Hello there!

So, I assume once more you've read the updated title, hmm? Yes, you're right, it doesn't say "cancelled!" Because it's not!

I'm hoping you read my message on The Truth Shall Set You Free, since it might bring some context as to what I'm about to say, but if you didn't, don't worry about it. So you know all that talk I was doing about writing themes I actually value? Well, 2112 has those themes. Now, unlike before, I'm not going to talk about those themes because we're only two chapters into the book, and I don't want to spoil things.

As I said before, I also believe in telling different stories, and this story is-or will be- very different from The Empress. Everything from… well, a lot of things.

I do really love the idea for it, and that extends to the point that I firmly believe that it deserves a fair amount of attention. It doesn't deserve to be the side-project to The Empress, only getting half of the love, but I believe it's worthy to have its own chance in the spotlight from me.

Unfortunately, that means that it's just going to have to wait its turn. So I'm archiving this story until I finish with The Empress. Which may not be anytime soon, but it will wait for me. Now, I may still occasionally take breaks from The Empress every four or five chapters or so and do one or two of these chapters, but there will be no switching stories every other chapter like there was with The Empress and The Truth. Ironically, this actually may result in chapters of 2112 getting out much quicker than before, as the only thing preventing me from writing them before was the guilt that I should have been writing the next chapter for The Truth.

Well, I'm really excited to bring this story to you all, as I think it'll be quite fun, but until that time has arrived, I bid you have a good day.

Oh, wait a minute. I did decide that maybe, just maybe, before I archived it for its months-to-year long (partial) sleep, I might bring you all one more chapter…

On with the show!

Delia- Night

It had been a busy day for Po. He had spent the whole day plowing the fields. While he was plowing, he simply focused on the harvest ahead of him. In fact, that was mostly all he really thought about whenever he was plowing. The Harvest was always the end goal. It was his purpose in life: to farm and reap the fruit of the land for everyone else, just as everyone reaped the fruit of the land for him. He had to work so everyone else could eat, just as they worked for him. There was no thought of reward or congratulations in the panda's head. He only wanted to serve his people.

However, the people on the planet couldn't survive on farming alone, so there were small towns here and there where people with special skills lived. They were made up of people who followed the profession of their parents, as they followed the profession of their parents before them. Most made things that the farmers needed; things such as tools and clothes. There wasn't a large diversity in the professions of the people in the small town, but there was just enough to keep the farmers alive.

Po's goose father had stopped by the panda in the fields, telling him that they needed a new hoe. It was true, Po had told Mr. Ping a week ago that it had broken. But Po hadn't needed it immediately, so there was no rush to get it. But, Mr. Ping had finished weeding the fields, a project he had been working on for the last few weeks, and would have to start over again in a few more.

So now, after sundown, Po put his hand-held plow back into the barn, and had retreated back to his small hut by himself, waiting for his father to come back from town.

The walls of the hardened clay hut danced with the flickering of the flames in the fireplace. The hut itself was very simple. There was a table by the wall opposite of the fireplace; an old, rickety table that barely supported two bowls of food. The single room functioned as the living room, dining room, and kitchen. On one end of the hut was a misshapen doorway, where an even smaller room could be found. Inside the room were two piles of cloths laid out on the floor, serving as beds for the two inhabitants. On one side was a smaller pile of cloths, while the other side sported a much larger pile.

Above the fireplace, which functioned as the oven, Po had his bowl of rice warming up. For Po, rice was the focal point of the culinary experience of his life, as rice was what he grew. Different farmers were assigned different crops, and Po's ancestors had been given rice to grow. And so they had grown rice for as long as anyone could remember.

Of course, they appreciated eating different foods, and the one thing that Po loved most was noodles, made from the wheat grown by a few of his neighbors. Such a refined product was a luxury, as it didn't grow extremely well in their warm, moist climate, and noodles were only given to people during celebration times such as the Harvest Celebration. But Po had already learned from his father the family secret, and that was how to make a mean bowl of noodles. Of course, his father had withheld the Secret Ingredient from Po, so Po believed that his wasn't quite as good as his father's. But maybe one day…

Po got up from his seated position on the table, sitting on the right side of the table as he always did, and walked over to the bowl of rice. Seeing that it was ready, he picked it up out of the fireplace and set it on his table, letting it cool a little bit. He patiently looked at the bowl for a few moments, and then grabbed it, grabbing his seat in the other paw. He brought his meal and his chair outside on the grass.

He much preferred being outside than in his hut. The only time he liked being inside was when he was inside the temple, when his nature god was with him. But he also felt the presence of nature when he was in it, not just in the temple. He knew it was watching over him.

Po, holding his bowl with one paw and adjusting a pair of chopsticks with one, began to eat his supper. He looked out at the sky, and saw all of the stars that blanketed it.

He loved the stars. He liked them even better than the Sun. The Sun may have brought warmth and made his crops grow, and he did like it, but he simply liked the stars better. There was just something so profound about how they watched silently in their thousands, shining their light on him. It was like a million eyes staring down on him, making sure that he was safe and protected. It didn't make him feel uncomfortable, those eyes, as if they were watching him, judging him, but they made him feel secure. He didn't have to worry about anything; he knew those eyes were always watching over him.

As Po looked up, he picked out the constellations he liked to find every night. He could make out many of his favorites. He found them by looking for the brightest star in each constellation. But one star caught his attention.

It was very bright.

Po knew every constellation and knew where all the brightest stars were. So when Po tried to search around the bright star, he became confused when he didn't recognize any constellation around it. This was a star that he didn't recognize. Po wondered what it could be.

"Stars don't just appear," he thought. "Do they?"

As Po kept looking at the star, it almost seemed as if it was getting brighter. How was that possible, Po wondered? First a star just appeared out of nowhere, and now it was getting brighter?

As Po looked on in a mixture of confusion and wonder at the brightening star, it kept getting brighter and brighter. In fact, it appeared to be moving across the sky now. Bigger and bigger it grew, until Po began to realize that it was not, in fact, a star at all.

"An asteroid?" he briefly wondered as the ball of fire continued its descent. He finally settled on that theory, but it did nothing to ease the concern he now felt as he realized it was getting even larger and now seemed to be moving in his direction. Even though it had never happened in his lifetime, he was aware of asteroid impacts, and had no desire to be on the bottom end of one.

After a few tense seconds of gripping the bottom of his chair with his free paw passed, he soon realized that it wouldn't be smashing him nor his house into oblivion. But he watched with curiosity as the asteroid grew and began to appear to be more than a bright star, and now a large fireball flying across the sky. He watched until he realized that one of his neighbour's land was bound to be struck by it, and his look of wonder soon turned to one of shock.

It came closer and closer, until it was close enough that Po could see that it wasn't very large at all. Perhaps the size of his house. No, even smaller. Nothing that would wipe out his village, at least. As it got closer, the fire seemed to fade away, revealing a curiously shaped asteroid. Po almost had time to make out its shape before it hit the ground a distance away from him, sending up a spurt of flame and a boom that echoed throughout the land.

In the future, Po recalled himself remembering the situation with a tactful and dignifying thought such as-

"Oh. That might cause a bit of a stink."

He stood up, leaving his bowl of noodles and chopsticks resting on the seat of his chair. He jogged forward in the direction of the plume of smoke, cutting across his fields of rice.

It seemed to take quite some time as Po jogged and jogged. As a panda, he suffered from the natural endurance issues that all his kind shared, but living life as a farmer had aided him in that aspect, and it might be said that he was rather athletic when compared to his own kind.

As Po approached the impact site, he could make out a small crowd around it. When he finally arrived, panting and sweaty, they parted a little to make room for him, and he took his place among them, looking at what the sight had to offer his eyes.

Before him lay a long stretch of thrown-up crops and dirt where the object had made impact at an angle and continued sliding across the fields some distance. But what was most interesting was the impact object itself. Upon inspection, it was clearly no asteroid, nor rock of any kind. A mass of twisted metal lay before them. The people in the crowd had only ever seen metal in one place, and that was the walls and columns of the pyramid temple in which they worshiped daily.

The mass of metal was warped and broken into pieces, scattered across the fields, but the group was gathered around the main portion of the ship, which was currently on fire. There seemed to be no sense of urgency among the group. They merely remained silent as they witnessed the flames rise up out of the wreckage before them. They knew not what to think, nor did they know what to say, nor did they know what to do. So they simply stood there, staring.

After a few minutes, they were joined by their neighbors who had either seen the object fall or heard the sound of it crashing down into the ground. They joined the group, only to fall into their same reaction, and silently stare.

Meanwhile, Po was trying to comprehend what this strange object could possibly be. It most certainly wasn't an asteroid. So what else could it be?

He could think of nothing.

After a few more minutes of staring, coming down the road was one of the seven priests, his red robe flowing behind him and his head well situated under his hood. He approached the group, and the crowd parted as they let him approach.

The priest, an elderly goat with pale-white fur, stepped forward and placed his hoof on the heap of twisted metal. If the crowd was silent before, they were now doubly so, as they witnessed what they believed to be one of the seven gifts from the gods, here to help and guide them throughout their lives, come to solve this issue.

No one could see the old goat's face under his hood as he carefully examined every inch of the object, but he soon turned around to face the group, and they each focused their eyes on him as he began to speak.

He held his hooves up in the air and spoke in a majestic, flowing manner that commanded attention and belief.

"Oh, my brothers and sisters!" he began, "The gods have bestowed upon us one of their many blessings on this good night!"

A paw shot up in the crowd, and the Priest nodded towards it. The crowd turned its head to see an older rabbit. They recognized him and knew him to be the owner of the land in which they were all now standing.

"Umm, how is this 'ere thing a blessin'? Just look to what it's done to me crop!"

The priest held his hoof up, silencing him.

"Peace, Brother Bai. I assure you this object can be used for the benefit of us all. This object can be given up to the gods, and an offering of such magnitude will not go unnoticed by them, I assure you! They will bless us with seven years of good rain for such a gift!"

These words were met with a murmur of approval, as it was an appealing thought.

"The High Priest knows all the proper and necessary preparations and rituals necessary to give the gods this gift. Do not fret, my friends, we will take care of this matter immediately. You may all go back to your homes tonight, and I can promise you the Fathers and Mothers and I will have this removed and out of your minds until the ceremony is ready!"

Another murmur of approval was heard as the crowd obeyed the order, each member turning to head back to their homes.

Among their numbers was Po, who stood there for another split second, curious as to how this fallen piece of the sky could have been a blessing.

But, if the Priest said it was so, then it was so. His word was the truth, and the truth was his word. It was not to be questioned, much less doubted.

So Po continued on his way back the way he came, back through his neighbors' field of rice and into his own. On his way, he briefly wondered when his father would return home so he could tell him the news of what he had seen. What a wonderful thing it would be to tell him, he thought. Nothing different ever really happened around that place, and a change was something to be admired by the panda. A terrible shame that most of his neighbors did not share similar sentiments. An even bigger shame that the Priests detested it.

Meanwhile, as everyone cleared the area, the Priest stood standing in his spot near the wreckage, keeping a watchful eye for anyone who's curiosity may have gotten the better of them. But fortunately, no one really had any imagination in that place. He should know, he helped make it that way.

A few minutes after everyone had disappeared from sight, the Priest turned around and went back to the broken spaceship. He briefly ran his hoof across the metal hull absent-midendly before continuing back to the temple. He entered the path back on the road and walked down it until he came to the pyramid-shaped building.

He walked up to the door and casually opened it, sliding it and closing the door behind him. During the night, the temple was an eerie place, with its floors empty and the shadow of the columns looming long across the floor, the moonlight flowing in from the windows. But the Priest was not very interested in hanging around by himself, so he quickly walked through the bare floors, stepping up onto the platform and past the seven seats where he and his comrades oversaw the daily prayers. Finally, he reached the back wall, and he came to the point where it met with the other wall and formed a corner. The goat put his hoof up to what seemed like an arbitrary spot on the wall, but he knew better.

Suddenly, the square around his hoof flashed to life, and a line of horizontal light appeared at the tip of his hoof and ran down the length of his hoof, scanning it. After it finished, the light died and a beeping noise was heard. Then, a panel of the wall before him hissed as it detached itself from the wall a few inches. It then spun in place, revealing the backside of the wall. It was a small and tight platform, with a tiny light bulb on top of the space which offered some light. The goat stepped through the secret doorway and onto the platform. The door soon spun back into its place again and shut itself with another hiss, and the goat felt himself moving downwards.

After a few seconds, the entire platform spun in place once more, and the opened doorway led to a very different place. He now found himself in a short hallway, with electric lights running in thin pipe-like carriers all the way through the width of the ceiling, down the walls, and across the floor, the ends meeting on the bottom of the floor, completing the loops.

The Priest walked down the hall and opened the first door. Inside it was a room, lit similarly to the hall. By one wall was a set of consoles for keeping track of what happened inside the farming village they were in charge of, and by another was a small kitchenette, with all the machines necessary for it to cook meals entirely by itself. There was a table by the other side of the room, capable of serving up to seven people, and a large sofa nearby that table, backed up against the wall.

When the Priest walked in, a most interesting sight was before him. There were four people in the room. One was over by the console, talking into a device that he held up to his ear. On the sofa, a young ram was lounging on the sofa with his legs spread out over it, one arm supporting his head and the other holding a glass of wine. The ram on the sofa was enjoying the spectacle that was going on at the table.

Sitting in one of the seats, a male deer buck was groggily looking up, half a dozen small empty cups in front of him. Standing on top of the table was a leopardess, who was occupied in drowning a cup of alcohol down her throat while balanced on one leg. When she gulped down the drink without falling off the table, she shook her head and smiled at her competition sitting by the table.

"Let's see you top that, you pansy."

Finally, the ram by the sofa noticed the old priest standing by the doorway.

"Hey, Xun! Come in, come in, you're just in time for the big moment!"

The priest shook his head in mock disappointment.

"You know what I love about gettin' old?" he asked the crowd, his tone now very different than when he had dazzled his people. But only the ram was paying any attention to his words, as the leopardess stumbled down from the table as the deer buck shakily climbed up.

"Hmm?" the ram responded.

The old goat reached up behind his head and firmly gripped the back of his neck. He pinched the back of his neck until he finally gripped what he had reached for. He pulled it up and over his head as hard as he could, ripping off the mask he had been wearing, revealing a goat that was much younger.

"I don't have to be!" he answered.

The ram raised his glass of wine in the air. "Here, here!"

The goat then moved over to the corner by the door, where he hung his age-enhancing mask by his comrades'. He also quickly tore off his long, flowing red robe, hanging it on a rack on the wall that held six others. Underneath the robe, he wore a simple white uniform, which matched the ones all his friends were wearing.

He walked over to the ram on the sofa and plopped down on the opposite side of his friend. He reached over on the edge of the table, where his friend was getting refills on his wine. The goat picked up the bottle and poured himself a glass, most graciously left there by his friend. He gestured up to the sight on the table before them, and his friend explained.

"Yeah, Xian said that he could outdrink Lu any day of the week, or something stupid like that, so she challenged him to a drink-off, and before you know it, here we are."

As he finished speaking, the deer buck held a cup to his own lips, slowly drinking its contents. There was a hushed moment of silence among his three friends as they admired his skill in digesting eight of those cups without faltering. He finally had consumed all of it, but when he bent his head back down, his eyes stared forward into the distance quite suspiciously. With a triumphant smile, the leopardess, Lu, moved around the table to the buck's backside. The buck managed to stand on the table for a few more seconds before he finally lost his bet and began to tip backwards. It soon turned into a fall, but Lu caught him by the shoulders before his head could hit the ground and turn into a slight issue.

The ram and goat raised their glasses in celebration.

"Yeah!"

"Woo-hoo!"

After setting the buck down, the leopardess graciously bowed like one who had accomplished great deeds, before taking her own seat by the table.

"So," the goat began, "What about Wang and Cao?" Where'd they go? I figured they might wanna see something like this."

"Oh," Lu answered, "You know them. They're back in the barracks."

The goat's eyebrows raised in a shocked amusement. "Again!?"

The ram chuckled at his response. "Hmm-hm."

"That's the second time this week! Don't they get tired?"

"Well," Lu answered, "You have to admit, there's a lot of free time down here and little to do."

"But, come on! I get so tired of having to ask SU to clean their sheets the next morning! It's so embarrassing!"

"Ah, SU's only the housekeeping robot. She doesn't care about much of anything," the ram answered.

Xun rolled his eyes as he accepted defeat. But, he still had one point to make.

He raised his hooves in the air, his drink still in one hoof, and replied, "Well, I'm just saying that Wang sucks at retreating at the… moment of victory."

His little joke elicited a pair of laughs from his friends. The ram reached over and patted the goat on the shoulder.

"Oh, come on. Let them have their fun."

The goat held his paws up in defeat for the last time. He then gestured to the person over by the console on the wall with the device by his ear. He was speaking into it softly, with his paw held over his mouth so his friends might not try to eavesdrop on his conversation. But it had the exact opposite effect, as the goat asked his friends-

"Who's he talking to?"

"His girlfriend back home, I think," the leopardess answered.

The trio then leaned forward to overhear his conversation. The fox over by the console caught their amused stares out of the corner of his eye, and quickly moved to end his conversation.

"Oh, hey," he spoke into the device, "My friends aren't minding their business again. Hmm? Yeah, I love you too. What? No. Really? Well, I'll call you back tomorrow." The fox then gave a coy smile. "Oh, and don't forget to say your prayers before you go to bed. Yep. Okay, bye-bye."

The fox put the device back on it's holding hooks on the console and turned to his friends with an irritated expression that conveyed his message much better than words could. His friends got a chuckle out of this.

Just as he was about to say, "Oh, shut up!" a red light suddenly flashed on the console, and the group suddenly went silent.

A red alert message. They hadn't received one of those since… ever. At least, not since they had been stationed on Delia and replaced the previous Priests just a year and a half-ago. Whatever humor or light-heartedness had been in the atmosphere was now sucked up by that small, silent, flashing red light.

Finally, the fox by the console picked the phone back up and put it to his ear.

"Yes sir?" he asked. His friends now leaned forward again, although they were in much less of a good mood.

"Umm, I don't know sir. Hold on, let me ask him." The fox put his paw on the speaker of the phone and turned back around to his friends.

"Hey, Xun?" he asked the goat. The goat in question raised his eyebrows in response as the fox continued. "Did you check out that small meteor?"

The goat quickly nodded, secretly berating himself that he hadn't told his friends about it sooner.

"Was it a meteor?" the fox asked. The goat quickly shook his head in the negative. The fox turned back to the phone.

"He says it wasn't, sir. Hmm? Yeah, I'll ask him."

He turned back to the goat. "What was it then? A spaceship?"

The goat nodded in the affirmative.

"Yes sir, he says it was. Yeah, I'll ask him."

He turned back to the goat once more. "Did you see any survivors on the ship?"

"No way. That thing was a total wreck. There's no way anyone could have survived that. Besides, it's on fire anyway."

The fox turned back to his phone. "He says he didn't see any, sir. What, sir? This is High Priest number…" the fox quickly held up his paw and opened it up, reading the number he had written on it. "452, sir. Hmm? No sir, I'm not drunk, sir. What's that? Yes sir."

The fox turned back to the goat. "He says he wants to talk to you directly."

With a gulp, the goat stood up from his comfortable position on the sofa and walked over to the console, its various cameras, monitors, and devices lighting up his face. The fox handed the goat the phone and he immediately heard-

"What landed in your quadrant tonight?"

"Umm, it was a spaceship, sir."

"I know that, retard. My ship just shot down a hijacked freighter over your planet and we tracked it down to your quadrant. But did you see any people?"

"No, sir, there's no way anyone could have survived the crash-"

"Did you see anyone around the crash!? Did it occur to you that the pilot might have ejected!?"

"No, sir."

"So there's no confirmed body sighting?"

"No, sir."

From the other side of the line, the goat could hear the headset being slammed down, but not disconnected. From the other side, he heard two loud footsteps, the last one quieter than the first, suggesting he was backing away from the headset. Even though he was far away from it, he could make out the sound of the commander of the ship yelling out-

"FUCK!" -At the top of his lungs. There was then a moment of silence from across the line. The goat held the device to his ear, tempted to hang up and get out of the stressful situation. He had taken this position in the Federation to avoid stress.

Finally, he heard the sounds of the headset being picked back up and someone sighing on the other line in frustration.

"You know what?" he asked. Before the goat had time to actually ask, the person continued. "I did my job. I did my fucking job. I shot down the ship. I'm done. You can deal with the pale bastard."

Suddenly, the line disconnected, but it didn't die. Instead, the tone rang and a robotic voice came on that said-

"Your call is important to us. Please hold as one of our representatives becomes available. Thank you."

Then, music started playing on the other end, and the goat started sweating as he realized he was being transferred to who had just been referred to as the "pale bastard."

At this point, the goat truly wanted to hang up the phone, as he didn't want to talk to the pale bastard. The pale bastard was someone no one in the Federation wanted to see, talk to, hear from, or interact with. Usually, people as low as Priests didn't have to worry about ever interacting with him, or seeing him at all, for that matter, but if he was personally attending to this matter, then it must have been important. Scratch that. It was super-uber-mega important. And given the ship captain's calm reaction to there not being a confirmed body sighting, he assumed it had something to do with that.

Finally, after a few more tense minutes, a low, silky voice came through the phone.

"I don't like talking through these primitive machines. Attach yourselves, now."

"Yes sir!" the goat quickly responded. He gestured his two friends by the other end of the room over, and as they approached, the goat and the fox pressed a few buttons on the bottom of the console by their feet. The doors slid down, revealing odd-looking helmets. They were made up of a very thin sheet metal, with wires attached to it at various points. They all pulled out a helmet for themselves and placed it on their heads, each helmet pre-designed to fit them individually.

When the four of them were all seated by the console, with the helmets on their heads, the goat quickly searched the console for a specific button. He finally found it and pushed it, and then he, as well as his friends, closed their eyes.

A soft whirring sound could be heard as the machine worked its magic. The goat opened his eyes again, but a very different scene was around him. All around, it was pitch-black. He looked to his left and right, and saw his friends right next to him, also looking around, confused. He wasn't sure how he could see them, as there seemed to be no light coming from anywhere.

Before he had further time to contemplate that thought, suddenly, a flash of light appeared in front of them all out of the darkness. They had to shield their eyes from the harsh, white glow, and when it faded away, the pale bastard himself was there.

Dressed in his signature white robes, the pale peacock wore his usual expression of disgust towards his subordinates. He stepped forward a few steps, while the three priests stood there in shock. After the peacock harshly stared at them for a few seconds, they finally got down on their knees and bowed. When they got back up, they remained with one knee on the ground and their eyes low.

"Do you know why I am talking to garbage such as yourselves?" the peacock politely asked.

"No, Lord Shen," the leopardess quickly answered.

"Does it have to do with the spaceship that fell over our quadrant?" the ram asked.

"I ASK THE QUESTIONS HERE, BOY!" the peacock shouted at the top of his lungs, making the group flinch in fear. There was a pause as the Priests continued staring at the floor while Lord Shen paced back and forth in front of them.

Finally, he said in a much calmer tone- "You do know we have enemies out there, right?"

At first, each member of the group was afraid to answer, so there was an uncomfortable silence as no one said anything.

"Right?" Lord Shen prompted.

"Right!" all three of them suddenly shouted.

"And you know they have a nasty habit of stealing our ships when they can lay their grubby, greedy little paws on them, right?"

"Right!" the three of them shouted again, now getting accustomed to what they were expected to say.

"Well, we have sources that tell me that a very valuable member of said enemies was on the shot-down ship. Now, I really would like her to die, and I'm hoping that was what happened. But, she's very slippery, and until I have a confirmed body sighting, I'm not going to be happy. And when I'm not happy, you're not going to be happy. Understand?"

"Yes, your Excellency!"

"Very good. You may go. Oh, wait, one more thing! I should probably tell you that if you don't find a body, but a live person, kill her. And if you fail me in this, you are to report to the blockade ships above your planet for immediate liquefaction. So, a word of advice: don't fail."

The priests weren't looking at the peacock's face when he said those words, but they could tell that he was smiling. Before they had further time to contemplate that thought, the black, empty world around them began to blur, and they each closed their eyes for a few seconds, only to open them back up again to see they were right back at the console again, the helmets still on their heads.

They quickly took them off and stood up, looking at each other with expressions of shock.

The ram gave a nervous chuckle, trying his best to ease the situation, but failing. "I guess we better find that fugitive, huh?"

He was met with two nods.

"I'll go and get Wang and Cao," the goat said.

As he walked out of the room and back into the hallway, the deer buck still laying down beside the table on the floor finally stirred, supporting himself by the elbows. He looked over at his friends, and saw their expressions of near-terror.

"What's the matter with you guys?"

Meanwhile, as Po had returned to his home following the spaceship impact, a few thoughts had been running through his head. The Priest had said there would be a ceremony for the gods. That might be interesting, he thought. They hadn't had a ceremony since… well, he couldn't remember. The Harvest Celebration was really the only time he interacted with his neighbors at all, with the exception of the daily prayer.

As Po was thinking these thoughts, he finally arrived at his home once again, passing by the barn house and reaching his hut. As he walked up to his hut and passed the chair he had left outside the door on the grass, he absent-mindedly reached for his unfinished bowl of rice, which he assumed was cold by now, but his paw only grabbed air.

Po finally looked down and saw that the bowl was no longer on the seat where he had left it. He looked under the chair and around it, thinking it may have fallen. But it was nowhere to be seen.

Finally, he realized why it was missing.

"Oh, hey dad!" he merrily shouted through the wooden door. He pushed it open and entered.

"I didn't know you-"

He suddenly froze as he looked up at the table, where someone was sitting.

And it wasn't his father.

And that's a wrap! So, what did you think?

Be sure to let me know your thoughts, whether they're good or bad or somewhere in between.

Keep being awesome!