Tigress woke up the next morning in a cold sweat, an icy fear wrapped around her as she tried to breathe. She felt herself begin to shake as she sat up and tried to take slow breaths in order to calm herself down. The gong went off in the far distance and she heard everyone in the barracks say, "Good morning, master."

"Good morning everyone," Shifu answered. "Eat your breakfast quickly because I have a special task for all of you to perform this morning."

"Awesome!" Po exclaimed. "Special task and time for breakfast!"

"Not quite," Shifu told him as everyone began to walk out.

Tigress layed her head in her paws, trying to keep the nightmare out of her mind. She could still see the flashes of red from the cannon. She could still hear the shrieks from her friends as they perished one by one, she could still feel the pain welling up inside of her and she tried fervently to block it out.

It's just a stupid nightmare! she tried to tell herself. Everyone is still here, you defeated Lord Shen, all of China is safe! Stop worrying so much! What's wrong with you?!

Tigress slowly stood up and headed out of the barracks and towards the kitchen, thinking of the last part she had considered. What was wrong with her? She was Master Tigress, the leader of the Furious Five, the bravest in the face of danger, master of the hard-core tiger style kung fu! And right now, she was having frequent nightmares and was constantly going to people in order to drive them out. Sure, she had nightmares before, but they weren't as bad or frequent and they didn't leave horrible knots in her stomach. Normally, she would drive such issues away with kung fu, but as she was still forbidden from practicing kung fu for about another week, (she had been impatiently waiting to do it since she was freed from bed rest three weeks ago), that hadn't been much of an option. Meditating might help, she told herself. I haven't been really doing it that much lately because I've just been helping Shifu set up training exercises.

The master entered the kitchen, accidentally bumping heads with Po who was in an excited rush to do some kung fu.

"Oof! Oh, sorry Tigress!" the Dragon Warrior exclaimed. "I didn't see you there!"

"Heading out already?" Tigress asked, rubbing the spot on her head where she had gotten whacked.

"Yeah, Shifu was pretty serious when he said to eat quickly."

"When isn't he?"

"Alright, you two, enough chit-chat," Shifu interrupted. "I know you'd love to talk, Po, but we have training to get to,"

"Right," Po acknowledged.

Tigress stepped over to the side so that he could get out.

"We'll see you later, Tigress," Shifu promised her, heading out with the other Five. "There's dumplings in the pot if you're hungry."

"Thank you, master," Tigress said, bowing as the rest of her friends left. Soon, she was standing by herself in the kitchen. The master took a small breath to steady her breathing and walked over to get herself some breakfast, glad no one had noticed that she was shaking. The master sat down at the table and began to eat pondering over what everyone could have been doing for their "special task". As she wasn't allowed to do kung fu, she wasn't allowed to see what it was and even if she wanted to find out herself, Shifu had made sure that certain villagers were keeping an eye on her whenever she went out so that she didn't do kung fu. If Tigress knew who they were, she would have followed everyone out in a heartbeat. But she couldn't, so she sat there and ate, figuring out what she was going to do until her friends got back. She knew that meditation was in order as she needed to get back to her warrior side and fast, but besides that, the only other thing she was really able to do was wander around.

Well, I haven't really been down there for three weeks, she thought to herself. I should probably go down there so that people know I'm still alive or whatever they're probably thinking.

Tigress stood up from the table and went over to the sink to wash her bowl out. She then put it away and walked out of the kitchen, across the grounds, and finally out of the gate where she started down the stairs. She wasn't quite sure what she was going to do, but she considered buying an apple and then taking a walk along one of the paths that was around the Valley of Peace. As she reached the bottom of the steps, a bunch of the villagers came over to say hello, asking her questions and inquiring about her broken ribs until she gave them satisfying answers. After about fifteen minutes, she was finally able to walk around without a crowd quite literally at her heels.

Didn't I answer those questions the first week I came down? the master thought to herself. However, she didn't think about it too much as she went over to the apple cart to buy some fruit.

"Oh, Master Tigress!"

Tigress turned around to see Mr. Ping behind her with a cart full of supplies, such as pots, vegetables, tea, and so on. "Good morning, Mr. Ping," Tigress answered politely. "What brings you over here?"

"Well, Po wanted me to keep an eye on you whenever you got out along with some of the other villagers, so I thought I'd see what you were up to before I headed out."

Po suggested his dad to Shifu? Why doesn't that one surprise me?

"I was just going to head out on a walk before I went back up to the palace to meditate," she assured him.

"Well I have to make a delivery to an old friend of mine," Mr. Ping told her. "He's been very sick lately. Maybe you'd like to accompany me? You know, to keep an eye out for bandits? I mean, I know you can't fight, but I do know a thing or two about hitting someone in the head with a wok pan."

Tigress almost laughed at the thought, imagining Mr. Ping coming behind a bandit with a wok pan wielded in one hand.

"Sure," she said. "I need to stretch my legs anyway. Three weeks of finally being able to walk still doesn't do much for my balance."

About twenty minutes later, Tigress and Mr. Ping were walking along the path leading to Mr. Ping's friend's house. Tigress wished that she could stop and meditate for a second or work on her balance. (Five long weeks of no kung fu would most likely leave her unprepared to fight bandits anyway). However, Mr. Ping cheerily pulled the cart along and sang under his breath, appearing to have no intention of stopping.

"How much farther?" Tigress asked.

"Just little bit up this road," Mr. Ping promised.

As the two continued to walk, a bunch of wolves came out to greet them. (These were different than the wolves Tigress had seen in Gongmen City). The one in the front carried a vicious looking sword that mostly resembled a knife.

"We were simply hoping to rob you, old man," he snarled, glancing at Tigress. "But since you have a bodyguard, we're going to have to do this the old fashioned way."

Tigress got into a fighting stance, but Mr. Ping merely gave the wolf a look and said, "Listen here, wolfy, I don't know what you want, but if it's gold, then I can well assure you that I don't have any. However, I can stop for a second and make you all some nice hot soup if you want."

The wolf laughed. "A likely story!" he cackled. "If you're not carrying anything precious, then why is the most vicious warrior of the Jade Palace accompanying you?"

"Oh, she's resting," Mr. Ping told them. "My son asked me to watch her so that she doesn't do any kung fu, so I invited her along so that she could help me do something instead of being cooped up from bed rest."

Tigress mentally slapped herself for not reminding Mr. Ping that since her kung fu skills were rusty from five weeks of no training, mentioning such a thing to a bandit wasn't in their best interest. Now that the bandits knew she was vulnerable, she was going to have to deal with them bringing worse than their A game.

"Your son?" the wolf asked.

"Yes, Po. You should know him; he's the one who just saved all of China."

"Right. We did hear about that." The wolf laughed. "So, then, let me get this straight..." he said. "The mighty Dragon Warrior, protector of the Valley of Peace and China, the warrior who has fallen from the sky in a ball of fire,"

"Fireworks," Mr. Ping corrected. "He set his chair off with fireworks to get into the Jade Palace."

Tigress mentally slapped herself again.

"Right," the wolf corrected. "Fell from the sky from a chair lighted with fireworks....Actually, that sounds really stupid, saying that; I can see why they went with 'ball of fire'. " He cleared his throat and laughed again. "This mighty hero has gone off somewhere and left a delivery boy to take care of his girlfriend?!"

"Alright, that's enough chit-chat!" Tigress snapped.

"Yes indeed!" Mr. Ping agreed. "I am a noodle-maker! Not a delivery boy! And as a qualified chef in the business since infancy, I am highly qualified to take care of my son's girlfriend!"

"Mr. Ping," Tigress interrupted irritably. "I am not Po's g-"

"GET THEM!"

Mr. Ping panicked and went over to the cart to grab a wok pan as Tigress, with no other choice, started to defend herself and managed to knock out a few bandits.

"Master Tigress!" Mr. Ping exclaimed. "You're supposed to be resting!"

"I got this!" Tigress protested. She kicked one of the bandits into the side of the tree and then ducked and hopped on top of the cart when some of the swords came flying at her. However, because she was out of shape with her training, she wobbled on the side and wound up toppling over and landed hard on the ground. Taking advantage of this, the wolf in charge grabbed her by her ankle and hurled her at one of the trees, knocking her unconscious upon contact. Mr. Ping hit him with the wok pan so as to try and knock him out as well, but the wolf merely grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him up with a laugh.

"Search the ca-" he began, but he was hit hard on the head and fell unconscious. When the wolves saw the culprit, they panicked.

"It's the Dragon Warrior!" they cried. "SCRAM!" They then took off in all different directions.

"PO!" Mr. Ping exclaimed, leaping up to give him a hug. "I didn't expect you to be all the way out here."

"He fell down the side of the mountain," Monkey explained as the other five came up behind him. "Shifu went back to the Jade Palace and we decided to go after Po. That's the only reason we're over here."

"Well, I'm glad you fell down that mountain, Po. Those bandits were too much for Tigress and I to handle and-"

"Wait, Tigress?!" Po exclaimed. "Dad, you said you'd keep an eye on her!"

"I did, son! I wasn't expecting to be confronted by bandits."

"Where is she-" Po began, but upon seeing her knocked out by the tree, he quickly put his dad down and raced over to her.

"Was she fighting?" he asked.

"She tried to, against my wishes, but she insisted on helping me!"

Po sighed and picked up the unconscious master. "Do you guys mind taking wolfy over here over to Chorh Gom while I help her?" he asked the Five.

"No problem," Mantis told him.

The five went to go tie up the leader as Po picked Tigress up. "I'll see you later, son," Mr. Ping called over, taking his cart and continuing on.

"Okay," Po called back. "Tell Mr. Gui I said hi."

"I will."

Po started back towards the valley, carrying Tigress limply in his arms. As they approached the valley, the Dragon Warrior heard her stir and a few seconds later, Tigress was glancing around in confusion.

"Where am I?" Tigress asked in confusion.

"Easy there," Po assured her, causing her to glance up at him. "You took a hard hit to the head."

Tigress groaned and rubbed the back of her head. "I feel like I've been hit with a rickshaw carrying ten-ton bricks," she muttered.

"I thought we said no kung fu," Po reminded her firmly.

"I just woke up. You're going to lecture me now?!"

"Just looking out for you."

"Well, I didn't have much of a choice. They had swords and your dad knows almost zero kung fu. What did you want me to do? Sit by and watch them steal his stuff?"

Po stifled an eye roll and an amused laugh. "Alright, fine," he said. "We'll let this one slide."

"Thank you, Dragon Warrior. You can put me down now."

Po laughed. "Why? So that more bandits can get into a fight with you?" he asked.

"No, I'd just rather walk. That's all."

"Fine, but not until you're in the Jade Palace. I'm sure Shifu wouldn't be too happy if I put you down and you got dizzy and fell down the Thousand Steps."

Tigress rolled her eyes, but reluctantly let Po carry her through the village and towards the Jade Palace. She wasn't about to admit it to Po, but the actual reason why she wanted to be put down was because, after Mr. Ping and the wolf leader's comment about her being Po's girlfriend, she didn't want anyone else getting the wrong impression. When they reached the Jade Palace, Po headed over towards the barracks in order to put Tigress down and allow her to rest.

"I guess it was a good thing you were there," Tigress told him. "Otherwise your dad would have been robbed because of me."

"Hey, you have nothing to do with it," Po assured her, entering her room and putting her gently down on the bed. "You've been resting with no training, and it just so happened that bandits were on the road. It's no one's fault. "

"No, but I could have forewarned your dad to keep my bed-rest a private matter."

"Well, I tripped and fell down a mountain," Po told her. "And I wound up being in the right place. So, that fixes things."

"What if you weren't there?"

"Hey, I'm always going to be there," Po assured her. "When danger calls or a friend is in trouble, if I don't come charging in the whole 'ball of fire' thing, then I'll probably trip over something and bounce over there."

Tigress chuckled.

"I don't doubt that," she admitted with a grin.

"Exactly," Po replied with a smile himself. He cleared his throat and added, "Now why don't I get you some ice for that bump?"

Tigress shrugged. "Knock yourself out," she told him. "I'll be meditating while you do that."

Po smiled and left to room briefly, leaving Tigress to meditate for a bit.