Shen was in his room and, as usual, was stirring up trouble. He had just met Master Oogway, and was currently airing his thoughts on the meeting.
"That turtle was so boring!" The young Shen said to himself. "I hope I never end up like that. Now, where did I put that sulfur?" Shen was experimenting with substances that Gongmen's traders had brought back, including this strange yellow rock they called sulfur. He mixed it with various other rocks and liquids in a pot and waited to see what would happen. He stood on a stool to look into the pot and ran to the wall when he saw the pot's contents begin to bubble. The pot exploded and made a loud bang. Metal and rock was thrown everywhere and Shen was covered with dust. All the glass in the room had been shattered and most of the carpet was ruined. Shen's father, the Soothsayer, and several royal guards burst into the room, expecting an assassin or thief, but they only saw little Shen trying to put out a fire that had started on his train.
"SHEN!" His father's blue train flared up in anger. "This is the second time this month! Soothsayer, clean him up and have him brought to the throne room immediately!" Shen's father stormed out of the room. He stopped outside and let out a sigh of relief.
"Thank the heavens, he's alright" The peacock lord then ascended the staircase to his throne room.
The guards took all of Shen's experiments and his rock collection. "Hey! That's mine!" the young lord protested. The Soothsayer led him out of his room and down the stairs while trying to calm him down. "Shen, your father is only worried for your safety. That's why he took your rocks; he thought they were dangerous."
Shen looked like he was about to burst into tears.
"But what did I do wrong?"
The Soothsayer did not have an answer for him.
Shen's eyes snapped open.
"What?"
His eyes rapidly analyzed everything in the room. He was lying on a bed. He was in a rather small room with various paintings and ornaments hanging from the walls. A single door was at the end of a table. What remained of his weapons were in a jumbled mess on the table. Shen tried to move his head but received a splitting headache and rested it once again. His left foot was covered in bandages, rendering it unusable. His left wing was in a makeshift cast and whenever he tried to move it, it burned with intense pain.
"Oh, why do the fates choose to extend my torture? It's as if they are mocking me." Shen looked over at the table and saw his lance was lying in a very dangerous position. If someone were to just knock it out of balance, it would fall to the floor and impale anything below it.
"Soon, I shall be able to rest once more," Shen whispered as he rolled off the bed and onto the floor. He crawled over to the table, positioning himself directly under his lance. "Isn't this what you foretold, Soothsayer? That I would be killed? Well, I hope you're happy." Before Shen could move the lance, the door opened and a Peacock carrying a box of radishes walked in. The Peacock dropped the box and rushed over to Shen, pushing the lance out of his reach.
"You must be careful. With your injured legs, you could have tripped on that lance." Shen let out a sigh of annoyance before turning his attention to his 'rescuer'.
"I demand to know who you are," Shen asked in a haughty tone. "And where I am." The other Peacock smiled and extended his wing out to Shen in an offer of assistance.
"My name is Buwei and you are in my house. May I help you up?" Shen narrowed his eyes and swatted the wing away.
"I do not need any help, certainly not from the likes of you." Buwei backed away to give Shen some room to get up. Shen used his right wing to grasp the table and slowly stood up on his good leg. He looked over at Buwei with a sense of superiority. He attempted to walk forward, but his legs twisted and he fell to the ground. Buwei once again came over to offer his wing, and this time Shen grudgingly accepted.
"What is your name?" Buwei asked Shen. "It's just so I can address you properly."
Shen looked at the ground as they walked through the door and down the stairs.
"My name is Shen."
Buwei led him into a small room with a table and a window. Xin was already sitting at the table.
"Shen, this is my daughter, Xin. Xin, This is Shen."
Shen analyzed the Peahen from crest to toe and saw nothing remarkable, except for her red eyes. He almost got lost in them before her high-pitched voice brought him back to reality.
"Hi, Shen."
Shen paid no attention to her and sat on an uncomfortable wooden chair, careful not to damage his magnificent train. He looked down at his plate and then stared into space.
"Is there something wrong, Shen?" Buwei asked with the utmost concern.
Shen slowly turned to face him with a puzzled look on his face. "There must be more to eat here than radishes."
Buwei looked down and shook his head. "Well, Shen, there usually is. But for the past several months, we have been attacked by bandits."
Shen was investigating his radish and was paying no attention to Buwei, nor did he make any attempt to hide it.
"I see" Shen said in an uncaring tone.
"We've had to make sacrifices in order to survive. In fact, we were fishing for extra food when we found you floating down that river."
After a rather quiet breakfast, Xin rose from her seat. "Dad, can I go to the meeting today?" Buwei shook his head a gestured to the stairs. "No, but you can help Shen back to his room." Xin walked sluggishly over to Shen and helped him up the stairs.
When they arrived at his room, Shen reached over to one of his feather blades. Xin saw what Shen was doing and swatted the knife out of his hand. She looked up at Shen in disbelief.
"What are you doing?" Shen turned to face Xin. His eyes were twitching and his train began to rise. "We pulled you out of that river and you try to kill yourself? What gives?"
"Listen to me, little Peahen," Shen inched closer to her. "The only way I will achieve peace is through death! But you probably wouldn't understand such things, being so young." By the time he had finished, his train had fanned out and his crest was standing straight up. Xin vigorously shook her head.
"I may be young but I do know that this isn't the answer. I don't know what happened to you before you went in that river, but you must have survived for some reason." Xin took a deep breath before continuing. "Everyone has some reason to keep on living. You must have some friends or famil-"
Shen snapped and slammed his wing on the table, causing his weaponry to rattle.
"I have no friends! I have no family! I have never been loved by anyone!" Shen began to tremble and his voice lowered to a whisper.
"Get out."
Xin quickly exited the room and shut the door. Shen limped over to the bed and sat down, pondering what Xin said.
"Perhaps I am still here for a reason. Even if this is just an accident, I can still seek out that old goat and tell her she was wrong." Shen picked up his blade and looked at his reflection; tears were falling from his eyes. Shen quickly wiped them away and regained his composure. He laid down on the bed, thinking about everything that has happened to him over the past three weeks before going to sleep.
Late in the day, Shen was inspecting the damage to his weaponry. Most of his feather blades were either missing or broken. His throwing knives were completely absent, and his lance was split in half, with the blade bent upward. Shen angrily threw one of the knives at the wall.
"How will I be able to defend myself with these?"
"Why don't you worry less about killing and more about living."
Shen whirled around to see Buwei standing in the doorway. He was carrying a pile of robes.
"I went to the tailor today and bought some robes to replace the dirty one you're wearing."
Shen looked down at his robe. It was torn, covered in dirt, and looked like it came from the garbage rather than a fine silk-weaver.
"Shen I need to talk to you about something." Buwei sat down next to him on the bed. Shen inched away from him as he began to talk.
"I just want to tell you that I know who you are." Shen's eyes went wide with surprise. He quickly got off the bed and readied himself for a fight.
"Shen, I don't want to fight you." Shen relaxed himself, but he still remained in an aggressive stance. Shen was always used to having enemies; for someone to not have any desire to attack him caught him off guard.
"Well, what do you want?" Shen was getting impatient with Buwei. There was something about him that Shen found unnerving.
"Shen, I wanted to tell you that I forgive you."
"You can't unders-wait, what?" Shen had already prepared a response to what he thought would be a lecture on morality and was caught completely off guard. Buwei chuckled and nodded his head slowly.
"You heard me right, Shen. I forgive you." Shen turned away from him to continue inspecting his weapons in a hurried fashion.
"Everyone deserves a second chance. You are no different."
Shen continued to inspect his weapons, even though he had inspected all of them two times already.
I don't believe I am missing any translations with this one.
Geez, this is really short! Never realized...
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