Forced to Stay

Chapter 2

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An hour later, the two felines reached the port. By now, Tigress got used to be held against the snow leopard and didn't mind as much since the warmth was fighting off the cold air. What she did mind was what Su said earlier. 'I need you for my plans' what kind of plans does she have?! The tiger master couldn't think of anything else at the moment. I released a criminal from prison who has some kinds of secret plans- how the hell am I going to fix this?!

The closeness ended when they entered the ship and turned into 'I am going to sit as far from you as possible' and the silence stayed...or at least until the tiger master's stomach growled. Su's ears picked up and she pushed the bag over to her. "Take it." Tigress eyed her before she searched for something she could eat. The snow leopard carefully watched as she pulled out an apple. "Would you mind to give me a peach?", she asked afterwards and caught the fruit that was aggressivly thrown right at her face."Oh my, are you trying to pay me back by throwing food at me? Not what I'd expect from you, Master Tigress." The only response she got was a low growl, not that she was waiting for an actual answer anyways. While Su only took a bit of her peach, Tigress already finished her apple, earning a chuckle from the leopard. "Eat as much as you want, we can get more food when we are back on land again."

Tigress pushed the bag away and shook her head. "A Kung Fu master is not getting her food trough theft."

Su closed her eyes, crossed her arms behind her head and leaned back before responding with "Well I am not a Kung Fu master anymore so I can do all those things that are against all kinds of morale." Her tail still waved from left to right as opened one eye to spy on the angry tiger. "But don't worry. There are other ways I could get us food."

"Us?"

"Yes, us." She closed her eyes again. "Like I said, I'm trying to keep you alive." Su went back to eating her peach and started to blend out Tigress' presence compeletely in order to relax at least a littl ebit. The snow leopard took long, slow breaths as she lost herself in her thoughts. Okay. Let's say we are back on land tomorrow morning and in the Valley of Peace in a week. I'd need to find my sisters as soon as possible...I may give myself two or three days. When we are back together, I can continue with-

"What are you planing?" The tiger's growling voice broke her train of thoughts.

Su sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, still being leaned back and having her eyes closed. "You are not my sister so I am not going to discuss such things with you."

"It's my right to know!"

The snow leopard laughed hysterically, holding her belly as she leaned forward. She slowly raised a paw to gesticulate Tigress should wait. "Just give me a second", Su managed to say between her laughter. It took some time until it turned into a chuckle and she got an idea how to make use of the situation. She finally responded with "Oh sweetheart, if you want to get information, you have to give information as an exchange."

"How do I know you are telling me the truth?", Tigress asked with a growl.

And yet an other chuckle. Oho have you been warned not to trust me or do you have trust isues in general?  "I could say the same about you. Guess we just have to trust each other."

"I don't trust you or will ever do it."

"The feeling is maturer at the moment, princess. But we don't have a choice, now do we?", she teased. "So tell me something interesting for example, I don't know, maybe why I'm here."

"First of all, you tell me your plans and we've got a deal." Tigress' goal was clear. She was sure the snow leopard wouldn't tell her anything so she herself wouldn't have to tell anything eighter. But her hopes were suddely crushed when she saw the wide grin Su's face.

"Alright." She griped into the bad to pull out a great map. "Take it." To her surprise, Tigress did as she said and unrolled the scroll. "You see, the reason why you'll need to search for my sistrers and not just get them from a prison like you did it with me is that they were never caught. There is no use of you knowing every little of the fight so I'm just telling you that I could get them out of there and let myself be captured to give them enough time. I doubt that you in the Jade Palace have some king of... 'emergency plan' for such a situation but we do." Su paused and looked deeply into Tigress' eyes before adding, "You can understand why I won't tell you where my sisters are hiding, can't you?"

The tiger master nodded. "But we also need your sisters for our plan."

She sighed. "Master Tigress, with all respect, could we please disscus that later? Yes? Good. However. My sisters are...somewhere in the near of the Valley of Peace, somewhere in the marked earier, by now and I'm needing you to get there without any trouble."

"So that's it? You only want a reunion with your sisters?" There had to be something else, right?

"I don't care if you believe it or not, you know? I told you the truth and now it's your turn. So I'll repeat my question. Why am I here?"

"Do you want the short or the long-...?"

"You are going to give me teh short version anyway", Su interrupted as impatiently as ever.

"Fine. The Valley of Peace was under attack quite a few times in the last month and the last attack was straightly on the Jada Palace. It turned out the evil clans are behind it. We asked the other masters for help but they refused."

Su leaned forward, looking as curious as a small child. "And you haven't found out why, have you? Oh this is just too good!"

"Excuse me?" She leaned back a bit to get away from the snow leopardess. "What do you mean."

"May I try to solve this case?"

"What are you a detective?"

"No. Oh no no no no no. But I'd love to find out what's behind all these suddenly changed behavior."