Cloudless Authors

Chapter 3

Tigress scampered through the woods as fast as she could. She had to inform Master Shifu of Tai Lung's arrival; the fate of the valley depended on it! The master moved branches out of the way, making a clear path for her to run through. The rest of the surrounding area blurred with the speed as she pressed forward without so much as a second thought. The only thing on her mind was turning Tai Lung into prison. Nothing else mattered.

As Tigress hurried through the forest, she bumped into an unfamiliar figure that was casually walking through the forest humming a little tune to himself. The two locked eyes and both froze immediately in place. Tigress examined the figure, noting every detail. He was a tall boar with a rustic goatee and a few scars along the left side of his face. On his back, there were two sharp swords carefully nestled in two conjoined scabbards, and a small knife hung by the leather belt he wore. The boar looked the master up and down, a frown appearing on his face.

"Of course someone like you would show up!" the boar snapped. "So much for getting away with stolen goods under the cover of night!"

"You could have kept your mouth shut," Tigress told him, folding her arms with a frown on her face. "I might not have guessed you were a bandit, except you told me so."

The boar grumbled something that Tigress could not hear and then proceeded to lunge at her with his knife. Tigress quickly avoided the blows and then quickly stood up and knocked the boar over her shoulder. The boar landed on the ground with a large thud. Tigress kicked the blade away from him before grabbing his arm and tossing him in the air, kicking the bandit against a nearby tree. Seeing that he was barely conscious, the master turned to run back to the Jade Palace to alert her teammates. Bandits lurking through the forest was not a good thing. However, she found more boars blocking her way, each one more vicious looking than the last. Tigress felt a bit startled, but she quickly narrowed her eyes and resumed her fighting stance. The majority of the bandits came flying at her head, but she was easily able to dodge all of the blows and knock them to the ground, making them disoriented. Knives flew past her ear. Fists swung at her face. Feet expertly aimed for her stomach. Long swords tried to send her writhing in pain. But Tigress ducked, dodged, blocked, and immobilized all of the anticipated moves. When the crowd of boars were lying on the ground unable to move, she turned back to the task of warning Master Shifu and her friends about the bandit army.

THWACK!

When Tigress opened her eyes, the first thing she felt was her head throbbing in pain. Every second, a painful thump could be felt in the back of her head and she didn't like it. She was enveloped in complete darkness; she had no idea where she was or how she even got there. No one was talking in the background so it was completely silent. Tigress felt a small flutter of panic rise up in her stomach, but she tried to ignore it and made an unsuccessful attempt to gauge her surroundings.

She sat in the dark for a moment before she heard the door open and a bright light lit up some of the space around her. Tigress winced when the light hit her face, worsening her headache a little bit. However, she managed to see that she was laying on a rickety mattress in the middle of what looked like an abandoned room. Another wince and a glance upward revealed Tai Lung standing there holding a lantern.

"What...you...." Tigress stammered weakly. "Where am I?"

"Are you okay?" Tai Lung asked, a look of concern plastered across his face.

"Where am I?"

"An abandoned house. Now are you okay? It looked like those boars hit you pretty hard."

Tigress groaned and made an effort to sit up, her arms wobbling as she did so.

"Do you want any tea or water?"

"No. No thank you," Tigress told him, trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her head. Tai Lung put the lantern down and bent down to the master's level. He then put a paw on her back and another paw on her shoulders, helping her to sit up and then lean against the wall.

Once she was settled, he asked, "You sure you don't want anything?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Tigress assured him. She cast the snow leopard a curious look and asked, "How did you know I was attacked?"

"I was heading over to the Jade Palace," Tai Lung explained. "So that I could talk to Shifu. If he was in the mood, that is. I heard a bit of a struggle on the way over though, so I thought I'd just pop over to see what all the commotion was about. That's when I saw you get knocked out by those boars. I was a little worried that if I brought you back to the Jade Palace, everyone would accuse me of knocking you out, so I brought you here instead."

Tigress groaned and rubbed the back of her head. "That's a bit cowardly, don't you think?" she asked.

"I prefer the term 'better safe than sorry'."

Tigress eyed him, but then simply leaned back against the wall and muttered, "Whatever you say."

The two remained silent for a moment before Tigress piped back up and asked, "Have you been in here before?"

"A few times," Tai Lung confirmed. "When you do a lot of exploring, you come across a lot of interesting spots."

"Indeed."

"I don't come here often; it isn't really the most stable place to be. But if you need to duck down for a while, this isn't a bad place to come to."

"I see," Tigress noted, trying not to move her head around too much. "So are you ducking here to hide or is just to hide me?"

"I just wanted you to rest your head," Tai Lung answered promptly. "I'm not a coward. I'm not afraid to be reproached for my actions."

"And yet you didn't take me back to the Jade Palace."

"There's a difference between being reproached for my actions and being punished for someone else's actions."

The two fell silent for another while before Tai Lung finally asked, "Why? Do you want me to take you back?"

Choose what happens next. Skip to chapter:

H- Tigress gets up and goes back to the Jade Palace

I- Tigress remains at the hideout