CLASHES

"Let me get this straight: would these strangers be mercenaries who fought with you several years ago?" Shu asked, made nervous that there was a rival herd near hers. It would have been more aguess to say that they occupied their territory, but since they were in a world ruled by humans, nothing was normal!

"That's right! Their alpha is a childhood friend of mine, we can trust them!" Shen said, knowing full well that the wolves among them could be extremely faithful and with those strangers to the very aggressive herd.

The peacock did not wait for the wolf's response as it seemed to have enchanted itself and ran to their home. Once inside he took a scroll and began to write. "Zhan, you were the last person I expected to meet. I don't know how you managed to find me, but the situation is very dangerous at the moment.

The humans who have captured me should not be underestimated, they are strong and very cunning. Don't attack for any reason and wait for my next instructions. In a few days, I'm going to put in place a plan to defeat this scum, and your help could help us. The pack of white wolves is our ally, as much as you can see to work with them until it's all over.

Lord Shen, Prince of the City of GongMing."

Once the message was over Shen bent him over and ran to the castle gate.

There he found Mei and Xu waiting for him, "Shu decided to trust you, not them. So I hope this "friend" in which you place so much trust will remember you!" said the female feline looked very suspicious, as if he was in danger, even if it wasn't his job to deliver the message.

Fa appears on the other side of the gate and put a paw between the bars to get the letter delivered. He was surprised when he saw that the peacock approached him without giving it to him "I urgently need to talk to Rose!" He said all too formally. That is, they knew each other well and the owl wondered why that sudden change by the peacock.

"Now it's evening! And she can't go out after a few hours! I'm sorry!" Said the owl.

Shen cursed the rules of that damn edret with all known imprecations. He couldn't wait till tomorrow afternoon! Zhan could have decided to act! He had heard numerous howls, a sign that the wolves were moving: they were looking for him! The sooner he would have warned him and the less damage there would have been!

Then an enlightenment caught him and turned to the owl "I want to talk to you in private if it's not a problem for you!" he said, looking at the two felines.

"Why can't we listen?" asked Mei that unlike Xu, who was already heading to a different place, she had stood firm in her place.

"Why..." "Are you hiding anything from us?" asked the feline angry "No, I'll tell you in another time!" Cut the peacock short "What difference does it make now and later?" She asked for more and more furious and disappointed "I.. " "Might be a different thing from what you're gonna say to it! We're not dumb!" She insisted on it.

"SHUT UP!" Shen shouted completely out of patience.

"Good!" Mei said and started to leave carrying a storm but a voice made everyone turn towards a direction "Some trouble? Lord Shen, Prince of the city of Gongmen!" Shan was landed on a big branch and looked like it was there forever.

"Lord?" Repeat Xu "Prince?" Asked for shock Mei. "Now we are so many people know your secret!" Fa observed incapable of articulating a more sensible sentence because of the surprise. He knew who the peacock really was, but he didn't think he was meeting someone else with the same awareness! At least not there, on the collector's reservation!

"How do you know me?" The peacock asked to look at the eagle, as well as angry at the fact that he was so easily unmasked. "I've heard many stories! Some people think that you ran off with a prostitute and that you will never return to your city because of your parents' disapproval, others think you're dead, but people like me were sure you were alive, hiding somewhere! Even if that's not the case, you're still alive, so the substantial reward that Gong Ming's rulers have put on you is valid for anyone who provides information about your current position or takes you back!" finished explaining Shan.

"Are you a Prince?" Xu asked, "Why didn't you tell us?" Mei asked curiously.

"It would have been better if you had found out once out of here! Derek doesn't have to know! He could use me to get something from my parents and I don't want that to happen!" Shen said, "We would never betray you, you know?" asked the feline offended by that distrust ,"And letting you know something like this would put you in grave danger!" The peacock continued and Mei had to think again, "So see if you want to be free!" Shen said, addressed to the eagle.

"All right! I'm going to keep my mouth shut, as long as once you get back to China, you're going to come with me so I can get the reward!" decreed Shan.

Shen incinerated him with his eyes. How dare you? He was threatening him! Was he so stupid that he didn't realize he'd put himself in danger if he revealed that?

"He... will do what he wants!" Said Xu growling, "Try to threaten him again and you'll regret it!" Mei said, putting himself in a combat position.

"Derek is ruthless when he wants to get something, so I advise you to keep this information to yourself!" said Fa, giving strength to his friends.

The silence that followed was full of tension. There was a race of looks, especially between the peacock and the eagle that seemed to end with a fight... but in the end Shan, realizing he was outnumbered, decided to give up. He would find another way to get the much-coveted reward once they ran away. "All right! For now, it is impossible for me to contact the rulers of Gong Ming... but you're alert Prince, because when I see a good deal I never leave it, and I say never, escape!" Shan said before he flew away.

"So you're a Prince!" observed Mei once the impostor had wandered away. "No!" said Shen nervously "Instead of you!" Xu said he seemed pleased to have made such a discovery. "So the wolves out here are the royal guards, my lord?" asked Mei with a grin, "Don't call me that! I have renounced my title and all that it entails a long time ago!" said Shen was furious as he began to enter the woods, momentarily forgetting the note to give to Zhan.

"As you wish, my lord!" Xu said, hinting at a bow. "Stop it!" yelled Shen, dropping the feline to the ground with a blow of his tail.

"Are you going to stay there much longer?" asked Mei staring at Xu who looked like a carpet "Sure! I would never allow myself to hit a Prince!" He answered, unable to hold back a laugh. Mei also laughed and as he watched a furious Shen walk away, he told himself mentally that he absolutely had to talk to him about this truth, which had been hidden up to that point.

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Rose ran perforated down the path. It was May and the mild weather characterized every day. In the evening it was cool and it was an advantage because so she would not come home all sweaty.

In the past she loved to take walks immersed in nature, sometimes even delving into the vegetation. Of course, it had been very risky, but she had always found her way home and this had prompted her to try again. On the bright side, her sense of direction had improved markedly in that part of the forest, too bad that the area chosen for the escape was different and unknown to her.

She hated relying on maps! They just made her more confusing! But at that moment she had to do so, since the meeting point with the white wolves was quite far away and she, not to suspect her father, could not afford even the lightest of delays. She stopped next to a large oak tree that grew behind a huge boulder. Fortunately she understood these animals too, but being... free, they instilled fear. Her friends, once they left the reserve, would never scare her, but maybe it was because she knew them well. Let's just say she trusted peacocks more than others.

It was only then that she realized that their friendship would be put to the test during that time. Being free, they would show her who they really were: either beasts thirsting for vengeance, or the friends she had learned to know!

This crossroads worried her greatly, but she trusted Kang and was certain that if she stayed by her side, nothing would happen to her.

A growl in the distance heralded the arrival of the wolves. They didn't seem to trust themselves, too, perhaps because they feared that she was holding their friends hostage?!

But when a figure appeared in front of her she felt like the cat with the mouse: trapped! That wasn't the pack leader he'd previously talked to! It wasn't to him that he delivered Shu's first letter!

That is, a wolf does not change the color of the hair from one day to the next! And this canid was black! Soon she realized she was completely surrounded!

The wolf in front of her was the biggest, so he was the alpha.

"H-hello! I-I'm not in t-trying trouble... y-you where do you come from?" Rose asked, unable to stop shaking. "Pleasure... i-I... my name is Rose! I-I'm the daughter of the c-collector w-who boasts the b-b-best, r-rare and unique a-animals of the world!" At this rate she would have died of heartbreak, little but sure!

"Rare animals?" He asked for a wolf looking suspiciously at his boss.

"Do you have white peacocks?" asked for another, earning a punch from the alpha because of the fluency of his tongue, most likely.

"M-many white peacocks!" The girl answered reflexively. But she was dumb! What if they wanted to hurt his friends? "You must feel the ground first, jerk!"

After mentally recovering, Rose decided to add, "B-but you can't h-hurt them!" So, for safety. Even if without a threat that phrase was just useless "Good Rose, keep it up and tomorrow you won't get there!".

But why did the animals trust her? She was just stupid! In this particular case it could be called dinner, or dessert, it depended on whether the wolves had already eaten the main course or not!

Reflecting on it though... her father had received complaints about cattle killed by wild animals! The makers could have been the other wolves and not these! But can two herds stay so close? Rose had read a lot about wolves, indeed, if she had to confess, she had read a lot about every species of animal that was in the reserve at the time! Returning to the canids, she knew that they aggressively defend the territory, especially with a rival herd occupying it. Was a war about to break out outside the walls? This wouldn't have benefited them at all!

"Where are the white peacocks you're talking about?" asked the alpha to divert her from her thoughts.

"First tell me why you and your herd are here?" asked her trying to appear confident "Tell us where I am!" growled the wolf "Otherwise you'll be our dinner!" Added.

The main course! What a highlight! What an honor! Yes, but she didn't care about that occasion since she cared about life!

"No! It's my job to protect them!" She screamed gripped by a rush of courage that who knows where he had come from! "Protect them?" asked a wolf, "She's the first human who can understand us!" Another said. "The first and only!" pressed her.

"Why do you want to protect them? And from what?" asked the alpha to look bad at it. "I want to protect them from those who want to put them in cages or kill them! They're my family!" Rose said at last sure of herself.

"We also want to protect a white peacock!" admitted the alpha.

After a few minutes of silence she was the one who said, "Nice, if you don't tell me who, I can't help you, let him know about your arrival!".

"Shen!" The wolf answered. "Lord Shen? The Prince of GongMing?" asked the girl who was certain she didn't get it right.

The wolf moved his tail and straightened his back. If for happiness or nervousness Rose just could not say it. "We have sworn allegiance to our Prince! We've been looking for him for years and finally managed to find him!" say the Alpha smiling or... railing?

His body language was very different from Shu and syaoran!

"Can I ask you one last question?" The girl asked "What do you want?" The nervous wolf asked "How did you get here?" She asked cautiously "With a ship! Why?" He asked suspiciously "Because there are defenses along the perimeter of the island! I'm surprised you managed to avoid them ... " "... our ships were sunk! " The alpha interrupted her. "W-what?" Rose asked incredulously, staring at the wolf as if she wanted to make sure it was true and not a mirage, as much as it was the amazement to see that he was still alive!

"Many of my men are dead, but not all! We survivors have hidden when we realized we were in foreign lands!" kept telling the Alpha. "How did you find us?" She asked you. "We've circled the island. The sounds of peacocks have attracted us here!" The wolf answered.

Well, if before there was the means to allow the animals to leave the island, now it had been destroyed! Thinking about it Shen had talked about building a ship once out... so problem solved!

"Arrive at the right time!" eventually told the girl, "We are going to put in place an escape plan that will allow all the animals trapped to..." poor Rose could not finish the sentence that white wolves came out of every bush and every shadow attacking black ones!

In a moment of panic, the girl climbed up a tree and was horrified when she noticed the wolves trying to kill each other. What she had read was right: two herds in the same territory fight each other!

In the midst of all that confusion she could see the alpha with which she had spoken until a few seconds before and that of the other herd! They were facing each other!

She had to do something! It was crazy, but she had to try! Otherwise no one would have run away from the reserve! And her father would have either killed or taken these animals captive too!

She came down from the tree in a hurry, though in the eyes of many wolves it seemed more like a mature fruit that detached from a branch and fell to the ground!

After mentally saying all the known profanities, in all the languages she knew (because they are the first thing you learn when studying a new language) she ran, limping towards her goal. She fell to the ground and also made a somersault to avoid wasting time, until he found himself between the two alphas who, to the surprise, forgot about each other's presence.

"Stop!" yelled the girl and was stoned when she saw all the other wolves stop fighting and stare at her in amaze.

Behind him was the black wolf, in front of the white one. She glanced at both of them and set out in such a way that he didn't turn his back on either of them. Thus he would have prevented the one who did not look into the eyes from feeling belittled in relation to the other!

"You want to save your white peacock!" She said as she turned to his left where the black wolf was, "And you want to help a member of your pack escape!" Rose said, turning his head to the right, "You are allies! You want to free those you care about and both are behind those walls!" said the girl pointed to the imposing wall in the distance. They were in a high point and far enough away to allow them to observe the magnificence and vastness of the grandiose reserve!

"If you fight among yourself, you will only waste time! The human who holds them captive will not let them escape without doing anything... and if he notices you will try to catch you or kill you! If you are allied, you can work together to free them and their chances of success will increase!" Rose said, hoping that the wolves would ignore the instinct for the sake of loved ones they had long been looking for.

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It wasn't the first and it wouldn't be the last! That's what Shen was sure about!

Once back in China many might have tried to capture him.

Whether for the reward or to ask for an even greater sum by blackmailing his... Sovereign!

It had been almost five years! And although it seemed like a short period of time, within the reserve it seemed to have been infinite.

And that, in the end, was his real family!

His past would come back to haunt him, but he would think about it in due course.

He came into the house and a good perfume hit him.

It's been almost five months since he and Lang Min were together! As the weather got longer, Shen gave her a few gifts, but today was a special day!

She would have turned her birthday and everyone, no one excluded, had decided to throw a big party!

Her task was to lure her to the main square where the others were lurking, although the smell of the good dinner she had prepared narrowly managed to make him change his mind!

Eventually he regained and decided to take action.

"I see you've been busy!" Shen said, appearing behind his beloved and scaring her. "Shen!" She took it back. He loathed his ability to reach anyone behind, sneaking up, without making the slightest noise!

In war it would have been very useful, but at the time it was just very irritating!

"You have to learn to notice my presence, otherwise in a real fight you will be one of the first to fall!" He said the peacock provoked her.

"And you have to learn that we're not in the middle of a war, so you might as well stop moving like a spectre!" Lang Min responded by getting very close to him, only to pretend to want to kiss him and move on to the last.

Shen snorted. He hated it when he did! It was definitely unbearable!

Of course, as a gentleman, even if he was no longer a nobleman, he respected customs: he would make it his own once they had moved!

It was true that a few kisses and hugs had exchanged them, but they had never gone further!

Unfortunately he would have had to wait a long time! It still seemed too soon for him!

In fact, she was the first woman to reciprocate her love! What if he's infatuated with someone else? What if... a howl distracted him from reflecting on the unfortunate futures in which he and Lang Min would be divided!

"All right?" She asked when she saw her beloved look out of the window with do worry.

They were closer to the walls! So more in danger! Shen cursed himself for letting himself be distracted by that damn Shan and not delivering the letter!

Humans had certainly noticed wolves, but for some strange reason they hadn't done anything yet! It had to act before that happened!

But by now it was too late! How could he do that?

He left the house running only to stop because of someone who had grabbed him by a wing. "What's going on with you? Tell me please! Can I help you?" Lang Min seemed visibly concerned by his suddenly unsafe behavior.

Shen began to walk looking around. Throwing the message over the walls would have attracted the attention not of one, but of all the guards present. His call was risky because he could agitate the wolves that were looking for him, giving them confirmation of his presence, prompting them to attack!

"Shen stop!" The peacock turned and saw Lang Min running to meet him. Did he have to tell him? Do you share with you those concerns that had been gripping him for hours? Or avoid such a torture?

Shen realized that they had strayed a long way from home and remembered the surprise! Taken by his thoughts he had still managed to do what seemed impossible to him: lure out Lang Min!

He started walking again, but with a goal in mind.

"Shen, what's going on? Did the wolves tell you anything? Did something happen?" She asked, frightened by the concern she saw in the other's eyes.

"Those wolves... I don't know them!" He admitted, "Yes, but Shu claims they're his herd! We can trust you!" said she grabbed a wing and started walking arm in arm.

"I don't know!" Shen confessed by stopping in the middle of the forecourt. Lucky that his house was not very far from it.

"Listen, there's nothing we can do about it now! So let's go home! Beside the fire! Tomorrow we'll think of something!" She said pulling him for a wing.

"Now that I think about it, Lang Min, I haven't wished your birthday yet!" said Shen took the wings of her in hers. "I've noticed it! And you're sure you're not going to get a lightness like this!" She said she was approaching her face against that of him.

"SURPRISE!" The scream was so loud, as well as being accompanied by numerous fireworks (kindly offered by Rose since Shen's were more glorious purposes) that even Shen leapt in fear, clutching Lang Min tightly.

"Happy birthday!" yelled Mei hugging her friend and falling to the ground together because of too much momentum. "Then she does it on purpose!" Shu said, watching the two friends laughing on the ground, referring to the feline's vice of knocking anyone down at any time!

Numerous large fires were lit around which the animals danced. Bao and others were playing party music, enticing anyone to follow the rhythm with their bodies. Pretty much anyone.

Kang sat next to Shen, "That's why we fight!" Said the peacock pointing to all those present and their happiness.

"For the holidays? Then I hope for a defeat!" Shen said sarcastically, though he understood the true meaning of his father's words. He was nervous because since the beginning of the party Lang Min had not dignified him with a look! Yet it was his idea to surprise the party! Could it have been that he ruined the evening with his own wings?

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you have to live forever!" Jingjing said as he approached the two peacocks. "Why don't you join the party?" The Master asked. "I can't dance! And I don't like parties!" Said the peacock.

"Then why did you organize it?" asked his father, "Why had Lang Min never had a party for his birthday! I wanted something special now that we're together!" He confessed.

"I don't like to see you here and in a bad mood! Go with the other Shen!" Kang said, resting a wing on his son's shoulder in an attempt to convince him.

"I don't even think about it! I don't want to ridicule myself!" He said, deviating from his father's touch. "Shen! What we want is to see you happy! I'm sure if you don't join the festivities, you'll regret it!" Lu-Chu said that as always she stood next to her husband.

"That's what my parents told me! Just like the love they said to feel for me!" Shen thought he still didn't trust him completely. More than he believed in the sovereigns, but the seed of doubt was not yet rotted at all!

"We don't know what a parent's love for a child is until we become parents ourselves," the Master said, smiling in the direction of the young peacock. Well! Then he would have waited to become a father! Shen decided not to respond to that blatant provocation.

"You know, if I'm in danger because of you, I'll be brave just because I know I'm going to be fighting for you. For a friend of mine!" said Mei distracted the peacock's attention from the party.

Shen turned around and saw that Kang and his wife had joined the festivities, so he could speak freely.

"I want to avoid putting you in danger, as far as possible! I'm sorry I hid something like that for you!" Shen said before drinking some wine.

Mei smiled and made him realize that she had already forgiven him.

Xu came up with "Very Noble!" He said alone. Shen's crest lowered, "You've eavesdropped!" He accused him, "Only what you two said!" He confessed the feline with a glacial calm.

"These will be the last moments of peace before the clash!" Mei said, watching those dancing by the fire. "You have to see when we decide to attack! The human said that August would be the best time! At that time all his fellows stop doing their duty!" Xu said, referring to the summer holidays, swallowing a whole radish.

"Yes, but... many may not make it!" admitted Mei was visibly upset at the idea of losing some friends. "They won't have died in vain!" Shen said.

"You're in danger of dying too, you know that, don't you?" asked Xu amused that her friend always cared before others than herself. It was a noble thought, but strange!

"We all risk it! And I have to say that for now the idea does not scare me!" Lei said she had been lured by the feline's last question. "Let's see how you're going to be when it comes time to fight!" Xu provoked her.

"Of course I know! Only there's little hope that everyone will be able to escape!" Mei said heartbroken. "It's true, but there! Don't make a gust of a hurricane! When the time comes we will worry!" Lei said, trying to lift her friend's spirits.

"In life it is sometimes necessary to know how to fight not only without fear, but also without hope!" The Master said before heading to the table full of delicious dishes.

"Now I feel better!" Said Mei before burst to laugh and dragged Lei by the fire, where everyone had decided to forget future problems, focusing on that moment full of happiness.

Yes I know! I'm late for publication again! I apologize to everyone!

The wolves have reconciled and communications are only thanks to Rose!

There are those who enjoy the holidays and those who fail, with the mind already running towards the imminent clash that will take place with humans!

Let me know what you think, reviews and personal comments I really appreciate them!

X-98