Po and Tigress walked quietly in the night of the dessert. “Good idea, Tigress,” Po complimented his feline companion as they trekked silently along the sand. “I would have never thought of traveling during the night.”
“Thank you, Po.” Tigress said, smiling as they walked. They continued on in relate silence until Po suddenly yelped, dropping onto his stomach, clutching his shin.
Tigress turned, figuring he’d just tripped. “Po, are you—” Tigress stopped, seeing his distressed look and wound that was on his shin, “PO!” Tigress ran over to him. “Oh no! What happened?! It looks like…”
“A bite.” A voice said that made the two Kung Fu Masters turn. A large cobra slid out into view from behind a dune. At his approach, many smaller snakes appeared out from the sands. “Who are you two?” The large black snake asked with a hiss in his voice.
“What have you done to him?” Tigress asked angrily.
“Him?” the man asked, looking at Po as though it was the first time he’d seen him. “I haven’t done anything; though I can’t speak for my s-subjects-s.”
At this, the other snakes hissed mockingly. Tigress’ eyes narrowed. The snake looked down at Tigress’ right hand and shook his head.
“Oh, I wouldn’t think of fighting me, if you knew what was good for you.” The snake’s lips curled back to reveal large fangs. “One bite from these, and if I inject my full amount of venom, your dead in an hour. Your friend, guessing on how little venom was injected, should last until next week. In which time, it will be very uncomfortable for him.”
With that, the man’s eyes narrowed. “Leave now. Or you’ll die right here.”
Tigress’ eyes narrowed.

Lihua left the Gongmen City Kung Fu temple with a renewed hope about her training. Ox had assured her she was off to the right start with kung fu. Her assignment until next time was to practice her punches and kicks. She knew exactly how she could set up bags of flour as targets.
Upon arriving back at her shop, she was surprised to see many villagers gathered around it. Upon closer inspection, Lihua came to realize that the villagers were rebuilding and restocking her noodle shop! A gasp of awe escaped her lips as Lihua approached her shop, upon which some of the villagers turned and greeted her warmly.
“Why are you doing this for me?” Lihua asked breathlessly.
One bunny spoke up. “You’ve been so good to us with your store, we want to show our gratitude.”
Lihua could hardly believe it. But she had to, because here she was, watching the town chip in to bring her back up to speed.
With that joy in her heart, Lihua practiced her martial arts in earnest. Sometimes she even closed the shop down early only to practice kicking and punching. She found a lot of the motions came naturally to her after awhile. Lihua couldn’t imagine why she never took Kung Fu before…


The snakes had left. Tigress hoisted Po up, who tried refusing. “Tigress, don’t.” Po said in a whisper. “I don’t think I got infected. I don’t feel anything.” Tigress continued to pick up Po.
“That doesn’t mean anything. I know you didn’t feel Tai Lung’s nerve attack, but that doesn’t mean the venom still isn’t traveling into your blood stream. We have to get you back to Gongmen City.”
“Tigress, how are we going to get up the mountain?” Po asked Tigress, a sorry look on his face.
Tigress paused for a moment. She looked sad, then her eyes narrowed. “We’ll find a way.”
Po shook his head. “Tigress, don’t do—” Po couldn’t remember anything more because his vision faded.
Tigress sighed, her eyes getting watery. She couldn’t see Po die. Po meant so much to her. He showed her what it was like to give grace, to show her what it truly meant to be loved, something she’d been wanting for so many years. Now, he may not make it back. She knew that if Po did anything more, the poison would only spread more quickly. So, a quick pressure point to knock him out seemed like the best thing. Tigress picked up Po, leaving their packs behind, and started jogging off towards the mountain…