Hi, and here the next chapter. :)

25. Something different

Po held his hands over his mouth. Mr. Ping lay on the ground. His head under a shelf.

"Dad!"

Po ran forwards and touched Mr. Ping on his shoulders.

"Dad! I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry..."

"Sorry for what?"

Po froze with shock when Mr. Ping lifted his head and looked at him with surprise. "Po, are you okay? You look as though you'd seen a corpse."

At last Po moved his lips again. "I... you... I... I thought..." He shook his head. "You lay on the floor and I thought..."

"Oh, that." Mr. Ping laughed. "Sorry, but a dumpling has rolled under the shelf and we don't want to have mold in our kitchen, do we?"

"Eh... y..ye-s..." Po scratched his head with deep perplexity. "Did you see him?"

"Who? Oh! Your friend, oh, yes, yes. He was been here, we talked a little and I'm glad that you doesn't have to play the hide-game anymore. I'm so proud about you, Po."

Po looked at him like forgotten.

"Ooookaaaayy. Where is he?"

"Oh, as I said, after the dumpling had rolled down, I heard how he went away. Well, I don't have to be worried about him after your success, do I?"

With a warm smile Mr. Ping looked at his son. But Po was still too fulfilled with questions, that he didn't reply.

"Do you know where he is now?"

Mr. Ping shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know, he didn't tell me. Oh, by the way, you could help me to take this into the storeroom." Mr. Ping bent down to pick up a big pot, but after he lifted up again...

"Uh, Po? Po?"

But Po was already gone through the door.

Like a white stoned ghost, the peacock sat on a rock, far away enough from the village, and watched the stars and the moon, which lighted his white feathering.

Something fissled in the woods. Shen didn't look back. He stayed there and listened until the footsteps stopped behind him which he knew very well.

"Don't think that I've changed my opinion," the lord said. "I only wanted to get some fresh air, that's all!"

"That's not why I am here," the goat said with gently voice, which cut through the lord's heart. He hated and loved her benevolence at the same time.

"Besides that, you told that panda about my possible future... My way is still my version. Don't waste your voice and spend it for something different. You aren't my nanny like you have been for me in the past. And I'm not the same anxious child anymore who stood in front of you for the first time."

The goat sighed. "It's still in your hands to change it. Also the panda knew how to guide his way."

Shen snorted with disgust. "I'm not a stinky panda. I'm still a ruler with high degree."

"And where are you standing now?"

The lord lifted his nose a little higher. "I still have my pride."

"You make your life difficult for yourself. I have told your parents that if you continue this way, you will be defeated by a panda."

"And it happened, but he still didn't kill me."

"Who says, that defeating is the same like killing?"

Shen narrowed his eyes in a dangerous annoyed way.

"Shen, you can win if you change your way. It's still time. It's still not too late."

"I don't want to change. Why don't you understand? It's my way which I want to follow. By the way, it's the only way I can go. I have nothing more than my life, which I want to give a new start for my glory."

"With what Shen? Your army is gone, your town isn't your own anymore, you have no friends, no family..."

"I have found a way in the past after I was banished. I will find a new way again."

"Wouldn't it be better for you to guide your way to a better way?"

"You don't understand. I can't go back." His voice became sad for a little moment. "This time is over. Even if I regret my acts, what I will never do, they will kill me after all."

"But you have a... someone who could avoid it."

Shen snorted with disgust. "Who? The panda? Don't tell me that. He has an inch for killing me like the others in the same way."

"But what if you are wrong?"

Shen laughed mockingly. "Do you really think he would spare me? I killed his family, his whole clan. I tainted his childhood." He lowered his glance. "That's more than awful."

The soothsayer narrowed her eyes with sadness, but in the next moment, Shen slapped on a hard facial expression. "Despite all, my parents did nothing. If they had loved me really, they would have done more for me than to let me leave the town. Despite you told me, they had loved me, it wasn't enough."

There was a depressing silence between them.

"Shen? I wasn't going to tell it to you, but I think it's time now, that you know something about your parents."

Shen sighed loudly and rolled his eyes. "What is it now? Emotional stuff again? Don't think that I will hear about that. I closed my past with them. I don't grieve about them anymore."

"No, not really. There is something different..."

Shen sighed deeply. "Well then, I guess you will tell me either way, won't you? Alright. Tell me. I have all the time in the world."

The goat sighed. "There is something what you don't know about your parents..."