6. An unusual morning

It was still early in the morning when the goat got up and walked through the corridors of the palace. On her way, she passed Shen's room. Carefully, she peered through the door. Shen lay peacefully in his bed. And next to his neck lay little Shenmi. The soothsayer smiled and withdrew with a smile.

It wasn't long before the peacock girl woke up. After she had stretched and yawned a few times, her gaze fell on Shen's free feet peeking out from under the blanket. She giggled and crawled towards them. Once there, she ran her little feather fingers over the soles of the feet.

Suddenly Shen winced and sat up with a jerk. He wasn't fully awake yet, but he immediately noticed who had woken him up.

"Shenmi! You know that I don't want to be tickled."

"Mom often does that with you."

"It's something completely different with her."

"How so?"

That made Shen difficult to explain.

"Well, for me, she is... something very special. With us it often works differently…"

"Like smooching?"

Shen gave her a baffled look. "Where did you get that expression from? You better go wash yourself now."

With that, the white peacock picked her up and set her down on the ground. Shenmi was already quite awake and hopped off. Unlike Shen. As soon as the girl was outside, he pulled the blanket over his head again.

"Father, you look very tired."

Shen stopped yawning when Xia pointed this out. The ruler paused when he saw everyone was staring at him.

They were sitting at the breakfast table and it was incomprehensible to anyone that Shen was the only one who looked very exhausted.

"Oh, it's nothing," he said with a gesture of refusal. "Just the change of air."

Xia wasn't so convinced and seemed to be the only one at the table who was particularly worried. But Shen just smiled at her.

"All's well," he reassured her and looked over at Fantao.

"Fantao! Stop playing with the rice sticks!"

Fantao had grabbed all the chopsticks and had piled them up in a turret.

"Jian! Put your musical instrument away!"

"Shenmi, don't spill soup your shirt!"

Shenmi, who was sitting next to her father, accidentally smeared a soup stain on her dress.

"I'll do it, father," Xia offered herself and reached for a towel to rub off the soup stain.

Sheng cleared his throat. "So, what are we doing today?"

Shen was glad that he changed the subject. "You will do your morning training today."

"Why don't you ever take part?" Zedong asked.

"Because training is important to you. I don't need any more lessons."

"But you could also train with us," Zedong urged.

Now it was Shen, who cleared his throat. "You better follow the masters. Just do what they tell you."

Shenmi looked at him questioningly. "Master Ox always tells me: 'Shenmi, whatever you do, just don't become like your father.'"

Shen's hands clenched. "So, does he say that?" But he kept his inconspicuous smile on his beak. If he was angry, Shenmi shouldn't see it. Because then she would just feel guilty again.

After breakfast, the ruler sent away the whole gang. Xia and Sheng had the task of watching the little ones while Shen made his tour through the palace.

The goat didn't feel good about Shen and followed him.

"Shen? Are you okay?" She asked.

Shen folded his arms behind his back and looked like a thunderstorm was about to break out overhead.

"He is going to teach my daughter behind my back," he growled.

"Shen, calm down," she tried to soothe him. "You can be glad that he even allowed you to stay here in Gongmen City from time to time."

With a snort, Shen turned away from her. "Actually, the city is still rightfully mine. And don't come back to me with the thing from what happened that I would have no right to it!"

The goat stroked her beard. "You can't change what happened back then, but you managed to steer it back on a different path..."

"That doesn't change the fact that bringing up children is still my job!" He interrupted her. "He has no right to interfere! If it were up to me, we would leave this place immediately."

"My Lord?"

Shen paused when a gazelle came up to him.

"What is it?" the lord asked, annoyed.

"A message." With that, the guard handed him a roll of paper. "It came by airmail."

Shen took the message and the guard left.

When he read the return address, he immediately unfolded the paper.

The goat was about to retreat, but then the peacock made a jerky movement and she turned back to face him.

Shen had his head covered with his wing; in the other wing he was holding the letter, crumpled up.

"Is anything wrong, Shen?" She asked with worried voice.

Her eyes widened as Shen pressed the wing closer to his forehead and shook his head violently. Then he held out the crumpled paper.

"Read this."

He still wasn't looking at her, which worried the goat even more. Reluctantly, she took the letter from him while Shen said in a tight voice: "Read it loud and clear."

Did he just want to test whether he had misread? But the goat did not ask any further questions and read:

"Dear Lord Shen,

I feel compelled to send you this message to inform you that your wife has been missing in the Mendong Palace since last night. She was heard screaming during the night, and she has been undetectable ever since. As soon as we have something new, I'll let you know.

I remain respectfully yours, King Wang."

The soothsayer had barely finished when Shen jerked away.

"I should never have let her go alone!"

Shen ran to the next flight of stairs and went down.

"Shen, where are you going?" The goat called and ran after him.

"To the harbor."

"Harbor?"

"I will charter a ship right away!"

"You want to leave? But…"

"Don't try to stop me!" Shen snapped at her. In the meantime, they had reached the front door of the palace, which the white lord opened with a swing.

"I'll go to Mendong City, finding her and getting her bac...!"

Suddenly the ruler crashed into a tall, big black and white figure. Shen fell back and landed hard on the floor. The person in front of the entrance had better kept himself on his feet. Shen rubbed his back and looked up to see who was blocking his way.

"Hey, Shen!" Po's cheerful voice called to him. "How are you? A long time ago, huh? Well, I was just on my way to see..."

"Panda!" Angrily, Shen jumped up. "No matter what the universe has whispered to you, but I'll take care of it my way! And I do it alone! You don't have to trouble yourself to come here. The letter was meant solely for me. And it is still my wife and I will search and find her on my own! Do you understand that, Panda?!"

Po had been intimidated by the torrent of speech and was now standing there with ducked head.

"Uh, actually we just wanted to... go on... vacation."

"Vacation?"

Shen thought he didn't hear right. But Po grinned broadly and straightened up again to his normal, cheering, size. "Yes, to the Shuǐ Qíyù adventure paradise!" With that, he held a poster in front of the peacock's beak. "Water slides, water fights, whirlpools, mud baths... That will be great! And because Gongmen City was on the way, I thought we'd come over."

"We?"

"Yes, my friends are still in town that long. So, I wanted to say hello again after such a long time, well, I've done that now. But I'll say it again: Hello!"

Shen looked around in confusion before returning the greeting, albeit with a sour expression. "Uh, hello."

"Look, it's the Dragon Warrior!"

At that moment, Fantao came running around the corner. Closely followed by his siblings.

Po spread his arms. "Hey! Kids! How are you?"

The children jumped around him cheering.

"Ouch!" Po winced when someone kicked him in the back. "Oh, you've practiced a lot, Zedong, didn't you?"

The little piebald peacock smiled proudly. "Yup."

"Wow, what's that?" Curiously, Fantao held up the poster that the panda had dropped.

"This is the best water play paradise in the whole of the Eastern Province," Po explained to him. "There you can find every term of water attraction. Whirlpool, waterslide..."

"Waterslide?"

"Yes, come on, I'll show you how fast a waterslide is."

With that, Po lifted the peacock cub and raced back and forth with him.

"May I too?" the others urged.

"Of course, you can."

Po took one peacock child after the other in his hands, held it above his head and ran with him across the courtyard, always shouting: "Waterslide! Waterslide!"

The goat watched it with amusement. "Why don't you do something like that with the children, too?"

Shen folded his wings together and raised his head. "First of all, because something like that is beneath my dignity and secondly,..."

At that moment, Po sank down on the floor with exhaustion.

"... it's too strenuous," Shen finished his explanation and looked at the panting panda.

"No more waterslide," Po gasped. "Please, no more waterslide."

After a few heavy breaths, the panda sat up and looked questioningly at Shen. "But what kind of letter were you talking about?"