21. A Broken Family

Po stretched himself a few times. Looking at the sun, he realized to his amazement that it was already afternoon. The Dragon Warrior had only wanted to rest briefly under a maple tree which stood in Dr. Wu's garden. But then somehow tiredness got the better of him. All that fuss with Dao and Shen had really gotten him down...

The panda sat up with a jerk.

He almost forgot Dao and Shen again! Quickly, he got up and ran down the hill towards the hut along a stone paved sidewalk through the densely growing Chinese garden. The panda slowed his pace. The door of the hut was still open, and the old goat crouched next to it, along with her grandnephews. Po craned his neck, but he couldn't see anything inside the hut. He tiptoed the remaining meters until he finally reached the old lady.

"And?" whispered Po excitedly. "Has he woken up now?!"

"Shhh!" the goat admonished, pointing into the shed.

Cautiously, Po ventured a look inside. The two peacocks lay together, leaning against a wall. Dao still hadn't regained consciousness. After the uncontrolled seizure, he eventually fell unconscious. Shen was still awake and had wrapped his wings around his brother, who was now lying peacefully next to him. When Shen noticed the panda's shadow, the peacock raised a finger feather admonishingly and held it in front of his beak. Po understood and covered his mouth with his paws as a precaution.

"Better we leave the two alone," the old goat whispered and got up.

Po was reluctant to leave, but he followed her advice and together they marched back to the doctor's house.

On the terrace sat Dr. Wu and seemed to have made a snack.

"Wonderful," the old lizard goanna greeted the two hoofed animals with the panda. "You're just in time for late lunch."

Po's face lit up as soon as he saw the full pot of noodle soup on the table. "Oh yes, I'm starving!"

After the food was distributed in bowls, everyone sat down comfortably. Po wasted no time in scooping up the noodles. As he paused, he noticed the silence around him. Nobody exchanged a word. Not even the goat.

Dr. Wu bowed his head apologetically. "I'm sorry if I don't talk that much. But I rarely have company at dinner. I guess, Dao's condition hasn't changed, has it?"

Po nodded. "No, unfortunately."

Dr. Wu shook his head. "It's a miracle that he came back at all. No one would ever have believed that." He stirred his bowl. "Least of all his father."

Po dropped his ears. "It must have hurt his father a lot, right?"

The doctor let out a deep, loud sigh. "Well, it's a shame. But also in general with this family. You'd think, she's only plagued by tragedy. First these illnesses of the children, then the death of the lady, Dao's disappearance, the massacre of his first son", he glanced at Po. "In the end the death of the lord himself..." The doctor put the plate aside. "It's always been a tragedy with them. It doesn't matter with whom. Since I first practiced there as a doctor at the palace, I had never had good news to share."

Po raised his eyebrows. "How come?"

Dr. Wu fell into brooding again. "During the period when Shen was born and after that, the mother was quite ailing and had to stay in bed at times. She couldn't take good care of her son, and anyway, Liang couldn't do it anyway. Although it was difficult for him to bring something towards him. The lord had always been pretty secretive, at least sometimes. Therefore, at first, I had to go to the palace more often to inquire about the well-being of his wife. And after the birth of Dao, the mother had finally lost her mind. I tried to treat her with medication, but she never got back to the way she used to be."

"Didn't any relatives take care of her?" Po wanted to know.

The doctor raised his scaly eyebrows. "Mm, they don't have close relatives here. The family originally came from India, having emigrated to China a few generations earlier. Even if they did, no one seemed to care about their fate. Although..." Dr. Wu leaned back in his patio chair and thoughtfully clasped his cold reptilian hands on his stomach. "Even if a visitor came, it was rather unusual. Once, Lord Liang had a heated argument with another Peacock Lord, but he has never been seen since. And especially when he was visited by this woman, the ruler made a dismissive impression on me when I was summoned to see him afterwards."

Po briefly stopped shoveling the noodles into his mouth. "A woman?"

"A peahen, to be more precise," Dr. Wu said more. "That's why I was so surprised. I assumed she was from his circle of acquaintances. She was almost dark mixed with purple. I had never seen someone like her before. I had only seen her two or three times near the palace. She always carried a black hand-held fan in front of her face." He paused. "But there was something inside of her which briefly gave me chills."

Po felt a cold shiver under his fur. "Uh, I think, I know that feeling," and his thoughts were transported back to Mendong City. Apparently, women really can be worse than somebody thought sometimes. He thought of Xiang's words, who always found fault with women - somehow with good reason.

"I only heard from distant relatives once, when I asked about the illness, how they had Shen and Dao, too," Dr. Wu continued. "This phenomenon first appeared in a peacock girl. It was thought to be an isolated case, but when Shen also got the same, I was sure, it could be hereditary."

"Can't that be prevented?" Po wanted to know.

A mocking smile crossed the doctor's mouth. "You don't seem to know much about hereditary. Something like that is just as unavoidable as bringing a panda into the world black without white color."

Po scratched his head thoughtfully. "Is it such a bad disease?"

The doctor pursed his lips thoughtfully. "Well, my guess is that there's a 90% chance of dying after childbirth. It may not necessarily mean that the child dies. There are not yet many cases to be able to make a prognosis with certainty. More research would have to be done, although of course we don't want to hope that the disease will occur more frequently in this family, but it cannot be ruled out if it is inherited. To be precise, I'm only aware of three cases so far. Once that of the distant relative, then Shen and Dao. But I was able to conclude one thing from this: both boys and girls can be affected. The disease is therefore probably not gender-linked. But she is not to be underestimated. One child, the distant relative, had already died from it." He sighed heavily. "I think, it would have been a beautiful girl. Although she was not under my treatment, but Lord Liang told me that she was just as white as Shen and Dao. Only with bluish spots on the tips of the feathers. Therefore, according to my theory, the debilitating disease is linked to this coloring of the plumage.*"

Po slipped the remaining noodle water from his bowl, then he set the plate down on the table. "But Shenmi is also white," he objected. "And I don't remember that there being any problems when she was born."

The doctor raised his hand. "I know that. But she does not have all the typical characteristics. The cases it has covered so far have been white with another color component. Colored eyes and partly colored spots on the feathers. It may well be that this phase of weakness is linked to this appearance. Once this phase has been overcome in childhood, health seems to stabilize. It is only when aging sets in, when the person is no longer the youngest, that weakness comes back to haunt them. Just like what happened to Shen."

Po exchanged an uncertain look with the goat. "So could Dao suffer later, too?" he asked, worried.

Dr. Wu shrugged. "Possible. But to say for sure, we would have to wait and see. As I said, there are far too few cases to be able to say anything with certainty."

"Then how does it come that Shen's kids don't look like their father?" Po wanted to know. "They don't even look like their mother, or their grandparents."

The doctor grinned. "Genetics is an interesting scientific field. It depends on the genetic mix and how the disease, or coloring, is inherited. Of course, if she is dominant in the genome, all of Shen's children would suffer, more or less. But since this is not the case, this disease must be recessive."

Po didn't understand anything. "What?"

"A scientist from Europe had done a study on this," Dr. Wu explained more. "For years he had studied the inheritance of color in plants and even animals. So he had roughly divided genes into dominant and recessive. One is what you see directly, the other is what you don't see directly, but you have it... But that would be going too far now. It depends on the partner's genes. If both partners carry the weak gene, the chances of the child having the condition would be 50 percent. If the partner is nothing like that, then the probability of getting sick is 0% or 25."

Po rubbed his head. "Okay, that's going too far for me. I only know about pie quarters. That's how I learned fractions. The pie of 1/3, or ¼ quarters… but that's getting too complicated for me."

"Maybe it's all nonsense," the doctor dismissed.

"How so?" Po looked confused at the lizard goanna. "Should I forget that now?"

"Basically, it's nonsense to bring up probabilities," Dr. Wu said. "It comes as it comes. It may have been fortunate for Shen that none of his children have the hereditary disease, but they could also be carriers of the disease." He looked up at the sky. "Perhaps if Shen's mother's genes had been different, the child would probably have been colored normally, but the next child might be affected because the lord's child would be a carrier of the disease..."

"Okay, okay, stop, stop!" Po shouted. "This is getting to be too much for me now!"

The sun sank lower and lower and sent its last strong reddish rays over the land. These fell through the canopy and also into the still open barn. Shen had dozed off by now, but he still held Dao in a hug. As the sun sank a little further, a few rays hit Dao's face. The peacock narrowed his eyes tightly before blinking hard. At first, he was blinded by the light, but then he began to perceive the outlines of his surroundings. A few seconds his eyes closed again. He felt so exhausted, so extremely drained. His muscles ached all over, like he'd been spanked. Groaning, he tried to get up. The slight movements also woke Shen. The lord's eyes widened as he saw his brother begin to lean on him. Obviously, Dao hadn't noticed him yet.

Quickly, the elder one stood up and helped Dao to get to his feet. "Not so fast," he warned.

Dao began to stagger, but when he heard the voice, he seemed to regain his balance and looked behind.

The eyes of the two peacocks met. Shen had to hold his brother's shoulders to keep him from falling over again. Dao's eyes widened. Did he even recognize his brother? Shen noticed that Dao's eyes didn't look nearly as empty as when they first met. They reacted and looked attentively. Only his posture was suddenly frozen. The two peacocks stared at each other for a while. It wasn't until Shen took a wing away from Dao that the younger one seemed to realize that it wasn't a reflection he was looking into.

Suddenly, Dao cried out and pushed Shen away with all his might. Then he stormed out of the hut, tripping over his own legs a few times, but then he got up and ran awkwardly through the bushes.

Shen was stunned for a moment, but then he jumped out of the hut, too. But before he could run after Dao, someone else came running.

"What happened?" Po wanted to know immediately. The goat, her grandnephew and the doctor came close behind him.

Shen couldn't answer at first and only pointed into the thicket into which Dao had disappeared. "He ran away," Shen finally got it out of his mouth.

"I thought, it would get better after that," Po said, looking questioningly at the doctor.

"It will take some time for his head to get back to normal," Dr. Wu replied. "Better we go after him before anything else happens to him."

Dao ran headlessly through the thicket. He didn't even know where he was, where he was going, or anything. His body seemed to be controlled only by the word "run away". He tripped over a tree root. The peacock fell forward and slid the rest of the way down a hill on the damp grass. Groaning, he sat up again. He started again. He was near a shore by the sea. And further ahead, the city glowed in the evening light. He stared at it spellbound.

"I-I'm in Gongmen City?" he breathed in a shaky voice.

"Yes, mate."

Frightened, Dao turned and looked at the panda uncertainly and fearfully. Like a shy animal, he bowed his head and crouched low on the ground.

Po raised his arms reassuringly. "Don't worry. I'm a friend."

"B-but h-how did I-get here?" the younger peacock stuttered.

"Don't you remember?" Po asked in surprise. "You have been to Japan before. We brought you here."

Dao closed his eyes, but then he had to shake his head violently after a while. "I don't know anything anymore! I don't know anything anymore!"

He was holding his head in desperation, sinking his upper body to the floor.

"It'll get better with time," Dr. Wu said encouraging and went next to him

Dao's eyes widened again when he saw the lizard goanna. "You… you look familiar."

The doctor smiled. "Yes, that's right. I was responsible for your health years after you were born."

"It's alright," the goat reassured him. "No one wants to harm you."

"You?" Dao looked like he was about to have another seizure. He rubbed his temple shakily, trying to somehow get order out of the chaos in his head.

The goat hugged him comfortingly. "Now calm down. Everything will be fine..."

At that moment, Dao jerked his head up and looked at the goat with tears in his eyes. "Mother is dead, isn't she?"

The goat lowered her gaze a little. "Yes. Yes, she is."

Dao broke into a sob before uttering another sentence with difficulty. "W-where is father?"

The goat was startled. Should she even tell him that? In his confused state? But the boy noticed her hesitation and grabbed her shirt.

"What about him?!" he demanded loudly.

Finally, the old lady sighed heavily and shook her head regretfully. For Dao, that was explanation enough. He broke down and cried, his forehead pressed to the ground and his finger feathers clawing at the grass.

Immediately, the doctor rushed to him. "He better not get too upset," he said. "I don't know how that affects his psyche. There have been many who have become mentally ill from something like that."

Po watched the scenario with hanging ears. He didn't feel at all comfortable at the sight. It was all a total shock to Dao. How would he feel if something like that happened to him? Po didn't even want to imagine something like that.

The panda sat up when Shen appeared next to him. The ruler had stayed in the background until now and only looked silently at the clearing.

Po tried to read something from his eyes, but to his amazement, Shen's eyes were neither sad nor friendly. The peacock didn't seem to know what to present himself. But Po didn't approve of Shen being here.

"Uh, Shen," Po whispered to him. "You might be better to come another time..."

At that moment, Dao looked up. Since Shen's white figure in the forest could not be overlooked in the evening light, he saw him immediately.

But the goat didn't notice Shen yet. Perhaps she had hoped the lord would not be so careless and confront his brother about his presence. But she was wrong about that. Because while she continued to calm down Dao and stroked his wing, he very slowly began to stand up on shaky legs. Before, he had thought he was looking in a mirror, or that everything was a mirage. But after this panic attack, he first had to realize that another white peacock was really standing in front of him. One who looked just like him at that.

It was no different for Shen from that moment. It was a completely different feeling to face someone whose mind wasn't completely elsewhere.

Suddenly, Dao backed away, the goat having to hold him so he didn't fall into the water.

"Who are you?" Dao breathed in complete shock. Didn't he seem to know instinctively that it was his brother? Or was he still hoping he was in a nightmare?

Goat and doctor looked at Shen in shock. The white lord took a few steps closer. The goat shook her head to indicate that he shouldn't do this, but the former prince of Gongmen City ignored her warnings despite everyone's misgivings.

Both peacocks looked at each other mesmerized until Shen finally said what his brother wanted to know.

"I'm Shen," he said, and Po thought his stomach would hurt at any moment. Why was Shen so stubborn?

Dao's eyes widened. For a few seconds, there was an oppressive silence, as if the younger peacock had to process everything in his head before it finally got through to him.

Finally, Dao started to shake his head slightly and backed away again. "No, no! Leave me alone! Get lost! Leave me alone!"

Shen wanted to rush to him, but the doctor held him tight. "Let him! That will only make things worse!"

Po was startled when Dao seemed to throw himself into the sea.

"LEAVE ME!" Dao yelled. The old goat struggled to hold him. "HE SHOULD GET OUT!"

"Shall I hit him again?" the panda offered, but immediately he ducked his head when Shen's warning gaze met him.

"Stay calm, stay calm!" the goat tried again. Finally, the doctor returned to them and together they held the panicked peacock.

Meanwhile, the goat waved Shen away firmly, which she rarely did. But it seemed for the best that Dao didn't see his brother at all anymore. At least, Shen gave in and disappeared through the bushes.

"Come into the house first," she persuaded Dao. "This is going to be too much for you. Come into the house."

After Dao had finally taken a few deep breaths that calmed him down a bit, the new shock overcame him.

"I... I can't move my legs anymore!" he whined, sinking to his knees.

"Take it easy, one step at a time," Dr. Wu advised. "Right foot, left foot."

Slowly, the peacock managed to take a few steps, but continued to lean on the reptile and the goat.

Po looked at him in surprise. "He had run before. Why these problems now?"

"It was his subconscious," Dr. Wu clarified him up in passing. "His awareness of independent thinking has to get used to it again."

It was not easy to bring the whimpering and unstable peacock into the house. Po occasionally offered to hold him to keep him from breaking out again. When they finally managed to get him over the threshold, Dr. We thought it would be the best to place him in one of the patient's beds, which was only a four-bed room, because Dr. Wu rarely had long-stay patients. As soon as the peacock was in bed, the doctor immediately began the examination. Dao was still shaking and kept mumbling "Father" or "Mother" every now and then. Since he refused to drink anything, Dr. Wu forces the sedative to be pricked under the peacock's skin in the form of a hollow needle. After that was done, he left the peacock and closed the door. In the corridor, he was already expected.

"And?" Po asked nervously. "Will he be okay again?"

The goat and her grandnephew also looked at him expectantly. But it was still too early for the doctor to make a clear diagnosis. "He doesn't seem to have any permanent damage, but I can't say for sure until we let it go for a few days and watch him. It will also take a while for him to understand everything..."

He looked to the side. Shen had appeared in the hallway and he wanted to know an answer, too. "How is he?" he asked in a neutral voice.

Po grimaced. He didn't like it when Shen went into disinterest.

The doctor, on the other hand, just drew his eyebrows together. "At least better than I feared," he replied, giving Shen a reproachful look. "I advise you to keep your distance from him for the time being." He raised his index finger menacingly. "And I mean it! I don't give advice for fun."

Po was surprised that anyone dared to talk to the white lord like that. But Shen seemed to take it, albeit with a sour expression, and said nothing.

The goat tried to calm things down a bit. "Shen, it's still too early for this. Give him time."

The doctor's gaze wandered to one of the windows. "It's getting late. What do you intend to do now?"

He looked around. But the lizard goanna saw, that Shen had no intention of leaving the building as long as his brother was still here. The goat also guessed Shen's attitude and said: "We're staying here. Do you have any idea where we could stay?"

It was not difficult to find accommodation for the guests. The house was big enough and a few of the rooms were only intended for storage. Po, the goat and Ling moved into a room to themselves, while Shen preferred to take the sofa in the living room. After the doctor had provided the necessary pillows and blankets, calm gradually returned.

The crescent moon continued to move across the night sky. Its weak rays sent the light to earth only conditionally. Perhaps not much would have happened that evening if the sky had been overcast. But the night was clear and the moon was clearly visible. In the room where Dao was placed, a lonely moan could be heard from time to time. Finally, the peacock blinked in bed and his gaze wandered to the window. His first thought was the missing bars, what he still knew from his cell in Japan. As if in a trance, he got out of bed and went to the window. How beautiful the moon looked that night. Much nicer than he had ever seen before. All the impressions of the day slowly came back to him, although he still had trouble understanding everything. When he saw Gongmen City in the distance, the next thought went through him like a jolt. He turned, grabbed his black robe from the bedpost, dressed, and stepped out into the hallway. Like a ghost, he followed the corridor, descended the stairs and headed for the front door. He was awake, but still partially absent, so he didn't even notice a pair of eyes which was watching him.

Dao's heart was in his mouth as he ran onto the way through the forest. It was like he was being transported back to his childhood over 20 years ago. Only at that time he had run away from the city. But today he was drawn back there like a magnet. At the same speed as if he were trying to make up for lost time. The streets in Gongmen City were sometimes empty, and when Dao got into the night bustle, he turned to a lonely alley. As if in a trance, he followed the streets. A few buildings had been renovated or remodeled, but he knew the way. It was as if he were following an inner call that only led him to one place.

Shen struggled to keep an eye on Dao. He flitted through the streets like a shadow, always close to his brother. And again, and again he asked himself where he wanted to go. It was the direction to the palace, but when they were almost there, surprisingly, Dao changed direction and turned somewhere else. Finally, it dawned on the lord and he knew the destination.

Silently, Shen stared at the gate in front of him. It was open a crack. Dao hadn't locked it after slipping through it. The white peacock was in front of a compound surrounded by a high wall. He swallowed hard. He had never set foot in this place before. Not even when he returned to Gongmen City after 20 years of exile. He was done with the past at this point. He never wanted to be reminded of them again. Only once had memories come to him when he had seen his father's throne. But it wasn't particularly difficult for him to throw it out the window. He had learned to suppress feelings early enough, even though he once gave in while talking to the soothsayer. That was really the first time he'd talked openly about his parents again...

Only hesitantly, Shen crossed the threshold. Even for his character, there was something awe-inspiring about the place. A feeling that said: show respect. Respect for your ancestors.

The white peacock lowered his head a little, which it might not have done if others saw it. If so, he did humble things, preferably in secret, as far as circumstances permitted. Slowly, he walked past the isolated tombstones where the dead, his relatives, were buried under the stone pavement. The tombstones loomed before him like memorials. Decorated with Chinese characters, the only thing left to identify the dead persons. His parents' tomb was almost in the middle, which was in a pagoda. There were even statues of the peacock couple under the roof. It was more of a grave of honor for the two. Perhaps also because they were declared to be the last peafowls who ruled over Gongmen City. There was no successor. And there probably shouldn't be, at least in Master Ox's opinion. For a moment, Shen wondered which of his children should take over Gongmen City. He would no longer be an option, at least not anymore. As long as none of the kung fu council changed their mind. But Shen didn't feel like taking control of Gongmen City again either. At least he hadn't felt the urge to do it since the loss. So much had changed. Especially now.

He stopped abruptly. In front of his parents' grave, by the stairs leading up to the pagoda, lay a white figure. It didn't take him long to realize that it was Dao, slumped there and crying. He was crying so loud that somebody could think, his heart was about to break.

Shen wondered if he might have cried like that if he had been a little more sensitive. A certain melancholy came over him now when he found his brother so lamented.

Cautiously, he approached his brother. He was about to stretch out his wing and to touch his shoulder when Dao suddenly turned to face him. Apparently, he had sensed Shen's presence. Shen started. Dao's cheeks were wet with tears, his eyes were red, but what frightened him most was the anger on his face.

Shen backed away while his brother glared at him aggressively. "It's all your fault!" Dao snapped at him.

Shen looked at him in bewilderment. "What?"

"SHE DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!" Dao continued to yell. "ONLY BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Shen swallowed hard and clutched his chest with one wing. No one had ever held him so responsible for his mother's death. Apparently, that wasn't enough for Dao. He howled again briefly, hiding his face under his wings. "Now you've also driven father to his death!"

Shen's wings spasmed. "That's not true!" he insisted, with a certain uncertainty in his voice. Was he really not responsible for this? If so, Shen didn't want to accept that. "I had nothing... to do with it."

Shen gritted his teeth. Now he really wasn't sure whose fault it had been. But for Dao it was perfectly clear who was to blame for everything.

"IT WAS YOUR FAULT!" With a yelp, he lunged at his brother. But Shen fended him off just in time and Dao fell to the side. But the younger one was so enraged that he threw himself on Shen again.

"YOU KILLED HER! YOU KILLED HER!"

Outside the wall, the loud voices could be heard. Po pricked up his ears in astonishment. "Uh, for a family memorial place that sounds very loud there."

He had followed the two peacocks with Dr. Wu, the soothsayer and the grandnephew. None of the elders had believed that the two brothers would find peace immediately. And when they also observed how first Dao, then Shen left the house, their fears were confirmed and they thought it's best to follow them.

"Is it allowed to go in there?" the Dragon Warrior asked cautiously when they reached the open gate.

"Even if not," the goat said, "this is an emergency."

She listened worriedly to the roar, which must have come from Dao.

The panda nodded. "Okay, as long as I don't commit a crime by doing so, because that wouldn't be good for my reputation."

Although Dao was blinded by anger, Shen possessed a clearer head and always managed to fend off or dodge his brother with wings. Eventually, Dao couldn't take it anymore and looked around for a weapon.

Eventually he found some loose rocks. Quickly, he grabbed one and a handful of powdery mortar that was in a sack next to it. He turned around in a flash. Shen was prepared for this. But instead of attacking again, Dao threw Shen the loose mortar in his face. Shen hadn't been prepared for that and rubbed his eyes. Dao turned around at the same moment and swung the stone.

Po's eyes widened in shock as he saw the two peacocks fight, with Dao attacking Shen over and over again. But when Dao threw Shen a load of sand in his face and tried to hit him with the stone, the panda threw himself forward.

"STOP THIS IMMEDIATELY!" he yelled.

He positioned himself in front of Shen, but Dao wasn't quick enough to break off the attack. The stone slipped out of his wings and it landed with full force on the panda.

Goat, billy goat and lizard goanna cried out in shock. The panda fell on his back to the ground. But Dao was also frozen and looked at the fallen Dragon Warriors with wide eyes.

The old goat was the first one who rushed to Po. "Great warrior! Everything okay?"

Groaning, Po rubbed his demolished skullcap. "Uh, one thing's for sure: peacocks can hit really hard." With that last sentence, Po finally slumped.

* This is not a pure invention of mine. In some animals, a particular color morph also appears to be associated with a neurological disease.