Author's Notes: Hey there! Here once again with another atmospheric, no dialogue one-shot. Man, I'm having too much fun writing this. As for what I've got planned for this. Yeah, I'm thinking of this entirely exploring Tigress' character and her more vulnerable moments. This essentially means that this does not go in any particular chronological order as you will soon see. This one-shot in particular takes place post KFP 1.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN KFP!

Enjoy.

Comfort in Silence

It feels liberating to vent out our frustrations, but the silence that comes afterwards is what speaks to us the most.

Blood streaks down one of the jade palace's iron wood trees, seeping from its injured bark and painting the ground below it in its sickly crimson hue. This wounded tree stands in silence, not letting out a single noise in spite of how much its bark had been shredded off its person and chucked away like dead skin. No need to give the source of its injuries anymore reason to strike. No need to end up like its brothers, now reduced to mangled wooden chunks and fallen, disfigured corpses.

Amber irises burn straight into the tree's bloodied bark, practically igniting the defaced pillar of nature with a fiery rage. A scowl takes up Tigress' face as she unconsciously wraps her knuckles in bandages. Yet another session of frustration. Yet another session where her anger had truly taken her heart hostage. This time however, her wrath had been aimed at an opponent she could not fight. One that she desperately needed to battle.

Before she can let her rage re-enter her stone heart, the tiger closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Trying her best to focus on everything aside from the battered forest. Truth is, though she has always found it cathartic to pour out her anger upon the trees, the moments afterwards have always stuck in her mind more. The moments without her tumultuous growls or vicious snarls suffocating the air. The moments where each impact of her fists hitting the trees didn't ring into her ears. Instead, there had only been silence. Pure, unrelenting silence.

This silence had let the stinging pain in her paws subside when she was younger. It had allowed her to sift through her thoughts, to truly look at herself and understand what had made her feel so enraged. A moment of clarity in a haze of unbridled fury. They had brought regret with them as well, but the satisfaction she had gotten from letting her frustrations out had overpowered this in the past.

Not this time.

Not when her regret pierces through her heart's iron shield, a well-placed arrow to shatter her soul's armour of indifference. Tigress grits her teeth as her guilt centres itself around one person in particular. Po, the dragon warrior. To think that she had treated him like dirt less than a week ago, that she had almost thrown out a warrior that China had never seen before. How could she? What gave her the right to spit on Oogway's choice? It was his destiny and yet all she could see was an incompetent fool trying to steal what was rightfully hers.

Even if that were the case, this doesn't excuse her shameful actions. He hadn't asked for this destiny, and what did she do? Insulted and belittled him to the point where he had almost left. Disgust infects her body, her stomach churning at the venomous words that she had snarled at him that very night. How did she ever think she could become dragon warrior? What made her think that title was her birth-right?

Amber eyes shoot open.

Tai Lung had thought the same thing. Granted, she didn't bring the valley to its knees, nor would she ever want to, but can she honestly say she is any better than him? She had let her anger poison her mind just as he had, not even wanting to give the poor panda a single chance. And he proved her wrong.

Tigress' ears twitch as the silence that would usually soothe her mind soon shift to jeering whispers. She turns her head to look around at the forest, taking in the fallen wooden columns littering the ground and the chips of wood accompanying each corpse. Many of these earthly remnants are smeared with dried blood. Her blood. They had been branded in her ferocity just as they had many times before, but something has changed. For so many years they have been her silent friends, helping her to cope with her hardship. Now, all she can see is a decimated graveyard, paying tribute to the broken victims of her unstable emotions. Funny to think that her only way to confide in someone is through violence. As she continues staring at these fallen friends, the jeering whispers grow louder, mimicking the mocking words of the Bao Gu children. Her scowl deepens, the tiger master desperately trying to keep herself growling until her ears twitch again.

Drip.

She looks down towards her paws only to see them clenched tightly, drenching her newly applied bandages in crimson. With her scowl fading away from her face, Tigress raises her right paw to look at it before cradling it in her left paw. Nothing. No warmth, no texture. Just dull and blunt pressure. All these years of training and honing her skills, and this is what she has to show for it. A destroyed forest, numb paws and a soul buried in shame. To think that she had tried to punch her way out of this hole only to fall deeper in. As her guilt digs further into her mind, the whispers emanating from the forest soon fade away and bring back the silence with it, mending her wounded mind in its calming nothingness.

She continues staring at her crimson knuckles, wishing to see the orange and black fur concealed beneath it. Amidst the deafening silence of the debilitated forest, Tigress hears the gentle breath of the wind, caressing her fatigued body. Comforting her mind once more as her regret finally makes way for something else. Something more unexpected.

Her gaze shifts back to the woodland mausoleum, an epiphany forming within her mind. She has made her mistakes, said things that were downright shameful. Taking her self-loathing out on a few trees will not make things right. It never has, yet only now does she truly understand this. Amber eyes look upon the battered trees with a sombre look. So many years of blood, sweat and tears laid down here, but she knows that she can't do this anymore. She can't keep her mind stuck in the past whilst the present tries to embrace her.

As she thinks of ways she can make it up to the dragon warrior, Tigress begins to walk back towards the student barracks whilst still cradling her paws together. However, just before she makes her way out of the ironwood forest, she takes one last look back at her silent friends. Her eyes send a wordless message of gratitude to them, thankful that they had been there when she needed them.

Thankful that she'll never need them again.

Honestly, I've always wondered when was the point where she decided to stop punching the trees or if she ever truly stopped doing it. I personally think this is what would've happened and that this small moment of introspection pushed her on her path of becoming more open and all that jazz. Anyways, this is certainly no the last of these so stay tuned and until next time :)