FIVE YEARS OLD
I hated this place. Why did my parents have give me away? Did they not love me? Did they find me as a monster too? I sat in the corner of my own room and put my head in my lap. I wanted to run away and never come back. Then I heard the door open, I thought it was the matron with my lunch, but it wasn't.
"Tigress?" the voice said. I turned my head slightly and narrowed my eyes. It was an old man, with big ears; he was dressed in an all brown robe.
"I am Master Shifu. I am-"
"Afraid?" I asked. If he wasn't here to take me out of this place I didn't want to hear it. He stepped forward and shut the door behind him.
"No."
"Well, you should be! I am Tigress, Tigress the monster! A monster no one wants." I said on the break of crying.
"You are not a monster. You're just a little girl." I turned around and looked at Master Shifu, who had a line of dominoes already set up.
"Let us play." he said as he picked up a domino and handed it to me. I didn't want to break it, but I took it into my paw and I snapped it in half. I threw it across the room and Master Shifu caught it in a lighting quick move, and held it out for me to see.
"You must learn to control your strength." And so the training began.
THE NEXT DAY
"This game requires discipline," Master Shifu said as he begin making slow, graceful arm movements. "Precision." I tried attempt to copy him. "A still hand…and a steady heart." But then I accidentally put my fist though the wall and I guess I scared the Matron and some orphans that were standing on the other side.
"Focus." Shifu told me. I groaned. Shifu tosses seven tiles into the air and leaps up and grabs them with one hand; when he lands, he reveals the tiles expertly piled on top of each other in his hand. Now it's my turn. Shifu throws them in the air again, and I leap up and grab them. When I land, much to my dismay that her strength has reduced them to splinters. I toss them away in anger. Why can't I get it?
"Again." Shifu tells me. So weeks turns into months and started making progress. And this time when Shifu throws the tiles into the air, and I leap up and caught them they were in one piece!
A FEW MONTHS LATER
One day in the courtyard I begin to gracefully place dozens of dominoes on the floor, while the Matron and the orphans watch. Eventually, I was sitting in a circular gap in the middle of the group of dominoes. Once I was done I looked up to Shifu, and he give me an encouraging nod. Then I gently tap one of the tiles, and all of the dominoes all topple over into a Yin Yang symbol.
Shifu give me a satisfaction smile when the other orphans cheered and hugged me. And I even thought the other orphans how to play with the tiles. The next day the bell rings and the other orphans and I looked up as the doors opens to reveal a group of adults.
'Would I find a family?' I asked myself.
As the adults picked their new child and walked home to enjoy their new lives, but for me I would still be here and no one would want me.
"Come on dear. There's always next time." The Matron lead me back inside. I walked over to the table and sat and waited for the Matron to bring me lunch. We talked and ate before she left to go do some office work. I still had one of the dominos and stood it on the table's surface.
Then Shifu came and places another domino next to mine's.
"Shifu!" I said.
"Come, let us go home." he said as he turns to leave. I flip in the air with joy and runs after my new foster father. Though he maintained a stern expression throughout my training, he give me a brief small but genuinely sweet as we left the orphanage.
The next chapter will be up on Saturday. The next chapter is going to be when Tigress is fifteen and she meets Crane and Monkey...