After dessert was finished, (which was just a simple chocolate cake that Po had prepared earlier), the girls retired to their rooms for the evening. They were given the rooms on the top floor of the masters' barracks where a few of the guards would be posted for the night shift. Still a bit worn out from dealing with Ming and Ella's tantrums and departure, Po simply said good night to the girls and retired to the peach tree for the evening. Understanding that he needed some time to relax, the masters left him to his own devices and headed to bed.

Po sat at the peach tree and let out a heavy sigh. He wondered if this was such a good idea after all. Granted, he understood that the source of the daily stress came from Ella and Ming's bickering, but he was still a little bit worried about what the rest of the girls would do over the course of their stay at the Jade Palace. Especially Madame Zhou.

As he laid against the trunk of the tree, he hear a sudden and loud, "Found you!"

Startled, the master turned around, seeing a startled Tigress looking over at Neikan. He hadn't even realized that they were behind him.

"Neikan!" Tigress scolded. "Don't do that again!"

"Hey, I told you I'd see you after my shift was over," Neikan told her with a laugh.

"What brings you over here?" Po asked Tigress with a look of surprise.

"Your day started out a bit rough, so I thought maybe you wanted to talk about it," Tigress explained. "But you looked relaxed just sitting there, so I decided not to bother you."

Po smiled at her. "Well, thanks for the concern," he told her. "I mean, I think I'm okay, but it was nice of you to think about me."

"Well, you used to help me when I wouldn't talk, so I thought I'd return the favor."

Neikan nudged Tigress. "Hellooo!" she said, a fake look of insult on her face. "What about me, the friend who got you to loosen up and take walks and splash in the Goruden River and talk to the cute guy at the restaurant?"

"Neikan!" Tigress exclaimed. "I mean, I wasn't forgetting about you, but do we really need to bring Shichiro up?! That guy turned out to be a jerk anyway, remember?"

"Who's Shichiro?" Po asked curiously, making Tigress turn a deeper shade of red.

"A really cute but not so chivalrous boy at a restaurant in Japan," Neikan explained. "To make the story short for Tigress' sake, we got into a fight over him but then he turned out to be the biggest jerk. So we just avoided him all together."  She turned to Tigress and smirked. "But that was a long time ago," she pointed out. "Which means that you and I have more stories to swap."

"And let you tell my friends all my secrets?" Tigress asked, smiling through her flush. "What makes you think it'll be that easy?"

Neikan wrapped an arm around Tigress and began pull her away. "Honey, it isn't a friendship until you can balance out embarrassing stories and dark secrets that would make your master faint. Trust me, my master wouldn't last two seconds listening to my stuff."

Tigress laughed and began to walk away, waving goodbye to Po. "Goodnight, D-Po," she called out.

"Goodnight!" Po called out. "Don't tell her anything bad about me!"

Neikan and Tigress laughed and walked off, Neikan giving Po a very brief wave before she disappeared around the corner with Tigress. Po chuckled and stretched his arms out before heading back to the barracks. He had a long day tomorrow trying to get to know eleven girls and he wanted to get as much sleep as possible.

The next morning, Po woke up early in order to prepare breakfast. He figured a bit of alone time would help him before everyone else woke up. However, as he headed over to the kitchen, he spotted a tiny mantis effortlessly moving steaming pots and pans around, creating a rather heavenly aroma.

"Lam?" Po asked in surprise, startling her a bit. "What are you doing up?"

"Making breakfast," Lam answered immediately. She blushed a little bit. "I know I should be taking a break from cooking and sleeping in, but...well, I'm still on restaurant time, I guess."

"Ah, don't worry about it," Po told her. "My dad does that every time we go on vacation. He always gets up at the crack of dawn and then I have to tell him to go back to bed and sleep in since he doesn't have to cook."

"And he went back to bed?"

"Well...no. He made breakfast anyway. Apparently the hotel's food wasn't up to his standards."

Lam laughed a bit at that one. "Your dad sounds like fun," she noted. "I can't wait to meet him."

"Well I have to stop by today, so maybe you can say hello real quick."

Lam smiled and turned back to her food, moving around on the hot stove in order to put the pots and pans on the counter and on the not-as-hot back burner.

"Need any help?" Po asked her.

"If you could wake the others up, that would be great," Lam told him, jumping away from the stove and moving swiftly over to the stack of clean bowls. "A hot breakfast early is better than a cold breakfast late."

"I hear that," Po agreed. He left the kitchen and headed back over to the barracks, waking up the other masters and the remaining girls who were left sleeping. The masters, used to getting up at that time, had no problem hopping out of bed and heading over to the kitchen to see what was for breakfast. The girls on the other hand had a lot more trouble getting up. Destiny was the worse out of the bunch since she took one look at Po, inhaled sharply, and fainted on her bed. Po had to wait another ten minutes, leave for a few minutes while Destiny calmed down, and then watch her stumble out into the hallway in order to make sure she didn't faint again and fall down the stairs. He kept a bit of a distance in order to make sure she was okay and eventually reached the kitchen. Lam had already begun to serve breakfast to everyone and had just begun to sit down to eat.

"It's nice to know that the day will be peaceful," Master Leopard was saying to Master Shifu. "There's nothing more annoying than someone who thinks they own everybody in China."

"I couldn't agree more," Shifu agreed. "As I said before though, I wasn't sure how many were going to be interested in changing their circumstance to possibly marry Po. So I figured it was best to not be picky."

"Morning, Po!" Song called out, waving to him.

"Oh there you are," Lam said. "Your bowl is over there by Monkey,"

"Thanks, Lam," Po answered. He went over and sat down at the table, eagerly digging into the food she made. He glanced over at Jai-Rong who was quietly letting out a yawn and asked, "Hey, Jai-Rong, you feeling any better?"

"A little," Jai-Rong told him, managing a smile. "I'm a bit stuffy, but I'll be alright."

Po smiled at her and turned back to his food. The table soon fell into a more quiet atmosphere with the only chatter coming from a few people talking on the side. Finally, Master Shifu cleared his throat and looked over at Po. "Po, what are your plans for today?" he asked. "In detail, please."

"Well, I thought we'd explore the village," Po answered. "We could look at a few shops, say hi to my dad, have some lunch, and there's supposed to be a River Festival later this afternoon a little bit north of here, so I thought that would be fun to go to."

"Ooh! I love River Festivals!" Xiao Niao exclaimed happily. "My dad takes me there every year, and we always get a souvenir and some flowers for mom's grave."

"And you're not going this year?" Tigress asked her in surprise.

"Well, we always have the festival in March where we live, but dad caught bronchitis, so we stayed home this year."

"Oh. Well...I'm sorry to hear that."

"Wait...why is there a River Festival now?" Jai-Rong asked, making a weird face. "It's almost May."

"The valley has a very unusual river system," Master Leopard explained before any of the other masters could answer her. "Its river flows from within a thin stream within the mountains. Because it's in the shadow of the mountain and even under bridges and rocks every once in a while, it takes longer to melt. So the festival is much later than other places."

"That is unusual," Madame Zhou said. She stuffed a large spoonful of rice in her mouth and smiled. "This is better than my ex-boyfriend's!" she exclaimed.

"What, the first several bites weren't that great?" Monkey joked.

"No, they were. I was just waiting for the perfect moment to say so."

Po took his own bite of Lam's breakfast before looking back at Master Shifu and asking, "What are your plans for today, Shifu?"

"The Five will be training rigorously this morning with a new technique and battle scenario to work with," Shifu answered immediately. "Afterwards I have one-on-one training with Tigress by the Dragon Grotto."

"Sweet! Dragon Warrior training! Do you hit her too when she gets things wrong, or was it just me?"

"Just you. Tigress doesn't mess up on ideologies or techniques from a lack of common sense."

Po smiled sheepishly and chuckled before going back to his breakfast.

"I'm assuming that the guards are going to be wandering about?" Crane piped up.

"Yes," Shifu concurred. "They won't be following right there with the group, but they'll be stationed in specific locations to keep a close eye on the group so that there's no danger and no angry mob."

"Ming and Ella are gone," Tai Lin pointed out. "What's to worry about?"

"The unexpected," Shifu told her simply.

Once breakfast was finished, the girls helped to clear the table before heading out of the kitchen with Po. The Five waved him goodbye before heading off in the other direction to train with Master Shifu. (Having gotten nearly burned to a crisp by Tigress the first day he was there, Po was kind of glad his rigorous training days were over). The girls eagerly trailed beside Po over to the door and down the stairs, except for Kay who stayed close to the back of the group. Once they reached the bottom, Po began pointing out various places he liked to go and visit.

"Now, some of you guys probably already know your way around the valley," he told the girls. "But I still thought a tour would be pretty fun."

"It's definitely nice to go on another tour," Song commented from the back, opening her parasol against the mid-morning sun. "It's been a while since I've been here."

"I'd give you a tour of the village I'm living in, but it's over a week's walk away, and I don't know if there's a lot of places for everybody to rest."

"That's understandable," Tai Lin told him. "We don't want to crowd anybody."

"I kind of want to see your new village," Ordai countered, scooting to the front of the group to wall next to Po. "Is it nice?"

"Real nice," Po agreed with a wide smile. "I mean, it's not as fancy as the Valley of Peace, but it's still a pretty nice spot to live."

As the group headed past the different shops of the valley, (with Po giving the occasional rating of which restaurant was the best), Destiny began to linger behind a bit to hang out with Kay. Kay didn't say anything to her, but she didn't seem to mind the company, especially since the two had the same peaked interest in jewelers shops and clothing stores. At some point, Po noticed they were far behind and slowed down to allow them time to catch up. A thankful stop at Mr. Ping's also helped with this. 

"Hey, dad!" Po called out from the front of the restaurant. 

Mr. Ping, who was in the kitchen, gasped happily and ran out to give Po a hug. "Son!" he exclaimed. "What a surprise! I thought you were going to be busy for a while!"

"Well, we're just touring the village today and going up north a little later for the River Festival." 

"Oh that's wonderful! And here I thought I was going up alone!" Mr. Ping said. He had stopped hugging Po by this point and had quickly collected dirty bowls from a nearby empty table. "Of course, I don't want to disturb your time with everyone, but maybe I'll see you while I'm selling my soup and moon cakes." 

"That'd be great, dad! I'll wave if I see you. Ooh! Let me introduce everyone really quick!" 

Po then waved all the girls towards the front, though he quickly noted to Mr. Ping that Kay was extremely shy and Destiny had a tendency to faint. With the helpful hints out of the way, Po introduced each of the girls who were willing to get to know him and even move to a pretty far off distance if they proved compatible. Ordai, who was pretty close to Po in the front, was quick to shake Mr. Ping's wing first and introduce herself. 

"I actually met him when he still helped to protect my village," she explained to Mr. Ping. "I owe my whole life to him!" 

"Aww," Mr. Ping gushed. "Well, I'm glad you're getting the chance to catch up. That'll be such a nice story down the road." 

Po turned a light shade of red but he didn't say anything as Ordai gushed about how excited she was to get to better know the Dragon Warrior. Song, who was also next to Po, was quick to reintroduce herself to Mr. Ping, though honestly there wasn't much need. 

"Oh I remember you!" the old goose exclaimed. "How are you doing...oh dear. What was your name again?"

"Song," Song reminded him with a light giggle. "It's so nice to see you again too. It's been way too long since we got to hang out the three of us." 

Mr. Ping laughed. "I still remember how terrible your lunch date went!" he reminisced. "We should have a do-over of that at some point."

Po turned an even darker shade of red and chuckled sheepishly. "I only bit her once...." he offered. "I didn't realize she had the other end of my noodle." 

"Wait, when did you two date?" Master Leopard asked in surprise.

"Oh, it was years ago!" Song told her with a small wave of her hand. "Six or seven I think. But we've both gotten a lot better since then. Right Po?" 

Po smiled. "Yeah, I'm not as oblivious to everything," he admitted. "And you're no thief." 

"And who are these lovely ladies?" Mr. Ping asked, interrupting the two. 

"Oh, okay! So this is Tai Lin," Po introduced, allowing the other girls to come to the front to shake Mr. Ping's wing. 

"It's nice to meet you, Mr...." Tai Lin began. 

"Ping."

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Ping." 

The other girls then came forward and introduced themselves. First Madame Zhou, then Master Leopard, Kay, and Destiny. He then held a brief conversation with Lu-Shi and and Xiao Niao, asking them how their dads had been and even asked how Lu-Shi's brother was holding up after the whole fiasco with Jungie. (Mr. Ping also explained briefly that Po and Lu-Shi were engaged when they were little, but following the event of Jungie nearly killing Lu-Shi and her brother all over controlling the Dragon Warrior, their father and Mr. Ping had decided that it would be better to let their kids decide on their own future). Kay and Destiny then came up and shook hands, with Kay being extremely shy but Destiny being a lot more social. (Though she wasn't right by Po, so she was probably not as flustered as she had been since she had been at the Jade Palace). Lam then came up and introduced herself.

"And this is Lam," Po said as the two shook hands. "And she is a fanta-bulous cook!"

Mr. Ping's eyes lit up when he heard this and he and Lam then proceeded to go on a long discussion about cooking and family restaurant origins and dumplings and noodle soup and how ridiculous Lam looked wearing a chef and why it was so ineffective against rowdy kids in a restaurant setting.

"I love kids, but they can be a real nightmare for us noodlemakers!" Mr. Ping said after they had been talking for about fifteen minutes. "Even Po had mishaps as a kid! In fact, the whole reason I agreed to let him marry Lu-Shi in the first place was because he wouldn't stop eating my furniture and smashing all my bowls while he was 'drumming'." 

Lam snickered at the idea. Po chuckled and quickly said that he was a kid and didn't know much better. He then added that they needed to finish the tour of the valley and waved goodbye to his dad.

"I'll see if I can find you at the festival, son!" Mr. Ping called out before going back to his customers at the restaurant. As they left and Po directed the large group over to a flower shop, the girls made quiet notes about Mr. Ping amongst themselves. A few of them thought the goose to be very charming. Others thought him a little silly. And one felt like she had known him for decades. These thoughts were soon put onto the back burner though as they continued on through town, took a quick snack break at a chocolate shop (which had Madame Zhou and Destiny running through there like ecstatic children), and then headed off towards the River Festival with everyone happily in tow.