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The warriors were completely silent, they just starred down at Susan's bloodied body lying helplessly on the ground.
Monkey's face was streaked with tears and his breaths were shaky as he stared at her body, refusing to believe she was gone.
"I thought something more exciting would happen when you kill the Spirit Yin." An Ling mused, slightly deflated.
While An Ling and the rest of the snakes were staring at Susan, Tigress was hatching a plan.
"Attack." Was all she whispered to the other warriors and they nodded at once.
All at once all the warriors seized their opportunity, with the snakes being distracted by Susan, and whipped into action.
Po swept his Bo staff around his head and it smacked into the snake's, that was clamped around him, teeth, immediately causing it to fade, freeing Po.
He swept around the others, smacking the snake's teeth while their backs were turned, freeing everyone with one simple motion.
An Ling finally noticed this and his face purple in rage. "Kill them, all of them!" he bellowed, but of course no snake was there to aid him, after Po had killed them all by smashing their teeth in and making them fade into nothingness.
He hissed and barred his fangs, but he was too slow, at once the others all jumped onto him.
He thrashed his tail wildly again, but Tigress grabbed it, and in one more swift motion, Monkey sent his Bo staff flying to his mouth, smashing his teeth.
It had taken the other snakes, a minute maybe or two to fade completely, but An faded in less than a minute, and Tigress was left clutching nothing but air.
The warriors, breathing heavily, lowered their weapons, glancing worriedly at each other. There was no after-battle, victory grin on their faces, everyone just looked shocked.
Monkey gripped his Bo staff and sunk to the ground, clutching it with clenched fists as he hid his face in his knees, shaking with silent tears.
None of the warriors had ever seen Monkey cry before, he was always so happy, so full of life. But now he looked well and truly deflated.
Crane and Viper both sunk to the ground beside him, both of their eyes gleaming tears too, Viper rubbing his arm comfortingly with her tail, while Crane relieved him of the Bo staff clenched in his hand and patted his shoulder, speaking quiet words of light comfort, but they knew nothing they could say would give him proper comfort.
"I loved her," Monkey sniffed, his voice muffled from behind his knees so only Viper could hear him.
Viper nodded and wiped the tears from her own face. "I know," she whispered carefully. "I know."
"We should head back to the Jade palace." Master Shifu announced, his voice as stiff as his facial expression.
"I suppose we should, come on Monkey." Viper sighed, looping her tail around his arm, with Crane helping him up on the other, and slowly lifting him too his feet.
The warriors slowly ambled back across the dry grass, not speaking to each other.
They continued to walk, and walk, they didn't even call a cart, for many hours until at last they arrived at the Valley of peace.
The weather was cold and dreary there. The sky was a bleak grey and rain spluttered half-heartedly down from the clouds, as if it too was grieving.
They could barely muster enough energy to climb the Jade steps, but they did so anyway, slouching against the rain, letting it splash them but not rise to it, not feel an emotion of any kind.
As soon as they arrived in the Jade palace Monkey drifted away from them to the barracks. Po reached out an arm, like he was about to ask him to come back, but instead he let it fall and said nothing.
"Dinner," Tigress murmed bracingly and Po nodded and led the rest of the warriors to the kitchen.
He clattered about, bringing pots down from the shelves, and clattering through the cutlery draw. He made his dad's noodle soup, the one he made for his first-time cooking for the Jade palace warriors but no one really ate, they just played with it.
"Do you think Monkey will be hungry?" Crane inquired after everyone had, 'eaten' as much as they could.
"I don't know, for some people grief makes you hungrier, for others it makes them feel like the last thing they want to do is eat." Mantis answered. "It's up to the individual really."
"I'll take him something." Viper decided and slithered off with the tray in her tail, just like she had a mere few days ago, when Susan was there.
She knocked patiently on Monkey's door and waited.
When there was no answer after another knock, she slithered in anyway.
Monkey was sitting calmly at his desk drawing something, his head bent low over his paper so he didn't see Viper come in.
"What are you drawing?" she asked politely, deciding not to start with the clichéd 'Are you alright?' phrase.
"A flamingo." Monkey replied simply.
Viper slithered up beside him, placing his tray on the chest beside his bed, and glanced at his drawing.
It was quite good; he had the right body proportions and everything. Viper had seen Crane paint flamingo's before, but this was simpler, more like a cartoon, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"I like it." She commented. "There's dinner on a tray there." She inclined her tail to where the soup, which was getting colder by the minute, was swirling slowly in the China bowl.
"Are you alright?" Monkey cut in before she could say anything else.
"Umm," she wasn't sure what to say at that, usually the person who was sad got asked that question, not the questioner. She also didn't know whether to say if she was alright or not, could it sound offensive? "I'm fine," she finally settled for.
"Good." Monkey replied and went back to his drawing.
Viper squinted up her nose and blinked at his back for a minute. That was confusing. She'd expected it to go how it did when she calmed down Crane, or Po or pretty much anyone when they were sad, but it hadn't.
"Alright, well I'll leave you to your drawing then." She smiled, giving a light chuckle. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight." Monkey responded, and Viper felt relieved, he may be grieving but Monkey was Monkey, he was never down in the dumps for that long.
Monkey was sad, incredibly, un-explainable sad, but he knew how to deal with grief. Just get busy, do something you enjoy doing and study it, study it so hard that you don't leave enough time to be sad.
Monkey stayed cooped up in his room for the next few days, he didn't leave at all.
The others expected this was because he was crying, but he was really drawing.
Monkey wasn't the best at art, he knew that. But he also knew he enjoyed doing it, so he did it anyway.
He was drawing a great piece of art, it was of every animal he could remember and he worked on it for hours, painting geese and pigs, elephants and Kangaroos.
He hoped he could put it up in the Jade palace when it was finished, as a memorial piece to Susan, to remember her by for years to come.
G'day,
Now this isn't actually the end of the story! I know you're like what, what's she doing? But you'll see.
Question before we end, does anyone think they know why Monkey drew a Flamingo as the first animal on his piece? Answer will come next chapter!
Next chapter will be up soon, until then, stay well
xx