His eyes, searching the surface of the water, sees shifu, crane, mantis, viper, and monkey. But where is she. . He looks around. There she is, head lying down on the log. His heart skips a beat. She should be alive. She must be. If she's not, if she's ... no he does not let himself complete the sentence. He starts to swim towards her at once.
"Tigress", he whispers as soon as his breath allows him. He has just heard her breathing, heavy and painful. His paw finds hers which is colder than usual. She lifts her head and barely opens her eyes. She opens her mouth as if to say something, but lays down her head on the log in exhaustion.
As he raises his head he feels something that was creeping up his spine just like earlier that day, when he was inside that barrel and tigress was standing by his side, straight backed, ready to fight and support him. But this time it was not a snake and as his eyes meets the big round ones of Shen he realizes that it was something he had never felt this strongly before. Rage. It builds up as he watches the peacock out of his eyes, which were reduced to slits now. Shen smiles slightly and that does it. Unwilling as he was to let go, he gently releases her paw and softly pushes her log out of harms way.
She had screamed his name as she had pushed him out of the way of the cannon. He swims towards a small rock in the water, her voice still echoing in his ear. He is drenched as he pulls himself up on the rock but he doesn't feel the cold water. He closes his eyes. He can hear the distant sound of creaks as the cannons are re-positioned to be aimed right at him.
His feet move on their own accord as an inexplicable feeling of calmness comes over him. His arms gracefully position themselves for the battle as he slowly opens his eyes.