Author Note : Greeting folks! I hope you all are having a great day. Over the last few days were a bit tiring for my mind as all I was writing and finishing this long-ass chapter. The most words I've ever grinded in a single day was 2475 words in total, and good Lord my hands started hurting the moment I stopped typing .

Like what I said at the author note on bottom from the previous chapter, there will a handful of Tigress X OC moments in this chapter, and I hope you guys will enjoy it. Since I have been adding Tigress X OC contents already in the previous chapter, I recently realized that I was a dumbass as I haven't even made like a 'pairing tag' for them after all these time of this story XD .

Alright, I don't much to say and wish to keep this author short, so let's get this story going and see how our two character shall interact with one another. :D

Chapter 47 : Awkward Bonding

After running nonstop for miles and not decelerating her speed for one bit, Tigress was sure enough that there were no pursuers on her tail. She turned around and saw that there were no one following her as the tiger took a relieving breath. Tigress glanced around, noticing that her nonstop running had made her end up in a forest.

It was an average forest, filled with various greens, vegetations and trees. The tiger looked up as she saw the moon is about halfway to set down while to sun going rise up in about several hours. A couple of minutes of walking in a slowed and tired pace, Tigress eventually found an area which is quite very open as it's clear of trees. With some scouting the tiger made, she spotted a large wide tree and very thick leaves, which might be a comfortable enough to stay for now.

Tigress walked to the large tree and slowly placed the motionless human and set his back against the trunk before placing down his damaged traveling backpack near him. Tigress smelled and picked up a strange iron-like smell that was on her. She patted around her upper body with her paws. After a moment of sniffing out the smell, their was nothing until she looked at her paws and saw it was covered with red fresh blood, the blood belongs to Lukas.

Her amber eyes widened as she moved with haste and crouched at at front of Lukas, realizing that he's still bleeding after he shielded her with his back from that shrapnel explosion. She held her blush back as she began stripping off his both damaged white long-sleeved vest and his gray shirt along with his damaged dark gray slacks as the only cover he is wearing was only a very short white pants that strongly resembled a boxer underwear. She then carefully placed and laid his whole frontal body on a nearby sheet of soft grass on the ground.

The back of his body and the back of his upper thighs has received very minor burns that was not that concerning, but the real concern that Tigress is feeling for him is that his back has several small burned holes which was caused by the red hot glowing shrapnels. Some parts of his body got bloodied and dirtied by stained black gunpowders from the explosion. A frown has formed on Tigress's face as she felt dejected and worried along with pain seeing her best friend in such a wounded state. She refocused herself back and went searching for the damaged and punctured backpack for his water canteen.

The tiger fished out a water canteen, but it's utterly empty and dry, but it was untouched by the shrapnels nonetheless. Tigress growled quietly as she chid herself for forgetting it has no water thanks to her drinking it all away when Lukas found her in that dark room and gave her those water to drink.

Conveniently, she spotted a very small mountain spring nearby which's merely only around twenty five meters away from where they both are at. She placed the empty water canteen inside her pants pocket, wore it the damaged backpack on her back and slowly and carefully hoisted Lukas on her shoulder again. As she arrived near at the bank of the mountain spring, she set the human down as she placed him against on another wide and suitable tree new at the spring's bank and took of the backpack and set it near him again.

'I gotta admit, with all that running along with these stuff and him I've carried all together, it was awfully quite taxing indeed for me.' She thought, taking a few tired breaths as she felt the increasing soreness in her muscle of her whole body.

She head to the lake and crouched down before putting her finger in the mountain spring water and tasted it. It felt nice and refreshing for her as the water is all good and clean. Tigress cupped her paws together and drank a good of water from the mountain spring before fished out the empty water canteen from her pants pocket and uncorked it, putting the canteen as it fully submerged in the water and started to create bubbling noises.

When the bubbling noises stopped, she knew it was now full. She moved back to the tree spot where the human is at, who's unconsciously lying against the trunk. She set the refilled canteen vertically on the grassy ground as she proceed to move Lukas's motionless body and set his frontal body lying on another sheet of soft green grasses. Tigress grabbed the backpack and took out a towel from it and picked up the refilled water canteen as she began pouring water around on his wounds. The pain for the man was becoming more unbearable and piercing for him, causing his unconscious self to groan in pain.

"I'm sorry Lukas," Tigress uttered with a hushed voice. "I know it hurts, but please endure this for a moment. Everything will be alright soon."

Tigress now began wiping the stained gunpowder and dried blood away from his back and wounds with the towel. Lukas groaned louder in pain and was starting to take fainting audible breaths as the wet towel rubbed through his wounded back. All the stained blood and gunpowder was eventually washed off by Tigress as she kept pouring more clean water on his wounds and rubbing his back and the back of his upper thighs.

After she finished with cleaning his wounds, she noticed that he has bandages already wrapped around his left thigh, across his chest and the right side of his abdomen. The tiger removed his old bandages, revealing his previous injuries from some fights he had and soon applied some fresh ones. She then set him up and placed his back facing against the trunk for him to rest.

It didn't took not long for Tigress to gather enough material and created the simplest functional campfire. It is surrounded by stones to prevent the flame to spread to other burnable materials. Once the sticks she was rubbing against another began to smoke, she rubbed even faster until the smoke got thicker. She placed the smoking sticks on the unlit campfire and added some dried grasses and leaves as a visible flame can be seen growing out quickly. She allowed the flame to grow bigger to a favorable size, she added some real wood on it for the campfire to sustain the flame.

After checking that the campfire is well made and safe enough, she goes to the spring to washed his dirtied and bloodied clothes before returning back to spot and climbed up to the tree, hanged his moisturized clothes on the thick branch of the tree, which was near on the campfire as the heatwave is flying softly up to his hanged wet clothes, slowly warming and drying the clothes up.

Less than half an hour has passed of her meditating in a lotus pose on the soft grassy ground, her nose and eyelids twitched slightly as the iron-like smell on her left shoulder is starting to annoy her. Tigress sighed, revealing a restless expression with no calmness in it. She stood up, looking at the mountain spring's water and saw a very clear reflection of the moon on the water. It was beautiful sight to see, which made the tiger to smile upon its beauty and felt calm looking at it. Tigress smelled her armpit before slowly retracting her head away from the blood stained in her shoulder and back which was bled from Lukas's injuries to her clothes when she was carrying him on her shoulder.

'It seems that I required some time to bath myself, but there's one problem...' After that thought, Tigress glanced at her unconscious best friend who was still completely out cold. 'He has received quite a concussion from that explosion, probably he'll wake up from tomorrow's morning... I hope...' Once Tigress was sure that he'll be out cold until the next morning, she began by slowly stripping and removing her clothes off, starting with the black hooded jacket that Lukas gave her, then her red sleeveless vest, her black sash and her black silk pants as she's now half naked.

A blush formed on her face as she made a quick glance at Lukas, who was still out cold. She took a deep breath and slowly removing and unwrapping the wraps around her chest and slid off her tan-colored panties, placing both her undergarments on a nearby rock at the bank of the spring and quickly dipped herself inside the mountain spring's water along with her blood stained clothes. After washing her blood stained clothes, Tigress got out of the mountain spring and placed them alongside with Lukas's damped clothes on the thick tree branch for the heatwave from the campfire to dry them up by climbing up behind the tree. She climbed down from the tree, immediately fast walked her way back to the mountain spring and dipped herself in the water once again.

As all the troubling thoughts of hers has subsided her mind, she let out a calm and satisfying yawn as she hadn't washed herself over more than two weeks and it was a great and refreshing feeling as the cool water starts entering into her fur. She walked down to the deepest depth of the small mountain spring until the maximum water level has raised and has barely reached over around at her pelvis. She soon then began washing herself with a very short towel she borrowed from Lukas's backpack.

Once my body has regained its conscious again, I felt a nice warm wave hitting all around my frontal body and face. I slowly creaked my eyes open and saw that there was a well made lit up campfire that's probably more than a meter away from me before I could noticed that my back was leaning against a trunk of a tree.

I decided to take a look around of the scenery of where I'm at and it showed that I'm currently sitting my ass around on the bank of some very small mountain spring. The forest I'm in was quite open as it doesn't have that much bushes and tree covering it, but it does have one hell of a quantity of soft grasses. I glanced down at myself, seeing that someone must have changed and applied some new bandages on my old injuries and some extra ones for my new injuries. I'm also quite lacking in 'cover' as I only have is my white boxer underwear.

I tried moving, but a sharp pain emerged from my back and my upper thighs, causing me to winced considerably. I took a deep breath, gritting my teeth as I continued moving and try to stand up on my feet. The pain that my back and upper thighs are generating was getting too much for me to withstand, eventually causing me to lose my balance as I fell back on the tree's trunk with a thud as the pain multiplied several times. I released a sharp yelp while I shut my mouth tight, containing and suppressing the sound of my sharp yelp as much as possible.

Shortly after some time has passed by, I felt like my body has coped well enough with the pain of my new injuries. I managed to stood up on my feet while placing my hand on the tree's trunk for balance support. After some few stretching of my limbs and body as I soon let go out of my hand from the trunk. Before I could start wondering around, I glanced at my traveling backpack and start checking it. My backpack was roughly damaged with few small holes and punctures on it. It might be that explosion that caused these damage as I remembered I instinctively pushed Tigress down to the ground for her safety and shielded her with my body from the explosion.

My backpack is currently missing three items, except for the food and others stuff in there that has miraculously survived and is unharmed from the explosion. I soon found two of the three items such as my water canteen and roll of bandages lying on the ground of the campfire spot. But where's the last one though?

These two items looked like they've been used for treating my injuries and wounds. I'm wondering who had carried me all the way here from the Emerald Claw's militarized hamlet and patched me up here in this spot. I definitely think it could be Tigress who was the one treated and patched me up.

I felt my mouth has gone very dry as I tasted a bitter taste inside of my mouth and smelled an unpleasant breath coming from my mouth as well. I slowly made my way closer to the bank of the small spring without tripping or falling from my weakened state and crouched on one knee. I cupped my both hands together submerged them into the water. With no time of thinking whether should I drink it or not since I'm quite thirsty and had nothing else to drink, I lifted my both hands up, filled with a handful amount of water and drank all of it. Surprisingly, the water was very clean and it tasted like regular tap water. With few more good sips, I gonna assume these are some really fresh and high quality mineral water.

Once my thirst has been fully filled with these mineral water, I decided to look and admire the great beauty of the greens and vegetation's of this open forest. A breathtaking expression being formed on my face as I stared at the tall mountain above the mountain spring.

To be honest, it saddens me to see how humankind can really ruin up a beautiful world like this by constantly chopping down all the trees, dirtying and littering the lands and oceans with plastics and others waste materials, screwing up the air with pollution coming from those factories and others. Thinking about this showed a really big environmental difference between my world and this world I'm in.

Before I could go to the shallow part of the water and wash my feet, I saw two things lying on a rock near the banks as what appears to be a very long white wrap somewhat rolled together and a piece of wraps and tan-colored... panties?! The sound of water swishing quickly can be heard as it sounded like someone or something is moving in the spring's water. I rapidly performed nearly instantaneous ninety degrees turn while putting my fighting stance on.

"Who's there-" As I was about to finished my exclamation and look at the person who was in the water, my both eyes and mouth went completely ajar as what I've just saw now.

At front of me, stood a shapely, curvaceous and naked orange figure with black stripes stopping before at her white fur of their entire unclothed body. The figure itself was none other than a completely exposed Tigress, who was busy washing herself while borrowing my short hand towel (which turns out to be the last of the three items that was missing in my damaged backpack).

We both released a loud gasp as she quickly covered her chest with the hand towel and her other free paw to cover her groin area due to the maximum water level can only reached up to her lower pelvis. I instantly turned back, not daring to move or say a word from this spot I'm standing at.

Oh God no, I've... I've saw 'everything' of her again... !

I mentally slapped myself and told myself to calm my ass down before anymore of those inappropriate thoughts could start swarming down my current flimsy mind. I gulped before I was able to gather the courage to say some words. My first thing to began with was me clearing up my throat.

"Ahem, this is... quite a tremendously awkward... and definitely an... umm... undesirable situation." I spoke, having trouble of keeping most of my calmness at a stable state as I trailed off repeatedly.

"Indeed this is..." She responded, agreeing with my comment. Surprisingly, it appears that she has pretty good of control of herself as she was able to stop herself from beating me to a pulp this time. Thank God this won't end up like last time. "Could you please umm... help me get my undergarments for me without looking at my direction?" Tigress requested with an embarrassed voice. I gulped, nodding my head slowly and nervously.

I looked at her undergarments lying on the rock before grabbing both of them with my hand. With my frontal body being turned around, I began slowly walking backward while trying not to look at her. I stopped as the water reached my ankle and I can hear the soft splashing sound of the water, indicating that Tigress is right behind me and is completely naked. I felt her paws made contact with my hand as she took her undergarments that my hand is holding and made some hasty sounds of wrappings and clothes as she quickly wore them back on.

"Alright, it's safe for you to look at me now... I suppose." Tigress said. I turned around from her assurance. I have seen her completely naked once... actually wait, make this twice since I've just took an quick glance at her unclothed body recently.

After I've waited for Tigress to dry herself with the hand towel, we both walked back to the spot and sat on the soft grassy ground while enjoying the comforting warmth that the campfire is emitting for us.

The silent and calm atmosphere was definitely a good one to feel, but the stars and the moon from above the sky are making this even more better for us both. With her wearing her undergarments such as her chest wraps and tan-colored panties, I was able to get better and closer look at her body. Everything looked as humanly stunning as ever when I accidentally saw her completely exposed in the hotspring room in the Jade Palace's bathhouse. She then noticed and saw that I'm staring at her.

"Would you please stop staring at my direction?" Tigress spoke with a raised and embarrassed voice, stroking her upper arm as she began avoiding eye contact with me by averting her gaze at somewhere else.

"I-I'm sorry." I apologized, stuttering at the first word. I mentally started slapping myself in the face several times for staring rudely at her.

A short moment later, my mind somehow gathered the courage for me to tease her. My heart start beating a bit faster as I swallowed some excessive saliva inside my mouth.

"At first glance, you looked... plain and umm... dull as well." Tigress sharpened her amber eyes at my sudden rude words. "But looking at you right now, you have a... surprisingly strong and yet flawless body, must have worked quite hard on it." I tried to keep calm, but my goddamn cheeks kept flaring up and I could say the same for her as her cheeks are well flared up as mine.

"Your the first person to ever seen me naked... twice." She added sharpness to the last word of her sentence. A red blush appeared on her as she might have remember that 'horrible accident' I had with her. "And the first person to complimented me about my body's appearance and physique. Thanks for your genuine compliment." Her tone soon softened afterwards. "I... I also too might have got a look on your body as well when you were unconscious." I managed to hold down a gasp while my heart nearly skipped a beat from what I've heard. "During your first days in the Jade Palace as a student, you already have a thin and a slightly 'worked up' body. Over the passing months, your body has went through some 'impressive' changes and developments I must say." I grinned as I might use this to further tease her.

"So, you did get a look on my body when I unconscious, right?" I asked. Tigress nodded. I then took a breath before saying one word. "Perv." I uttered teasingly, loud enough for her to hear it.

"Huh?!" Tigress gasped. "What? Why are you calling me that for?" Her blush grew.

"You have laid your deviant eyes on my unclothed body, isn't that enough proof of that the Powerful Master Tigress can secretly be a pervert?" I spoke with an exaggerated teasing tone. "I even bet that you want to feel it a bit or you might even thinking about things that may potentially could cross the line here-"

I yelped in pain as my exaggerated teasing voice came to end as an orange blur came flying straight at me and struck me at my stomach. I felt a portion of air flew out after receiving that sudden punch. I was able to withstand the force of her punch without losing my whole balance. I looked at her and her face has got even redder.

"I believe that is enough." She simply said with her looking at a different direction.

"Jeez, it was all just a joke." I said in a hushed tone, holding my stomach area with my hand. We both then decide to remain silent and enjoy the campfire's warmth.

While half an hour has passed, our damped clothes hanging on the tree branch has finally dried up as we both quickly wore them back to lessen the discomfort for us both. It would've taken far more longer for our clothes to dry up if it weren't for the campfire's warmth to speed up the drying process.

Me and Tigress got hungry and decided to cook some food for us to eat. I grabbed out what looks to be a small pan from my backpack which perfectly fit itself inside it. Tigress proceeded to place three chunks of wood by breaking a thick fallen branch by simply snapping them to chunks with her immense strength with little no effort at all.

With new chunks of wood being added, the small flame grew to its original size and eventually grew bigger. I carefully set the small pan on the stones of the campfire. Before the pan could get hot, I rummaged in my damaged backpack and found the wooden food boxes. I set the food boxes down on the ground and opened them, revealing a very small amount of uncooked tofu, a good quantity of raw rice and four cold mantou buns. Surprisingly, these colds are still in good condition as no foul smells or discoloring were present. I looked at Tigress, whose fur was now dried.

"I think this amount of food won't be able to satisfy our hunger." I spoke.

"I was just about to say that." She said. I took all of the mantou bread and gave her three and one for myself. "Lukas, this isn't correct, you should take one more."

"Nah, you've told me that you've been locked and chained up in that dark room for more than two weeks with diminutive amount of food. Come on, eat up, you must be even more hungrier than me." I have an assuring smile. Before Tigress could insist on we both should have two buns for each other, her stomach released a booming roar. I chuckled as she blushed a little from that unexpected roar from her stomach. "See, what did I tell you. Now eat up before it gets cold." I made a small gesture for her.

"It's already cold, you idiot." She spoke with a bit of playfulness. She took a bite as we both eventually downed our the cold, yet tasty buns. An idea then came out from my brain.

"I think I may have an idea on getting more food for us." Tigress gave me an attentive look. "I was thinking about getting stuff like berries or mushrooms for us both to eat from the forest. But before I could carelessly pick up a poisonous or a fatal one, are you good with botany?" Tigress stroke her chin with a thoughtful expression.

"I would say I'm average on botany, but I do know varies food of the forest from my experience from going on missions with the others. Just bring whatever you can find in the forest and I'll analyze it before consumption." I nodded and got up from my seat on a wooden log, leaving the campfire spot and head into the deep forest.

It certainly that didn't took that long for me to gathered up quite a handful amount of natural raw food from the forest. The food were mostly consisted of numerous colorful berries that I've picked up from the bushes, a patch of wild mushrooms, some fruits like apples, pears and oranges from trees. The size of these fruits were considerably smaller than regular fruit that you buy in the markets, maybe it's because these fruit were grown in wild.

Wish these were a bit more bigger...

I shook my head lightly as it's not the time to complain about small-sized fruit since both me and Tigress will need everything we can to survive. Shortly, I've returned to the campfire spot where Tigress sitting on a log seat, waiting for me. I placed all the natural raw food that I've gathered from the forest on the ground and sat on another chopped log seat that she made for us both.

"I see you have returned with quite a number." Tigress spoke.

"Yeah." I replied. "We might as well go back there in the forest by the next morning and gathered up some fruits from those trees I've found. We could use some snacks during our travel though." I suggested. She nodded.

With my basic cooking skills and craftsmanship combined with Tigress's average botany knowledge and her sharp claws for carving wood into a small and flat shaped wooden plank with a small hole for those excessive steam to leave. We managed to make steamed rice by pouring half some uncooked rice I had and poured a portion of clean water on the small pan from the mountain spring. After that, I covered the pan with the small wooden plank that Tigress made.

With the rice has been finished steaming, I put the rice in the food box of the mantou buns and soon began to cook some unflavored stir-fried tofu and mushrooms at the same time (which Tigress used her botany knowledge and identified that these mushrooms are safe and edible). We both then decide to engage our conversation into a much more serious and important topic before we both could eat.

"Well then, about this new Emerald Claw group that we've discovered, what do you think of them?"

"I think they might be as strong and dangerous as the Red Fang Army." Tigress said.

"And what are they capable of as they sure done quite a number on me." I asked.

"The troops from the Red Fang Army are trained, well-armed and has an innumerable amount of them. The Emerald Claw in the other hand, focused more on weaponry rather than ground troops power. While I was still chained in that dark room, I overheard that they are planning to form alliance with another powerful militia group, but I don't know who they might be." I began to think about what she said.

"There is a possibility they might try teaming up with the Red Fang Army." I said hesitantly.

"I see where you thinking at. There is a possibility that the Emerald Claw might try to forge alliance with the Red Fang Army since they could to combine their powerful weaponry with the Red Fang Army's ground troops power. And if they do, the Imperial Chinese Army might not even be enough to stop their combined strength." Tigress paused for a moment before speaking. "Let's just hope that will never happen." I nodded.

After the conversation is over, we both agreed that the first thing to do once we get back to the Jade Palace is to inform everyone about the new information of this whole new and powerful militia group that we've discovered, especially Shifu and Yun. I'm also sure that Zhòng and the rest of the royal guards along with those commoners would do the same thing as us when they return back to their home.

Our improvised dinner was fulfilling and appetizing, mostly because of the good salty flavor coming of the mushrooms and the tofu was kinda okay. We put out the campfire and prepared to have some sleep for tonight.

The slumber that I'm having is pleasantly revitalizing while the soft green grasses definitely helped. It all ended as I felt a familiar paw that was being placed my on shoulder as it began shaking me. I tiredly released a long yawn before turning my body and head from another direction as I placed my shoulder against the trunk while closing my eyes. The shaking on my shoulder began once more, but with increased force this time.

"Come on, wake up." A strong feminine voice spoke. I opened my eyes and saw it was Tigress crouching beside me with her paw on my shoulder. I looked at the sun that is not even up yet and groaned groggily.

"The sun haven't even showed itself yet, it's five in the morning. Just..." I trailed off from my sleepiness. "... just give me one more hour to... sleep and wake me up till six." I closed my eyes again and goes back to my sleep.

She growled and did a hard tap on the left side of my bandaged back, causing a shot of pain to erupt as I yelped.

"Fine, I'm up." I spoke weakly as I slowly stood up with her wrapping her arm wrapped around my shoulder as she helped me up. "But please don't do that, my back is still not fully recovered yet."

"You would have been asleep again if I didn't do that." Tigress unwrapped her arms from my shoulder as I gained my balance back. "Come now, we have to return back to the Jade Palace and inform Master Shifu and the others with what we have learned about this Emerald Claw militia."

I made some few gentle stretches for my body after I was able to walk on my own. After refilling the canteen with clean water from spring, we both head into the forest. I soon lead us both to where the wild trees were at as we picked some wild and edible fruit which will serve as snacks for us during our journey back to the our home.

After a journey from days of walking on purely foot towards the direction of Northwest, we're now are approaching a very familiar dirt road. A two meter tall wooden sign can be seen with ' 谷的和平 ' written on it which was obvious and without a doubt is the Valley Of Peace.

My wounds recovered at a pretty fine rate, but it still hurt as I still gotta be careful. My two feet felt like they want to fall apart, but I must keep going if we both want to reach back to our home. Man, I can't wait to lie down on my bamboo bed, even if the bed is hard and a bit solid, it won't bother me as long it'll help me rest up my body and mind.

As we entered the tall entrance gate of the Valley Of Peace and walked our way through the towns to now the stone staircase of the Thousand Steps. We both haven't said a thing to each other for a short while, expect for the part when we were greeted by the people of the Valley as everyone cheered for Tigress's return. I decided to engage in a short conversation with her to see if she's doing okay.

"Hey, you've being a little quiet lately, you doing okay Tigress?" I spoke, moving closer to her side.

"Yes, I'm fine." She replied to me with a slightly uneasiness that I can feel in the tone of her voice.

"Right, but are you?" I asked. She remained silent. "Come on, were best friends, and best friends should always have trust towards each other."

"I'm not sure how to say this but, I'm a bit nervous of seeing Master Shifu again." She said. I lifted an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why's that?"

"Because I don't want him to see me as a weak and impotent warrior who could not defend herself and her comrades during combat. I... I should have been more prepared." She criticized herself as her ears lowered with a frown formed on her face. "I just don't know what to do once I get up there and see Master Shifu." Hearing this made me frown as I stopped on my track.

"Tigress, don't you start thinking like that." I spoke with an acceptable amount of sternness in my voice. "You are not weak, you are a very astonishing warrior because you always give out your best and everything toward every problems and situation, even smallest ones. Sure, you do messed up at times and made some mistakes, but that how life works. Without mistakes, how will you ever learn and got to this point your at. So please, stop being so hard and critical to yourself, have some more optimism to yourself and I can assure you that things will be much easier for you." I let loose of my sternness and gave her a soft smile. Tigress stood above me from a couple of steps of the stone staircase as she was quietly processing all the words I've said to her. She wrapped her arms around me, which my arms too wrapped themselves around her.

"Thank you, that was very kind of you to say all of that." Tigress thanked me in a gentle hushed tone.

"Your welcome, that's what best friends are for, right?" I chortled.

After we both unwrapped ourselves, we resumed our journey to the Jade Palace on the top of the Jade Mountain. When we reached the final step of the stone staircase do the Thousand Steps, the sun has already set as the moon began to emerge from the other side of the Valley Of Peace with the stars on the darkened sky are now visible. At the main entrance of the Jade Palace, there was a particular panda that can be seen sweeping the smooth stone floor. Not long, he set his green eyes on us as he froze like a statue which he let the broom he's holding dropped on the floor. Soon, he rushed towards us and gave both me and Tigress a big bear hug.

"Oh my gosh! Your two are back!" Po spoke with relief and excitement. The big black and white bear hug soon began to hurt the injuries from my back of upper thighs, causing me to yell from the shots of pain. The panda then realized my current state and unwrapped us both as I fell on one knee. "Lukas, are you okay?" Po asked worriedly. Tigress crouched and gently placed a paw on my shoulder before averting her gaze at Po.

"He's not okay, he's been critically injured during our escape from our enemies and haven't fully recovered yet. I advised you to go easy on him." Tigress explained. "Anyway, is Master Shifu-" The tiger's sentence was stopped as an old red panda opened the tall doors of the Jade Palace. Shifu smiled when he saw both me and Tigress.

"Welcome home, Master Tigress and Master Lukas." Shifu greeted us with a warm and welcoming tone. I stood up with Tigress helping me up and approached the old red panda with the usual bow.

"So, Master, did you read the note that I've left in my room before searching out for Master Tigress?" I inquired. He nodded.

"Yes, and after some time pondering, I eventually put my faith in you that you will find Master Tigress." Shifu's soft expression soon sharpened. "Normally, when one leaves their village without authorized permission would be considered 'law-breaking' or a crime if I put it that way. The people of the Valley Of Peace started questioning about your whereabouts as they haven't seen you for quite some time. But since everyone has seen you returning back with Master Tigress, I'm sure the authority will pardon your actions for leaving the Valley. If not, then I as your master will take responsibility for it." After Shifu was done, he glanced at Tigress. The tiger approached the red panda.

"I have returned, Master Shifu." Tigress spoke while containing her nervousness. Shifu remained silent, causing her nervousness to grow. The tiger crouched and lowered her head in a bow before continuing. "I should have been stronger and faster, but it wasn't enough, I allowed myself to get captured by the enemy and got my comrades injured as well, including causing so much distress for everyone in the Valley. I am ready to take any punishment that is coming in my way." I frowned as my words were not enough to help her.

With very few people here like me and Po for example, Shifu decided to do the most unpredictable thing that I've ever seen. The old red panda walked up to Tigress who's still crouching with her head lowered as he wrapped his arm around her in an embrace. This caused Tigress to released a shocked gasp.

"It's alright... daughter. It's alright." Shifu assured as he tightened his little arms to Tigress.

"Father..." She uttered out as she returned the embrace.

Me and Po stood still and were not daring to say a single word to ruin such a beautiful and heartwarming sight. This scene reminded me when Tigress met her biological parents Mingzhu and Mei, but I'm getting a good feeling that this one here is far more heartwarming due to Tigress had told me how she had strived incredible hard for Shifu's love back then.

I slowly woke up from my slumber and was greeted with a bright rays of sunlight from an opened window with curtains being moved away. I release a yawn before lifting my torso up from a rather... soft bed and a soft pillow. My eyes shot upon in confusion and shock as I shoved my grogginess away and noticed I'm in a white painted room with medium sized nightlight on a triple layer drawer and a tall wooden closet and a desk that's not far from the bed I'm on.

This... this isn't my room of the Student Barrack... this is... my old room...

I quickly got out from my bed and found my sandals was placed on a soft mattress near my bed and my white long-sleeved vest was on the desk. I wore them up and before I could exited my old childhood room, I heard a voice that brings indescribably and absolute joy to me.

"Lukas! Wake up, it's already pass eight in the morning!" An extremely familiar feminine voice spoke with little annoyance, which made my heart skipped almost more than one beat from recognizing it right away.

I nearly pushed the door of my room open and rushed down from the wooden staircase and made my way to the kitchen. Then... I saw her. She's appeared to be a Japanese woman with light skin, has long straight black hair that stops around her waist and brown eyes. She wore a light gray white dress and regular house shoes. And beside her, stood a Caucasian bearded man who's more than six feet tall with peach skin, has short very light brown hair and blue eyes. He's donned in a green shirt, blue jeans and brown working boots. The woman sighed.

"Jeez Lukas, you gotta start sleeping earlier nowadays." The woman spoke.

No fucking way... is this real...? Mom... ? Dad... ?

"Your mother is right, you really do need to-" The man's sentenced was stopped as I dashed towards them and embraced them both in a very tight hug. Tears quickly began to form and are now raining down to my cheeks.

"Mom... Dad..." I snuffled. "... it's really you, I missed you guys so much."

"We know you do Lukas." Mom smiled warmly.

"And we've been watching over you and we're just very happy and glad that you've found yourself a new family to fill that hole in your heart." Dad added. We separated the hug. After losing both of them eighteen years ago, I was completely and utterly devastated. But I was lucky and grateful to have Master Gouken along with Ryu and Ken to raise and look out for me. Seeing my parents once more after all these years brings pure bliss for me as thin rivers of tears keep streaming down to my cheeks.

Suddenly, the ambient of my old house grew very dark as two glowing violet fist has penetrated them both by each of their upper stomach as a large portion of blood has splattered on the floor. They both made a bloody gagging sounds as blood violently flies out from their mouths. My eyes widened along with my jaw was held itself opened in absolute shock from what I'm witnessing.

"Lukas... what is h-happening to u-us?" She uttered. Both of their eyelids began falling as the life in them was now all gone. The two fiery violet fist had extinguished and removed themselves from them, creating a large hole on both of their upper stomach.

A figure with red hair and glowing red eye appeared behind them and walked passed their corpses as I backed away in both fear and caution. My teeth soon gritted hard as my facial expression has sharpened thoroughly along with my both hands clenched into a pair of tight fists.

Akuma...

As I was about to charge at him with blind rage, he dashed backward and disappeared into the shadows before I felt a large flaming fist of his had pierced through my chest from the back. Immediately, blood instantly begans to violently flew out from my mouth as my vision staggered and start darkening itself. I grabbed his large fist with my hands before I started pushing as I removed myself from his large fist.

As I fell head-first on the floor, I began crawling myself towards my motionless parents lying on the floor with their blood pouring slowly out from the large hole on their upper stomach. With every pull I made, my vision and sight kept becoming less clearer and darker. All of my senses and everything around me soon went complete numb and blank as I couldn't move anymore as I soon succumbed to my fatal wound.

My eyelids shot flashed themselves opened with my torso jumping itself up from the hard bamboo bed as I began to take big and fast breaths. I placed a hand of mine on my chest, which it's still fine and it doesn't have that large hole because it was all...

Just a little nightmare... that's all...

I glanced outside of the window and it was still in the middle of the night. I tried to go back to sleep, but my conscious instinctively won't let me due to how horrible the experience from that nightmare was. Eventually, I forced myself through my instincts and placed my torso on the bamboo bed and closed my eyes. My heart starting beat quicker and sweat began to form on my forehead. I let out a frustrated grunt and got up from the bamboo bed, wearing my clothes as I exited my room. I suppose some 'midnight exercises' might take my mind off of it.

Once I reached to entrance of the Training Hall, I can already saw the doors was left a little opened with the soft and bright light coming from the red lanterns that's hanging above the ceiling of the Training Hall. I heard that there's someone in their and I can hear multiple grunts from a distinctively strong feminine voice and varies swinging sounds and low thuds. I peaked at the doors and saw a certain tiger who's performing various punches and kicks whenever she leaps on to the air. I then entered.

"Good evening, Tigress." I greeted her. She ceased what she was doing and turned her head to me with a slightly surprised look on her face.

"Good evening to you too, Lukas." She greeted me back with her usual calm and collected tone.

"So-" We both silenced ourselves as we spoke the same word at the same time. "Oh sorry, how about you go first." I motioned. She nodded.

"So, what brings you here around a time like this?" She asked. I nervously swallowed a portion of saliva in my mouth.

"Well... it's hard to say." Tigress motioned for me to go on. "It... it was a nightmare that involves... my parents in it."

"What happened?" Her voice hushed and softened.

"Remember during our very first conversation that I've told you my parent were murdered when I was a very young child?" She nodded. "And that bastard who performed the Shun Goku Satsu on me?" She nodded again, while hiding a slight cringe as she remembered how it went down for me. "In the nightmare I was in, I saw both of my parents got brutally killed again by that red-haired bastard before he killed me. It was... it was horrifying and I don't think I can sleep at this moment." I lowered my head and snuffled as I began tearing up a little. Unexpectedly, Tigress caught me with a comforting hug as I hugged her back tightly. We both unwrapped one another after a moment. "Thanks, talking about it with you made me feel a lot better." She smiled.

"I'm glad I can give you the emotional support you need." She said. I smiled back while wiping off the tears with my white sleeves and regained my cool.

"Well, since I told the reason I'm up this late, mind if you like to tell me why your in the Training Hall around midnight?" I asked.

"I too have got some trouble sleeping like you, but instead of having a nightmare, it was more of a vision."

"What vision?" I asked. Tigress took a breath before telling.

"It is not something negative, it was rather a calm and informative one. In my vision, I saw a tiger, who's appearance are the exact same as mine. She has the same height as mine and wore a high-ranking Imperial armor. Her name is Huang, and we both had spoken already when I was chained and locked in that dark room at the Emerald Claw." I was surprised that the spirit of the deceased legendary Golden Tigress can communicate with her current incarnation.

"Intriguing, what did this person 'Huang' had spoken with you about?"

"She told that I was born and gifted with these 'extraordinary' powers. And because of these extraordinary power that I was born with, it explained why everyone in the Bao Gu Orphanage had feared me as a monster." Tigress was unable to completely suppressed the pain in her voice as some bit of it had slipped out with her words. She then pulled back her collected demeanor. "Anyway, the important part of that vision was that she told me that I've currently have 'mastered' only around half of this 'extraordinary' power."

"And did she told you about where and what this 'extraordinary' power come from and its origin?" I inquired.

"No, I don't think she told me any of that at all in my vision." Tigress placed a paw on her chin. "But, she told the other half of my power that I still have to master is something involves in more of an... emotional and spiritual way." I stroke the back of my neck before guessing.

"Somewhat like... Inner Peace?"

"Probably."

"You know, I don't think I can still sleep even now as I fear that I'll have another one of those nightmare again." I admitted. I soon felt a lightbulb being turned on as an idea showed itself. "I think I have a solution for this."

"And what solution would that be?" Tigress asked.

"Usually when my mind is troubled, I always like to ask my two brothers if I can have a sparring match with them to clear things up."

"Not a bad idea, I like it." She flashed a small smirk. The tiger walked further in the open area of the Training Hall and gestured me to come along. Shortly after I complied by following her, she placed on her usual fighting stance. "Come forth." I grinned confidently as I took off my white sleeved vest, exposing my gray training shirt on before putting up my stance.

"With pleasure, I can't wait to defeat you and get you back from that last match we had when you beat me with that unexpected attack." She chortled.

"Good luck with that." We both sharpened our stances as we await for whoever is gonna make the first move in this sparring match.

Tigress went first with unhesitating offense. She began by sending out varies powerful punches. I evaded most of her punches and got struck by a few. I stumbled back and refocused. I sprinted to her and sent a spinning punch. She leaned her head and dodged it before side kicking me on the left side of my waist. I felt my whole body was stunned by her kick as she continued on with a strong straight punch going at my face. I quickly overcame the staggering of my stunned body and ducked down, narrowly avoiding her straight punch and did a back roll to get some distance from her.

Before I could fully recover from my back roll, she lunged forward with a flying front kick. I blocked it with a X shaped block with my forearms. I swiftly countered back by grabbing her by her arm when she was still in midair and turned around as I performed a quick Shoulder Throw. As soon she was about to hit the wooden floor, she suddenly managed to completely stop her body from hitting the floor by putting her both feet firmly on the wooden floor with all her strength. Tigress grabbed my arms and used the momentum of my throw to perform her own Shoulder Throw, instantaneously slamming the back of my whole body on the wooden floor. A sharp yelp flew out from my mouth as I felt an acute pain erupted on the back of my body due to my injuries.

"Are you okay, should we stop?" Tigress grew concerned and dropped her fighting stance after hearing my sharp yelp. I stood up slowly.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I assured while taking deep breaths. "Worry not, it doesn't hurt that bad like a couple days ago and I still have quite an amount of energy on to spare in this match." I placed back my fighting stance. Tigress nodded silently in agreement and placed her stance back.

We slowly approached each other with slow and cautious steps. When we got close enough, I threw a hook punch. She blocked it by shoving my fist away and struck my upper chest with a straight punch, sending me two or three meters away from her. I got up and sprinted at her and did a spinning roundhouse kick, hitting her upper arm and did another one on the same spot with my other leg. Tigress stumbled back.

"That was a good move you did." She spoke with a small competitive grin. I then chuckled confidently.

"And that's not the only move I got."

I lunged at her and threw a front kick. She dashed backward and evaded my kick and sent a punch. I blocked her punch and did a jab, striking her shoulder. She dashed forward and performed a palm strike, shattering and passing through my block as it struck me on my sternum, making me fell and rolled across the floor. I stood up and coughed a few times before recovering senses again.

Tigress bent down on all four and lunged at me like a wild tiger. I swiftly reacted and grabbed her by her upper arm and fell backward as I placed my feet on her midsection before pushing her as soon as my back landed on he floor. Tigress placed a paw on the wooden floor and stopped herself from crashing across the floor. I got up to my feet quickly before she ran up to me and send out a high side kick which I dodged it by taking a big step back. As her leg is gonna touch the floor, she sent out a back kick. I dodged her attack again by sidestepping. I leaped with a very short distanced front flip while applying a vertical spinning motion as I'm in midair before lifting my two legs up, performing two spinning cartwheel kicks that hit the back of her biceps and the nape of her neck. Tigress staggered backward heavily from my double cartwheel kicks and fall on the floor before she got up quickly.

We both lunged ourselves at each other and start delivering various fast and speedy punches. I did multiple jabs and hooks as she continued to parried them with her attacks and evaded a few. She try to do a low kick on my knee, but I stoped her with a knee strike of mine by hitting her knee, cancelling her strong low kick.

During our close quarter, yet speedy combat, I can feel the strong wind of her fist as I evaded her attacks. Tigress soon broke this speedy sessions of ours by catching my guard off by faking out a jab before she does a spinning jump kick on my face, sending me flying afar and rolling on the wooden floor.

I collected my self up slowly while panting. I felt a slightly annoying itch on my right eye as I proceed to rub it while leaving my left eye open to keep my sight on her to see if she going to make any movements.

Suddenly, with my left eye opened, all the colors I could see around me was gone and was replaced with pure black and white. I try not to break down in panic as I remained as calm as I can. With what I'm seeing with my left eye, I can see that her both armpit area are glowing with a light blue color.

What is happening to me? Could this be the work of the Satsui No Hadou... ?

I'm both confused and afraid of what's going on with the sight of my left eye. Thankfully, I opened my right eye and my sight went back to normal as the pure black and white colors went away and the normal colors has returned back to my sight. I shook my head before I refocused myself back in the match.

I lunged at her, launching several spinning kicks. She blocked them all and did a quick high whip kick, striking my face as I staggered back. I then remembered when I saw her armpit area glowing light blue while everything I see was black and white. I'm slowly starting to believe that's probably got something to do with the Satsui No Hado. I charged and fired a speeding Hadouken and Tigress also did the same and fired a golden energy blast.

Our energy blasts made contact and exploded, creating combined energy clash of soft light blue and golden yellow sparks. We charged towards each other and clashed with our fists. I managed to struck her in her abdomen with a quick jab. She tanked it and grabbed my wrist which was still on her abdomen and yanked me close to her as she sent a rising low uppercut to my stomach as I felt a great shot of pain from her uppercut.

With all my willpower, I stopped myself from flying away from her uppercut. I quickly thought of when I saw her both armpit area, which I'm gonna assume it's probably her battle weakness or her weak spot. When Tigress threw a downward punch, I leaned my head and dodged and struck her both armpits with two palm strikes, which surprisingly was able to stun her considerably. I immediately gathered up some Ki energy and charged an one-handed Hadouken before I thrusted my hand with the energy blast on the midsection of her body as it exploded, powerful enough to send her flying before tumbling on the wooden floor. I go up to her and helped her up to her feet.

"Guess I got you back for that last match we had." I smirked. Tigress chuckled.

"I am impressed that you were able to figure out my battle weak spot. Only Master Shifu and Master Oogway are the only people who knows that while some few others got lucky and struck my armpit region." She paused for a brief moment. "Anyway, that was a very good sparring match and I guess it also helped me in someway about having a bit of understanding of this 'extraordinary' powers of mine." I yawned and sat on the floor with my legs crossed while sweating like crazy.

Around five minutes or so, Tigress sooner returned back to the Training Hall with a small bucket of water, a dry towel and a roll of fresh bandages. She sat on the floor with her both knees kneeling and gestured me to take off my training gray shirt. I complied and slipped my shirt off. She made an one quick tap on my bandaged area, which me winced.

"Does it hurt a lot like before?" She asked. I shook my head in saying 'no'.

"If it were, then I wouldn't be able to have this sparring match with you." I replied. She grabbed the dry towel, dipping it the bucket of water before she started wiping all the sweats from my body. "So Tigress, hows my injuries?" I inquired.

"They've healed quite well and rapidly. The back of your both thighs does not need bandages anymore, but you still need to be careful during tomorrow's training routine." Tigress began by carefully removing the old bandages wrapped around my back and started gently rubbing the wet towel to clean it up. Once she's done with cleaning, she applied some fresh new bandages on my recovering injuries. I heard her chortled quietly. "As a small reward for defeating me in our sparring match, I will give you a massage for your effort of winning fair against me."

My eyes widened in sudden surprise. Before I could decline that offer, she tightened the last piece of fresh bandage that is wrapped around my body, causing me to yelp in pain as she silenced me without using any words.

"Just be quiet and let me give you this massage." I sat still as Tigress placed her paws on my shoulders.

Huh, the classic start I see...

Because she has an enormous amount of raw strength, it added a very nice feeling as I took a relaxing breath once she start massaging my shoulders. I let out a couple of low moans filled with relief. For some unknown reason, my heart start beating a bit faster than its normal rate.

After she's done with my shoulders, she moved her paws on my nape. Tigress made a few quick movements, making some slightly audible cracks on the back of my neck as it felt incredibly relieving, plus with the fur of her paws rubbing against me, giving off an extra nice and ticklish sensation.

Tigress proceeded to finish this massage by moving her paws from my nape to my upper back. She professionally pressed her paws's fingers a bit further in my flesh without causing any sort of pain from my injuries. It was comforting and relieving as she start massaging my upper back by performing circular motions and movements with her paws. After she finished, I wore my training gray shirt back. I stretched my back several times, feeling it moves very smoothly. I turned my gaze to Tigress.

"Damn, your really good at this." I complimented her while moving my arms around. "Where did you learn how to dish out such great techniques like that?" I inquired.

"I had Master Shifu trained me this type of skill when I was around my young teen years. I haven't give anyone a massage, even after I mastered this, I still wouldn't. You are the first person I've applied this skill on because I feel more comfortable around you." A miniature blush formed on her cheeks as she said those words.

"You know, I don't mind repaying you back for that great massage of yours." I spoke. Tigress's eyes widened up a bit before regaining her composure.

"Are you sure?" She said. I nodded vertically. "Because I don't want you to break any parts of my body." Tigress spoke in a jested tone. I chuckled.

"Oh come on, you said you feel more comfortable around me, right?" I raised a brow. Tigress stood still, feeling not sure about this. "Don't worry, if you don't want to, you could always say no."

"Okay, perhaps I'll give this a try," Tigress agreed, greatly suppressing her embarrassed expression. She slowly sat herself on the ground with her back facing me while positioning herself in her lotus position.

"Are you sure you want this, I can stop if you don't-" Tigress soon did something incredibly unexpected. She started by taking off her red vest, exposing her black striped and orange curvy feminine figure with her white wrappings wrapped around her chest area. My cheeks flared up. "Tigress, w-what are you doing?" I stuttered and exclaimed, trying to contain my flustering tone.

"What is it? Isn't that what you do when I gave you that massage?"

"Yeah I know, but your... um... but your a woman and I'm a man... like... you know the 'differences' between us physically, right?" She slightly cocked her head in my sudden discomposed expression. "Look, you could've warned me when you took off your vest."

"I see." She uttered. "Don't worry, you are my best friends after all. And I trust that you won't try anything funny." She spoke with a trusting tone.

"Okay then." I gulped nervously. The moment I put my both hands on her shoulders, I felt the muscles of her body tensed up and shuddered for a split second while she made an inaudible low sound. "Are you okay?" I asked as I ceased.

"Yes, you may continue." Tigress assured. I nodded and start massaging her firm and strong shoulders. "Your not applying enough strength, I can hardly feel any movements of your hands." I suppressed a surprise look on my face as this much strength I'm giving out is not enough to give her a decent massage.

"How's this?" I pressed further and applied more force on her shoulders. Tigress moaned lightly.

"Now that's better." She spoke with a relaxed tone.

After I'm done massaging her shoulder, I moved to her upper arms and biceps. I shuffled myself closer to her while I'm sitting and started pressing my fingers gently and repeatedly on her biceps. I moved my hands from her biceps and start massaging her back.

Her back feels very hard and a bit rigid due to how muscular it is, but at the same time, it felt great due to the fur of her back are giving off the soft feeling for my hands and is surprisingly pleasant to look at, especially the unique patterns and shapes of her black strips. I then thought of something.

"Hey Tigress, I remembered a massaging technique I've learned that worked well on felines, would you want to try it?" I asked.

"Interesting." She paused. "Sure, please do."

I reluctantly placed my hand on the top of her head as I began gently rubbing my hand on her head. I felt Tigress went limb for a moment before she regained her balance back. I moved my hand to the back of her ears, which made her moaned softly and comfortably. As I start scratching the back of her ears, she start becoming more limb and is losing more balance of her lotus position. Unexpectedly, Tigress started... chuffing as her whole back had leaned against me as her the back of her head had landed on my chest. I then got nervous and spoke up.

"Tigress, are you in there?" I asked nervously. Tigress didn't seem to be responding to me as she continued chuffing and was in some sort of 'instinctual trance'. I shrugged my shoulders and placed my other hand on the back of her tiger ears. I started scratching her both ears simultaneously for a couple of moment before moving my other hand under her chin and started rubbing her chin below. Jesus living Christ, she's acting like a freakin house cat right now!

Suddenly, Tigress moaned in a not so 'family-friendly' way as that moan of hers had sounded considerably more louder and is quite titillating. I felt my heart immediately skipped a beat or two and my face has turned red as hell as I immediately stopped.

After I stopped, the tiger made some few groaning sounds before she snapped out from her trance. Her eyes widened as she realized the back of her head was on my chest. Tigress gasped and quickly lifted her entire back and head up as her head accidentally headbutted me under my chin.

"Argh! That hurts!" I exclaimed, holding my chin below. Tigress looked at me with a very flustered expression formed on her face.

"W-What did you do?" She questioned while stuttering at first while taking in breaths.

"Nothing!" I replied back quickly. "I just only rubbed the top of your head and under your chin and scratched the back of your both ears." I explained with haste. Tigress took a deep breath and calmed herself.

"Well... that was quite unexpected." She murmured.

"I know, sorry for causing you this much discomfort." I lowered my head down.

"Discomfort? No, it's not like that." She spoke with an assuring voice while blushing. "Instead, it was indeed enjoyable."

"I'm... I'm glad you've enjoyed it." I smiled.

Tigress wore her red vest back as we both put out the flames of the red lanterns on the ceiling before leaving the Training Hall which we made our way back to the Students Barrack. We both said our goodbyes to each other and head inside to our own room. Once I slid the sliding door close, I took my sandals and white sleeved vest, exposing my gray shirt and laid myself down on my hard bamboo bed. Before I could sleep, I just realized how close me and Tigress has gotten over these times from good comrades to now best friends.

The one thing that confounded me the most is that I kept having this weird and odd tinkly feelings and sensations whenever I'm near her. It's also getting even more stronger as time passes. There is one question I can think of for all this internal situation I'm having, and the question is that...

Do I have... romantic feelings for Tigress... ?

My cheeks flared up deep red as I shook my head vigorously. Just what the fuck is wrong with me? Me... me having romantic feelings for Tigress? I mean... I'm not trying to say this in a negative way, it just simply sounded... absurd. It just that I'm a human and she's a feline. Yeah sure, she can walk on two legs like us humans, speak and is extremely self-aware as us humans as well, but I can't help it with the facts that she's still just a tiger.

I soon realized I've just contradicted myself as I remembered when my 'other' self had said about me having feelings towards Tigress. What makes this situation even more complicated was that I even said that I didn't even care or give a single damn if she's human or not. I groaned in high frustration about this whole situation I'm having and took a long deep breath. I shut my eyes, deciding to not think too much about this. I soon felt my consciousness dwelt into darkness which everything went blank as I eventually fell asleep.

At An Unknown Plain Area

The cool wind of the night was blowing softly at some unknown plain area filled with a large quantity of grasses and average amount of trees and vegetations. There was a bright and warm light coming a small campfire not far from the road path. At the campfire spot, there is four robed foxes of sitting on each of their own log seat. A middle-aged red fox cleared his throat, catching the group's attention, presumably that he might be the leader of this little fox group. He is donned in a red hooded robe with black trims and a black sash wrapped around his waist.

"Did you all have sensed that?" The middle-aged red fox spoke with a senior and strong voice.

"Indeed we have." A middle-aged sand fox replied. His voice was slightly raspy, but it is still very understandable. The sand fox wore a dark blue hooded robe with light blue trims and also has a black sash wrapped around his waist.

"And that power was getting stronger until it somehow and disappointedly died down." A gray fox added. He appeared to be in his late forties and he wore a very dark orange hooded robe with a black sash wrapped around his waist.

"It's been a more than nine or ten days of traveling from the port of Takamatsu to the port of Wenzhou in a slow moving boat along with around two weeks of walking. Just how much longer will it take for us reach the Valley Of Peace?" A young corsac fox spoke in a slightly irritated and impatient manner. The young corsac fox wore a canary yellow hooded robe with light trims and has a red sash wrapped around his waist. The senior red fox looked at the young corsac fox.

"Have patience, young one. I can assure you that we are reaching very close to this individual." The middle-aged red fox said. The young corsac fox nodded.

"Yes, please forgive me for my impatience, master." The young corsac fox bowed.

"Raise yourself up, there is no need for that at a time like this." The red fox glanced at the moon on the dark sky before averting his gaze back to the small group. "I believe it is time for us to start moving again." The red fox stood up from the log seat before uttering out a short sentence for himself. "Perhaps I will be seeing you again, Shifu."

The sand fox stood up from his log seat and put out the flame of the campfire. All of the foxes started walking as they resume their journey to the Valley Of Peace.

Author Note : I hope this 12.6K word chapter and its Tigress X OC moments was enjoyable to read. Before publishing, this chapter was quite a pain in the ass to write. Right when I finished writing this chapter and start double checking, I noticed numerous scenes were too silly and some grammar mistakes and errors. It took me a day to spot them and fixed them, but I still think there might be some mistakes hiding somewhere in the texts.

After this chapter, I will start developing the relationship between Tigress and Lukas in future chapters. If I remember correctly, I 'started' dropping these Tigress X OC moments around the 20s chapters. I don't know why, but I feel like the growth of their relationship is bit slow as I also want to ask you guys if I should speed things up or just let it flow slowly? If you have any answer for the situation I'm having for Tigress and Lukas's relationship, feel free to write your thoughts for it in a review or PM, I'll respond back to you soon as possible.

Alright, with this ginormous chapter has been finished, I think I'm gonna go take a mini short break before I could start working on the next chapter. Anyway, if you are enjoying the story, please give it a Follow, Favorite, Review/PM (If not, I hope you will continue reading it). Any of those would fuel my motivation to start writing like crazy. I'll be seeing you guys in the next chapter and I hope I will get it out in this month!