Chapter 23
The sunrise broke through the leaves, in a scattered light. You could see light patched around, but there were also many dark patches as well.
A reflection of life itself.
Po lay asleep under the cover of a rather large bush. He had hidden near a stream he'd found the previous day from searching. His food supply had dwindled to nibbling on leaves, and eating parts of the inner tree - which, Po had been told, was edible.
Maybe it would've payed off to spend a bit more time in the edible plants station.
His slumber was broken when he heard a branch cracking nearby.
Very nearby.
Trying to be as quiet as he could, which really wasn't going to be much help however, he lifted himself out of his sleeping position, got up, then attempted to find an exit that wouldn't lead straight into the path of this new possible enemy. But there was only one way out. The way that lead right into this stranger's path.
The unnappealing choice came up: stay in here and if spotted definitely would be killed, or get out and if spotted possible chance of escape.
Po liked life. So that's why, as silently as possible, he crept out of the bush he hid in, before running away from the predator, like his life depended on it.
That's an understatement. His life did depend on it.
"Can I get the fat panda?-one more dead, yes, I guess-for once we agree?-don't get so excited, I still hate your guts-but they're your guts as well...-it's a figure of speech moron!" Pain was stalking his prey, Po Ping, with a knife in each hand and an ultimate destination for them in mind.
"Po Ping, come to daddy!-Damn you, why the hell are you so camp?-I thought you were the camp side of me-I'm the side with the slightest bit of intelligence-Oh come on, I'm not an idiot-debatable..." Po would've been thinking about how wierd it was for someone to be yelling an argument, with himself, in the middle of the forest, if he wasn't more concerned about his safety. Not concerned about the noise his feet were making, he kept running, running, running, as fast as he could.
Pain was following, closing the gap quickly.
Turning to face his chaser, Po discovered this fact quickly.
Trying to make his moves a bit less predictable, Po ran in different directions. At first, Pain was slowed down a bit, but then he too caught on, and they were back to the game of cat-and-mouse (or in their case, panther and panda).
TKFG
Tigress and Viper were making their was through the forest now, knowing they couldn't stay in one area for too long without risking being caught. Some of the time, Tigress was carrying Viper, but mostly they both made their own methods of transport to wherever they were to stay next. After about four hours walking, a decent tree arrived in their pathway. Deciding to accomodate that tree, Tigress hauled Viper over her shoulder and began to climb. There were no signs of life around the area they were at presently. Once on a high branch, Tigress checked in her rucksack to see what supplies remained.
A half-eaten loaf of partly-stale bread. Frankly, neither Tigress nor Viper cared about how stale it was, it was food and that was all that counted. Ripping off half of what remained, Tigress and Viper shared a small meal. They had been rationing the bread - this was the first thing they'd eaten all day, and they'd had nothing last night.
The bread wouldn't last them much longer on just it alone, though.
"I'm going to hunt for some smaller animals, set out some traps. Stay up there on guard." Viper started to coil herself around the tree, before replying,
"'kay. I'll yell if someone comes."
"Alright then." Tigress began to swing back down the tree, whilst Viper finished coiling herself around a steady branch. Keeping a good eye on her surroundings, Viper allowed her mind to remind her of the rebellion's plans.
Crane was dead.
Mantis was dead.
Monkey was dead.
She was next, but she needed to get Po and Tigress to find one another before... Gulping, Viper left that thought without an end. Making the mental descision to wait one more day to see if Po arrived of his own will before forcing Po and Tigress together, Viper let her mind rest as she gazed, almost peaceful, at the forest that had become her home and deathbed and a slaughter over the past few days.
TKFG
On guard. Always on guard. You never know when someone will strike.
Keep looking. Make sure you have seen everything, twice.
Observe the details. The next area may be a carbon copy bar the smallest details.
Remember. People are relying on your return.
It was quiet, and the area looked untouched. Maybe no-one had made it this far out of the forest yet. Maybe she was near to the end of the arena.
Maybe she, and Viper, and maybe Po too, could escape.
But then, Tigress had no doubt, there would be some excuse made up about it being illegal, and them defying the law. Then China would burn.
No. She needed to obey them by doing what they said... but it didn't mean she couldn't have any form of rebellion in the arena (a/n: See ch14, Tigress has a bit of knowlege about the rebellion, not as much as Viper though). Walking forwards, Tigress scanned the area.
A wind blew the top of some trees, like blowing the skin of milk, not making much effect bar noise to those nearby. A harsher wind immediately followed, making Tigress jump slightly. Her eyes looked up quickly, to see if there were any man-eating birds following her.
That's when she started hearing the rumble. Only slowly at first, like someone who hadn't eaten in a while and was hungry (or just Po in general), which gradually increased in strength, until the ground started to tremor.
Not working out what was wrong, Tigress gave up any plans of finding food, and began to run back to the tree where she and Viper had taken up residence. She felt like she was on an energy rush, only this was on pure fear. The ground doesn't normally shake, or was she missing something... Either way, Tigress' central thought was 'Find Viper. Make sure she's safe. Run. Get away.'
In the rush of adrenaline she was feeling, she almost missed the cry in the distance:
"TIGRESS! TIGRESS! HELP!" It was the unmistakeable tone of her snake friend, laced with fear and desperation.
"VIPER!" Grabbing her knife for the worst circumstances, Tigress raced even faster towards the voice, "I'M COMING! VIPER!"
"Ti-" Then suddenly, a bloodcurling scream, "HEEELLLLP!"
"VIPER!" Screaming in fear for her friend, Tigress leapt across the forest, until she spotted it, making her horrified outcry escape her lips.
The tree they were in, which Viper was stuck in.
It was almost like a cartoon, really. Comic timing, how it went just so slowly, but just quick enough so that Tigress wouldn't be able to make it in time to save her.
The tree slowly fell to one side. There was no hope. Viper would be crushed.
Not content to sit and watch the even unfold before her, a terrified Tigress kept going, going, going towards the trees. She payed no attention to the blood rushing in her ears, the tears falling from her eyes, the branches ripping off fur and skin.
"NO!" It was too late. The tree was down. Devastated at the loss of her friend, she sped down to the branch Viper was stuck on, before making her way down to try and find her snake-friend's body under the tree. The horrible fear that Viper had been crushed beyond help was edging at the edge of her mind, not leaving her. The vivid imagery... Wishing she could brush it away, Tigress continued her search.
When she got a little bit confused and suspicious was when there was seemingly no body, nor any of Viper's 'remains'...
"Tigress!" Po was running towards her, running towards her, and that was impossible, and that couldn't be real, and she must've been hallucinating, because Viper was held in one hand, and that was impossible, because Viper was dead, Viper was dead...
Tigress focused on her breath. That was real, wasn't it? She was still alive, wasn't she? Her vision became alike to murky waters, as did her hearing.
"Tigress, you-"
In, out. She was still breathing, she was pretty sure of that, but Tigress wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't, because that was impossible...
"Duck!"
"She has ... Knife!"
"Give ... Knife!"
"Tigress! Duck!" Po was in her face now, right in her line of vision, grabbing her only weapon, and she barely felt the knock to her head from the edge of a blade, because that was impossible, that was impossible, she's seen Viper die, she hear'd Viper die, was this all a sick joke?
Leaving herself no time to contemplate the answer, Tigress fell to her knees and blacked out.
a/n: Oooh, cliffhanger! Thank you to my reviewers, I love you all dearly, you make this worth writing, so please REVIEW! And RATE! And get EVERYONE to review! Okay, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Been listening a lot to Abraham's daughter today, what a beautiful song, it seems to describe Tigress from this story v. well to me, I think. Also, it was quite cute, I sang my 3-month old baby brother to sleep with Safe and Sound! *Has proud bigger sibling moment* Okay, lol, apart from that, R and R, and STAY TUNED!