Hey guys, we have a new chapter! I'm putting this up early today since I'll be busy all day. Enjoy!
Chapter 18: Inner Peace to Home
Po was so thrilled. He was finally going to how Shen how to achieve inner peace. He walked out of the cave, seeing the rain was gone and only a few rays of sun peeked through the grey skies. The panda threw his fist in the air with glee.
"Whoo! Fresh air!" Po cried.
Shen slowly walked out of the cave, glancing his surroundings, seeing the small storm left behind a big mess. Fallen branches from trees spread all over the ground. The dirt now turned in to muddy puddles. He turned his attention back to the panda who seem to be looking for something.
"What are you doing?" Shen asked.
"Looking for the perfect spot," Po said looking up to the trees.
"A what?" Shen raised a brow in confusion.
The panda searched all over and even looked down to the smallest plants. A sudden dewdrop landed on Po's noise, he looked up to see a thin branch above him. A few more drops fell on to his fur, he smiled. He has found his perfect spot and he turned around.
"Alright Shen, this is it. Time to achieve inner peace, you ready?" Po said with enthusiasm.
Shen nodded and stood where he was standing. He was a bit nervous, he wasn't so sure why he was nervous. Maybe it was because he was about to learn the one thing that defeated him. Or maybe it was because he would think about his parents once he learns this technique. But Shen knows he has to learn inner peace if he wants to be free from his ordeals. He reminded himself to be hopeful so that he could understand it.
He watched as Po stood his ground, preparing himself and waited for the dewdrop to fall.
"Now, watch what I'm doing."
Po closed his eyes and slowly moved his foot forward swirled in the dirt. He breathed in as he moved his arms. He sensed a dewdrop above him falling, in one quick swift, he moved his hand and caught it. Shen with wide eyes still watched as Po moved his arms and the dewdrop. It was the same motions that he witness back at Gongmen City. It stunned the peacock, it was as if he was seeing the motions in slow motion. When Po opened his eyes he found himself bend over, letting the drop fall to the grass.
"Master Shifu showed me this a while back," Po explained, "It took me a while to figure it out, but I got the hang of it once I let everything go."
"Sound easier said than done," said Shen, already feeling doubt.
"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it," Po encourages, "Okay now is your turn."
The panda grabbed Shen's wing and pulled him to his spot. He moved away for Shen to be under the branch. The peacock glanced up and back to the panda, not sure what he was supposed to do.
"Just remember what I show you," said Po.
Shen sighed, knowing he wasn't going to talk himself out of this. He tried to be calm let his mind to focus. He looked down at his feet as he remembered the steps he needed to do. Just like Po he swirled his foot in the dirt and closed his eyes. Before he could do the next step he felt the raindrop landed on his head, it made his crest and fan twitched. Shen looked up, annoyed that he didn't catch it in time.
"That happened to me too," said Po, "Just shake that one-off, you're not going to get it at one shot."
Shen wanted to complain but he knew better not to lose his temper. It was for the best to follow the panda's advice. So, he tried again but he felt another dewdrop landed on his head. He was beginning to realize that this was going to take him a long time to master inner peace.
He thought to do the movements much quicker but that didn't work, he tried to catch the dewdrop he saw falling but missed. Once again, he swirled his foot in the dirt and concentrate, closing his eyes as he moved his wings. He steadies himself as he waited for another dewdrop to fall. He listened cautiously, as soon as he heard a noise he moved his wing and felt he caught something small. He finally caught the dewdrop and moved his arms in circulations. He moved it around just like how Po did it, however, he stopped when he felt the dewdrop disappeared. Shen opened his eyes and stared down at his wings.
"You drop it…"
Shen turned to Po, annoyed that he had lost his droplet.
"How long did it take you to master this?"
Po pondered trying to remember. "Well, I tried once before I came to Gongmen, and I did it the second time before I faced you. So, two tries?"
He smiled sheepishly while Shen gawked at him and then frowned. He muttered under his breath, something about Po only got inner peace by two tries because he was the Dragon Warrior. It made sense to him but he knows that wasn't the case, he was being childish.
"Look, don't think about it. Just feel it," said Po trying to keep Shen focus on the task.
Shen sighed once more as he swirled his foot again. He closed his eyes, moved his wings, and after hearing a droplet he moved his arm forward and catch it. The peacock allowed his body to move on its own as he whirled the droplet in his wings. He stayed focus trying not to think too much. He continued this while Po watched him, quietly cheering him on.
While Shen stayed focus and kept his dewdrop in tack, he started to experience strange flashes in his mind. He saw some familiar places that he knew were from his past. Most of these memories he was seeing were of his home. In another flash, he actually saw his parents. Then small memories came back to him, memories where he was with his father or his mother. The memories showed him the small talks he would have with his father and when his mother would play with him for a short time. They were insignificant and didn't have much an impact but to Shen, it meant something to him.
The peacock couldn't believe he had forgotten all about these memories. The more he saw, the more he felt himself his emotions rise up again. Shen had always avoided thinking about his parents or anything that would remind them of the slightest. Finally looking back at these memories made him feel remorse. Another memory pop in his head, one where he was in the same room with both of his parents. They were surrounded by warm golden colors as if the sun was shining on them. They turned to stare at Shen. The peacock wasn't sure where this memory took place but it almost felt real to him.
He wanted it to be real.
Now that he thought about it, it never occurred to Shen on how he would take over Gongmen if they were still alive. When the news of their death spread across the land and to him, the thought never came to him. He remembered so clearly when he received the news. He ordered Lang and the wolves to stay on task while he strolled outside to be alone. He remembered being in the cold, feeling so numb. He felt his whole body shaking in distraught and he wanted to scream or cry but he would not allow himself to breakdown. They were so close to finishing his weapons, his only focus was to destroy everything about them. But looking back on his memories, staring back at the two peacocks, brought up the feelings he has been wanting to feel for so long.
All that he ever wanted was to be accepted by them. All he ever wanted was to be loved. He wanted their love.
At that moment Shen couldn't take it, the memory felt so real that he could almost go up to them and hug them. He stopped what he was doing and reached for them.
"Mother! Father! I-"
When Shen's opened his eyes, he found himself back in reality. He stood there for second before lowering his wings, seeing that he lost his droplet again. Po was staring at him with concern and Shen felt embarrassed that he saw him like that. The peacock stared at the ground, disappointed in himself. He felt a paw on his shoulder.
"You okay?" Po asked.
"I, don't know," Shen managed to utter, "I was so close. They were right there…"
Po knew who he was talking about but he didn't bring it up, not wanting to upset his friend.
"You'll get there, I know you will."
Shen knew Po was only trying to help. He was close to achieving inner peace, but he still felt he failed in some way. His brows narrowed, his breathing hitch, and with a frown, Shen raised his leg and kicked the tree out of frustration.
The tree shook and water splashed down on the panda and the peacock. Their fur and feathers soaking wet. Po moved some of his fur from his eyes and Shen shook his neck to get the water out, only to have his feathers puffed out. They both looked at each other and started laughing. They needed a good laugh.
Po and Shen were on the road again, following a cleared path in the grassy mellow. They were hoping to find a village soon, they were running out of supplies and food. They walked for almost three hours, there was no village and no person in sight. It was starting to worry Po but Shen kept himself in a calm manner.
"C'mon, there has to be someone around here," Po wined looking around the giant forest, "We're never going to get home."
"Don't fret yet," Shen said reassuring, "This path was made by someone, it has to lead to somewhere."
"That somewhere has better be a restaurant, with dumplings and maybe beets. I haven't had beets in a while."
While Po was dreaming about all kinds of food he missed, he noticed that Shen was staring at something and he stopped his rambling.
He looked ahead and there was something in the distance. It was tall and huge, almost like a mountain. But it wasn't a mountain, it was a tall temple that almost looked like the Jade Palace. Po and Shen glanced at each other and back to the temple. There was a small chance that someone may live there, someone who can help them. With no other options, the two walked down the hillside and to the temple.
The temple was made of wood and stone. They both noticed that the grass around the building was dry like it has not rained in years, it crunch under their feet. Some vines took over half of the building and grew on the walls and inside. As they walked closer to the temple, Shen saw that the wood had black scorch marks. He immediately knew the place was abandoned, no one would live in a temple in these bad conditions.
"Hello?" Po called out, holding tightly on his backpack straps.
"No one lives here," said Shen as he studied the wood, "Let's look around."
"For what?" the panda asked.
"For supplies," Shen answered, "Extra clothes or blankets will do. If you see any weapons bring them, they could be useful later."
Po thought it made sense to collect supplies but he wasn't too sure about collecting weapons, but he didn't question it. He trusted Shen enough to go along with his idea.
He went on his own way, walking at the side of the temple. He saw one side of the building sticking out, it was an open hallway leading inside. He carefully steps the small stairs and walked down the hallway. He could hear the floorboards creak, wanting to give out. It reminded him of the time when he was in Student barracks and his whole body went through the floor. Not wanting to repeat that incident Po moved faster making too much noise. He was a relief he didn't fell through, he walked further down and the floorboards didn't creak no more.
He scanned the rooms on each side. There wasn't much to see, the rooms were either buried in ruins or were too dark to see inside. Po could see faded paintings still hanging from the walls, the wooden furniture rotting away and plants of greens taking over the structure of the temple. Po thought how this place wasn't as big as the Jade Palace. He found himself in the center of the building. A few rays of the sun shined through the cracks of the ceiling. But as Po looked around, he noticed some things about the room that seemed off to him.
The beanpoles had heavy scratch marks and the walls had giant holes like someone punched through them. Doors were kicked down, curtains were ripped, and more black scorch marks were found. It looked like a battle took place here. Po followed the destruction down to another hallway, leading to another room.
The room was tall and larger than the others, there were large beanpoles holding up the ceiling and rugs spread over the floor. Besides the collecting dust and plants growing inside, the room stayed intact. Po raised a brow and looked back to the hallway, wondering why the destruction stopped there. Turing his head around the panda noticed the chair at the end of the room. He made his way over to the chair. While doing so Po failed to hear the sound of pattering footsteps coming from behind him.
The panda came closer to chair, seeing how it made of wood and it too was rotting away. He couldn't tell it was made for a ruler or a master. What he did see was on the chair its side was stained. It was very dry and brown. It was at that moment Po realized what he was looking at.
Dry blood.
Whoever was sitting here or standing had lost an amount of blood. Po started backing away, feeling really uncomfortable.
"Uh, Shen?" Po called loud enough for his buddy to hear, "Shen, I think something bad happened here."
"Oh, something bad will happen."
Po heard a voice and turned around to see someone standing a few feet away.
"Yòu!" Po pointed at the ferret.
"Yes, me," Yòu announced, "And I um, I was gonna say something smart but I forgot, but that doesn't matter now. What are you doing here, bear?"
"What are you doing here!?" Po question back, "I thought I put you and your creepy friends in jail."
Yòu just chuckled in a cocky manner, "Ha, the Chomp squad never stays in jail. It took a while but got out and found this nifty dump as our new hideout."
The ferret smiled a sinister grin, "Oh, and speaking of friends…"
Po then realized that the rest of the group were coming out from there hiding spots. How did he not see them he didn't know. They surround him and he knew already that he was outnumbered.
"Oh boy…"
Meanwhile, at the entrance of the temple, Shen followed the scorch marks inside. There was a fire that happened but it seemed it was put out before it spread. He observed everything around him, walking through the ruined mess. He spotted one room that was open and peeked inside. There were only cabinets and railings on the walls, holding up wooden polls. Shen stepped over a fallen broad and entered the cabin room. He opened one of them and found piles of handles, chains, and rusted blades.
This must be a room where they make weapons. Shen started searching for weapons, any that were not rusted. He looked in the tall cabin to find rows of daos swords. Some were rusting but Shen managed to found one that was still useful. He looked at the blade, only the tip of it was rusting but it's still perfect.
He always likes his weapons to be perfect. That was when Shen realized what he just thought and it felt wrong. He started at the thing in his wings, this dao reminded him of his old one, the one that he used to take so many lives. He shouldn't even be happy that he even found one. Just having a weapon in his hands reminded the incident with the crows…
Shen shook his head, not wanting to think about it.
"I can't focus on the past," Shen said to himself, "Not anymore."
The peacock felt a little pride that he was able to say that all on his own. Shen knows now that if he wants peace, he can't think about the bad things.
Shen wanted to explore more of the temple so he walked over to a dark hallway next to the cabin room. He couldn't see very well, he took his steps carefully afraid the floor would break. As he walked further down, he found what appears to be a spare room. It was very small. He noted that the room was more cover with scorch marks, to the point that half the room was turned to black dust. He thought this must be where the fire had started.
He placed the dao aside and walked to the center of the room. He calculated where he needed to step to avoid falling in the floor. He stepped over to a chest buried under dirt and rubble. Shen brushed off the dirt and rock as he opened the chest. He expected to find some helpful items but he did not expect to find these items.
Inside the chest were papers, scrolls, and stuff animals. Shen pulled the scrolls out first, only to see they have been torn in half. But they weren't scrolls for training, they were folk tales and some he remembered he read when he was a kid. Then he looked at the papers and saw they were drawing.
"Have a child lived here?" Shen thought.
That couldn't be right, the room was too small for anybody to live here.
Shen then saw something at the bottom of the chest, underneath the stuffed monkey. He took the toy and pulled out a torn paper of a painting. He unfolded it and looked at it, it was a portrait of a child but detailed about it was smeared due to age. He squinted his eyes to have a better look at the picture. He couldn't tell what kind of animal the child was, but there one detail that stands out. It was the eyes, they're eyes were wide and they have a very unique color.
There was a sudden crash and Shen wiped his neck around, startled.
"Po?" Shen called out. He didn't hear a response, of course, he didn't expect to get an answer when the two are far away.
Shen heard another crash and then everything went silent. Something was wrong.
"Panda?" Shen dropped the picture, grabbed the dao and took off, trying to find the source of the noise. He looked everywhere and he couldn't find the bear. The peacock heard something outside and dashed out.
When he was outside of the temple he stopped and saw Po was in a net being dragged by some goons.
"Let go of me!" Po cried as he struggled to break free.
"C'mon you morons," ordered Yòu, "There are three of you, it shouldn't be this hard to drag a bear!"
"CAN'T WE JUST EAT HIM!" the grey gator cried with insane excitement.
"No! We're not eating anyone!" the ferret snapped, "We're gonna drag him to a river and throw him in."
"Not on my watch you won't."
Yòu and his squad turned to see Shen, his train open and he was holding his weapon in front of them. Po smiled when he saw his friend.
"Release him, now" Shen ordered.
Yòu only looked at him annoyed, "You again, why don't you bug off."
Shen holds his ground, holding his dao tightly, "I don't want to kill you, so you might as well do what I said."
The ferret only glared back.
"You think we're afraid of you bird," the snake insulted, "The Chomp squad aren't afraid of no one."
"Yeah boss, let's chomp this freak," the wolverine said holding out his claws.
"CAN WE EAT THE BIRD?!" the gator cried out again.
Yòu sighed and hop on top of the net.
"You know what fine, go eat him" he gave in, "I'll guard the bear."
The grey gator, the wolverine, and the snake charged to the peacock. Shen still kept his ground, he was not weak and now that he had a weapon, he could easily take all three of them down.
Before they got close, Shen stabbed the dao on the ground, flung himself in the air and punched the gator with his feet.
The gator fell back holding his nose. The snake and the wolverine stilled charged at him, but Shen swing his train and knock them both down and flung them to a tree. All three of them got back up and charged again, throwing punches and kicks at the peacock but he dodges every one of them.
Shen would block and swing the dao, hitting them in the face with only the wood end of the staff.
"Yeah, go Shen!" Po cheered him on.
The wolverine pushed the peacock to a tree and tried to claw his face. Shen was quick and dodged the attack, causing the wolverine's claw to be stuck in the tree. He threw a hard punch at the wolverine, knocking him out.
Shen then goes after the snake and the gator. The snake tried to take the dao away by slithering his body around the staff. He slithered upwards and tried to bite Shen. He made a mistake, Shen grabbed him by the neck and threw him to a nearby bush.
Now the gator was the last one.
The gator rushed at Shen but the peacock moved away. The gator turned around and threw a punch, Shen grabbed the fist with his foot and twisted it. The gator yelp in pain but he didn't give up. He tried to grab the peacock but Shen opened his train and jumped over him and use the end of his dao to jab the gator on the back.
The gator had enough of this and threw himself on to Shen causing both of them to fall to the ground. Shen holds the staff, separating himself from the gator as the gator pushes his weight down on him. He opened his jaw, showing his many rows of teeth, and tried to snap at the peacock's face.
Shen was trying to push him off, but the gator's weight was too much for him. He kept trying, he had no other choice, no one was around to help him. With enough strength, Shen yelled and pushed the gator off. He spun around and kicked him right in the jaw. The gator fell and didn't get back up.
Shen gasped, steady himself as he eyed the ferret. He was out of breath but he can't afford to get tried, he still needs to get the panda back.
Yòu glared at the peacock and pulled on his whiskers out of frustration.
"You stupid bird," he growled, "You think you're so strong now that you got a stick. Well, I'll show you."
Yòu bared his teeth and his claws were out, "I'll rip you to pieces, I'll make you bleed. And once I'm done killing you, I'll do the same to your buddy there and then we'll be on our merrily way. Nobody messes with the Chomp squad, nob-GAH!"
A powerful kick sends him flying and Yòu landed on his head, knocking him out.
Tigress was unimpressed by the ferret attitude.
"He talks too much."
"Tigress!" Po cried, happy to see his friend and he saw all of the Furious Five.
Tigress walked over to Po and use her claws to cut the net. She helped Po up and used the net to tie up the Chomp squad. While she did that, the rest of the Five jumped on the panda, giving him hugs.
"Oh my goodness Po you're alright," said Viper happily.
"You okay?" Mantis asked, "We couldn't find you for days."
"I'm fine guys, I'm fine" Po reassured his friends, hugging them back. He was so happy to see them again.
Shen once again stood from aside and watched. He was relieved the panda was okay and that he was with his family. As he watched the feeling of loneliness returned, but he reminded himself that no matter how much he longed for it, he knew he didn't belong. It was for the best.
But then, he looked down to Master Viper, who was tugging his robe.
"Shen, are you alright?" she asked.
"Yeah, we were worried about you," Crane said.
Shen was stunned, "You...were?"
"Of course, we were," Monkey smiled, "Your our teammate remember?"
"You guys miss it, Shen took down those creeps," Po said as he demonstrates, "They were all like 'we're gonna take you down' and then he was all like wah-ta and hi-ya!"
"Whoa really?" Crane said with surprise.
"That's awesome Shen," Viper praise her friend.
Mantis hopped on to Shen's shoulder and patted his shoulder, "Good job buddy."
Shen just stared at the four masters, still stunned. They were actually welcoming him, they called him his teammate with no hint of doubt in their voices. They didn't hate him. He felt his heart swelled with warmness, feelings that he never felt before and he wasn't afraid of having this new feeling. Shen for the first time really felt, happy.
"Thank you…" he managed to say, seeing the smiles from his team.
"Alright, let head back home and take these creeps back where they belong," Tigress said as she dragged the knockout squad behind her.
"Yes! I miss my bed so much!" Po cried out and lead the way.
As the group makes their way back home, Po and Shen told the Five their small adventure of being separated from them. They had forgotten about the strange temple.
If you see any mistakes let know. Now if you excuse me, I'm gonna go celebrate my B-Day! Whoo! See you guys in the next chapter!
