The red panda looked up at the moon as she continued walking.
"Nice tonight, huh?" she asked the pig.
The pig made a noise that sounded like a cross between a growl and an 'Uh-huh'
"What's with you?" she asked him.
"Nothing; I'm just tired."
He was lying. She could tell.
"He doesn't trust me." She thought.
Oh well; she couldn't blame him after all. How would you like it if one day you thought you were going to die, leave your family without protection, and then someone, out of nowhere, just saved you? How traumatizing!
Although in his defense they had been walking for a while now and he was probably reflecting on if perhaps he had stumbled out of one trap and into another.
But he needn't worry. They were there.
"Stop," she told him in a commanding but not unkind manner.
She walked over to a nearby rock wall. There didn't seem to be much to it besides the usual moss and such. However, when she reached forward and touched a spot with a rougher patch, something miraculous happened! It slid open! Never before had anyone heard of there being a hidden door which could be opened by touching a certain spot! It was amazing!
She waved the pig over and shutting the (Amazing!) door, she led him down a short tunnel that opened to a small clearing.
There the pig saw something that made his mouth drop open.
Standing before him was a large, five story building. It was old and a bit rickety, but it looked as if it could lodge at least a hundred people or more.
"Some of the prisoners have relatives that live far away who they can stay with. But the majority of them like you have nowhere else to go. So what do we do? We put them here!"
She had taken her mask off at this point, to reveal an encouraging and excited smile.
"Come on," she urged him, "you're family's inside. One of us went to get them first, before I went to get you."
As he followed her to the building, he commented "I take it you do this often?"
She nodded. "Loads of times; but not in a while. By the way, I hope you don't mind a bit of noise. There's a LOT of people here. It doubles as sort of a free boarding house for people who really need a place to stay."
They had reached the large double doors. She knocked. There was a loud clamor on the other side of the door. After a minute it was opened by a tired looking rabbit lady, who glanced at the pig and said, "Third floor, fourth door to the right."
"Huh?"
The woman face palmed and said, "Your family!"
"Oh, sorry!" He turned to the red panda and said, "Sorry to you too. I forgot what I've been trying to teach my kids: Thank You."
He walked toward a staircase that lead upwards. The building which looked large from the outside, had narrow hallways that led to various places on the upper floors, and the hallways, staircases, and rooms were filled to the brim with people!
As the pig jostled his way through a group of former business men ("Oh yeah, well my company sold for-!") and past a pair of flirting teenagers, the woman who had said her name was Taia, turned to the rabbit and asked, "How bad was dinner?"
The rabbit groaned. She then put her hands on her hips and in a mocking voice said, "Can I have more butter? Where's the salt? Why did so-and-so get served before me? I mean honestly, don't they understand how many others there are? Not to mention the fact that we're taking care of their butts without even charging rent! Seriously, I almost threw an entire plate of tofu at that feminist from floor two, who said that I was purposefully enforcing the stereotype of women in the kitchen!"
Taia rolled her eyes. She could relate. She once had an environmentalist yell at her for using unsafe paint or something like that. She respected his opinion, but his attitude was a piece of crap!
"I know, Ming, I know. But just because they're living in a new place doesn't keep them from being people, you know. And where there are people there's wants."
"And this people want a break." Ming sighed flopping down into a nearby chair. She immediately jumped back up and pulled some knitting needles out from under her butt.
Taia's large ears picked up a long string of grumbled explicative's as she headed up the stairs to her own place.
On the way up to the fifth floor where she lived, she paced a group of arguing Russians, an arguing married couple, two goat children who were painting the wall, some acrobats, and a man who sat in a rocking chair snoring loudly and occasionally yelling random vegetable names ("CARROTS!").
As she reached the top floor, things settled down a bit. There weren't as many rooms up here and most people were usually somewhere else at this time.
She opened the door, to her apartment, stepped, inside. It was quiet; too quiet.
"BOO!" Three children jumped out from their own hiding places and shouted at her.
"How was your day?" she asked them nonchalantly as she walked past them to the living room.
"See?" The oldest of the three, a rabbit girl, age eleven said, rather self righteously.
"Did not!" Her younger brother did not like to have his sister boasting, especially when she was boasting about being right or her age, which was only two years older than his nine. Another thing he didn't like was when she called him a raccoon, when she knew full well that, like his mother, he was a red panda.
"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" The youngest, also a red panda, jumped and down, begging for her mother to pick her up. At four ("FOUR!") she was tiny so she took the chance of gaining a bit of altitude whenever she could.
"How's my Hope doing this evening, hmm? How's my Hopie?" her mother asked as she picked her daughter up and placed a kiss on her cheek.
"Li and Benji argued all day!" she exclaimed. Hope liked talking and giving her mother the daily report was her favorite.
"Anything I didn't know?" Taia asked as she went into her own small space of a room and pulled her black robe off over her head. She wore a faded shirt and black pants underneath. She plopped down on the bed to unwrap the tape on her legs. She'd much rather be barefoot.
"There were carrots at breakfast, carrots at lunch, and I painted a picture of a carrot, and carrots at dinner, and Veggie Man keeps yelling carrots! And… Oh yeah! Benji barfed and it was orange!"
"Guess why?" Benji, the barfer of orange, asked sarcastically.
"Why I can't imagine how," his mother replied with just as much sarcasm. "You better now?"
"Yeah, I'm just carrotted out."
"Good. What did you do Li?"
"Just the usual; played with the kids, helped with dinner, that sort of thing."
Benji piped up, "Liar! She made kissy faces at her mirror all day!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Alright, you two! I believe it's time for certain children to go to their room, and give their mother a bit of peace!"
Taia gave them a pointed look, accompanied with a pointed index finger that was directed towards the room the three of the kids shared (a fact that all three hated).
Benji looked at his mother with his best angel face and asked, "Mommy(he hadn't called her that in a while)? Can I sleep in your room? Just for tonight?"
Taia tapped her chin. "Hmm. Let me think…Nope!"
"Pleeeeeaaaase!"
For once Li decided to help her brother out.
"Seriously Mom! Please! He snores! And in the middle of the night he talks about cheese puffs!"
"Mommy said no!" Hope had decided to take charge of the situation. "When Mommy says no, she means no!"
"Well thank you Hopie," Taia praised her younger daughter. She greatly appreciated it when one of the kids took her side. She didn't argue with her children often, but when it did happen she was usually outnumbered.
"If anyone sleeps with Mommy it's me because I'm her baby!" Hope smiled and blinked her wide grey eyes at her mother. "Right Mommy?"
Sigh. So much for backup support.
"Bed. Now. No buts."
All three looked disappointed that they wouldn't be having one less roommate that night. They reluctantly trudged to the shared room followed by their tired mom.
Li hopped up onto her top bunk bed, Benji on the bottom, and Hope crawled into her 'big girl bed' that was only two inches off the floor.
"Alright look you guys, I know you probably want a story, but your mom is exhausted with a capital yawn! So just a quick good night, okay?"
She was practically begging. Taia wasn't exactly so tired that she couldn't wait to go to sleep; but when you share a house with about eighty other people you don't get much privacy or meditation time. This woman was stressed.
Which explained why she seemed so relieved to get a group okay from the kids.
She kissed each of them on the forehead and went to shut the door.
"Hey Mom?"
"Yes Benji?"
"Didn't you say something about no buts?"
"Please, please, please no! He's stalling!"
"Yes, I did."
Benji leaned out over the side of his bed to look up at his older sister.
"If that's the case then can we kick out Li? That's a really big butt!"
"Oh yeah! Well you're a-"
"Hey!," Taia called them to attention, then gave them a soft sweet "Goodnight."
"Night Mom/Mommy."
The red panda lady breathed a sigh of relief as she shut the door and went to her own room to meditate.
"It's like I never meditate anymore. I mean I used to not even like it!" she thought as she sat on the floor cross legged.
She hadn't used to need it as badly though. Unless you counted hyper as reason.
"But then somebody always had to make me. And if Master Oogway didn't point it out to me than it would usually be Shif-"
No! No she wouldn't think about. About him. Forget it. Forget him!
"Inner peace," she whispered into the night. "Inner peace."
…..
A/N: Hey guys! Midterms are coming up so I'm gonna be off for a while. I have a question though: 1. do I have to make a new document every time I post a new chapter? If so that sucks! Anyways…I'm lovin the reviews and can't wait to see if I get more! Were any of you surprised? REVIEWS! FANS! EXCITEMENT!
