Shen trudged across the forest floor, map in hand. This environment was alien to him; he was used to the rolling hills outside Gongmen, not a complicated labyrinth of trees and rocks. Shen drew his sword and sliced a branch off of a tree. "I passed this tree over an hour ago!" His wings fell to his sides. Shen looked at the map once more before crumbling it up. "Well, that proved to be absolutely useless." He pulled his sword out of the tree and began to walk.

Suddenly, Shen staggered and dropped his sword. He wrapped his wings around his midsection and gritted his beak.

"Maybe I should have taken that wilderness survival course when I was a chick. Then I would be able to eat berries without worry of poisoning myself!" Shen began to have a coughing fit as he reoriented himself. He crawled over to his sword and used it as a crutch to stand up. Shen dusted himself off and held his head high.

"Now then, off to find this idiotic wo-"

He turned around and was met with a surprising sight.

"Panda!"

A panda was standing atop a small hill next to some bushes. His arms were at his sides and his eyes were fixated on Shen. Shen drew his sword and slowly approached him, weaving left and right to avert the panda's gaze. "We meet again, panda." He paused for several seconds before continuing. "I see that you have no desire to make a fool out of yourself this time, which is good. Now, why have you come here?"

The panda continued to stare at him. He didn't even seem to be breathing. Shen thrust his sword within an inch of the panda's face. "I see. You must be attempting to retain peace." He took a deep breath before continuing. Shen began to circle around the panda.

"Don't you hate me? Doesn't my mere presence make your heart race? If it doesn't, then I believe you have a problem. I did kill your parents, after all." He started laughing but the panda stuck his foot out and tripped Shen, causing him to roll down the hill. Shen quickly recovered and charged the panda, sword raised high in the air.

"You are a fool!" He swung the sword with all his might at the panda's neck. The head went flying into a tree, but there was no blood. There were only leaves. Shen thrust his sword into the panda's arm and pulled it out. A small cluster of leaves fell from the wound. "What?" Shen threw his sword to the ground. The panda morphed into a cluster of bushes right before his eyes. "I must be going mad!" Shen fell to the ground as he tried to pick up his sword. Exhausted, he went right to sleep.

"Not it!"

Shen's relatives had come over to visit, as they did every two years. The children were playing a hybrid of tag and hide and seek in the garden behind the Tower of Sacred Flame. As always, Shen was the last person to say "not it."

"Guys, Come on! I'm always it!"

Lu, his oldest cousin, fanned out his train and went right up to Shen's beak. "Shen, you always have been the first peachick it. This is no different. Now count to 60 and don't take forever to find us this time."

The peachicks scattered throughout the garden, finding the strangest hiding places imaginable. One was even hiding in a hollowed out section of the wall, normally reserved for archers and ALWAYS off limits.

After counting to 60, Shen dragged his talons down a pathway. "I hate this game," Shen said to himself. "Why can't someone else be it for once?" He reached an intersection and saw Lu out of his hiding spot talking to a peahen. He slowly crept towards Lu to tag him.

"Wow. You did that all by yourself, and you're only sixteen?" The peahen looked at Lu in amazement.

"That's right. Of course, saving an entire village from 500 bandits does take a lot of energy out of me, so I do need to relax once in while, but I must always be ready when danger strikes—" He opened his beak to say more but he felt something tugging on his robe. Lu looked down and saw Shen trying to get his attention. "What?" he snarled.

"You're it."

Lu spun his train and hit Shen, sending him straight into a puddle of mud. Shen received several bruises and spit some mud out of his mouth. When he looked up, Lu was laughing at him.

"Shen! You are absolutely pathetic! Every time I do something to you, you always tell me 'I'll get you' or 'you'll pay'. Well, come on! Here's your chance, do something!"

Shen raised his wing to make a point, but he let it fall and started crying. The peahen Lu was talking to walked away.

"Hey, wait!" Lu chased after the Peahen. "What's your address?"

Shen's other cousins left their hiding spots to see what all the commotion was about. None of them made any attempt to help Shen up and headed to the tower after about two minutes of silence.

"Shen, are you okay?"

Shen looked up and saw Ebaru, his cousin from a faraway place called Babylon. He wiped the tears away from his eyes. "N-n-n-o. I'm n-n-o-t-t ok-a-ay."

"Lu is such a jerk." She held out her wing to him. "Let's go inside and you can clean yourself up."

Shen used her wing to pull himself out of the mud. When he got out, however, he would not let go.

"Uh, Shen. Could you not hold my hand so tight?" /Shen quickly pulled his wing back. His face took on a red shade. "Oh, sorry!"

Ebaru turned to him and screamed. "HELP!"

Young Shen changed into the present-day Shen, who looked mystified. "I don't remember this."

"HELP!"

Shen shot up out of his sleep and felt the ground around him.

"SOMEONE HELP ME!"

Shen looked around. He could tell that the screaming was very close, so he followed the sound. "Whoever you are, continue to scream!" Shen eventually came to a large tree. A wolf cub was tied to the tree. His clothes were torn up, and he smelled like he hadn't taken a bath in days.

Shen raised his sword over the wolf. The wolf began to panic and flail his feet. "No, don't!"

He used the sword to cut the ropes. The wolf let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, mister!" the wolf started to walk towards him.

Shen jumped away and kept his sword drawn in a threatening manner. "Don't come any closer! Now, what is your name?"

The wolf looked confused. "Wait, aren't you resc—"

"YOUR NAME!" Shen's train fanned out in anger.

The wolf started shaking. "M-my name i-is B-b-ben"

Shen smiled and lowered his sword. "That wasn't too difficult now was it? Let's get moving." Shen started walking but Ben wasn't following him. He was looking at some flowers and sniffing them.

"ARE YOU GOING TO FOLLOW ME, OR DO I HAVE TO DRAG YOU ACROSS THE GROUND?"

Ben quickly dropped his flower and followed him. "You don't have to be so pushy, you know."

Shen turned to him with the intent of scolding him but he decided against it. "How exactly did you get strapped to that tree?"

Ben put his paws in his pockets. "I was playing with some friends and they said we were going to play a game. They said part of the game was that I was the prisoner, and they would come rescue me. They didn't come back to get me." He looked up at Shen with embarrassment. "You won't tell anyone, will you?"

Shen laughed and looked down at him. "Ben, I don't care enough to go tell your other friends that you did something stupid."

Ben jumped in front of him and bowed. "Thank you for everything you've done for me."

"You're welcome." Shen paused for a few seconds before snapping out of thought and continuing on the journey home. Ben tugged on his robe. "Do you have anything to eat?"

Shen looked down at his talons. He reached into his robe but quickly pulled it out again. "No, I d—"

"Never mind. I found some berries."

Shen raised his wing, his eyes wide with surprise. "Aren't those—"

Ben turned around. He was stuffing his mouth with berries.

"What?"

Shen lowered his wing. "Never mind, just hurry up."

Lu-Donkey

Ben-Foolish

Ebaru-Across

Obviously, Ebaru is not chinese; it's Akkadian.

Not much to say here. I would expect Shen to have many relatives, and not all of them would be from China.

Hope you enjoyed it!