Chapter Twenty: Strength of Will
Running.
Sky above, earth below. Time itself sped by with each passing stride, the terrain entirely empty and unending. Tigress was carried onward at full speed by her own efforts, and yet, she couldn't recall what had prompted her into such a determined sprint.
There were no landmarks or details to latch on to, only a blurred existence that nipped at the peripherals of her vision.
Forward. Forward is all that matters now.
Not lightening her pace, her four limbs strained to keep up; glancing down, she discovered she was in fact running through snow. This was perplexing, for she could feel no hint of winter's chill. Mere moments later, the snowdrifts beneath her paws melted into a swift stream of water, but did not dampen her fur in the slightest. Looking again to her sides, there was still no discernible landscape, only blurred hints of reality.
The stream below began to fill with dead leaves, before freezing to snow once more. Seasons came and went, but she was still running, unmoved by the changeable whims of time.
Raising her head, something at last came into view ahead of her - something large. It seemed to somehow be outpacing her, for the blurred figure was threatening to disappear once more into the fogged air.
"No!" she heard herself yell out.
It cannot elude me!
Once again summoning a burst of speed, she began to close in, such that she was sure she could be upon whoever, whatever she was chasing with a well-timed pounce. In another few seconds, she committed to a daring leap; her rear limbs recoiled, and then sprung her whole body forth as if launched from the mightiest of catapults.
As she became airborne, time slowed as her senses became more acute. And at last, she could feel something: the brisk air moving over her front paws as she flew forward gracefully, guiding her powerful frame towards the ground.
Tigress' eyes felt as wide as they had ever been, desperate to make out whatever flighty beast that strode just beneath her in the fog. She began to descend, and her claws shot out from her paws, ready to deal a crippling strike.
And then came the sound.
Resounding - eerie and metallurgic in tenor - it came like thick tile chimes on a bracing wind. A plethora of multi-pitched clashes rung in her ears, and for the briefest second, the rainbow - every color imaginable - flashed before her vision.
Silence arrived without warning, and darkness soon after.
One moment flying through the air at unspeakable speeds, Tigress found herself standing on solid ground only an instant later. A much subtler, and more calming sound rang out, akin to a pair of weighty bronze spheres touching together ever-so-slightly; and with that, her vision returned to her in full.
"Master, are you pointing at... me?"
Oogway's outstretched claw did not waver, and nearly every person present within the ceremonial arena of the Jade Palace was now staring directly at the striped Kung Fu master.
"Why of course, Tigress - it is your destiny to be the Dragon Warrior." the tortoise answered.
What? This isn't right! What is happening?
"Destiny?" she questioned, awestruck.
The rest of the Furious Five gathered around her, faces full of pride, only adding to her bewilderment.
Oogway smiled at her.
"Many centuries I have awaited this day, but no one is happier to have seen it arrive than your father."
Tigress glanced up to the nearby platform where Shifu stood, beaming as he nodded in her direction.
Father...
"Through your actions you shall bring honor, and peace, to us all." the old reptile concluded, folding his talons into a bowing salute.
As everyone present - the multitudes of people - began to bow as well, the tiger felt something uniquely fulfilling swell within her. Whatever it was, it felt right. It felt good.
Her bliss was disrupted by another flash of darkness, as she immediately found herself transported elsewhere once again.
It was the unmistakable interior of the Jade Palace itself, the Hall of Warriors. The sunlight outside the palace drifted inwards, and all over her body she felt a stiff breeze that carried the pleasant scents of Spring with it. Every detail of the place was just as she had always envisioned it would be on this most auspicious of days. Her fellow masters stood at attention all around the Sacred Moon Pool, and Shifu was now offering her the fabled Dragon Scroll, the key to limitless power.
"Take it, and become the Dragon Warrior, my daughter."
After all this time, there it was: gilded crimson and jade - destiny calling, waiting for her answer.
She didn't hesitate any longer, taking it into her grasp, surprised at how something of such gravitas could feel so light.
As the others looked on, she removed one end of the scroll with ease, and-
"Agh!" she yelled in shock, dropping the now-open cylinder to the ground.
The resulting thunk was much louder than it should have been, sounding instead like a bronzed gong.
The scroll had suddenly become impossibly hot within a fraction of a second, scalding her paws. The wind picked up velocity, and a darkness consumed the entire Hall of Warriors. Everyone else was gone, leaving just her and the Dragon Scroll. She could barely keep up with the string of changes taking place around her, but all of the commotion was superseded by a single prevailing voice.
You want this so badly, don't you?
Tigress looked around madly for the source of the voice, but was left to deduce it must be coming from the scroll before her. It had spoken in a manner alien to her comprehension; it was as if it was whispering inside her own head.
"Yes..." she conceded, cautious. "Yes I do."
There was the sound of an odd, quirky brand of laughter, before a dusky form began to seep out from the scroll like a snake. Weaving its way about the floor, it coiled itself upwards to look down on the tiger - illuminating a pair of bright yellow eyes. The thing was shaped like a small dragon of sorts, but was formless, constituted entirely of a fog-like substance of blueish-purple. The laughter dissipated, and an answer came at last.
You speak as if it's true, but your conflicted soul betrays you. Strong in body, calculating in mind - but vulnerable in spirit...
An uncomfortably long pause.
And for that, you are weak!
Before she could even think to react, the hazed beast attacked, immediately wrapping itself around her neck - it squeezed with crushing force. The dragon continued to speak as it coiled about her, leaning its head to look Tigress directly in the eyes.
So, Master Tigress fancies herself as the Dragon Warrior of legend? Fool! You would've brought dishonor to yourself and to China - an utter failure!
Hearing this, she began to fight the coils around her throat even harder, even as her senses began to dim.
Ah - don't like it when I say that? Then try and prove me wrong!
The beast tightened its grip on her, making her wince, realizing the futility of the struggle. As it lifted her high up into the furthest rafters of the palace, the eyes of the vaporous entity narrowed in satisfaction.
Such a shame... but it's no matter. You will be just as powerless as you are now to stop what is coming.
And that was the last thing she heard; the constricting of the beast stole away the last remnants of her sensation, and all was rendered silent and empty for the final time.
Tigress' digits twitched involuntarily as she jerked awake. She gasped for breath but, realizing she had arisen from the dream, relaxed back upon the cushions of her bed. Moments passed, and the fog clouding her eyes dissipated. The gold-layered wooden ceiling above was shaded in a disappointing grey hue by the first lights of daybreak.
The tiger brought her torso upright and her footpaws touched the floor. As she stretched her limbs, the linens drawn across the windows of her personal suite breathed with the very lightest of winds. Head leaned back and jaw slacked, the vertebrae of her neck relaxed with muted cracks.
Leaving the room and moving down a flight of stairs, she was once more in the same courtyard from the night before; curled over upon himself, Crane was sleeping soundly near the far end of the siheyuan. The morning frost had stiffened the wood beams of the masters' personal palace, becoming a setting starkly withdrawn from her fevered dream. Standing here again, her mind was cursed with the memory of the thought she'd had during the argument with Po the night before.
For the first time in years, she had thought herself more worthy of being the Dragon Warrior than her friend; fleeting as it was, to her this notion was unforgivable. Above all else, this was a desire that still festered somewhere within - a fact that Tigress struggled mightily to reckon with. But could she really blame herself? To be the heaven-anointed defender of justice, the unquestioned paragon of hope for so many people... it had been everything she had trained, fought, and suffered for ever since she had first come to the Jade Palace.
The anger, the frustration, the crushing disappointment of being denied this singular goal... it was an insurmountable pain; a torment so great that it showed her the truth. It had never been about the damn title - pretending it was otherwise was simply the axial and incurable lie she'd told herself.
But even then it didn't matter, for when she looked to him - to that master, that father of hers - there remained only the singular, now-unattainable path to recognition... to love. And thus, she was left to chase after something that was no longer meant to be; on the outside she pressed herself to become just as dauntless as ever, but within, every shattered fragment of her being had come to feel wholly and unavailingly wasted.
Standing there in the silence of dawn, with the only sounds splashing out from the serpentine fountain in the courtyard center, Tigress began to mourn what she had become, and the many things that she had left unsaid.
But in time, the tiger began to think of such inner remorse as selfish, and resolved to go elsewhere. Without disturbing the avian master, she walked out of the front doorway of the complex and into the city streets. The day was young, and the only citizens of Khanbaliq she passed were those with jobs requiring them to be awake at that early hour. Most of the leopards were soldiers returning to their barracks after completing the night watch, although others were merely farmers leaving for their famine-strained fields outside the city walls. A lonely team of a blacksmith and his apprentices were striking a white-hot blade in tandem.
Tigress wasn't entirely sure where she was walking to, only determined to cover some distance in order to put her mind on something more mundane. Avoiding the palatial center of town but staying within the boundaries of the rich district, she once again observed the uncannily Chinese architectural program of the buildings there. A modest scholar of history, she was aware that this region had once been under the direct control of past empires and dynasties; but most of these structures were far too modern to be of those bygone eras.
Rounding another empty street corner, one building in particular caught the tiger's attention. It was a single story tall with a wide wooden facade, but this was not particularly interesting - rather, it was the steam that steadily spewed from the general area surrounding it. The sign above the threshold denoted the place as a bathhouse, written in familiar Chinese characters.
Looking into a nearby puddle in the street, she beheld her current likeness. Facial fur had grown messy and unkempt, whiskers too long. The proud white strands that had hugged the upward curvature of her face now drooped towards the ground, weighted and discolored by dirt.
I don't even recognize myself anymore...
Minutes later, she found herself entering the main chamber of the bathhouse, immediately faced with a wave of heated air - it was a welcome reprieve from the morning chill. As expected, the area was full of visually obscuring steam, partially from the warmth of the water, but also from the many incense burners that lined the edges of the large pool. The substance being burned was an unusually pink spice perfume, giving a pleasant scent to a place that would otherwise be rank with mildew and mold.
Approaching the edge of the water, Tigress removed the final piece of her attire she had not yet shed - the underwrapping that tightly covered her lower midsection. As she did so, she felt an all-too-familiar pain from her lower ribs, several of which had never healed from the damage they received absorbing the fire from Shen's cannon. It was a permanent reminder of a sacrifice she had made, and a sign that - even in her late twenties - age had begun to catch up with the aggressive feline. She was used to this permanent injury flaring up in the mornings, but on this occasion it only made her keenly aware of her more recently-acquired tail wound, a dull throb at the base of her spine.
Now successfully disrobed, she slid into the water in order to be rid of the inconvenient pains. The effect of the warm liquid all around her was immediate and spectacular, and she could not suppress a relaxed exhale. She wasted no time in submerging her head altogether.
Finally. Silence... Silence at last.
The dirt, the pain - it all fell away into the depths of the water; every fiber of her fur moved about freely, frictionless. She swam deeper, grazing the super-heated bath stones that lined the bottom. Tigress knew it was fated to be a temporary pleasure, but in that fading instant nothing mattered... no mission, no enemies, no titles. It was beautiful.
Like most beautiful things, it was fleeting. She broke the surface for air. Water cascaded down around her as she rose up; having drifted to the center of the pool, she moved to the nearest edge. Even as the air was heavy with thick steam, the surface of the water itself was clear enough such that she was once more faced with her own reflection.
She felt the usual disillusionment, but all of the sudden there was something else too: Tigress could sense she was not alone. Looking up, she found two dark lilac orbs gazing at her through the steam.
"You."
Her presence now discovered, Yuelen swam closer, revealing herself fully.
"Aww... disappointed to see me? Or just surprised?" the leopardess teased with her usual calculated playfulness.
Tigress showed no reaction but answered quickly, regardless.
"I once fought a psychotic immortal that swung jade razorblades larger than your head. Nothing surprises me anymore."
"How nice..." the spotted cat mocked, eyeing the toned muscular form before her that supported the tiger's claims. "And to think... as I cast your lifeless body into that abyss of a desert, you didn't strike me as anyone of consequence."
Any semblance of indifference was now gone from the striped cat's features.
So Crane spoke the truth...
"You were in Xiangyang that night..."
Yuelen lifted herself higher out of the water and came right up towards Tigress, speaking directly to her face.
"Of course I was." The leopardess' fangs gleamed with pride through her smirk. "You think I don't know what brings you here? The little game between my father and you so-called 'masters' - it has been such exquisite entertainment as of late."
A barely-restrained fury seeped from Tigress' eyes; she was hardly even following the other cat's ramblings anymore, rising to be at level height with her.
"You left us to die." she accused, nearly growling.
"You should be thanking me; I could have just slit your throat when you were sleeping like a kitten on the palace floor."
Despite every one of her muscles tensing in preparation for a fight, the tiger master knew this was neither the time nor the place for one. The leopardess' proximity and air of superiority showed she knew it too, and was enjoying the present situation a bit too much. Tigress had heard enough.
"It seems the arrogance of Mongolians knows no bounds - you're no different from your brother."
The leopardess was caught unprepared, recoiling as she turned away from the tiger.
"I am nothing like that pathetic fool!" she hissed, a momentary weakness having been exposed.
The spotted feline realized that she had been striking with a double-edged blade, having underestimated the perceptiveness of the tiger master during their previous meeting.
"Do you think building Chinese palaces, writing and dressing as we do erases centuries of barbarism? Do you think your people have even a shred of legitimacy?"
Yuelen stood up at the edge of the pool, high enough now that her tail cleared the surface; she also had an impressive athletic build, but still markedly less pronounced than the other feline's. Shaking some of the water off, she gave an irritated exhale. For once, she spoke without her conniving tone - instead it sounded decisive, if a bit softer than the leopardess would have liked.
"How highly you Chinese think of yourselves." She turned back to face her striped counterpart. "Do you recall the temple where we first met?"
"How could I forget?" Tigress retorted, unamused and still simmering.
"It is called Fayuan. The Chinese Emperor Taizong dedicated it to the soldiers he lost mercilessly ravaging the Korean kingdoms for three years. Tell me, who were the 'barbarians' then?"
The tiger glared at her. "You think that justifies your people's campaigns against the very same kingdoms?"
"You mistake my meaning." Yuelen shook her head. "I say none of it matters; there is no civilized or uncivilized, only the strong and the weak. You Chinese confuse ambition for arrogance, strength of will for dishonor... and it will be your downfall."
The two became locked in a combative glare.
"We'll see about that, Mongol." Tigress said, tone more glacial than ever before.
Something about this blatant threat seemed to reinvigorate the leopardess' usual temperament, and a wry smile once more came to her face.
"Such conviction... it's utterly stimulating!" she provoked. "Perhaps you'd like to test your skills in combat against my own?"
"As if I'd give you the pleasure."
The spotted cat laughed at the tiger's impassive response.
"You don't seem like the type to back down from a challenge." she accurately observed, at last climbing out of the pool entirely. "Tomorrow - training grounds at sundown."
The Mongolian princess turned and left, bringing with her a resolute confidence - one that Tigress intended to humble.
Author's Notes:
- I suppose it was only a matter of time until I returned to one of my favorite plot devices - dream sequences! Compared to ones I have done in the past, I hope that this one was a healthy balance of both mysterious and more obvious symbolism; if you have any thoughts/opinions to share on dream sequences, please feel free to share!
- This is actually the first time in a while that I have written a chapter that is mostly or entirely about Tigress; I think it was important for me to vary my chapter structure into a more singular focus, as I had repeated the "three separate scenes" format a few too many times for my own liking
- On the subject of Tigress specifically, the previous dream sequence was about concerns over identity and nature, whereas this one was much more about the roots of her insecurities and inner conflicts
- Writing confrontational scenes between Yuelen and Tigress is interesting, as it is two characters who are opposed to each other and yet have some key similarities (but obviously handle their conflictions in different ways)
- The usual thanks are in order, but this time especially to The Great Ying
- Looking forward to writing the fight next chapter...
- We're coming up on this story's one-year anniversary! Thanks for taking the time to read, and your reviews are always appreciated!