely powerful entity. He stayed pretty focused on the reading, munching away on multiple apples, not even noticing the light drifting away to make room for the night. However, with a full moon out reflecting the water of the pond and Po's eyes adjusting to the dark, he hardly noticed. At least until he ran out of apples and realized he was still hungry and it was probably past dinner time.