Within her grasp

Chapter 6: ...the harder they fall

The first fighting-related lesson that Master Shifu had taught Tigress had been: "When you fall, always bring up your arms so you don't land on your face." Tigress had simply replied that she always landed on her feet. And she even had been a bit smug about it. Her Master had simply smiled.

And now, after hitting the stairs leading down to the village face-first and skidding to a halt, Tigress began to understand why. "Ow." Master Shifu never threw me down the stairs! And I had never been so worn out that I couldn't even flip in mid-air before hitting the ground! She struggled to get up again. Okay, mostly because he never bothered to let our sparring escalate this far.

"Oh, good, you're still alive!"

Tigress groaned. Crane. "Disappointed?" she asked without even looking up at him. In a real-world situation, she would have had to guard against further attacks, but so far, Crane had always allowed her to get back to her feet before resuming the fight. Which has happened... seven times so far? Ooof. And he hadn't even taken the fight into the air! She gritted her teeth as she rose to her feet again. Crane cocked his head, waiting for her next move. Come on, Tigress! You can't quit until you landed at least one solid hit! The fight so far had been embarrassingly uneven, and she had to admit that Crane was good. No, not just good. I'm good. He's just... better. A bit. Not much. Though that little bit made all the difference here. And things would have been even worse if he had left the ground. Tigress sighed. Oh, who am I kidding? I had been injured and exhausted even before we started. She lowered her head as she brought up her arms to offer him the traditional salute. Master Shifu had given her long explanations about the customs and rules describing who would do the salute first, but Tigress had condensed all of them into three words which applied to most standard situations: Loser goes first. "I give up."

Crane didn't return the salute.

She blinked, trying to come up with an explanation for this unusual behavior. What's wrong? Is he mad? Does he insist on continuing this fight until I pass out? Or maybe- She groaned and lowered her arms again. Of course. "I give up... Master Crane," Tigress sighed as she repeated the salute.

Almost immediately, the bird brought up his wings to return it. "You fought well, Tigress," he commented and finished the salute, allowing Tigress to do the same.

"Thank you, Master Crane." For the first time since her last trip to the ground, Tigress gave Crane a closer look. He looks just like he did before the fight! The smug jerk! Not even one ruffled feather!

He looked at her for a few seconds, as if waiting to see if she would say more. "So," he finally started, "what are your thoughts about this fight?"

"You want me to list everything I did wrong?" Gah, I hate those parts. Naturally, Master Shifu loves them. And he always manages to add more items to the list, no matter how many I came up with.

"I want to exchange views, Tigress. If this includes insights about something you should work on, that's fine, of course." He cocked his head as he finally began to realize how Master Shifu had handled such situations. "I want to get to know you better, so don't just tell me what you think I want to hear."

"Okay, fine." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Where to start? I could go with what I practiced the most and tell him some tale about how much I suck, but... no. Let's see where this is going. "You were holding back," she finally told him and opened her eyes again.

He smiled softly. "Not as much as I would have liked." When she merely gave him a frown, he chuckled. "That's it? We fight non-stop for almost an hour, and this is all you have to say afterwards?"

"It's... I mean..." She gestured helplessly before letting out a loud sigh. "I never thought the difference between us would be so great."

"It's not." Crane chuckled softly. "You started out with an injury and still forced me to go almost all out. With the exception of aerial combat, you're doing quite fine, trust me."

"Yeah, but... but it almost felt as if you were... I dunno... as if you knew what I'd do before I did it." She smiled sheepishly. "I know this sounds silly, but a few times, you were practically predicting my moves..." She gave Crane a look, expecting him to laugh at her lame theory. Instead, the bird looked pale.

"I... how'd... I mean..." He flapped his wings nervously then shook his head in disbelief. "I did?" Before Tigress could even figure out what had made him so nervous he cocked his head this way and that before cursing quietly. "No, no, you're right-... I deeply apologize."

Tigress's jaw dropped. "Wait... you mean you did predict my moves?" This isn't something a Master should know. Someone at Master Shifu's level, sure, but not some young crane who just mastered his own style! He doesn't know Tiger style! ...or at least he shouldn't know it!

Crane looked miserable. "Forgive me, Tigress. I thought I had managed to fight without using prior knowledge, but I guess old habits die hard..."

"...what are you talking about? What does this mean?"

"It means that your fierceness almost rivals that of Master Pahti." Crane covered his face with his right wing and muttered something to himself. "Let's head back," he suddenly told her and pointed at the courtyard.

"That doesn't explain anything!" Tigress shouted as she followed him upstairs. "I may be as fierce as one of your crane Masters, but how does that let you predict my moves?"

Crane stopped abruptly and gave her a wide-eyed look over his shoulder. "Crane?" Then he blinked... and laughed. "Oh, oh I see!" He shook his head ruefully. "I forgot you don't know the people at the Floating Temple." He turned around to face her, the courtyard just a few steps away. Tigress took a slow step back - Crane was looking slightly crazy all of a sudden. "Master Pahti isn't a crane. He's not even a bird."

"But... didn't you say he taught you aerial combat? Like that first rule?"

"He did! He did!" He was grinning like mad. "But Master Pahti is a white tiger. The only other crane at the Floating Temple had been Master Bai-He."

Tigress blinked. "...what?" He's pulling my leg. Gotta be. How does a bird learn aerial combat from a tiger?

"I know, it sounds crazy." He was looking through her now. "Oh, Master Pahti... I used to think he hated me. Y'know, because of how he treated me."

Wonderful, I broke him. And now he associates me with some crazy teacher at his old temple. Tigress took a deep breath. "But... he didn't right? You realized that this was his way of showing his appreciation for students, right? Like, tough love?"

Crane idly clicked his beak. "No," he finally muttered. "He really did hate me. But I eventually realized that he hated everybody equally." He snickered, and then, as suddenly as he had dived into the madness, he snapped out of it and shook his head. "I'm sorry, Tigress. Master Pahti had been a fierce Master of the Tiger Style, and he challenged me daily. Over the years, I learned to anticipate several of his moves - it didn't actually allow me to break through his guard, but I at least didn't need to get medical attention after every session." He was looking disappointed in himself. "I thought I had been able to keep that knowledge out of our sparring, but evidently, I didn't quite succeed."

"You... can predict Tiger style," Tigress reduced it back to the basics after a moment of hesitation.

"Not as much as you can, but enough to know the basic moves," he put things into perspective. "I mean, you're bound to pick up a few things when you fight against it every day for a few years, right?" He slowly turned around again and led her to the courtyard.

"And this tiger taught you how to fight in mid-air?"

Crane gestured vaguely for a few seconds. "No," he finally replied. "Master Bai-He taught me that as part of my style. But Master Pahti was the one who taught me his rules on how to avoid getting killed."

"A tiger taught you the 'Let them fall if they don't respect aerial fights' rule?"

Her temporary Master chuckled. "You won't let go of that unless I tell you details, huh?"

"Well, it's roughly time for lunch, so we'll have a good opportunity to talk," Tigress replied and flashed him a grin.

Fortunately, the servant staff had learned to predict Tigress's wishes whenever her Masters went away. Among the things they had learned was that Tigress valued a good lunch. Not over the top, but enough to make a predator with high energy consumption happy. Master Shifu kept telling her that she had to exercise discipline and to control her body to tap into her hidden reserves... or something; Tigress hadn't really paid attention to the metaphysical parts. But these rules aren't meant to apply to vacations, right? Otherwise, Master Shifu would've given the staff special dietary instructions. She of course suspected that the lack of such instructions was merely an oversight by her Master, but had decided not to jinx it.

"Quite a feast," Crane commented when he looked over the plates and bowls that had been placed on the table.

"Yeah, it's a special occasion," Tigress replied airily and started to load some meat and vegetables onto her plate.

He took more time, looking at every offering and nodding appreciatively. "So much better than what we had at the Floating Temple," he whispered before realizing what she had said. "What special occasion?"

"We're here and Master Shifu is not." She gave him another grin. "Dig in! Oh, and tell me more about your training."

Crane groaned dramatically and placed some food on his plate. "I had originally started my training in another school, but they didn't have anybody to teach me more than the basics of my natural style. So I came to the Floating Temple with a long list of recommendations, and Master Bai-He immediately took me under his wing."

How can he eat so much while he's talking? Look at his plate - it's almost empty already! Tigress scratched her head before she realized that Crane's long beak would let him take very large bites. I'm going to starve at this rate! "So he taught you proper Crane style?" she idly asked even as she reached for the bowls again.

"Fujian White Crane style, yes. And I believed that Master Bai-He had been proud of me. No, I had been convinced of it." He shook his head and sighed. "I had been proud. Far too proud. I had fully believed that I ruled the sky, second only to my Master." Tigress realized that she had worried for nothing - Crane had stopped eating... at least for the moment. "And then Master Pahti challenged me. Full-contact sparring in the large arena, no holding back." He sighed again and closed his eyes. "Only much later did I learn that Master Bai-He had asked him to challenge me."

"And he beat you?" No, it can't just be that simple. That wouldn't explain the lessons and all that.

Crane was looking completely lost now, and Tigress wasn't even completely sure if he was still hearing her. "He was fast and strong. Within seconds, he had forced me to fall back all the way against a wall. I realized that I'd have to take the fight to the air. After all, that's my element. Up there, birds fly and cats fall, right?"

"You demonstrated that much, yes." Tigress poked her food and frowned.

"Well, I took off and rose until I was circling just under the ceiling. Truth to be told, I primarily did it to catch my breath and to taunt him a bit. You know, to break his spirit or something."

"You didn't carry him up the way you carried me?" Now that's hardly sporting!

He shook his head. "No. My plan had been to make a few fly-by attacks. Sure, he might've grabbed my leg during one, but you normally don't start out by doing what I did to you."

So he was just giving me an advantage to see what I would do?

"I only noticed that something was wrong when I looked down to deliver my first taunt." Crane was fully lost in his flashback now. "He was gone. I looked down at the arena floor, and he wasn't there. And... and..." He took a deep breath, looking haunted. "And then he was on top of me."

"What?" Tigress blinked. "What do you mean? You said you had been circling way up!"

He briefly shook his head and focused on her again. "Indeed. But he had followed me." He suddenly took a large bite of the fish on his plate, as if only now remembering about lunch.

"How can a tiger follow a crane into the sky? That's nonsense. Not even Master Shifu can fly. Sure, he can jump, but-"

"Claws."

"-...come again?"

"He had climbed after me," Crane whispered. "The moment I had taken off, he had started to scale the arena wall all the way to the ceiling. Insane stunt, really. See, the arena roof had been a dome. So he must've climbed the last part upside down. And then he launched himself at me."

Tigress gave him a long stare. "...damn," she finally muttered. "So he tackled you and let you fall to the ground from that height?"

"What? Don't be ridiculous!" He laughed dryly. "Then I might've recovered in mid-air! No, he grabbed my wings and steered me into the ground."

Tigress couldn't help but cringe at the mental image. "I'm sorry."

"Well, it hadn't been nice, but that's what happens when you follow the first rule of fighting in mid-air," Crane sighed and gave her a look.

"Stay in control," she cited the rule obediently. "Make sure you don't fall or take care that your opponent falls with you."

"See?" He was chipper again and gobbled down the rest of his food with a grin. "All it takes is one life-or-death situation, and people will remember stuff they couldn't memorize before!"

"Very funny," she commented and smirked. "But only knowing the rule won't be enough to beat you, will it?"

He gave her a look, possibly trying to determine if she was serious or not. "You really want to resume your training already?"

"My schedule's free, and minor injuries aren't a reason to stop according to Master Shifu." She shrugged, and he mimicked her movements.

"Yeah, that sounds a lot like my Master, too. Fine then. Are you done?" He pointed at her filled plate.

"It'll still be edible in the afternoon. Right now, I'd like to know more about aerial combat." Tigress smiled widely. About time I get to work on something Master Shifu thinks I'm hopeless in! I'll show him I can do it after all!

He sighed dramatically, but she knew he was just acting. "Who would've thought that I'd end up teaching a tiger how to drag cranes back to the ground? Master Pahti would be amused..."