In the Cellar

Kung Fu Panda and its characters belong to DreamWorks

It was ironic that things had come to this.

The sound of screams reached the goose even from his basement—converted into a cellar to store his restaurant's longer-lasting food items. Wood cracked loudly, and he felt an earth-shaking thud as a building was brought down. It felt as if it were startlingly close to his shop as well…

His son's warning wail drove the avian from his anxious thoughts, and Mr. Ping rushed to appease the young panda before his cries could come to their attacker's attention. The goose quickly picked a radish from one of the crates he'd brought down with him earlier that day, handing it to the infant. Po, as the bird had decided to name him a few weeks ago, eagerly accepted the vegetable and promptly crammed into his large mouth.

Mr. Ping sighed in relief, leaning against the same crate. In the rush following the initial attacks, the aging goose had scrambled to toss whatever he could into his cellar, including the radish crate that Po had taken to sleeping in, before shutting himself in as well.

To say that the sudden turn of events hadn't been foreseen by anyone in the Valley would be an understatement. Tai Lung, the adopted son of the great Master Shifu was a well-known figure. His intimidating size and gait left most of the villagers frightened of him, but he had always been kind and cordial—everyone had seen him fight before however, whenever there was a sudden attack from bandits, raiders, or the like, the snow leopard would demonstrate the fiercest of moves anyone had ever seen—he would've felled entire armies had he the chance. And now, this beast had turned his power against them.

Mr. Ping shuddered as a particularly loud scream shattered the relative silence of his cellar, the rough splintering of wood and most probably bone following. "It'll be alright, Po," he murmured, more for his own comfort than that of his son's. The panda only mumbled gibberish in response, playing giddily with his toes. It stunned the goose to see his young adopted child so seemingly unaffected by sounds of carnage surely going on above them.

The aging bird twiddled his wing tips nervously, brown eyes darting around the shadowy confines of his cellar. The sound of yet another building crumbling with more devastating force than the first made the goose let out a fearful quack and his clenched his wings together in complete anxiety.

Now Mr. Ping may not have known much about the martial arts, nor of the distant masters far off in the confines of the Jade Palace, but the goose did know that what the snow leopard was surely doing up above was the exact opposite of what he had been taught. Tai Lung had come to the noodle shop on only one occasion, little over a month ago, on an errand for Master Oogway. The goose had seen no evil in that young feline—only the same, dedicated kung fu warrior that everyone else did. How he had changed into the monster laying waste to the Valley of Peace, the bird had no idea.

Another particularly shrill scream reached the pair, this one of a woman, and the goose flinched instinctively once more. He expected his son to carry on obliviously, only to hear a soft murmur behind him.

"Mama?"

Mr. Ping startled, turning towards his adopted son with raised eyebrows. The young panda's carefree expression had morphed into one of fear. His wide jade eyes glanced around the confines of the cellar, as if searching for something.

"Po?" the goose began uncertainly, wings outstretched slightly. His son had dealt with nightmares the moment he had arrived in the radish basket—even the smallest of sounds could set him off, and Mr. Ping had to wonder what the poor panda had faced before coming to him. "What's wrong?" the avian continued, waddling forward. More screams resounded from above, a sure sign of the carnage and destruction going on in the village, and the infant's eyes enlarged, gaze faraway.

"Mama!" he cried, more of a distraught call than a question now. The cub groped feverishly in the semi-darkness, only illuminated faintly by the lone candle Mr. Ping had brought with him. It was then that almost all sounds from up above had ceased completely.

The aging goose faltered mid-step, nearly a foot away from his adopted son as he waited. For a moment he thought the onslaught had ended, when he heard the creaking of floorboards just above them.

Their attacker was in his noodle shop.

Mr. Ping rushed forth, taking the greatest care not to make a sound, and as gently as he could, slapped a wing over his son's mouth, just as he was in the midst of opening it again and calling for his lost mother. The bird bit back a fearful quack, instead swallowing loudly as his heart suddenly clenched, as if an icy fist had gotten hold of it, dropping into his stomach like a stone as he heard the familiar sounds of his kitchen utensils being shifted around. The familiar clatter of bowls, the echoing thud as the large wok hit the ground…..and abruptly, there was chaos. Plates shattered, wood was ripped from its planking, and walls crunched under the brunt of unworldly powerful punches and kicks. Mr. Ping could only shudder, the quietude of his cellar in stark contrast to the raucous destruction going on just above them.

The entire time Tai Lung laid waste to his noodle shop, the goose remained by his son, willing him not to speak with soft murmurs of his own. To his utter surprise, the panda listened and remained completely silent. Mr. Ping never gave any thought to the fact that Po might've had the same thing asked of him, not too long ago.

.

By the time Mr. Ping found it safe to leave his cellar, it was already daybreak.

Other villagers had begun to depart from their various hiding places was well, if only to survey the damage. There had been lives lost, and the families of those departed covered them with a shroud. The amount of burials would go on well into the following week.

The goose exited his basement to find his restaurant in utter shambles. The kitchen itself was in complete ruin, though the interior of the house did fare a bit better. It appeared that Tai Lung had been on a scheduled destruction spree.

He had spent the rest of the morning picking up and piecing together anything that was salvable, though the amount of those that were totaled was much higher. It was tiresome labor, with his adopted son watching somberly from his radish basket. Some neighbors that had been spared of the snow leopard's attacks had come to assist the goose, bringing news with them as well.

Tai Lung had apparently been seen carted away, unconscious, by a fearsome group of rhinoceros, and Oogway himself had come down the Thousand Steps to help the villagers in any way he could.

As his neighbors finally left him, a combination of rabbits, pigs and geese, (such as himself) Mr. Ping was granted a glimpse of the ancient kung fu master just down the street, ambling from home to home that needed his guidance and wisdom.

The avian straightened upon laying eyes on the ancient tortoise, as the discipline had been hammered into him for as long as he could recall, and after a moment's pause, turned towards his son. "See, Po," he began, gesturing towards the Grand Master of the Jade Palace. "That is good kung fu. This—"he paused to gesture around at the carnage the snow leopard had left behind. "—is bad kung fu."

The little panda watched his father with something akin to confusion, neither noticing as Grand Master Oogway sought out the noodle shop, his own light green eyes landing on the cub in the radish basket. He gave a small, melancholy sort of smile—the hope of a brighter future— before turning away to meet the needs of another villager.

One day, Dragon Warrior. One day.

.

This was the one and only day Mr. Ping ever gave his noodle soup away for free.

A/N: Frankly, I have no idea where this came from. Just some musings I guess from watching the first and second movie again, thinking that Mr. Ping would've been there when Tai Lung attacked, around twenty-something years ago, so I began to wonder if Po would've been there too. And thus this oneshot was born. This probably isn't canon, and could be seen as AU, but reviews would be greatly appreciated.