KFP - The Hardcore Do Understand Chp3

Tigress was kept locked in her room for many weeks. The only time she had any social contact was when a plate of food was slipped through a specially-made slot in her door, or by listening with her ear hard against the wood to whispered conversations as people passed her room (they would only whisper whenever they came anywhere near her room).  

From her eavesdropping she learned that most had forgotten what she had looked like, what her name was and whether she was a boy or a girl. Some people had even stopped believing she existed, especially the newcomers to the orphanage, a myth created by the staff to stop the children from wandering around at night. She also learned that strange noises could be heard coming from her room during the moon hours. Growling, hissing and snarling, sometimes even frightful bangs and crashes like the sound of a large object being thrown against the wall. Indeed, Tigress had started to get really bad nightmares, and she woke up most mornings to find her bedside table smashed to pieces on the other side of the room.

Every month she would watch from her barred window as the other orphanage children ran out to visiting couples and found new parents, going to homes filled with love. But no one came for her. No one wanted a tiger cub. But then, who would adopt Tigress the Monster?

Her existence was little more than fable. The children started to play a game: who could dare stay outside the Monster's Room the longest? Some idiots would even scratch and tap on the steel-inforced door. This irritated Tigress, and more than once she had ended up throwing her table at the sound and roaring irately.
But Tigress was lonely. She once had a brother who loved her. A tubby little tiger cub who understood her and looked at her with soft, warm eyes.
Whenever she thought of Hǔ, tears would start to flow rapidly down her cheeks. She mightn't be in this mess if she hadn't got angry. If she hadn't let her temper get the better of her. And now he was gone. Never to hug her or love her again. And it was all her fault.

Usually she would dream of him running away from her in fright, calling her a monster.
Everyone in the orphanage called her a monster. Even that sheep from the beginning. Loneliness consumed her; she had a growing desire to see someone, touch someone, talk to someone who didn't scream and run away at the sight of her. In an act of desperation and misery, she attacked the door, sending all her body weight, emotion and hurt at the wood.
She didn't expect it to budge, but her pain was a lot more powerful than she had thought, and the door fell. She had broken through. Finally, she was free of her prison!
Tigress nearly laughed from the relief. Then she heard a small whimpering. To her right were three of the orphanage teachers, including the sheep. They had fallen back onto the floor and were shaking from fear.

"I just want to play" she said with a nervous smile

They didn't move or say anything. Tigress sighed and walked away. Moving into another corridor she heard a small shriek behind her. Huddling in the corner were a shaking rabbit and duck. They were clutching each other for dear life, staring at Tigress with nothing other than stark horror. Tigress smiled, and a small hunger started to develop in the pit of her stomach, a hunger for friendship. Unfortunately, this caused a reflex that unsheathed her long, sharp claws.
They shrieked again and the rabbit picked up the duck and ran out an open door.

"Wait!" Tigress called, holding up her paw

But they didn't. She cried out in frustration. Nothing, it seemed, had changed.
Defeated, Tigress slowly made her way back into her room, where most of her furniture was strewn in pieces all over her floor. She picked up the wooden door and barred herself behind it. She was safer in here anyway. At least she didn't have to see their faces.

The next morning, the sheep and another member of the orphanage staff were conversing in the room opposite hers. They were talking about her! She peeped through a hole in the door to get a better look.

"No one would come to adopt a child because they're afraid of her. She's a monster! A MONSTER!"

She knew they had called her such names, but to hear it for herself with her own ears...
She had no idea why people had hearts. They caused too much pain to have a purpose.
She sat down in her favourite corner, hugged her knees and sobbed.

She didn't move from her spot for the entire night. Her muscles had soon become stiff and sore. But she preferred this hurt to the pain simple words had done to her.
In the morning, yellow rays of light had found a way through the winter cloud and hit her wet cheeks. Then something happened, a noise that she had not heard in a long, long time: the creak of her door opening. In a way, it didn't come as a surprise. All night she had been thinking; if they all thought her a monster, they would find someone to deal with her. And here they were. A prison warden no doubt. Or probably an executioner.

"Tigress?"

Tigress gasped. He knew her name! But his voice; it was firm and authoritative. She turned to look at him, expecting a Bai Hung-like figure. Instead, however, she saw a small red panda dressed in a Master's robe of yellow and gold.

"I am Shifu," he continued, "I am –"

"Afraid?" Tigress growled  

When she was afraid, she would act big. This guy was obviously doing the same thing. He was definitely here to take her away to some other place, where she would be kept from society, and forced to live alone.
Shifu stepped in and closed the door behind him as if to make a point.

"No" he said

"Well you should be!" Tigress retorted angrily

She had had enough of this Shifu and wanted him to get out. She wanted to scare him away, make him frightened as he should be, make him show the fear that he had inside him.

"I am Tigress! Tigress the Monster!"

She sighed sadly and looked away,
"A monster no one wants" she added quietly

"You are not a monster," said Shifu, "You're just a little girl"

Again, Tigress gasped. A 'little girl'? She had never been called 'just a little girl'. It had always been, 'thief', 'orphan' or 'monster'. Could someone really be looking past the claws and teeth and hideousness? For the first time in her life, a flicker of hope lit up the dark chambers in her soul.
She stood up and walked cautiously toward him. Could it really be true?
Shifu took out a domino from his robe with white on one side and yellow on the other,

"Let us play?" he asked kindly

Tigress stretched her paw out and slowly closed her claws around it. But she closed it too hard, and the domino snapped into little splinters. A large piece flew through the air, but, with a flash of gold, Shifu caught it between his thumb and forefinger.

"You must learn to control your strength" he said as he handed the piece back to her

And so Shifu started to train her in the art of self-control. He took her to a separate room in the orphanage where they spent the whole day, doing breathing exercises, practising balance and learning to control the mind.  

"This game requires discipline," he said, "precision, a still hand, and a steady heart"

It was hard at first. Tigress kept falling over, accidentally breaking doors and furniture.
Shifu was very patient with the tiger cub. After scaring a few of the orphanage staff by throwing her fist through the door, he only rolled his eyes.

"Focus. Again"

He showed Tigress a few tricks with the dominos and then threw them in the air. Eager to please him, Tigress jumped and caught them, only when she looked down at her paw, the dominoes were all crushed. Irritation boiled inside her. She threw the pieces to the ground irately.

"Again"

The weeks turned into months. Winter passed to be replaced by Spring. Tigress' pillow no longer smelled of chestnuts, but of plums. Her soul was no longer black, but filled with joy, happiness and life for the first time after the death of Hǔ. Her training and Shifu's care started to fill the void that had been there for too long.
Then one day, Shifu looked at Tigress. She had changed dramatically, from the wounded and angry cub that snarled in the shadows to the laughing and joyful tigress who shone with beauty from the inside out.

"I think it's time" he said

Tigress looked up,
"Really?"

"Really"

Timidly, she followed Shifu into the entrance hall of the orphanage. There were gasps and a few shrieks, but no one ran away this time. Tigress' ears perked in surprise. They weren't afraid of her anymore! And Tigress grew confident.
In the middle of the hall, they stopped.

Shifu turned to his student and handed her the box of dominoes,
"Begin"

Tigress opened the box in delight and began to set up all the dominoes with precision. She made no mistake. Everyone in the orphanage looked on in awe as she made a perfect circle, filled to the centre with standing dominoes.
Tigress looked up at Shifu, who nodded. She lightly touched a domino with the palm of her paw and soon, in a spectacular display, the symbol of the yin and the yang was made, yellow and white.
All the children cheered and the staff clapped. Tigress looked around and smiled. She closed her eyes at the sound of joy, a joy that she had brought to them. It was no longer screaming or fear.
And Tigress felt that, maybe, finally, after all this time, she would be healed.

. . .

It was the last day of Spring and the day of Tigress' final test. All the children in the orphanage were excited and eagerly running around the entrance hall, waiting for the many adults that were milling about outside. The sheep, who's name Tigress had learned to be Ai Sū, opened the front doors and out raced the children. It didn't take long for Tigress to realise that the outside world still feared her. She stood in the doorway and watched as all her friends and the other children found new homes and loving parents. She sniffed and looked at herself. Who would want this?

"Come, dear, there's always next time" said Ai Sū

She put her hoof around little Tigress, who was trying her best not to cry, and lead her slowly back inside. Tigress sat, alone, in the empty orphanage, her head in her arms and playing aimlessly with a domino. She was never going to find a family. No one was ever going to come and take her home. Tigress sighed mournfully. She was going to spend the rest of her life in the orphanage.
Then a small black hand placed another domino next to hers. Tigress looked up and grinned in delight.

"Shifu!" she murmured

"Come," he said, "We must go home"

Joy and gratitude bubbled up inside her and popped with a giddy laugh in her mouth. Once more she was filled with energy and she flipped off the table and followed Shifu out the door and into the red dawn.