The Countdown

Lost in a Fog

The next morning, Tigress awoke to the sound of the gong ringing throughout the valley. She yawned and sat up, stretching her arms so that she could wake herself up more. The master stood up and walked out of her room, hearing a few creaks coming from Po's room as he tossed and turned. The master's mind briefly flashed back to the dance at the festival when Po had been acting funny. Tigress remembered him stuttering when she had looked at him, but she figured that was due to the awkwardness of the situation.

I'm so clumsy! she thought to herself. I'm just tripping all over my feet and bumping into Po in front of the entire valley. Po probably felt so embarrassed! She quietly walked out of the barracks and crossed the grounds so as to head over to the training hall. She wanted to meditate before doing some practice runs on the training equipment. The masters had all agreed to relax during Shifu's time away from the Jade Palace, but Tigress didn't want to miss a day of training in case they needed to fight off bandits in Shifu's absence.

After a few minutes, the master finally reached the training hall where she entered it and began to stretch. She wanted to get a quick practice run in before anyone noticed that she wasn't in her room. (Especially Viper who had been put in charge of keeping her out of the training hall). Tigress stretched for a few minutes before she felt ready to perform on the training equipment. Before she could even lunge onto the spiral beams and smash some of the swinging clubs, she heard, "Tigress!"

Tigress jumped in surprise, turning around to see Viper right behind her.

"Tigress, you promised us no training for the week," Viper scolded.

"I can't help it!" Tigress told her in exasperation. "You know that's the one thing I'm good at. Plus, what if there's danger?"

"We'll take care of it," Viper promised. "It's only for a week."

Tigress let out a sigh. "Fine," she grumbled.

"Thank you. Now why don't we sit outside an talk about the festival? You didn't get to tell us about it when we went home because you got back late."

"I was helping to take down some of the decorations," Tigress answered her.

"I figured that."

Viper slithered outside with Tigress behind her, the two sitting down quietly in the training courtyard to talk.

"So...what exactly do you want to talk about?" Tigress asked.

"How did you enjoy the festival?"

"It was fine. I got to eat some good food, I walked around a bit and talked to people...I had fun."

"That's good," Viper told her with a smile. "I'm glad to see that you're starting to come out of your shell a little bit."

"I didn't realize I was in a shell," Tigress commented.

"Well you almost always do kung fu and you normally never come down and have fun at a festival unless we make you, so I'm glad to see you having more fun."

Tigress shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose," she said simply.

Viper cleared her throat. "So, Mr. Ping said he locked you two in the cellar, right?"

Tigress looked at her, casting her a small glare. "I don't want to talk about it," she said quickly.

"Po gave you a back massage," Viper continued, ignoring the death look. "What's so bad about that?"

"It's..."Tigress stammered, trying to find the right words to say to that. "It's just...it's no one's business. Yes, I got a back massage, but that isn't anyone's concern!"