Chapter 2

With Tigress somewhere around the Palace doing her own thing, Po wandered around looking for something to do. While looking around, he pondered why Tigress was so against staying behind with him. Ever since he defeated Tai Lung she seems to have been getting less and less nice around him. In fact, she downright hated him, and it always killed him on the inside. Maybe while the others were gone, he could figure out what was up with her and try to make peace.

While thinking about it, Po didn't realize that he was wandering aimlessly through the halls. The Palace was such a large place that he actually got lost. As he tried to find some familiar surroundings, he stumbled across a strange looking door. "Hm, that's funny. I don't remember ever seeing this door." Po stated before inching his way towards it.

Curiosity got the best of him and he grabbed the knob, twisted it, and slowly cracked open the door. Peering inside, he saw that it was too dark to see anything, so he lit a lantern from the hallway and tip-toed inside. Eerie was the best word to describe it.

"There's got to be some kind of light source in here....OW!" He shouted as he banged his head on what seemed to be some sort of hanging protrusion. Upon closer inspection, he found it to be a lantern. He lit the lantern which sent the flame up a wire to light what appeared to be hundreds of lanterns, all illuminating a very large room of treasures. To say the least, Po's jaw hit the floor.

The room was filled with neatly showcased Kung Fu relics, some of which, amazingly, Po had never even seen or heard about before. "Whooooooa, so freakin' awesome!" He shouted as he surveyed the rooms many wonders. Unknown Kung Fu scrolls, battle armor, magic talismans, all of which were starting to make Po shed a tear of joy. While gawking at the many items, he became entranced by one specific relic, a jewel encrusted box.

He had never seen anything like it. The lid was covered with rubies that were in the shape of a dragon. The sides were jade crystals that formed the image of a longer dragon. The lock was what looked like a dragon's claw that latched onto four loops, one for each claw. As Po became more enamored by the masterpiece, he had an idea.

"If I give this to Tigress as a present, maybe she would finally at least like me. Probably not, but it's worth a try." Po picked up the box, but then Shifu's voice echoed in his head, Don't touch anything that even remotely resembles a Kung Fu artifact. The sudden thought caused him to drop the box with a loud thud.

"OH NO, ohmanohmanohmanohman...." He panicked as he scrambled to pick up the box, sighing with relief upon finding that it was alright. "Whew, for a second there, I thought I really screwed up." Not wanting to risk any more trouble, he put the box back on the shelf and walked back towards the door. Po declared,"There's one emergency averted." and shut the door behind him, not realizing that after he left, the latch on the box began to strain until it popped off, allowing the box to open slightly, revealing an eerie glow.

Back in the training room...

Tigress was training harder than usual. She did everything there was to do in the room and yet she still wanted something else to do. She considered asking Po to spar, but quickly stopped the thought. To her, Po was just a lucky little kid who should be glad he wasn't killed by Tai Lung. She may have bowed to him, but that doesn't mean she has to like him.

Running out of ideas, she decided to just meditate, allowing herself to drift deeper into the inner recesses of her mind...deeper.....and deeper....and....SLAM! One of Tigress's eyes popped open as the door was opened by the only person who would be stupid enough to interrupt her. "Panda, what did I tell you about disturbing me while I was training?"

"I know, I know, but you've got to come see this, it's a room full of Kung Fu treasures!"

"I know Po, it's called the front hall!" she yelled as she became irritated at Po's little interruption.

"No not the front hall. It's this room that I've never even seen, come on." Before she could protest, Po grabbed her arm and dragged her to the room. Upon arriving, she seized the opportunity to grab Po by his neck. "If you ever...EVER...do that again, I'm going to use you as my own personal training dummy!"

"I'm sorry, but you've got to see this." He said as he opened the door to reveal the room of treasures. Tigress was surprised, but not as entranced as Po was. She entered the room, wondering all the time why Shifu had failed to mention the room to any of them.

"Oh, there's one thing I think you'll really like, come on!" Po ran towards the location of the jeweled box, only to find it wasn't there. "WHAT? But it was here a minute ago!"

"You brought me in here to look an empty shelf?"

"NO, there was this really cool box here a minute ago, you've gotta believe me."

"The only thing I BELIEVE is that you dragged me here against my will just so you could have something to do. And furthermore, Master Shifu must have a good reason for not telling us about this room, so I suggest we leave before you break something and get both of us put on punishment." She turned to leave, making Po lower his head in disappointment. Then, he heard something behind him, but turned to see nothing. "Psst, Tigress, I think there's someone else in here." Tigress just rolled her eyes. "Po, quit trying to play around with me and just..." she stopped as she picked up a noise with her ear. She quickly turned and scanned the room with her eagle eyes. Po was about to speak, but was quickly silenced by Tigress's hand. "It's coming from over there." she whispered as she inched her way over to the location of the noise, which was what looked like a large shield lying against the wall. She put her hand on the shield, preparing herself for whatever or whoever was behind.

Bring her arm up to attack, she quickly swiped away the shield to reveal.....a lizard. Tigress mentally slapped herself for getting worked up over something like that and turned to Po. "You see what you're doing? Now you are making me paranoid." Po looked right at her until he noticed something weird was going on with the lizard. It was getting bigger, not just bigger mind you, it was growing larger than Tigress. "Uh, Tigress..."

"Don't interrupt me Po. You should try to use some common sense before getting scared over a little, tiny creature that couldn't even hurt you if it tried." As she ranted, the lizard began to stand up on its hind legs, grow razor sharp teeth, and its front reconfigured into arms with four claws each. Wings sprouted from its back and two large horns sprouted from its head. "Are you even listening to me!" Po merely pointed behind her with the palest expression she had ever seen on his face. She turned around and developed a similar expression as the sight of a three story tall dragon filled her eyes.

The creature growled at her, smoke billowing from its nostrils and an expression of hunger in its eyes.

"Uh (gulp) T-Tigress, I think now would be a good time to..." Before he could finish his statement, the dragon roared ferociously at them, a small fire exploding from its mouth in the process.

"RUUUUUN!!!" Po screamed as both he and Tigress sprinted for the door. The dragon ran after them, causing a small earthquake with each step. They reached the door and closed it behind them. Tigress used a metal pole to try and reinforce the door before they took off down the hall, only to have it smashed along with the door as the dragon continued its pursuit.

Po and Tigress scurried toward the large front door of the Palace with the dragon a mere five yards behind them. They hurriedly opened the massive door and didn't bother to close them as they jumped from the massive jaws of the mystical reptile. Tigress, being a cat of course landed on her feet, whereas Po, being a chubby Panda, landed on his gut. Tigress managed to get him on his feet before the dragon managed to smash through the front door. The two ran for the woods next to the palace, knowing that Po would never be able to make it down the stairs fast enough.

As they entered the woods, the dragon stopped following them. "Hey look!" Po shouted as he pointed out the large creature walking back to front of the palace doors and lying down. After taking a few minutes to catch their breath, Tigress gave Po her usual /I'm going to kill you/ stare. To which the only thing Po could do was say "Oops."

Whew, it's getting intense now. 3rd chapter will be up soon.