W-what?
But the god had vanished. She spun in the air, fighting weightlessness. By god, she was entirely out of her body! Oogway would have been ecstatic! Why this was a state only the greatest of yogis could achieve, and she – she -
Her eyes fell on the white ribbon that connected her to her body, and the great spotted hulk that held it, rocking back and forth with sobs.
I'm dead, she realized. He killed me.
Somehow she was not terribly perturbed by this fact. That body had been so full of pain – in its flesh, it its heart. She was curiously glad to be rid of it.
"No," Tai Lung whimpered. "No no no."
She slowly sank to the ground next to him.
Tai Lung….
A sweet warm light hit her back. She felt a gentle tugging upwards, as though gravity was softly reversing itself. She took hold of the ribbon – white and cool and wispy as a breath – and used it to hold herself to the ground at Tai Lung's side.
"I didn't – I didn't mean to - " he whispered - not to her, but to the thing that once contained her. "Please wake up."
Tai Lung, she said, reaching for him. I was going to die anyway.
She touched his shoulder. Her hand passed right through him.
"Please," he said again.
At least it was painless this way …
He shook her empty body. Its hand flopped limply into the snow.
"PLEASE!" he shouted, baring his teeth into her blank face, as though he might frighten her back to life. Tai Lung made a sound she didn't think him capable of making, small and innocent and full of pain. The sound a heart makes when it is crushed.
He immediately started hacking, great heaving hacks that brought up blood. He fell forward on his hands, lost his balance and nearly fell on her body. He tore the sling off and placed her gently in the snow, bringing up more blood. He took a few deep, gurgling breaths and went limp, then slowly began to lie down.
No!
She reached for him but her touch was ineffectual, immaterial. The gentle warm upwards tug grew more insistent. She glanced over her shoulder in annoyance and gasped.
Above her was the whitest, purest, most golden light she could imagine, a light made entirely of love. The rays crossed her face, each soft as a feather. She heard a delightful singing, the voice sweet as the mother she had never known. When the notes hit her heart her every earthly concern began to melt away like warm honey. She reached her other hand up towards the light and felt it reach back, eagerly awaiting her.
"Tigress," Tai Lung gasped.
She turned.
He nuzzled close to her body and pressed his mouth to her limp ear, whispering a grief-stricken, raspy secret.
"Tigress - I have a one … I have a one time … offer." He coughed. "If you wake up – if you wake up right now – when we return to the Jade Palace, I'll - I'll take the Dragon Scroll and throw it in the river, unread."
Tigress was struck speechless.
He gently lifted his finger to stroke her face. "That's what you would want, isn't -isn't it - ?" His voice strangled as he started coughing – not hacking this time, only weak, bleeding coughs. He pressed his hand to his chest and groaned softly, his eyes fluttering shut.
She could feel his heart slowing. He would be with her soon, she realized. And that …
...she glanced back at the beautiful light...
...that might not be so bad.
The Spirit Realm was a better realm than this one, with its agonies and sorrows and freezing cold. There they would be free. Their pasts, so heavy with betrayals and loyalties, would no longer stand between them. She would take Tai Lung's hand and float off with him into soft weightlessness, without masters and scrolls and palaces, without snow and pain, where everything was golden and there was nothing but love.
She was ready. She'd said her goodbyes to this world as she lay dying in his arms.
He moaned. Along with the sun the wind began to rise, slicing through his fur. She reached out to scratch his head, to soothe his final nightmare, but he could not feel her touch. She leaned close to his ear.
Let go, Tai Lung, she whispered to him. You've suffered enough. Let go of this life and walk into eternity with me. We'll explore it together, you and I.
Tai Lung shuddered. Blood seeped from his mouth, and he winced in pain. She so wished she could touch him, could somehow let him know that she was there. To give him some comfort during this cold and lonesome end.
It will be over soon, she whispered. Relax.
There was movement in the corner of her eye. Tigress flinched in alarm. Suddenly all around them appeared oily black things.
She leapt to her feet.
They crawled up out of the ground, pushing themselves towards Tai Lung with emaciated, greedy arms, grasping for him with clawed fingers and snarling, fanged mouths Tigress all at once knew – abruptly, as though the information had just dropped itself into her mind - that the Light was not the only place in the Spirit Realm. There were other places, mazes of despair and agony where tortured souls could lose themselves for eons. And should Tai Lung die now, that was where he was headed - into the Dark, where she could not follow.
A slimy thing swept at Tai Lung with needle-like claws.
No, she said, blocking it. You cannot have him.
But there were too many to block on her own. She opened her hand. Without knowing how she knew to do it, from the depths of her heart she summoned a blade of light. She used it to slice away the grasping hands, the knifelike teeth. The creatures shrieked as their arms and heads sizzled and dropped off into the snow. She leapt in a circle around him, slicing the creatures like stuffed dummies in the training hall, but the more she dispatched the more sprung up out of the ground. Soon they would attack in numbers she could not possibly overcome. She raised the blade to the Light, and opened herself to receive.
Please, she said, help me.
An overwhelming power flowed down through her. She leapt faster now, far faster than she ever had in life, flipping and spinning her blade in a whirling circle of golden light, keeping the creatures at bay. They fell rapidly, dissolving back into the ground. Nevertheless they kept coming, gradually gaining on the dying Tai Lung, ready to tear his soul to shreds and scatter it in the farthest caves of darkness.
I will not allow it! Tigress cried, but the things did not stop advancing. She cleared as much of a circle as she could before running back to Tai Lung and dropping to her knees at his side.
Tai Lung, she pleaded. I take it back. Don't let go. You have to stay alive. You can't die now, you can't let them take you!
He pressed his forehead into her old body's neck, moaning softly.
Tai Lung, no! No no no! She fussed over him, touching him, but her hands went clear through his body. Don't give up! You can't give up now, Tai Lung, please! She crouched down next to him, putting her hands on his chest. A warrior never gives up, she whispered. Remember?
But it was no use. His crackling breaths came slower. Blood dribbled from his mouth. Her hands sank through his chest – and to her surprise, felt something. Like a ball of energy, warm and pulsing and electric and precious. His heart, she suddenly knew. The energy of his heart. She may not be able to touch his earthly body but she could touch this –
- because a part of it was hers.
Oh, she breathed, cupping it in her hands like a baby bird.
The creatures paused in their advance. Tai Lung's eyes opened. He turned towards her – not her body, her. He tilted his head, blinking in confusion, squinting as though seeing something very bright.
Get up, she commanded. You must get up now.
He did not follow her direction, only looked confused. All around them the creatures were beginning to close in once more. There wasn't much time.
Get up! She urged. Fight it, Tai Lung! Fight!
He moaned and closed his eyes.
With a sudden knowing she bowed, and came to a rest with her forehead touching the energy of his heart. She thought of his compassion towards the dying wolf. Of all the times he'd tolerated her snideness, her angst. His dancer-like beauty as he trained in the snow. Grinning drunkenly up at her and asking her to dance with him, smiling at her from between the fringes of a nightgown he wore on his head to make her laugh, smiling at her in the corner of her eye when he thought she wasn't looking. How he'd taken the first peach he'd seen in twenty years and placed it by her foot as an offering. The tenderness with which he'd treated her suffering as he carried her through hell.
The warmth of his hand in hers, when he named her an angel.
She smiled gently. Relaxed.
It's time to get up now, my love, she said, sweet as mother to a sleeping child.
He gasped. His eyes opened.
She cupped her hands around his heart and held it close.
Darling, it's not your time. I am with you. You are strong. But you are in danger and you must get up.
He took a deep breath.
Good, she said. Take another.
He obeyed, coughing a bit, awakening. His gaze settled on her body. With agony in his eyes he stroked the backs of his fingers along the white ruff of her cheek.
"Lady Flying Tigress," he whispered.
Yes! she said, delighted. Yes, it's me! Your little savage! I'm here with you!
Confused, he rose up on his elbows, squinting against the sun. He rolled on his side and haltingly crawled to his knees, panting with effort. She concentrated on filling his lungs with light. The more he breathed the more the oily creatures were forced to retreat, climbing back down into the ground. Tigress cried out in happiness, a happiness that transferred to Tai Lung in the form of an abrupt and unprovoked laugh.
Yes! Tigress cried. Yes yes yes! Tai Lung, you've defeated them! Now you must get up. You must keep going.
Tai Lung obeyed, slowly beginning to gather their things. But, Tigress realized, where would he go? He was still very injured, and there was no help for miles. They may have evaded the creatures for now, but even with her help his body would not hold out all the way back to the trading road. It would take a miracle to save him.
She rose from his chest and turned her face to the Light.
Show me the way! She demanded. Light of all wisdom, show me the way!
There was a voice in her ear.
"You do realize you've just ordered the very Heavens themselves to do your bidding?" came the dragon god's voice, as though impressed at her boldness.
Yes and so be it, she replied. I am doing their work.
She felt the god back away, as though this were something even it could not interfere with. The very Light itself moved in the sky, falling due east, where suddenly there stood a ridge between two peaks that had not been there before. She could see the flags from the tops of yurts. Behind those white clouds billowed up into the sky. As she watched a person in robes came up over the ridge and began walking along it.
There! Tigress urged Tai Lung. Look there!
But where was there? How could this ridge and those yurts appear from nothing?
"There is not here," the dragon's voice came again. "And here is not there."
What do you mean?
"Only those that have been kissed by a god can see that place, and even I cannot deny Heaven it's favor," it said, and she felt a brief cool peck on her cheek. "Nor my own. Now go on, my brave little cabbage. Show him the way."
She bowed in thanks, then quickly passed her hands through Tai Lung's eyes. He squinted and blinked, then turned east to see the person walking the ridge. His jaw dropped in amazement. He rubbed his eyes and leaned forward a bit, baffled.
Another person joined the first and they turned away, making to go back down to their village.
"Wait," Tai Lung croaked. "Wait!"
But they did not stop. They could not hear him. He started hacking again, waving his arm flimsily over his head. "Wait!"
Tigress focused and filled his lungs with light once more. He took a deep breath.
"WAIT!" he shouted, his voice booming out over the snowy valley. He fell onto his elbows with the force of it. But it worked - he'd been spotted. The two on the ridge shouted behind them for help and came running down towards him, leaving little trails of footprints in the undisturbed snow.
Tai Lung clutched his chest and panted, wincing. He moaned and lay down.
You did it, Tai Lung! You did it, my love! Tigress cried. A warrior never gives up!
He reached his hand back to clumsily cover her cold limp one.
"A warrior ... never gives up," he agreed, and fell asleep in the snow.