6. Close-lipped and Tensed

The snow had already melted in many places. All in all, it was very different when Po started his first trip to Yin Yan. It had been extremely difficult to cross the mountains because of the snow. In addition, he had traveled with Xia at the time, so at least it hadn't been so boring. Fortunately, it happened very quickly this time.

And no sooner had he arrived in the Mianyang Mountains he almost jumped in high leaps over the path through the mountains. He couldn't wait to be there. Mainly because so many questions were racing through his head. How would the children look like? Will they become like their father or like their mother? Would there be something great to eat there? What do they eat in the palace?

Po's daydreams were cut short when he came across two familiar figures.

"Heyho, how are you?" He greeted the two goats who guarded the way to the city in front of the hill. They only met him with disdainful eyes.

"It was clear," one of them said.

Po giggled. "Oh, I see we still know each other. Well then ... Don't worry, I'll find the way on my own, buddy."

With that, he walked past the guards with a trilling whistle. Nobody prevented him, which surprised Po a little. But obviously everyone seemed to know of his coming.

When he finally climbed the last hill, he got a wonderful view of Yin Yan. All the construction sites were gone and a beautiful city covered the plateau. Freshly built, as if it had emerged from the ground.

When he finally broke away from this sight, he remembered the reason for his journey. He quickly ran down the hill until he came to the gate that was open this time. Everything looked like the last time, except for the hustle and bustle in the city center. As soon as the city was finished, everyday city life returned with it. Dense streets, rickshaws, vendors, shops and especially people everywhere. Most of them were sheep, rams or goats. Everything was so tight that Po had real difficulties to come through them.

"Hey, could I..." Po forced his way between two rams, which, however, could hardly move forward. The panda waved one paw helplessly as if he was stuck in the water.

Suddenly, something fluttered over the panda and sat down on a pole by a house.

"Look, look," a voice croaked over him. "I knew I saw something."

In surprise, Po looked up at Takeo. "Hey, nice to see you. Could you tell me where exactly to go to the palace? You can't see the city for the city anymore."

The crow nodded. "I'll take you there. Just follow me."

With that, he fluttered away into a small alley. The panda scurried himself laboriously out of the crowd and followed him. It went through narrow streets and side lanes so that they could avoid the crowded streets until they got to the palace wall that surrounded the palace in the inner part of the city. As he knew it from the last time, the city was strictly guarded. Rams and the like patrolled the walls, but they paid little attention to the panda.

It felt like an eternity for Po to cross the large parade ground until he finally reached the well-known stairs. Takeo sat down on a flagpole and watched with a shake of his head as the panda climbed the stairs with panting.

"Almost there," the panda snorted. "Almost done."

Finally, he reached the top and fell on his side. "Yeah! I made it!"

But he only took a breather a brief moment. Then he got up and walked to the door. He knocked until a small mini-window opened. The doorman almost fell back when the panda called through the window.

"HI THERE! I am…" Po immediately recalled his temper and stood up politely. "The Dragon Warrior requests admission. Is it allowed to enter?"

The sheep, having recovered from the panda's greeting swirl, just looked at him, bored.

Po tried to put him in the right way. "Dragon-warrior. Understood?"

"Do you have an invitation?" the sheep asked.

Po thought a moment. Then he remembered the letter. "Uh, yes. Here it is ... Uh, just a moment."

With that, Po shouldered down his rucksack and rummaged around in it. "Uno momento ... it was here somewhere... definitely down again. Extremely far down... Aha! Yes, here you are!"

The panda waved the letter in front of the bouncer's nose. He just glanced at it, then he pushed a whole stack of papers into the panda's paws.

"Fill out these forms," the sheep commented dryly. "Name, age, origin, marital status, family tree, curriculum vitae, date of birth, place of birth, occupation..."

"Hey, couldn't that go a little faster?" Po asked a little angrily. "Before I have finished this stuff, the upcoming birthday will be over..."

"Po?"

At the next moment, someone pushed the bouncer at the small door window away and a peahen appeared.

"Xia?" Po asked in surprise. "Is that you?"

But instead of an answer, someone opened the big door and the young peahen ran to meet him.

"Xia!"

"Po!"

Both fell around their necks until Po gently pushed her away to take a closer look. "Hey, have you grown?"

Xia gave a short laugh and nudged the panda from the side.

The greeting ended briefly when Po saw someone else standing in the door.

"Oh, hi!"

Sheng bowed. "Welcome, Dragon Warrior."

Po waved it off. "Oh, why so formal? Give me a high-five!"

For a moment, the piebald white-green-blue peacock looked around uncertainly. But then he swung himself up and they both shook hands.

The panda nodded approvingly. "I see you've been practicing, haven't you?"

"Well." Sheng immediately resumed a dignified demeanor. "At least as long as nobody is looking."

Po looked around expectantly. "Where is your mother?"

"She's with the eggs," Xia replied.

"Oh, yes, of course. And…" Po looked around expectantly. "And he?"

"He?" Gradually, it dawned on Xia who the panda meant. "He didn't have time to see you. But we will definitely meet him within the house. Come in."

They entered together, under the sullen glare of the doorman.

"You have to excuse him," Xia began. "He only started working with us yesterday."

Po smiled. "Oh, that's okay. What has happened lately?"

Xia shrugged. "Oh, not much. But you definitely have a lot more to tell."

Po giggled. "Would you be interested in a story about a helmet?"

While Po was walking through the corridors of the palace with Xia and Sheng, no one noticed how a shadow followed them and watched them closely.

The two siblings led the panda through the beautifully decorated halls. Did it just seem like that to Po, or was the house more embellished this time than on his last visit? Maybe because there were more women in the palace now.

"Okay, here we are," Sheng announced and stopped in front of a room door.

For Po, it was a sheer relief. "Great, my feet are already very hot."

Xia gently pushed the doors open. There was a large bed in the room. And Yin-Yu sat in the bed. The peahen lay or sat on many blankets. When she saw the panda, she got up a little. "Oh, welcome."

The panda raised his paw exuberantly. "Hi! Oh dear, I was so staggered... by the invitation of course! I wasn't surprised that something like that would come. I don't mean that it was unforeseen."

The peahen smiled. "I'm happy to see you here."

"Oh." Po bowed respectfully. "Thank you so much."

But something still wondered him. "Uh, may I ask something?"

Yin-Yu nodded. "Ask away."

"Where is... the father?"

"Here."

Po was so terrified that he screamed when he heard the familiar voice so close behind him. The panda held his chest, his heart pounding. "My goodness! Sneaking up so close, I could have had a heart attack."

Shen narrowed his eyes dangerously with suspicion.

"Did you have a reason to be worried?" He asked suspiciously, that one might think that an escaped prisoner was standing in front of him.

"Why?" Po didn't know what to think of this icy welcome, which is why Yin-Yu tried to relax the situation.

"What he's trying to say is that he's already wondered whether you would come at all."

The panda smiled slyly. "Why not? On such an occasion, I would even cancel all wars. You only experience something like that once in a lifetime."

He giggled hoarsely and stepped a little away from the white lord, who was still watching him coldly. Finally, Po put his palms together and looked at Yin-Yu expectantly.

"Well, well... the reason why we're here... or I'm here... so... may I have a look?"

"Oh, of course." She stood up and pushed aside a few blankets.

The panda looked in awe at the four eggs in the nest-shaped blankets. "Wow, so that's really… they're beautiful. Can you already hear something inside?"

The peahen smiled "Now and then they kick."

"Oh, can you still sleep with that?" He giggled cheerfully, but fell silent again when Shen didn't change his face. Then he leaned forward a little, in hope to hear something from the eggs, but he also noticed how Shen was moving closer to him at the same time.

"Uh ... heeellloooooo?" The panda whispered softly. But then he noticed something else when he saw a black Chinese mark on one of the eggs. "What's that?"

"The eggs were numbered," Xia told him. "Mum, really wanted to record who was born first and when."

"Though it depends more on who hatches first," Sheng added.

Xia peered over at him, teasing. "You of all people have to say that. You were born just a minute before me."

"Oh, there is something else," Po intervened quickly and opened his backpack. "I brought you something..."

The panda froze instantly when a feather knife was held in front of his face, which the white peacock had pulled from his wing in a lightning speed. Everyone stared at Shen in shock. The peacock only relaxed when Po slowly took a tea box out of his backpack.

"Just a few gifts," Po mumbled meekly. "From my dad."

The white lord only narrowed his pupils very briefly, then he put the knife back in his feathers.

"I think, we should go out to dinner now," Yin-Yu suggested hastily.

"Oh yes, I'm ravenous," said Po enthusiastically. "I have a real panda hunger. No, a big kung fu hunger."

"Fine, let's go then," Xia said and pushed the panda to the door.

Yin-Yu also left her berth and put a couple of blankets over the clutch.

"Can you leave them alone?" Po asked when they were through the door.

"From time to time I can get up," said the mother-to-be. "Always eating in bed is not always a pleasure either."

"Oh, yes, understandable."

They left the room together. Shen was the last one who followed them.

It became silent in the bedroom, except for a movement in a hidden corner. A small, dark figure pushed the curtains aside a little. His gaze was fixed on the clutch in the bed, but did not dare to leave his hiding place.

The time has not come yet. The guards are still too alert. But it's supposed to happen tonight.

"Well then a lot will change here, right?" The panda turned to Shen with a smile, but Shen just lifted his beak and walked past him. Po looked after him in confusion. "A little ... stiff today, right?"

"He's just a little tensed," Yin-Yu reassured him.

"Oh yes, after all, there are his first children... well... birth I mean."

The peahen sighed somewhat sadly. "Yes, indeed."

Po noticed a slight sad expression on her face and tried to ask something else. "And? How did he react?"

Po didn't notice how excited he rubbed his palms together.

Yin-Yu stopped. She put her wings together, and avoided his gaze. "Well... it was... he was..."

A few weeks ago...

With a nervous smile, she stopped caressing his wings. "I... I'm pregnant."

Her grip on his wings tightened. But then she was startled when Shen pulled away from her, but immediately he took her wings back in his.

The peahen looked at him uncertainly. "Aren't you happy?"

As if the peacock had just awakened from a black-out, his voice sounded pretty disoriented. "Yes, yes... it's just..." He shook his head violently. "I'm glad! I'm really glad about it!"

He smiled, but his eyes couldn't lie. Yin-Yu seemed to recognize this clearly. But before she could ask him, Shen suddenly jumped down from the bed. Then he pulled her down as well and picked her up.

"Oh, stop, stop!" She called. "We have to be very careful now."

"Careful?" He let her down again. "Oh yes. Of course."

As soon as she was on solid ground again, they looked at each other in silence. It was difficult for her to define his gaze. It was a mixture of seriousness, slight joy, but also uncertainty and... She couldn't describe it exactly. Fear?

She couldn't complain about it. When she first reported to Xiang that she was pregnant, he only dismissed it with a simple, neutral "fine". There was no trace of emotions or the like. He had stayed as cold as a block of ice. Even after the eggs were laid.

"Darling?" Shen's voice brought her back from her dark thoughts. "Is everything alright?"

The white lord gently stroked her face. Quickly, she took his stroking wing.

"Yes, everything is fine. And you are not disappointed?"

"Why should I?"

"Well, you've put so much effort into designing and building the garden. While I didn't do much…"

He interrupted her by placing his finger feathers on her beak. "It's a lot more than what I was hoping for."

Obviously, he didn't want to talk about it anymore and he hugged her.

"No," he continued gently. "I will always protect you and your children."

Yin-Yu didn't know whether she should reply to that. But Shen didn't give her a chance to think about it, but began to stroke her back gently and then her stomach.

"Uh, are you okay?"

Yin-Yu blinked in confusion. "What? Oh. Oh, yes. He took it well. He is pleased."

Po looked at her uncertainly for a brief moment. But then he smiled. "Then everything is fine."

Meanwhile, the sun had set. Soon it would go under. Soothsayer had withdrawn on the terrace of the palace and watched the sunset in silence.

"Great-aunt?" Her great-nephew Ling called, who ran out to her. "The others want to have dinner. Don't you want to eat with us?"

But the goat didn't look away from the dying sun. "Ling. I feel pain."

Her great-nephew looked at her in shock. "Are you not feeling well? Do you want to lie down?"

At that moment, the older woman lowered her eyes and her body also sagged a little. "I feel pain in this house."

The little sheep looked uncertainly at the palace, but he couldn't explain why his great-aunt was so nervous. Everything looked the same as always.