"Viper." Mantis said hesitantly. "We've been digging for a while. I don't think he's…"
"SHUT UP!" Viper yelled as she scraped at the snow blocking the entrance with a small bowl from the travel pack Po had lost. She had had the sense to bring it with her after their little grip had been separated. "Just shut up and dig! Crane!"
She shouted his name over and over as she dug. He had never before seen her so panicked. Mantis buttoned his lips, set his jaw and resumed digging with a small spoon.
And then, the most incredible thing happened. They heard a small groan coming from the mass of white. It sounded close.
"Crane!" Mantis shouted. "Crane, buddy, is that you?!"
He was interrupted by Viper tossing the bowl aside and flinging herself at the snow, burrowing into it like a worm burrowing into an apple. In seconds she had disappeared from view, a small hole in her place.
Seconds passed. Mantis's grip tightened enough to crack the spoon in two. And then Viper emerged head first, her expression determined, her body taught as if she was dragging something behind her. That something quickly turned out to be Crane as she pulled him from the snow by the leg. The avian looked unconscious.
"Crane!" Mantis leapt to Crane's side. "Where's the smelling salts?!"
But then Crane moaned again, and mumbled something under his breath. Viper was at Crane's side in an instant.
"Crane, honey, can you hear me?" Viper asked frantically.
Crane mumbled again. Aside from his feathers being coated in rapidly thawing snow, the bird looked unharmed.
"Crane, what are you saying, buddy?" Mantis asked.
Crane spoke a little louder.
"Why is it always the left one?"
At that moment Viper and Mantis realized that Crane's left wing was bent at an unusual angle, probably caused by the initial impact of the avalanche. Viper made a strange noise somewhere between a hiss and a gasp.
"You stay with him, Viper." Mantis said. "I'll get the medical supplies." He hopped over to the two packs that sat at the back of the cave.
Viper leaned in towards Crane. Now that it was obvious that he wasn't mortally wounded, she was smiling.
"How are you doing, Crane?" She asked softly.
"Viper." Crane murmured groggily. "Thank heavens you're okay."
"Don't worry, bud. I'm here too." Mantis said as he returned with a small box.
Crane frowned despite his current condition.
"Who are you?" He asked.
Mantis's smile faded.
"Love really does make people stupid." He muttered.
Tigress reached the top of the steps first and spun around to take one last look at the city. Her golden eyes scanned the closest buildings, but she saw no sign of the Yeti. She wasn't comforted in the slightest.
"Tigress!" Po called as he made it to the top after her. Normally he would be sweating buckets after climbing those steps, but tonight fear for himself and his friend had lent him stamina. "Tigress, any sign of him?"
She shook her head.
"We may have lost him, but just in case let's not stick around to find out." Tigress said. "Come on!"
"But the storm…"
"We'll worry about that later!" Tigress grabbed his arm and they both ran into the dark corridor. In seconds they had reached the end. They stared up at the stone slope they had fallen down hours before. Thankfully the trick floor had not sealed itself yet.
"We'll have to use the walls." Tigress said. "Po, do you remember what Shifu taught you about using the environment to your advantage?"
Po nodded.
"Alright. You go first and I'll give you a boost."
Tigress knelt down and linked her fingers together. Three seconds later Po was flying through the air towards one of the vertical stone walls. Just as Master Shifu had taught him, Po quickly rebounded off the wall and repeated the move on the opposite wall a little higher up. He repeated this wall jump maneuver until his fingers caught the edge of the hole and he pulled himself up. All the while he kept a firm hold on the lantern.
"Tigress, come on!"
Being far more athletic than the panda, Tigress did not need a boost to reach the wall above the ramp. She wall jumped up until Po grabbed her wrist and lifted her into the cave.
"Any idea how to close this thing?" Po asked as he stared at the trapdoor.
Tigress was about to reply that she had no idea, when they saw a terrifying sight at the bottom of the ramp below them: a tall but muscled dark furred creature glaring up at them with murderous eyes. In each clawed hand it appeared to be carrying a large glowing bolas with a single ball.
"Gah!" Po yelped.
"Run!" Tigress yelled. They both sprinted for the mouth of the cave.
There was no time for climbing. Instead Tigress dived headfirst over the edge of the ledge. Po screamed as he followed her down, his arms and legs flailing helplessly.
Through the wind and snow, Tigress soared down through the dark air and landed perfectly on a flat area of the landscape covered in half a foot of snow. She caught Po as he reached the ground and redirected him towards a nearby mound of snow, his momentum actually destroying the mound upon impact.
As Po got to his feet and shook off the effects of his clumsy landing, Tigress gazed at her surroundings. In this weather, it was very difficult to tell exactly where they were.
"Think we lost him?" Po asked. When Tigress looked at him, she saw that he had crossed his arms as if to warm his paws up. She was beginning to feel a little cold herself, now that the adrenaline was beginning to wear off.
"Probably not." She said. "But right now our first priority is to find shelter. Let's get out of here before that thing finds us again."
"Okay." Po said, then to Tigress's surprise linked arms with her. "It's just so we don't get separated. You can kill me later."
Tigress merely nodded, and together they walked forward. The landscape continued to be flat and white as they walked in silence, not wanting to do anything that would alert the Yeti to their location. It was probably still searching for them right now.
They slowed their pace as they neared the literal end of their path. The edge of a vast abyss lay before them. Whether or not they were standing at the edge of a cliff or another crevasse, it was impossible to tell. The visibility was terrible.
"Darnit." Po muttered. "I guess we should turn back."
"Okay." Tigress said. "Keep an eye out for anything that may serve as protection from this blizzard."
"Okay." Po said.
They turned around, just to see the glowing orange projectile soaring towards them like a cannonball.
"LOOKOUT!"
Tigress shoved Po in one direction and leapt in the other as a second later the projectile struck the ground where they had been standing and exploded violently. A glowing orange liquid flew in all directions, steaming and melting the snow where it landed.
"What the…"
As Tigress struggled to figure out what had just been thrown at them, she felt something thick and very hot strike the fabric of her coat covering her left shoulder. Tigress turned her head, and her eyes widened as her shoulder burst into flames.
She didn't take time to unfasten her coat. She practically tore it apart and flung it to the ground at her side.
Almost at once she regretted it. Before it had been cold, but now that she was wearing nothing but her vest, the blizzard felt like a million tiny icicles striking her bare arms again and again. Soon, far too soon, Tigress started to shiver.
She stared down at her coat, which was now consumed in flame, the heat melting the snow around it and exposing the black rock beneath. She recognized the glowing fluid. It was molten metal. The Yeti had probably taken it from the foundry.
Suddenly she heard a thump in the distance. The sound of something large landing on the ground after leaping down from a large height.
Speak of the devil.
The first thing she saw was an orange glow in the darkness. And then the Yeti came into view, snarling with rage. Tigress released a snarl of her own and got down on all fours, refusing to let the bitter cold distract her.
She quickly turned her head to make sure Po hadn't been injured in the surprise attack. He was on his feet, facing the Yeti in a combat pose. Tigress couldn't help but feel slightly impressed that after all that happened he was still more than ready to face such a terrifying enemy.
The Yeti turned its head toward Tigress, evidently having chosen to attack her first. Tigress snarled again as the Yeti began to twirl the remain glowing bolas above its head, the orange ball creating a large glowing ring as it swung round and round.
Tigress's eyes turned towards Po. She saw that he was looking back at her, though his face was still aimed towards their opponent. A plan began to form between them.
When it flings that bolas, I'll dodge. You attack it while it's recovering from the throw and I'll join you once I've finished my dodge. Then we hope our combined attack is enough.
If performed perfectly, the plan of action should take no more than four seconds. Maybe three if they were lucky. Tigress and Po gave each other the slightest of nods and turned their attention back to the Yeti.
The bolas-like weapon swung round and round, getting faster and faster, and then the Yeti flung it with expert accuracy… in Po's direction.
Po yelled and jumped a nano-second too late as the projectile struck the ground behind him and exploded, sending the panda flying.
"No!" Tigress yelled. From his close proximity to the explosion, Po will almost certainly have been injured. When Po hit the ground ten feet from where he had been flung, Tigress saw that half of his back was in flames. For a moment he seemed to have been knocked out, but then he suddenly began rolling around in the snow.
Good, Po. Put it out.
Tigress kept her gaze on Po as he smothered the fire, until she realized that she had taken her attention off the Yeti. She spun round just in time to see it charging at her like an avalanche. She leapt to the side just in time, its large hand missing her by inches. She landed two feet from the edge of the cliff or whatever it is they were fighting on, and took a moment to glance over the edge. It was impossible to tell how far someone might fall.
Tigress turned her attention back to the Yeti. It was turning to face her, its expression still one of almighty fury. In the dark of night, its eyes looked like they were aflame. Tigress had a suspicion that her and Po's trespassing in the city of Shambhala had crossed some sort of invisible line.
Shivering, Tigress waited for the Yeti to lunge for her again. Once she dodged, she would have a chance to get a view of the monster's back and check for any weak spots. So far attacking its front had proved ineffective. The Yeti was just too powerful. Her only comfort was that it didn't know kung fu.
Tigress got back down on all fours and waited for the right moment to make her move. She took in the Yeti's face. It looked very angry, but something in its eyes told her that it was thinking hard at the same time, probably thinking of a way to counter her next move. She growled ferociously, suddenly feeling a burning hatred for the monster. As unofficial leader of the Furious Five, she had almost always been the one to plan their course of action during a mission or a battle, and though things didn't always go to plan, nearly every time it would be a success. But this creature… it had outsmarted them at every turn. It had ruined her plans too many times to count. It had killed dozens of people and succeeded in destroying most of their supplies. Three times now it had nearly murdered Po.
Tigress unsheathed her claws. She bared her teeth. To hell with dodging.
She crouched lower, preparing to spring. She would aim lower this time, go for the legs and incapacitate it somehow.
But then-
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
Coat still smoking slightly, Po leapt out of the darkness, throwing himself onto the Yeti's back and wrapping his arms around its neck.
"GET HIM, TIGRESS!" Po yelled as the Yeti snarled and tried to throw him off.
Tigress didn't waste a second. She leapt high in the air, her foot aimed at its head.
It collided with a pair of hard, thick, dark furred arm raised up in front of the Yeti's face.
A powerful vibration shook her leg and caused Tigress to fall to the ground in a heap. She quickly got back to her feet and stared at the Yeti in disbelief.
It had just used a blocking technique against her.
You gotta be kidding me! Her mind screamed. It knows martial arts, too?!
The Yeti flung the top half of its body forward in a sudden jerking motion, causing Po to fly over its head. It caught Po by the leg in mid air, studied him for a moment, and then tossed him into the distance.
Tigress's heart skipped a beat when she heard a distant crunch, the unmistakable sound of stone cracking… or bone breaking.
"No." She whispered.
Then she flung herself at the Yeti with a roar, claws raised to tear its face off.
Its own claws struck her in the torso, bringing unimaginable agony.
Shifu's tea cup smashed on the floor as he felt a terrible pain strike his heart.
"Shifu?" Xian saw the red panda's pained expression and frowned.
Shifu didn't answer at first. His expression became stricken.
"Tigress." He whispered. And fell from his chair.
"SHIFU!" Xian ran around the kitchen table.
Tigress rolled across the snow over and over, eventually stopping on her back. She stared up at the blizzard still howling above and around her with widened, unblinking eyes. Her breath came in sharp gasps.
Horrific pain assaulted the left side of her torso, spreading from above her hip to below her shoulder, and that wasn't all. Her torso also felt very wet, said wetness boiling hot against the freezing snow and spreading across her body. She didn't have see the wound to know that it was bad. Very bad. The rest of her body was shivering with cold.
Tigress heard the Yeti growl, and fought to regain her composure. She turned her head to see it slowly approaching her, its right hand dripping with her own blood.
Get up, Tigress, she told herself.
Her left side screamed as she slowly staggered to her feet. Now that she was vertical, the wetness began soaking into her pants as well as her vest. She clenched her teeth in agony. She was in pain, but no longer had the strength to hide it.
"You murderous freak." She snarled. The Yeti ignored the insult.
As it reached her, Tigress attempted to punch it in its lower stomach in the hopes to stun it, but the Yeti caught her fist. Tightening its grip, it lifted her into the air by her arm, bringing fresh pain to her wound.
"Sorry." It said coldly. "But I can't let you tell the order what you have found."
"What order?" Tigress wanted to ask, but the question was wiped from her mind as she watched the Yeti raise a fist, preparing to punch through her chest.
Dizzy and weak from blood loss and cold, Tigress had one option and one option only.
With a weak yell, she kicked the Yeti in the vulnerable spot that all men possessed… its groin.
Though not completely crippled, the Yeti was distracted enough to release its grip on Tigress's paw. Luckily she landed on her feet and remained standing, and that was the moment she saw the cliff edge three feet behind the Yeti.
Yes!
She pushed herself up from the ground, slammed both her paws into the Yeti's torso. With a small grunt of surprise, the Yeti fell back over the edge. It disappeared into the abyss almost instantly.
Tigress searched the darkness for any signs that it had survived. She tried to tell herself that it hadn't, but she could fool herself. She wrapped her arms around herself in a vain attempt to stop shivering. The wet area of her torso no longer felt warm.
Tigress's vision suddenly doubled, and she instinctively put her paw on the agonized area of her body. She felt half-frozen blood and torn flesh. She lifted her paw to find it almost completely red and dripping.
Tigress's legs shook, but she kept steady.
"Po." She said weakly. She turned away from the cliff edge and began slowly making her way in the direction the Yeti had thrown her friend. She kept one paw pressed to her injury, despite the fact that she could feel it seeping through her fingers. In the harsh weather, she was beginning to lose feeling in her limbs. She pressed her lips together, not wanting to show weakness even though she was alone, even though it was very likely that she was bleeding to death.
She saw Po lying motionless at the foot of a large rock formation. He was lying on his back, and despite the low visibility she could see white vapor emanating from his lips. He was still alive.
There's no blood, so maybe it's not as bad as it looks…
That was her last thought before her bleeding, freezing body gave up and she collapsed.