Tigress watched calmly as her master used the panda's weight and momentum against him. A blur of black and white was all that could be seen as Shifu spun the "Dragon Warrior".
'Humph, Dragon Warrior,' the tiger scoffed to herself. 'I can't believe Master Oogway would choose this...joke as the Dragon Warrior.' She thought back to yesterday when the whole valley had gathered to see one of the Furious Five receive the much coveted title and with it, the power of the Dragon Scroll. It had been a foregone conclusion that she, Master Tigress the master of Hard-Style, would be chosen.
Then the unthinkable happened.
In a burst of fireworks, a large black and white furball crashed into the courtyard right in front of her, blocking Master Oogway from selecting her. This panda, who obviously had never seen a day of exercise, much less kung fu training, in his life, became the Dragon Warrior purely by accident and Tigress was bitterly disappointed and furious. Mostly furious.
But not as furious as Shifu it seemed. He had vowed to force the panda to quit by the following morning. If anyone could do it, she'd thought, Master Shifu could.
His first step had been to introduce the panda to the training Hall. Tigress was honestly surprised that the panda had even survived the run-through of the gauntlet. The stench of scorched fur would linger for sure.
Her first run-in with the panda occurred that evening as everyone was bedding down. It was hard not to hear the panda creeping down the hall, considering he managed to hit every squeaky board there was.
The conversation she overheard between the panda and Crane only served to drive home the point that this...fanboy had no respect for kung fu and no place in the Jade Palace. She made sure to tell the panda exactly that. His response of "big fan" only made her roll her eyes.
So when they discovered the panda missing that morning, the slight feeling of disappointment that hit her stomach surprised the tiger. Surely it was due to being unable to prove her superiority over the panda to Master Oogway. Then, when they found him attempting a split, the cooling sense of relief was for having that chance returned, right? And the flutter when the panda tried to claim a souvenir of her kung fu prowess was not her being flattered. Obviously.
'Although,' she admitted begrudgingly as the day wore on, 'he really doesn't know when to give up.'
Master Shifu had pitted each of the Five against the panda and every time he had been knocked down, sometimes quite brutally. Despite these defeats, the panda always bounced back with exclamations of joy and admiration for the kung fu masters. Tigress could only shake her head when he got excited about blocking a single attack of a Bo staff before being rapped smartly on the head shortly afterwards.
Now she watched as Shifu, who had become exasperated by the panda's attitude, gained a painful looking grip on his nose. Her master was delivering a speech on how to make an enemy submit, when the panda said something that made the tiger pause.
"But a real warrior nevers quits. Don't worry, master. I will never quit."
The words had an adverse reaction in Master Shifu. He proceeded to bounce the panda down the long and torturous stairway, his anger and contempt crystal clear. However, Tigress felt a small spark, a touch of hope, that perhaps, just maybe, Master Oogway had chosen a worthy candidate for the Dragon Warrior.
She observed the panda as he continued to bounce towards the village. "If he's smart, he won't come back up those steps," she growled, even as she prayed otherwise.
"But he will," replied Monkey.
Tigress hoped so, as the tenacity and stubbornness necessary for becoming a kung fu master really had nothing to do with intelligence.
"He's not going to quit, is he?" Viper worried.
Turning away, Tigress barely heard Mantis's cheeky reply. That small seed of hope was growing, nurtured by one panda's apparent inability to give up.
