After everything that had transpired inside the Jade Palace, Hunter left the Hall of Warriors, walking outside and he began travelling through the Palace grounds, through the courtyard and finally up to The Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom, day had by now turned to night and the stars dotted the sky above China. On Peach Tree Hill is where Hunter set up his camp, away from the general Palace grounds but close enough to be seen and for him to see them. There was also a bit of safety in it. High ground. No one could sneak up on his camp this way at least. It was something Hunter was accustomed to looking for in a campsite, although he didn't always have the luxury of such advantageous positioning. He laid out his furs and even set up a campfire away from the Tree to avoid risking damaging it. He knew how much the Tree meant to Oogway and the Valley itself.
Hunter looked up at the stars then from the Hill. "Could really use your advice right about now, old man." he spoke with a slight chuckle, a hint of true sadness in his usually barren tone. While he may have dismissed swearing on his Ancestors to the Crane Clan members, that was because he wasn't sure he had Ancestors to swear on and felt it a disservice to swear on something that meant nothing to him. He definitely believed in the spirits and ancestors of others who had them though. "Look at me. A sentimental, sad fucker." Hunter laughed humourlessly at that realisation, shaking his head. "And yes, I see the irony. Looking for shelter beneath the Peach Tree, as usually those who are... 'lost', as you would put it, tend to do."
Contemplating his thoughts about the old Master's death as he looked down into the roaring firepit, Hunter wondered if the Old Turtle could indeed hear him speaking to him from the other world. Or if he was even listening. In a way, Oogway was the closest thing to a father Hunter had ever had, even if their relationship was rather casual and often business oriented he still valued the Old Turtle's advice and guidance, and thought of him as a friend. Even if he couldn't always follow his advice per se... Hunter thought about what Po had said, about being cursed to walk alone... He was The Man With No Name, which in of itself denoted a certain amount of loneliness and anonymity. Hell, no one knew his true name apart from him. Well... Maybe not exactly...
His mind drifted to taking his mask off in the Hall of Warriors. He couldn't believe it... He didn't want to... and on top of it he'd been called a freak?! He felt violent rage beginning to well up inside of him, threatening to burst free, but he forced it deep down back inside until he could unleash it somewhere safer, on something preferably inanimate...
"Hey."
Hunter whipped his head around at suddenly being addressed, embarrassed at being taken by surprise, and by an overweight Panda no less. "What do you want, Panda?" he asked Po in his usual blank tone as he turned his head back around to look into his fire once more, the flickering flames almost like his buried rage reflected in his eyes as he sat with his back turned to Po. He supposed it was his fault being snuck up on, having sat facing the direction he had.
Po seemed a fair bit nervous in approaching him. "I was wondering if you wanted to eat with us...?" he asked with a hopeful smile on his face.
Hunter spared him but a glance before answering. "No. I've got my own food." he replied to Po simply.
For his part, Po seemed to want to say something more but couldn't find the words, opening and closing his mouth like a fish for a few seconds. Instead, he then turned away and walked back down the Hill looking disappointed about the swift and firm rejection.
...
Tigress watched Hunter sit on the Hill and speak briefly to Po, eyeing him with utmost suspicion and animosity both for his previous actions and the fact Po was speaking to him all alone. However, she was shocked when after Po had left, Hunter turned his head and looked directly at where she was watching. She quickly turned and jumped down to meet Po and the others on the path down to the Valley.
Everyone else was already there and prepared to make their way down the thousand steps. "Ready?" Shifu asked with a smile, looking forward to eating at Mr. Ping's once again and spending some time with the Five outside of the Palace and their usual routines.
However, Po seemed rather down compared to usual. "Yeah." he nodded while looking at the ground.
Monkey looked at Po and realised he wasn't his normal bubbly self. "What's up?" Monkey asked him, concerned.
Crane scoffed at that. "Yeah, you're not as excited as usual about the prospect of food." he pointed out in addition.
Po seemed to snap out of it then. "Huh? Oh, it's nothing. I just wanted to see if Hunter would join us to eat, but he declined." Po spoke, looking back up towards the Hill, hoping to see him running after them or at least looking down. Nothing.
Tigress then dropped down next to the group. "Good." She snarled out. "I wouldn't want to eat with that freak of nature anyway. Honour-stricken thief." Tigress gave her thoughts on the matter, her tone conveying some amount of anger towards Hunter.
Viper, ever the cool-headed member of the Five, shook her head at what Tigress had said about The Hunter. "He may be a thief, but he did save Mr. Ping's life, and the lives of The Chi Kuan Crane Clan members without thought of reward, he even paid Mr. Ping for any damages. That counts for something. Does one act of selfishness take away many acts of kindness?" she asked the others, all of whom looked away in slight shame at forgetting he had indeed done some good things for the Valley and maybe even other places... Even Tigress looked thoughtful at Viper's words as they all began walking down the steps together.
Shifu sighed deeply, showing agreement with Viper's wise words. "It may be unwise to judge someone by the one act of selfishness you know they've committed without knowing the good they may have spread through the world." he spoke to everyone as they continued walking down. "Master Oogway used to tell me that. I have to wonder if he had this exact situation in mind when he did..." Shifu once again stroked his moustache thoughtfully. "If Hunter proves to keep his word tomorrow and does in fact get the Sword back and submit himself willingly for judgement, I may consider his punishment served." Shifu said to everyone, to their surprise.
Tigress' rage flared up at the thought of him being let off the hook, but she thought about it a bit more and realised that he didn't have to return with the Scroll and submit himself to their mercy. Despite that fact, it still filled her with rage, knowing he betrayed Oogway's trust and dared steal from the Jade Palace, her home of many years and the place that had taken her in. She used the breathing techniques Shifu taught her to calm her rage before it got out of paw.
They all made their way to Mr. Ping's Noodle Shop and found the body and blood had all been cleaned up and the place was once more as busy as ever, if not even more busy apart from the one table that was reserved for the Jade Palace guests that had just arrived. "Ah! My boy!" Mr. Ping hugged his son as well as the other guests who arrived with him. As usual, Tigress just accepted the hug with a slight grimace.
Po noticed the tables and chairs were now of much higher quality than they had been when they were here earlier... "Hey dad. What's with all the new stuff?" he asked the Goose as the others all took notice of what Po had.
Mr. Ping chuckled happily at that. "That large man who saved my life earlier, the money he left did more than pay for the clean up! It was gold coins, Po! Gold! Coins!" he exclaimed in excitement. "I had enough to move to a new country and start a whole new life if I wanted to!" he informed the group of masters with no small amount of glee, a huge grin on his face.
Everyone was very surprised at being informed of this. They assumed the coins were at most bronze or copper. But no, they were actual gold coins he'd paid with. "Someone who must be quite wealthy, and yet he lives such a simple life..." Shifu seemed to contemplate this as they were seated and each ordered whatever they were eating that night. Po Dragon Warrior-sized his order for obvious reasons.
The topics throughout the evening varied, from what training techniques to try tomorrow to what they would once have guessed the secret ingredient to the soup was exactly. Tigress was, of course, her usual self. She was remaining distant, but still participated more than she would once have done before Po's arrival at the Palace not all that long ago.
Shifu often looked at Tigress to see if she was indeed joining in with the others. To his delight, she did so more than he thought she might have done. He was grateful to Po for not only bringing him inner peace, but for improving the disposition of his surrogate daughter by some margin. Despite this, Shifu still wished he could do more for her. He just didn't know what that would be... Not yet. He needed to further meditate on the matter to find some answers... Turning his attention back to the conversation at hand, he chuckled at another of Mantis' jabs to Viper about kissing Hunter earlier, or him kissing her to be more accurate. It was something about him thinking snakes were predators, not prey. In response, Viper flicked him with her tail into his own bowl of soup which was still quite hot. Not boiling, but definitely enough to sting as he leapt out of the bowl with a pained yelp, quickly jumping into Po's cool glass of water and sighing in relief, which made everyone laugh heartily. Even Tigress cracked a smile at the events as they happened.
Shifu was quite surprised by how little the conversation drifted to The Hunter, although he supposed they didn't want to think about that while they all had some time to themselves spend together. Mantis teasing Viper was the most he was spoken about throughout the entire meal.
When the meal was finished, the Five, Po and Shifu all made their way back to the Jade Palace, bidding Mr. Ping goodbye and promising to visit again soon. Climbing the steps back up to the Jade Palace, Monkey and Po got into a burping competition with one another, eventually dragging Mantis into it as well. Crane commented on the crassness of it all, only to be challenged in return. The Dragon Warrior narrowed his eyes mischievously at the avian Kung Fu Master. "Oh yeah? I bet Cranes can't even burp." Po laughed at that.
Monkey covered his mouth and pointed. "Yeah! I bet if he did it'd be really girly too!" he exclaimed in laughter.
Mantis chuckled at that. "He'd probably just squawk instead." he agreed with the other two.
Crane of course took great offence to this and let out a mighty burp of his own. "How's that for 'girly'?" he smugly stated, strutting away at having apparently proven them wrong and of course they ran after him to prove that theirs are better.
Viper and Tigress both scoffed and shook their heads at the others and quickly moved ahead of the boys to let them have their fun, not wanting any part of it themselves. Deciding on something she was thinking about after their night out to eat, Viper nudged Tigress to get her attention. "We should go on another girl's night out soon!" Viper suggested to her friend happily, having enjoyed the last time they went out together.
Tigress seemed rather thoughtful at the idea Viper had proposed. "Well... Last time was rather... Fun." She agreed with that point, seriously considering the offer from the looks of it. "Very well. It might actually be nice to get out of the Palace for a night." She gave a small smile to Viper, who was beaming at the acceptance and somewhat shocked by the ease with which she'd agreed. Tigress had come a long way in her eyes. She'd always been friends with and respected Tigress of course, but the leader of the Five had never been a very open or warm person, especially not before Po. She still was quite reserved, but the Dragon Warrior had managed to open her up by giving her a friend outside of the serious world of Kung Fu, someone willing to see the fun side of the things they did.
Viper wondered how Tigress could be coaxed into opening up even more... 'Maybe a relationship?' Viper thought to herself as she slithered up the steps a little behind Tigress. 'Hmm. Maybe... A boyfriend. That could work... Even though she says it messes with your Chi. But with who? Po?' She looked back and saw the guys still engaged in their burping contest, which Crane was now roped into. 'No, and I think that also crosses off Mantis, Monkey and probably Crane too...' Viper realised at that. 'Perhaps one of the servants...? No, no. Maybe Shif- euch, no. They're like father and daughter, what're you thinking Viper? It would have to be a stranger then.' She rationalised... But who could keep up with them? With the legendary Master Tigress? Who could put up with her for that matter? Viper noticed Tigress had stopped for a second before continuing walking, and had been looking upwards. Following where her gaze had been directed, Viper spotted The Hunter, his sword now embedded blade first into the rocky ground by the Peach Tree. Hunter was balancing on one foot on the flat pommel of the sword, his other foot resting on the side of his knee while his hands themselves rested in a meditative position in front of him. 'Maybe...? Pah, no. Tigress would rather rip his guts out and decorate her room with them. Forget it, Viper. We'll settle with what progress we've made for now at least.' she thought to herself contently.
However, everyone stopped dead in their tracks upon hearing Hunter once again whistling that oddly eerie tune they'd heard earlier when he left Mr. Ping's on the hunt... Even Tigress' fur stood on end at hearing the sound once again, the echoing sound as it travelled down the mountain making it even more eerie than before when they'd heard it. It made it sound like it was coming from all around them...
The boys had even stopped their burping contest and hurried a little more up the steps to catch up with Tigress and Viper. Shaking off the cold feeling that suddenly had invaded the group, the Five, Po and Shifu all adjourned to their rooms for the night, planning on getting a good night's rest for the journey tomorrow, apart from Shifu who decided to meditate instead for a while.