24. Three new victims
The sun was high in the sky and lit the day happily, although it was anything but a good day. At least not for everyone. And Chiwa was a big exception. In a good mood, she presented herself in front of a large mirror that stood in one of the many rooms. She was just about to hang a diamond necklace around her neck.
The glistening white stood out splendidly against her dark plumage. In addition, she wore a purple-black robe, on the sleeves of which the long strips of cloth hung again. As soon as the light fell on the fabric, it shimmered in the most beautiful blue-purple colors.
The peahen brushed again over the long bushy feathers in which the long hairpins were still stuck, and looked proudly at the reflective surface.
She only finished her assessment when the door was opened behind her and two geckos dragged in a large painting.
"Okay, where does this belong?" one of the panting reptiles asked.
The peahen pointed a feather finger at the wall next to her. "Put it there first. We can always move it somewhere else later."
"With "we" she just meant us, right?" the second gecko whispered.
Chiwa had good ears, but she didn't care about the complaints of her accomplices.
With satisfaction, she watched as the geckos leaned the painting against the wall.
"Oh," she exclaimed enthusiastically. "It's so nice to see you again!"
The two geckos looked at each other in amazement. Was she talking to the picture?
They examined the painting where not only Chiwa herself, but also her sister was depicted.
Chiwa ignored the confused faces of the reptiles and approached the picture almost as if on clouds.
"You look beautiful today as always," she continued effusively and leaned against her painted sister. "Yes, yes, there can only be two beautiful peafowls in the world. Me and you."
The first gecko tapped his forehead. And before Chiwa could "talk" to her sister any more, a troop of geckos came in, led by Tongfu.
"Ah, Tongfu," Chiwa said and turned away from her sister. "Well, do you have what I wanted?"
The gecko wrinkled his nose. "Why shouldn't I have that? That's mere child's play."
He pointed behind where the other geckos were dragging the sacks with them. Then they tipped out the cloth bags and three little peacock cubs tumbled out. One of them was still clutching his Chinese pipa.
The three boys looked around. When they saw the dark peahen, they moved closer together because Chiwa didn't look very friendly. Almost gleefully she looked down at them.
"Well, look at you," she whispered and leaned down a little. "What cute and pretty thing do we have there? You don't look as shabby as I thought."
Now it was Zedong, who bravely stood in front of his brothers. "Hey, what are you thinking of kidnapping us?!"
Chiwa's face darkened. "Did nobody taught you to bow to a lady first…?"
"No, you have no manners!" the little peacock cut her off. "You can't just kidnap children. My father will beat you up!"
Suddenly, the peahen grabbed the boy by the neck and yanked him up. Zedong tried to free himself from the grip and wriggled helplessly in the air.
"Pretty cheeky for a boy as ugly as you," Chiwa snapped at him. But then a smile slipped over her beak and stroked the piebald boy's white feathers. "Did you fall into bleach?"
Jian pressed against his brother Fantao fearfully.
"What do you want from us?" he asked anxiously.
But instead of an answer, Chiwa wanted to settle a score with the cheeky kid first.
She simply tossed Zedong in the air, pulled out the sashes of her sleeves, and brandished them like a whip. These hit the boy in free fall and hurled him against the wall. But Zedong was very well trained, but he got overconfident again. He immediately stood up again and pushed the approaching geckos away who wanted to grab him.
One of the geckos had a bandage around his arm. Zedong didn't hesitate and hit the bandaged arm with full force. The gecko screamed.
"OUTCH! Not again!"
The little peacock seized the moment of confusion and continued to thrash about. Then he jumped over them and tried to escape to the door. But before he could reach it, Chiwa wrapped him in her long, striped sleeves. Zedong fell to the ground, handcuffed, and couldn't move anymore.
Chiwa giggled. "You are far cheekier than my nephew, but what should you do. I didn't expect anything else from brads of an ugly duckling."
Her gaze wandered to the two other little peacocks.
"Is anyone of you going to step out of line?" she asked sternly.
Both shook their heads hastily.
Chiwa grinned. "Well, well. Tongfu. Take them to the next room. There you tie them to the pillars. But in the other way around than the rest of the others. I have very special plans with them."
"Here it is!" Crane shouted. "This is Mendong City."
He was still in the air with his two friends. The city stretched out below them on the river.
"Wow, not bad," Viper said approvingly.
"And the palace is over there," Mantis said, pointing further forward.
"Yes, that's where they flew down," Crane confirmed. "I saw that from afar."
"But where should we go?" Viper asked.
"I would say we land in front of the door first," Mantis suggested. "Maybe there is someone who can help us."
Crane flew a few circles, then he landed in front of the main gate of the palace. There he put the snake and the praying mantid down. Crane was delighted to have some rest.
They examined the large entrance door.
"Tigress said we should fly after them," Viper muttered thoughtfully. "But what should we do now?"
Mantis shrugged his insect shoulders. "If Master Thundering Ox says they will come, they will come."
"Yes, but when? We can't just stand around here that long."
Crane could only agree with that. "She is right. We have to get them out of there, or at least find out where they are."
Mantis scratched his head. "I wonder where Po and the others are."
"They had definitely been here," Viper said.
"How do you know that?" Crane asked.
"Their scent trail is still from yesterday, but they were definitely here." Her gaze wandered to the door. "And they went through here."
"Well then, let's go in," Crane said and went to the door first. First, he knocked. When nothing happened, he tried to pull the door open, but in this case, he tried in vain.
"The door is locked," Mantis said.
"I noticed that now, too," Crane said, panting, letting go of the door. "We'll have to get in at another place."
The three masters looked around.
"We could try opening one of the windows," Viper suggested.
Mantis trembled with his antennae. "But we will have many choices."
Crane adjusted his hat. "I'll fly around the palace. Maybe I even see them."
With these words, he fluttered and swung himself into the air.
"I often played this game with my nephew."
Like a big cat, Chiwa paced up and down the room, calmly tapping her feather fingertips together. The room, where she was in, wasn't exactly the biggest, but it wasn't anything special either. There were no other valuables apart from a few cupboards and vases.
Her gaze wandered to the front of the wall, where there were several pillars. Every one of the peacock cubs had been tied to each one, but with his stomach and face turned towards the column so that Chiwa could only see their backs. Their wings were tied together so that it looked like they were hugging the pillars. Zedong had taken enough beating for today, but he found courage enough to try to get out of the shackles. Chiwa giggled at the sight.
"Oh, yes, I loved to play it. Together with my sister."
She stepped closer to the boys. They looked back uncertainly and watched the peahen with nervous eyes.
Tongfu and his people had made themselves comfortable in a corner and just seemed to be waiting for the dinner bell to ring.
"With which of you should I start first?" Chiwa asked, looking from one peacock to the other. Jian ducked his head, only Zedong did not give up his attempts to free himself, which amused the peahen deeply.
"I see you are probably a very active boy."
She sneaked up on him from behind. Then she leaned down to him, lifted his head and even bent it back a little. Zedong tensed his muscles in fear as she wrapped her wing fingers around his larynx and squeezed a little.
"Keep still," she whispered to him.
Crane circled the building and peered in each room. He paused when he heard the screams of a child. The crane whirled in the air and looked around searching. After tracing the source of the calls, he immediately headed for the associated window. Once there, he carefully peered into the room.
His beak remained open from what he saw. He turned around quickly and flew straight back to the gate.
Viper and Mantis raised their heads when they saw their friend flying back.
"And?" Viper wanted to know. "Did you…?"
"Come quickly!" Crane interrupted his friend and grabbed the snake and the insect with his claws. Then he flew back where he had come from.
Even in the immediate vicinity, they could hear desperate calls.
"What's going on?" Viper asked.
"See for yourself," Crane said, and flew very close to the window. There he clung to the ledge under the window and the others also sought a hold on the walls, which were decorated with slight protrusions.
Reluctantly, Viper and Mantis glanced through the windows. Both mouths remained open. They recognized the three peacock cubs, every one of them tied to a pillar. Zedong stood near the window and a dark peahen kept tearing one of the longer tail feathers out of his plumage. The feathers weren't nearly as long as those of his father, but they couldn't be overlooked and the ground was already littered with his brightly colored former peacock wheel. The peacock boy had already sunk on his knees, but his tormentor didn't think about giving him a break. Zedong wept as the peahen tore out his tail feathers.
The three warriors at the window were stunned.
"We can't wait any longer for the others," Viper said, who gradually couldn't stand the boy's crying any longer.
"But wouldn't it be better if we went in there with reinforcements?" Mantis pointed out.
"Hey guys. We are Kung Fu masters," Crane intervened. "We can manage it as a trio, too."
Mantis trembled with his antennae. "Well, I do not know…"
"Please, do something," Viper urged. It hurt herself to hear the boy suffer like that.
"Okay," the insect admitted.
"Who takes over whom?" Crane asked.
Fantao could no longer watch how this witch tormented his brother.
"Stop it!" he yelled. "Stop doing that!"
Chiwa paused briefly in what she was doing. "You'll have your turn early enough," she snapped at him angrily and waved one of the green and white feathers back and forth maliciously. "And besides, it could be a nice souvenir for your parents."
Jian sobbed. "I wanna back to my mother!"
Chiwa turned away from Zedong, who tried not to cry out loudly. Jian wanted to run away while the peahen came threateningly towards him.
"Then you will be the next one, then you can return to your mother hen faster…"
At that moment, something broke through the window. Chiwa was so surprised that she was pushed aside by the strange thing.
The geckos raised their heads in amazement.
"There is a riot. How nice," Tongfu remarked dryly and got up with his troops to counterattack.
In the meantime, the strange figure had turned out to be a crane, snake and praying mantid. Viper and Mantis took on the attackers while Crane proceeded to sever the boys' bonds. But Chiwa had recovered immediately and raised her voice angrily.
"You damn fools!" she hissed.
Viper wanted to throw her out of the room with one blow, but the peahen cleverly dodged her attack. She swung forward so that Viper only had the geckos in front of her.
Meanwhile, Crane had managed to collect the boys. Jian clung to him, whimpering, while Zedong, his face contorted with pain, held the lower part of his back, where most of his proud feathers were missing.
The crane had no opportunity to inquire about her well-being, because Chiwa came racing straight towards them. Without hesitation, Crane grabbed the three boys and raced with them towards the broken window.
But Chiwa was faster and took out one sleeve. Before the crane could escape through the window, she had caught him with her fabric like a lasso and tossed the pack back into the room, where they hit the next wall.
The crane and the peacocks fell apart. Viper realized that their maneuver had failed and briefly left the field to Mantis. "You go on, I have to help Crane."
Immediately, the snake threw herself at the rebel, but Chiwa reacted again and threw the strips of the fabric from her other sleeve onto the snake, which was also immediately wrapped in her. Meanwhile, Crane flapped his wings several times, severing the strips of the fabric holding him so that he was free again. Then he freed Vipers in the same way.
Before Chiwa could attack again, the two masters threw themselves against her and put her out of action for a short time.
"Get out of here quickly!" Viper shouted.
Crane picked up the boys again, and took Viper in tow. Mantis gave the group of geckos another good deal of beating before he swung himself on Cranes hat and it went back to the window in no time at all.
"Hey!" Tongfu called. "They want to fly away!"
Crane quickened his wings. The window to freedom was getting closer and closer for them...
Suddenly the bird screamed, and shortly afterwards Viper, too.
Mantis looked at his friends in surprise. "What happened?"
Crane's forces failed and the emergency start ended in a crash landing.
With a violent slide, the fugitives came to a standstill on the smooth ground.
Mantis was the first one who wriggled himself out of the whole tangle. The peacock cubs got up too, albeit still in a daze.
The insect looked in amazement at Viper and Crane, who stopped making a sound.
Only in the background Chiwa's glee chuckle could be heard.
"It's always good to have an ace up your sleeve."
With satisfaction, she put the blowgun with the tranquilizer arrows aside and approached the group lying on the ground.
Tongfu immediately took the opportunity and grabbed the passed out snake and crane into custody with the others.
Mantis fled to the door in leaps, but Tongfu held him back.
"Stand still or we'll cut off your friends' heads!" he threatened.
The insect stopped disillusioned. Reluctantly, it allowed itself to be locked up in a vessel from which it could no longer come out.
Chiwa's gaze wandered to the three children, who had huddled together again.
"Just a cheeky move," she hissed. "And I'll not only tear your feathers out, but also your wings and legs!"
She turned to Tongfu. "Tie them back to the pillars and lock up the intruders!"
She frowned at the torn strips of her sleeves.
"Darn it! Now I can change my dress again!"
She left the room furiously. Tongfu rolled his eyes in annoyance. "With her beauty craze, she's slowly getting on my nerves."