I.
The air in the Jade Palace is warm, bright, saturated with his presence. His every move, every verse, and eye shines with something more than pride, a lamp used by the other, and the light of greatness.
Hidden behind a column, the small tigress admires him with shining eyes, a paw on her chest and helding her breath at his every difficult move.
The spots on his coat move hypnotically, as if they are dancing. A guttural verse comes out from his mouth while he lands in the ground with a jump. Nothing seems out of his reach. Tigress cannot explain why, but the more she look him, the more her heart and her mind are going crazy.
He'd returned to the palace a week before completely covered with blood, with a victorious expression. The voices of the defeat of Black Hawk, determined to conquer the Valley of Peace, came very soon. Tai Lung the Hero, the Defender of the weaks. For one more time he'd averted a tragedy.
It had been organized a sumptuous feast in his honor, from which he was discharged early to diligently continue his training. Before going to sleep he had embraced her, giving her a kiss and putting her to bed.
Her older brother. Her best friend.
The oath is formed Tigress' lips at the exact moment when his right leg across a wall of bricks, pulverizing it.
One day I'll be like you. I swear.
III.
Her eyes rest in disbelief on that strange face, those aggressive features and arrogant smile.
He is not changed at all, but it's like he isn't him.
-Where is the Dragon Warrior?
The casual tone, the silky and masculine voice, his arrogant posture. All things that are deeply repugnant.
Yet...
The disgust increases when she realizes that she cannot help but to dwell on his perfect abs.
The way in which the eyes of man examine without restraint her forms makes her even more desire to throw him off the bridge.
IV.
Tigre awakens in a cave that she does not recognize. A small fire is blazing near her.
They have lost. Where are the others? She is no longer paralyzed, but her arms and legs are blocked by very strong ropes.
He is there, a few steps from her. He is holding a poker.
-Now I'll make you some questions. If you do not answer me, I assure you will cry. Very.
*
And the cries, when the pride is not enough to hold them, arrive. Suddenly everything goes dark; while life abandons her, the last thing she sees are his luminous eyes, and the sharp fangs of his smile.
*
Even in the oblivion she feels the pain. Unfortunately she isn't dead.
*
When she wakes up he is licking her ear. She notes that her hands and arms are free. Her clothes are finished next to the campfire, a little 'too close to the flame.
-Listen to me. – He says while he's spreading her legs. -Shifu betrayed both of us...
Then there are just empty words, that she doesn't listen. She doesn't want to hear them. Shifu has stolen her love. Shifu has treated her unfairly. He'd denied her the Scroll, to entrust it to a fat a panda.
Then finally, when he enters in her like the poker that he used before to torture her, she can no longer restrain herself. She drops a tear. And another. And yet another.
Because she knows that deep down, in the darkest recesses of her wounded pride, she listened.
V.
His body lies sprawled in one of the many narrow streets between the houses in the village of the Valley, along with many others, reduced the same way. Tigress see only him.
He looks like a giant broken doll, that a spoiled child has repeatedly banged on the wall for to enjoy himself. The parts of his coat that were once white are scarlet now. His blood stain a large portion of land, with other fluids and entrails spilling out from the huge hole that starts from his shoulder blades and arrives to the genitals. Another cut across his throat, just below the chin.
It looks like a grin.
His eyes are fixed on the sky, green innocent grass. There is no fear in them, but hope.
Tigress imagine the scene: Po tries in vain to explain to Tai Lung the teaching of the Scroll, while the latter breaks his belly. He screams, while his insides are launched into the air. And finally the coup de grace. His only act of charity, but also a joke.
That gash on his neck...
Tigress starts to cry.
*
Shifu dies with dignity, without uttering a cry. The claws of Tai Lung are quick and silent, strangely not making the debacle that was done to others.
Tigress observes the scene from afar, unable to participate in the murder or to prevent it. The teacher has turned its final look at her, only her, blame, hatred, pain, anger, only for her.
Then he approaches, he takes her with his red paws and kisses her passionately. Somewhere in her chest, her heart leaps, while she would be stay away from this executioner. Tai Lung the Murderer.
Her resistance is weak. The wet she feels between her legs made her understand that she's overlooking a deep ravine, one in which the rationale no longer makes sense.
*
The faces of Crane, Monkey, Viper, and Mantis and the way in which the were dead haunts her like hideous specters, while she warms up the cold night along with Tai Lung.
*
He moans and groans in his sleep.
-Do not hurt me-he says. -Please.
One word whale in her mind.
Chor-gom.
Tigress comes back to sleep.
VI.
Her flight began days ago, when the imperial army was able to trace them. They wanted to have some fun 'with them, but then logic had been right about madness.
All she hears is the wind that whistles in her ears and her fur flattened by the current, and she doesn't want to think about anything else.
She's alone.
*
She stops only when she realizes that there is a ravine below her. She slows down the pace, until she reaches the edge of steep. In her mind there is only black rage and confusion. She's tired. She's distanced the soldiers for a long time, but continued to run the same.
She think back to the ghosts from which she fled, her best friends from the past. Crane, Mantis, Monkey, Viper.
Po.
Shifu...
A tear falls on the grass.
The following one is dried away with a gesture of annoyance, while a dark, pungent and putrid pile ups in her throat, crushing her heart.
*
She killed him.
She could not do otherwise.
She's stabbed him in the late hour later of the night, using the hot iron with which he had tortured her some time before.
His eyes are wide open on his death, watching at first without understanding the poker and then her. After a moment the awareness appeared in his face, along with something else.
Tigress has not been able (willing) to understand.
*
She thinks back to the people she has lost, to the man who she has always wanted and appreciated. The hidden to the monster inside him.
For the first and last time she askes herself which one she has ever loved.
Holding the tears does more harm now.
Despite the visceral hatred and loathing for what her brother had become of, she misses him terribly.
(He was sad ...?)
She's alone.
When the tears finally drops down abundantly, she already knows the answers to her questions.
II. The wonderful feel of her little body curled up on his broad chest. The warm and soft coat that caresses her cheek, but with a different way respect of her paws. -What can I tell you? The pleasant vibration of his voice. Everything in that moment is warmth and joy. -Whatever you want! Indeed... imagine it! Her heart is filled with great happiness when he laughs. -There is no need, little Ti. Once upon a time a brave warrior ... And while the words flow one after another from his mouth Tigress closes her eyes, rocked by their sound. She'd remembered that moment forever.
-Tai-Tai, can you tell me a story?