Cloudless Authors

Chapter 4

Tigress quickly maneuvered her way through the trees, knocking branches out of her way and expertly avoiding rocks and stray branches that could trip her up. Her mind was racing and she racked her brain trying to come up with a possible explanation as to how Tai Lung was alive. Logically he should have been dead. The Wuxi Finger Hold was a highly powerful move that was impossible to beat. It was designed to disturb one's chi to the point of collapse, killing them almost immediately. She couldn't wrap her head around it.

The master made her way through the bamboo trees, her mind focusing on simply arriving at the Jade Palace and reporting to Shifu exactly what she had seen. It could also help to clarify some things if Shifu had an idea as to how Tai Lung could have survived. Tigress' mind suddenly stopped on that thought. Wait, she thought to herself. Would it really be a smart idea to tell everyone that Tai Lung is back? I mean, don't get me wrong; him being back is a huge danger! But what if it causes a state of panic? Like, an uncontrollable state of panic? The last thing everyone needs is to have a foggy mind while Tai Lung is roaming about. But not telling them is still a bad idea because then he's going to attack and I'll be the one to blame for it.

The master kept on running, her mind flashing back to her brief conversation with the snow leopard. She should have attacked him there when she had the chance. But she didn't. As to why she still wasn't sure of. Maybe it was because she felt a little bit intimidated by the way he was just standing there looking at her. Not that it had scared her; it had just made her feel like fighting would be fruitless. On top of that, he didn't look very threatening. He looked arrogant and she did feel like  clawing him in the face, but she just didn't feel like he was that much of a threat . At least not at the moment.

Tigress ducked underneath a few low hanging branches and narrowly avoided a rock, her mind still swirling in confusion. What does he mean that the scroll is long behind him? she thought to herself. Is he actually being serious, or has Po nearly killing him with the Wuxi Finger still not knocked any sense through that sarcastic skull of his? I mean, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he was just trying-

Tigress' thoughts were interrupted when the edge of her sandal got caught under a small lip in the rock she was flying over, sending her tumbling to the ground in a rather ungraceful way. The master rolled and scraped across the ground, trying to push her hands out in front of her in order to slow down. However, she instead flipped herself over and changed her direction right into the path of a tree. Tigress attempted to brace for impact, but she still rammed her head hard against the tree and instantly received a splitting migraine. The master tried to ignore it, but the pain pierced horribly through her skull and while trying to block it out, the master found herself slowly slipping unconscious......

Tigress felt her head throb as a swarm of voices pulled her back into a state of consciousness. As she tried to make sense of the sounds, her vision cleared up a bit, allowing her to get a good scope of her room. The first thing that she saw, though, was Tai Lung standing in the corner and glancing over at the group of voices that were talking. Tigress tried to ignore the pain in her head and turned to look over and see who the voices belonged to, instantly spying Master Shifu and her friends. They weren't standing too far away from her bed, so it was easy for them to notice her staring at them in confusion.

"Hey, you're up!" Po exclaimed, grabbing everyone's attention.

As the masters ran over and asked her how she was and if she felt any better, Tigress noticed that they were completely ignoring Tai Lung. The snow leopard, still standing in the corner of her room, looked over at her and then glanced at the masters before taking to staring at a section of the wall. He looked perfectly fine too. There was no sign of a struggle, argument, or scolding lecture. It was almost as if he had just waltzed in and placed her down on her bed. 

Was she still unconscious?

As the masters finished up asking Tigress about her well-being and her location at the time of impact, Master Shifu noticed the confused expression on her face and asked, "Tigress, is something wrong?"

Tigress looked over at him, rubbing her head when a shot of pain went through it. "Am I imagining things," she asked wearily. "Or is Tai Lung standing in the corner of my room?"

"No, I'm just a phantom of your imagination," Tai Lung joked.

"Tai Lung..." Shifu warned.

"Sorry."

Tigress kept looking over at the snow leopard, her face still displaying a look of confusion. "Why is he in here?" she asked.

"Tai Lung's the one who brought you back," Shifu explained.

"I heard rustling and I heard you yell," Tai Lung elaborated. "So I decided to head over to see how you were doing. When I got over there though, you were unconscious, so I thought it would be more chivalrous to bring you back."

"So you were thinking about just leaving me there?" Tigress asked with a frown.

"No of course not. I was going to wait for you to wake up, but I figured you probably didn't want to see my face the second you did so."

Tigress frowned in thought, but she didn't say anything.

"Why don't we get something for your head?" Shifu suggested. "And you wait here and rest."

"That's fine," Tigress replied, leaning back in her bed.

"Tai Lung, can you come with me, please?" Shifu asked as he and the rest of the masters filed out to grab Tigress some medicine.

The snow leopard pushed himself out o his corner and proceeded to follow Shifu out of the room.

"Tai Lung?" Tigress called out.

Tai Lung stopped in the doorway and turned around to look at her. "Yes?" he asked.

"Thank you."

Tai Lung smiled at her. "Your welcome," he said. He then followed Master Shifu out of the room and closed the master's door behind him. Tigress looked at the door for a moment before leaning back in her bed, wincing at the pain for a moment. As she laid there, a smile began to slowly form across her face.

THE END

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