A/N: And here is the third chapter. Hope you like it. You might want to know, that the one-shot will change a lot. In some she will be old, and some not. So you can relate to the other one-shots.

I do not own Kung Fu Panda.

Stripes of a Tiger
Corner

She hated it.

She loved it.

Sometimes it was the worst place in the world.

But it was her home.

"Get back!" the ox said and little Tigress did it, all while hissing. The next second the door was slammed shut, and with a sigh she walked slowly towards her bed.

Swinging her legs while sitting in the edge of her only furniture, Tigress started humming for herself. She was getting used to it. Their yells, their threats.

But somehow it just still hurt.

Hours passed; nothing happened. Things were exactly as usual. Carefully, she let her claws be shown.

A weapon.

Her weapon.

But the tiger cub did not hurt anything. Instead she started making a melody, drumming it quietly by hitting the edge of her bed with her claws.

The nights were always the worst.

Sleeping was never really planned; she spent all her day in her room. Whether she slept during night or during day did not change anything.

There was nothing to wake up to.

She licked her lips as she thought of what she had done today. She had been out. Just some few minutes, but it had been enough.

But that little hope she had been given, a price would follow.

The caretakers would be more careful from now on. They would barely even open the door. They would make sure she would not get the chance of getting away again.

She did not know why they hated her.

Feared or hated or. Right now there did not seem to be a difference between those two things.

But they did not allow her to have any joy.

Tigress looked at her paws. Why? Because of these? Once again she looked at her own little sharp claws. Carefully, she brought the paw up to touch her fangs. Or these?

Was being her really that bad?

Before they had locked her in here, she had once heard fairytales by putting her ear against a wall. Even though the words had been weak, she had never really forgotten them.

At least not all of them.

But the memory had faded, and now she only remembered what fairytales were.

There were the good ones and the bad ones.

Now she understood that she was one of the bad. And the good ones defeated the bad ones. Killed them. It was alright because they were good and the others were bad.

The bad were monsters.

Cruel, heartless monsters.

They called her a monster…

Then when would the good ones come and kill her?

She started breathing faster as she thought about it. Was that her destiny…?

"Monster," she whispered as she tried to figure out the word once again.

It meant strength. She knew that. But it was the bad kind of it.

The bad guys were strong too. Sometimes, they nearly defeated the good ones. But in the end they would always lose.

Apparently, her strength was the bad type. She did not know how it was decided.

She had not taken that decision.

Everybody else had.

She did not use her strength to be bad. At least not on purpose.

She was just trying.

To live. To be herself. To be normal.

But apparently she failed at everything. And failing was bad, and then she became bad too.

And there was no chance of being good again, because she was who she was. She was Tigress. And being Tigress was being bad. But being Tigress was the same as being a monster.

Tigress the monster.

Monster.

The word seemed to fill her mouth, and suddenly she just wanted I to be gone forever. She hated it. She hated herself for being it.

As her claws became hidden again, Tigress crawled off her bed. The room felt smaller than normal, and so she fled to her own little corner.

Nobody could touch her here.

In the start, she had believed that the door would open. That they were going to let her out.

Because she did not deserve such a fate, did she? Staying here forever?

So she had spent her days, staring at the door. Food would be given to her, quickly, and often when she was asleep so she did not notice them.

Then she would continue staring.

But in the end the realization came to her as she understood; the door would not be opened. Not for her.

Then she gave up. Instead of sitting in front of the door, she found her corner.

Those two walls she could stare at were taunting her. Telling her that this was like her life forever would be.

Cold and gray.

But those walls did also protect her.

With them she was safe. She turned her back to those who did not want her. She belonged here.

In her corner.

In the days where she became frustrated, over her situation and over whom she was, she would knock her head against those walls. It would hurt, but the pain would tell her that she still was here.

Even though everybody wished that she was not.

The corner would always be there for her. It could not move.

Just as herself.

They were both trapped here, so she did not see any reason to leave it.

It was just her and her corner.

When she closed her eyes, she could dream of happiness, of a family and a home. She could dream of laughter and joy, but it would always just be a dream.

Because when she opened her eyes the only thing she would see was those walls.

She hated them.

But they were all she had.

And when she was tired, of everything, she would lean her chin against one of the walls, while hoping that things would get better.

The cold always made her shiver.

Now, out of the orphanage and living in the Jade Palace, Tigress sometimes found herself sitting in the corner of her room.

The walls had changed, yes, but they were still creating a corner.

In the nights where she started doubting herself, she would crawl down there to find some comfort. How much had she changed since the orphanage? Why did she still feel this way?

Monster.

The word never left her mind.

And so she would never fully leave her corner.

A/N: I know this is depressing, but again; each one-shot will be different. And yes; the Five will come.

Next letter; D. Next word; Daughter.