The activities for Po's group were put on hold for a few extra days with Ming adjusting to the Jade Palace and Po and everyone else still in a bit of a funk. The masters managed to rally enough to greet Superintendent Woo (something Po definitely made sure he stayed out of to avoid anymore needless noise) who was infuriated that no one had shown Ming "proper respect" upon her arrival. It has been explained to Ming (and afterwards her father) that everyone was feeling a bit low because of a recent death that had occurred at the Jade Palace. However this did nothing to soothe the pair's irritation. Ming didn't even react much when she found out it was Song who died, aside from an "Oh?", a simple shrug and a "Well, if she wasn't such an idiot, she'd be alive wouldn't she?"

The masters had planned to keep the girls and Po out of Ming's way as much as possible, and due to the recent tragedy, everyone had decided to just hole up in the barracks or around the Wu Dan mountains for some fresh air. However, at the end of the week when all the preparations were finished for the arrival of the emperor, Superintendent Woo and Master Shifu received an apology letter from the emperor, explaining that they would not come down that week since their youngest son caught a very contagious disease. (They weren't sure what it was just yet). They would arrive in two weeks instead and asked to have patience with them for the unexpected turn of events. Everyone was sympathetic for the poor little prince and Shifu wrote to express just so, but nobody was pleased with having to deal with the company of Ming and Superintendent Woo for the next two weeks. She thankfully would not be staying in the barracks, but she'd still be lingering who knew where around the Jade Palace and quite frankly Po was not in the mood to run into her.

Just a few days after the emperor sent his letter to the Jade Palace, Lam suggested that they all get outside and get some fresh air. And possibly socialize.

"Company is good for lifting people's spirits," she told Po and the rest of the group one particular day after they had finished a few long rounds of Mahjong. "And I think we really need to get outside and not be afraid to go out and explore again. With some safety precautions obviously since we don't know the terrain around here too well."

"Did you have something in mind?" Leopard asked.

"I was thinking of a relaxing boat ride," Lam admitted. "We can just row around on the water for a little while and admire the scenery. It'll be something else to do anyway."

"But what if someone falls in and drowns?!" Destiny screeched nervously.

"We can bring stuff to float on. We're not having a crazy party; we're just floating casually on the water around a nice area."

"If we go boating, we should do it by Shimmers Pond," Leopard told Lam. "It's a bit deep, but the water's crystal clear and there's no way we can get lost on the water. There's no exit waterway."

Po looked at the giant group they had. "We'd need a lot of boats though," he noted.  

"We can use the boating rental station. Their boats are pretty good. Rooster taught me how to sail on them back when we were still a team."

"I didn't know you knew how to sail!" Destiny exclaimed giddily. "That's so cool!"

Lu-Shi patted her arm. "See? We'll be perfectly fine with two masters looking out for us."

"And I know how to swim," Ordai added. "In case someone does happen to fall in."

"And if there's no waterfall, we don't really have any other dangers aside from that," Jai-Rong reasoned, though this was more for herself since she was still a bit shaken by the recent tragedy.

Po pondered this idea for a moment before deeply sighing and smiling. "I guess it'd be nice to get away from all the noise for a little bit," he admitted. "We should be fine over by that lake."

The girls all slowly agreed to the idea with Kay quietly saying that she'd pick some flowers to take on the boat. As a nice way to set the mood. The plan was just a simple one and upon deciding to just head out now while the weather was nice and while Ming and Superintendent Woo were preoccupied elsewhere, Po and Leopard headed down to the boat house to rent a few for the day, and everyone else grabbed simple necessities for the morning, like a bag of fruit for munching, some flowers, things to float on, and a few pillows. Afterwards, they all headed out of the Jade palace and over towards the lake. Their precession was a quiet one, with just a few of the girls bringing up the weather as a way to fill the dead air. At last, they reached the lake where the lake house renter had delivered the boats for the morning. The group loaded all their items onto the boats, pushed them out into the water, and then proceeded to paddle towards the center of the lake where they could relax and listen to the sound of the lapping water.

Po grabbed on of the pillows that was on his boat and, with Tai Lin, Ordai, and Xiao-Niao sitting close to the front to balance the boat out, he grabbed a pillow and leaned against the backside of the boat to just relax. The panda closed his eyes with a deep quiet breath and felt the boat move underneath him as it gently drifted across the water. He still felt very upset and discombobulated about the death of his friend, and he had a feeling it was a strange, horrifying feeling he wouldn't be able to shake off for a while. Death was never a pleasant thing to dwell on, and yet it almost couldn't be helped when you knew there should be someone there who wasn't.

The panda sighed and just leaned deeper into his pillow and tried to breathe as he felt the warm sun start to settle on his fur and spread the heat to the rest of his body. The boat creaked slightly as it gently drifted on top of the water, rocking ever so slightly back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. Po at first couldn't tell if he was imagining it, doing it himself, or if it was the water, but he soon decided it was a combination of the latter two and continued trying to think of something else. The noise around him, as subtle as it was, was working as a good temporary distraction since if he focused on the noise he could keep any flashes of memory or internal thoughts out of his head. The water lapped next to the boat and echoed into Po's ears and Po felt the sound gently massage his brain, almost as if to give him a calm pat from the sadness and chaos of the past few days. He knew he'd have to get re-emerged into it once the morning ride was over, but a little calm and quiet was nice. A little peace and relaxation was what he needed to try and keep himself calm in the face of the insensitive Superintendent Woo. A break from Ming would help him get some self-control and give him some of his energy and strength back. So Po continued to lay there as did the rest of the group who sat back on their own boats or off to the side of the boat to play with the water or admire the view.

There were a few brief giggles or deep sighs which came from the other boats, but aside from that the only noise came from the trees rustling from a brief faint wind, the boats, and the water.  All these noises grew more and more faint as Po continued to lay there and before he even realized it, the gentle rocking had lulled him to sleep. He wasn't really fully aware of it, as most people aren't aware of their body is betraying them to sleep. The sounds he heard transferred him to a very nice dreamscape where he rowed underneath a tree blooming with hot and fresh dumplings. Po was very excited about this dream as every time he picked a dumpling from the tree, new ones would sprout in their place, and there seemed to be an endless amount of them as he traveled downstream. The master wished he had a giant bowl to collect all the food as he passed by. He could have had some for leftovers later when he was really in the mood. Why had that not occurred to him? Po pondered over this idea as he continued to casually  pick some more food off the low-hanging branches and stuff them into his mouth. He glanced upward and noticed a particularly fat dumpling hanging high above his head and stretched his arm as far up as he could in order to grab it. A sudden shriek interrupted his concentration and Po jumped and looked around in search of the source of the noise, only to find himself falling backwards into the boat as it suddenly went sailing over the edge of the waterfall. As the boat went freefalling over the falls, Po felt a sudden jolt from the back of the boat and woke up with a start back on the lake with no falls in view. His sudden gasp and rouse had knocked his boat around a bit, which caused Xiao-Niao to stumble over to the side and almost off of the boat and Ordai and Tai Lin to be jostled forward. 

"What happened? Did someone fall in?" Po asked, looking around in confusion. 

"It's just Tai Lin," Xiao-Niao promised, patting his arm. "She just had a small panic attack, that's all." 

Po tried to calm his breathing as he noticed Destiny rowing their boat over to his to check up on the snow leopard who was was huddled in the front of the boat with Ordai patting her back. Once he had gotten his bearings he was quick to scoot forward a bit, doing his best to not capsize the boat with his movements, and check up on her. Tai Lin assured him that she was fine and did her best to try and steady her breathing. She then sat up and gave Po a bit of a forced smile. 

"I'm fine, really," she promised. "I just had a bad thought, that's all. That's what I get for staring at the water too long." 

Ordai patted her back  and asked if she wanted to turn the boats around, but Tai Lin promised that she would be fine. 

"This stuff just takes a second to sink in fully, that's all," she promised. "I'm fine now, really." 

There wasn't much else the girls or Po could say to her on the subject, so they went back to sitting on the boat and continued to row around on the lake, with everyone giving each other an assuring glance every so often. Po wasn't too comfortable with dropping the subject just like that, but since Tai Lin wasn't really much for talking about personal stuff, there wasn't much he could really do about it.