With great effort she walked past all of them toward the kitchen.

Po said the thing everyone was thinking, "She's back!"

Out in the Forest a little outside of the valley a figure was hunched over many papers. The figure ranted, "It is almost time. When the two meet, we will wait only a little longer, then we will go and I WILL BECOME ALL POWERFULL!"

Po caught up to Tigress in the hallway leading to the kitchen. As they walked there was an awkward silent moment until Po, of course, had to break it, "You really scared us there Tigress... Do you want to talk about it?"

Tigress replied matter-of-factly, "No."

Po tried to change the subject," Oh. I understand...So what do you want to eat?"

Tigress answered, "It is not important what we eat Po."

Po was taken aback, "WHAT! FOOD IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING LIKE...EVER!"

Tigress inwardly rolled her eyes at Po's childish acts…but secretly she liked them, it's what made him...him! She covered up her feelings' attempts to surface themselves as she always did by maintaining a straight face and calm level attitude and tone of voice, "Po, do not yell please."

Po and Tigress entered the kitchen and a few seconds later the others did too. They all sat down and shared in comfortable silence. Everyone was lost in thought. As they sat deep in thought, Po was looking at Tigress, which didn't go unnoticed by Mantis. Mantis broke the silence, "So, Po...COOK THE NOODLES"

Po was shocked out of his trance, "Oh! Ya! Ok. Ok I'll...I'll go do that now."

Master Shifu was slightly concerned. Ever since his students got back from defeating Shen they had been acting rather strangely. So he asked, "Are you all ok?" You have been acting strange since we got back. Did anything happen in Gongmen City that I should be concerned about?" Everyone froze on the spot. Shifu continued, "How exactly did you get captured by Shen? ...and why was Po not with you? You did not inform me of anything else that accorded." Everyone just looked around the table. Every warriors mind was vividly recalling Po getting blasted out of the factory. Tigress looked at Po who was cooking noodles, obviously not paying any attention, as a flashback of Po being shot raced through her mind.

Viper noticed that Tigress was being quiet, quieter than usual, "Are you ok Tigress?"

Tigress just looked at Viper and stood up, sulkily, and turned toward her room. Before she left she apologized to the group, "I am sorry but I am tired and wish to go to bed. Goodnight all." She bowed to them then left.

Po had just finishing cooking his famous noodles and cantered, "But I just finished her noodles! …Well more for me I guess."

When Tigress arrived to her room she sat on her bed she wasn't really tired at all, it was still rather early. Then Tigress heard someone walking up the corridor. Considering the squeaking it was definitely Po. There was a knock on her door. She answered, "You may come in Po." She heard a gasp then Po walked in with a bowl of noodles.

Po stated shocked, "How did you know it was me?"

Tigress rolled her eyes, "Po, none of the others make the floor squeak."

Po replied a little embarrassedly, "Oh."

Tigress saw the bowl of noodles and was thankful, "Po you didn't have to bring the..."

She was cut off, "Tigress you had a vis...nightmare. You were out cold for hours, and you're weak...you NEED to eat!"

Tigress said, "Thank you Po." Then she punched him in the arm, he winced. "But I am not weak," she said wryly.

Po said, "OK! OK! Not weak, but not as strong as you were...NOW EAT...Pleeeeeeease!" He put on his best puppy dog face, quivered his lip and made his eyes big. His puppy face had no effect on her at all but his jade green eyes did.

Tigress sweetly said, "Ok Po, now goodnight."

Po handed the hot noodles to Tigress and turned toward the door. He stopped at the door way and said, "Good night Tigress." He closed the door behind himself and went back to the kitchen. Tigress looked at the bowl, she grabbed the chopsticks and ate in silence. She ate half of it then set it on the floor by her door. She got into bed and closed her eyes and slept.

When Po got back into the kitchen everyone looked at him and said nothing. Realizing they were all waiting to be updated on her condition he said, "She is fine and she took the bowl."

Po sat down but felt a pain in his stomach. That canon ball was not very friendly, he winced. It did not go unnoticed by the others.

Viper asked, "Po are you alright?"

Mantis added, "Yeah, you look like you just got hit in the stomach." There was an awkward silence when Mantis realized what he had said.

Po said, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Master Shifu interjected, "We must all be tired. We should all go to bed."

Almost in unison they all replied, "Yes, Master." With that they all left the kitchen and headed for bed.

As it did every morning, the early dawn's silence was broken as the Gong rang again. Everyone got up assembled in the hall and said, "Good morning, Master."

Master Shifu was pleased, "Very good students, and I see that you also woke up, Po."

Po replied proudly, "Yep!" Everyone chuckled.

To everyone's surprise Master Shifu spoke words rarely heard in the sacred palace, "You all have the day off. Enjoy yourselves." Eveyone looked around at each other, Master Shifu left and Po started jumping up and down.

"Oh my gosh! We get the day off! Do you all want to go down to the valley?"

Everyone looked around and nodded in agreement.

Viper added, "Sure! Sounds like fun!"

Monkey said, "Wait! Shouldn't Tigress stay and rest?"

Tigress quickly stated, "No. I am fine now. Lets go." She walked off.

Crane said, "Does she always have to be so dramatic?" They all walked down the steps to the valley. It was still pretty early so not a lot of people were out. Tigress noticed a lone figure by a shop.

Mantis noticed too, "So who do you think that is?" He pointed to the figure. As they got closer they saw it was a child, a girl tiger.

Po said, "She looks so lonely."

Viper said, "Yeah!" Then they saw a few more kids who seemed a little older than her, probably teenagers, they walked past the tiger child and stared her down. Then they whispered to each other. The five and Po could hear them as they whispered, "She is so weird!" "Yeah, I heard she has no family."

Viper felt bad for this girl, "That's not very nice of them, she's just a little girl."

Everyone looked on at the child. The child was wearing tattered black pants with a plain beige colored shirt that looked filthy. Her fur was matted, dirt was everywhere on her, and it looked like she hadn't eaten in days, but she looked proud and strong like nothing bothered her. Then out of nowhere the girl's eyes suddenly got wide and frightened and she took off down the street. The five and Po stood there and turned their heads to what the girl was looking at... it was an old antelope.

Po was puzzled, "Well, that looked suspicious."

Viper added, "Yeah she ran away from that lady?"

Mantis asked, "Why would an old antelope strike such fear in a poor little girl? What's going on?"

Po was perplexed, and as he often did when he had some deep thinking to do, or at any other time for that matter, his thoughts turned to food. "Let's just go eat some noodles." Everyone followed Po to his Dad's noodle shop but they all were thinking about her.

Almost as soon as they walked through the door they were spotted. Mr. Ping ran up to them followed quickly by some fans. "Hi son how are yo-"

He was cut off by the obsessing fans showering the warriors with adoration, "Hi!" "Dude, your sooo cool!" "Tigress you're so awesome." "Monkey can you do a flip?" and many more.

After signing a few autographs, posing for pictures and chopping the air with bare hands, Po said, "Ok, go back to your families kids, we want to eat some noodles." This was followed by some groans but they lessened as they went back to their tables.

Mr. Ping said, "Well what can I do you for?"

Po answered, "We want some noodles."

Po's dad replied, "Ok, coming right up!"

The five and Po went and sat down at a table. There was silence as they waited while their noodles were prepared. It was obvious that they were all trying to figure out the same thing, "Who was that girl and why was she so frightened?" As they ate their soup they discussed what they saw, but came to no conclusions. Eventually their conversations turned to lighter subjects and they got back to enjoying their day off.

Mr. Ping joined their conversations when he could and as he noticed their soup bowls nearing empty began to offer them dessert, "Almond Cookies anyone?"

They all tried to politely turn down dessert, all except Po! "Yeah, I'll have some! C'mon guys there's always room for dessert!"

With Po's advocation the five each took a cookie. Po grabbed the rest and began eating them, one after another. Crumbs flew everywhere as the 5 looked on, impressed. They finished their cookie and each thanked Mr. Ping as they graciously left.

They walked through the town looking into the shop windows and talking to the street vendors. Viper looked at ribbons, Monkey looked at cookies, Mantis looked at needles, Po looked at food, and Tigress looked at flowers but no one they got back to the palace from a day of fun in the valley it was about dinnertime.

They were all around the dinner table when master Shifu announced, "The Kung-Fu class for intermediate students is starting tomorrow. Who will teach it?" Everyone just stared at their plates and fidgeted with their silverware as though suddenly the designs on their empty dinner plates had just become extremely interesting. Nobody really liked that class because it was usually filled with teenagers who were either only interested in being in the presence of the warriors and really had no knack for Kung Fu, or they were typical teenagers who think they are all that. With no immediate reply Master Shifu added, "Tigress, you will not be training for one week. I want you to recover."

Tigress was shocked, she loved to train. She protested, "But Master, I can't sit and do nothing for a week!"

Master Shifu said again, this time more adamantly, "Tigress you are not training for a week. Is that clear?"

A very forced response was heard, "Yes Master Shifu."

Master Shifu continued, "So for the intermediate class, who wants to do it?"

Master Tigress spoke up, "I will do it, Master." Everyone was shocked. Tigress hated that class more than any of them. She hates people who didn't respect there teachers, and teens tended to do that a lot.

Master Shifu thanked her, "Thank you Tigress. Now I am going to retire for the night and I suggest you all do the same. We have training tomorrow and Tigress has to teach. Good night all."

Everyone just looked around the room. They all got up and did their dishes and headed to bed without another word. They all fell alsleep into a blissful sleep well all except Tigress. She stayed awake trying to imagine just how bad this class of teenagers would be as she thought to herself, "What have I gotten myself into?"