Something was bothering me.
Something was keeping me from sleep, so I reflected and focused on what it might be.
As I sat on the roof of the hall of warriors, gazing at the countless arrays of beautiful stars, the warm summer's night, and its cooling breeze penetrated my fur, and it felt good. It started to calm me down so I unconsciously started to purr.
Not many things can bother me; even fewer can trouble me to the point that I lose sleep over it. But the one thing that does is the anxiety of a gut feeling that something bad is going to happen soon. I don't know what will happen or when all I know is its going to happen and its going to be bad.
"You alright Tigress?" Crane asked landing behind me. I had heard him coming since he opened the door and walked outside back at the house.
"Yeah, just can't sleep." I replied dully, "Hey is there any kind of mission, or anything we might be going on soon?" I asked trying to ease my nerves. I stood up to face Crane, and stretching doing so.
He cocked his head and scratched his neck with his foot and said, "Well actually rumor has it that just outside the Haijin province that a village is under attack by a large rhino. They call him the Grey Demon, word has it that he can't be defeated" he sighed and continued, "And since we are the furious five we will most likely be sent to help the village." He finished.
Which didn't ease my nerves at all, but I gave him a smile and said, "Well just a way to get us out of the daily routine, and the chance to kick some butt. C'mon lets go back to bed." We jumped down to the ground and started back to the house.
It had been three months to the day since Tia Lungs defeat, and Po was basking in the glory. In my view he let it get to his head, sure he beat someone who nearly destroyed the Furious Five, but when you brag about how awesome you are every hour of everyday, it will get on the nerves of the best of people after a while.
We crept in silently and waved goodnight to each other and went to our rooms. I however still was annoyed that the panda's room was right across from mine and I could hear him snoring through the night. But I shrugged this off and climbed into bed for a nights rest.
Suddenly fog surrounded me as I found myself standing at the water's edge of a lake. I tried to look around me, trying to see what was going on, but I was stuck in place unable move a muscle.
What's going on? Where am I? How did I get here? I thought quickly. I was stuck focused on a small beam of light in the fog, which suddenly produced a large figure.
"You may move." Said a familiar voice, and it was done. I was relieved, I was about to go crazy.
"Master Oogway, is that you?" I asked looking around, trying to figure out where I was. I noticed I was standing on a shore line with lots of very uniform, smooth, rounded stones, which felt kind of good against my pads. Other than that the fog hid everything else that would have given a hint to my location.
"Yes my dear." Oogway said, emerging through the fog, floating with a weird tail looking thing.
I bowed to my deceased master. Then asked still bowed, "Master May I ask where we are?" I knew that Oogway could render himself into a physical state to talk to people in this realm, but I was told if such things ever happen it was to deliver bad news.
"Oh I believe you know this place very well Tigress." Oogway said now floating in front of me. "You may rise."
"But master I do not recognize this place at all." I said straitening up to face the former Grand Master.
"You are here at all times; this is the place you retreat to." Oogway said.
Most people would think this as literally a place, but the whole thing about me being here all the time gave me a hint. I was dreaming, but at the same time I wasn't. This was no ordinary dream. I could feel everything, the wind, rocks, everything.
"Master Tigress," Oogway said. I love it when he calls me master, "I have brought you here to warn you of great tribulations in your future. You will be facing a nearly unstoppable enemy; to defeat him you must relinquish your feelings of anger and resentment towards Po."
I opened my mouth to object, but Oogway intervened, "Do not protest Tigress. You know up to now you have not forgiven Po. You must Tigress; yours and other lives may depend on it." He said floating backwards now, back toward the fog. I bowed as he started to disappear in the fog.
"Thank you master for your advice, I will try to forgive Po with all my heart." I said still bowing.
"Good… good… until we meet again Tigress." He said, fading away into the fog.
Yes until we meet again, I thought, and then suddenly I was enveloped in darkness.
"Tigress! Tigress wake up." I heard someone say, but I couldn't tell who. I started to flutter my eyes open, but then a sharp pain enveloped my face. I shot up, claws extended, ready to tear something apart. I found that I was surrounded by the rest of the five, and Po holding his arms in front of his face. I looked around and noticed that the morning sun was shining through the rice paper walls.
"Whoa, easy I thought it would get you up, and I guess it worked." Said the culprit of my pain, Po.
"Po if you ever-."
"Enough, I allowed him to do it. Tigress get up, and meet me in the Hall of Warriors in ten minutes." Shifu said rather abruptly, and I just love being slapped and then having to get up immediately after waking.
Shifu turned and walked out, followed by everyone. As he was leaving Po turned and gave a smart alecy smile and wave, which I returned with a growl and a step in his direction. He yipped and ran out the door.
I quickly put on my day clothes and hastily groomed my fur to make myself at least presentable. I had to say, I'm not usually one to boast, but my orange fur, and black stripes did look rather magnificent. But I digress; still wondering what Master Shifu wanted to talk about, I walked out of my room and towards the hall. But I stopped in mid stride, memory of last night's dream, no vision, no… visiting hit me all at once. I wonder if I should tell Shifu or not, yeah I probably should.
I walked into the Hall of Warriors, and walked up to where Shifu was standing next to the Moon Pool. And fist in hand, I bowed to my master. Shifu bowed back, and said almost at a whisper, "Tigress did anything strange happen last night?"
I looked up dumfounded, how did he know? "Yes, Master I had a… visitation."
"I figured as much, you usually wake up when someone breathes in your room, let alone screaming and a slap to the face. Was It Oogway?"
"Yes Master."
"It is not my place to ask what he and you discussed, but I do need to ask is there anything bad about to happen?" Shifu said staring right into my eyes. I figured this must be pretty important.
I told my master everything about my talk with the creator of Kung Fu. "He told me that if I do not forgive Po, then we will not be able to defeat this menace, who we do not know yet." I said thinking about what Crane had said and making the connection that the gray demon may be this great tribulation.
Master Shifu sighed and started rubbing his drooping whiskers, "I feel that this terror may be the Gray demon." Shifu said ears flat against his head.
Well there you go.
"Right now he is terrorizing a village outside of the Haijin province." He added, although I knew this already I didn't dare to interrupt.
"Are we going to try and stop him?" I asked fully knowing the answer.
"Yes, but we will train first. There is something I must teach you all. Go and resume normal training, and I will instruct you all to a new technique later on. You are dismissed." Shifu said, and with that I bowed and turned towards the door.
"Tigress..."
I stopped turning my head slightly, "Yes master?"
"Remember you must forgive Po."
"…Yes master." I said and walked out the door.
Walking down to the training hall I could hear Po and the others were sparing. As i walked up to the hall I stopped before opening the doors, how am I going to forgive Po? Come to think about it I don't think I've forgiven anybody for anything. I sighed, I guess I'll just have to try.
I pushed open the doors to find two on two sparing, Monkey with Mantis, and Viper with Crane, with Po sitting on the sidelines cheering, of course. I rolled my eyes and walked past the battle now raging on top of the Jade Tortoise. I glanced over to the battle just at the right time to see Monkey get tossed into the gauntlet of the wooden warriors. He received a wooden arm to the stomach and a leg to the crotch. I grimaced as he stood up almost whimpering in pain. He called a time-out and the sparring stopped.
I continued over to Po who was trying unsuccessfully to control his laughter.
"Hey Po, um wanna spar?" I asked walking up to him, still thinking how I was going to forgive him. But I growled and bared my teeth playfully at him as an 'I dare you' kind of thing.
"Sure lets head outside don't feel like meeting the same fate as Monkey again." Po replied cheerfully.
I took one last look at Monkey to make sure he was alright. He was doubled over, holding himself. I figured he'd be alright.
Po and I headed just outside the training hall where Po first met the wrath of Shifu. Once we were ready, we bowed to each other, and took our stances. I took my signature stance with Po making an attempt at a Crane style, with both arms parallel to the ground, and one foot raised. This in turn made him completely unbalanced.
I took this to my advantage by running at him and before he could react I jumped up and landed a spinning back kick onto the panda's chest throwing him to the ground. He landed with a loud thud followed by him trying to regain his breath.
"Oh c'mon Po, I should expect more from the Dragon Warrior." I said urging him on. I walked over to him holding out my hand to help him up. He gladly took it, now that his lungs were filled with air again.
Suddenly I felt a jerk and the sensation of falling, I let out an uncharacteristic feline screech, and before I could land on all fours I hit the ground, hard.
No he did not…
I'm going to kill him.
He took advantage of me helping him! Knowing that I probably would have done the same thing I just picked myself up off the ground and growled at him. He stood there with a mischievous grin on his face. I let my tail twitch wildly, a sign that he just tweaked a nerve.
"I'm gonna wipe that smile off your face, master." I said lunging at him throwing an open palm tiger strike aimed right at his head. He dodged pretty skillfully, and countered with a large furry arm intended for my stomach. But I countered that by jumping in the air and landing behind him. He turned to face me and was met with a roundhouse kick to the face.
I could have sworn I knocked out a tooth, but I didn't get the satisfaction of knowing at that moment. He quickly rebounded, jumped in the air, and while I was gawking at the giant panda in the air, he drop kicked me square in the chest. I went flying into the wall almost breaking through it. The kick hurt really badly not just because I was a female, but because he was just plain getting stronger each and every day.
I stood up growling lowly, and wiping the shards of wall off my shoulders. To try and intimidate him I cracked my knuckles, all the while keeping up a death stare that would have scared Shifu.
It worked.
His smile disappeared from his face, and he turned to run. Reacting quickly I ran at him and pounced. I pinned him down so that I was on his back. I raised my fist to bring it down onto the back of his head, but was stopped when a boney hand clamped around my wrist just as I was about to bring it down.
"Nice to see you have forgiven him, Tigress." He said sarcastically releasing my hand.
I immediately jumped off of Po and bowed to my master, "Master forgive me, I lost my temper."
"Yes I know, Po get up and follow us. I have to teach all of you something." Shifu sighed turning towards the training hall.
I gave one last growl at Po and followed the Grandmaster into the building.
"Sheesh what's her problem?" I heard him mutter, getting off the ground.
We walked into the hall and Shifu called the rest of the five over. We stood around him in a semi circle bowed and listened to what our master had to say.
"The technique that I will be teaching you is the Strike of the Inferno."
My ears perked up at this, now he had my attention.
"You must first harness your Chi…" Shifu said.
He closed his eyes, moved his hands into tiger claws, and started moving his arms in a circular motion. We all took a step back. My feline eyes caught something weird going on with his hands, no… in his hands.
Suddenly his arms stopped moving, with his hands meeting together right in front of his chest. I squinted my eyes to see something I've only read about, Chi in visible form. It looked like a dark blue flame dancing, but formed into a ball in his palms. It was a magnificent sight of control and pure power right in front of my eyes.
Then with a roar he spun around towards the door and shot the ball of energy right at the doors. It hit the entrance with incredible force, splintering the giant wooden doors into thousands of tiny pieces.
"That is so awesome." I heard Po whisper.
Shifu was breathing hard almost collapsing to his knees, "This is the only down side to this technique. It drains you of your energy, literally." After a pause, it was then when I realized my mouth was hanging open. I quickly shut it and then Shifu continued,
"Master Flaming Tiger created this to protect his village from the Army of the Ice Warlord. He was a ruthless snow leopard who controlled an army just as unforgiving. One day after finding out that his raiding party he sent to the village had been destroyed by one tiger, he was furious. The warlord sent his whole army to annihilate the tiger. They reached the village and confronted the tiger; his name by the way was simply Hoi Jhong. Faced with ten thousand screaming soldiers, he ran. He led them far away from his village and let them surround him. Jhong harnessed his Chi, to the point where he was encircled in a flaming ball of it. It is said with a roar that could be heard for a thousand miles, he released his energy. The ball of chi expanded destroying everything in its path including Hoi. The blast was a mile wide; all that was left was charred earth and trees." He paused again to catch his breath.
"That is why you mustn't use this technique unless it is in a small scale, as I have shown you. Or as a last ditch effort when your backs against the wall. For this I will not allow you to practice this move. You may only practice harnessing your Chi, do it now."
Mantis, Crane, and Viper made their own ways of preformong this move. The weirdest though, being Viper. She whipped her tail around in a circular motion to harness her Chi.
We practiced gathering up our Chi into our hands, then unsatisfactorily let it dissipate back into our bodies. Hour after hour of this made us all dead tired, Shifu let us call it a day, and we all headed to the kitchen for dinner.
Maybe if I try some of his soup that will be the first step to forgiveness.
"Hey Po give me a bowl."
Everyone stopped talking and looked at me; Po even dropped his ladle into the pot he was cooking in.
"What? I just figured I would try some of this famous soup." I defended.
Po smiled, and simply said, "Ok"
After cooking was done Po slid a bowl to me, and I took a sip of it and to my surprise I really liked it. Not trying to hide my satisfaction I grabbed the bowl with two hands and gulped it down. Putting down the bowl I sat back and let out the mother of all burps.
Everyone around me stared once again. I looked around; I blushed under my fur, now completely and utterly embarrassed. Then Shifu poked his head into the room to see what just happened.
"Now that was a burp." Po said erupting in laughter. Soon followed by everyone else, I even saw Shifu smirk as he withdrew his head.
We were all in good spirits that night heading to bed but one thing still bothered me.
I had to try that technique.
I waited until everyone had gone to sleep and the sound of Po's snoring covered my movement. I snuck out down to the courtyard and headed far into the forest. I soon found what I had been looking for, a cave.
I found the cave years ago, back when I first started living at the jade palace. I used to come here to get away from training every once and a while.
I entered the cave cautiously, remembering that I haven't been here in over a year. I delved deeper into the cave until I found it. It was a large room filled with columns of rock that went from ceiling to floor… the perfect targets.
I walked up to a pillar of stone brought my hand up and touched it. I felt its smooth weathered surface. I figured it must have taken a thousand years to create it, I almost felt bad for what I was about to do to it.
I stepped back, closed my eyes, then started moving my arms in a circular motion, I focused hard, feeling the Chi rise up in me. I felt the heat growing in my hands, and before I couldn't stand it anymore, I stopped waving my arms meeting them together in front of me. Opening my eyes I saw just how beautifully it lit up the cave, a blue light danced all around. With a roar I unleashed my Chi straight into the column. The rock pillar shattered, crumbling and sending pieces of rocks flying in the direction of the blast.
"Wow…" I breathed feeling just how Shifu had.
Then there was a deafening silence. I sat down on a large rock that had been detached from my attack.
That was completely and utterly awes-.
All of the sudden the cave started shaking and throwing rocks from the ceiling. Acting quickly I ran for the exit, although I couldn't run fast because I was tired. But I ran, I ran with every ounce of my being, but it was not enough. I stopped and watched the exit crumble before me into an impassable way out. I sunk to my knees, knowing I couldn't perform my newfound technique, I just felt helpless. Just the way I did when I was back at the orphanage.
I started to cry at the recollection of my suppressed memories, but stopped abruptly as a boulder came down on my head knocking me out cold.
Well hope you liked it, I'll work on chapter 2 as soon as I can, Please review. I do like constructive criticism.
DISCLAIMER: Kung Fu Panda and its characters are owned by DreamWorks. Except for Hoi Jhong he is mine...