As children, we tend to cherish everything we receive. This ranges from love from our family's, to the bonds we form when we meet new people. However though, most of us tend to forget those times and what he were given as young ones, but there are some who through the years keep those things. Not only to remind us of the simpler times, but to also remind us of those who helped us through tuff times and gave us a new light to look to. In order for us to understand this though, especially for her, we must turn back the clock to when she was only a seven year old warrior, when her heart hadn't become solid with stone and was still a somewhat open person. As on this faithful day, she came across someone and something that she would hold dear forever, but we will get to that later. For now, we enter the jade palace, and witness the young cub training her heart out.
"Focus Tigress, you have to focus one more then one thing." A stern much younger Shiuf told his pupil, watching her train on the spinning dragon and swinging clubs.
"I'm trying Shifu." Tigress stated seriously, dodging a swinging club while also keeping her balance.
"Don't try, do it." He told her, seeing her focus on but one of the swinging clubs while not noticing she was heading for them.
"I think I'm getting the hang of it master." She said with a bright smile, jumping out of the club she focused on. Only when she jumped, she put herself into the others way and with a loud thud, hit the front of her body.
"Ahhhhh!" Tigress screamed with a little pain, feeling the brunt force of the wood fling her back onto hard wood floor. As she laid there on the ground, showing a face of anger and sadness at her failure, Shifu shook his head and walked over to her.
"I think that's enough training for today Tigress, we'll pick it up tomorrow." Shifu stated with a little bit of disappointment in his tone. Hearing this, Tigress shook herself off and stood back onto her feet and looked at her master.
"Please Shifu, I can do this. I just need a little more practice and I'll be a master at that course," Tigress said, her eyes pleading to him to let her continue some more for today. The old red panda only let out a sigh, and turned his back to her.
"Like I said, trainings over for today. You can practice more tomorrow, is that understood Tigress?" Shifu questioned her, the tiger could only clench her fists in a bit of anger but eventually placed her paws together and bowed to him.
"Understood Master Shifu. If trainings over, than may I go down to the valley and look at the sights?" Tigress asked her master, hoping he would at least say yes to this one request of hers. His hears twitched at the question, and began to wander if he should or not, he know though it was the least he could do for her.
"Very well, you may go. You only have two hours though, so please make them count." Shifu said quietly, he then began to make his way out of the training hall, just after he heard a 'thank you'. With her Masters now approved permission, the young cub quickly ventured out of the jade palace and into the courtyard, where she took in the sun and the nature that was around.
"Hu, I may love to train but nothing beats a calm day." Tigress said to herself in a happy tone. With as quickly as she entered the courtyard, she left just as quick, making her way down the palace stairs and looking down at the valley she was getting closer to. As she did, there was something that began to bother her warm nature, which soon became a little cold.
"What are you doing? Are you crazy? They are just going to stare at you with glares!" Her mind told her heavily, she only shook her head of the thought, only to have another one replace the last one.
"You know it's true, why go to a place that called you monster and nothing more?" Her mind asked her once again, she then stopped in her tracks and put her paw on her head and clenched.
"No, things are different. I'm the student of the great Shifu, I help protect people. That won't ever happen again, ok!" Tigress said with anger, almost battling her own self and her internal feelings. Her mind then seemed to stop with the horrible thoughts after that, making her continue her way down to the valley which she reached in about 20 minutes.
"Now than, what should I go look at?" The feline asked, looking at all the venders and customers that were swarming the streets, along with some children playing together. She then began to make her way through the crowds, but as she did, some of the people were giving her odd looks and whispering among themselves.
"I heard that she actually mauled one of the orphans in a fit of rage."
"I heard that even Shifu can't train her, and he's supposed to be the best."
"I know one thing, I sure don't want her around my kids."
The whispers continued liked that, luckily they were out of view from Tigress and none of them was carried over into her hears. What happened next however, was all but loud and clear for her. As she walked up to a small pottery stand and began to admire the creationist that were sitting on the table. The vendor, who was a pig that wore a blue and silver lining shirt tensed up at the sight of her.
"Hello," Tigress said with a friendly smile, looking at the pig who had a look of disgust on his face.
"What do you want?" He asked, trying to sound polite but anyone around could hear the venom in his question.
"I was just looking, these are very beautiful pieces. Especially this one," As she looked at a pottery that was in the shape of a dragon and was curled around some sort of pole.
"May I hold it? Just to get a better look?" Tigress asked curiously, the vendor almost told her a flat out no, but he may have scared of some customers doing that. So reluctantly, he told her 'Yes' with the ok, she gently picked it up and began to look at the craftsmanship, like the scales of the dragon and the carvings on the pole. Little did she know, two punks caught the site of her and smiled to each other. One being a black leopard and the other a yellow cheetah, they slowly creeped closer to her as they were walking up to the side of her.
"On three ok." The leopard said, the cheetah only nodded.
"One..." 5 steps away.
"Two..." 3 steps away.
"Three..." They were now right beside her and with a gentle shove from the other, the leopard pushed into Tigress, causing her to loose her grip on the piece. Her eyes then started to become horrified as she slowly watched it fall to the ground.
"NO!" The vendor screamed, only for the piece to be shattered on the ground right in front of the tiger, the cheetah and leopard only laughed.
"You should watch were your going." They both said, walking off in the distance, but Tigress didn't listen to them, as her focus was still on the shattered pottery.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." She said with sadness, trying to pick up the pieces and put them together, it was at that point though, the vendor let loose his anger into her.
"Of course you did! You break everything you touch and your just a complete nuisance to everyone!" He shouted, gaining the attention of in going villagers, Tigress then began to slowly back away from the stand, feeling water form in her eyes.
"But, those two pushed into me. If they hadn't I wouldn't of dropped it. You have to know that wasn't my fault." Tigress told him, feeling a bit scared with all the looks that were in their direction.
"Excuses, I shouldn't of let you hold it. Especially the monster not even her parents wanted to keep, get out of here now!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, Tigress could then feel water running down her cheeks and in a swift motion, clenched her fists and ran off to be out of everyone's sight. She eventually came to a small alleyway and hid herself in it, making sure no one was there, she sat against the wall and began to hold her knees to her chest.
"I said I was sorry," Tigress chocked out, closing her eyes and burying her head in her legs.
"You were right Tigress, nothing's changed. They all a still look at you with disgust, why? No matter what I do, it's never good enough for them, why did you have to do this to me mom and dad? Why didn't you keep me with you?" Tigress asked with anger, picking up a small can that was next to her and threw it as hard as she could at the wall if don't of her, which made a ding noise.
"Maybe I should just run away. It has to be better than this place, there's no one here that cares for me. Shifu doesn't even call me his daughter," Tigress told herself, wandering what she should do. Just as she was though, her hears could pick up the faint sounds of someone in trouble. The sound of help soon came into view, where she was a black and white panda being surrounded by three what seemed to be bullies.
"Come on you fat panda, hand it over!" Demanded a small goat boy.
"No, my dad gave me money for this. It's mine," The panda said, clenching whatever they wanted close to his chest. Tigress soon wiped away her tears and began to slowly maker her way to them, trying to stay hidden.
"Who cares, I don't. So either hand it over, or get a pounding." A heavy set pig boy said, putting his fist into his hand and grinning.
"That actually sounds good to me. I like the whole take by force thing anyways." The last bully stated who was a ram. The three then began to close on him, making him back into the ally way.
"Get back, or I'll use my Kung fu on you." Po threatened, trying to get into a fighting stance, doing this only made the others laugh.
"Please, I doubt you know a thing about Kung fu." The goat stated edging closer to the panda, but hearing the word Kung fu made Tigress eyes widen, there was someone else into Kung fu?
"I've seen people do Kung fu, like master Shifu and Tigress!" Po admitted, showing an angry face to them and could feel his heart beating quicker.
"So, an old man, and a freak?" The pig squealed with laughter, not believing what he just heard from the fat bear. Said bear though, brought a fist out and was ready to fight for his heroes.
"Don't you mock them. They are greater then you'll ever be." He smiled, Tigress felt her heart lighten from the pain before, as right before her was someone who actually admired her, her! That's why what happened next, brought her to a rage.
"I've heard enough!" The ram shouted, sending a huge punch to the pandas face, completely knocking him down onto the ground and for what he was holding to roll out of his paw and next to Tigress. Unfortunately, the only thing she was focused on was the bully's, as she stepped out of the darkness into view.
"Your gonna pay for that." She snarled as a dazed Po laid next to her with some blood coming from his nose. When the bullies saw her, two of them the Rama and pig had a look of fear in their faces, while the goat just looked at her.
"Oh am I? Me and my friends disagree with you." He said with a smirk, only for Tigress to grin back and point behind him. He followed her paw and saw that the two had run off as quickly as possible.
"So, I don't need them! I can take you on my own freak." He stated, but his heart and mind would disagree with him. Tigress could see this and knew with the right push, he would run away screaming like a scared brat. So, she brought her sharp claws out and began to show her white teeth to him in a snarl.
"Raaaaaaaaaaaah!" She roared like a tiger in the wild. The bully became frozen with fear until his mind caught up with him, and let his feet carry him to safety. Once he was gone, she brought back in her tiger features and knelt down to the panda.
"Hey, are you ok?" Tigress asked, putting her paws on his shoulder and lightly began to shake him. It seemed to be working as he began to grunt and turn his head.
"There you go panda, just take it easy." She told him with a smile, the panda then began to blink his eyes slowly, trying to catch his vision back. After a few moments of that, his vision started to become clear once again, and when he saw who was next to him, he had a lock of shock.
"It can't be, are you the real Tigress?" He asked with a gaping mouth, the feline could look at him with a confused face.
"As fare as I know I am." She stated, slowly helping the panda sit up.
"I knew it, I'm sorry, I don't mean to freak you out. I just never thought I would ever meet you in person, let alone talk to you." The panda admitted with a happy tone, forgetting he just got punched in the face if it wasn't for the small blood coming from his nose. The tiger began to look for something that could help with it and find a somewhat dirty cloth, picking it up she brought it to him.
"I see, here this should help." Tigress said, handing the cloth over to him to which he gladly took it and pressed it against his nose.
"Thanks Tigress." As the panda began to try and stop the bleeding, the feline couldn't help but wander something.
"Why were they after you? What did you have that they wanted?" She asked, wandering what could kids possibly want to beat another kid up. The panda then began to look around for the object he had until he noticed it behind them.
"It was that." Pointing to the small object. Tigress slowly walked over to the object and picked it up. As in her paw was a small foam red ball and that was all.
"They wanted this? Isn't it just a ball you can buy anywhere?" Tigress asked, confused by why such an object could cause such harm to someone.
"You can but, my dad gave me money for this ball. In a way, it's from him and I didn't want those bullies to have what he gave me," Po told her after she handed the red ball over to him. In a way, she was confused by this, couldn't his dad just get him another ball? Why not just give it to them and tell his dad what happened?
"By the way, my names Po, sorry not mentioning it sooner." Po said, holding out a paw to her which she seemed to be reluctant to take.
"Something wrong?" Po asked with concern in his voice.
"It's just, I don't get anybody wanting a paw shake from me. Your actually the second person who isn't scared of me, with Shifu being the first." Tigress told him, which made him wander why that was. To him, she was a great person and full of life, a great fighter and an awesome person.
"I'm sorry to hear that, but let me tell you they don't know what they are missing. I think your just plain awesome and cool." Po stated with a big smile on his face, she then to couldn't help but small a little and for her to shake his paw.
"Thanks Po, I'm really happy you said that. I needed that more than you know." Tigress stated, sitting next to Po and when she did, he looked at his small red ball and placed it in her lap.
"Here, I want you to have this Tigress." The feline the picked up the ball and looked over at him with shock and awe on her face.
"Why though Po? Shouldn't you keep it?" Po only shook his head.
"Well it's like you said, not a lot of people know the real you. I want this to be a reminder of your very first fan and friend Tigress." Hearing such sweet words instead of ugly and mean ones, she couldn't help but hold the ball close to her chest and give a hug to the panda.
"I'll keep it safe and sound as long as I live, my friend." The panda smiled brightly from that and returned the hug to his new friend. However though, time was short for her and she knew she needed to head back to the palace or else. Getting up from her seat, she went to the alleyway entrance and looked back at Po.
"I hope I see you again Po. I truly do." With that and a wave, she began her journey back to the palace. Keeping the ball hidden from the villagers so no one would take it from, and for the first time in her life, she knew what it was like to have someone who cared and saw her for her. Back in the alleyway Po had the same wish as he muttered "So do I... Tigress." Though it would be years until they saw each other again, it was none the less exciting for them and eventually, that friendship blossomed into something more.
21 years later
"You ready Ti?" A now matured Po asked, as he was wearing a tux and was in Tigress's room.
"Almost, I just need to put something away." A matured Tigress said who was wearing a red and black dress and was holding something behind her back. The panda gave a nod and closed her door, he than began to wait outside for her. When he did that, she pulled the paw that was behind her back to her front and in it laid the small red ball from all those years ago.
"Ready as I ever will be, my love." She then kissed the ball and placed it in a drawer, where it would be passed down to their children who would hear the story of how their father and mother first met on that life changing day.
Hope you guys liked this, leave a review telling me what you thought, thanks.