Where he was going? All the day, Tigress was impressed by something that never passed through her mind. She was impressed because of a snail. That snail was sliding. But sliding to where? The tiger had to figure it out.
The distance between the tiger and the snail was about fifteen feet. Tigress curiously and slowly walked toward the snail.
"Excuse me sir." She talked very calmly. But the snail only continued his way.
"Sir…" Nothing. Although Tigress tried to be polite with him, she was getting angrier and angrier, maybe because she didn't like being ignored.
"Sir!" now she talked harshly. But the snail only continued.
The tiger was thinking about the situation. She was an incredible master of kung fu, the leader of the Furious Five, and a master with fierce instincts. But now, she was following a small and slow snail, that doesn't even know she was behind him.
Tigress had to know where that snail was going, so she continued to follow him.
She walked, angry, but in silence.
Just after a few minutes the snail stopped and turned his head.
"Could you please step aside because your shadow hasn't let me receive sunlight since you appeared." the snail was very confident and calm while he was talking.
Tigress was surprised about it. She couldn't believe that the first words of that snail were for tell her if she could step aside.
"Okay…" she answered and stepped aside, still surprised.
"Thank you." said the snail and continued his way.
The tiger was astonished, and insulted.
"Sir you can't just ignore me like that!" Tigress now was really mad, that snail was really ignoring her.
"I'm not ignoring you," the snail answered without stopping, "if I was ignoring you, I would not even be paying attention to your existence. But all this time I knew you were watching me."
Tigress was calmed with those words. All her fury simply disappeared. The way that snail talked bring her a feeling of serenity.
"So if you weren't ignoring me, why you didn't said any word?" asked Tigress, now completely calmed.
"I said nothing until the moment you talked to me because I have nothing to say." answered the snail.
The tiger was confused. "What do you mean with that?"
"I mean that it wasn't my duty to start this conversation…it was yours."
'Mine? Why does my duty was to start a conversation with a stranger?' thought her. The situation was getting odd
"Answer me one question. Do you believe in destiny?" asked the snail.
"Well, yes. I think that all our life is already planned by the destiny." answered her, still confused.
"Don't answer me with the words of your master. I want you to tell me. Do you believe in destiny?"
"I don't know, sir."
On that moment the snail stopped his route, and continued the conversation with the tiger, now paying full attention to her.
"Why you followed me?" asked him.
"Because I was curious about you."
"About what?"
"About where did you were going." answered Tigress, pretty confident about herself.
"And what was the cause that brought you to watch at me?" asked the snail, very calmly.
"I don't know. I was walking through the village and got intrigued by the fact that you were sliding there, almost unnoticed by no one."
"And what brought you to the village?" The snail was asking a lot of questions, and Tigress began to find it tedious.
"My master gave me and my friends this day to rest and have a little bit of fun, so I decided to go to the village." answered the tiger.
"So, if you don't always are in the village, you don't live in the village. And by what you said about having a day to rest, I suppose you have trainings. And if you have trainings and you don´t always are in the village, I suppose that you are a kung fu master and you live in the Jade Palace, am I right?" asked the snail while smiling. He found the tiger's surprise amusing.
"Yes…you are right" Tigress was astonished because of the incredible ability of deduction that the snail had.
"Imagine that your master had not given you and your friends this day to rest. You would never have come to the village, and we would never have met ourselves."
Master Tigress was amazed by the way that snail thought.
"How can you think on that way? I mean, not everyone can think in such an intelligent way." Tigress said with a tone of perplexity.
"I have passed through enough experiences that have led me to think in this way."
"And how do you know so much?" asked Tigress, still perplexed.
"When you start to question everything, you begin to understand everything." The snail was so wise, even more than Master Shifu.
"Can I ask you something?" Although the tiger was enjoying that talk with the snail, she still wanted to know to where he was going.
"I don't know, can you?" answered the snail in a mocking way.
She asked very indiscreet, like if it was a secret, "well, I have a lot of curiosity of…where are you going?"
"I'm going where I have to go." answered immediately the snail.
Tigress didn't like that answer, so she started to get angry.
"But where is that place where you have to go?"
"I don't know, just know that I will know when I'll need to know." That answer really confused Tigress, but after a moment of reflection, she understood it.
It passed a time in which neither the snail nor the tiger talked, or made any noise.
There was a complete silence, but not an awkward silence. No. It was one that both of them needed, so they could meditate about everything.
After a few hours, the snail stopped near a big rock.
"Well, my fellow," he said, "here is where our journey end."
"Are we going to meet again?" Tigress was sad about the fact that that could be the only time she talked with such a wise animal.
"Maybe, but for now, remember one thing. Any path is going to take you to different and various experiences. Sometimes you don't know where are you going, but that isn't a reason to stop and return, because you never know what destiny have prepared for you. If you return, that doesn't mean that all is going to be like before. All the things occur by some reason. Your destiny gives you that reasons, but you have to discover them."
With those final words, the snail continued with his course, leaving a path that wasn't to him.
A striped tiger stayed there, watching his friend disappear at the same time that the sunlight disappeared. Tigress knew that she had to continue her path, and discover what experiences were waiting for her.