Chapter Ten: Awakenings
Tigress' ears were the first part of her body to wake up; she heard nothing but a hot wind blowing against them.
Her coarse feline tongue brushed against the insides of her teeth, and she found her mouth to be unusually dry; her mind was starting to rouse itself from the grips of total unconsciousness. The first thing she remembered was the dream… it had been terrible.
She wished it was as simple as just dismissing it all as a stupid nightmare, but it wasn't. It had all felt so real; the demon she had encountered was revealed in the end to be a part of herself, and it had given a voice to the dark thoughts and fears that resided deep within her psyche. She kept writing it all off as the drugs putting thoughts in her head, but she couldn't help but reach the same dilemma again and again: had the substance acted as a hallucinogen, or a truth serum? Had she been lying to herself - and if so, for how long?
Her troubling thoughts were interrupted when she remembered her extremely unprofessional actions before she had blacked out for the last time.
Unbelievable, no… Unacceptable! This is your own fault; you should know better than to drink just anything given to you, even from a Lord of China! Gods… the things I did! The things I said!
The resulting internal tumult was just enough to jumpstart her outer senses, and her eyes finally shot open. Tigress regretted this immediately, as the reflection of the sun off the sand all around her was nearly blinding, and her eyelids were forced back down to a half-open squint; the scenery around her had changed drastically since she had fallen asleep.
Sand... Well, that's decidedly bad.
Tigress started to try and lift herself from her current prone position, but was met with a few difficulties. Everything about her movement felt wrong, especially when she tried to shake her legs back to life. It was difficult to describe the sensation, almost as if a weight that should be there, simply wasn't. Finally getting the will to push herself up by planting her palms into the sand, she managed to get her knees back underneath her torso, holding her upright. It wasn't until she at last stood up that she noticed what exactly was wrong; the recognition of it hit hard and fast.
Those bastards! My tail - they've cut off my tail!
In a momentary panic, she reached both of her paws behind her back in a frantic search for her appendage; when she felt the recognizable fur-covered extremity at last, she breathed a heavy upward sigh of relief, gripping her tail with her paws firmly all the while. After this immediate concern was dispelled, another took its place: why hadn't she felt it there?
She had a hunch, and let go of her tail… watching in horror as its end dropped limply to the ground, unresponsive. Despite the blinding sunlight, her eyes were now as wide as possible.
Seriously? What did I ever do to deserve this?
This would to be a major detriment to her fighting style, as her tail was essential to keeping the balance required for her various acrobatic moves; she had to try and force it back into position. Biting her lower lip, she pulled up on the base abruptly, and there was a nauseating "pop" noise; she felt sensation in her tail once more, but it was accompanied by something else. Surging from the tip and running up each of the caudal vertebrae, she now felt a dull, throbbing pain from whatever injury had caused the dislocation.
Despite this, Tigress figured that the ability to use her tail was worth the discomfort, and brushed the pain to the back of her mind like she had conditioned herself to do. Forcing her focus to something else, she surveyed the rest of herself for damage. It was nothing but a few scratches here and there, but her majestic golden robes were now entirely shredded. While it was mildly upsetting, at the end of the day the clothing didn't affect her Kung Fu ability at all, so it was ultimately unimportant. Her ear twitched as something behind her had made a subtle movement.
Turning around, she found that she had woken up amid a small oasis, complete with scattered vegetation and a natural spring. A few feet from the edge of the water, she spotted what had to be Crane, although he wasn't as easily recognizable without his trademark headwear. He was seated unusually, resting on his tail feathers with his legs out in front of him on the ground; the bird was bent over inspecting his right aileron, and it looked to be causing him a great deal of pain. Gazing to the right of him, she spotted a large black and white mound protruding up from the sand that was undoubtably Po. She came up behind Crane, who must have known she was awake for some time now; he didn't even turn his neck when he spoke.
"I see you're awake. That's good… was wondering if you would actually come out of that coma." His words were empty and soulless, not due to malintent, but instead a complete lack of the energy required for emotion; he just kept working intently at his wing. The avian master's indifferent tone had actually sounded like Tigress' on a normal day. She immediately turned the attention from herself and to his injury instead.
"How bad is it?"
"Been better. It's just my right wing – I reckon I can still fight."
Tigress walked up behind him and took a closer look for herself. Running her paws over the white feathers, she gave her prognosis in her usual dispassionate inflection.
"Your wing is fractured in two places - it needs to be reset before the bones fuse together improperly." Just having the feline touching the wing lightly was giving him immense discomfort, and Crane started to go into a nervous panic.
"Hey, maybe that's not such a bad thing? It doesn't hurt when I don't touch it or move it…" She was ignoring his feeble pleas and placed her paws around the bird's wing, ready to push the fractures together in one motion. "Oh… okay then. So, how are we doing this? Are you just gonna coun-"
There was a loud crack, and bird screamed inconsolably, as Tigress had not waited for him to be "ready." She knew the surprise would take some of the edge off the immense pain the avian had to be feeling, but also hated the idea of listening to the bird wimp-out for even another second. Working quickly, she took off what was left of her tunic, and cut several strands out of it with her teeth. Wrapping them tightly around the injury, she ensured the fractured bones were now fixed into their proper position by the makeshift cast. As she tightened the last knots, she looked back at a deep indent in the sand that led as far south as she could see.
"Crane… where are we, and how did we get here?" It was a while before the avian could even open his eyes, let alone answer her.
"Inner Mongolia, I'd imagine." he grunted out. "The first thing I remember was these huge birds… had to be condors judging by the size of the wings and how much distance we covered."
He started relaxing his breaths, at last recovering from the shock of the feline's prompt first aid. "They dropped us here in this desert - to die, I presume - but they didn't count on this oasis being so close by." He had left out a large amount of detail on how he had pretty much saved her life more than once, as he hated the idea of Tigress feeling like she was "indebted" to him or something; he wanted to change the subject as soon as possible.
"What the hell happened to you guys? You've both been out for most of the day now, although Po will mumble something about 'stairs' every now and then."
"Are you aware that the Lord of Xiangyang crossed us?" the tiger issued promptly.
"Very much so, yes." he answered, rubbing the sizeable bruise on his head.
"He tricked us into drinking some substance, a kind of sedative - I should have seen it coming."
"How, exactly? Barring one other notable exception of the peacock variety, the Lords of China are usually trustworthy. Don't blame yourself for this mess."
"You don't understand, Crane. I have to; I broke my own rule number one."
"And that is…?"
"When you least expect it, expect it."
Crane at last looked at her, and he was instantly reminded just what material had constituted the cast binding his injury. While she was far from naked, wearing several different under-wrappings and her usual black silk legwear, Tigress had a lot more of her torso showing now. After growing accustomed to her wearing the long-sleeved golden tunic, Crane had actually forgotten what her stripes looked like; her auburn fur was now disheveled and full of sand. Tigress began to walk back in the direction of the meandrous impressions left by Po's body in the dunes.
"Where are you going?"
Back to Xiangyang, to rip the horns out of that ibex's skull.
"To get the weapon, naturally." Tigress responded, her inward and outward priorities in conflict.
"Then you're going the wrong way." Tigress turned to see Crane shaking his head lightly. "The dagger is in Mongolia."
"How are you so sure of that?"
"Because it was a Mongolian that did this to me." He gestured with his bad wing. "She was holding the dagger - curved like a snake, just like Po described."
At the mention of the panda's name for a second time, Tigress finally realized she was letting her pride blind her to reality; that was not the way of Kung Fu. She had been ready to set out after her petty revenge and hadn't even checked to see if her friend was okay.
"Gods! I forgot about Po!" the tiger exclaimed, dashing over to the unconscious bear. Finding him on his stomach, she quickly rolled him over.
When Po groaned and mumbled something about stairs, just like Crane had mentioned, she started to breathe a sigh of relief that he was indeed alive. Then she noticed the wound.
Darkness.
Po found himself on solid ground for the first time after falling for countless hours. He was lying flat against something slick like ice, but not cold. Pushing up to his forearms, he looked down to see his own reflection below him. The imitative surface was also somewhat transparent, and below he could see momentary flashes of red light accompanied by low rumbling booms. He moved his paw to the floor to prod it, but the second his claw touched, there was a light crunching noise; he pulled his arm away to reveal a rapidly expanding crack.
Bad.
The floor soon shattered and gave way beneath Po, but the ensuing drop was much shorter than he had expected. The wooden surface he had landed on was surrounded by a scene much more recognizable to him. Before, he could neither smell nor hear anything; now there was the overpowering redolence of molten metal and the ringing uproar of a battle below him. This unique combination of senses was familiar, but he did not fully realize where he was until he heard the voice.
"Your parents didn't love you."
Po saw Monkey and Crane fighting wolves below him; it was the fireworks factory where Lord Shen had been producing his cannons. He looked up from the floor at last to see the spiteful peacock himself, who was starting to grin psychotically at him.
"But here…"
Shen launched backwards, revealing the greatest of his dragon-headed weapons. The fact that Po knew it was coming and it hadn't changed a thing was infuriating.
"Let me… heal you!"
As the peacock made to abrade the fuse with his steel talons, Po realized that something was different this time; something very important was missing.
The wok! Where's the wok?
It was the only reason he had survived the impact the first time; in its absence, he was doomed. Shen had just ignited the massive iron beast, and it breathed vigorous fire. The shot was coming at him now; all he could do was close his eyes and pray for a painless end. But the end did not come, as a flash of orange, black, and red had just jumped in front of him and caught the projectile.
Tigress… she made it this time.
The red-hot cannonball in her paws was driving her backward, and the tiger's claws were carving depressions in the charred wood beneath her. Still pushing against it with all her might, Tigress turned her head back to the Dragon Warrior.
"Po! Get up!"
"What!?" he screamed in response, the sparks from the projectile flying back toward his face.
When the unrelenting force of the shot had pushed her almost to the edge with Po, Tigress knew she couldn't hold it back any longer and yelled in the panda's direction:
"Wake up Po!"
The burning iron sphere flew back out of her grasp and headed straight for his head; Po dodged the shot by leaping to the side but was enveloped by the comet-like tail of flame that followed the projectile. His vision was instantly rendered a panoramic of crimson; the echoes of Tigress' words were continuing to rebound through his mind, the red before him starting to yellow gradually into an orange. It wasn't long after when he started to make out shapes around him once more; he began to realize that the words weren't echoing, but being repeated again and again.
Tigress was shaking Po awake madly, having only increased her efforts when seeing his eyes start to open at last. The panda's chin was pinned close to his chest and this was the first thing he saw when he began to stir.
Po lurched from his half-awake state when he noticed a deep row of slashes starting up near his right shoulder before running across his chest and half way down his left side. Before even taking in his surroundings, he practically launched his arm up to inspect the wound for himself. His paw never made it that far; it had run straight into something – no, someone – above him. Looking up, he saw it was Tigress, who was blocking his reaching paw with her wrist.
"Don't touch it, panda."
The tiger had a starkly different appearance: her whiskers were badly bent, her fur lumped awkwardly, and she was without her usual gold tunic, only deepening Po's confusion; she looked, for lack of a better term, like hammered shit. All around him there was only sand, and his mind rushed headlong into the conclusion that this was just the next phase of his nightmare. His adrenaline was spiking, and his mouth opened to accommodate his lungs that were quickly heading towards hyperventilation.
Fortunately, Tigress saw the uncertainty in his eyes and guessed correctly what he was thinking.
"Relax Po – it's not a dream; this is real. You're going to be alright." she said without breaking eye contact and showing him both of her paws to try and calm him.
In his panic attack, Po's eyes darted side to side, refusing to rest on the tiger above him. The panda would have never believed her if Crane hadn't paced up behind Tigress and started to speak as well.
"Well now, look who's decided to come back to the mortal realm!" the bird joked, although his mind was elsewhere in reality; he was still taking in just how quickly Tigress had lost her composure when seeing Po in possible danger.
If it was me in his place, would she show that much concern for my wellbeing? Not likely.
When Tigress offered him a paw, Po stood upright for the first time in more than a day. Blood worked its way to his limbs and expelled the cold numbness that had taken up there, and his breathing started to return to normal. Crane chose to preempt the numerous questions the panda would surely have about what had transpired, and the avian filled him in the same way he had for Tigress. When he had finished, Po started to inspect the slashes on his body once more.
"But how did this happen?"
"I'm sure it was one of those birds that carried you; the bastards had pretty huge talons, after all." the avian inferred.
The panda looked up to see that both of his fellow masters were looking at his chest with concern.
"It's okay guys… it doesn't hurt or anything." Po blatantly lied. In reality, he couldn't decide which was worse: the soreness or the infernal burning sensation.
Crane tilted his head to the side, giving the wound a second look. "What do you mean?"
"I mean I can't feel a thing – it's not even sore." The panda tried to sell off his ploy the best he could, hating the thought of the other two seeing him as weak or a burden.
"Strange…" Crane muttered quizzically, not sure if he was going to believe Po or not. "I suppose, based on the depth of the gashes, it might be possible that…" the bird started to mutter on about some medical theory that might as well have been in a foreign language.
Tigress saw Po was starting to poke at the wound again while listening to Crane, and she intruded into their exchange.
"Po – what did I say about touching it?"
He responded by jerking his paw away and looking at the ground timidly. Tigress could be incredibly forcible when she wanted to, without ever raising her voice.
To save the panda from further ridicule, Crane came up to the Dragon Warrior and started to motion him away with his remaining good wing.
"Doesn't matter if you can feel it or not, you should clean that wound out or it will get infected."
The panda took another downward glance at his chest, concerned.
As the two masters walked off in the other direction, Tigress remained behind; she had a suspicion that was eating at her. Checking to see that the others were out of sight, she raised her right paw up to her face and began to closely inspect it. She first looked at the gaps between the digits, then the front and back sides of her forearms.
Nothing. Only one other place to check.
She held in a nervous breath of air, and abruptly unsheathed her claws; the fact that they were thickly coated with dried blood and small monochrome hairs confirmed her worst fears. The striped feline cast her gaze towards the sand below in unseen and unheard remorse.
Monster.
It was the final, ultimate insult from fate itself: she had lost her self-control – her everything – and the victim had been none other than her friend… her best friend. The feline started to gnash her teeth together, growling; it was intense, yet far too low for her distant companions to hear.
As remorse was tempered into fury, Tigress turned her extracted claws inward to her own palm; immediately, they started to dig mercilessly into the flesh of her paw pad.
Monster… Monster… Monster...
Her paw was now shaking with rage, the natural razors digging deeper into herself every second.
Monster!
Tigress' own blood ran down her wrist, staining the white fur of her inner forearm; but in her hardened, senseless paw, she felt nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Author's Notes:
- When Tigress asks "What did I ever do to deserve this?" I feel like she's really talking to me; poor Tigress... the things I do to you... :)
- Tigress' "rule number one" comes from the show; I feel this is one of the few things that LoA got right regarding her character
- I couldn't resist finding some kind of way to put Shen in this - he's just the best (and I love the scene that I'm referencing here)!
- The level of detailed, in-depth reviews that this story is getting is simply astounding! It's great to hear what you guys think - whether it's praise or criticism, feedback is always a good thing!