Hi, thanks a lot to all for your great comments. :-) Sorry for the long breaks between the chapters what can happen very often, but some chapters take more time than thought.
"My heart has grown deep from sorrow and anger. How could my own loving parents make me leave my familiar ancestral home? Why would they cast me out like a common object?" – (Kung Fu Panda 2, Mad Libs, Word Game Book, "The Exile Files, by Shen")
8. Painful Awakening
Ai was the first one who woke up the next day. Immediately, she got out of the bed and crept over to Shen's bed dormitory. To her disappointment, the new robe was still on the chair in the dining room. He hadn't put on the new robe. Gently, she pushed the curtain aside. Shen lay on his stomach and slept. He had simply thrown his destroyed white robe on the floor and he was now back in bed without clothes.
With a smiling shake of her head, Ai picked up the dirty garment from the floor. In moments like these, he still behaved like a teenager. The peahen did not want to wake him up. She quietly closed the curtains and let him sleep.
The mood at the dinner table was not exactly perfect when the couple ate their meal. Liang was pretty withdrawn into himself and didn't talk much today.
Ai didn't press him to talk, but she couldn't hold back a question.
"Do you think, they'll look for us?" she asked softly.
The peacock only looked up briefly, then he sighed. "I'm afraid so. And it couldn't be expected otherwise."
Ai looked thoughtfully at her food. "And what should we do now?"
Liang stood up. "In any case, we should keep quiet first." He went to the window and looked outside. "Because of Shen, we have to be careful anyway. We now only leave the house in exceptional cases."
He turned to her. "Are our supplies of food still sufficient?"
Ai looked into the kitchen. "Maybe for several days. But how should we know how long they will be in the area?"
Liang looked down. "I don't know what to do in the distant future yet. What matters is what we can accomplish each day." He was silent for a brief moment. "We have to wait for everything else."
Ai nodded understandingly and sipped her tea.
The two peafowls spent the rest of the morning quiet and not very active. Liang cleaned the kitchen while Ai Shen's white robe washed again and stitched up the cracks. She wasn't sure whether he would put it back on, but if yes, it should look reasonably well-groomed at least. After she finished, she shook it out and looked at it thoughtfully. It would be a long time before the blood stains faded. Sighing, she folded it together and thought about what to do next. Liang had walked around the house for a moment to chop the firewood.
Ai's glance wandered to the curtain. Shen still hadn't gotten up. Was he hungry, but he didn't want to say it?
Finally, the peahen pulled herself together. At least, she wanted to find out how he was feeling. She could also warm up some soup for him, maybe that will stimulate his appetite.
In the next moment, Liang came through the door again. In his wings, he held a couple of chopped tree trunks.
"You still look tired," Ai said, worried.
Liang avoided her glance. "Just because of last night."
He walked past her quickly and put the wood in the kitchen next to the stove. Ai followed him.
"You should take a rest," she advised him. "At least for a while. In the meantime, I can offer Shen something to eat."
Liang rubbed his face. "If you like. He probably doesn't want to see me anyway."
When he was about to go into the bedroom, Ai grabbed his shoulder and looked at him intently.
"It wasn't your fault," she insisted.
Liang put his wing on hers, but he pushed it away and went to bed. Ai looked after him sadly.
The soup was made quickly. Ai decorated everything with fresh herbs. She was reasonably sure that Shen couldn't possibly resist this.
She left the kitchen with the steaming bowl in her wings, but she set it down on the dining room table to check on Shen first.
The white peacock was actually still asleep. He was lying on his right side and was wrapped deep in the blanket.
"Shen?" she whispered. "Are you awake?"
Gently, she grabbed his shoulder. But no sooner had she touched him, Shen winced and began to tremble.
"Let... me...," he muttered.
This behavior was completely new to Ai.
"Shen, what's wrong?" she asked worried. She felt his head. He didn't have a fever. Birds couldn't get a fever, but he was trembling extremely.
"Shen, look at me."
She tried to turn him around, but the peacock refused and even pushed her away.
"L-leave me alone!" he stuttered.
Ai didn't like that at all. Quickly, she ran to her husband's bedroom.
"Liang!" She threw herself on the bed next to him and shook his shoulder. "Something is wrong with him!"
The peacock rose immediately and followed her to Shen's bed. Shen, who had only partially heard his parents' words, rolled over on his back and pulled the blanket higher.
"Leave me alone!" he shouted when he saw his father standing next to him.
"Don't be so unreasonable now," Liang reprimanded him and tried to pull the blanket aside. But Shen threw himself on the other side. He didn't want to let him get any closer. But Liang also noticed something else. Shen's buccal mucosa was quite pale.
"Shen?" Liang asked in a serious tone. "Do you feel any pain?"
Shen shook his head violently, but he was still trembling badly with every movement.
Liang narrowed his eyes. "Shen, if you don't let me check you, I'll tear you out of the bed!"
Ai was a little shocked by Liang's harsh words, but at least they had an effect.
Shen glanced bitterly at his father. "I don't care either…"
He loosened his grip on the blanket so that the peacock father could pick it up. Immediately his glance fell on the bandages. They were still damp and partly dirty from all the rainwater.
After Liang had completely removed the blanket, he sat down next to the makeshift bed and pushed the bandage aside a little. What he saw underneath he had never wanted to see. The wound was extremely red and opened in some places. Ai realized immediately that this was not normal and held her wings in front of her beak in shock. Liang immediately examined the other wounds, some of them were also a little unusually reddened.
"I-it's dra-afty," Shen stuttered. The poor white bird was still lying in the bed without a blanket. Shivering, he turned to the side. He hugged himself and he even pulled his legs up.
Liang stood up immediately and put the blanket back on Shen. Then he hastily pushed Ai aside. The peahen sensed her husband's extreme tension. Both looked at each other in consternation. Then Liang looked down briefly.
"I'll fetch the doctor," he said finally in a firm voice.
"No!" Shen straightened and grabbed his father's shirt in protest. "N-no doctor, n-no doctor anymore!"
But neither of them paid any attention to his begging. Their thoughts were only on how to get a doctor.
"You mean "our" doctor?" Ai asked.
Liang nodded. "That's exactly what I mean."
Ai looked at him doubtfully. "Do you think, it would be wise to take him into your trust again after all these years? To this day, he doesn't even know where we live."
"We can't get another one. He knows our family very well." His gaze fell on his son. "And Shen, too."
Ai grabbed his wing admonishingly. "Shen hates him, you know that."
Liang paused. He still remembered Shen's great outburst of anger deeply. He had chased the doctor out of the house and would certainly have killed him…
The peacock shook his head. "We don't have any other choice in a hurry. He's very good, I don't know the other doctors. And we don't know who of them will keep silent when they find out Shen is still alive."
Ai had to realize that there was no other way. "Okay, but what if Xiao Dan catches you?"
"I can't help it," Liang said, giving her a hard look. "Or do you want him to die?"
Ai couldn't answer that because of sheer fear, so Liang grabbed a long coat and put it on.
"N-no d-doctor," Shen said with difficulty, getting up in his bed. "N-no doctor!"
Liang narrowed his eyes and walked over to his son. "Shen, you are extremely weak..."
The anger in Shen's eyes hit the peacock father like a freezing fist.
"I-I'm not t-the li-little chick anymore!" the white peacock snarled. His breathing had quickened now. "I-I'm strong!"
Liang tried to be as calm as possible and took a deep breath. "Shen, your wounds need treatment…"
"Th-then let me die!" Shen yelled at him. "D-didn't you always want that?"
Those words felt to Liang like being pushed over an edge into the abyss. But he managed not to collapse again at the last moment. Nevertheless, he could not hold back the rising tears in his eyes, which is why he quickly turned away and went to the door.
Ai went with him. "Take care of yourself," she urged him.
Liang didn't answer. Instead, he opened the door, looked around quickly, then he disappeared outside. Ai looked after him worriedly. The sky was partly cloudy, but it was still a bright day. Would he ever make it to the doctor undiscovered?
The peahen saw Liang disappear into the forest, then she quickly closed the door again. Her glance wandered to Shen, who was still sitting in the bed, hunched over. He could barely sit upright.
She went up to him worried. "Shen, lie down. You have to take care of yourself..."
"I-I am not weak!" the peacock snapped at her.
Ai just didn't know what to do and raised her wings in a calming gesture. "Shen, your father didn't mean it back then... He was just worried about you…"
The sentence stuck in her throat when Shen suddenly got out of bed and started to run across the room. "I am strong!"
But no sooner had the weakened peacock taken a few steps, he fell staggering forward and fell to the ground.
"Shen!" Immediately, his mother hurried to him and put her wings on his upper body. "Shen! Are you okay...?"
But the white peacock managed to lift himself and pushed her aside. "L-leave me alone! I manage it a-alone…"
Shen tried to get up, but then he swayed again and collapsed. Ai watched desperately as her son writhed on the floor. He was in so much pain. Tears welled up in his mother's eyes. Shivering, she leaned over him and held him by the shoulders. "Come back to bed. Come back to bed," she pleaded urgently.
She raised Shen's head gently. To her dismay, she saw that he had tears in his eyes as well. Ai didn't say anything. Gently, she lifted the white peacock and hugged him. Regardless of whether Komodo dragons lurked outside or Shen himself was struggling with death, the peahen was only determined to one thing: Nothing and nobody in the world would take her son away from her.
It surprised me that I found Shen's inner thoughts in a Word Game book. XD Well, there were no solutions for the empty parts in the text, for this reason I tried to choose some words that could fit. But it's still a game text. If you want, you can choose your own favorite words.
The words which I chose for the cloze are: "deep", "familiar" and "object".
How I said, there are no solutions in the book. You can choose your own words.