Title: The Life and Times of Lord Shen
Summary: The story of the albino peacock of Gongmen City, from cradle to corruption. Chapter 15. tick tock tick tock: A young Shen waits and entertains an introduction, while his father receives a message and reinforcements.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Kung Fu Panda or its sequel(s) and spin-offs, that's all DreamWorks' honor.
Spoilers: Both Kung Fu Panda movies.
A/N:
I need to replace Emperor with King in past chapters; Gongmen rulers' other titles still baffle me. Emperor seems too much like just the one title for the actual Emperor of KFP's fantasy ancient China. They surely have one, and the new KFP short where the Wu Sisters mention the Imperial army seems like the first indication that there is one. And the KFP wiki sometimes calls Shen's dad the peacock king.
After a lot of thought, the summary's been revised. At first, this was meant to be more like how chirpingfish's "Albinism" is turning out to be, my older Fullmetal Alchemist fic "Mr. Fuzzy Jacket" and Shiruba Neko's Fullmetal Alchemist fic "Behind Red Eyes"-a real collection of stories about the main character, Shen in this case. A collection in that it would be rather nonlinear, and Shen's past was sorta like only one of the topics addressed. But as this went on, I felt like all the parts were connecting chronologically/linearly even just a little bit, and now this will, well, officially continue to go in more of an order with all of the stories interconnecting a lot more as my interpretation of Shen's past is explored and his development from innocence to corruption is tracked and hopefully explained a bit more.
tick tock tick tock
"You're awfully quiet."
Shen flinched at the new voice. It was another grown-up woman. He guessed that his cursing before either hadn't been loud enough to make a racket up on deck or it was a forgettable thing.
"It's been a day, and you still haven't begged for food or water—"
Another snow leopard entered Shen's line of sight, meeting his fearful suspicion. She wore no hood, her ears freely popping out, and her eyes were two different colors.
"—though I suppose princes don't beg, hmm?"
The boy was reminded of begging his parents not to separate him from Nana. He kept his beak shut, but his eyes blinked rapidly at the leopard, and his head pounded.
"Are you not hungry? Thirsty, princeling?"
Yes, horribly so. Instead, Shen repeated in a low, drained voice, "I want to go home."
"Not even a 'please?'"
Tongue heavy and feeling like it was sinking into his throat, Shen was reminded again of his parents, he'd asked them to please not take Nana away...
The leopard snorted. She slipped out a package, and unwrapped it, revealing a bean bun.
Mouth starting to water, Shen tried to seal his beak shut.
"Come, eat—"
This leopard was also met with a beak desperately lashing out. But she did not stop at dodging like the first leopard.
A strong paw swiftly wrapped around the boy's beak and yanked it brutally upward at a painful angle. Shen made a strangled scream, a sound that only heightened as she kept forcing it up and back, up and back, no matter how hard he writhed or even tried to twist his neck away. The chains wouldn't let him escape, her claw was too tight...
Finally she released him, and he cried out. Shen gasped for air and worked his beak over, still aching, but it didn't seem horribly damaged as he'd feared.
Unlike the first leopard, this one had also kept the bean bun in one hand, nothing had dropped to the floor.
Her paw fell heavily on his neck, strangely gentle as she started to massage wherever the ache had spread, even ruffling his crest feathers. Still the boy shivered at her touch.
She coaxed his head down, toward the offered bean bun. "Now eat—"
The child peacock spat in her face.
Immediately the leopard backhanded him, and while Shen's head spun and throbbed, he was thankful she hadn't unsheathed her claws.
"Su!" A man's gruff voice called from the deck above.
The leopard bit into the bean bun, her eyes on Shen as she left. The prince made sure to hold her stare until she was gone, then he slumped back down, breathing very hard.
It was minutes before he'd managed to calm himself so he wouldn't hyperventilate. That was the last thing he needed.
###
"Oh c'mon—!"
And the antelope commander eyed Deshi, the panda cursing the burnt wreckage before them in Gongmen City.
"This, on top of everything else! Of all the lousy luck..."
"Don't bait Hui," Commander Zei chided the soldier. Deshi scoffed as the troop picked their way through the wreckage.
"Right, like I'm gonna tip toe around some superstitious old coot who's a bit too thick to see the obvious problems in calling your province's heir a bad omen..."
"I'm old, not deaf," snarled the veteran gibbon as he came up from behind Deshi.
The panda rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Look, Commander, do you need all of us to carry this message? 'Cause the rest of the troop and I can help out around here while you let the King and Queen know, then we can head off for Bik—"
"Then we will await their orders, Lieutant," Zei reminded his comrade.
"Right, right," Deshi muttered, his eyes distant.
The rest of the mixed-species troop warily watched the two. Hui watched the panda rather carefully, then said, "Two could carry a message, panda. Go on ahead with our commander—he'll need a fool to make him look good in front of royalty."
Zei nodded, and Deshi shot the old gibbon a lopsided smirk. "Just don't fall over dead while we're gone."
And so the panda and the antelope continued to the Tower of Sacred Flame.
###
Shen's mind raced as hunger and thirst continued to come at him from all sides. The boy couldn't remember ever consciously going this long without water and food before.
What am I doing? Mom and Dad and Nana would want me to be strong, to be smart, to be calm. Is this calm? Refusing food and water that's clearly not poisoned—if they wanted me dead, they would've done it already. And it's not like hunger or thirst is doing anything except making me even weaker.
Shen admitted he was just giving into panic with his constant refusal to eat and drink from his captors' paws at every chance. His parents would think him even more foolish—
Hearing pawprints down the steps, Shen prepared to give in. His stomach throbbed at the thought of food, throat aching at the thought of being quenched.
The third snow leopard was hooded and a scarf covered her snout. She held a waterskin. Another one was on her belt.
Moving before Shen could think or recall his decision, the leopard had gripped his beak tightly, forcing it open and closing it shut again over the mouth of the waterskin.
The boy squirmed as she forced the water down his throat. He gagged, choking—
The leopard snapped the waterskin away, and Shen hunched over as much as he could, coughing out the water.
Through watering eyes he saw her lift the second waterskin from her belt, the other had dropped to the floor—
Shen flinched, but she caught him easily, this time forcefeeding him soup from the second waterskin. Again the boy writhed, gagging.
Eyes squeezed shut, the boy vomited once she pulled the waterskin away. Shen was uncertain how much food or water made it into his stomach at all.
Panting, eyes still closed, the prince just heard the thick slap of the second waterskin hit the floor and foosteps quietly pad away.
###
"Anything?"
"It's not just the ash that's clouding our scent, but chemicals specialized just for that purpose, probably released by the fire—which was no accident," Fang answered.
Lord Baojia's eyes narrowed and he was about to ask another question, when the Soothsayer alerted him to a pair of messengers.
Patiently the king met with them in the courtyard, knowing they may have information on Shen.
The antelope commander and his panda lietuant bowed before him. The Soothsayer watched the pair closely, also hoping for news about her charge.
"Sir, we came to the defense of a town under attack by the Wu Sisters."
The peacock's talons violently flexed, scraping against the ground. The old goat's hooves tightened around her cane.
"They escaped with our medic as a captive, my Lord," Lietuant Deshi added urgently.
"They're probably in need of a healer's services," added Commander Zei. "The Wus are also capturing birds again, to gain control over the messenger system and cripple our communications."
"Which is why we had to come all the way here to let you know, instead of going after them and saving our medic," the panda muttered bitterly.
"Do you have any idea where their base of operations are this time?" Baojia asked, his voice mostly level.
"Negative, sir," Zei answered with a furrowed brow.
Deshi was beginning to watch his Lord very closely. "Was the fire here their doing, sir?"
"That, and undoubtedly the kidnapping of the prince," snarled Baojia, his eyes flashing.
###
No one had come in...a while, Shen wasn't sure how much time had passed.
His eyelids were so heavy. All his energy seemed gone. Maybe now he could sleep without bad dreams. Some had been so bad, he'd wake up screaming and only stop when new, strange, gruff voices from up on deck snarled at him to shut up or they'd come down and make him be quiet.
Shen was now too weak to lift his head. If not for the collar chain, it would've fallen against his chest.
A claw tip needed to lift it up.
Red eyes blinked wearily at the leopard—the leopards, all three were there now.
"Do you know who we are, princeling?" Su said, her voice quiet. Shen realized it was she who lifted his head.
"...The Wu Sisters," he finally managed to whisper in a scrape of a voice.
"Good. Now are you ready to eat? To drink?" And the hooded sister—Wan, Shen assumed—offered him a bowl of rice, a jug of juice.
"...Yes."
"Yes, what?" Su said, her hint clear to the boy.
The 'please' was on his tongue. But he swallowed hard, and narrowed his eyes.
"Not. Saying. It."
"Now remember your manners, princeling; say 'please,'" and the paw Su used to hold up his head grew tense.
"Doesn't work with my parents, I'm not gonna bother with you," Shen said lowly, his voice cracking slightly, yet somehow quiet steady. "And you're not gonna let me die of thirst, you're not gonna let me starve to death. If you wanted me dead, you would've done it by now."
"Perhaps we want you to die a slow, agonizing death," murmured Wan, her eyes flashing to the sister with her mouth covered, and Shen concluded she must be Wing.
"Still doesn't make sense," the boy murmured. He was so tired. "And I think you three must make a little sense, at least. You do know who I am, don't you?"
Su's mismatched eyes narrowed at the echoed statement.
Shen hoarsely continued, matter-of-factly, "I'm the only heir to Gongmen City. Either people think I'm better dead or a hostage." How many assassination and kidnapping attempts had there been since the first one? None had been successful until now. "You haven't killed me yet, so you must be the—the latter, the former—no, the latter, I think." The boy knew his mind was beginning to drift, all of him starting to shut down, his vocabulary failing him.
Wan's eyes narrowed; Wing's own were vacant; and Su smiled thinly. She said, "Bear in mind though, how swiftly your position can change between the two—but well played, princeling." Su's voice even sounded warm.
Shen cried out as she backhanded him, claws bared this time.
The boy gasped, already he felt a horrible burning sting. Eyes squeezing shut, Shen tried to keep the whimpers back and ignore the sticky dampness on his cheek.
"Now, now, your majesty..."
And a claw roughly took his head, forcing his eyes to snap open. It was Wan's paw that held him now; and in the other, she offered him the food that smelled so wonderfully.
"...you'll need some awareness to eat your dinner..."
Shen's beak plunged into the rice bowl, and he quickly gulped down the juice with Wan's help.
When the boy was done, he noticed the line of dried feathers down his cheeks, and concluded to his dismay and humiliation that he had cried, and so obviously in front of his enemy.
(What would his parents think?)
A/N: Deshi isn't exactly an OC—that's all I'm saying right now, though I imagine it might be kinda obvious who he's supposed to be.
As always, feedback is super appreciated. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!