The Countdown

Hardcore and Softhearted

The day passed by for the warriors: they sparred, went to relax at dinner, and then went promptly to bed. At least everyone except for a certain tiger master who crept out of her room so that she could go and spar in the training hall. She wanted to keep training so that she could be at the top of her game before another threat, like bandits, loomed back into the valley. Surely the bandits would have told someone else along the road that she was still recovering, so someone else was bound to arrive to try and take over sooner or later. Tigress snuck across the grounds so as to avoid waking anyone up, eventually reaching the grounds where the training area was. She then headed into the training hall and shut the doors behind her, heading over to the Swinging Clubs of Oblivion. She then proceeded to launch herself into the training equipment, feeling a bit wobbly on the spiraled beams as she wasn't quite used to doing extensive kung fu. Tigress managed to duck a few of the swinging clubs before she wobbled a bit more and wound up getting hit onto the floor. She moaned and shakily stood up, wincing in pain as she felt a surge of pain go through her left shoulder. The master glanced at it, seeing a large gash etched deep into it.

Just ignore the pain, she told herself. You punched iron wood trees for twenty years. You can deal with a simple gash.

She began to head back over to the swinging clubs so as to train only to see Po standing there in the doorway with his hands nervously squeezed together in front of him.

"What are you doing up?" she asked flatly.

"I heard you get up, so I thought I'd follow you and see what you were doing."

"I'm training," Tigress answered simply. "I need to get my strength back from that extended bed-rest ordeal."

She turned around towards the alligator limbs and got into a fighting stance. "I wouldn't be fighting with that shoulder gash," Po called over. "You might really hurt-"

"YAHHHH!"

The Dragon Warrior watched on helplessly as Tigress began to start the course, completely ignoring what he was trying to say. She kept hitting all of the limbs out of her way, wincing every time she moved her shoulder.

"Take it easy, Tigress!" Po called over. Tigress started hitting the alligator limbs even harder, trying her best to ignore the searing pain that ripped through her shoulder. As she began to approach the end of the course, she was hit hard in the side and went flying across the training hall, landing unceremoniously onto the ground.

"Tigress!" Po cried, dashing over to her. Tigress tried to stand up, but she took in a sharp breath as she leaned on her bad arm. Po reached her and exclaimed, "Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine," Tigress told him.

Po grabbed her uninjured arm and helped her get to her feet where he looked at the nasty gash she had. "We're gonna' go and dress that wound," he told the master, starting to pull her towards the training hall door.

"I don't need any medical attention. It's just a scratch."

"Scratches don't show any openings in your arm that are bleeding like crazy. Now come on."

Tigress groaned in aggravation, but let Po help her out of the training hall where they began to head towards the kitchen so as to help her open wound.

The two warriors reached the kitchen after about five minutes upon which Po took the liberty of sitting Tigress down at the table while he went to get the bandages and healing ointment out of the cabinet. The tiger master let out a sigh.

"I hope Shifu doesn't notice," she grumbled. "He might yell at me for training too hard."

"He probably will," Po said with a sad smile. "You have scratches all over the place too, so he'll know you were up to something. Especially if your arm still hurts tomorrow."