Meditations and Memories
A short little one-shot drabble that I dreamed up, that takes place before the movie. Shifu remembers Tai Lung. Slight angst. Please, no flames! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Kung Fu Panda.
Shifu sat quietly, trying to clear his mind. The training session with the Furious Five had gone well, but had left the aging red panda feeling slightly fatigued. Meditation would renew his strength.
Tigress was coming along well in her training, Shifu reflected. Almost as well as… Almost as well as Tai Lung had.
Shifu closed his eyes tighter as the memory of his former student surfaced. His left leg suddenly felt as if it was on fire…as if thinking of his student had caused another painful memory to surface… Another reminder of his failure…
Shifu remembered the day he had found Tai Lung…
Hearing a noise outside the front gates of the temple in the morning and going to investigate… Finding the baby snow leopard lying there, whimpering slightly. Carrying him inside…
The boy had grown quickly, learned quickly. Shifu had been so proud of him… Then Oogway had refused Tai Lung the title of Dragon Warrior…
Shifu recalled the carnage of that day… The cries of the villagers…flames leaping through the air from rooftop to rooftop…Tai Lung bursting through the doors of the Scroll Room, determined to gain possession of the Dragon Scroll… Shifu had leapt forward to stop him...but he couldn't bring himself to strike the boy he had raised as his son…
…Once more he remembered the sickening crack and the pain as his leg was shattered…The sensation of flying through the air, and landing a short distance from Oogway's side…Seeing Tai Lung collapse on the ground, moments later, unconscious… And then, painfully crawling the short distance forward, to touch the powerful leopard on his forehead…But the pain from his leg was nothing compared to the pain in his heart.
Shifu opened his eyes. Tai Lung had been like his son. And he, Shifu, had failed him…
Looking up to the full moon that hovered high above, Shifu hoped that he would be able to find a path to forgiveness and peace someday…
He had blamed himself for far too long.