Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait! Here's chapter nineteen, in my , so far, longest story! I'm glad you guys are enjoying this so much and I expect this story to also have a sequel XD. I hope you're as excited as I am! ;) Well enough out of me! READ AND REVIEW! haha!
Chapter 19
Freedom From the Past
Adrenaline surged through my body as I fought these huge canines. I could feel my muscles flowing with new energy. I had Lien by my side; I had my city at my back; and a possible new army tearing through the ranks of the Black Moon Pack. The Kung Fu masters were working the gargantuan shadow dogs into tighter and tighter ranks. I was back where I was meant to be, in battle.
I grabbed one enemy's paw and pinned it to the ground, while fanning and un-fanning my tail to distract two attackers from behind. I turned and heard Lien call to me as she threw her staff for me to use. I caught it without turning my head and slashed the wolves across their ebony chests with the added momentum. It was the same general fight pattern I had used on Ox and Croc the day I had returned to the palace.
"That looked familiar." Lien said as she leapt forward and slashed a burly female's nose with her talons.
"It was." I grunted throwing more blades at three hounds who charged the two of us and handing Lien her staff back.
"Where did my brother and sister go?" Lien asked delivering a roundhouse kick to a beefy male and dropping him to his knees. I paused for a moment to survey the grounds. I didn't see and golden feathers flash in the noonday sunshine. But I could see the pair of enormous alpha males still fighting with incredible vigor, their coats stained in the other's blood, in the center of it all.
As the people came running from the streets, Rafael and Talon paused. Talon pricked his ears and smiled. "Finally." He sighed, "Something goes right."
"No!" The black male breathed and jumped on Talon's back while he was distracted. He sank his fangs into the flesh at the base of the white wolf's skull and the exalted Snow Pack leader collapsed. Rafael chuckled and turned on Lien and I. "Now the only thing standing in my way of the domination of Gongmen City is a pair of frilly little birds."
"Frilly? Let's see how frilly I feel after I take these talons to your throat!" Lien hissed, puffed up in her stance next to me.
"You're battle here is finished," I told him in a deep, threatening tone. "You have one chance to flee this city with what you have left of your pack. One chance." The black wolf looked around; his pack was nearly destroyed. Any wolf that was able to stand was staring at the display. Our army stood behind us, fresh and ready to defend their home.
When he looked back to us, though, his eyes were crazed and his mouth started to ever so slightly foam up. "I will not be beaten! I've planned, trained, and dreamed about this for far too long!" He bellowed in a cracking voice. "I will not be denied my destiny by a pair of scrawny peacocks!" I narrowed my eyes as he charged at us, mouth agape and fangs gleaming.
Lien and I jumped above his head and landed behind him. After he realized what happened, he turned around and charged again. We spread our wings to soar over his head again, but with a burst of speed, he lunged and grabbed my train. With a jerk of his thick neck he dragged me to the ground and pressed on my chest with a massive black paw. His claws dug into my skin and I could hardly breathe as he pressed my lungs into pancakes.
"Shen!" Lien cried and wheeled in the air to come back at Rafael with outstretched Steel Talons. She had almost reached him, but, in an instant, Rafael let go of me, dodged Lien's would-have-been fatal blow and bit down hard on her right leg. I heard the bone crunch, and her agonized scream as the black wolf tossed her to the side. She crumpled in the grass, unable to move and unconscious from the pain. I turned a murderous look at the wolf just as he slammed his paw back on my chest.
As I gasped for breath, and fought the tunnel vision that zoned my brain to a single point of light, he leaned down to my face and his rancid breath choked me more. "Listen peacock. You have failed at everything. I know you are the Lord Shen of old, who ruthlessly murdered the panda people. The one who put a beta pack of my wolves through that horrible twenty year banishment to the high central mountains of China. They worked like slaves for you, and how do you repay them? You turn into a soft hypocrite who banished them form the city that you promised them, then crushed them in that mountain!
"You know how a pack works, peacock, and it's an eye for an eye out here. Now I'm going to kill you, in retribution of my pack, then I'm going to kill your little queen as slowly as I so wish." He paused, "I wonder; how would Lord Shen react to that?" At this I felt old rage pulse through me. I felt totally out of control as my eyes narrowed into slits and I slashed my talons down his soft stomach. He howled and jumped back. I leapt to my feet, fanned my tail for balance, and faced him while taking up a protective stance in front of Lien.
"No one threatens me." I snarled, the feral Lord Shen in me coming out at his idiocy. "You are a useless fool, and I will dispose of you the same way I did all of the other fools who dared enter my path!" With lightning speed I drew three blades per wing and threw them with bulls-eye accuracy at Rafael's chest; the long silver handles appeared like deadly darts on an ebony dart board. He looked down at the blades, smiled back at me, then fell to the ground, his life gone.
The army gasped and stared at me for a moment. "What just happened?" I heard whisper through their ranks. The remainder of the Black Moon pack let out a high pitched keening howl and took off running for the cover of the mountains. I watched Garrett's clan follow them about halfway, then return at a trot; Sariah running next to the young male. I ignored the people's whispers, though, as I turned and crouched over Lien. Gently I lifted her head into my lap.
"Lien. Lien-Hua wake up." I crooned and she stirred a bit. Then I took out a small vile of smelling salts from my robe and held it to her beak. Slowly the scent got to her, and she blinked open her eyes. She looked around, and when she realized I was there she smiled broadly.
"You saved your city Shen." Lien told me, and I could see her swell a bit with pride.
"Yes we did, didn't we?" I agreed after kissing her softly.
"No, you did it Shen! I let my fear take over for my thinking and now I have a broken leg. You kept your head screwed on straight and now your people trust you even more." I smiled at my beautiful bride-to-be. She was so wise when it came to these types of situations; that's why she would make my perfect queen.
"Is everyone alright?" I called to calm the peoples' nerves, and helped Lien stand on her one good leg. I knew they were thinking that I had reverted Lord Shen for good, but, luckily, it was only momentarily. The Masters Council and the Jade Palace warriors stepped to the front to report. Master Shilee spoke, "Seems to me that our side has had no casualties. There are several wounded, a few broken bones, but other than that, I think we're on the winning end of the spectrum." She tilted her horse-like, chocolate brown head to the few black wolves that were just disappearing over the peaks.
"Wait…what about…" Lien murmured and we turned. Talon was on the ground, breathing slowly.
"What about what?" Sariah popped up next to us, a gleam in her eyes, until she saw the Snow Pack's leader on the ground. "Father!" She cried and we watched her run over to him with her mother. With Lien leaning heavily on my shoulder and, Bo-Chen and Genji in tow I joined her there. "F…F…Father?" The little white she wolf stammered as she knelt beside him.
"Sariah, my beautiful daughter," Talon spoke in the softest voice and we could barely hear him, "I'm so proud of you!" He squeezed her paw in his as Garrett came to sit by her. "You're fighting today only proves how wrong I was all those years ago about letting you be a hunter."
"No father, I should have listened to you. I am sorry for attacking you." Tears ran down her white muzzle as she spoke to her dying father. "I never should have run away. I acted as a coward, and I deserve to be treated as such."
"Now it is you who is wrong Sariah. You did not act as a coward. I lost my mind over a petty border war and the loss of a bit of our lands. I should have seen you wanting to be a hunter as a good thing, as a sign of a good, independent, leader. But I was blinded by my hatred for Rafael, and my fear of losing you." Talon was losing steam, but I heard Lien sniffle at these heart-felt words. I knew how she wished that she could have the chance to go back in time to see her father before he died, and this was bringing up those wounds. I just wrapped my wing tighter around her and let her cry her soft tears.
"You never lost me father. I lost myself, and in doing so I lost you." Sariah was taking shuddering breaths and her tears were falling freely. I could only imagine the pain she was going through.
"You never lost me, my wonderful Sariah. And just because our paths in this world part here, doesn't mean that we will never see each other again." The huge alpha male managed a weak smile, and dried her eyes. "I love you my girl, and you are the greatest gift I could ever ask for." And with those final words, Talon, the alpha male of the great Snow Pack, passed into the Great Beyond. As his final breath left him, Sariah burst into tears and buried her face in his chest.
"Goodbye father." She blubbered as her mother and Garrett placed a paw on her back. It was then that her mother started a low, mournful howl that carried through the air for miles. The rest of the white wolves followed suit and soon our ears were ringing with the heart-breaking sound. This continued for a few minutes, and I could feel a few tears of my own brim in my eyes.
I was feeling a horrible shame that I had never felt before. I thought about my parents. I had completely betrayed them. I killed their people; I murdered the people I was supposed to protect. I remembered the absolute horror that was etched on their faces as I returned to the palace the night after my horrible blood-stained conquest.
I was their only heir, the only way to keep the peacock line intact, and I had to be banished from their city, and their hearts. I shattered all of their hopes and plans. And I never got to apologize. I'm so sorry for what I did. And I promise you, that with my new life I will make you proud. I called out mentally, just in case they could hear me somewhere in the afterlife.
You already have my son. My mother's voice echoed in my mind and it was almost like I could see her sitting next to me, with a warm smile on her face. I smiled contentedly, knowing that I was now forgiven. At the same moment, the howl stopped.
Ummm... did I forget to mention that you may want a tissue box for the end of the chapter? Oops... my bad. ;)