Love of the Dragon Warrior

Rising from the depths

The next morning, the masters and the girls got up and resumed their daily routine, with Shifu managing to squeeze in a training exercise that allowed them to be in the mountain pass for about a good half of the day and Po and the rest of the group scheduled time around the backside of the Jade Palace closer by the paths leading up towards the caves in the mountains. Madame Zhou had to be carried about because of her injury, but she didn't seem to mind too much. Tai Lin was asked about how her back felt since she had been in tremendous pain from the massage session and thus had to do a "second round" with Viper and Mantis, to which she replied she was fine. Leopard, who had watched her go from frazzled, to overly energetic, to viciously frustrated, to quiet within just a matter of days, asked if she was okay, which Tai Lin once again replied she was fine and left it at that. In all honesty, she was too worried about what Po's reaction would be to hearing her story. She did like him and thought he was nice, but so had all the other guys she had dated before. Still, she knew that once Xiaobo was awake and mobile to talk, he'd give his own hogwash story and she didn't want to risk that. And Viper and Mantis seemed to believe her, so perhaps Po would too. Or at the very least not run off like a coward.

Tai Lin wound up deciding to tell Po much closer to dinner time. Since Tigress hadn't returned and Shifu decided to take the Five camping overnight, Lam wound up just making dinner for the group of 11, and while waiting for the food to be ready, Tai Lin took the opportunity to approach Po, who was in his room thinking of more activities to do.

"Po," Tai Lin asked quietly, grabbing the master's attention. "Can we talk? In private? There's something I need to tell you."

Po looked surprised. "Oh, sure! Yeah, if you want. Is...is everything okay?"

"I'll explain in a moment. I know certain people are upstairs and I don't feel like giving them audience."

"Oh. Gotcha."

The two headed out of the barracks and Po lead Tai Lin back to the quiet back woods of the Jade Palace towards the mountain they had hung out at earlier that day. Once alone in the cool twilight air, Po turned to Tai Lin and asked, "What's up?"

Tai Lin sighed. "I'm not sure how to explain it all of it at the moment," she admitted. "So I'll give you the short version...the man that had his chi frozen is my ex."

Po froze in surprise. He figured something had been going on with Tai Lin's behavior, but he hadn't been expecting an actual connection to the random civilian. "Your ex?!" he exclaimed. "Ex as in...ex boyfriend, or ex...fiancé?'

"Ex everything. I tried breaking up with him, he wouldn't take no for an answer and asked me to marry him, so I said no again and then he asked my foster family and they said yes in my behalf and tried to get us married literally the next day. So I ran away and he's been following me ever since."

Still in shock and surprise, Po asked, "How long has this been going on? Him stalking you?"

"Seven years that I know of. Who knows how long he was doing it before that! The only reason I hadn't skipped town earlier was because I needed money to leave and my foster family was doing everything in their power to squeeze money out of the few things I owned." Tai Lin clutched her necklace in fury. "Apparently my mom's choker would have been worth thousands, since it's of such fine make."

"Is your foster family actually related to you or-"

"No. They just wanted someone they could force to do all the chores they didn't want to do themselves. My parents just happened to have a few valuable items in their possession and they kept trying to steal them from me."

The two were quiet for a moment before Po asked, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Because every time I've told a guy about Xiaobo, they either believe his hogwash story over mine or they decide they don't feel like dealing with him and they leave me at his mercy," Tai Lin replied bitterly. "I thought maybe if I could make it through the contest and get married, I wouldn't have to deal with him anymore and he'd stop bothering me. But he found me during the scavenger hunt and obviously told the guards some sob story. What it was I don't know...but I froze his chi out of self-defense and...panicked, I guess....I thought you and your friends might believe him over me."