Author Note : Yup... you know it alright! This chapter is sure gonna be interesting. Hope this chapter will satisfy you guys.
Chapter 20 : Befriending A Tough Feline
Six days after that tour trip for the kids was successful, they've learned quite allot about the Jade Palace, especially for me, because I think I'm starting to getting the hang of this massive place whenever I need to go somewhere else. Today is Tuesday, which is training all day until 7:00PM as what I calculated by looking at the angle of the sun and the shadows. I was at the Training Hall doing some good training, I could say that my stamina has improved. Right now, I'm training with the spinning dummies at myself, I have dodged a lot of those hits, but my body is still sore after the dummies flings me out of the area. A short time of training later, I thought of an idea for me and the guys are gonna had a little fun sparring with each other at the Training Courtyard. We ceased our usual training and head to the Palace Arena, where the Kung Fu masters compete with each other. The game was hosted by me, so the first round is going to be determined by doing the classic "spin the bottle" game, but instead of a bottle, we use a stick that I picked up from the ground. The stick has determines that the first round will be Mantis vs Crane. They both walked to the arena and bowed respectfully towards each other and prepares their fighting stances.
"Good luck, you gotta need it bird boy." Mantis said. Crane then release a light chuckle.
"Thanks, shall we get started?" Crane asked. They both runs towards each other and clashed with a powerful kick. Mantis shrugs off and tries to hit Crane with his claws but the avian dodges them. He then flies to the air and readied a falling diagonal kick that's gonna hit Mantis. Mantis just counter it by grabbing his leg and threw I'm in the ground. Crane quickly does a quick roll and landed safety on the ground.
"*pant* *pant* You almost got me there." Crane said as he's relieved to think quick enough.
"Already out of energy? Come on! I know you can do better than that!" Mantis taunted.
"Oh yes I can!" Crane replied. He flies towards and strike Mantis body with his tip of wing successfully as he timed. Mantis was sent flying back, but quickly got up as he rebalanced himself.
"That was a free hit I just let you have, now prepare to get your ass whooped!" Mantis said as he grabbed a handful of dust on the ground and threw it on the ground. Making an large gust of "smokescreen" that temporary blinds Crane's eyes. Once the dust cleared off. Mantis was out of the avian's sight. Crane was looking around cautiously for any surprise attacks. He soon realized that Mantis was sitting on top of his conical hat in a relaxing posture. He tried to smack Mantis down, the bug reacted and uses his nerve attacks on Crane's pressure points of his neck. Crane's body was frozen and fell down the ground. The rest of us then start clapping for Mantis's victory. Mantis then fixed Crane back by hitting his neck's pressure point again.
"That was a good match, you did pretty good." Mantis complimented.
"Damn my body feels numb for now, but at least I had fun." Crane said smiling. They both then exchange a respectful bow to each other. We then gave then both a light applause.
After the first match was over, I tried spinning the stick again to determines the second round. The first spin has pointed to Monkey and the second spin has pointed Viper. Then the second round shall begin. Monkey and Viper made their way to the arena, respectfully bowed to each other and prepares their fighting stance.
"Ready when you are." Monkey said stretching.
"Don't waste you breath talking! Let's begin." Viper said. She was gonna strike first by slithering towards him with great speed. He tried to hit Viper with his punches, but she evade them with her flexibility. She delivers multiple tail strikes on Monkey, but he dodges some and catch her tail and threw her to the corner of the arena. She shrugs off the pain and slithering towards Monkey and hits him with a straight tail strike at his face while he falls to the floor of the arena. He quickly stood up and run straight to Viper and tries to hit her with his fast agile punches and kicks. She stills managed to block a lot but got surprised by a sweep kick that knocked her back. She then stumble back and leaped high in the sky and prepares a precise strike on Monkey. He quickly evaded her attack by roll over to the other side of arena. Viper lunges forwards and does a series of tail striking. She managed to stun Monkey by hitting at his face with a spinning tail swipe and took her opportunity and coiled herself around Monkey's arms and pulling it forward, trying making him punching himself in the face with his own fist. But he resist and try to broke free of the snake's grasp. She tighten her grasp on Monkey's arm and threw him off the arena with a flip throw, resulting a ring out. Viper then quickly came down and helped Monkey to get up.
"That was a good fight Viper, you've improved a lot since our last match." Monkey complimented. Viper smiled warmly at his words.
"Well thank you, you've improved as well as I." Viper thanked back while heading back to us with Monkey as well. It was only me, Po and Tigress left. We then tried the spinning the stick again, when the stick stops spinning, the stick has chosen Tigress, which has probably made my hair to nervously spiked up for a moment that I had to face her again. But since luck has granted me 'mercy' for now, the stick has chose Po as I spin the stick again, making me let out a silent exhale filled with relief. They both stepped into the arena and bowed and readied their fighting stances.
"It's been a while since we both fought from our last match Po." Tigress spoke. Po release a smile.
"Yeah, let see what you got!" Po said excitedly for the match. Tigress immediately go for the offensive by lunging forwards to Po and gave him a series of punches. Po was doing great blocking her mighty fist, she throw a heavy punch at Po. The panda counter back by pushing her fist away by slamming it to right and took on the offense. They both exchange a series of hits on each other. Tigress surprised Po as she does a sweep kick that trips Po to the ground, but he avoid the fall by using his both hand to support his body and does a roundhouse kick on her left shoulder, just to give him space to recover his focus. She leaped high in air and does that hammer-like kick on Po. He dodges it and palm strikes Tigress at the back.
"Is my awesomeness too much for you!" Po said in playful manner.
"Just getting warm up!" She said stooding up. Po seemed to be getting tired, but he shrugs it off and run towards her. She was still in good condition of stamina, so she dodges and punched Po in the nose. Which made him moved back and holding his nose in pain, it's kinda funny for me as I held a laugh? What, don't you guys like a little laugh at times? Anyway... back to the fight!
"Tigress! That hurt!" Po said holding his nose.
"Sorry about that," She apologized. "shall we continue?" Po then suck up the pain and readied himself.
"Yeah!" He said. She continued the fight by dashing forwards to Po and delivered a speeding powerful knee strike, but Po catches her knee and shrugs off and sucker punched her. Sending the feline flying to the edge of the arena.
'Hmph, his agility has certainly improved greatly, I better be more careful.' She thought. Tigress sprinted towards Po, the panda readied his fist, once he throws the punch, Tigress immediately avoided by doing a long distant roll that's she passes through Po and grabbed him by the behind. "I've got you now!" Tigress exclaimed. Which made Po gulp. She starts walking forwards to the edge of the arena, dragging Po along. I think she's gonna won this match by ring-out. Po was trying break free, but due to her enormous strength, Po was immobilized by her strong grasp. Just a few more meter, then she gonna drop Po down. But Po wasn't ready to give up yet. Once Tigress was overtaken by her confidence, which was lowering her guards down. Po took this chance and does a back kick on her right knee, stunning her and broke free. He lifted Tigress up and threw her out the arena.
"It's a ring-out! And match goes for Po!" I announced Po's victory. Po then head to Tigress and helped her up.
"You fought well." She complimented.
"You too." He replied back.
"Your speed and agility has certainly increased, maybe those trainings did help you lose some significant weight of yours after all." She jested, which made everyone of us laughed.
"Haha, how funny." Po said sarcastically. His attention then shifted towards me. "This was a really good idea Lukas! Thanks to you, now we know how much we've improved thorough our training!" Po said.
"That's great... oh look at the time! It's getting dark, come on! Let's go back." I said.
"And I'll prepare for all of y-" Viper was cut off as I shook my head dismissively.
"No, you've done enough for today, I'll make you dinner for all of you." I suggested, wanting to see if I'm still rusty at cooking. Viper nodded in agreeing that I'll make dinner tonight. We start off walking our way to the Jade Palace. Then Monkey sparked a conversation while we're walking.
"I was wondering Lukas, when did you learn to cook?" Monkey said.
"Back when I was twelve" I said lowering my head a bit. Everyone was taken by surprise that I can cook when I was twelve years old.
"Who taught you?" Viper asked.
"Myself, because I was to forced to learn to survive." I said.
"What do you mean by "survive"?Crane asked.
"I'll tell you guys once we get back." I assured. We then made our way back the Jade Palace, but Tigress said that she gonna skip dinner and go somewhere else quite to meditate. We agreed and let her leave the group for now. Once we reached kitchen, and I was starting to chopping some vegetables, boiling the water, adding the noodles and some ingredients. I pour the noodle soup on each of everyone's bowl, they began to smell and starts eating it.
"This is good!" Po said surprised.
"Yeah, the soup taste good and the noodle are so smooth." Mantis said. Which made me scratching my head.
"Oh come on! I'm not even near close to Po's cooking." I said sheepishly.
"Hey you'll get better." Po assured.
"Thanks." I replied. We then finished the dinner I made.
"By the way Lukas, I never thought about this before, but, do you have a family?" Crane asked. With those word flies through his beak, my eye has widens, I felt myself freeze on the chair and my heart began to race, until Monkey waving his hand around my face as I snapped back to reality. Viper then looked at me with her worrisome eyes.
"Hey Lukas... are you ok?" She asked worriedly.
"Yeah, about 'that' subject. I... I-I don't have one." I said. Everyone expression was well shocked by what I said.
"You don't have one! What happened?" Po asked.
"I-I lost them when I was a kid, they were slaughtered in front me, I was forever traumatized that day." I said in a hush tone before lowering my head in sadness.
"That's... horrible. I'm... I'm so sorry for your lost." Viper said emphatically. I remained silent, as well as everyone. After short time, I bid everyone goodnight and head to my room, I take off my clothing, leaving my shirt on me. I tried to sleep, but something is bothering me about my past. The more I tried to forget about it the more it will bugs me. I shrug off from my thought and decided to go get some fresh air to clear my mind. I get up from my bed, put on my clothing and left my room. I was thinking that I'm gonna go sit at the Peach Tree Hill and watch the beautiful night sky, maybe I might encounter Oogway again, and maybe he might give me some good advice. But what caught my attention was that I came across with Tigress's room.
The door was left slightly open with a little bright light coming out of it. I got curious and take a little peak inside. The room was the same size of my room, except it has nothing decorative in it, just a small bed and a normal wooden wardrobe. As I kept gazing around the room, I saw Tigress was sitting in the 'traditional' way on a traditional Chinese mattress. She was holding something that looked like a... golden pendant I guess. Her face seemed so calm but I can senses sadness in her face too. As I expected! She did suffer from the past. I shook my head and start walked away from her room and let her deal with her own problems. But suddenly I feel like she needs help, but I only felt like I'm getting in her way. After a few moment of standing in the dark corridor thinking, I decided that I should go help her out as my subconscious mentally slapped me across my face.
Dammit! It's not the right thing to do... !
After that thought, I walking back to her room and slowly opening the door further. I tried to silently walked to her, but her ear twitched.
"Who's there?!" She yelled hiding her pendant away swiftly to her pocket. I then come out from the shadows and approached her.
"Yo." I greeted calmly. She narrowed her eyes upon noticing me.
"What are you doing here?" She said sternly.
"Well, you see, I saw that you were looking at that pendant, would you mind telling me what's going?" I asked.
"It's none of your business." She uttered coldly while looking back at another direction.
"What?! Is it something about your "sad" past?" I said as I emphasized the word "sad". She then turned around me with her eyes was widen and she stood up to her feet.
"What did you say?!" She spoke in an agitated tone.
"You heard me well, is it about your 'sad' past?" I repeated myself as I emphasized the word 'sad' again.
"What makes you think you have the right to ask me such a question?!" She spat.
"I know how you feel, I know what you've been through, you just won't let someone help you with it, instead you let it live inside of you, letting it hurting you everyday and not facing it." I said. She released an aggressive growl.
"SHUT UP!" She yelled as she lunges towards me and punched me in the face as it felt like being smacked by a steel rod, but with all of my willpower, I managed to minimize the pain and stopped myself stumbling and crashing through the walls. I quickly regain my balance, but quickly realizing theirs blood slowly dripping from my mouth. Tigress gasped as she realized what she had done and lowered her head. I then wiped the blood away from my mouth and slowly approached her.
"Hey, it's okay, just tell me what's going on?" I said while slowly hissing at the pain in my right cheek. She then nodded slowly. We both then took a seat on the ground. Then silence struck us. But she took an deep breath before speaking.
"I believe... I owe you an apology for that and the way I've treated you ever since you arrived here." She spoke. Her tone didn't sound like it usually did. It would usually sound cold, instead it sounded completely different.
"Don't worry, it's fine" I assured. She shook her head as she tries to deny my assurance.
"No, ever since you saved us from those bandits, I became... well." She said trailing off.
"Well what?" I asked.
"I was... j-jealous of you, as well as starting to... hating you." She admitted, lowering her head in shame.
"W-Wow really? But why?" I asked. Damn, just look at her! Back then when I first arrived, she has a personality that's blank as white and cold as ice! But saying her now is kinda... making me feeling sorry for her.
"You've saved us multiple times, and the others has been praising about how good you are, and... and you even beaten me at that match." She lowered her head. After a short moment, she raised her head up. "But it's still wrong to be jealous neither hating you, you've beaten me fair and square at everything!" She admitted frowning.
"Hey don't beat yourself up, let's just put all of that in the past now." I assured, feeling quite bad for her now.
"Your willing to forgive me that easily? Despite all I've done to you?" She questioned. I merely shrugged.
"Absolutely, that's what my previous master used to taught me back then. Forgiveness may help someone in the future and may even lead them to a better path of their life." I said.
"But are you sure you still wanted to forgive me." She asked. I then signed.
"If that's what you want... then I'll gratefully accept your apology." She was now seemed to be more relieved, maybe now I believe I can ask her about that pendant now. "So now were even. Can I ask what is in that pendant?" I asked. She hesitated for a moment, but she nodded. She opened and showed me the pendant. It looks like a picture of two tigers holding a tiny tiger cub. The left one looks a happy female tiger who's wearing a green robe with some pink vines patterns on it and is holding the tiger cub, the right one looks a rather tall, muscular male tiger wearing a brown vest and black pants with a gray waist wrap. He also has his paw on the female tiger's shoulder, and in middle one was the tiger cub who was held by the female tiger, I then realized that the tiger cub was Tigress and those two with her was Tigress's parents?! "A-Are they your parent?" I asked surprised.
"Correct, they've abandoned me at the doorstep of the Bao Gu Orphanage while leaving this for item to cause more pain and sorrow for me." She said gazing at the pendant while her answer made me gasped with disbelief.
"My god, that's just cruel. But how is it there?" I asked, trying to cheer her at least the slightest p. Her face then placed with a more sadden one.
"It was horrible, I was... not a normal child. My appearance and uncontrollable strength had frightened the children in there and even the adults. And because of that, I was forced to sleep in a dark, gloomy and lonely celled room, so I wouldn't hurt anyone. I was all alone by myself. Day and night, I spent all day inside that dark room. Because of my violent temper and appearance, they've branded me as... a monster." After she uttered the last word, a frown formed on her face. "This keep going on for years until I was six. The orphanage had a visitor who wanted to see... me. Me of all people. I was sat in the corner of my room when the door opened and there he was, Master Shifu. He introduced himself and invited me to play a game. I've never had anyone ask me to play a game so I immediately took up on the offer. This 'game' consisted of mediation to help me control my anger with the use of domino pieces. After months of training and meditation, I've finally managed to brought my temper under great control. The children of the orphanage had no longer fear me anymore. At that moment, Master Shifu had actually seemed to be proud of me. And for the first time in my life, I started to make friends. This short moment of true happiness didn't last long however. A few days later, adoption day had arrived. I was excited. I felt like this was finally the day I get finally gonna have a family. But it would seem fate was much crueler than I expected. Not a single adult ever considered adopting me. I felt alone once more. And when it seemed like fate had given up on me. Almost a week later, Master Shifu came back and adopted me, he raised and trained me to the person I am now." She explained.
"Tigress... I'm sorry you had to go through such a childhood..." I said releasing a sign filed with reliefs as my hand suddenly start clenching by itself while my body start shaking a little.
"Hey, are you alright?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'm just glad that this cruel world was able to gave you mercy to live up to a good life." I said. She tilt her head in confusion.
"What do mean by that?" She asked.
"Well... since you told me about your past, allow me to tell you mine." I said taking a deep breath. Tigress sit tight and readied her ear for my dark past. "I grew up with my mom and dad, they've both have a healthy relationship. Damn... I do sure do enjoy those days, but that fateful night, everything went to hell." A sympathetic expression soon formed on her face. "It was night time and I woke up, only to found myself a few feet away from the cold, dead corpse of my mother and father that were killed by a certain man who took away the only two people in the world that ever loved and cared for me. I burst into blindness rage and tried to attacked him, but he knocked me out cold and left my house." I said, sniffing a little while I wipes my face with my free hand before continuing. "Few weeks after their death, I was forced to survive on my own as a defenseless little boy. But going to school is the worst part, I was shunned by everyone as that THEY'VE think I was the murderer! Everyday, the insults, the harassments, the beating, it happens all everyday I went to that school. In the class, I was also forced to sit way back to the lonely dark corner where everyone can stare at me with their piercing looking eyes." I said, clenching the left side of chest as I felt like those horrible past memories are overwhelming me.
"What an unforgivable act! Why are they branded you as the murderer of your parent!" Tigress exclaimed. I halted her sentence with gesture of my hand. She ceased her sentence and allowed me to keep explaining.
"But one day, I finally had enough with everyone treating me like a low life criminal as I ran off from the school back to my house." I took a deep breath. "I start by grabbing my large backpack while packing a lot of stuff and decide to live my life on the streets." Her face was left with utterly shocked on what she heard.
"Oh God Lukas, I have no idea on what to say." She uttered. "But one question, how do you manage to live till now?" Tigress asked.
"Well since few weeks has passed, I was running dry on supplies, such as food, water, bandages and other essentials items, but I was still surviving decently well in the streets. Few more days later, I was so desperate to survive that I-I... I had to steal from others for me to last longer." After saying that, I shamefully lowered my head. "As years kept going till I turn fourteen. The town's people has had enough of me stealing their goods and drove me out of the city that I've used to call it 'home'. After been disconnected from civilization, I was then forced to survive in the forest for about two months. I was wandering, trying to find at least something that might help me in any sort of ways. I later on encountered a big dojo at a open very open and grassy area from the thick forest I'm in. The door was left open as I was able to smelled some delicious food in their. So I snuck in and tried to steal some food in their, but the people lives in their were martial artist. The moment they've saw me. I immediately dropped the food and starts running like hell. Once I've managed to overrun them and hide somewhere else safe. I was still near at the dojo, trying to figure how to get those food from them without alerting them, so I snuck in once again. But this time, they haven't seen me. So I took this opportunity and dwells even further into the dojo. But I tripped down from the stair and hit my head, knocking myself out cold like a total idiot." Suddenly what has caught me completely guard was that she... snickered from how I've hit my head on the floor? After a moment of staring at each other awkwardly, I cleared my throat and continue. "My eyes then slowly opened themselves up and it appears that I'm inside a nice decorated dojo or something similar to my old house, and in that moment is how I met my previous master Gouken and my two adoptive older brothers Ryu and Ken. Our bonds grew stronger over the passing years. They've taken care of me, raised me like I was part of the family and especially trained me." I explained.
"That's quite a sad story of yours Lukas, I never knew you have such a backstory, maybe we are..." Tigress said slowly trailing off again.
"On the same page here?" I merely guested.
"W-Well, yes." She said.
"Look, if you ever feeling sad, bad or anything, please consult a friend to help you out whenever you need." I said. "And sometime, I think your a pretty great leader too." I then stretched my limbs. "I may not know you that much, but I know deep down, you've always cared deeply for your comrades and the innocents, watching over them and ensuring that nothing bad will ever happen to them." I said. Tigress seemed rather bewildered by my encouragement.
"But I was... I-I-." She stuttered as no words came out her mouth.
"Hey, I told you, don't be hard on yourself, you gotta let go of certain things, let me tell you something ; the more you suppress yourself, the less you'll get to know your true self." Her eyes widens from the words I've said.
"I don't ever think I've heard someone ever says that to me." She uttered.
"Really? Well I'm just glad I said it before it's too late for that bright future of yours." I said smiling.
"Since you helped me even though I've treated cruelly and poorly, allow me return the favor." She said extending her paw to me.
"Huh?" I questioned, still not knowing what she's trying to imply.
"*sign* Sometimes, your intelligence reminds me of Po." Sheesh man, that was freakin harsh even when she tries to apologize. "What I meant was, do you wanna put the past behind and move on." She said motioning her paw again for a handshake.
"Oh okay!" I agreed and shook her paw. We both had spend some few hours conversing with each other, after some time passed, I stood up from the ground. "*yawn* Man I'm tired, I think my eyes are gonna close itself at any moment. I'll see ya tomorrow." I said before turning and heading for the door.
"Wait" She called out. I turned. "Since tomorrow is training day, I was thinking that we should train together with the others." She suggested.
"Sure why not!" I agreed, smiling at her suggestion with a thumbs up.
"Good night Lukas." Tigress waved her paw lightly.
"You too Tigress, don't let the bed bugs bite!" I joked which made her chuckled lightly. I head back to my room, took of my clothing expect with my short on, and jumped into my bed. Man today was something, I just couldn't believe it, I was able to befriend someone like Tigress, a cold-hearted and serious warrior, who'll discards any emotions and distractful feelings, but I remember Shifu said that she's not like that all the time as she can be a really kind and loyal person once you get to know her. I shrug my thoughts off, closing my eyes and rest for now.
Author Note : Finally! Lukas and Tigress are now friends! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Victory screech! ULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULUULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULULUULULULULULULULULULULULU! Ok, ok sorry for the immaturity, because I've been watching maybe like four or five dank meme compilation per day, the dankness is slowly taking it's effects on me. As always, any feedbacks, reviews, questions and constructive criticisms would be much appreciated!