Title: The Life and Times of Lord Shen
Summary: The story of the albino peacock of Gongmen City, from cradle to corruption. Chapter 14. where there's smoke: In which there is a fire.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Kung Fu Panda or its sequel(s) and spin-offs, that's all DreamWorks' honor.
Spoilers: Both Kung Fu Panda movies.
A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus, hope you enjoy the new chapter!
I need to replace Emperor with King in past chapters; Gongmen rulers' other titles still baffle me. Emperor seems too much like just the one title for the actual Emperor of KFP's fantasy ancient China. They surely have one, and the new KFP short where the Wu Sisters mention the Imperial army seems like the first indication that there is one. And the KFP wiki sometimes calls Shen's dad the peacock king.
After a lot of thought, the summary's been revised. At first, this was meant to be more like how chirpingfish's "Albinism" is turning out to be, my older Fullmetal Alchemist fic "Mr. Fuzzy Jacket" and Shiruba Neko's Fullmetal Alchemist fic "Behind Red Eyes"-a real collection of stories about the main character, Shen in this case. A collection in that it would be rather nonlinear, and Shen's past was sorta like only one of the topics addressed. But as this went on, I felt like all the parts were connecting chronologically/linearly even just a little bit, and now this will, well, officially continue to go in more of an order with all of the stories interconnecting a lot more as my interpretation of Shen's past is explored and his development from innocence to corruption is tracked and hopefully explained a bit more.
where there's smoke
Shen's attempt at being a stowaway was short-lived.
"Come back here!" The boy ignored the sailors, running through the alleys and leaping from a shop awning to rickshaw to balcony to roof.
Shen concluded that the crew of the ship he had tried to stow away on and who tried to pursue him were visitors to Gongmen City, as he rather easily lost them.
The prince doubled back, jumping under the boardwalk. From in between the wooden supports Shen watched the ship he'd tried to board. Some of the sailors had already returned, grumbling and still looking incensed.
It had been a reckless stunt. The boy was just curious how much he could get away with on the ship. Which apparently wasn't very much, the crew had found him quickly before he could find a really good hiding spot that either hid or camoflaged his freakish plumage.
It wasn't like he was super determined to leave on the ship. It would kind of defeat his whole anger, if he actually left when he didn't really want to.
Shen walked under the boardwalk, grumbling. He wouldn't mind travelling, actually; he was curious about visiting the places on the maps he liked to look at. But to be separated from Nana entirely—it wouldn't be like the first time she left when he was four, his parents had made that perfectly clear, no matter what protest they put up.
The boy didn't want to lose his guardian, he needed her...
Shen froze when he heard the familiar crackle of fire—no, the roar of a very large fire.
The sound of shouts and screams was practically silmutaneous to it. Shen climbed back to the top of the boardwalk, and stared at the tavern on fire.
It wasn't the only tavern in Gongmen City, but it was still the one a lot of An and his kin seemed to visit frequently—
Shen found himself running toward the burning tavern. He couldn't keep his eyes off the large fire. It was red like his eyes, but not really quite the same shade, and mixed with oranges and yellows and even the gray and black of the smoke. As the boy ran, he felt somewhat hypnotized, he couldn't remember ever seeing a fire this big before.
He struggled through the chaos in the streets. The kung fu training helped him weave in and out of the crowds, but the noise was ungodly as the fire spread, hungrily licking at neighboring rooftops. The sounds of screams and shouts persisted, he saw younger children crying in the streets—but older ones were helping a number of the adults organize and carry water to the blaze from the river cutting through the city and the wells scattered about.
A woman's despairing scream jolted him, making something suddenly stick in his throat. He suddenly and very keenly felt the burden of his heritage; these were his people, they would be his sole responsibility someday. He had to do what he could to help.
Passing a dark alley, Shen joined one of the lines to a well. A grown-up boar passed him a bucket of water without looking. No one noticed him. His ominous coloring was nothing compared to a real fire that threatened to burn everyone and everything down right now.
The prince noted people ahead of him throwing their water at random, until a fox stopped them and began to have groups take turns throwing their water in combined waves.
"One-two-three-go!"
Shen swung his bucket with the rest of his group at the fox's command, their combined wave hissing against the fire. No matter how hard the boy looked, he didn't see any wolves come out of the tavern or among the burned already being treated.
The prince ran past the alley with others to the river, where they dipped down and refilled their buckets. Again and again they did this, and the fire marginally dimmed.
Coughing, Shen struggled to keep his bucket upright as the smoke finally got to him. He started to slow down just short of passing the alley, straggling behind others dashing ahead with their water.
He silently cursed himself for failing to cover his beak before joining the efforts against the fire. He would have to stop and rectify that soon, but after he poured his share—
Shen passed that dark alley alone.
The boy felt a large claw bite into his wing and drag him deeper into the shadows. Before he could strike out or even scream, another claw pinned his beak shut with a wet and stinking cloth.
There was the noise of his bucket clattering to the ground. Later there was the sound of his muffled shout, but that faded as his head grew dark and fuzzy. He slumped down in a stranger's embrace, no longer aware of the fire or anything else.
###
Various sailors, foreign and local, helped during and after the fire. One group bickered as they worked.
"Aren't freakin' peacocks blue?"
"I'm telling you, that was a ghost—"
"That was the boy prince of Gongmen City."
"The ghost prince?"
"No, idiot, the normal kind!"
"'Normal?' Those prissy birds are blue, not white—"
"Don't call them 'prissy,' not after what one of them did to my face—"
"And here I thought you were born that way."
"Shut it, you—"
"Excuse me, gentlemen," a rich voice called to them, and the sailors turned to a finely robed figure of a rhino carrying a large hammer.
"But did you say you saw a white peacock? A child?" He asked, his voice smooth, yet carrying an undeniable tension and even a shred of threat.
###
Shen woke up with his beak still clamped shut. He blinked down at it. His beak was tightly muzzled by some sort of thick fabric.
The boy tried to move, tried to think, fighting his wooziness. He realized he couldn't move much.
He looked down. There was a heavy metal collar on his neck, chained to the wooden ceiling.
Chains pinned his wings tight to his body. A chain stretched taut from the wooden floor, tying his legs together.
Heart pounding in his chest, Shen tried to wrap his head around the fact that he was suspended and utterly tied down from both ceiling and the floor—which was rocking slowly.
When the young prince focused, he could hear the slosh of waves around him, coming through the walls.
The boy squeezed his eyes shut, starting to shake. He thought he should scream, he felt like screaming, whimpering at least. He definitely wanted to cry out for Nana, his parents, An, Master Thundering Rhino, Ox, Croc, anyone—
Nana Nana Mama Baba Nana An Nana Nana Nana
"You're awake. I'll be back with food." Shen's eyes snapped open at the voice. It was a grown-up's, a woman's. She was behind him, Shen tried to turn—and found he could not, the chains were too tight, forcing him to face only one side of the ship.
Finally he whimpered.
He squeezed his eyes shut again, burning as he tried to force the tears back, tears wouldn't help right now, they were useless—so was whimpering, actually. The boy choked back the sickly sound, gulping harshly.
There was a wooden creak, and Shen stiffened. He madly struggled in his chains again.
"None of that now, I need to remove your muzzle—"
The stranger chided him. He heard the pull of thread, followed by the muzzle coming off. Shen coughed, long and hard.
Near the end of his coughing fit, Shen panted as the stranger came around, facing him. With a jolt, he realized she was a snow leopard, hooded and with a bowl of soup in her paws.
The feline spooned out some of the broth, offering it to him. "Open up now, princeling."
She sidestepped as the young peacock plunged his beak toward her, only succeeding in knocking the soup out of her paws.
Rolling her eyes, the snow leopard left, her footsteps ascending. "We'll see how long you'll go without food."
"I don't want food, I want to go home!" Shen screamed at her, his voice cracking with terror and rage and pleading.
When the door slammed, the prince squeezed his eyes shut, fighting back tears again.
Once the smell of the soup reached him and his stomach growled, Shen sniffled. And then he cursed, spitting out every foul word he'd learned from An and his pack, and then he started to sob at the thought of them and everyone else back at the Tower of Sacred Flame.
A/N: Upon going over this again, I realized the description of Shen's binding reminded me of how he ties up the Furious Five for their execution...so it just seemed to become even more appropriate and an eerie connection. Young Shen's kidnapping has also been planned a while, but the new short made everything click better. Hope you enjoyed, and remember to leave a comment please.