Hi guys! Here I am with the next chapter! Nine reviews on the first day...wow...That's awesome! Yay! :D
Sweetluckygirl: Thank you so much! What's your username on Nick, if I may ask? :) Keep reading and reviewing!
eddy: Glad you find it interesting. Keep reading and reviewing!
Chapter Two: Visions
Po stumbled into his room and jumped on top of the bed. It was a miracle it didn't crack and break under the bear's weight, though it did sag noticibaly. He yanked his covers over his belly, succeding in uncovering his feet in the process, but he didn't care.
"What she do?" Monkey asked excitedly.
Po trembled, but couldn't say anything.
Monkey studied him thoughtfully. "You don't look hurt."
"I'm not." Po managed to gasp out.
Monkey's eyes grew huge, tinted with unbelief. "She didn't throw you down the steps? Use you as a punching dummy? Throw you into an ironwood tree? Whack you with a metal pole?"
With each question, Po shook his head. "She tried to punch me, and even claw me, but she didn't."
"OHMIGOSH!" Monkey exclaimed. "She let you go without a scratch! Impossible! Dude, you are so lucky! When I tried to make her feel better she...well, I was in the infirmary for a month."
"Yeesh." Po shuddered, remembering the cold, fiery hatred in the feline's eyes.
"I wonder why...I mean, she had no mercy on the rest of us, not even Viper or Shifu!"
"I dunno - no, wait...what did she do to Shifu?" Po questioned.
"She couldn't do much damage, since he was so fast, but rumor has it she somehow managed to hang him up on a tree by his robe."
"Awesome! I mean, uh...poor Master Shifu." Po grunted, trying to cover up his first comment, but through his white fur the blush was noticable.
~oOo~
Tigress hurled her fist at the tree again and again, her mind racing with multiple thoughts.
Why won't that panda ever leave me alone! Screamed one part of her brain, while the other, barely audible part whispered he's just trying to help, you shouldn't be so hard on him.
Suddenly Tigress stopped dead mid-blow. "Why'd I let him go without..." She didn't need to finish her sentence because it became a snarl of rage.
"Oh, that's just great!" she roared sarcastically, resuming her fight against the ironwood. "I let him off easy!"
This particular tree was sturdier than the rest, one of the greatest ironwoods Tigress had laid eyes upon, and it was taking longer than expected. Even though there was a sharp breeze, it did little to help the striped big cat cool down, with sweat streaming down her cheecks, her sides sticking to her damp clothes. Her amber eyes still held their furious gleam, but now exhaustion made her falter; even the great Master Tigress has a limit.
She gave a frustrated sigh and decided to finish the tree tomorrow. She looked down at her paw and something unaturally dark was trickling out of the top. She shrugged, barely noticing the blood, and wiped it away on her pant leg.
She swept her eyes across the clearing, which was bleached with moonlight, and blue shadows crept across the clearing from the forest, but Tigress's feline eyes adapted to the little light until she could see every detail. Then they widened as she spotted tendrils of some kind of dark mist spring from the shadows and seep towards her at a surprisingly rapid pace. Tigress felt a shiver of the slightest feeling of alarm creep up her spine, because she recognized the mist well. Better than she should of.
Tigress felt the icy talons of actual fear grip her heart and begin to squeeze the breath out of her, the tiger's amber eyes widening as the mist crept steadily up and covered the sky, and Tigress's vision was focused on two blood-red eyes.
~oOo~
Monkey was happy, now, that Po had gone to try and comfort Tigress, and now the panda showed no signs whatsoever of wanting to get up from his bed because of that episode.
The primate shut the door behind him, and with a silent cheer headed back to his room, only to groan and stop short when he heard the sound of scales sliding against wood. "What is it, Viper?"
The snake sighed. "I can't sleep."
"I'm sorry if you had the nightmare about the flying cow again, but honestly, can't you talk with Crane?!"
"He's needs his rest from the bandit fight two days ago."
"Mantis?"
"He's unreasonable to talk with."
"Tigress?"
"DO YOU WANT ME TO END UP BEING TORN IN HALF?!"
Monkey sighed a bit louder than inteded and shot a frosty glare to the reptile. After a pause, he growled out a "Alright, what is it?"
"Well, this time it was about-"
"A dancing sheep?"
"No! Monkey, this is serious!"
The tan primate rolled his eyes. "Okay, okay! Tell."
"Well," Viper began nervously, and suddenly Monkey realized her voice was wobbling and her eyes were bloodshot. "It was about this black panther...she came and took over the Valley, and...and Tigress and Po were badly injured."
Monkey scrutinized the snake for a moment, but judging by the trace of fresh horror still in her azure eyes, he guessed she wasn't just adding stuff to some silly dream, or making up nonesense.
He opened the door to his room and let Viper in. "Now, tell me all of it, no details excluded." He asked after sitting down on his mat, a new sense of seriousness filling the air.
~oOo~
"No...!"
The word wouldn't form itself, although Tigress had tried to shout it out over and over again. "Oh, no..."
Although she didn't know who or what it was, the black, hooded figure standing in front of her made terror creep up her spine, and the only two things she could distinguish from the black mist and the person were the crimson eyes glaring at her. But his eyes pierced right through as if she was invisible and were staring at something behind the South Chinese tigress. She whipped around and let out a small gasp.
Peering with terror-stricken eyes at the black figure behind her, Tigress noticed a young female tiger cub stumble back into the protective, striped arms of a faceless big cat. Tigress's amber eyes followed them as they raced away through prickly undergrowth with the black figure hovering after them. Another figure followed, this one young but not as little as the tigress cub. It was a small tiger, maybe five years old, with a fierce expression. Suddenly he stopped and skidded around, the other two stopping and staring back with horrified expressions as the five year old tiger lashed out with miniature claws to the black figure, and they merely went through him as if he was water.
The tiger cub growled but backed up, his bold attempt reduced to foolishness. He raced back to the adult tiger and tigress cub and they all ran, though it was hopeless. At the last moment, the adult tripped, and the tigress cub fell from his grasp. The black figure quickly unsheathed his sword, but the five year old tiger stepped in his way just as he was about to bring it down on the cub.
"Step out of the way, child," the black figure hissed.
"You will not harm her!"
The last response echoed in Tigress's mind as everything faded away to the clearing and the striped big cat was left gasping for breath and trembling with fear, an emotion alien to her since as long as she could remember.
Suddenly, the forest began to blur, and everything became hazy, unperceptible objects in Tigress's vision. Darkness came and began creeping into her mind like the dark tendrils of mist slithering out of the trees. The clearing vanished to blackness as the tigress's knees buckled and she slumped to the ground, unconcious.
~oOo~
Po couldn't resist. He lumbered over to the window, the blanket falling off him and sliding to the floor. The panda peeked timidly through the window and gasped. Tigress seemed to be surrounded by some kind of dark fog, her eyes trained on something unseen.
"Tigress?" Po murmured in confusion. Suddenly the pantherine took a step back, looked around wildly, and without warning crumpled to the floor.
"Tigress!"
The panda raced out of the Student Barracks clumsily, not caring if he was loud. He raced up the hill much faster than expected and up to Tigress with a grim look on his face. Po suddenly stopped short, prayed that he wouldn't be killed, then bent over nervously to see if the Master was okay.
She wasn't. Po could tell immediatly from the way her amber eyes were diluted to a cloudy gray, and the way she was opening her mouth yet no sounds came out. He waved his paw in front of her striped face hopefully. No reaction,
"Don't worry!" He said, although with some sixth sense he knew she couldn't hear him. "I'll get help!"
The panda bolted down the slick hill, quickly running out of breath, and without bothering to knock, stumbled into the Jade Palace, where Shifu was sure to be meditating.
"Inner peace...inner-inner peace...in-in-in...-"
"MASTER! MASTER SHIFU! SHIFU SHIFU SHIFUUUU!"
"What is it this time, panda?" Shifu snapped, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Meditating was going nowhere...maybe he should try therapy..
"It's Tigress!"
That brought him out of his musings. "What about her?"
"She went unconcious! She's on the floor, and she had some kind of mist around her, and-and she looked really panicked..." Po blubbered out what he had witnessed so fast it sounded like on giant word, but Shifu managed to decipher 'Tigress is in trouble' from his rantings.
"Where is she?" he demanded.
"On the hill!"
Before Po could say another word, the Grandmaster had speed out the Jade Palace doors, and Po bumbled after him, panting. He was having quite a night...
Shifu stared at Tigress grimly, a frown etched on his face, making him look all the older. Po finally crawled up to him.
"If this...isn't excercise...I don't know...what is!" he gasped out, heaving in gulps of air. He eventually composed himself and got up, walking over to the red panda.
"So, what's wrong with Tigress?" the panda asked.
"Po, she is having a Dao-Ki."
"A Dow-what?"
"A sent-vision."
~oOo~
Darkness...
That was the first thing Tigress's amber eyes opened to find. Shapes and figures slowly began to form obscurely in her vision, mixing and melding into different, dark shades.
Fire. Screams. The acrid tang of smoke. Red eyes, paralyzing her, immobilizing her, so that she couldn't even blink.
She was powerless. Tigress hated feeling like that. Helpless. Useless.
She watched on in frozen terror as the same black figure from before wafted out of thin air.
A hopeless village. A black villain. And no hero.
No, wait, there was a hero! Something blurred, something that looked like a yin-and-yang symbol, black and white, attempted to fight with the hooded creature.
But it overthrew him. The villain was unstoppable. Then, suddenly, Tigress found her friends, Masters of the Jade Palace, encircling her with blood-red eyes, suffocating her, pressing into a tighter circle...she had no escape...
Tigresa
The darkness faded.
Tigresa
The figure vanished, followed by her zombified friends, and waving green grass slowly transformed from the licking orange flames.
Tigresa
A muted waterfall cascaded down into a shimmering pool of crystal-clear water, and flowers brimmed on the sides.
Tigresa
Tigress narrowed her eyes and scanned around the horizon, but couldn't spot a thing.
"I'm right here, young one."
Tigress whipped around to face another hooded figure, this one draped in white. The only thing visible under the shadowy hood was a pair of blue eyes and white fur.
"Who are you?" Tigress growled, the fur along her spine bristling.
"All in due time," the voice filled the place and yet was reassuring. And somehow, Tigress knew she could trust him.
But she didn't listen to her thoughts and instead snarled, her tail lashing back and forth furiously. He was just another hooded figure, after all.
Unsheathing her claws, the striped feline prepared to lunge. But the piercing blue gaze immobilized her as she locked eyesight with the white figure.
"What do you want of me?" she hissed, managing to look away, flattening her ears against her head.
"Listen, Tigress, and listen closely, for these words hold the key to the future of your home," the hooded figure said, his eyes in slits. Tigress turned to look at him, her scowl disappearing and her eyes wide with apprehension.
"You and him must unite to face the one that destroys. You must be brave, have courage, and never leave your spirit." then he paused, a sense of fear begining to seep in.
"Remember this place, Tigresa. Remember and beware. Beware of the Black Wizard!"
And then all was gone in a swirl of silver mist.
~oOo~
"What's a sent-vision?" Po asked, puzzled.
"A vision sent by a Great Master of Secrets and Magic. Also known as a wizard." The red panda rasped.
"A wizard?!" Po exclaimed. "How does a wizard send a vision?"
"Only they know," Shifu shrugged.
Po let it brush by and stared at Tigress. He had carried her into the kitchen, and was stretched out on a mat they had dragged in. Then the panda's eyes widened.
"Master, Master Shifu, she's talking!"
Well, not really. Her lips were moving, but no sounds came out. Then, a faint noise made Po prick his ears. She was talking!
It was too low for him to make any of it out, so he asked Shifu. "Can you hear what's she's saying?"
Shifu's ears swivelled around instinctively. "Beware..." His eyes grew wide. "Beware the Black Wizard?"
"What? Who's the Black Wizard?" Po asked. This was befuddling him.
Shifu stroked his moustache thoughtfully. "I do not know." He replied slowly.
And with a gasp, the gray from Tigress's eyes dissolved steadily, turning back into it's fiery amber-orange.
"Tigress! Are you okay?" Po asked, eyes huge. "What happened?!"
The feline fixed her gaze on the panda, an eyebrow raised. "I-I had a dream, Po. A vision." More like a nightmare. "That everything was dark and in flames...China would come to an end, Po...unless we stop him."
"Stop who?" Po asked. He looked over to where Shifu should be and gave a yelp of surprise. The red panda had vanished!
"The Black Wizard." That was not Tigress's voice. Po looked back to the striped cat to find a white clocked figure, a hood covering it's face. Po jerked his snout up in alarm as lightning crackled in the air, and thunder boomed overhead. A door slammed open, and wind howled inside, beating against the rafters. Rain poured in through an open window, spraying water all over Po yet not touching the white figure.
"To Tigrespart Island, and make haste. The fate of China rests in your paws, Dragon Warrior. Look after her as if your life depended on it-which it does,"
Po let it sink in, quickly trying to memorize what he had said. "Who are you?" he shouted over the raging storm.
The figure, which had begun disappearing in thin air, turned around to look at the panda, and Po caught a glimmer of blue beneath the hood. "A warning." The remainder of the figure answered softly, before disappating completely in a shroud of silver-gray fog.
Po shook his head and groaned, blinking his eyes open. The storm still billowed on outside, but the door and window were closed, muting it greatly. Shifu and Tigress were both sitting at the kitchen table, sipping tea and with concerned looks on their faces.
"Po," Shifu said as the panda got up, his blue eyes solemn.
"Tell me everything."
Well, well well. We shall see where this is going to end up, shall we? Hope you liked, and please tell me your thoughts on this chapter! Thanks! :D
-Sleet12