Well, I'm back. As Promised, Chapter 2 is longer than Chapter 1.

I would like to thank everyone who has read this story so far. I received over 90 hits in less than 12 hours, so I'm guessing at least twenty people read this story. Thanks for your patronage.

Thanks to Vigilance, mariam, and corset-rebellion-follower for being my first reviewers. You guys are great.

The Hawks and Horses symbolized the Mongol army, incase anybody was wondering.

Anyways, here it goes again!

Sharing Dreams

"Where's the Dragon Warrior?" asked Tai Lung as he casually leaned against the cut rope bridge.

"How do you know you're not looking at her?" replied Tigress. Tai Lung let out a laugh.

"Hahaha! You think I'm a fool? I know you're not the Dragon Warrior. None of you!" he yelled, glancing at the other four members of the Furious Five who were currently holding the bridge.

"I heard how he fell out of the sky on a ball of fire." Tai Lung continued as he walked towards Tigress along one of the ropes. "That he's a warrior, unlike anything the word has ever seen." Monkey glanced over at his friends.

"Po?" Tai Lung smiled maliciously.

"So that is his name. Po. Finally, a worthy opponent. The battle will be legendary!" Seeing her chance, Tigress lashed out at the distracted snow leopard. But Tai Lung hadn't earned his own prison by being a pushover. He easily blocked the attack, and soon the two's battle was raging on and below the bridge. Tigress held her own for a while, but she was no match for the snow leopard's might.

One by one, the Furious Five rushed in to help Tigress until only Mantis remained holding the bridge ropes. The other four fighters unleashed a savage assault on Tai Lung, succeeding in cutting the bridge in half and tying the snow leopard up on the opposite side.

Tigress looked at her friends, intending to congratulate them on a job well done. However, her attention was diverted when Tai Lung swung himself across the chasm at them. The snow leopard lashed out at Tigress as he neared, and her world went black as he hit a nerve.

Tigress' eyes snapped open, her heart thudding painfully against her ribs. Realizing that she was not in a mountain pass, but in her room in the Jade Palace, Tigress sat up and breathed in deeply.

"Pull yourself together. A true warrior is not afraid of anything, especially dreams." It was more or less the speech she gave herself whenever she felt like she couldn't do something, but this time it didn't have its usual success. The fact of the matter was that it wasn't the dream that bothered her. It was that the dream had actually happened.

She had been at the pass; had been no match for Tai Lung. Even now, two months after the defeat of the snow leopard, Tigress was still haunted by her humiliating defeat. The other members of the Furious Five were upset by it, of course. But none of them to the extent that Tigress was. She had believed Master Shifu had trained her for the purpose of defeating Tai Lung, and she had failed miserably.

"How could I have failed when the Panda succeeded?" Tigress asked for about the thousandth time. True, she had been the first to acknowledge Po as a Master when he defeated Tai Lung. It was his right. But she still couldn't believe he had done what she couldn't. She had trained harder and longer than he had. Why was he successful when she had failed?

Irritated, the orange feline shook her head. Thinking like this would lead her nowhere. There was only one thing that soothed her troubled mind: training.

Rising from her bedroll, Tigress made her way silently from the Sleeping Quarters to the Training Room. As she approached the door, she was surprised to hear a voice coming from inside.

"You like that, huh? Well you're going to love this next move."

"Po?" Tigress was genuinely confused, and more than a little upset. The last person she wanted to see right now was Po. She had come here to escape thinking about the Panda, not talk to him. "Oh well. I'm here anyway." Sighing, Tigress opened the door and stepped inside.

Po was standing to one side of the room, dancing around the punching bag in that completely incorrect form of his. Suddenly, the panda lashed and grabbed the bag by its "head." Then, Po swung around and used the momentum of his spin to hurl the rubbery bag at the opposite wall. As the bag rebounded back towards Po, the large panda set his feet and prepared to deliver his now-famous chest bump. Tigress smiled as she saw an opportunity.

"Good morning, Po." The large panda spun his head to face the source of the voice.

"Oh, hello Tigr-oomf!" As Po began to speak, the punching bag hit the distracted panda full in the chest. As Po fell to the ground gasping for breath, the bag shot off and began ricocheting wildly around the room. Unfazed, Tigress calmly reached out and grabbed the speeding object as it hurtled past her.

"You should be more careful, Dragon Warrior. Children are trained with this bag for a reason." Po smiled as best he could while trying to get back his wind.

"If I didn't…know better…I'd say that you…did that. …on purpose." Tigress cocked an eyebrow and walked over to the downed panda.

"Me? Willingly inflict pain on the Dragon Warrior? I'm insulted." Po rolled his eyes and moved from his knees to a sitting position.

"So what brings you here? I can't imagine you came just to see my dazzling face and mad kung fu skills." Tigress made an irritated noise and tossed the bag back to its right location.

"I could ask you the same thing. You're not one to rise early, nor one to train when he doesn't have to. What brings you here?" Tigress had said this as a way of telling Po to butt out, so she was replied when she got an answer.

"I had a…disturbing dream. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided maybe an early morning snack would do me some good. But when I got to the pantry, I wasn't hungry."

"Say it isn't so!" Tigress said with a smirk. Po scowled at her, but continued anyway.

"When I realized I wasn't hungry, I decided I might as well train. I thought knocking the punching bag around would make me feel better." Having finished telling his story, the large panda looked at Tigress expectantly. "What about you, Tigress?" The orange female was silent for several moments before she responded.

"This dream you had…you said it was disturbing?" Po nodded silently, confusion plainly visible on his face. "Why was it disturbing? Were you narrating it again?" Po glared at her.

"NO...well maybe at the beginning." Tigress began to laugh, but stopped when she saw the serious expression on Po's face.

"What's wrong, Po? What happened?" The large panda took a deep breath before replying.

"You, the rest of the Furious Five, and I were on a mountain. We were facing an army of horses and hawks intent on invading the valley. But when we began to attack them, they disappeared." Tigress stared at Po, baffled.

"How was that disturbing? People disappear in dream all the time." Po shook his head frantically.

"That's not what was disturbing. It was who took their place." Tigress stared deep into Po's soft green eyes, and was shocked at the pain and fear they held. "Tigress. It was Tai Lung." Tigress let out a gasp that was half surprise and half fear.

"Tai Lung? But-but there's no need to worry, Po. It was a dream. You defeated him two months ago." Po turned his gaze from Tigress to the floor.

"I know I did. But the dream was so real. He snared all six of us with roots, and then he grabbed me by the neck and…" Po didn't finish the sentence, but Tigress didn't need any help filling in the blanks. As the female tiger opened her mouth to console him, Po continued.

"But just before Tai Lung…you know, did what he did, I heard a voice. It was Master Oogway." Tigress' eyes opened wide at this revelation.

"Grand Master Oogway spoke! What did he say?" Po closed his eyes, trying to remember.

"He said I am the Dragon Warrior, but I don't have to fight alone. He told me I can find allies in the most unlikely places." Tigress whistled softly as she digested this information.

"Did anything happen after that?" Po shook his head.

"No. After Master Oogway's voice all that happened was that you guys screamed when Tai Lung did his business. Then I woke up." A sudden thought came to Po, causing the panda to blush fitfully.

"I didn't yell in my sleep and wake you up, did I?" Tigress was surprised by the true concern in Po's voice, and it was enough to make the female feline smile.

"No, I had a bad dream as well, though not nearly as bad as yours. Or profound." Po looked at her intently, an expectant look on his face.

"What did you dream about?" Tigress was caught off guard. She had no real desire to discuss the inner workings of her mind with Po.

"It was about…noodles." Po looked a her curiously.

"Noodles?" he asked, his voice laden with disbelief. Tigress nodded.

"Yes, noodles. All of us were eating your noodles for dinner when suddenly they lashed out and attempted to drown us in the broth. I woke up when I lost consciousness in the dream." Po gave her a look that was a mixture of disbelief and concern for her mental health.

"That's…interesting." Tigress huffed and turned around.

"Well so-rry if my dream isn't as bad as yours. We can't all dream about Tai Lung and Master Oogway, you know."

"No no no! I didn't mean it like that! I just…you don't seem like somebody who would be fazed by noodles." Tigress flicked her tail in annoyance.

"Well I guess that shows how much you know about me." Po nodded his head slowly.

"Yeah. I guess it does." The words had come out much softer and more caring than Po had intended, which caused Tigress to turn around. Their eyes met, and for a brief, imperceptible moment there was a flash of…something. But as quickly as it was there, it was gone. Neither was sure they had really seen anything. But it was enough to make Tigress turn around again.

When an awkward silence followed, Po cleared his throat. "Well, uh, I guess I'll go see if I can find something to eat. I've hunger quite a worked up. Er, I mean worked up quite a hunger." Tigress didn't say anything in reply. She merely flicked her tail to show she understood. Po lingered a few seconds longer, then rose and made his way towards the kitchen.

The door of the Training Room had just closed when Tigress stood up and made her way towards the Fire Grate. If she had been confused before, then she was now completely lost.

This was going to be a long training session.

Well, there it is. Chapter 2 is finished. As promised, it is much longer than the first chapter. It is still not as long as I would like it to be, but that should change as the story progresses and we get into the action.

Again, if you want to review/flame/critique/suggest or just have something to say, the review button is open to everybody. Please utilize it if you read my work. It's hard to know what I'm doing right/wrong if my readers don't tell me.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and see you next time!