Author's Note: Here is the final part of this story I wrote before I stopped in late 2010, I do plan to continue this story now, but there will be some editing. Anywho, here is a little segment that I never published, hopefully it will you guys happy until I start posting the rewritten edition (working on it now!)

One of the main reasons I was unable to resume before was because I couldn't see how to fit the story with the second film now out, but I have had a wave of inspiration and now I know how to work around it without having to majorly alter the story (but won't be able to till this weekend most likely).

There will be some minor changes to the story once I get around to editing it, but I will be sure to point them out in the next update so you don't need to worry about reading the whole thing again.

½ of Chapter 5…Read the Author's NOTE!

This was Ceres whom Tai Lung was walking with.

Ceres was from the west, but she had grown up in China. When Tai Lung had first met Ceres he had thought she was male, but after a few embarrassing days of mislabelling this was corrected by Xiu the clouded leopard who had found the situation rather amusing.

This was not the first time they had talked, but this was the first time he had to be near the fox for any extensive period of time. To his annoyance Ceres was extremely talkative and seemed very interested in Tai Lung's past and present, questions which were rather difficult for him to answer as he knew anything he made up on the spot he would have to remember for further occasions.

Fortunately though he found that simply being cynical and quiet helped him avoid most of the more personal questions, what also helped was the fact that the fox seemed unable to dwell on one question for more than a few seconds and she would rapidly change the topic without even waiting for an answer to any questions she had posed.

Going down to the river was an almost daily duty, one that Tai Lung strangely found himself enjoying. He supposed it was because he liked routine, it was how he had grown up, and not having some sort of routine bothered him.

He had been the first to react when there had been a union of screams for the second time that day, this time from the river. Ceres had looked surprised at the screams but her reaction was to stand stock still, worry and fear written across her face.

Tai Lung had run to the river and immediately spotted an upturned boat with five young rabbits holding onto it for dear life. He had jumped into the water and grabbed hold of the stern, pulling the boat after him as he swam back to the bank. The rabbits had quickly scrambled up onto the shore, but before he could even think of returning to Ceres and carrying on the day as normal, Tai Lung realized that the rescued rabbits were pointing out towards the water frantically, and immediately he knew that one of them still hadn't come out. This all seemed strangely familiar to him, but he didn't want to search for the memories that linked up with this in his past.

He dove back into the water and swam down, he could see a sinking shape, bigger than a rabbit but…he didn't bother to check who it was as he began to run out of oxygen, grabbing hold of the figure and pulling them up after him and dragging them out onto the shore. Ceres had run over by now and was watching, offering him a hand to him as he climbed out, but Tai Lung ignored her, his attention now fixated on the one he had just rescued. No wonder the situation had all seemed so familiar.

Mandarin orange body with chocolate stripes, this was a tiger, and not any tiger but one he had briefly grown up with. Tigress. He still remembered her true name.

"Lin."

Tai Lung promptly fled.

…

"That wasn't very nice or thoughtful of you." said Ceres, when she returned, she had had to carry the water buckets Tai Lung had dropped when he had fled and had to carry them back by herself

Xiu was giving him her own glare of disapproval, but she was more annoyed by the fact that not enough water had been brought back, since Ceres had obviously been unable to carry as much water as she and Tai Lung would have done together if he hadn't fled. Their small chain of shops all worked correspondingly, they all shared a building for retiring to at the end of the day and for storing away their stalls during the night when they were of no use, so the lack of water affected everyone.

Raaeng was a blacksmith, he sculpted creations out of metal, normally armour which was exported but sometimes he made small delicate looking children's toys, normally figures representing well known people such as the Furious Five, which he also painted, a feat that seemed almost impossible with the fact that the tapir was apparently blind.

Ceres worked with jewellery, perfumes and make-up, Tai Lung noted early on that her collection included fur dyes; he knew this could prove vital information for later on.

Xiu was a seamstress and dressmaker, though she worked with all types of clothing.

Then there Tian, a rather stupid camel who specialized in carpentry.

There was also a trio of pig brothers, Feng, Bo and Cai who worked in the kitchens and provided them all with food and were paid in return out of the total sum of money they all brought in.

There were also several assistants that popped in and out during the day, Tai Lung was amongst them but unlike the others he stayed around almost 24/7 due to the fact that he didn't really have anywhere else to go. And none of the others were complaining, Tai Lung had proved himself to be very useful, despite being a little cold; no one minded his presence.

"Xin here pulled someone out of the river that looked suspiciously like Master Tigress." said Ceres to Xiu. "Then he seemed to freak out and ran away." Ceres grinned at Tai Lung now. "Shy, huh? You shouldn't have been, you would have probably been rewarded or something for saving her life."

Tai Lung shrugged and continued sorting out the bag of potatoes that the pigs had left in the kitchen since they were taking the evening off. He didn't really want to think about it, he still felt extremely uneasy and had to fight with every fibre in his body to prevent himself from crushing the vegetables he was sorting. Ceres 'tsked' and left the room, feeling slightly put out by Tai Lung's behaviour. Meanwhile Xiu grinned at him over the counter, looking highly amused, a sharp contrast to her normally stern behaviour.

"Are you one of those crazy kung fu fans?" she asked, smiling cheekily. "I guess saving one of the most powerful kung fu masters from death must come as quite a shocker but...well I suppose I would have probably done the same, or maybe not, I personally would have wanted to be acknowledged. It's funny really, to think that such a powerful person can so easily be overcome by just a little water, I would have thought that she would be able to swim at least."

Tai Lung stopped his sorting and looked over at Xiu.

"I think she may have hit her head on the boat...besides, it might not have even been Master Tigress, it could have been anyone."

"In case you haven't noticed there aren't actually that many felines in the Valley of Peace, and I have not seen one tigress except that Kung Fu Master. You've only been here a short while so I suppose I can't expect you to know this village top to bottom."

"Yes…I'm not from this region."

"Neither am I. None of us are. Well except the other assistants apart from yourself, most of them grew up here, heh."

…

Tigress woke up in what could only be called a daze, but upon making out a large black and white shape hovering above her she immediately leapt to her feet and boxed them violently away. Po, who happened to be the large black and white shape, stumbled backwards and fell over with an undignified squawk and narrowly missed crushing Monkey who was standing just behind him.

Tigress quickly noticed that the rest of the furious five, the Dragon Warrior, Master Shifu and about a dozen other spectators had gathered round. She immediately felt immensely embarrassed; she of all people had been knocked unconscious, and it was her own fault too, if she hadn't panicked she wouldn't have knocked her head, and now she looked like a clumsy fool.

"Tigress, thank goodness you're okay." said Viper slithering over to her, pulling up Po with her tail as she passed him. "We heard what happened, they say you nearly drowned." Viper then smirked. "Po wanted to try CPR but you were already breathing so we didn't let him try, mostly for his sake."

Tigress dropped her fighting stance, managing to get some of her composure back as she tried to look as together as she could, but she was still soggy from falling into the river and looked very inelegant.

"There was this big panther guy apparently, he saved the rabbits on their boat and then pulled you out of the water, but then he ran away like he was scared." Viper looked at her curiously. "I didn't know you couldn't swim."

Tigress, already feeling somewhat defenceless, promptly glared at the snake. It was childish, glaring was something she would normally only have done when she was little, but right now her mind was elsewhere, on memories she wished would fade.

…

"I don't like it, I don't like it at all." said Raaeng, normally one to say little as far as Tai Lung knew. "They had hand cannons from back where I lived before this, and they brought nothing but misery and pain."

They were all sitting around a low table, all except Raaeng who was busy making a racket with a hammer and thick sheet of metal in one corner of the room, he had just stopped briefly to talk but he still hadn't joined them at the table. Tai Lung was hanging around as usual, he preferred it here, even if he was sometimes scorned for being aloof and cynical, he also had a dark sense of humour which Ceres in particular did not like, but at the same time she was the most accepting of the lot.

"I agree that it was not ethical in any way but you must agree they dealt with that situation very quickly before anyone was killed." replied Xiu, who always seemed to like playing the devil's advocate.

"Someone was killed." rumbled Raaeng, putting down the hammer and finally coming over to join them at the table. "But because it was a criminal it doesn't count apparently..."

Tian took the conversation from there, Xiu chose to leave shortly afterwards, followed by Ceres who invited Tai Lung to tag along with them. Not having any reason not to and feeling as it would be a welcome break, Tai Lung didn't refuse.

They went to an inn, where they were serving drinks and snacks at the bar. Without explanation or reason Xiu had suddenly become rather peppy and was a lot more talkative than usual, fortunately for Tai Lung though, Ceres was the primary target. Eventually, sometime later, just as he was about to take his leave, some new arrivals came into the bar. Tai Lung stopped in his tracks when he realized who they were and decided to stick around, suddenly feeling the need to keep an eye of them.

They had arrived in a gang, obviously led by the wolf up front, the one who had been approving the death of the buffalo, though not the one to actually kill him. With him were several colossal hulks of creatures, they hardly blended in with the little inn, and suddenly it seemed the bar was much more dangerous as an uncomfortable sense unease began to fill the air.

Ceres, for once, noticed and stopped talking rather abruptly. Xiu, strangely enough, did not and carried on talking rather loudly

A/N: that was where I stopped writing in late 2010, but now that the summer holidays are nearly here I should be easily able to resume writing (no excuses for me now!). I haven't actually watched Kung Fu Panda for about 2 years now, really should see it again, would probably help a lot.

Editing I thinking about, but I would like to know other people's oppinions on include my overuse of OCs in this story, does anyone think I should cut back a bit? I personally think I should be focusing more on the cannon characters rather than ones made up for the sake of the story.