Chapter 7
Bad Feeling
Tigress ran from rooftop to rooftop trying her best to ensure that everyone was on their way out of the village. She stopped once she noticed at least a dozen villagers talking in the village square; which by now should have been evacuated already. She hopped down in the middle of the group surprising them. "What's the meaning of this? You should all be heading towards the mountain pass." Tigress stated irritably. "Of course master Tigress. The thing is..." One pig villager said stuttering in the presence of the great Master Tigress. The rest of the group back away leaving the pig alone to face the Master. "The-The-The..." The pig was shaking by now. His voice had left him and he simply couldn't talk. The pig opened his mouth once again to talk, but it wasn't his voice to come out. "The thing is, we are not going to simply to walk away while our homes are burned to the ground. This fire can be beat and we will do all we can to save our homes and our livelihood."
All eyes turned to see a grey goose standing in the middle of the group. "Mr. Ping? I thought you already left?" tigress stated shocked to see Po's father here. "I'm not about to leave and watch my home and shop be burned to the ground. I've lived here most my life and I'm not about to let some stupid fire run forty long years of work." Mr. Ping said, now standing directly in front of the tiger. Tigress knelt down in front of him and stared into his eyes. She saw the conviction in his eyes, no matter what she said, he was going to stay, they all were. With a sigh she stood up and looked at every one that was still there. "This is going to be a losing battle. But if you're all bent and staying here. We could use some of you up at the palace to evacuate some of the scrolls there. The rest of you, get as many buckets of water as you can and create a trench between the village and the Hépíng gōnglù."
The villagers nodded their heads and took off to do their separate duties. Tigress watched the all leave, except for a certain grey goose. Tigress watched the goose as she saw the concern in his eyes. "What's wrong Mr. Ping?" Mr. Ping blinked his eyes quickly, as if coming out of a trance. "Tigress...something is very wrong..." Mr. Ping said slowly, as if unsure of what he just felt. "Well of course Mr. Ping, raging fire threatening to destroy the whole valley." Tigress stated sarcastically.
"Not that Tigress, something's very wrong...with Po." Mr. Ping looked up at Tigress. The worry in his eyes made Tigress heart stop. Without another word exchanged she took off on all fours towards the fire...towards Po.
AT THE TRENCH
Monkey was going as fast as he could towards Master Shifu. "MONKEY! What are you doing!? Go back and hold the trench!" Monkey looked down to see a very angry ash covered Shifu. Monkey jumped down from the tree he was currently swinging from. "Master Shifu! The fire has already reach the mountain and is circling back around us!" Master Shifu's expression turned from one of anger to one of worry and dread. "Then we've done all we gone. We'll go get Po and leave before the fire surrounds us."
"We better hurry and warn Tigress."
"Agreed." Master Shifu and Monkey quickly left in search of Po, hoping that they would be fast enough to ensure they did not get trapped by the flames.
Po was losing ground and fast. The flames had already managed to cross the trench and Po was struggling to slow the flames. Once he extinguished one tree, two others were ablaze. Po sighed in exhaustion. "This is not working." Po suddenly ducked and rolled as a tree came crashing down beside him. This allowed the fire to spread more and before Po could react he was encircled by flames. "Not good. Not good." Po was surrounded on all side by flames. He shuffled his feet in an attempt to keep them from burning from the pile of hot ash accumulating at his feet. A large piece of ash landed on his arm and a sickening sizzling noise emitted from Po's arm as his fur was burned off. A smell of burnt flesh also formed as the ash burned deep into his skin. Po padded his arm down as more and more ash rained down on him.
"Hot! Hot! Very hot!" Po coughed as the smoke now closed in. He began to debate on how he would die. Die by fire...or die by smoke... The fire was now inches from Po and the smoke was making it extremely hard to breath. Po crashed to one knee, he was too dizzy to remain standing. Po coughed and wheezed as he tried his best to get as much oxygen into his system. His thoughts turned to his dad and how heartbroken he would be to learn that his only son was going to die. His thoughts then shifted towards Tigress. He thought he would die old and in his sleep, and married with kids. Not alone in woods, slow and painful. His thoughts were shattered when a large shadow burst through the flames and landed right next to him.
His vision was blurry but he could make out a pair of concerned amber eyes staring at him. An orange paw came up to his face and a pair of lips connected with his. Any doubt about who it was melted away as the kiss was deepened. Once the kiss ended by had a VERY goofy grin on his face. "Hey Ti..."