Cold.

That was his first thought when he came to, his mind at least halfway functional once more. It was so very cold. The ground under his hand felt frozen as he tried to push himself upright, to continue the battle, to survive. Howling winds passed through him and pierced into the marrow of his old bones, feeding on whatever remained of his will to go on, to fight, threatening to have him fall back down and not get up again. His head ached, everything his eyes saw was blur, no matter how he tried to concentrate on the moving shapes around him. A voice echoed through his ears, like it came from somewhere far away. It felt vaguely familiar, though he could not really concentrate on exactly who it sounded like, and had an alarmed, warning sound: "Master!"

He managed to turn his head to his right, upwards from the floor, and saw the swiftly approaching shape of a vast stone hammer, aimed at his head. Who wielded that hammer, he could not see from all the blur, nor could he entirely remember either. But he did remember something clearly, nonetheless: why he was here, and who it was that he was here for. If there had been the time for it, if the hammer would have come a second or two later, he would have groaned in deep exasperation and annoyance.

The things he did for his daughter...

It was warm up at the Wu Dan Mountains - not at the highest peaks, of course, but still fairly far up. The time was a very late spring, after all, the nature preparing on their own part for the approaching summer, the grass growing high, the what few trees there were blossoming full of flowers: as was the relatively common knowledge, summer tends to be fairly warm. The setting sun was still helping on that part, a little, though not quite as much as it had only a few hours ago, and as such the evening was coming in, setting in a little bit of a chilly objection to the warmer weather, which it clearly saw as objectionable humbug.

This did not seem to bother the two travelers up in the peaks at all. They walked on in a generally bright mood, in spite of the sun heading off and the coming cold and darkness, seeming to enjoy the coming green of the nature and each other's presence. The larger of the two was particularly jovial, chattering about idle things as he marched on ahead, whereas the smaller, albeit still a very tall and intimidating individual by nearly any standards, seemed a little bit confused but regardless optimistic. "I know you like to seem all mysterious and romantic and the sort," she said, "but could you at least say where we're going? It isn't the Sacred Pool of Tears, or we would have turned left several miles ago... which leaves me without a clue."

"Are you kidding me? You mean you've never been elsewhere at the mountains except at the Sacred Tears?", the other responded, incredulous.

"Of course I have. I used to hike across the entire mountains at winter: the snow would come to my waist, I would feel all frozen, but it helped to make me strong. This is all a good place for hiking and training, but I've never seen anything else remarkable anywhere here." The female tiger stopped as she saw the way her companion was looking at her, like she had just said kung fu was "pretty okay but nothing to get all freaked out about," or something else equally weird. "What?"

"Do you ever even look around yourself while you train?"

Tigress shrugged. "I watch my next step and remain wary of bandits."

"Yeah, but besides that! Things like trees and nature and, and mountain views! Did you ever, you know, relax? Take break out of all the kung fu stuff."

"Not until very recently," she shook her head... then looked directly at him, and smiled. "And thanks for that, Po. Really."

The panda smiled in turn, putting one large hand around her shoulders to pull her a little closer. "Well, that's also why we're here: gonna have to help you wind down. From all the hard, you know, kung fu stuff."

The sun had already set in its entirety, leaving their surroundings darker though still fairly well illuminated, by the time the two stopped at a cliffside. Tigress had been here before: besides the training runs already mentioned, she had often come up here to meditate, to help with her style, form and technique, and such things. It was a calm, serene place, where she was not hardly ever interrupted, thus perfect for her purposes. Why Po was taking her here puzzled her: what could he see there that she had not?

"...What am I looking at here?"

"All right," he nodded determinedly. "You're not here to do kung fu, or to train, or to run, or to do whatever else stuff you normally do. You just walked here 'cuz you felt like it. Walk. Not run. You're not even tired! With me so far?"

She nodded. He nodded as well, and smirked. "Great. Now look around you."

"What?"

"Just look."

She did. Tigress looked down the cliff to the Valley of Peace far away, to their home village, thousands of town lights betraying its location even in the otherwise utter blackness that the land was far over there. And above it, she saw the cloudless sky, the full moon and the countless number of stars, the constellations whose names she had never bothered to learn. And she looked around her, where the moon cast a silvery hue to their surroundings, particularly Po, who was smiling at her and looking like a glowing silver-black creature of some legend or another. This had all been here all along, for all those years she had chosen to train here - well, the panda was new, but still. She gasped.

"Yeah," he said, nodding. "I found this place back when Shifu and I trained here. Often came here to check out the sights. Nice, huh?"

"How could I have missed all this?", she whispered, confounded.

"Because you were too busy learning to kick better. Not that that isn't incredibly cool, but... yeah, you should've maybe stopped and looked around a couple times, right?"

Tigress was forced to concur with him on that part. She found the place where she usually meditated and sat down - not in a lotus position, not preparing to try and find peace, but simply sitting and watching the sky. This was all an entirely new experience for her: much of her life had been dedicated to kung fu, to improving herself, with very little time for idleness. And then Po had showed up to her life and had taught her to, well, "chill". Just sit on the Palace stairs, holding hands. Take an idle walk in the city, without running or practicing or anything else like that. Watch the night sky up in the mountains... it was still all a little strange for her, but evoked this tingling in her chest she had never felt before - and, right now, in her back and shoulders as well.

It took her a little while to realize that this was, in fact, something Po was more directly responsible of, rather than simply her confused feelings about the situation. "Po, what are you doing?" She tried to turn her head to watch.

"What do you think I'm doing? I'm trying to give you a back massage," came the slightly strained response. "Y'know, help you relax a little more... except it's really hard because your muscles are like steel."

"Thank you."

"Yeah it's cool and all, but right now it wasn't a compliment. Makes it ridiculously hard to... uh, do you think you could, I dunno, relax your shoulders a little? To let me work on this..."

She tried. This was another thing the feline was incredibly unfamiliar with, but with the help of Po's fingers working on her, she thought she managed somewhat. She knew this had happened because, all of sudden, a massive jolt of pain struck through all her back muscles and made her flinch and tense once more. "Ow! Watch it."

"Sorry, sorry, it's just... you really ARE pretty strained. Come on, now you went all tense again, it won't hurt that bad the second time around."

And upon convincing her to relax once more, she found that he was right. It did still hurt, yes, but it was the good sort of pain: his paws helping the blood flow and reveal vast amounts of packed-up stress and tension, the sort of feelings she had not known for years, yet was suddenly aware they had been there all along. It felt warm and rather pleasant, too, and she began to purr as he took a better position behind her, sitting on his lap and letting him gradually get lower...

Neither was entirely sure at which point her vest had been discarded entirely, casually tossed to the side like it was but a useless piece of rag. Lying on her back, in the grass, Tigress closed her eyes and let Po get back to work: he felt somewhat more hesitant this time around, and much more careful with his touches, and occasional kisses, even though she encouraged him on by wrapping her arms around his head and pulling him close, giving an occasional faint whimper whenever he found a really good place to focus on. delights and treasures of her own physical shell that even she was completely unaware of ever existing!

"Mmm...", she moaned. "It feels like I'm a stranger to my own body..."

"That's really weird," he murmured from somewhere down below, around her stomach, fingers feeling her sides. "Didn't you ever, you know, explo-" He stopped when he evoked an entirely new reaction from her, the paws having found a ticklish spot that made her arch up from the ground and, to her vast shame, giggle. "Did you just laugh?"

"No, Po, don't be... ridiculous..." He tried again, but this time she was ready and managed to stifle the laughter to her throat, turning it into a sort of a "Morffrr..."

"You did!" Po laughed in triumph. "I found a tickey spot. You bet I'm going to remember this for later..." She pushed his face against her stomach to silence him, and he took the cue and kept going, both relaxing once again to simply live in the moment...

...Until a single finger of his reached under her pants and gave a little tug, causing her to gasp and shrudder powerfully. He immediately stopped and looked up, his face apologetic. "Oh, sorry. Uh. That's not okay with you? I can see why it wouldn't, I guess I just got carried away a tad..." She was panting heavily, and feeling hot, in spite of the night chill around them - which, frankly, had been forgotten a long time ago. They might as well have been up in the clouds.

"So, um..." He had backed away a little from her, looking ashamed, and to be honest, rather cute. "...Yeah. Maybe we should just..."

She made her decision in the split second he was silent, and gave him no opportunity to finish what he might have been wanting to say. Instead, she leapt up from the ground, threw her arms around the neck of the now very confused-looking panda, and rolled him back to the ground with herself on top, kissing him deep.

At first Po thought this was a truly odd turn of events, but once he got used to the female tiger hugging him and making out on him, he managed to respond in kind, pulling her closer from the waist, and reciprocating to the kiss, eliciting a happy growl from her. He felt all the more puzzled about the things, butterflies starting up fierce hurricanes in his vast belly, when he saw her pull back, and grin mischievously. He felt the wind around him rather colder, all of sudden, and when she lifted her paw for him to see, he instantly realized why.

"Oh, okay..." He chuckled at her sudden forwardness, as his pants were also tossed away to the grass, outright removing them from the entire existence which seemed to consist of only them two. She descended back upon him to pepper his neck and shoulders with more kisses, repaying some of the affections he had done to her but a moment ago, as his exploring paws picked up some courage and went lower on her back, ending up stroking her tail up and down, feeling it swish around and hearing her purr. All the lower they went, and found-

Pain. "Ow!"

In the land full of pleasure and comfort, the sudden jolt of sharp and intense agony on Po's fingers was a violent awakening and a thrust back into harsh reality. Even while he was still trying to discern what had just happened, both his and Tigress's personal universes having briefly consisted only of each other, he saw the long wooden staff leaving the surface of his fingers and placing itself firmly between the two of them, swiftly moving away from him, effortlessly taking the female along with it and shoving them apart. And as he sat up and looked at who had so rudely disturbed them, his anger and frustration were swiftly flushed away and replaced with dread, all colour disappearing from his face and his heart leaping back to his throat, grabbing tight and refusing to come down.

"Ohshh- uh..." His hand fumbled behind him and found a fabric, bringing it in front to cover himself - only to find that instead of his pants, he had found her vest, which she swiftly took away from him and replaced with his own cloth. Tigress dressed up in a hurry and silence, clearly embarrassed and flushed red: Po fumbled with explanations and excuses - "This isn't what it looks l-... uh... you wouldn't believe what happened...", and so forth - even as he tried to get his pants back on, both activities made significantly more difficult by his thoughts, which pretty much went I'm so dead.

Master Shifu was of almost serene peace, yet the presence of the tiny red panda towered over the two much larger ones there, only a very occasional twitch of an eye betraying the anger that was bubbling beneath the calm exterior, threatening to erupt at any moment. He remained quite silent, simply observing them dressing up and standing again, hearing the panda's clumsy account on the turn of events: indeed, he reminded Po of the time when they had first met, only this time he had done something so much worse than breaking a priceless urn.

"...Not the Wuxi Finger Hold...!", he finally whimpered, finishing with the sputter of explanation and hiding his fingers behind his back. "Master, I-", Tigress attempted, but their mutual master raised a hand in such a manner that she quieted down in an instant - which, considering how easily she could shut up anyone else, was a fair feat. He waited until both were perfectly silent, dressed, standing up, and giving him their full attention, before he at last spoke:

"Panda, you do of course understand that as a dutiful father, I feel certain disinclinations about letting anyone at all do anything more physical than dancing with my daughter. You may nod now. Or shake your head, if you feel giving up your life early."

He nodded frantically, and the smaller panda continued. "When I see her, she is still the same cub I picked up from the orphanage no less than twenty years ago, and in spite of her grueling training and having become a true kung fu master I can be proud of, there is a part of her left that can still be hurt, and that you have begun to uncover." He smiled and paused.

Had he not been terrified over his own life, Po would have kindly said that he understood, that the other one could now get to the main point, but since he was in fact terrified over his own life, all he managed was another nod. Tigress opened her mouth but was once again stopped by the raising hand. The old master took a long, deep breath, pausing for a little longer before continuing again, sounding all the more stern:

"Can I entrust her to your care and know for sure that she will never be hurt?"

"Er..."

"Think carefully before you answer."

"Master, what're y-" The hand stopped her. Shifu did not even look to her direction anymore, a calmly lifted palm all it took to silence her for the third time. And finally, after a few grueling seconds of silence, the panda nodded: it was rather doubtful he had thought it through as much as his master may have wished, this being Po they were talking about, but it was good enough for him.

"Tigress, do you have any problem with this whatsoever?" He now turned to look directly at his adoptive daughter. "I have gotten the impression that you are rather fond of him."

"Uh..." She nodded. "No. No problems at all." Her mouth kept open a little longer, as if she was going to add something else, but she decided against it. Shifu seemed satisfied regardless.

"Very good!" For the first time during the encounter, he managed something of a smile, and Po could feel his heart sink back to its original position, feeling relatively relieved. "You should go to your father for the night, Po, to inform him of the matter and prepare himself: Tigress and I will come over to settle everything with you and him first thing tomorrow, in order to make sure he has nothing against the union (though I doubt it) and that all his wishes, as the groom's father, will be noted of. The ceremony can be held in the courtyard within two weeks, or a month at most, barring any special circumstances that might prolong it: until then, I would greatly appreciate it if you could keep your hands to yourselves."

He bowed at them, and the other two, their minds still trying to digest what had been said, bowed back instinctively, after which the little master turned and started to leave, only to turn back one last time to smile widely. "Congratulations on your betrothal: this will be a cause of celebration for us all! And Po, if you do betray me after all, and it turns out I could not have trusted you, you will wish I would have used the Wuxi Finger Hold."

And then, at last, he left, leaning at the staff as he walked back to the road and leisurely took off towards the Jade Palace, leaving behind two very confused young lovers.

"W-..." Po stopped, collected his thoughts, then continued again. "What just happened?" Tigress just shrugged, managing not a word.

And so the morning after, a couple hours before the opening time of the Dragon Warrior, saw a fairly informal meeting between the four people involved right at the center of this entire event. Tigress was shifting her feet awkwardly and sort of avoiding eye contact with him as Shifu walked to the restaurant with her, staying behind him throughout the journey as if she could somehow hide her entire body behind a two-foot-tall red panda.

Po was making a similar attempt, as they soon saw, standing behind his father and trying to look inconspicuous, though still managing a short smile for his bride, to which she responded in kind. Mr. Ping, in turn, seemed to be in a quite cheerful mood, happily showing the two guests inside - and giving a critical eye at the feline as she came in, appraising her from head to toes, frowning briefly before returning to his smile once again. "So, this is the lucky lady, yes? So very nice to meet you: Po has told me everything about you!"

"We have met before," Tigress corrected him with a small smile and a bow. "Several times."

"Oh of course, of course, but back then you were not a to-be daughter-in-law!", the goose exclaimed jovially. "It quite changes our relationships, doesn't it? Now, who wants some noodles? Tofu, perhaps? I'm not sure you have had breakfast yet! Only half price for my new family... or, make that two thirds..."

All in all, the meeting was relatively (and thankfully, two of the four would say) brief. The two older men spent a few moments discussing about matters such as the exact date and place, with Mr. Ping seeming quite keen to be involved in most of the details of the arrangement - "Well, at least as much as I can afford from my job!" - with the young couple spending most of the time entirely quiet, slowly fading to the background and missing out much of the discussion: if they were asked something, usually whether they were okay with the date of the ceremony or such, they snapped into it and answered briefly that yeah, it's fine with them. Awkwardness and embarrasment slowly gave away into a bit of giddiness and even some smiles, as they gradually got more and more used to the idea of being married.

And then along came the question that would start up so much trouble for master Shifu, the pebble that gave way to the avalanche. The one that asked it was Mr. Ping: "So, when can I expect the dowry?"

Shifu opened his mouth, but it was Po that got there first, having evidently been expecting this: "Dad, I told you, it's the Jade Palace. It's all about learning and enlightenment: not exactly the sort of a place that'd store huge piles of gold in their basement for some reason."

The Jade Palace master nodded in agreement. "We have very little in terms of material wealth. Any profit we might have comes from donations, most of which goes to maintaining the Palace, besides with there really is nothing else except the artifacts at the Sacred Hall of..."

"Are they worth a lot?", Ping interrupted with a glint in his eye.

"Dad, you can't be serious," Po groaned, his face buried in his hands and looking deeply ashamed. Shifu picked it up from there, with "Their value cannot be estimated by any monetary amount. Giving them up is out of the question."

"Well, we do have to adhere to traditions!", the goose stated matter-of-factly. "And I have a shop to take care of, with no heirs, and my son leaving me all alone..." Po tried to start something but was shushed silent. "...So who will take care of me when I am too old to work...?"

The panda just gave a meaningful look at Tigress and Shifu, the latter of whom continued: "We will arrange something, Mr. Ping, don't worry about that. Traditions are important, after all.

The entire discussion managed to dampen the mood slightly, what with both sides of the couple thinking this whole thing had been a somewhat unromantic subject, but things picked up again once they all got to taste some of Mr. Ping's famous soup (with the secret ingredient!), which tends to have the side effect of easing moods and cheering people up. Through the stomach and all that.

Afterwards somebody suggested Suang Ming, or telling the fortune of the couple from their birthdates, but since nobody had any idea exactly when either one of them had actually been born, the idea was quietly buried. The meeting was ended a few minutes before the shop would open, and Po chose to leave back to the palace with the others, apologising them about his father. "You know he can be a little like that sometimes."

He cheered up considerably when Tigress took his hand to hers, and they walked that way, smiling, all the way to the Temple.

Shifu slept little that night, studying the scrolls.

Talking with the rest of the Five had produced very little results. None of them had many better ideas than simply asking for more donations: "Many here would love to chip in to the dowry of someone like Tigress!", Mantis had said. "She's helped out everyone a lot."

Shifu had shot down the suggestion on the grounds that they were already almost entirely dependant on them, and that they had to ask some more to be able to afford the wedding anyway, even with Mr. Ping paying some of it. "Besides," he had added, "this is a gift, not just a pile of money I got from people that have nothing to do with it. It should at least be something I went through some trouble for."

No. He had to find another way to gather some extra gold. Which is why he was now spending so much time with the scrolls, in particular the old legends and maps. He had not read many of these since he was young, but he remembered many he had been very fascinated about, back when he was spry and adventurous: he had even made some expeditions of his own, and although each had taught him many things of life and were probably not entirely for naught, each had also come short of the ultimate objective.

Perhaps it was the time for another one... he opened one particularly interesting scroll, read its story and its supposed location, what was told to be within, how it was defended, and decided that it would probably do fine enough. It would be dangerous, yes, possibly deadly, but what was there he would not do for his daughter?

Though he slept little that night, what little sleep he did get was quite peaceful.

The next morning, Shifu was gone. His students did not find him in his quarters, not in the training hall, nor in the Dragon Grotto. But what they did find was a short message, left in Master Crane's room for him to find:

I have left on the account of a slight matter I must take care of personally. It is nothing you should worry yourselves about, and I should be back in a week or two. Continue defending the Valley to the best of your abilities, resume your training, and prepare for the wedding without me: you may ask Mr. Ping what he might need you for.

-Shifu

P.S.

And they all groaned as he read it out loud for them, for they had been left a dangerous and annoying task indeed.