Insecurities

To Overcome

Tigress was up at the crack of dawn. She yawned as she walked down the corridors of the Hall of Heroes when she heard loud snoring from another part of the hall with a pile of scrolls sprawled on the floor. "What the?" Tigress looked inside and saw Po snoring loudly with his head plopped onto a scroll and drooling on it. Tigress rolled her eyes. "Was I like this when I was studying?" Tigress muttered to herself.

"Very much," Said a familiar voice. Tigress's eyes widened as she bowed to her red panda master. "But that doesn't explain why Po has taken a sudden interest in the history of the warriors."

"I thought this was the weaponry section," Tigress spoke. Shifu shook his head.

"Something is wrong with the panda," Shifu mentioned, taking his staff and was about to poke the panda awake. Po's hand quickly grabbed Shifu's staff, jumped up, and went into a fighting stance, wide awake. "Po?"

"Oh! Sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry," Po apologized, giving Shifu's staff back. "I must have overslept. What time is it?"

"Morning," Tigress answered plainly. Po stretched, yawning in the process. "Why are you studying so hard, Po?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing important. Just... wanted to learn some new Kung Fu moves or you know, some new kind of awesomeness. Hehe. Heh," Po weakly and nervously chuckled but the tiger and red panda continued to stare at him. Po looked at the ground for a moment.

"What's wrong, Po? You haven't been acting right," Tigress replied.

"And what does that look like?" Po asked gruffly, still gazing at the ground. Tigress was about to answer, but Shifu stopped her.

"It seems like you're fighting something, Po. What is it?" asked Shifu. Po sighed, looking up at the ceiling for a long time in silence. Before Shifu or Tigress could say anything else, Po answered,

"Nothing you guys can fix," Po replied, walking out the door. "I'm fine. Just... a little sad."

"Why?" Tigress asked, wondering what could get the normally cheerful panda so upset as to study his heart out. Po simply shrugged, showing he didn't quite know. It was a partial lie, but Po didn't feel like sharing right now. He walked out of the room, leaving the two masters questioning the panda's health. "I'm worried, Master Shifu."

"So am I," Shifu replied, stroking his beard, "But we can not speculate. For now, we need to watch Po careful, make sure he does not do anything... drastic."

"Drastic, Master Shifu?" Tigress asked.

"I fear that this is something that Po is trying to conquer... or escape." He exited the room without further explanation. Later on that day, Tigress and Tai-Lung were talking about Po while walking to the Training Hall.

"I don't understand. The panda has never acted this way before," Tai-Lung mumbled. Tigress sighed, trying to maintain a positive outlook.

"We may be looking too hard into this," Tigress replied. The snow leopard looked at her with a hard stare.

"You and I both know that that is untrue," Tai-Lung answered.

"I'm trying to be positive, Tai-Lung," Tigress growled.

"It will get you killed to be impractical," Tai-Lung grunted back. The tiger growled, but it slowly died down when she remembered who they were primarily concerned for. "The panda needs our help." He vocalized. "That's point-blank."

"But how do we help him if we don't know what's going on?" Tigress asked as Tai-Lung walked a little ahead of her. Tai smirked, gripping the handles to the Training Hall door.

"Hasn't stopped us before." He said confidently. As he opened the doors, the two cats saw a sight that was beyond belief. They saw Po hopping around the Training Hall grounds with a huge load of weights on his backs. He was bouncing from one leg to the next while balancing on the Jade balancing bowl. "And we should probably find a way to help quickly before he breaks his back," Tai commented. Suddenly, Po's face began to strain.