The Countdown: In Between the Lines

Prologue

Tigress ran as fast as she could possibly go, stumbling through the rain and nearly slipping on the muddy path she walked on. Hot tears ran down her cheeks as she made her way down a small sloping hill, over some stones, through trees, and eventually found herself slipping and falling face first into the mud. She felt rising sobs stifle her throat as a stinging sensation rose up her arm . Tigress sniffled, beginning to cry as she looked at it and saw a jagged cut run down the back. She sat up, the rain blinding her vision as it fell even harder.

"Tigress?!" came Mrs. Ire's worried voice. "Tigress??!!!!"

Feeling defeated, Tigress simply bent her head down and curled up in a ball in the mud. Her tears, mixing with the pouring rain, streamed down her face and splashed her body with droplets of mud from the road. A pair of soft but wet hands suddenly picked the child up and Tigress found carefully herself cradled into an unfamiliar chest.

"Tigress?" Mrs. Ire asked. "Are you okay?"

Tigress just cried and wrapped her arms around the caretaker. Her arm stung from the rain, making her sob even harder.

"Tigress, you can't just run away like that!!!" Mrs. Ire cried, pushing Tigress away so that she could look her in the face. "You might have gotten hurt! Or worse!!"

"You...don't...care!!!" Tigress wailed. "You...locked...me...away!!!! You...call...me...a...monster!!!"

"It's only to keep the other children safe," Mrs. Ire promised her, wiping away some of her tears with a finger. "You don't always realize how strong you are and sometimes you hurt people because  of that! You just...need to be careful. I don't know how to help you, so we just have to take precautions!"

Tigress looked away, pulling her arm out of Mrs. Ire's grasp and sniffling. "You...don't...care!" she said. "No one...does!"      The tears came harder. "Even...my...parents...didn't...want...me!"

"Tigress, dear, of course they cared! What makes you think they didn't love you?!"

"Why...did...they..give...me..away?!"

"Maybe they just couldn't take care of you. Sometimes when mommies or daddies don't have enough money to raise their baby or just find themselves unable to give them a good home, they give them away so that they grow up in a better home than they could provide."

Tigress sniffled. She looked back at Mrs. Ire. "Really?" she asked.

"Of course. And I'm sure someone will come here and will be looking for a beautiful little girl like you to adopt into their family."

Tigress sniffled again and wiped away some of her tears. "You really mean that?"

"Of course, dear," Mrs. Ire promised. She reached out for Tigress and engulfed her in a hug. "I promise."   She then noticed the gash on Tigress' arm and quickly stood up. "Tigress, lets head back so that I can look at that wound, alright?"

Tigress looked at her reluctantly. "I don't want to go back," she whimpered. "No one likes me."

"You can't stay out in the rain, dear. You're going to catch a cold."

Tigress looked down at her muddy clothes and let out  a sad sigh before nodding her head and taking Mrs. Ire's hand. She was then led back up the muddy road and back to the orphanage where she hoped Mrs. Ire meant every word she had said to her....

"Tigress?" came Po's voice, snapping the master out of her train of thought. "Are you okay?"

Tigress looked over at him. They had just reached the bottom of the hill that held up Bao-Go. She nodded. "I'm alright," she promised. "Just thinking, that's all."

Po smiled at her. "Are you thinking about Dai or about something else?"

"Actually, I was thinking about Mrs. Ire," Tigress admitted. "She...well, she called me a monster like everyone else there, but she was the only one who was actually nice to me despite that. I was never quite sure whether to fear her or trust her."

"Which did you wind up doing?"

"Trusting her. Despite everything, she did try to help me the most. Even if she didn't always do a great job at it."

Po smiled at her and squeezed her shoulder. "Yeah, she seems nice," he said. "She seemed like she was the least scared of you."

"To be fair, most of that was Mr. Ren's fault," Tigress told the Dragon Warrior. "Once he got on the monster streak and scaring everyone with tales about me, that was about the end of it."

"Well I'm glad someone tried to not listen to him."

"Same. Actually, that reminds me..."

"What?"

Tigress quickly reached back and slapped Po hard on the face. The panda let out a cry of pain, nearly falling to the ground in the process. "What was that for?!" he screamed.

"That's for scaring me when we were fighting Kai!" Tigress answered immediately. "I would have done it earlier, but we were a little pre-occupied."

Po winced. "I'll keep it in mind for next time," he moaned, rubbing his cheek.

Tigress kissed it. "And that's for offering to come here with me," she added.

"Thanks," Po whimpered, managing to smile. "Just promise me you won't constantly slap my face when I scare you?"

"As long as you promise to never scare me again."

"I'll try."

The two then walked down the pathway and headed back to the Jade Palace, Po eventually ignoring the sting of the slap to continue talking to Tigress.