PATIENCE IS THE VIRTUE OF THE STRONG
The icy wind penetrated into the bones, but this did not seem to intimidate the collector about the decision made days earlier. If there were new animals to catch, he would, with or without the snowstorm!
Until then they had only explored China, who knows how many wonderful animals there were in the rest of that world! But his spies were barely enough for that boundless territory that, in spite of everything, had provided him with numerous rare pieces over the years.
Derek and his men really looked like animals thanks to the heavy furs they wore against the bitter cold.
The storm had subsided allowing them to resume their journeys, but this was not the case with the cold. The airship was characterized by an internal aluminium frame that determined its shape, usually in cigar. Numerous cells, filled with helium, lighter than air, allowed him to rise high. But this was different, externally it looked like two large oval balloons with in the center of them the cabin equipped with numerous compartments for weapons and cages. They were basically two large airships attached to each other, connected by a large cabin, twice the size of normal given the double capacity of the helium cells.
"Sir, the target has been identified! Can we proceed?" A young boy asked.
After receiving an almost no-existent nod of consent from the collector, the young man ran to report it to his superior.
An albino serval walked carefree in a vast clearing completely covered in snow. If he hadn't worn clothes, it would have been impossible to spot him!
The large airship used the fog to make the most of it so that it could lower itself unseen and bring a group of men down to the ground. His collectibles often used to capture new animals, but this time, the collector would use his own strength. Once on the ground he and his men moved quickly, being careful to stay downwind. From the relaxed and slow pace to which the feline was moving it was evident that he had not yet realized that he was being hunted and this was an advantage.
Animals were extremely fast as humans never resorted to any of their inventions to avoid attracting too much attention. At least, not many, given the presence of the airship. But thanks to the artificial fog it was quite easy to hide it, despite its huge size and the engines had been specially modified in such a way as to make as little noise as possible!
A machine would be too visible and not wanting to alarm an empire, Derek had realized that acting in the shadows was the only possible solution.
After hours of pursuit, the serval eventually picked up wood and lit a fire near a large tree under which he had decided to take shelter.
That was the signal. Once the animal stopped it was both dangerous and favorable at the same time. The danger came from the fact that standing still, the animal could have spotted them more easily. At the same time, however, humans could surround it and attempt to block any escape route.
Luck wanted many of these rare animals to be very often alone, as if the others avoided them!
The prey removed the hood from his head and one of the guards took advantage of it by firing the sedative.
The serval emitted a suffering verse before slumping into the ground unconscious. Derek found himself smiling smugly.
Hunting was rarely so easy. Usually a fight or a little chase was always there, but in this way it would have caught many more prey in a day. At the moment there were eight designated animals, but if he met with interesting ones he would not miss the opportunity. There were animals not suffering from genetic problems such as albinos, but still extremely rare and since its prestige depended on those beasts, Derek would take anyone he could find useful!
A thick fog heralded the imminent arrival of the large airship, and once it landed, the men prepared for an immediate take-off, aware that the hunt had only just begun.
"Sir, the next target is five kilometres north, but it's moving fast!" A guard informed him while the others dealt with the newly captured animal, "Tell him to follow him and tell us about the location! It's the first albino mooce we see and it must be absolutely ours!" Derek said, looking at an old photo long before he depicted the animal in question.
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Shen sighed deeply as he tried to relax…. failing miserably.
For weeks he and Kang had not spoken and because of the power of the females, it is not known how, Lang Min had convinced him... let's say more compelled, to reconcile with his father.
The peacock was sitting rigidly on the sofa in the sofa of his parents' house, though, at the time, he wished to be on the other side!
Kang entered the room, also appearing visibly nervous. He sat down in front of the young man and began to ignore each other. After a few minutes Lu-Chu arrived intrigued by the simple fact that he had not yet heard a single scream.
"Kang!" She said she was taking her husband back. He gave up and said, "I heard Derek set out to catch new ones..." "... Prisoners! Yes, you heard right!" Shen concluded for him. "What is it that you want?" asked the peacock more and more angrily.
"Freedom!" answered the albino by raising his head and crossing his father's gaze for the first time. "Are you sure? I think what you're most interested in is just revenge!" Kang said with obvious dislike in his voice. "And when would you have this enlightenment?" Shen asked, "Are you preparing an arsenal of weapons with your fireworks!" He observed Kang.
"I'm just for defense!" explained the albino peacock "Really?" asked his father with obvious sarcasm, "Yes, believe it or not!" Shen replied, impatient with such distrust. "So we're going to leave this place so Derek can keep catching more animals?" Kang asked, "Not gon..." "They won't run away! None of the future "prisoners" will be able to do that! He will get better and better!" The exasperated father screamed. "Now do you worry that others may be caught?" His son mocked him.
"It's my duty..." "Why? Ah... right! Because you live well here, right?" Shen interrupted him "... to make sure everyone's okay! And I'm not gonna let a young man put life on the line for his stupid dream!" Screamed Kang threatening to open the tail so that it could appear more threatening.
"Do you really want to live your whole life in a cage?" Asked Shen.
"I want to live instead of dying! If you're gonna keep giving up Derek S trouble, you're gonna…..." Kang lowered his head by cheating bitterly. But there was no need to complete the sentence, because Shen understood what he meant.
"This is not life!" screamed the White Peacock, knowing the other thought otherwise. "Enough!" A Third voice turned the two males into Lu-chu, which was watching Lang Min surprise that had entered and was interfered into the conversation without any hesitation. In stark contrast to her timid character.
"Kang, you offered me a welcoming home when I thought I was gonna be doomed! You did it with almost everyone in the reserve! And you will continue to do so because you have a kind heart! But lowering your head in front of humans just for fear that they might hurt us is not life! Living in terror cannot be called such! Life without freedom, it is like a body without the spirit." Lang Min began to speak as she sat next to his companion. The males were extremely proud and it was a practice that they took from anger, forgetting the core of the speech by getting into unnecessary insults.
"I'm afraid too!" Confessed the female peacock "Last time we were beaten! What are they going to do this? But Shen has awakened in me the desire to live free! Do you know what freedom is? It is to be able to travel and see the world, it is to make one's choices consciously, it is not to have to live behind thick walls, it is when you no longer feel the weight of the chains and their cold metal..." Lang Min lowered his head heartbroken. Kang stood still staring at her with a serious expression in his face, as if he cared nothing of a single word.
"Do you want your children and grandchildren to live like this? They're going to get away with it too! There is a possibility..." "...no, there isn't! Now that you're with him, do you feel like an expert in war? Keep biting the hand that feeds you and... you will regret it!" Kang said frostyly before getting up and heading for the door. But Shen was quick to get on his way "How dare you talk to her like that?" thundered the white peacock , "If you really care about her, give up!" The father said calmly. "Is that how you protect my mother? Do you really think humans need an excuse to hurt us or kill us?" yelled Shen behind Kang who had left the house, tired of continuing that conversation.
"Shen..." a voice turned the couple in Lu-Chu's direction. The female peacock was barely holding back tears, and the white peacock grabbed her wing in an attempt to pull her up. In his youth he had almost never received any gestures of affection from his parents and now he did not know how to behave. Needless to say, when she embraced him sobbing he was dismayed, reciprocating the squeeze with obvious embarrassment.
When his mother broke away from him, she gave him a sad smile, "He's always lived here! Be patient! He feels it like his home, his land! I feel compassion for what humans do to them!... When the time comes to leave... I... I'll come with you! I was young when they caught me, not as much as my husband, that's why Something I remember it and I hope Kang changes his mind so that we can live a happy life together!" She said Lu-Chu before following her husband, perhaps, to try to reason with him.
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"For those who struggle, life tastes like those who are safe will never know," said a voice. Kang stopped his stumble and looked up , "Good morning Master!" He said trying to leave "Who fights can lose, those who do not fight have already lost" without success apparently.
"They're going to kill us!" He angrily said, hoping to silence the antwere.
"You seem so sure about that!" Jingjing said as soft as ever.
"We can't overwhelm their weapons! The first failure was proof!" Kang insisted, "You didn't beat yourself, you chose a different path, and that has disadvantaged you!" He specified the Master. "It doesn't matter! We can't face humans, they're too strong! And I wouldn't be able to protect them once we're out," the peacock closed the speech.
"How much do you know about yourself if you've never fought?" Jingjing asked, "What are you saying? I've always tried to get them to have it all! I just want to protect them!" Kang said, not fully understanding the Master's words.
"You've always lowered your head... to protect them! I admire you, but you confuse freedom with slavery," the prickly antiser pointed out to him.
"To the slave from orders, I never executed an order and never gave them!" The peacock said, turning his back on the Master with the intention of ending the speech there.
"A slave who has no conscience that he is a slave and who does nothing to free himself, is truly a slave. But a slave who is aware that he is a slave and who is fighting to free himself is no longer a slave, but a free man," Jingjing said, stopping for the umpteenth time, Kang's escape.
"I am a peacock of the reserve! This is, was it, it was and it will never change!" The peacock said he was running out of patience.
"The greatest waste in the world is the difference between who we are and what we could become. The evil of the world cannot be eliminated, but living with it is not normal!" Said the Master parading himself in front of the peacock.
"I'm fine so! I have nothing to fight for! My family lives here! And that's where I'm going to stay!" Kang said with confidence.
"It's worth fighting only for things without which it's not worth living: your family!" Kingjing said. "Didn't you hear?" asked the peacock on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "Kang!" A voice turned him over and to his left he saw his beloved wife. "Honey, I've decided to go with Shen and all the others who want freedom!" said the female peacock as if to blame for what she had just said was crushing her under a weight impossible to sustain.
"No!" he cried. Kang said, snapping immediately as soon as he heard his wife utter those words, "I won't allow it!" She screamed as if she did not want to believe what she had said. "Will you prevent us from going?" Lu-Chu asked, "Of course i do! It's too dangerous!" Kang said as he approached her. But when he stretched a wing towards his wife's, he felt he was missing as soon as he saw her demoted to escape that caress. Never his adored, had dismissed him so abruptly!
"Are we prisoners then?" Lu-Chu asked with tears in his eyes. This time it was Kang who went backwards reflecting on what he had just said.
"No... no you are not! Only... I can't live without you! You can't leave me!" He tried to convince her. "You're abandoning your family!" Said the female peacock and began to cry. "That's not true! My children..." "... they decided to follow Shen!" She concluded the sentence.
Kang stared at his wife, the woman he loved most than life itself, with complete horror! It was much worse than having to live with the idea that his parents had sold him for a few coins to Derek when he was just a few days old chick! Worse than the fear he had at the idea of getting out of the reserve! Worse than the terror that twisted his bowels as he found himself fearing for the lives of his children!
A primitive fury overwhelmed him and he ran away!
"Master!" Lu-Chu screamed as he hugged the old antwere in search of some comfort after he had turned his back on his beloved.
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"How much longer should we be pet?" Xu asked as he finished cleaning his plate. "Great dinner, Lang Min! You're an excellent cook!" Syaoran said as he licked what was left of the broth in his dish.
"Um, yes, not bad!" Guo said he wasn't too convinced, even though he had devoured dinner by also taking the encore.
"We must be cautious! Humans are on alert! We will wait for the most favorable moment, that is, when Rose and the others will distract them enough to make us act without suspicious them," said Shen, who appeared visibly in a bad mood and everyone knew why...
"How much longer should we wait?" asked impatiently Kuen.
"Patience is the virtue of the strong!" Sheng said he entered the house without even knocking. "A saying? But you weren't just talking for riddles?" Meng asked, mocking the peacock.
Suddenly Lang Min entered the dining room and hurriedly put the second door on the table, only to run immediately to his companion's side and say something to his ear. This caused everyone to mutiny and stare at the scene full of curiosity. Whatever the peacock said, she altered the already black mood of the white peacock who stood up as he made his way to the door in great strides. Lang Min lowered his head, sighing heartbrokenly. What would happen now?
"Let me guess... Kang?" sarcastically asked Chan, the albino falcon.
The peacock in question was gone that morning, after the last discussion i had with Shen, so as not to be seen by anyone... up to that point, it seemed!
"I bet two coins that it is he and two others who will emerge victorious from the now imminent quarrel!" Xu said that despite the numerous losses accumulated, he had not lost the desire to wager bets despite the fact that there were very few coins in the reserve, since it was humans who took care of their needs.
"I accept!" said Hao waving his excited tail. "We too!" Guo and Hao said in chorus. "You nothing?" He asked for the melanic panther addressed to those who had not joined the bet.
"No! I point money on serious things!" Kun said as he got some rice. "Putting on how many dumplings Bao can get in to his mouth... you call it serious!?" asked Qiao amused.
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"Would this be your offensive?" asked Shen to a furious Kang once outside, on the doorstep.
"Do you think you make me desist from my intentions? You're wasting your time! If necessary I will go head-to-head meeting at the dea..." the white peacock failed to finish the sentence that his father slapped him so hard that he fell to the ground next to him.
"You're a fool!" Kang yelled. The peacock jolted when he saw Xu and the others rush to them. "What you have in mind is suicide! Attacking humans is a crazy plan!" kept screaming the peacock.
Shen was still stunned and shocked by the blow he received and could not answer as he watched the parent beeless and massaged his cheek.
Xu helped his friend get back on his feet and snarled at Kang as a warning, making him intend to be relegated.
"That's why..." The peacock continued... "your escape plan..." Now he was trying to get in the way? Shen felt his bowels burn on fire because of the wrath that grew inside him. Was he weak to such an extent?
No, the most appropriate question was: could he turn against his father? Kang loved both him and his brothers, which was what drove him to stand in their way, and Shen didn't know what to do!
"There are days when you have to fight and others when you better give up. The difficulty lies in understanding what day it is today" the words that the Master had told him a few days earlier only increased the confusion.
He had changed, he was no longer the emotionless Prince before whom everyone had to bow and that he had to show the world that he had earned his place on the throne of Gong Men... he was alone... Shen! And he had finally found a family! How could he destroy it for a stupid dream? Maybe living in the reserve wouldn't have been bad! Maybe that was their destiny! Failure should have opened his eyes, but he kept going with his head down!
No! It couldn't go like this! The family doesn't weaken you by forcing you to submit to kang. It gives you the strength to fight back!
He would never have bent over in front of such despicable beings as human!
And if he had been forced to fight his own family, he would have done it!
"... needs to be improved!" finished saying Kang.
Everybody stop!
Shen and the others remained even more surprised at the peacock they believed to be their enemy until recently.
"I let myself be dominated by fear! I'm not leaving my family! But I will not let them risk their lives just because we are divided instead of being united! That's why I decided to join you and improve the plan so that everyone can survive!" explained the peacock, though the terror in his eyes was evident. Kang approached Shen and hugged him, "I love you, my son!" He said, then detached himself from him, keeping his wings on the young peacock's shoulders, "But I needed to let off steam and let you down! You can't do it all by yourself because you're not and never will be!" Kang said with a smile.
"Thank you father! You honor me!" Shen said, bending his head slightly, suddenly forgetting the slap, since his father's words made him feel that feeling he had been looking for all his life: love!
For him, his father was willing to completely turn his life around and go against what he believed and considered as a family.
"You are the one who honors yourself by supporting your ideas and never giving up!" Kang said before turning to the small group of animals who had witnessed the whole scene.
"No one can make us feel inferior without our consent! And I will follow my son Shen on the road to freedom!" He said loudly.
The others cheered by cheering their new guidance!
Unfortunately, such a clash was inevitable!
Change always scares everyone, including me.
I think we must be changeable, as nature is.
And on the other hand, I believe that every clash with one's parents only tightens the relationship if afterwards there is a reconciliation with an effort on both sides.
Ok. I confess it: in writing the dialogues with the Master I have a lot of fun! He always manages to have the last word and everything he says makes me think anyone, not just the character!
What do you think? Expectations?
See you soon,
X-98