Day after day he sat meditating in his shrine. From sunrise to sunset, even as the rest of the pandas worked and lived their lives out in the radiant sun, he channeled his chi out, searching for a kindred spirit. It was one he knew well, a dear spirit lost to him for many years.

Day after day, he searched for his son.

Others from the village had aided him in his search in years past. They had roamed the surrounding country, calling out the cub's name. Month by month, year by year, they searched while hiding from Shen and his wolves. Eventually, one by one they gave up the search, saying that the cub had either forgotten about the panda village or was dead. A few bold, outspoken members of the village even said directly to him that his continued searching bordered on lunacy. By now, no one save his wife believed as he did that their son was still alive.

Even she was beginning to waver in her faith by that day, however. She had been the one to protect their son by hiding him and drawing the wolves away, but she began to wonder if what the villagers were saying was true.

Still, he did not stop believing. He was the chief of the village, and his son would return one day to his rightful home and his rightful place as the next chief.

That day was drawing closer, he felt, so he kept searching. Not a day passed that the chief didn't reach out with his chi to encounter his son's chi. He believed with all his heart that very soon they could connect and be reunited.

When it finally happened, he was not expecting what he felt.

It was on a warm, clear day in the green valley the village lived in. The villagers were working in the fields harvesting their crops. Every few minutes one of them would glance up at the shrine on the hill. Most of them wondered what he did up there or why he was still trying. Their musings within themselves and with each other did not last long, however, for they quickly turned back to their work.

Up on the hill, the chief sat cross-legged in the small shrine, his back to the open side of the three-walled structure. His eyes closed, his chi slid along the trail of smoke like curling up from the slow-burning incense sticks above him, then soared beyond the shrine. It soared out beyond the valley even, following other spirits strong like itself.

The chief's chi darted from one powerful chi to another. A red panda kung-fu master, a goat see woman, a white tiger wanderer - none of them were his son. The chief searched among the many weaker chi. Rabbits, geese, and pig citizens; rhino soldiers - he could not sense a single panda among them. He couldn't single out weak or untrained chi the way he could stronger chi, anyways; they were simply masses of energy to him, grouped by race.

An explosion of energy slammed into his chi. An image appeared in his mind.

A black & white warrior caught a ball of fire and rolled it along his arms. That's panda's chi flared like a hundred thousand matches lit at once. Then, the panda threw the ball of fire at an army of rhinos and strange weapons headed by a familiar white peacock, using his kung-fu to propel it at them.

In the center of the blast of power was a sense of calm, a wave of peace fueling the panda warrior's strength and emotions.

The panda warrior had eyes akin to the chief's eyes, paws like the chief's wife's paws.

The chief's chi shot back to his body. His eyes shot open.

To say the chief was surprised would have been an understatement. Even though he had witnessed the kung fu attack from a distance, his body was shaking. He never guessed that his son would have taken the path of kung fu, let alone mastered the art. When he had willed himself to stop shaking, slowly he stood. He turned and stepped out into the midday sun.

"My son is alive." The only words, the sweetest words, he could say were these.

His smile grew as he said those words. He turned, saw his wife down in the fields, and nodded to her. She beamed in return. Tonight they would announce it, and the village would celebrate.

His son was alive.

El Final... para ahora (The End... for now)

MU: This is a bit of an older fanfiction I finished months ago but was unable to upload before now. I was inspired to write it shortly after seeing Kung Fu Panda 2 in theaters and seeing the scene at the very end. Enjoy! :)