Within her grasp

Chapter 3: Authority

Plik.

"Psssst!"

Plik.

Tigress idly scratched her cheek. She had felt something... something tiny... Musta been some sorta insect...

Plik.

"PSSSST!"

Her left ear twitched. What sort of insect makes such sounds? It sounds almost like somebody quietly trying to get my attention... It took a moment for the implication to sink in, but then, she sat up instantly and looked around. "...nobody?" she whispered and frowned. Three tiny stones were lying close to her, but nobody was at her small window, and the door would have made a sound. Speaking of sound... She closed her eyes and focused. Quiet footsteps. Somebody with little weight and tremendous skill. Somebody who knew exactly which floorboards squeaked when you step on them.

Master Shifu! she finally realized and almost wheezed. I'm supposed to be meditating! Without making a sound, she slid into a lotus position, closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing. If he's here to seriously check up on me, he'll look straight through this fake. But maybe... maybe...

The door was quietly pushed open. "Tigress, we're about to leave," Master Shifu whispered and immediately started to walk away again.

The feline let out a relieved sigh and stood up. Good thing he's in his busy mood! Even though his rant about faked meditation would have been nothing, compared to him catching me asleep... again... She quickly pocketed the stones and hurried after her Master.

The first thing she noticed when she arrived at the courtyard was that the atmosphere had drastically changed somehow. Master Oogway was still his calm and cheery self, and Master Shifu was as grumpy as usual, but Crane... She frowned lightly. The bird wasn't standing at his full height and kept his wings extremely close to his body. Tigress couldn't help but think that he was expecting a storm. Or maybe the storm has already passed by. She gave Master Shifu a quick look. What did I miss?

"Very well, then," Master Oogway announced and waved his large cane towards the stairs leading down to the Valley of Peace. "I imagine we will be gone for at least two weeks, but it all depends on the circumstances. I expect the two of you will take care of everything, yes?"

"Of course, Grand Master Oogway," Crane immediately replied and bowed deeply. Tigress wasn't completely certain, but she felt that his movements looked... forced. She looked up at Master Oogway, and the tortoise gave her a short, but meaningful look.

Okay, now I really want to know what I missed! She quickly bowed and gave both Masters the Kung Fu salute. "You can count on us."

"Wonderful," Master Shifu said and looked up at Crane. "Any questions?"

Crane held his gaze, and Tigress couldn't help but shiver when she noticed the odd mix of terror and hatred in his eyes. "None, Master Shifu," he finally whispered.

Master Shifu's eyes narrowed slightly, but he just nodded and turned to leave. "Good. I expected no less of a student of the Floating Temple."

They watched the two Masters walking down the stairs in silence. When they were finally out of sight, Crane sighed deeply, and Tigress was half afraid that he'd collapse. "Hey, you okay?" she asked quietly and gave him a concerned look.

"Hm?" The bird gave her a confused look, as if not having noticed her so far. "Oh, yeah, sure. I'm fine." He started to wander across the courtyard, but it was fairly obvious that he wasn't actually going anywhere.

Shaking her head, Tigress quickly caught up with him. "It was you who woke me up, wasn't it?" He gave her a look and smiled weakly. Tigress gave him a friendly grin. "Thanks for that. And also thanks for covering for me earlier. You know... the bit about the stance?"

"It was nothing," Crane told her. "Students got to stick together, after all."

"You're not a student anymore," Tigress pointed out. "You're a Master, which puts you on the same level as-"

"Don't be ridiculous," Crane interrupted her sharply. "You're close to being a Master yourself! Do you honestly think that you'd be on his level then? In this temple, I'm nothing more than a student. Just like you."

Tigress raised an eyebrow and tried to figure out if the bird was bitter or serious. Most likely a mix of both, but why? Seriously, could I possibly have picked a worse time for a nap?

"Speaking of which," Crane suddenly mused and let out a sigh. "Come with me. You still got some training to do before dinner."

Now we're talking! She allowed herself a wide grin and followed him into the training hall. "What're we going to focus on first? How to work around your White Crane style? How to avoid plummeting to death?"

Tigress frowned lightly when the bird didn't reply. Instead, he simply opened a large chest and took out a scroll. "Ah yes," he muttered after taking a quick look inside. "Three laps around the training hall. Then once through the obstacle course at your own pace. If you got the time, you can do a few crunches, too."

"You're kidding, right?" she asked and chuckled nervously. "Like, this is some sort of Floating Temple joke you play on new students? A sort of Master-Student bonding ritual where you teach me some sort of lesson in humility or whatever?"

Crane gave her a completely blank look. "Just go."

"...wait, you're serious?" Tigress snatched the scroll out of Crane's wings and unrolled it. And before she read even a single word, Tigress knew what was going on. "This is Master Shifu's handwriting."

"Correct," he replied quietly, not quite meeting her eyes.

"How many more scrolls with these laughable daily training instructions are in-"

"Thirty."

"Let me guess," she started and rubbed her forehead. Everything suddenly made sense. "After your tour of the temple, Master Shifu took you aside and pretty much tore you to shreds for your sparring stunt?" He nodded weakly. "And while you were down, he kicked you a few times by saying that he'd kill you if you taught me anything?" Another nod, even weaker than the last. "And he made these idiotic plans because after our sparring match, he thinks that I'll get myself killed unless he supervises my training personally?" This time, the bird just shrugged. Tigress crossed her arms. "And you're actually going to play along with this?"

Crane nervously scratched the floor with his talons. "He's our Master... How can I not?"

"How can you?" she asked back and threw the scroll at his feet.

"Just... just do it, okay? These are instructions by your Master, after all."

Tigress could see that Crane was deeply conflicted about this, but she decided to press on, anyway. "Make me," she muttered and dropped into a lotus pose, crossing her legs before she had even completely touched the ground.

"...what?" Crane asked and flapped his wings anxiously. "You can't do this!" He glanced at the entrance of the building, as if expecting Master Shifu to kick in the doors at any moment.

"You know what I think?" she asked calmly, completely ignoring the fact that the bird was about to panic. "I think you got a problem with authority."

He froze in mid-flap. "Me? A problem with authority? Are you mental? Just look at you! You got a problem with authority!"

"I refuse to follow openly idiotic instructions," Tigress replied and smiled. "You on the other hand ignore your own feelings just because some guy you just met told you to."

"Master Shifu is not just some guy!" Crane snapped. "It's true that I just met him today, but he is still my Master! And yours, too! And what do students do? They follow orders!"

Tigress tapped her chin with one finger. "The Masters of the Floating Temple must've been pretty strict, huh?"

"You're lacking discipline!" Crane hissed without answering her question. "It's no wonder you're not a Master yet!"

"Touched a nerve there, didn't I?" she asked and smirked. "Come on, tell me about the rules there."

For long seconds, Crane gave her the most hostile glare she had ever seen. Then, finally, he sighed and took off his hat. "Don't get me started," he muttered.

"Come on," Tigress told him. "The worst Master Shifu does is ranting about my performance and making me do extra chores. I wanna know what made you respect your Masters to the degree of being genuinely scared."

His right foot idly played with the scroll. "In the Floating Temple," he finally started, "you could get punished quickly. You didn't even have to go as far as actively disobeying orders or slacking off. Even little stuff could earn you harsh punishment. For example..."

"...messing up a stance you really should know?" she asked and smiled sheepishly.

He finally looked into her eyes and chuckled quietly. "Yeah, things like that. If you messed up like that in the Floating Temple, your Master would make you wait in front of the temple for an hour or even for the rest of the day depending on the severity of the offense."

Tigress blinked. "...and? That's got to be the lamest punishment ever."

Crane gave her a wide-eyed stare before shaking his head. "You really have no idea of where the Floating Temple had been, right?"

"Well... no," she admitted quietly and frowned.

"I'll give you a hint," Crane hissed. "The place was destroyed by an avalanche." Tigress gasped when the implications hit her, but Crane ignored it. "Snow! Everywhere! The entire temple had been built at the top of a mountain that is most likely higher than this one! Even with a thick coat, you would have to keep moving the entire time just to avoid freezing to death!" His talons squeezed the scroll tightly now. "And trust me: After two or three times outside, you want to obey your Masters. They tell you to jump, and you jump. They tell you to run through some obstacle course even after your wing cramped up, and you do it. Because everything is better than feeling half your body go numb from the cold!"

Note to self: Thank Master Shifu for being such a nice and jolly guy by comparison. Tigress slowly got to her feet again. "I'm... sorry," she whispered. "Really, I didn't know about that. But... look, we're not like that."

He gave her a haunted look. "You didn't have to listen to what he told me..."

"I had to listen to him for more than a decade. Trust me, I know what it feels like to be chewed out by him. But he's not perfect, and in the end, he just cares about results. He may not openly say so, but if you improve your performance by not following his orders, he'll acknowledge that." Crane didn't reply, but he at least didn't look quite as terrified anymore. "And right now, I think that I'm going to learn a lot more from you than from these scrolls."

"...okay, fine," Crane whispered after a long pause. "I'll give it a try." He picked up his hat and placed it on his head again.

Tigress flashed him a grin. "That's the spirit! So c'mon, we still got a few hours of daylight left!"

He hesitated again. "Well... I think I should study his reports about your past progress and performance before seriously-"

"Oh come ON!" she groaned and briefly considered smacking him. "We just went over this, didn't we?"

"This is different! If I know what and how you trained, I can build up on that!"

"Why did he even write those reports if he wanted me to train by the scrolls?"

"He wrote them over the years, I think," Crane admitted and pointed at the chest. "I found them in there, under all those training scrolls. I guess he just picked the first suitable container and didn't bother to empty it. Guy's been in a hurry, packing his bags and writing those training plans."

"And what do you expect me to do in the meantime?" she asked and crossed her arms.

The bird gave her a long look and finally reached into one of his pockets with one foot to take out a small key. Tigress noticed that he seemed to do a lot with his feet, but figured that his talons granted him greater precision than his wings. "This is the key to my room in the inn. Grab my bag from the bed and bring it here. I already paid today's rent, so just give the key to the inn keeper." When Tigress simply glared at him, he chuckled. "Ah, you want a challenge, right?"

"I want to kick your feathered butt all the way down to the Valley of Peace for making me do your chores," Tigress replied and smirked. "But a challenge would be okay, too."

"Fine, fine." Crane gave her a long look. "I'm sure you got leg weights somewhere, right? Use those, and only step on every... let's say fifth step."

"I thought you wanted to give me a challenge, not a trivial task." Tigress yawned dramatically. "I could jump down ten steps even with the heaviest leg weights!"

The bird cocked his head. "Did I say that this restriction would only apply to your way down?"

She froze. "Wait... you want me to also take every fifth step on my way back up? With weights? All the way?"

"I thought you wanted a challenge," Crane replied innocently. "Of course, if you're not up to it, we might find something more... fitting for your level." He picked up the scroll with Master Shifu's first training plan and smirked.

Instead of replying, Tigress simply snatched the key out of his grasp with a low snarl. A quiet voice in the back of her head reminded her that following Shifu's scrolls would have been her first vacation in about a decade, and she gritted her teeth. This better be worth it!