Slight sexual abuse mentioning in the fourth paragraph If you are not 18 or above skip that paragraph and move on.
November 18th: I'm finally back
Dear Diary,
It has officially been three years since I was the caravan arrived at the Valley of Peace, everyone poured out of their homes and flooded the alleyways. They tried to peer in to see me. Crane could see that I was uncomfortable with so much attention and he fanned out his wings to block me. I gave him a grateful glance and continued to stare straight ahead toward the Thousand Steps. We unloaded the Caravan there. Mantis and Monkey were already waiting for us. Tigress started to look around and Monkey gave her a calming look. "They are up at the palace with Shifu. He is preparing them for their big sister." She nodded and cast me a worried look. I just hefted up a big box and started to struggle up the stairs. That was when everyone saw the stab wounds on my legs and arms as well as the massive burn marks on my neck and tail. I shifted my eyes down guiltily as Po rushed over to grab the box. I dropped my arms limply. "It'll be okay, Mei Xiang. You don't have to feel like you've done anything wrong." Tears welled up in my eyes and I nodded. The walk up the stairs were done in silence. I believe my dear friend everyone just saw a glimpse of what I had to endure.
Shifu was at the doors with Mr. Ping and Li Shan. He only cracked it enough to growl something quietly inside. Turning back he appraised me up and down. I kept my eyes fixed to the floor. "Welcome home, Mei Xiang." I nodded and bowed formally. "It is good to be back, Master Shifu." I felt him shift a sharp glance at the others who shook their heads and he lead us inside. Behind me, Mr. Ping and Li Shan was whispering with Po. "What happened to her, Po?" "She was tortured and doesn't want to talk about it. It is too much on her mental health. She barely spoke the whole way home." Before long I was bombarded to the ground with purrs of delight. "You must be our sister!" "I'm Minzhe and this is Wren!" "I'm Flicka!" "And I'm Zinnia!" I stiffened in pain and shock. Four identical pairs of eyes bore into mine. "Children!" At Tigress's voice, they scrambled off of me. "I know you are all excited to finally see your big sister after all these years, but she needs to talk with Wai gong and Shushu Mantis is going to take a look at her. She doesn't need you scaring her like that." They nodded and melted back into the shadows. I noticed how Minzhe would grab Wren beofre she would start to panic.
Viper gently pulled me along and into my room Po sat my small bag down and Mantis hopped in. Shifu slipped in behind him and closed the door. "Okay, Mei Xiang. I need to give you a check up. So you have to remove your tunic to give me a better idea of wounds." I shook my head and backed away. Fear sparkled in my eyes. Shifu, Mantis, and Viper shared a look. "Mei Xiang, sweetie, no one is going to hurt you. How about we do that last and we give you a regular check up first?" I stared into Viper's eyes and slowly nodded. She drew me back towards Mantis. I sat down and he hopped up next to me. He probed me all over and found that I had no fever and wasn't sick as in physically. I was mentally. He told Shifu that my mental state is not in the best place and I should be treated delicately. This was only after a round of questions where I would flinch and when he came too close I pucnehd him into Shifu and ran out of the room. It took three hours to find me. I was on the roof having an episode. It was when Guang was flaying me and I would run only for him to catch me and whip me. They had to drag me down. Once I was calm enough to go back inside, Viper gently coaxed me to take off my hanfu. As I did you could hear the gasps in the room. I heard Shifu clench his staff.
I knew the scars and wounds on my body were bad, but surely not enough for that reaction. I hastily tried to put my hanfu back on but Shifu stopped me. "Mei Xiang, what happened." I lowered my eyes and started to shake. "M-master, please." He touched my shoulder and I screamed in fear and jerked away. Viper pinned me against the wall so I wouldn't fight back. "Don't hurt me please." I whimpered terrified. Shifu grabbed my paws and held them down. I kept my eyes tightly shut and waited for the blow. "Look at me." I tried to tune him out. "Mei Xiang, You need to look at me." i tembling opened my eyes and looked at him. "Did you really think I was going to hit you? What happened to you out there?" I swallowed and trembled even more. The tremors became so violent that it appeared I was having a seizure. "I-I was tortured daily. Most days I was starved and left outside chained to a wall in all sorts of weather. I was beat and almost raped on more than one account. I was sexuallly harrassed. After I managed to escape I was recaptured by the same people, but led by a different leader. He abused me more. I was flayed and cut by him. He whipped me and burned me and stoned me. I beaten by him. I couldn't even fight back." I trailed off and shut down and fell to the floor and curled up in a ball. Shifu let go of me and walked out. Viper hugged me along with Mantis before following their Master.
I stayed like that for the rest of the day. I could hear my family whispering outside in hushed tones. They were worried about me. Po came in during mealtimes and brought me food. I only ate about half of it which he wasn't disappointed about. I guess he was just happy that my ordeal didn't stop me from eating today. Diary, I'm scared. I don't want to go to sleep. What will happen to me in my sleep? When I was sure everyone was asleep, I walked out of the room and crept down the hallway to the room that had the quadruplets in it. They were talking still. Half-asleep talking though. "Do you like our big sister?" "Flicka!" "What? I was just asking." "Zinnia, Flicka does have a point. We know hardly anything about her. All we know is what Ma told us and here she is and she isn't even what Ma and Baba told us about her." "Minzhe, Flicka, Zinnia, none of you are being fair. She is hurting. Couldn't you tell. I could smell blood and fear on her. She was not in a good place while she was gone. So we have to be nice to her and help her realize that she is safe and no one will hurt her here." "Whose side are you on, Wren?" "I'm on the side that says, quit judging people before you actually get to know them and go to sleep!" Before long a chorus of goodnights and then snores filled the air. I kinda missed the banter that went on when I lived here among my children before I was kidnapped. Soothed by the snores, I went back to the room and curled up under the bed and went to sleep.