The Countdown

Blushing Arrows

Tigress woke up before the gong sounded off the next morning, trying her best to catch her breath. She hadn't slept well last night...again...and it was driving her nuts. She sat up on her bed and rubbed her eyes so as to wake herself up completely. The master then stood up and began to walk towards the door, pausing besides a chest that was against the wall. She didn't know what made her want to examine the contents, but she soon found herself knelt on the floor and opening the lid. Tigress didn't have too much in the chest besides her regular clothes, her bag, and the old blanket she was wrapped in as a baby. She glanced over at her door, checking to make sure that no one was looking, and dug deeper into the chest were the folds of a yellow garb showed clearly through the stuff on top. Tigress slowly reached inside to feel the silken sleeves, letting out a soft sigh before hiding it back under her belongings. Sometime before the incident with Lu-Shi, Po had gotten her a yellow long sleeved shirt with beautiful red vines along the front. He told her that he had been out window shopping with Viper and saw it in one of the clothing stores, thinking that it would look nice on her. Tigress wasn't a particular fan of long sleeves or the color yellow due to sentimental reasons of her own, but didn't want to hurt her friend's feelings and therefore lied and said that it didn't fit. Po offered to get her another shirt, but Tigress had declined and said she could shop for herself. She felt really bad, but she swore to herself ages ago to never wear yellow or any shirt with long sleeves, mostly on the basis that no one would take her seriously if she wore either of the two.

The master closed the lid on her chest and quietly walked out of her bedroom so as to head over to the training hall. As she exited the barracks, she ran into Master Shifu who was coming in to greet his students.

"You're up early," the old master noted.

"No thanks to my brain," Tigress muttered.

Shifu sighed. "Another restless night, I assume?" he asked.

Tigress nodded. Shifu glanced at the other doors where the other masters laid sleeping and said, "Well why don't you head into the kitchen and wait for us? We won't be too long."

"Is it alright if I get a head start on my warm ups instead?" Tigress asked politely.

"Normally I would say yes," Shifu admitted. "But today I would appreciate it if you waited. I don't want you going into the training hall and spoiling today's lesson."

"Very well," Tigress replied with a bow, heading outside and towards the kitchen.

Shifu let out a small sigh of relief and walked over towards the barracks where he waited for the gong to go off. The distant sound of the gong chimes rang throughout the valley, stirring the masters in their rooms. And then Shifu heard, "MONKEY!!!!!!" which was followed almost a split second later by, "MANTIIIIIIIIS!"

Viper, who had begun to leave her room, slithered back inside as Monkey and Mantis darted out of Po and Crane's rooms, running out of the barracks howling away like hyenas. Po wasn't far behind, running faster than Shifu had been expecting.

"I'll get you for that one, Monkey!" Po threatened angrily, slamming the barrack doors open where they slammed into the wooden walls and stuck.

"You owe me 15 yuan if we survive this!" Mantis yelled to his friend as they tried to avoid the wrath of the angry Dragon Warrior.

Viper, seeing the danger had passed, slithered out of her room and over to Crane's seeing as he hadn't bothered chasing the bug. Shifu followed suit, hearing him muttering, "All over my painting! I spent three hours on this thing!"

"What happened?" Viper asked as her and Shifu entered the room.

"Mantis decided to draw all over my painting of the peach tree!" Crane complained, looking at his hard work. "And hang it on my face!"