A/N: Thank you for the welcome. I hope you are looking forward to this. Well... B. So yeah, thank you for the reviews and favorites.

I do not own Kung Fu Panda.

Stripes of a Tiger
Battle

She did not want to admit it, but right now she was scared. Her heart was pounding against her chest, her body was shaking slightly and her hearing was reduced to whispers.

This was not the training hall. There were no dummies, no training obstacles. There were no corrections to what she was doing and there was no way to get a second chance.

This was the real world. This was reality.

And she was scared.

She knew she was not supposed to feel like this. She had spent the last years training. She could do this. Shifu believed in her.

They were just some bandits. Not a giant threat to China; not even to the Jade Palace. Just some few stupid boars.

But it was reality.

Tigress took in a deep breath, eyeing the enemy that was running towards her.

She could do this.

She was a Kung Fu Warrior. She had been trained strictly to do things like this. In training hall she was confidence.

But now she was a coward.

She knew that things could go wrong. Very wrong. If she got hit, she could not take a break to bandage the wound. She could not just stop to catch her breath.

Now there was only one chance.

With a snarl, Tigress ran forward to meet her opponent. Jumping in the last second, she twirled around to kick his chest and then a punch to his head.

The boar stumbled backwards, holding his now sore nose. He stared at the young tiger in wonder, but then turned to look at his two allies. "Well, well," he said slowly, while grinning. "It looks like the little kitty can fight."

"Even without her master," the second one grunted.

"Did you run away from him, little girl?" the third and the last one asked.

But Tigress had, under one of her trips through the valley, stumbled across the bandits that had been carrying bags full of what she recognized as stolen, and expensive, jewelry. Reminding herself of that she soon would turn eleven, Tigress had decided to not fetch her master, but take them out alone.

Now she was not sure if she had taken the right choice.

Eyes focused on the knives they were now holding, Tigress repeated training lessons in her mind. Why was she so freaked out? She could this. Even without Shifu.

Raising her head, she told them loudly, "I am giving you one last chance to return the jewelry, or else I'll have to fight you."

The bandits looked at each other before breaking into laughter. "Doesn't she look cute when she says that?!" one of them exclaimed while wiping away a tear from his eye.

Tigress scowled; she was truly aware of how young she was. But she was still Shifu's student and she could still fight.

Actually, she could fight well. She had tried it before. Now she just had to see how good these guys were.

She growled, and that seemed to get the boars to understand that she truly meant it.

The made themselves ready, holding their weapons, while Tigress took her fighting stance. Two of them ran towards her, but she waited until they were close enough; she then swung her leg, tripping them.

One of the fell in her direction, knife still pointing towards her, but she grabbed the arm, holding him still. A kick to his head and then using his chest to jump from; landing directly onto the other boar.

They hit the ground roughly, and for some seconds Tigress was dizzy. But she looked up just in time to see the third bandit swinging his knife down towards her. She rolled away and instead the blade hit the boar that still had not coming up from the ground.

Luckily for him, it did not touch his body, but it went through his shirt and got stuck in the dirt; keeping him trapped.

Tigress quickly kicked him in the head before he could touch the knife, and he lost his conscious. Now there was only two left.

The tiger took in a breath; she had done it! One enemy was defeated and Shifu had not even been there! It was like she had taken the next step closer to being a true warrior!

But her thoughts were interrupted as one of the remaining boards kicked her so hard on her arm that she flew meters away. She landed directly on her face; a thing she was not happy about.

Kung Fu Lesson number one; don't get distracted.

She had just broken that rule.

So she stood up again, this time angry. First they called her kitty, now they humiliated her.

And so she fought.

Shifu was, honestly, mildly surprised when he found her. A villager had brought him the news about the thieves that had been seen, wandering around in the forest. Seeing that Tigress still had not returned home, he brought the pieces together and understood what she was doing.

But when he arrived, she had already taken care of the job.

Now she was standing in front of him bowing, while her tail was swinging back and forth happily. "Master," she greeted him.

He looked from the unconscious bandits to her again. He cleared his throat and then said, "I see you have taken care of the things here."

"Yes."

He raised an eyebrow. "What happened?"

"They are the ones who stole the jewelry," she told him and then pointed at the bags that were lying on the ground. "I told them to give me it back, but they refused. Then they attacked."

"And you took down all of them?" he asked her. "Alone?"

She nodded happily.

"I can see that your training have given results," he said with proud in his voice. "For now on, I believe you can go on some missions on your own. Am I correct?"

"Yes, Master," she said, eyes sparkling.

He walked closer and first then he could see the bruise on her arm. "Are you injured?" he asked her, looking her over.

She shook her head. "No, Master. He just kicked me."

"We'll take a look on it when we come home," he told her. "But first, I'll take care of things here. You can go ahead; I'll soon be at the palace."

Tigress took a last glance on the bandits, then nodded, and started to walk towards her home she could see in the distance.

But before she was too far away she heard Shifu call out, "Tigress?" For a moment it seemed like the red panda had troubles with finding the right words. "You… You did… Well," he finally sighed.

With a smile on her face, Tigress walked home.

A/N: And that was B. What now? I believe you all know… D. Just kidding. Of course it is C.

Please review to tell me your thoughts!

Next letter; C. Next word; Corner.