Hello everybody. Well, this is not a new story, just a written thought if Lord Shen had come into a maximum-security prison, where he should spend the rest of his life. In this case, I didn't choose Chor Gom Prison. It's a much darker security sector. Because, well, this is about Lord Shen, whom everyone would like to get rid of after being so eager to usurp the rule of China. I don't know if Po would be happy about his whereabouts, but well, it's just fanfiction... ;-)

Eternal damnation

The Jinzhi Mountains were a forbidden place. Not only because of no vegetation there or because the harsh, freezing cold, snowy climate which could freeze your nose immediately. Nobody wanted to stay there for a long time anyway, which could only be fine with some people. Those ones were a troop of rhinos. Nobody but them knew these mountains as well as they did. But not because they wanted to go on vacation there. They had no families to look after. For this reason, the job didn't hurt them that they had to "serve" here. Only the protection of society determined their life and actions. However, their job was not to protect the mountains, but to prevent that nothing escaped from the mountains. But they didn't have to spread out over the whole mountain range. Instead, this isolated source of calamity, as some jokingly called it, remained hidden in a cave.

Like so many holes in the ground, it was once used to dig for mineral resources. Today it was empty, or at least it had lost its original purpose. Apart from air and a few rhinos, nothing came in or out. Not even a single ray of sun penetrated through the mighty iron gate, which was opened almost only once a day, but was quickly closed again. You'd think they didn't even want to let a mosquito through. Not even really fresh air, which is why it smelled a little musty inside. But the rhinoceros soldiers stationed there didn't mind. On the contrary. They really enjoyed the privacy, especially since they could pass the time with all sorts of things.

The soldiers' living quarters were in the uppermost part of the cave. There they had everything they needed: warmth, food and all kinds of games. And of course, someone to tell one story after another. Sometimes even stories about women you were glad not to have with you. There was a solemn atmosphere in the barracks almost every evening. Always in a good mood to be far away from the worries of the world.

The mood in the basement of the cave system was different. The further you went down the corridor, the colder and narrower the path became, until you came to a cul-de-sac where construction workers had once given up digging when you hadn't come across anything valuable. All that the miners had left behind at the time was a cauldron-shaped dead end made of rocks, deeply hidden and destined never to be seen by the outside world.

All these years it stood empty. Until today.

The bare walls remained, but some things had been "renovated" in this cul-de-sac. Instead of a permeable tunnel, a wall made of thick iron now sealed off the cavity. In the furthest corner of the cordoned off room, unbreakable chains adorned the rock wall. In the blackness of the blackest darkness that prevailed in the room, you could never have recognized the figure there.

He was motionless. Unable to move in chains. But he was breathing.

Breathing.

A being that breathed and was locked away like an object that you didn't want to destroy, but also no longer wanted to see. Not even the guards felt like looking at him. Still, every few days someone had to go down to the deepest, most remote part of the tunnel dungeon. Even a breathing object needed food and water from time to time. And also some movement. Otherwise, his heart would stop beating soon. Although everyone could only laugh about it. A heart was made of muscles. Strictly speaking, only a moving object. Everyone said he had a heart made of stone. As stone as the rocks around him, only meant to let him breathe.

What should he breathe for? For his life when he didn't have one anymore? Was he only meant to waste the air in the stuffy rooms, just for doing nothing? Or just to think about his atrocities? Was that his destiny? Was that the future, he was prophesied?

So many questions and yet none of the rhino guards wanted them answered. They would rather argue about who was putting the menu together for the next week than think deeply about the thought process. Nobody wanted to waste a thought on him. He had wasted enough lives of others in the world already. Nobody wanted to waste his minutes descending the long corridor, opening the heavy iron door and going into the darkroom. The light from the torch lit the walls. It continued walking until it reached the end of the chamber. The creature on the wall was denied any contact or material access to the outside world. This light was the only thing from the upper world that he saw. The guardian approached the creature. The creature who everyone loathed.

Banished, selected, cut off from society.

The rhinoceros raised the torch higher and shone on the condemned man.

"Hey! Wake up!"

A punch in the face, but it took a while until the prisoner reacted and raise his head. As if it was an act of strength to tense the neck muscles. His eyes reflected the light. His feathers, once so pure white, had long since ceased to be as well-groomed as he was known to be. The feet were bursting with dirt and dust. But his matted feathers and especially his long peacock tail looked as if they had been used for dusting. There was no trace of the royal nobility left. All you saw was a monster. A monster in the dark.

The rhinoceros snorted and pulled out a couple of keys with which he opened all the chain locks. Then he grabbed the partially filthy peacock by the neck. An iron chain clutched his larynx. The ring slipped down his neck a little.

"Forward!"

The guard kicked him in the back. The peacock croaked briefly. He had 10 minutes to go around in circles. It was difficult for him to stand on his feet.

The prison air made him sicker every month. Over the years, his immune system had improved since childhood. Thanks to training. But here, he couldn't do anything. Any kind of movement was forbidden. Just a short walk.

He coughed. His knees were trembling.

"Go ahead!"

The jailer pushed him in front of him.

At first the peacock had resisted it, but with every further reduction in food he had to give up weakly.

With an effort, he took one step after another, but he had to lean himself against the rock wall. Why was his health failing him now of all times?

He felt sicker than on his first day when he took his first breath. He was born weak, and weak he would leave it again.

"Walking time over!"

He was grabbed again and pressed against the wall. The wall that he already knew inside out. He was never allowed to go anywhere else, nor would he go anywhere else.

He literally envied the guard who left the cell again. He would never be able to step foot over that doorstep.

He wasn't allowed to receive any visitors. Nobody came to him anyway. All he was allowed to do was breathing. Just breathing.

Who would have thought life could be so torturous? His heart forced him to breathe, to continue his existence in this world.

The prison suit brought little shelter from the cold, but it was better than nothing. Freezing to death was not his condemnation. No. It was the verdict of being locked away forever.

He coughed again.

Perhaps he would sooner die of lung disease before he reached old age.

An old age. He always wanted that. But not under these circumstances. He had spent his whole life being someone.

A life everyone would remember, even after he died. Instead, this had become his permanent home. For eternity.

Nobody should ever see him again. Just as he would never see anything or anyone again. Not even the sun. Not even a free sky.

He was like the ocean that wanted to be free. He longed for it like someone dying of thirst.

Universe! (or whatever exists behind the world) Can't you see my misery?

No, nobody cared about him. Nobody wanted to hear about him again. Whatever for? He had even turned his own people against him with his madness.

Nobody would care about his departure. Even his parents weren't there to pity him. He was just the dirt under someone's shoes. The bottom garbage in the garbage can. He had spent his whole life being someone. Now he was a nobody. A nothing.

All the cannon force he had fired now hit him back 100 times.

Darkness was his companion now, a confidante. The silence was his second breath.

He cried out, hoping someone would answer him. Hoping that voices would comfort him. But all that remained was silence.

"Child... my little child..."

Again he thought he heard voices.

These types of hallucinations came to him more and more often.

Had the disease now attacked his brain?

He went crazy. He was losing his sanity.

He had lost the track of time. How long has he been locked up here? One year? Or less or longer?

First, he resisted it. Tried to distract himself with self-talk. But those voices kept eating their way through his head.

And then... then he thought he saw them.

Images flashed before him in the darkness. The image of a blue and a purple peacock. A peahen.

Her eyes looked at him, her wings touched his face. He really thought she was touching his face. Wings that once wrapped around him in his childhood. These thoughts warmed him for a moment. Her feather fingers studied his face like a blind woman tried to see him. Didn't she recognize him?

It cut his heart like his lance sword.

He was once a baby that his parents put to bed. Received a good night kiss from his mother. And worried about his health when he was ill.

Now there was no one left to worry about his ill condition.

He was nothing. Even for his family, he was no longer important.

Even for the soothsayer.

Why didn't she visit him to see her chick?

Did he disappoint her so much that she didn't want to look at him in the eyes anymore?

"It's okay, my baby, it's fine."

His mother's voice echoed through his head.

"It's fine…"

Fine… fine…

Take me... take me in your arms. I beg you, mother... Mother!

"MOTHER!"

A peacock's scream pierced the darkness. A peacock screaming, which was searching for attention. But he only met silence. Merciless, lifeless silence. Everything around him was silent like a grave in whose stomach he lay.

He would stay here. Until his last day.

Tears welled up in his eyes. At first, very lightly, then more and more until they ran down his cheeks. If he had a heart of stone, why didn't the tears turn to ice?

Mother! I can't stand it anymore!

He looked up, hoping to see a light there, but it was all black.

He drew in a sharp breath, threw his head back, and let out an even louder peacock cry, hoping it would be heard in the farthest reaches of the universe. Whether someone heard his call, be it someone in the upper world, the universe, or his parents...

He couldn't tell. He would probably never find out, until the day he died.

The End

I hope I haven't broken the heart of Lord Shen fans. If so, then I'm sorry.

I don't know yet if I'll use some parts of it in a story. Until then, you can make your own thoughts on how the short story could go on.