The walk from Bao Gu to Shifu's home – Tigress's new home – was a long one, but though it was very late when they arrived Tigress was alert and excited. She had never been out of sight of the orphanage before, and the walk was as beautiful as it was tiring. The air smelled different; cleaner and wilder, and Tigress wished she had bigger lungs to breathe in as much as she could. Shifu patiently answered every question that she asked, between explaining what her new life was going to be like. They followed along a trail that ran down the side of a mountain and as night fell a turn in the path opened into a view of a small valley, covered in fields and paddies. Houses were built on the islands, and midway up a mountain there was a large, ornate building with a lengthy staircase that led to the village. Shifu paused briefly, and pointed to it.
"That is your new home," he said. Tigress's eyes widened; she was living there?
"It is called the Jade Palace," Shifu continued, making his way around a bend in the track. Tigress looked away from the beautiful building and ran to catch up with him.
"The villages and surrounding farmlands are under its protection. There are three Masters of kung fu living there, including myself; Grandmaster Oogway, and Tai Lung, my son and pupil. We will continue your training there."
Tigress felt a bit of her stomach jump. Shifu already had a son? Did this mean she had a brother? What if she wasn't as good a child – would he send her back?
She looked toward the beautiful valley again. The last rays of sunset lit the winding rivers and turned them bright gold, before everything faded into a quiet dusk. In the moonlight, everything looked ethereal and mysterious, and the smells in the wind were soft and cool. Tigress wasn't afraid of the night; she could see well enough, and she had roamed around the orphanage after dark before. She didn't wonder if Shifu would lose his way; he had not slowed or faltered in step when the light had left them, and the moon cast their path in silver. The moonlight was actually bright enough to cast their shadows, and Tigress was fascinated, having never seen such a thing before. She twisted her arms around and about, watching the shadows move against the mountainside, and beside them she saw Shifu's shadow's ears twitch in amusement.
After what felt like half the night walking along increasingly lower paths, they finally made it to the bottom of the mountains. They crossed several bridges before making it to the main island, and walked through quiet streets toward the grand staircase; Tigress had never been in a village, and she wished they had come during the day, to see what it looked like when it was awake. As they began to climb the huge staircase, the enormity of what was happening finally hit Tigress.
She wasn't just travelling to a new place - she was coming home. Somebody had wanted her. Somebody had accepted her. The young tiger felt her eyes begin to sting; she blinked rapidly, then hurried after Shifu, her throat tight and her chest warm.
Tigress was panting by the time they made it up the stairs, but Shifu looked barely winded. Two geese in bright teal robes solemnly greeted the pair, lanterns held in their wings. Tigress expected them to be wary of her, but when she looked at them they simply bowed and welcomed her; one even gave her a small smile.
"We will go to the barracks," Shifu said to them. "It is very late; introductions can wait until tomorrow."
Tigress let out a breath; she wasn't meeting Shifu's son tonight. The geese bowed again and began to lead them away, one in front of them and the other walking behind. To Tigress's surprise, they didn't enter the grand building; instead, they went across the landing and walked down a staircase to the left. The steps were carved directly into the rock and wound as the mountain did, bushes and trees dotting the sides. From time to time the Valley was visible through the boulders and branches, and Tigress drank in the sight, turning back now and again to glimpse the grand palace behind her. She was home.
"You will be staying in the barracks with Tai Lung and myself," Shifu said, and Tigress turned back to him. He nodded to a wooden building set against the rock.
"Your room is on the main floor; I will be upstairs. There is a kitchen in the main part of the building, and the bathhouse is behind it."
"I get my own room," Tigress asked. Shifu nodded, and smiled slightly.
"Yes, you do. It will be a test of what you have learned, since the walls and doors are made of paper, instead of wood or metal."
Tigress straightened her back and forced her arms to relax, resolving to not make a single tear in the paper, and silently deciding to keep as far away from the walls as possible, just in case.
Keeping an eye on Shifu's back, Tigress didn't notice the irregular edge of the stair until she put her foot down on thin air. Every nerve in her body jumped and she flailed to the side, instinctively digging her claws into a tree to stop her fall. Shifu turned back at her gasp and the sound of scraping bark, to see Tigress halfway hanging by her claws, one foot on the edge of the stairway and one off the side, six inches above the bare rock. He raised an eyebrow. The goose walking in front of them widened his eyes, his beak dropping. Tigress, burning with embarrassment, disengaged her claws and dropped to the rock. She, Shifu, and the geese looked up at the furrows in the tree trunk.
"I'm sorry," Tigress whispered, her throat too tight to speak any louder. Shifu walked back down to her, and laid a hand against the claw marks in the tree.
"It is alright, Tigress," he said. Tigress looked down at her feet, her paws clenched tightly against her stomach; Shifu motioned to his side and she stepped back up on the stairway. She cut her eyes to the marks in the tree again and felt them begin to sting.
"Tigress, your claws are a part of you," Shifu said quietly. He laid a hand on her shoulder and gave her a little push, and they began up the stairs again.
"You must learn to control them, yes, and they can be dangerous. But simply having them at all is not shameful."
Tigress looked up, and Shifu gave her a small smile. The hot, tight feeling in her stomach began to disappear, and she unclenched her fists, silently promising never to use the claws again. As they continued up the stairs, she kept thinking that now the geese would surely shy away from her, but they never did, and the group entered the barracks with no further incident. Shifu led her past a large kitchen and down a long hallway lined with paper walls and doors. He stopped in front of the third on the right, and motioned to Tigress.
She looked at the door before her, took a deep breath, and carefully pushed it open. She felt how fragile the wood and paper was beneath her paws, and handled it as gently as she could. The room beyond was Spartan, to say the least; a bed and a small chest were all that decorated it. Moonlight behind the wall made the paper glow and bathed the room in soft silver light.
It was perfect. It was home. And it was hers.
She turned to Shifu and saw him smiling.
"Be up with the morning gong," he said quietly. "Goodnight, Tigress."
The red panda nodded to the geese and began to walk back down the hallway, but stopped when two strong arms wrapped around his shoulders and a striped face pressed against his back.
"Thank you, Shifu," whispered Tigress. She let go and closed the door of her room before he could answer, and pressed the heels of her palms against her eyes until she heard his footsteps leave the hallway. Her throat tight, she hugged her arms around herself and looked around the room once more, before climbing onto the bed, careful not to rip the covers with her claws. She watched the moonlight softly move its path across the ceiling and walls and played her paws in the light, until her eyes closed without her bidding, and she slept without dreams in a place she could call home.
A/N: This was written in response to a prompt from sophia, for a Shifu/Tigress father/daughter thing. I have a lot of difficulty seeing them as this and consider them to have a more student/teacher relationship, even in the third movie where they appear to be a bit more casual and affectionate, so this was a nice challenge, especially to put it in young!Tigress's perspective, and I hope it was satisfactory to you, sophia.
I don't believe that Tai Lung had left the Jade Palace before Shifu brought home Tigress. In Secrets of the Masters, Shifu's more chill and doesn't have the limp from TL breaking his hip/leg. In the first film, in Tigress's flashback, bby Tigress does her kung fu thing and looks at Shifu like she's expecting approval, and is rather surprised and disappointed when he basically disregards her, and she wouldn't be expecting his approval if he was angsty about TL at the start; his limp also looks heavier, suggesting that it's a fresh injury. So, Tai Lung and Tigress must have been in the Jade Palace together, at least for a short while.
Itty bitty Tigress is adorable and I kind of just want to hug her and tell her everything's going to turn out okay. Grown-up Tigress seemed, at first, very adverse to the idea of hugging, and even in Secrets of the Masters she was still reserved and not touchy, but I think that, in a very emotional setting such as this, one hug from a lonely, grateful child would not be too out-of-character, even one wary of her own strength. If you think it's too OOC, let me know and I can change it back to what I originally wrote, which was her thanking Shifu and doing the hand-bow-salute-gesture thing they do.
Moon-shadows are the coolest things. I never noticed them until a few years ago, but I love seeing the world bathed in silver and watching my shadow play against the ground. It's a very calm and quiet thing, not something you'd think about, and it feels special every time I see it.