Dragon Princess

The Five

  The sun rose slowly over the Valley of Peace. It shone brightly through a window and cascaded over a black and white face. The young tigress groaned and pulled her blanket over her head. What, were you expecting a panda?

"Yuki! Get up! You'll be late for work!" Her adoptive father, Ping, called. 

Yuki slowly opened her ice blue eyes and sat up. She rubbed her head in confusion. She'd been having a strange dream about the Furious Five.

"Yuki! Get up!" Ping called again.

"I'll be down in a minute." She called as she climbed out of her bed and yawned. 

Yuki quickly pulled on a pink kimono and then smoothed back her white fur with a brush. She then carefully picked up a hair pin that had a simple, pink cherry blossom on it and tucked it in the fur behind her ear. With a quick glance in the mirror at her reflection, she nodded and hurried down the stairs.

Ping looked over at her, "Good morning, my beautiful flower. Sleep well?" 

Yuki smiled at her father. "Yeah, Dad. I was having a great dream."

"About what?" He looked back at the soup he was preparing. 

Yuki grimaced, "Um.." she rubbed the back of her head, "Noodles?" 

Ping paused in his chopping. "Noodles? You were really dreaming about noodles?"

"Uh..yeah!" She handed a bowl to a customer. "What else would I be dreaming about?"

Ping looked ready to burst out of his feathers with excitement. He clapped his wings together. "Oh, happy day! My daughter, finally having the noodle dream!"

Yuki turned to watch as Ping rummaged through a box. He pulled out an apron and a noodle hat that looked identical to the ones he was wearing.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment." He hurried back to his daughter and handed her the hat. She simply stared at it while he tied the apron around her waist.

"This is a sign, Yuki." He moved back in front of her.

Yuki shot him a questioning look, "A sign of what?" She flicked her tail nervously.

Ping grinned and leaned in close to the tigress. "You are almost ready to be entrusted with the secret ingredient of my Secret Ingredient Soup."

Yuki flinched slightly as Ping pointed at her with a wing. 

"And then you will fulfill your destiny and take over the restaurant!"

Yuki gaped. I don't want that!

Ping hopped up onto the counter, grabbing a spoon in the process. "Just as I took it over from my father," he pointed to a picture of his father with the spoon, "who took it over from his father," he moved the spoon to his grandfather, "who won it from a friend in mahjong." He pointed lastly at a picture of a pig.

Yuki quickly stepped forward, hand held out to Ping. "Dad, Dad, Dad! It was just a dream." She chuckled nervously.

"No, it was the dream." Ping handed out some soup to more customers. "We are noodle folk. Broth runs through our veins."

Yuki was starting to freak out, "But, Dad, didn't you ever want to do something else?" Her tail was swaying a mile a minute. "Something besides noodles?"

Ping perked up, "Actually," he hopped onto the floor, "when I was young and crazy, I thought about running away and learning how to make tofu." He picked his knife back up and continued chopping some onions.

Yuki flicked an ear in slight annoyance, "So why didn't you?"

"Because it was a stupid dream."

Yuki glared.