Devastation
"Shen's troubled parents consulted a Soothsayer. She foretold that if Shen continued down his dark path, he would be defeated by a Warrior of Black and White. The young lord set out to change his fate. But what he did next… only sealed it…"
This is the Giant Panda Purge.
Imagine an ocean's worth of humongous black and white pandas. Imagine these pandas working hard for a living, to be self-sufficient, to raise families, to provide service to others. Imagine them welcoming you into their towns and villages with open arms and with deliciously pre-prepared food ready to serve to you. To show compassion to you as one of their own. Even if you may not be one of their species. Pandas are benevolent by nature. They show love to others readily, whether familiar or stranger. They are placid people, but they are fierce when shoved and beaten. They will retaliate if they see deliberate wrongdoing. They will strike hard to defend and protect, then they will fade away back to their normal docile selves. These pandas are willing to fight and die with all they are worth to protect their own. But they strive to avoid conflict, to let disturbances rush over them like a flowing river. They only intervene if one comes across their path with intent to harm.
Unfortunately, with attackers closing in under the cover of night, and only a few brethren out working in the fields, the pandas were ill-prepared for the massacre that was to follow.
Fate has it that they were struck down, wiped out like oaks in a forest fire. They fell to burning anger and zealous ambition. They yielded and succumbed to uncontrollable desires to overwhelm and overpower.
They were swept away by a vengeful and corrupted flash flood. Never to be seen again.
Shen halted his troops outside the outskirts of the Panda Village. He motioned to General Enlai to come over. With the wolf leader by his side, Shen gestured to the village and verbally laid out his plan.
"I want two platoons to circle around and wipe out the farmers. That will be a stealth job. Then two companies will block the north and south exits of the village. The rest of us will rush in from the east and west."
"It will be done my lord," the senior wolf replied. He got two of his captains to spread the orders around. In mere minutes, the entire wolf army was ready to attack.
"Alpha and Bravo squads! Move out!"
The rake flowed through the paddock with ease. His arms were well-built, allowing him to tug on the products of his gardening easily. With a simple, well-practiced flick of his arm, the rake leapt out of the icy water and spat weeds into a nearby bucket. "10 down. 10 to go," the panda remarked, pleased with his progress. He and two others had been sent to the south-east paddocks to clear them of weeds so as to ensure that the growth of the rice seedlings proceeded unhindered. The farmer's two little ears perked up and swivelled slightly as he thought he detected footfalls nearby – a splash or two.
"Rai! Was that you splashing about?" he called to his friend a couple hundred meters away. "You must be hearing things, Ji!" Rai responded, before turning back to tend to his paddock. "Or maybe I've gone blind," Rai added after a moment's thought. A dull thump was heard, though Ji disregarded it. That would be his last mistake.
Several more muffled thumps from behind and Ji turned too late. He felt something sharp run him through his chest. The energy to roar out in rage, in despair, in shock, in anything, was taken away from him. He could only let out a strangled, broken cry of "Help!"
Then he felt the blade slide outwards from him, and he collapsed face down in the rice field, blood inking red the white, snowy water.
The last thing he heard before his soul slipped away into the darkness was Rai screaming "Alert the others!"
Lieutenant Quan cursed as he saw a shadow elude his men and race into the darkened village. Getting down on all fours, he gave hot pursuit. After several swift long strides that let the world blur around him, Quan felt the ground underneath change from frozen grass to patterned stone. He could hear the frantic, panicked screaming of the fleeing panda as he raced to alert his brethren. Quan hoped that pandas were heavy sleepers. He was mistaken. He cursed again as he saw candlelights flicker on behind the shut windows of enclosed huts. Paws pounding, he swiftly closed the distance between himself and the panda, and sent his knife through the fat fool's stomach.
His dying scream was still a worded – and cursedly eloquent – warning about how the pandas were all in danger. All under attack.
Quan saw the thick shadows of Giant Pandas rushing out of their houses, holding tools as makeshift weapons. They all charged at him.
"I want Canine Platoon up here now!" Quan howled skyward in wolf code, before charging headlong into the mass of fat and black and white fur. His limbs struck like lightning, kicking and punching villagers away. The wolf used his agility to sidestep any larger, more powerful pandas. As he finished dispatching another with his knife, he turned and saw his troops flooding in from the nearest entrance. But there were more pandas rushing out to join the brutal melee. Metal blades sang through the air, staffs whistled and cracked, and those with no weapons resorted to clawing and pounding mercilessly.
Quan saw a panda leap off one of the hut's roofs and land squarely on a soldier, crushing the life out of the unfortunate canine. He bounded over and slashed a deep diagonal cut over the panda's back, leaving the bear to bleed out to death whilst prone on the ground. His ears caught a whisper of another close comrade in distress. "Lieutenant Quan! Lieutenant Quan!"
Quan followed his instincts to an open barn where Zeta Squad was pinned down by pandas on the defense. The lieutenant summoned two archers to snipe out the pandas while he dispatched the last few that still lurked around menacingly. "Sergeant Miller! How's our wounded?"
"Not good sir. A significant portion of our men have suffered severe cuts, lacerations and impalements. Some were only just lucky because of our quality armour."
"Set up a medical base here," Quan declared, then he turned to his archers, "You two, make sure that no effing panda gets in here."
"Sir yes sir!" they replied.
"Good. I'm gonna reinforce the uninjured," said Quan, running on all fours back into the bloody bedlam. Fresh snow had started to fall.
"Where is the warrior that you have tasked to destroy me and my family?!" Shen snarled at a group of pandas he had cornered against the wall. The pandas glared back with brave defiance.
"We don't know what you're talking about!" one of them spoke, "None of us do!"
A slash and the perpetrator collapsed to the ground with a groan, blood oozing from his open stomach.
"Don't play games with me! You are planning to overthrow my parents and conquer all of China!"
"We would do no such thing!"
Another slice and that panda fell backwards, screaming in agony.
"We are a peaceful people! Please stop this madness!"
That panda too, ended up on the ground, bloody entrails slipping out of the recent gash that Shen had just made. The teenaged peacock returned his deathly gaze among the last two hostages.
"We don't want to fight! We just want this attack to be called off!"
Stab. The speaker collapsed, a neat red line reaching all the way through his skull.
"Please don't do this! What would your parents say about this?"
Shen snapped and with multiple swings completely mutilated the last prisoner standing.
"How dare you speak of my parents! How dare you plan to overthrow them and then lie about it to my face! How dare you even envision about demolishing our reign and using your hidden lust for sovereignty to conquer and annex! How dare you! How dare you!"
When Shen had finished slicing and dicing, what was left of the last hostage was nothing more than bloody red limbs, guts, and unrecognizable pieces of severed, meat-covered bones. Shen turned back to his swarming troops.
"Leave no panda alive! Spare not the elderly or the young! Kill them all! Kill them!" he barked, tamed fear hidden behind his fury-filled voice. The peacock prince was a whirlwind with his lance, slashing apart pandas and their property, tearing through flesh, intestine and wood like they were paper and he were scissors. They were nothing at all compared to him. Nothing at all.
He had just finished decapitating another panda when he heard it. An infant's cry. He swivelled himself round, rotating his vision, seeing kids getting their limbs hacked off and chests speared, seeing elderly people forced to prone positions on the ground and stabbed through the back, seeing men and women fighting and falling to the strikes of his wolves. Panda blood mixed with wolf blood. Both blood kinds stained the snow. But Shen couldn't find the source of that cry – no way an infant could still be alive after 10 minutes of ruthless siege. Shen acknowledged Quan and another trooper as they arrived to fight side by side. They rushed into another group, slashing and slicing limbs, guts and throats off monochromatic bears. The hulks crumbled like aged boulders under their assault.
Through the blood of spilled animals and the fires born from the burning of the village, Shen finally managed to see it. The helpless infant that was crumpled down on the ground in front of his burning homestead. He wailed pitifully for assistance. But the prince didn't come here to offer any.
"Get them all!" Shen shouted to his troops, pointing at the baby and the fleeing villagers beyond.
Quan lead the charge. He was about to bring his hammer down upon the baby panda, when its accursed father stepped in the way and swung his rake.
Quan screamed as he saw his left eye fly away from his face. He saw the rugged, freezing ground rush up to him. He felt it crush the breath out of his lungs. With a final, howling scream of agony, he passed out.
"Take our son, and run away! Go!" the male panda shouted to his wife, who had just finished dispatching two wolves and had now raced over to scoop up her baby. She complied with resigned silence and with one last look of longing desperation on her face as she turned and fled with her child, leaving her husband amongst the flames.
Shen stepped forward. "You will not get away with this, my lord," the panda dared to speak at him, spitting the last two words in bold impertinence. "We shall see," hummed Shen as he brandished his lance. The house came down when the panda leapt. The last crash of the burning house resounded with finality throughout the battlefield as the panda's rake met elegant, lethal metal.
With each exchange, the panda gave ground. Shen sneered as he pressed his advantage. Some of the opponent's brethren tried to charge in from different directions to help, but Shen cut them all down with a calculated spin. His duel with this obese annoyance spread outside of the village grounds. Shen found himself gliding on ground level through the surrounding forests, his pounding away at the snow and shrubs. He tried some more strikes from different angles – a headbutt here, a stab of his sword there, a leg sweep up here – but the panda irritatingly flicked them aside. Shen soon realized that the panda had lead him to a rope bridge, away from the main fight. He snarled.
"I'll kill you!" Shen squawked in rage, his red eyes glowing in the pale light of the winter moon. He sprang and slashed, sweeped and kicked, jumped and rolled, did every combat trick he knew to take down the panda. But the bear countered every one of them. Shen only just realized that the railing ropes on both sides had been cut, and that the panda was resorting to a desperate, fatal dance to weave them across him. Shen sneered as he let his beak cut the ropes.
"If you're the warrior assigned to defeat me, I'm not impressed one bit!" he laughed hysterically as he launched himself in the air and sliced the bridge in half with a fluid motion. The panda silently plummeted to his death in the icy river below, and Shen allowed his wings to guide him in his glide back to the apocalyptic realm that he had created.
When Shen returned to the main battle site, he found his men had suffered heavy casualties.
"No worries. The pandas suffered worse," he thought.
Quan's sergeant, Miller, came running up to him to report. Apparently, all but a few pandas were successfully slaughtered. The little that remained had scattered to the winds. No matter, he would find them and hunt them down.
Another wolf, much more lower-ranking this time, raced to deliver news to him.
"Several villagers just fled into the forest a few minutes ago. We can catch them if we hurry!"
"Send what's left of the able to hunt them down. But keep a squad of archers here to defend the wounded," Shen said, before turning tail and plunging into the forest again.
His dogged and determined pursuit proved fruitful. He bisected several lost, wandering children, and he delivered quick stabs to a group of young adults he came across. Despite their protective nature, the pandas were no match against a mercilessly trained 15-year-old prince. He was graceful yet deadly as he swept through the forest. He was swift yet fierce as he thundered through the snowstorm. Inside, his heart burned with icy courage, and his red eyes felt as if they were preemptively guiding him, leading him by instinct through the menacing blackness of the night.
He finally chanced upon the last straggler, who had just scaled a slope and had taunted his wolves who were in pursuit. She sprinted off. They gave chase. He gave chase.
"Where's your little baby now, princess?" he heard one of the men sneer.
"Dead now. I was forced to abandon him and cut his lifeline away from the world of the living," the mother panda replied, "Your work of art is sickeningly beautiful."
With that, she rolled down another slope into a trench. The wolves followed while Shen stopped his feet, intending to watch this confrontation from the stealthy, monochromatic covers of the blizzard.
"We have great taste," another canine jeered, jagged teeth radiating a lethal glint in the moonlight.
"Why would you do this?!" the female snarled, charging and using the sudden momentum to throw herself in a crushing belly drum on top of a wolf. She rolled off and brought down her foot with no hesitation upon his head. She turned and her paws snagged the jaws of another that had dared to try and bite her from behind.
"Because your kind are planning to take over China! We were warned by our prince, who was warned by his soothsayer!" the lead wolf replied as he tackled the bear. Shen glowered and silently growled from the grey shadows. Those fools he called soldiers weren't supposed to spit out the soothsayer's name and possibly let slip the chance for his enemies to endanger her. He would punish them for their loose jabberings. But it seemed that the work could be done for him. The mother panda was more than holding her own, and she batted aside the rest of the wolves. With a final, impromptu battle cry, she charged forward, slammed the leader into a headlock, and twisted. His neck cracked like fatigued wood, and when she released the corpse, it flopped into the placid stream.
But the battle had cost her. Worn out from her burning legs which had sprinted all the way for her, horribly pained by the mauling wounds she had received, she collapsed onto her side, barely managing to prop her head on a small rock which jutted out from the stream.
Shen leapt down from his perch and stalked towards her with slow, impending finality.
"You will never get away with this," she whispered, voice whispering barely above an octave. Her mind was drowning in darkness, her breaths came unevenly and painfully, and her muscles got stiffer with numbness.
So it barely hurt when Shen thrust his blade downwards through her already shattered heart.
"I think you'll find, ma'am, that we have this event more or less royally sanctioned," he stated icily as he watched her life leave her. He saw the last cursing spasms of her lips. She seemed to silently be saying "Impossible."
He drew the blade out from the body and slung it back on its sheath behind him.
He departed the scene without any further thoughts.
The first thing Quan noticed when he came to was the concerned features of the face of his best friend – who in question, was gazing at him worriedly.
"My bloody frigging eye's gone, isn't it?" he snarled sadly. Shen shook his head solemnly.
"Yes, and the majority of our forces were killed. Only two of our companies remain, and you're the only officer left."
Quan let the news flow through him. The pandas – the savages – were that brutal? He forced his eyes to blink back the tears. They had won, but in the process had almost been wiped out themselves.
"How many are wounded?"
"Over half of them, almost three quarters apparently," Shen spoke, sadness clinging to the ends of his words.
"My poor, poor brethren."
"Mourn we should, but not now. Now is also a time of great joy. We have succeeded in our mission. We have prevented the fall of Gongmen. We have ensured its protection. And in the process of doing so have burned our names in history's steel of legacy. This is a time of mourning, yes, but also a time of triumph and celebration," Shen declared to his best friend. Quan was at first taken aback by Shen's apparent wavering of grief, but with a moment's consideration, he knew that the rewards of this battle would outweigh the cost. He could finally imagine his kind being respected in the city. Wolves would walk with happiness and pride among those they had protected. They would be exalted for taking action, taking the chance to serve and protect, to deliver and ensure justice for all. That was what the ultimate outcome of this battle meant for his brethren. They could all be happy together.
"Indeed my lord, indeed," Quan complied, a ghost of a laugh escaping his throat.
"You are in command now, old friend," Shen continued on, "Once you have your strength back, lead them well until my return. I am taking myself and a squadron of uninjured wolves on your behalf to report our triumph to my parents."
Shen glowed in the light of dawn that filtered through the windows of the barn. His beak was grinning widely, he was standing tall and straight, and his eyes were alight with amber joy.
"They will be very proud of you," Quan said.
"I know. I know they will be," replied Shen, his smile and aura of ecstasy swelling ever larger.
The wolf lieutenant couldn't be any happier for his dear friend.
"Yoke Squad! Fall in line with me!" the prince called to his chosen troops, turning away and marching through the barn doors with sophisticated, joyful grace.
Quan rolled back onto the medical mat. The bloody bustle of the night had heavily drained him, but with more-than-satisfactory results to show for it, he felt he could close his eyes and let sleep take him for a while. The warm darkness took him away quickly.
The Panda Village (or what's left of it) might have been isolated on the outskirts of Gongmen Valley, but words, speculations and rumours could still fly around. A worried thought from a passing deliveryman as he retrieved his cart from his shed near the battle site passed a message on in a whisper through to a hiking bison. The bison, hiking with a pace he had never done before, reached the sheep huts that formed a junction leading to the city. He passed his concerned thoughts onwards with worried speeches about what might have happened. Several sheep had then proceeded to make their way to the royal palace – the Tower of the Sacred Flame – and reported their ominous speculations to the antelope soldiers who guarded the palace. The army leader thanked them for their cautionings and proceeded to give a report to the king and queen.
"Apparently our wolf forces were behind this massacre," General Yaozu declared. Worry and horror flashed through his rulers' eyes.
"Thank you for your debriefing, Yaozu. Head back to the barracks for now," King Kepa spoke, hiding his anxiety behind his veil of regality. The antelope bowed and exited the throne room. Kepa turned to his wife.
"What could've been their motivations for this?" he wondered out loud. They started strolling down the stairs to the ground level, looking through the palace's panoramic openings at the thick trails of smoke rising in the distant horizon. If the rumours were true, that would be all that was left of the Giant Pandas and their village.
"Whatever it was, it was inexcusable, horrific and of the utmost cruelty," Zhang replied, her feathers ruffling with angry resolve, "We have to bring down justice upon them."
"Slow down, my love. First we should launch a formal investigation into this matter. Then we can trial those who are guilty and punish them for their heartless crimes," the king cut in, "We should now wake our son, get some breakfast and then allow ourselves to dive deep into this affair."
Both husband and wife reached the ground level. They shared a very disturbed glance with each other. What kind of threat – what kind of monster – could have done this?
"I'll send up the maids to wake our son," the queen said at last.
"And I'll get the cooks to make breakfast – on the double," the king replied.
They were a moment's wait away from separating to execute their errands when the front doors of the palace entrance flew open. And in stepped their son, covered with dried blood not his own, and having a light on his face that mortifyingly burned with glee. They felt their hearts begin to sink.
And with each shockingly joyful declaration that their son trumpeted from his beak, their hearts slowly turned to glass and were shattered in pieces amongst an unforgiving floor.
"I did it, Mama! I did it, Papa!"
"I saved the city! I saved the kingdom! I saved us all!"
"They are dead! The disgusting, traitorous vermin! Their warriors shall never overthrow us!"
"We killed them all!"
Shen marched with pride through gates that were the only opening in the walls surrounding the royal tower. His chosen squad of wolves walked tall on two feet behind him.
The sun shone brightly over the morning clouds, sending warm orange rays across the far reaches of the kingdom. Shen took in the beauty of the morning as stalked up the steps leading to the entrance doors of the palace.
Inside, he felt his stomach coursing with positive energy – looking forward to a commemorative feast. He felt his avian brain release flying thoughts that made his spirits soar. A golden era had just begun under his wing.
His heart illuminated its own bright rays of joy around the environment, that Shen was sure of. He felt his white albino feathers glow with the internal flame of hope that burned inside of him.
He was a saviour.
His people would respect him.
His parents would be never-endingly proud of him.
He took a moment to discipline his overwhelming emotions of ecstasy, and he gracefully prepared himself for the barrage of praise that would collide right into him.
Behind closed doors he heard his parents talking.
He pushed open the doors and started declaring out loud and proud his triumphant endeavour.
This is what it feels like to be King Kepa and Queen Zhang right now.
You barely notice the maids head down the flight of stairs, about to tell you about the apparent absence of your son from his room when they also hear the news, and stop dead in their tracks.
You barely feel the sudden pain in your stomachs, barely notice the invisible choking haze that has somehow seeped and settled into your throats.
You barely even feel the agonized thump-thump-thump of your own panicked, incredulous hearts.
You can only focus on comprehending the horrifying implications of your son's – your son's – joyful announcements. Joyful.
That is the complete, terrifying opposite of what you feel right now.
Right now, you feel shredded by fear.
Mangled by guilt.
Thrashed by repulsion.
Tormented by horror.
Pulverized utterly by despair.
Your son's face begins to fall. You see his lower mandible droop in apprehension. You can see the glow in his eyes dissolve to nothingness.
And in the end, you can only find it in yourselves to let out one pitiful wail.
It is a pleading cry launched by your desperation to deny.
It is a last attempt at reigniting hope in an old, cynical candle.
It is a last, desolate resort to try and cling onto any thread of innocence and goodness that remains in the demon that is your son.
You speak… but you cannot hide the tremble. The fear. The devastation.
"What have you done?"
"Shen returned to his parents full of pride. But in their faces, he saw only horror."