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Chapter 11
Could it Be?
"Po's dead." Tigress informed the rest of us trapped in the jail.
"Impossible!" I refused to believe it.
"I saw it happen. He was blasted through the wall without a second thought. Lord Shen strikes again." Crane told me.
"Po can't die! He's the warrior!" I shouted in denial. Crane placed a wing on my shoulder but I brushed him off, maybe a little too harshly. He looked at his thin toes and stepped away.
"Well he is." I whirled around and my eyes locked with those deep brown ones of Lord Shen. "The famed warrior of black and white is now dead and out of my way." He smiled as we all took on a fighting stance.
"You're a monster!" I hissed stepping as close to him as I could without touching him. The false evil smile didn't waver, but Shen's eyes betrayed the fact that my words hit home.
"Take Master Lien to the boats." The white peacock told his wolves. The canines poked and prodded at me with their weapons. I hissed at them, fanning my tail to make them back off. Angrily I brushed by Lord Shen with my head held high. Suddenly he grabbed my wing and forced me to face him.
"Don't touch me!" I growled trying to jerk my wing away. He only tightened his grip, and, for a moment the fake smile faded to his real one. All within the span of a fraction of a second, he placed a scrap of paper in my wing and pecked my cheek. He made it look like he was saying something harsh, but that was all the proof I needed that my Shen still existed. If only in broken, scattered fragments
"Now get her out of my sight!" He shoved me away and turned back to The Five. "And get these 'masters' chained up and taken out to the ships as well." That was all I heard until I left the dungeon and entered the dimly lit hall.
What was that all about? I thought. I looked around in a daze; the walls, the floor, my robes, my wings, the note. The note! It was written on rice paper, and the only rice paper that Shen had, came from my old notebook. He still has it. A shy smile danced over my beak. I un-krinkled it and read the note scribbled in charcoal.
Escape my wolves and flee the city. You will be safe.
Short, sweet, and to the point. I had to give him a little credit for this miniscule act of kindness, but could I really leave? Shen wouldn't have time to turn the cannons around and destroy the city, so I guessed it was my best bet. I had to get help, but I couldn't do it surrounded by wolves and trapped in the city.
Just as I was planning my escape, we left the jail to enter the moonlit alley just outside the door. I looked at the walls and the narrow opening to the sky, and a plan came to me. Using Shifu's short teleportation trick I jumped behind the last three wolves and took care of them silently; hiding them behind barrels. The two that were in front of me and just steps behind the leader I grabbed by their muzzles, smacked their heads together and left their unconscious bodies on top of the jail roof. The leader then looked back and realized that he was now alone, with a master of Kung Fu on the loose in his vicinity. I soared silently over his head, letting my shadow be seen.
"Come out! I'll call Lord Shen!" He shouted into the shadows.
"I'm right here." I was behind him again and tapped him on the shoulder.
He spun around and gasped, "How did you do that?" I grinned a vixen grin.
"It went something like this!" I spun around, gathering momentum, and hit him square in the chest with a roundhouse kick. His breath was knocked out of him and he fell to the cobblestones. Quickly I locked him in a sleeper hold and placed him with the rest of his dreaming comrades. Then I climbed to the roof of the nearest building, and began to sneak along just below the skyline until it was safe for me to take to the air and fly to the meeting point.
Soon I was soaring over the outskirts of the wrecked panda village. The charred remains of houses and barns were decaying with the help of the moisture from the small storm I had flown through to get here. Grass had long since grown over the burned ground, and even the rice patties had survived. Little trees and bushes grew anywhere they found fit, adding color to the already moonlit emerald sea below me. "Lien!" The voices came from all around me. Nearly ten of my little falcons swarmed around me, scaring the living daylights out of me and pounding me with questions about my escape.
"Hello! Yes, I had to fight. No, I'm not injured. Yes, The Five are in captivity. No, I haven't seen the Dragon Warrior. Where Is Bo?" I rattled off answers when they paused for a breath.
"Follow us!" Ching, Lee's brother, took the lead and led me to the center of town. There was Bo in the center of a group of about thirty falcons. Their little white chests glowed in the bath of moon-shine, and their razor-sharp talons gleamed.
"…Then, just when the Great Bear thought he had her beat, Lien found the last inkling of her strength and ran him through his black heart with her bladed staff, ending his life and liberating the tribe." Bo was telling the story of one of my first missions when I had to face Chief Great Bear who had enslaved a whole society of silk-weaving foxes. I smiled at the memory of the little dogs faces when the bear fell. They had been forever grateful, and every year they sent me a new robe made by their most talented weavers.
As Bo finished I landed silently behind her and motioned for the birds to be quiet. "She beat that old bear with one wing behind her back!" The little squirrel emphasized by placing her paw behind her back.
"I don't remember that part of the story." I said in my deepest, richest, most regal sounding voice. Bo jumped into the air and sored over to a little bush; absolutely terrified. Everyone burst out laughing; even I was rolling on the ground from the shocked look on my little commander's face. "You should see your face!" I sputtered as she blushed and walked sheepishly out of the leafy cover.
"Sometimes I wonder why I agreed to help you." Bo muttered.
"Oh lighten up! All of our hard work has paid off." I was still using my regal voice, and the falcons continued to laugh. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of fur. I used my eyes to motion Lee into the sky to see what it was. He zoomed upwards and floated over the village. He circled twice over a pile of scorched wood and flew in the pattern that meant all clear.
Carefully I took a few steps closer to the pile. "Come out! I won't hurt you!" I called. There was another flash of fur as the creature shot into the air.
"I will take you down Lord Shen!" A robust panda screamed barely clearing the wood pile.
"Po? You're alive?" I screamed and ran up to him wrapping him in a hug. As I moved I realized my feathers were glowing like the falcon's breasts, and I could have definitely looked like Lord Shen from a distance.
"Lien?" He gasped and returned the embrace. "You got away from the jail."
"Yea, but The Five are still there. What happened to you? I thought you were dead!" I asked him stepping back.
"Well, Lord Shen blasted me through the wall of the factory and I fell into the river. When I was unconscious I must have floated here and the Soothsayer saved me." Just as he finished the little old goat walked into the clearing. I smiled and bowed to my old friend and teacher.
"Good to see you escaped, Lien." She nodded with a smile.
"Good to be out of the jail." I told her ruffling my feathers after feeling a chill. "How did you get here?"
"I walked." She grinned even wider as I rolled my crystalline blue eyes at her. "Shen set me free after I proved his quest to be wrong."
"You were always more esteemed than me, especially because your knowledge."
"I suppose, but you were far more favored by the young prince." The Soothsayer's smile didn't waver as my face heated with a nervous blush.
"OOOOOOOO!" Everyone chorused. "I get it now!" Po said slapping his face with his open paw. "How didn't I see it before?"
"I didn't want anyone to know, but since the cat's out of the bag," I shot the old goat a half-angry look, "Prince Shen and I were a tad more than friends, but Lord Shen is an entirely different bird." The Soothsayer chuckled when I said "a tad", and I tried my hardest to force the blush away. It only got worse.
"Lien, you know I have to defeat him; it's my destiny." Po placed a gentle paw on my shoulder. In his eyes was a wholesome apology, but I knew what must happen.
"I know. I just hope that doesn't mean that you have to kill him. I think there's still a chance that my Shen wants to resurface; he just doesn't know how."
"You're faith in him will be proven, but I will not say whether it be proven wrong or proven right." The Soothsayer spoke again.
"Thank you." I nodded then turned to my friends, confidence restored. "Well, what are we standing around here for? We have to get back to the city and help The Furious Five!" I crowed and leapt into the air.
"Yeah! C'mon guys let's go!" Po pumped his fist in the air.
"When we reach the city, I will return to the jail to see if I can get more help, go on without me." I told the panda. "I will catch up." He nodded and we were off. My falcons swarmed the sky with Bo in the lead of their flight. Po was running directly underneath me, and I was soaring through the sky, my robes flapping in the wind. "Here we come Shen. Our time has arrived to set things right."