Gloomy News
The next morning, Tigress's eyes dozily opened up. She saw Po sleeping with a smile. Tigress's eyes popped open, but she remembered last night; she even felt the strain in her eyes and face from crying. But she felt peace. The panda's chest gently rose and fell underneath her head. The tiger's vision journeyed up passed Po and saw a figure of a gray spotted feline. Tigress grumbled under her breath, quietly standing up and glaring dead at Tai-Lung. The snow leopard's face was expressionless and his arms were crossed while Tigress walked towards him. "Do not-"
"I wasn't going to tease you," Tai interrupted. Tigress stood still. She cautiously examined him. Tai-Lung glanced at the panda then looked back to her. "It caught me off guard. You two had a very close moment," He stated rather than asked.
"It wasn't..." Tigress paused. Last night changed her idea of what it meant to be strong. Tigress finally sighed and said, "It was." The humility in her tone impressed the snow leopard.
Tai-Lung's eyebrows rose up. "Well, I'll leave you two alone then," Tai-Lung responded, turning around. Tigress shook her head awake as she followed after him.
"Why?" Tigress asked. A whole list of things were asked in that 'why.' Tai-Lung stopped.
"You were able to come off your high horse of self-perceived strength and accept who you were in reality with your flaws," Tai-Lung explained, still facing away from Tigress. "That's stronger than any warrior that I've seen. Your face when you said, 'I was.'... The only time I've seen that face was when I was fighting Po and Master Shifu. When you completely accept yourself, there's a certain glow of peace you have," Tai-Lung replied, looking at his hand. He sighed. "Your arm should be healed by now," Tai-Lung mentioned, continuing down the stairs. Tigress gazed on as Tai left. She walked back to Po, bent down, and gently shook him awake.
"Wha... what happened?" Po muttered. "Did I oversleep again?"
"No," Tigress smiled, taking the sling off of her arm. "We slept the night up here." She moved her arm around carefully. "Hiya!" Then Tigress punched the ground, making a crater in its wake.
"AHH!" Po yelped as he jumped back. "Tigress! Are you crazy? Your arm is still wounded!"
"Don't worry, Po," Tigress smiled proudly, clenching her hand, "My arm is back to normal. Mantis did say it would heal pretty quickly." Po blew a sigh of relief. "And Po?" Tigress said with a tiny red flush in her face. "Thank you... for... last night." Tigress looked away. Po looked at Tigress with a slightly opened mouth of surprise. Then he smiled and gently rested his hand on her shoulder.
"You're welcome," Po said. Suddenly, they saw Zheng-Hau down below darting up the Jade Palace steps. "I wonder what's happening with him."
"Come on, we better get going," Tigress said. Po nodded as they went down from the Heavenly Peach Tree.
"This is very concerning," Shifu fretted, stroking his chin. Tigress and Po ran into the Hall of Heroes where Zheng and Shifu were.
"What's wrong?" Tigress asked.
"Zheng-Hau said Zeng's place has been completely emptied, and Zeng is nowhere to be found," Shifu summarized.
"What?! What happened?" Po asked.
"We don't know," Zheng-Hau said, still catching his breath, "Yun went to his house to try and find some papers for the Jade Palace. Then she saw Zeng and his wife were gone."
"Come on, we need to find out what happened. Is Yun still there?" Po asked. Zheng nodded. Tigress, Po, and Zheng raced down the mountain and darted down the dirty rock road. Zeng's house was in the village nearest to the Jade Palace. They saw the pacing fox waiting for them. "Tigress, can you go around and ask people what happened? Zheng-Hau, go to the top of the roof. See if there isn't any kind of weirdness going around this place. Yun, come inside the house with me. I want to know what happened." Po instructed. Everyone quickly went to their places while Yun and Po went inside.
Po and Yun looked around. The place was in a heaping mess. Silk panels smashed and ripped, the dining room table broken in three, two paintings dangling on the wall, and cushions were in random places of the room. Yun's vixen nose wrinkled. "Something is off," she muttered. "It almost looks like Zeng left himself."
"What makes you say that?" Po asked.
The fox pointed to the ground. "If bandits had destroyed this place, there should be footprints all over here. But it looks like there are just two people."
"Zeng and his wife's," Po concluded the fox's thought. Po scratched his head when he noticed something on the ceiling. It was a small parchment of paper nailed to the ceiling. "Yun, get on my shoulders and see if you can get that." Yun nodded and scaled the panda's shoulders, reaching for the paper and tearing it off the ceiling. "What does it say?" Po asked as Yun unraveled it.
We, the Lemon Bandits, have killed your precious servant. Don't go looking for him. His wife has already tried and failed. Don't come looking for either.
"This is terrible," Yun sniffled in remorse, nearly dropping the paper. Po quickly caught the paper and looked at it. "Why would anyone do this?"
"To send a message to us," Po said.
"What message?!" Yun cried out. Po sighed and sagged his shoulders. He stared at the floor in silence as Yun tried to cover her crying. Po absentmindedly rubbed the paper through his fingers. As the two walked out, Zheng-Hau jumped off the roof and Tigress came back. "Did you guys find anything?" Yun asked, hoping for good news.
"I can't see anything out of the ordinary," Zheng-Hau sighed.
"But the villagers here mentioned that there was a loud noise over here early morning that sounded like people leaving in a hurry," Tigress added. She spotted the note. "What's that?" Po and Yun sadly retold what the note said. Tigress's eyes widened.
"They what?!" Zheng-Hau exclaimed. "We'll find these guys and do what they did to Zeng!" The jackrabbit clenched his fist. The three of them suddenly noticed that Tigress's back was turned to them. She gazed at the ground.
"Tigress, I'm sorry," Po said.
"It's not just that, Po," Tigress whispered mournfully, "When I was isolated from the village, Zeng would tell me stories about what was happening down here. All of the festivals and food. Most people don't realize how much of a friend I consider Zeng. Now... he's gone."
"There's still hope for justice," Yun mentioned in determination. Po kept rubbing his fingers on the paper. "These bandits must have left a trail."
"If they did, we can't find it from here," Zheng-Hau replied. "I've never seen bandits like these."
"What do you mean?" Yun asked.
"Zhao would always have me chase after bandits as a practice run. I've seen political bandits and muggers of all kinds. They've never just killed the servant of a group without giving a purpose. Why?" Zheng-Hau questioned. No one knew the answer.
Po's eyes scanned the area. "Why don't we talk about this in a more private area," Po suggested, noticing some of the worried faces of the villagers. Zheng and Yun nodded as they went to the Jade Palace. Tigress was still looking at the ground. "Tigress, I promise we'll figure out something." Tigress's body trembled for a moment before latching onto Po, hugging him tightly. "I promise that we'll get his body back," Po hugged back.
"He deserves a proper burial for all of his service to the Jade Palace," Tigress softly said. Po nodded as she released him. The two of them went sadly up the Jade Palace steps. Po still rubbed the paper between his fingers.
After telling the masters what happened, everyone at the barracks' kitchen sat in complete silence. Monkey, Crane, and Mantis were sitting on chairs with long faces. Viper was on the countertop of the kitchen, looking at the sun setting outside. Master Shifu was at the head of the table, peering sadly into its frame. Tai-Lung leaned his back against the wall, angrily fidgetting to himself. Po sat at the other end of the table, rubbing the paper between his fingers while Tigress was on his right and Zheng was on his left with Yun on Zheng's left. Tai-Lung suddenly grunted. "We have to go after them."
"Who's 'them' and what lead do we have?" Tigress rebuked.
Tai-Lung threw his hands up in frustration. "I don't know! All I know is that whoever did this has to pay!" Tai-Lung roared.
"We'll never get them if we lose our temper," Shifu cooly said.
"Inaction is still a negative action, Master Shifu," Tai-Lung countered.
"But a directionless attack is worse than a directional failed attempt," Shifu remarked. Tai-Lung grumbled, resting his back against the wall again. "I know you all are upset, but Tai-Lung is partly right. We have to make sure that we find some kind of lead on Zeng's killers." The whole room agreed, but Po was still transfixed on the paper. "Po, what are you doing with that paper?"
"Nothing, it's just... this paper seems... weird."
"It's probably your imagination, Po," Tai-Lung gently corrected. He knew the panda wanted to hope in the littlest things. Tai-Lung always considered it denial, but he soon grew to understand it.
"No, it feels... heavier," Po struggled to say.
"Okay, so the paper needs to lose weight," Monkey mildly joked. Po shooked his head and ignored the simian.
Shifu sighed, "Whatever the case, this could not have happened at a worse time."
"What's wrong, Master Shifu?" Viper asked.
"Before this happened, Zeng received word that the Mongolians are planning to attack the northern side of China. Once they heard of Zheng-Hau's movement being dissolved, they decided to mobilize."
"That sneaky tiger," Zheng-Hau growled, banging his fist on the table, "Zhao knew that whether I won or failed, the northern side of China would still be weakened. He played me."
"We can't do anything about that now," Tai-Lung sighed with much calmer head, "We'll have to beat them back."
"Zhao is no ordinary leader," Zheng-Hau warned, "He's extremely crafty and dangerous. The only person who's been able to beat him is the legendary Dead Shot Duck before he disappeared: the best short-range, long-range, hand-to-hand fighter there ever was."
"How do you know about that?" Tigress asked.
"Zhao growled endlessly about him. It's part of the reason why he wanted to invade China, to draw out Dead Shot Duck," Zheng-Hau explained but sighed, "But that doesn't matter now."
Po waited until there was complete silence again before saying anything. "Zeng once told me that if a paper is heavier than normal, that means that there's something more on it than meets the eye."
"So... what?" Yun asked.
Suddenly, Po's eyes widened. "Wait, you said that Zhao fought Dead Shot Duck?!" He exclaimed.
"Yes, Po. Try and keep up," Tai-Lung muttered. Po looked back at the paper as his eyes spread wide.
Continued...
