The Curious Tale Of Momoda

Growing Tensions

The next two days were uneventful. Po didn't tell anyone about his run-in with Momoda that night. There was no need to really. Po grumbled to himself. Were Shifu and the others right? Was he just blinded by this tiger's beauty and forward attitude? As he walked towards the Training Hall, he thought about the best option. "She's just trying to be free, but that shouldn't come at the cost of the village," He muttered.

What cost?

The bandits were jailed, people were free to walk the streets at night, the Furious Five were changing for the better, what exactly was she doing wrong?

Po sighed. She wasn't following protocol. "Everything has a rule, I guess." It made sense what Crane said. Someone has to be responsible. Every freedom has with it an obligation, a responsibility. The panda sighed. He couldn't forget that. He opened the Training Hall doors. There he saw Tigress lifting mega tons of weight on her body, lifting them up in deep squats. Her body grunted and jerked at the weights. "Tigress!"

I... can... do this...RAAAHH!" Tigress growled and threw the load off. It plopped to the sand as she panted for air and breath. "There, I... I finally did it." Po rushed into the sandpit and laid an arm around her shoulders. "Po, I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Come with me."

"Po I-"

"Now," Po said assertively. Tigress's eyes widened but she nodded. She followed him to the sidelines where a basin of water stood. Po took the water and gave some to Tigress. "Drink." Tigress slowly did so. "Now, I want you to go do some relaxing training."

Tigress crossed her arms with an unimpressed gaze. Her lips curled down at one end as her eyebrow rose. "Po, there's no such thing," She said.

"Meditation, stretching, light running, you want me to go on?" Po said firmly.

"I'm fine."

"I don't care. You're pushing yourself waaay too much and for what?"

"Momoda," She said, clenching her fist.

Po rested his hand on her fist. "Let me worry about her, okay?" Tigress slightly huffed and turned her head away. "You're training for something else other than Momoda, aren't you? I mean, this is a bit much, even for you."

"Master Shifu-"

"I'm pretty sure this goes beyond Master Shifu's normal 'go for overtraining' thing."

"I'm not overtraining."

"When was the last time you had good sleep, good food, and a good time with the others or me?"

"That's not the point, Po."

The panda glared hard, though it was admittedly hard for him to have a stern face with a panda's cuteness. It caused Tigress to smile a bit. "I don't want you to break yourself so much that you can't fight Momoda. Just please pace yourself."

"I... I'll try," Tigress sighed. "I'll... meditate." She walked out of the Training Hall, leaving Po a little more confused than he came in.

"This doesn't make any sense," Po muttered as his feet carried him away to the Hall of Heroes. "Why is she training so much? She's already going toe-to-toe with Momoda. Why train more?" The panda couldn't say. What was certain was the Kung Fu tiger wasn't budging from her stance.

Po turned the corner and went to Shifu's room where the red panda stood in front of his map on the wall. "Master Shifu?" Po looked at the map. "I thought you gave up on finding Momoda."

"I never gave up, Po. I just decided to focus on... different approaches," Shifu murmured. "Call the Furious Five into the Training Hall. There's something I need to talk about."