Badr stared hungrily at the almost lavish plates of food the waiters set on the elaborate tables; to feed the paying customers. The plates would have been lavish if Badr could try them, but with not a coin in his pockets he could not.
He was seventeen years of age, wiry, with an unhealthy thinness about him that was almost twig like. Indeed it looked like you could have snapped his arms in two without much effort. His fur was pitch black, like darkness, but so matted and dirty you could mistake it for a shade of grey. His eyes tiny and bright green. He wore a pair of ripped black pants, with a yellow shirt that was as old as the sun and had been worn by nearly every single one of his siblings before him. His belly was empty, and grumbled in complaint. The cat merely stared at the food being served.
On most days he would be given a small loaf of bread to stop him from bothering the establishment. That normally satisfied him for a couple of hours, which he would spend scouring the streets for any sign of a coin he could use to pay for a proper meal. Today, however the noodle shop was preoccupied dealing with the new masses of customers. He recognized some, the people who came here regularly and gave him dirty looks, or pretended not to see him at all. Most, however, were from out of town. Some spoke in odd dialects of Chinese, others in a language he could not place. It made no difference however, as they all treated him the same way as the regular customers, ignoring him, or twitching their noses. That made him angry. So what if he couldn't afford to have standards, that didn't make him beneath them in any way.
His belly grumbled again, this time louder. Coming to the conclusion that he wouldn't get anything there, he got up and clicked every bone in his body, attracting quite a few stares, which he ignored. He strolled out of the noodle shop, and bumped into two long wiry feet. He looked up, not bothering to hide his scowl.
He had bumped into a bird of some kind, with long, thin legs, and feathers of multiple shades of grey. The avian wore a few bandages around his waste, to cover what had to be covered, and some on his feet. Aside from that the only other item of clothing he wore was an elaborate headpiece that seemed to add horns to his figure.
Chang Shuimian stared at the small cat standing at his feet, before turning towards the assembled customers. "I like my men at my feet".
This brought an uproar of laughter from the customers, while Badr merely scowled some more. He barged past the stork in order to leave, but was grabbed by the back of the shirt.
"Who's hungry ? Because my friend here looks like he could do with some feeding".
This brought a bit less laughter, but was still a successful joke.
"Lemme go you creep"! Badr complained, struggling to get free from Chang Shuimian's grip.
"You", the stork fixed his gaze upon the waiter. "Fetch me a table and two of your most filling meals."
Badr eventually stopped struggling at the promise of free food, and resigned, let himself be taken to a table at the corner of the restaurant and seated. Badr visited the restaurant every second day, and yet this was the first time he felt the softness of their seats against his backside. He almost purred. Almost. But he was still salty after the last two jokes. He placed his paws against his cheek, and sat, staring up at the stork and his odd grey eyes, trying to figure him out. Was this just some cruel noble playing some cruel joke ? Was he a genuine benefactor ?
"I see you're trying to figure me out", Chang Shuimian spoke plainly.
"I wasn't trying to be subtle", Badr defended immediately.
"Ooooh, prickly are we ?"
"Shut up !"
"I think you could use some manners."
"You could use more clothes."
The stork sighed, though his cheerfulness had not yet left him. "Just be glad I'm paying for your meal."
"And why are you doing that ? I never asked you to !"
"Will you calm down ? I'm rich enough as it is, why not share the riches with the needy."
"Do I look dumb to you ? I've seen rich people before, and they don't share. You only give something if you want something back. And what I'm really trying to figure out is what you want back !"
The meals arrived. A large portion of dumplings, and two large, hot, steaming bowls of soup. Badr drooled. He couldn't help himself. "What I want back is your satisfaction. Go ahead, help yourself. "
The stork payed him no mind for a while after that, Chang Shuimian swallowed a dumpling, and took up a pair of chopsticks with which to start on the soup.
At first Badr tried to resist. He wasn't going to be the stork's pet. But the food got to him. His belly grumbled again, louder than both times before. To satisfy it Badr took half a dumpling. He bit into the pastry, and this time he did purr. It was the best thing he had ever tasted.
It tasted slightly salty, but that was just soya sauce. He tried to resist a second bite, but all it took was Chang Shuimian pushing the bowl of soup closer to him for his resistance to fail.
He didn't even bother with chopsticks.
Twenty five minutes later...
Badr burped. It was loud, putrid and had bits of noodle flying around it. But he didn't care. He had never had a more filling meal. One bowl of soup wasn't enough, and neither was one bowl of dumplings. Over the course of twenty five minutes he had eaten three of each.
Chang was a bit more polite in his manners. He wiped at his beak with a napkin, before relaxing back onto the chair with a sigh of content. "Now I suppose you'll want to know a bit about me ?"
Badr didn't really care, but after that meal it would have been rude to refuse. "Go ahead."
"My name is Chang Shuimian, I gave myself this name. Since birth I have been a member of the Drops. I doubt you've heard of them, but to explain briefly we are a clan of collectors. But a very specific type of collectors. We collect something called chi. Are you familiar with that word ?"
"It's like the energy of the universe, isn't it ?"
"In brief, yes. But it is far more complex than that. Chi is specific to everything. Everyone has a different amount of chi, of different potencies. We collect members with odd levels of chi."
Badr gasped. "Is this what you want from me ? Because there is no way I'm going to be part of your collection !"
Chang laughed. "I don't force people to join. If I need to I terminate them, but what I really want is to spread the word of our movement."
"And you gave me a feast, because ? "
"Because your chi is particularly strong. And someone with your potential could do better than ending up on the streets. Here, take this."
Chang Shuimian removed a scroll from his bag, and handed it to the cat. Badr opened it cautiously. "What does it say ?"
"You can't read ?"
"N-no ! I'm just a little, short-sighted. That's all."
"It is an invitation, to join a tournament of all martial arts, with a one in a lifetime reward. Imagine that."
"And why exactly would I do that ? Martial arts and me don't have any history."
"Your chi says otherwise. I think you would do well. Besides what do you have to loose ?"
Badr's jaw set itself tightly. There was no way he was signing up to this thing !
Footnote: Aaaand that's just a sneak peak at my new story. It won't get another update until I finish Between Brothers though !
Now to explain. Basically, when I wrote about what happened to Badr after the Five Tasks of the House of Tamod, I realized that I left his rivalry with Duyao more or less unexplained. Sure I wrote a bit about why they hate each other, but nothing really in-depth. The same goes for both their characters really, and with some things I have planned, that can't stand.
So behold my first real prequel. The original House of Tamod that takes place fifty years before the original one (so about fifty five years before the first Kung Fu Panda) !
Now for an announcement you may have already seen.
My OC pool is BIG, a bit less than a hundred characters. So I have lots to choose from...right ?
WRONG !
This being a prequel I have barely any OCs that would be alive at the time of this story. So I'm allowing any author who wants to contribute a maximum of two OCs (but I'm a bit flexible). So come one, come all.
Now for the character notices. So far I've only used two, both of which are mine.
Badr means half-moon (I think) in Arabic. If you are a long time reader you will recognize him from Between Brothers and the original House of Tamod, as well as the Set Up and some upcoming fics.
Chang Shuimian means long sleep (which is a fancy way of saying death, but that's the name of a different character). If you are a long time reader you will recognize him from Between Brothers.
That's about it I think. So Enjoy and Update soon.
