A Great Escape

Chapter 3: Arrival

It was a crisp, slightly chilly autumn day in Gongmen City. The populace was bustling about the streets, carrying out their daily business as always despite the temperature. Piping hot buns billowed steam into the frigid air as vendors passed them to customers; shopkeepers welcomed buyers into their stores, promising greater warmth inside; all of this activity went on beneath a sky that was that peculiar shade of blue which only occurs when the weather begins to grow colder.

As Shen moved past the first fringes of buildings and into the city proper, he felt his proverbial hackles rising. He wasn't comfortable in Gongmen, never had been. When he was younger, this had been a place where people either gawked at or made fun of his coloration; when returning from his banishment several years ago, nothing short of an enormous cannon in a box had made him feel more secure. Nowadays things were even more awkward, as he was very aware of the city denizens' mixed feelings towards him. And, of course, it was far too much to hope not to be recognized.

He clutched a dark travelling cloak around his shoulders as he walked towards his destination briskly; if anything, the garment just drew attention to the glorious white train trailing behind him. The two figures walking behind him were pretty unmistakable as well. He was forced to keep staring straight ahead and striding forward as if he didn't see the faces of bystanders gaping at him.

Shen, Xun, and the soothsayer had just disembarked the boat that had brought them to the city's harbor. During the trip, Shen had slept soundly, as a day of travelling was usually more than enough to tire him out completely. Now that several days had passed, the constant fear that he would have another panic attack was beginning to leave him; still, he did not regret bringing a bit of moral support with him.

Xun – also known as the wolf boss formerly at the head of Shen's army, as well as the peacock's best friend since childhood – was also anxious about being in a city where he was a bit less than welcome. "Shen, people are staring at us," he muttered.

"I know that. Just ignore them."

The soothsayer was the only one out of the three of them who wasn't nervous about her company or location. Whenever someone gazed at her in shock, she would smile and nod at them, and the person would grow embarrassed and quickly turn their head away. "You two had better get used to this," she said quietly as they made their way through the crowds. "We'll be here for a while."

"Hopefully by the time we leave I won't be such a spectacle," Shen mumbled, and he didn't say anything to either of them for the rest of the journey.

As they grew closer and closer to their goal, Shen found his eyes constantly lifting towards the sky, as if searching for the Tower of the Sacred Flame, but of course it wasn't there. The fact that he automatically kept looking for it unnerved him; it was as if the palace's ghost still stood and was launching his mind into unease as revenge for what he'd done to it. He reminded himself preparations were underway to rebuild it, and wasn't sure if he was happy about that or not. The Tower of the Sacred Flame was a gorgeous structure, of course, and his ancestral home, but it held nothing but bad memories for him. That was probably why he'd really wanted to destroy it.

So he forced his eyes to focus on the ground in front of him until they finally arrived at the former site of the tower.

Shen had grown up in this very spot, and yet now it was unrecognizable. It bore no resemblance to his childhood home, or to the pile of wreckage that he had looked upon from a window in the fireworks factory with a sneer upon his beak. The outer walls and guardhouses still stood, although they were a bit cracked and sooty. All of the debris had been picked clean and cleared away over the last four and a half years or so. The rutted indentation in the ground marking Master Thundering Rhino's burial ground had been long since paved over.

"They've done a lot of work already," Xun noted. Shen only nodded.

The guards posted on the path watched them warily, but let them pass on to the former palace grounds, where two new structures greeted them. Directly in front of the trio was a sturdy but very unadorned building that looked to be some sort of bunkhouse – Shen figured that this was a temporary place of residence for Storming Ox and Croc until the Tower of the Sacred Flame was inhabitable. Looming behind it were the beginnings of that very tower's long rebuilding process. It was bare bones of the first story and a half or so, not completed by any stretch of the imagination, an irregular and hulking mass that looked vaguely sinister.

The thought of a ghost tower once again crossed Shen's mind. He shivered in the cool air and shook his head to clear it. He was going to give himself another panic attack thinking of things like that.

Masters Storming Ox and Croc were waiting tensely in front of the plain building. Both seemed to be slightly nervous and consciously trying not be too unwelcoming.

"Welcome, Shen." Storming Ox was the first to speak up in his deep, rumbling voice.

"Good afternoon, Masters," Shen responded, then cleared his throat to get rid of the faintness in his voice.

Croc eyed Xun and the soothsayer, who were both trailing behind the peacock. "We weren't expecting company."

"No, I suppose you weren't," agreed Shen tiredly. "But I haven't been well of late. I brought them for moral support. Didn't think you'd mind."

"We don't mind," Storming Ox submitted. He didn't say anything about it, but he had to admit that Shen really didn't look all that well. Of course, the former lord got sick frequently, so that was probably why.

Shen, Xun, and the soothsayer were led into the plain building (which Storming Ox and Croc referred to as the "dormitory") and were given a brief tour. It was actually a small complex that included a kitchen, a dining room, and several bedrooms, which were mostly occupied by the two masters and their head servants. "There's only two extra bedrooms," Storming Ox informed them, "so Shen, you and your…wolf friend…"

"Xun," Xun prompted them, a bit miffed that no one could ever seem to remember his name.

"You and Xun will have to share a room."

Shen and Xun exchanged a glance, then shrugged in unison. "That's fine."

"Good. We'll show you to your rooms."

After the three travelers had dumped their travel packs on their respective beds, they were almost immediately ushered into the kitchen for dinner. Compared to the Jade Palace fare, the food was quite flavorless, but nobody complained. Shen figured that now would be a good time to start discussing the assignment that he was here to do. "So, why do you feel the need to update your defenses?" he asked between mouthfuls of rice.

"It's mostly just precautionary," answered Croc. "We've had a few pretty nasty attempts at raids since you were here last, and we figured that we should be ready for anything."

"Sometimes just us and some guards isn't enough to protect the city," Storming Ox agreed. "So we thought that perhaps the sight of a few cannons on the outskirts of town…"

Shen nearly choked on his food, causing the soothsayer to glance over in alarm.

"Cannons?" he finally gasped, his voice incredulous. "No one said anything about cannons!"

"We figured you'd think of it yourself." Storming Ox cleared his throat. "Copies of your designs happened to get passed around. It seems that a lot of people think that firearms are a good idea. Cannons don't necessarily have to eliminate kung fu – just like the invention of swords didn't eliminate traditional hand-to-hand combat."

"I didn't know." Shen sat back in his chair, amazed. He had never thought to wonder about the fate of his invention (except maybe one or two times before meeting Kurisu, while he was in his long and glowering recovery process) and had certainly never thought that other people might be using his designs. Even more stunning, now Storming Ox and Croc were actually asking him to make a few more cannons! That was showing a level of trust that he couldn't even begin to comprehend.

"Well, I've sworn off explosives, more or less," he began slowly. "But for you fine gentlemen, I'll make an exception."

Croc raised his glass. "Let's have a toast, then – to Gongmen City."

"To Gongmen City," everyone echoed, lifting their glasses into the air.

Shen leaned back in his chair, thinking about the project that he was about to do. The truth was, he didn't like Gongmen City that much. It was his home only in the sense that he'd been born and raised here; but every stone on every road, every brick of every building, was saturated with bad memories. But that was hardly the fault of the city. So he would prove himself to the Masters Council and give Gongmen the best defenses that it had ever seen – and then he would go home, to his real life and his real family, once again.