Chapter 2: Training

The sky was overcast and threatened of rain. The air was humid, but only just. Many warriors choose a time such as this for training. But what kind of training depends on the warrior.

Two warriors sat opposite each other at the barracks kitchen table with a game of Mahjongg between them. Po sat on one side, eagerly anticipating his opponent's next move. Tigress sat on the other end, taking her time to decide. Even though she was losing badly, she showed no sign of anger or frustration. After all, this was only a game... or was it?

Tigress moved a playing piece.

"HA!" Po shouted suddenly, quickly moving another piece. "You should just give up now!"

"Patience, Po," Tigress said calmly, unfazed. "It isn't over yet."

"Of course it isn't!" Po told her. "But you might as well give up now!"

Tigress moved another piece and Po moved another of his.

"Ha! Ha!" Po laughed. "There's only one move left and the game's over!"

Tigress let a smile come across her face.

"I agree."

She started moving playing pieces and Po's face turned grim.

"I win," Tigress told him.

Po's eyes scanned what had just happened. He'd seen someone else use the same game technique - it was completely legal.

"What...? How did you...?" he started. "How did you learn that?! That move's been in my family for generations! It's a secret move!"

"Then your father should have used more caution when he was playing against Shifu a few months ago," Tigress told him, cleaning up. "You never know when someone's paying attention to your every move."

Thunder boomed overhead. Tigress seemed to freeze and listen for the thunder to fall silent.

"I need to go," she told Po. "Better luck next time."

She turned and left the room.

"A little rain won't hurt anybody," Crane told his friends as they walked into the training hall.

"No," Monkey told him, "but wet wings will! Don't you remember that welt you gave me a few months ago?"

"I told you that was an accident!" Crane answered him.

"And all along, I thought bruises and welts were trophies among Kung Fu warriors," Vixey whispered to Viper.

"I guess we're still just a bunch of softies," Viper whispered back.

Rain started pounding on the roof as the equipment was being brought out.

"So," Vixey started, now sitting on the rafters, watching her friends train, "where is Tigress? Isn't she supposed to be training, too? And what about Po?"

"Tigress likes to train on her own," Mantis told her, catching several arrows and throwing them at Monkey, "and Po doesn't need to train for the festival."

"Shifu will probably bean me for just sitting around," Vixey mumbled, unfortunately too loud for the others not to hear.

A second later, a chunk of rock was aimed to just miss the fox, scaring her enough to shriek and make her slip from her perch. She thought quickly enough to catch herself by holding on to the wooden beam with her legs. Monkey and Mantis almost immediately burst into laughter.

"Who shot that at me?!" she barked.

Monkey and Mantis pointed at each other, the absence of laughter lasting only for that moment. Vixey got down from the rafters as a drenched Po entered the room.

"Does anyone know where Tigress is?" the panda asked.

"Wasn't she playing Mahjongg with you?" Crane asked.

"Tigress was playing Mahjongg?" Vixey wondered aloud.

"She was, but she left just before it started raining," Po answered.

"Oh," Viper said suddenly, "rain."

"What?" Vixey spoke up. "Does she hate rain?"

"No, she loves it," Mantis said. "Uses it to train whenever she can."

"So where is she?" Po asked again. "I need to ask her about something."

"She's probably in the bamboo forest," Monkey said.

"She's always in the bamboo forest while it rains," Mantis piped up.

"That place just creeps me out!" Vixey suddenly blurted out. "Who knows when there could be someone nearby that just wants to strangle you!"

"You're scared of everything!" Monkey teased.

"I am not!" Vixey argued. "I'll show you who's scared of everything! I'll bet you fifty yen that I'll make you scream like a little girl!"

"It's as good as mine!" Monkey told her, shaking hands on it.

"This won't end well," Crane muttered.

"Thanks," Po told Viper.

"No problem," Viper answered.

Po left the building. When he was a distance away, he heard a high-pitched shriek that sounded as if a young girl had been suddenly startled. Wild laughter immediately followed.

"I told you!" came Vixey's shout. "Pay it up!"

Ice-cold raindrops fell from the sky, landing on bamboo leaves and anyone unfortunate enough to be caught unaware. Far into the forest, Tigress stood with her eyes closed, her movements slow and graceful.

Po approached with caution. He knew that sneaking up on Tigress would be asking for a rather painful injury.

"Tigress?"

Tigress made a single, very sharp movement in Po's direction. Not only did that make him jump, but the water on Tigress's paws flew off and hit him in the face.

"YAAAAH!"

Tigress opened her eyes as Po brushed the water out of his.

"Sorry, Po," she told him with a slight smirk. "I couldn't help it."

"That was a joke?"

"I guess Vixey's rubbing off on me."

"Huh."

Tigress brushed the extra moisture off of her arms.

"You wanted to ask me something?" she asked.

"Yeah," Po started. "Why do you always come out here when it rains?"

Tigress held her paw out to catch some raindrops.

"Often, when it rains up here, the rain is cold and can catch one off-guard," she explained. "It's hard not to shiver in this weather, perfect practice for techniques that require focus and a still hand."

She was silent for a second.

"Didn't you have something else you wanted to ask me?"

Po tried to remember what he had originally wanted to ask her.

"... Oh!" he finally said. "I was just wondering... well, I haven't really learned exactly how to 'honor the dead'. And I was thinking you'd be able to help me, since -"

"Since my dad died half a year ago and my mom and first foster parents died when I was four?" Tigress answered for him. "I actually expected you to know this by now, since you've lived here for almost your entire life."

Po shrugged.

"Then again, you do have a knack for not paying attention," Tigress added. "Find a candle with a scent that reminds you of whoever passed on. I'd think that the candle you'll be looking for will be somewhat related to your birth parents."

"Candles?" Po asked skeptically.

Tigress gave him a stern look.

"Sorry," the panda said quickly.

"We should head back now," Tigress told him, beginning to walk toward the Palace. "No one wants you to catch a cold."

Po scoffed.

"I never catch colds!" he told her. "Besides, you've been out here longer than I have!"

"That may be so," Tigress replied, "but no one is immune to colds. I just hardly get them."

"Hardly?" Po continued. "I never catch colds! You'd catch a thousand more colds before I even sneeze!"

The rain was beginning to let up as the sun lowered in the sky. Po and Tigress entered the Training Hall to find Shifu and Vixey observing the other four training.

"'Bout time!" Vixey told the two. "We'd have left by now, but you, Tigress, need to be at the festival, too!"

"There is no need to rush, Vixey," Shifu told her, not even turning to face her. "We still have time."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Po suddenly started. "Can we practice that technique where we -!"

"No," Tigress said flatly. "We don't have time."

"But Shifu said we still have time!"

Everyone in the room fell silent, all but Po reacting as if they really didn't want to practice what he was talking about. After a while, Vixey spoke up.

"I guess we can," she said hesitantly. "Besides, if it goes wrong again, we'll still be okay because Po doesn't need to fight tonight!"

The others slowly agreed.

"Okay," Tigress said. "Let's get this over with."

The seven warriors took their positions in the center of the Training Hall: Po and Tigress facing the training dummy between them while the other five surrounded them.

"Go!" Shifu shouted.

Immediately, everyone leapt into action. Po and Tigress climbed high into the air with the aid of the others hitting the bottoms of their feet, propelling them farther up. The others demonstrated techniques meant for distracting enemies and cleared away when Po and Tigress were high enough into the air. Po curled up into a ball and Tigress prepared to hit him hard enough to make him slam onto the dummy with great force. Unfortunately, as soon as Tigress hit him, Po lost his grip on his feet and belly-flopped. The dummy threw him back, as it had done in the past.

Tigress landed on her feet, irritated.

"This is why I said no," she told Po, walking by him.

Monkey helped Po stand up, the panda dizzy and disoriented.

"Why did I even rationalize?" Vixey mumbled to herself.

"How many tails do you see?" Viper asked Po, holding the tip of her tail up in front of him.

"One?"

"Don't lie."

"... Two."

"He'll heal on the way down," Mantis said.

"We really should leave, Master," Crane told Shifu.

"We will have more time to practice this later," Shifu told his students. "The Valley is waiting for us."

The eight of them left the Training Hall and started toward the stairs that would lead them to the Jade Festival.