Thanks for waiting guys hope you enjoyed! Here's chapter 4! This story is getting rather popular and it fills me with a writer's happiness and joy! I'm not gonna say much here but I will say that things have been getting worse for the panda and tiger duo so far and won't get better for a while. There will be some times where they are enjoying down time and other things but other than that - it's hectic. Also a lot of these fight scenes have been inspired from real kung fu fight scenes me and my friend have watched. Also I happen to take real kung fu lessons so that helps too. Anyway, a lot will be revealed about the hood guy and he is also going to be mind battle for Po. So without further a due the story...
Po quickly came over to the tiger's side where she had passed out from the massive blood loss. A small pool of blood was forming around her leg and from an unknown source on her torso. The panda, thinking quickly, picked the feline up in his arms and began to run back towards the noodle shop as quickly as he possibly could.
"I'm so so sorry this happened to you, Ti! But I'm not gonna let you die on me - I can't." he thought as a few tears came to his eyes while running with her in his arms. "Please hang in there for me - I can't lose you!" His vision began to turn blurry as he ran, and a few tears slipped from his eyes.
After a few more seconds, he was at the entrance of the shop and he quickly ran inside.
"Dad! Tigress is hurt really bad; I need help - NOW!" the panda frantically demanded, and Mr. Ping didn't hesitate once he saw the trail of blood behind them, guiding them up towards Po's old room.
Po then set the injured tiger down on his old bed, and Mr. Ping rushed into the room with some towels he kept handy. Mr. Ping wrapped and tied a towel around the panda's arm where the deep cut was to stop the bleeding, before Po too would pass out.
The goose then handed Po the towel. "Apply pressure to the wound on the leg and it should stop the bleeding." he said, and Po nodded, quickly doing so.
This, however, didn't work for too long, and soon the blood began to soak through the towels and the bed from unknown sources. At this point Po was in panic mode, fearing the worst, seeing nothing seemed to be working and he couldn't figure out where the other source of the bleeding was at. Knowing he had to bandage the wounds quickly, he then ran around his room searching for some proper bandages while his dad went down to the kitchen to search for more towels.
"Ahh! No! Stay with me, Tigress - please! I'm begging you." he pleaded while he fumbled around his room for the bandages.
Meanwhile, the tiger's eyes began to open weakly as she was slipping in and out of consciousness. As she looked around to see where she was and take in her surroundings, she began to notice all the Kung Fu art and collectibles that Po had in his room. As she looked to her left, the tiger noticed that the panda had a huge, intricate painting of her on his wall. She was a little flattered by this, and the more she looked at the painting and its detail, she realized Po was the one who painted it. She tried to smile but found she was too drained and weak, so all she could do was growl quietly in pain before turning to her right again – seeing Po, who was searching for something frantically on the floor.
Po at last found the bandages, and when he heard a sound come from the tiger, he quickly turned his head and saw her looking at him with her amber eyes barely open.
The panda's eyes lit up with excitement and relief and he made his way over to her.
"Oh, thank the gods you're still alive!" he exclaimed happily with a few tears welling up in his jade eyes. "I was so worried that you weren't going to make it." he said with concern on his face as he took her right orange paw in his.
The tiger looked down at herself, blood still flowing out from multiple wounds. "That remains to be seen." she muttered weakly.
Po instantly picked up on what she was saying, and returned to putting intense pressure on the leg wound, starting to wrap the bandages firmly around her thigh to form a tight tourniquet to halt the bleeding. This had been the most serious wound, and Po breathed a little easier when the blood coming out had slowed somewhat.
Po squeezed her paw tighter and sighed. "You're gonna be just fine, ok?"
"It's ok, Po. I'm not going to leave my best friend anytime soon. It would take a lot more than this to bring me down for good." she said with a smile, giving his paw a caring squeeze.
At this point, Mr. Ping came back but he'd abandoned his search for towels and brought back a bottle of sake – a potent Asian alcohol. The goose would occasionally have a drink every now and again, but he always kept the bottles well hidden.
The panda turned around, and before he could say anything, the goose spoke up.
"We need to clean the wound now or it could get seriously infected." he stated matter-of-factly, walking over towards them with a bottle. "This sake should do it just fine."
"Sake. Well, this is gonna sting quite a bit." Tigress thought to herself, preparing for what was about to happen. The bleeding had been slowed down, and yet she still felt as if she was on the brink of passing out again.
Mr. Ping broke the seal off of the first bottle and then made his way over towards her leg on the bed. He handed the open bottle to Po, then ripped off some of her pant leg so that his son could pour the liquid directly into the wound.
Po looked over towards Tigress with a worried look. "I'm sorry about this, Ti. Just... please..." he begged. "You understand, right? I have to do this."
Tigress then winced in pain. "Just get it over with." she demanded, seeing his hesitation.
Po tipped the drink and poured an over-generous amount of the alcohol into the wound.
The tiger's body jolted in agony. "Ahhh!" she shouted briefly at the sudden stinging pain. "Ughhh!"
She continued to groan as she gritted her teeth and her paw squeezed Po's even tighter. The panda winced at the sharp pain in his paw, but he didn't let go and then Mr. Ping put the bottle down. At this point, Tigress's body and leg was shaking from the pain she had just endured. She was even sweating from the intensity.
"I'm so sorry, Ti!" he said in a worried tone, seeing her in such pain.
"D-don't be. Quit fussing over me - I'll be fine, Po." she teasingly, if a bit weakly, replied to the panda.
He nodded and grinned lightly, but he was still concerned and even scared quite a bit. Po and Mr. Ping then went over to the wound and began to firmly bandage the area and seal up the deep cut. Finally, the bleeding ceased completely in her thigh. But when Po removed his hand from her torso, it was still wet with fresh blood.
"Wait – where is all of this blood coming from?" he asked frantically, looking to his father.
The goose put his wings up defensively. "Don't look at me! I'm a bird – I don't know the first thing about bleeding felines."
But as the two males were starting to bicker, Tigress – who knew very well where the wound was – groaned loudly and unsheathed her claws; she slashed them across her ornate golden hanfu, and revealed yet another serious wound that the panda and goose had missed entirely. Tigress had hoped she could keep this wound covered up for her own privacy's sake, but she now understood that living was her higher priority.
When Po saw this new wound, he understandably freaked out, leaping over to the bedside and yanking off what remained of the shredded outfit, quickly starting to wrap up her midsection with bandages. Tigress was a little startled by her suddenly less-clothed state, but very much appreciated that Po was doing this for her; she'd noticed that while he bandaged her wounds, he too had cuts that needed to be bandaged – specifically the one on his right arm which was still oozing some blood.
"Po… thanks for this. It means a lot to me, really - but when you're done, I need to bandage you next. You're not looking too good either." she said, concerned for the panda who had at this point completely forgotten about his own injuries just to care for her.
"No problem, Ti - I just couldn't let you die like this." he stated as he finished wrapping her midsection and the tiger smiled. "And… yes, I'd appreciate it if you did that." he said in agreement to her proposal, for he could still feel blood running down his arm.
Po bandaged another cut he'd discovered on Tigress' right shoulder blade, before she slowly and painfully sat up and began to work on his right arm. At first, she felt unbelievably lightheaded, but after a few moments her body began to adjust a little. She poured some sake over Po's wound, causing the panda to groan in pain. Tigress then caringly but firmly began to wrap up his right arm, and Po gritted his teeth as she did so.
"Sorry Po, but I've got to do this." she said, perhaps a little teasingly, as the panda had just said something similar to her a few moments before. "I'm not going to watch you bleed out, either." she added more seriously, now finished with the bandage and biting off the end where she stopped.
"It's all good…" he responded with a chuckle, just glad that they were both alive. A few moments later, Po looked at the tiger's striped back and her torn pant leg before looking back towards her eyes as she turned around to face him. "And it looks like you could use some new clothes, Ti." he added.
Tigress grinned a little. It felt good to have such small problems after just cheating death. She nodded, looking down at her somewhat disrobed state. Getting all the way up, she limped, feeling a jolt of pain in her leg as she took a step forward towards him.
"Yeah, I'll find some – but in the meantime, you need to convince the villagers to take back the valley. There's not many wolves left out there, and they could overpower them." Tigress stated as Mr. Ping gave her a towel to cover up, and a few dumplings and tofu cubes to regain her strength.
Po nodded. "Alright then. We'll take back the valley, one way or another." he said, making a fist and starting for the stairs, before turning back to Tigress. "And by the way? What color clothes you gonna wear this time?" he asked the tiger curiously. "The yellow outfit was pretty awesome - it's a shame it got destroyed."
Tigress smiled. "It's ok; I'm sure I'll find something new. And besides… the sleeves – they just got in my way, after all." she said with a smirk, and the panda rolled his eyes. "As for the color… I won't say."
"Dang it." he said quietly to her teasing, before continuing. "Well, we should go, and... please be careful." he warned gently, motioning to her bandages.
Tigress nodded. "I will... you too."
The two then slowly made their way out of the house, and Tigress limped out of the shop towards the remains of the clothes store a block away. Meanwhile, Po gathered some villagers close by to speak to them. A decent size crowd formed around him to listen to what the Dragon Warrior had to say. For the first few minutes, they discussed the state of the valley; what parts of the village had survived and which had been leveled, and who was present and who couldn't be accounted for.
"The empire will not stand for this – it is surely an insurrection of some kind!" a nearby pig pointed out.
"Agreed! It's only a matter of time before the imperial armies come to liberate us." a duck added.
Po shook his head. "They will never get here in time; how long do you think you can hide in here before the wolves find you?" the panda asked. The surviving villagers looked around at each other, but none of them had a good counter to this point.
"I think it's clear what we have to do – we have to fight back ourselves." Po explained.
Instantly the small shop erupted with protests. "We are not warriors! It would be suicide to attack them!" the survivors argued. Po tried to regain order by raising his paws up to silence the small crowd.
"We… we have to at least try. It's the only option we have!" he begged.
Just then, a voice spoke up, coming around the corner. "Po's right. It's time to fight back." Tigress said as she came into view and everyone turned to see her. Something about her presence started to inspire the surviving villagers into agreeing with Po.
Tigress now wore a sleeveless Jade green qipao with an opened lotus flower design and a dark green band around her waist and a fresh new pair of black pants. The new look suited her, and as she limped over towards them everyone looked in awe.
Po gasped as his eyes lit up, "Oh my gosh, that looks awesome!" he gushed. "Why'd you choose that, Ti?"
Tigress laughed softly at his goofy reaction, "Thanks, Po – figured I'd try something new. And I'll tell you later but we have more important matters at hand." she said to him quietly.
Po nodded and began to gather everyone in even closer to form a plan to take back the valley from the occupying invaders. Nearby, on an adjacent roof, a wolf scout watched the group with much interest.
Well that's it for Chapter 4! Hope y'all liked it thanks for the kind reviews! A lot is going down in this story and now Po and Tigress need to go find their friends somehow. They're both now severely injured and the valley is planning a rebellion. Will they be able to overthrow the occupying wolves? Find out next chapter! Anyway, thanks for reading and reviewing.
- Tipofan4life