Title: The Life and Times of Lord Shen
Summary: The story of the albino peacock of Gongmen City, from cradle to corruption. Chapter 16. learning curve: Young Shen must make allowances.
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: Sorry for the long hiatus, hope you enjoy the new chapter!
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.
learning curve
What passed for a bath on the ship were two buckets of water, and then Shen was back to being chained. The boy was shamed by his inaction while briefly unbound, but his body had been so stiff as to be utterly useless. And he'd been suitably frightened by Wing, the youngest Wu, lurking in the corner and pointedly examining her unsheathed claws. His cheek, though bandaged-and by Su herself, of all people-continued to ache.
Still the prince felt he had never been so filthy before. Shen had never minded playing in the mud or dirtying his clothes in all the smoke and such from working in his lab or De's forge, but this was utterly intolerable. The boy longed to wash himself, found that even easier to wish for than home...until his mind wandered to the bathhouse at home...
Shifting irritably again, Shen's bandaged cheek twitched. He still wanted badly to pick at the wound. But more than that, he wanted to sleep, and he closed his eyes, trying again.
###
There were sounds and movement, and Shen wearily opened his eyes, fighting back the instinct to yawn as he woke up.
"...well shoot, he's up."
"My, the princeling really does have bad luck."
The boy snapped up, completely alert—just in time to comprehend the wet stinking cloth wrapped around his beak and putting him back under again.
Inwardly he cursed before a familiar darkness claimed him.
###
"Thank you, Bik," mumbled the small sparrow as the large panda finished bandaging his leg.
She nodded to the patient, giving a small smile. It turned into a frown she tried to hide as the large yak guard came forward to return the small bird to his cage. The panda gave up on trying to hide her displeasure when her own guards came to escort her back to her cell.
As she walked in between the yaks, she noticed movement on a floor below them. Her guards shared in her curiosity, glancing down as well.
Bik's eyes narrowed as she watched the Wu Sisters return. They then grew wide in alarm as she noticed one of them carried a small white figure in chains, the crest feathers on his small head prominent.
"The prince-?"
"C'mon, Bik-" One of the guards snapped, pulling the panda away from the homecoming.
###
Wing was banned from the task. Her turn to feed the prince had devolved into force feeding him, after all. And although Su was able to take advantage of that in trying to make the peacock a more agreeable prisoner, she and Wan agreed that they did not truly want to entertain any more wild, unexpected behavior from their youngest sister at this point in the operation.
It was decided that Wing should not be left alone with the prince again, though both Su and Wan wondered how long they could keep that up.
Still, neither the oldest or the middle Wu wanted to give the prince a proper bath, and so they settled on a quick game of dice to decide who would.
Wan stoically tolerated Su's victorious grin.
The middle Wu had taken the unconscious princeling to the new fortress' inner hot springs. In the other arm, she held a basket of bathing supplies.
Glowering down at the warm pool and glancing at Gongmen's heir in her grasp, she stretched out the filthy bird by the collar of his robe over the water, and let go.
###
Shen's first thought was that the Wu Sisters were drowning him.
Springing up from the water and spluttering, Shen desperately wiped at his eyes, he had to get a grip on his surroundings. His talons felt rock; at least he was in a shallow part. His body ached from all the new and available freedom in movement, but adrenaline rush got him past the stiffness fairly well.
The boy looked up into Wan's hooded face, panting.
His eyes darted around the rock walls-
"Still think we won't kill you, your majesty?" She propped a paw on her hip, a basket in her other arm. "Drowning would be a bad way to go, wouldn't it?"
Shen shivered as Mee's shrill voice echoed in his head about his parents drowning him if they could've, of the nightmares of water surrounding him in blue waves, taunting him with the color he'd never have; and his parents just walking away, no matter how much he screamed for them, the water rising higher...
"To wash yourself and your clothes," Wan muttered as she laid the basket down, shoving it to the water's edge. "Don't be stupid," she warned, locking eyes with the boy.
Shen's eyes lowered to the basket. His wings shifted through the supplies. Then he left the basket alone and moved to disrobe.
The boy froze when he realized Wan still faced him, reclining on a rock formation as if sunning herself. She lazily watched him.
"...Um-"
"What?"
"Couldn't you, uh, turn around or close your eyes for a second—?"
"Guard duty." Her voice was apathetic.
Shen stared at the snow leopard. Then he swept a wing around the cave space. There were some lanterns lit, and the space was closed, with only one entrance, and that lay behind Wan.
"Where am I going to run to in the handful of seconds it'll take you to close your eyes? Like you don't have more guards backing you up—!"
"This isn't the palace tower. Suck it up—or would you rather I wash you? Are you that pampered, princeling?"
Scowling, Shen turned around and quickly disrobed, resisting the urge to curse as his wings actually fumbled around the belt. As the cloth started to slip off, Shen immediately sank into the water up to his neck, trying to stave off the humiliation and pretending Wan wasn't an observant guard. At least she had sounded utterly bored and apathetic, except for her warning against stupidity.
The prince roughly emptied the basket, then quickly filled it with water and poured it over himself. He added the soap and angrily applied the brush. This was more of a bath, and the boy thought he would've enjoyed the chance to properly wash himself, but he was utterly incensed and shamed and terrified and completely homesick—
"So the little prince knows how to wash his own clothes?" The middle Wu pondered, amused as she watched Shen begin washing his robe.
The boy stared determinedly down at his robe as he scrubbed it down. Nana had taught him when he was smaller, after he had curiously watched her tend to his own clothes.
Shen saw red at the thought of his guardian; what if he never saw her again? And whose fault would that be? The Wus', and his own, for falling into their clutches—
The red dispelled when he heard a sickening rip. The boy looked down, and found he had angrily and unconsciously torn his robe somewhere. He had torn it, not Nana, who would've ripped a piece clean off and eaten it by now...
Wan laughed. "Does the prince know how to mend his own clothes? I'm sure we have some thread and needle about, to see if you can. Though you'll probably just prick yourself." She laughed again, and Shen's anger toward her and the rest of her blasted kin started to overwhelm him once more. He started to tremble. "I wonder if you can cook? Perhaps we could set you up as our servant, our own little Yeh-Shen—"
The prince snapped. Only An could make that mocking connection, he had been the first to tell Shen of his name's similiarity to that commoner-turned-princess in the stories.
The boy swept his tail feathers out, splashing a wave of water over the snow leopard.
Shen didn't feel any better when Wan's laughter stopped and she snapped up, giving him a very blank look. He clutched at his torn robe, now absolutely terrified.
Wan got up and started moving toward the boy, who stayed put and oh gods I should move why can't I move
Shen stood paralyzed with fear, looking up at the snow leopard who still stared at him blankly.
Then in a very swift movement Wan grabbed his skull and shoved him under the water. Shen flailed and kicked for a few seconds, and then the leopard let him up, gasping for air.
Her claw still wrapped around his skull, she said loudly in an even voice over his gasping, "So, I know—this is kinda extreme for a childish tantrum, right? But understand this, princeling: you are our prisoner, and any sign of revolt won't be easily tolerated."
She let him go, and Shen slumped down, panting and clutching at his robe, unable to recall if it had torn more during the struggle.
"Dry yourself and your clothes, I grow weary of this," Wan ordered, and Shen despondently obeyed.
###
Shen didn't hide his surprise at the large yak guard stitching his robe up. It was still a bit of a shock to the boy, to have such a large creature expertly do work that seemed comparatively too delicate for his size. The yak—whose left ear had a bit of it ripped out and was now scarred over—didn't have much to do. Shen now knew he had only torn his robe once, and at the elbow.
The yak snapped off the last of the thread with his teeth, released his wing, then left the cell. Shen tried to focus on the finished sewing job rather than the way the door clicked shut, locked. The boy thought the guard had done a fine job: everything was sewn tight, no loose threads at all.
Picking at the fixed elbow one more time, Shen looked around the stone cell. There was a straw pallet and a waste basket tucked away in the opposite corner.
That was about it, but the boy still walked around his cell. He paused at the farthest wall from the exit; he'd heard a sound. When he leaned closer, finally pressing himself against the stone and focusing his hardest, Shen jolted away with shock. He blinked at the wall, then returned to his previous position and renewed his focus again. Yes, that was it—the faint sound of wind and rushing water!
Then Shen realized the watery noise was more below; he slid down the wall, lowering himself to the corner cross-section between floor and wall. It was there he heard the current the most, and the boy guessed the water was below him, perhaps it was a river.
Shen went back to the other walls, listening harder. This time he heard the faint sound of rushing wind outside those parts too. It was about halfway through the entire cell that the sound dimmed considerably, to the point of nonexistence.
Plopping down on his pallet, the boy wished for parchment and a brush to draw out his thoughts. He could only visualize in his head. Eventually Shen hazarded that the layout of his cell was more complicated than he first thought. That his current prison stretched out from the main portion of the stone structure—a mountain seemed likier to Shen than a volcano, even if he'd just bathed in hot springs. The cell was cold, and surely a volcano would have at least some trace of warmth everywhere in its structure, right?
So, the boy guessed his cell projected out from a mountain, and hung suspended over a rushing river.
How does wondering where I am help? Shen buried his face in the straw, groaning.
But then he remembered one of Master Thundering Rhino's lessons, stressing the importance of knowing one's surroundings.
Rolling over on his back, Shen reasoned that, besides any practicality it might offer, mulling over his surroundings in this particular situation had calmed him down, even for a moment.
But then the boy's stomach ached as he went back to thinking of his master. Then he perked up, a little. Master Thundering Rhino would find him; he and Masters Croc and Storming Ox, and An and Jie and the wolf guards and the antelope guards would come soon...
Shen's stomach drew his attention again, clenching at the thought of An and Jie and the other junior wolf guards. What if they got hurt—and it would have been preventable, only happening because of his idiocy—
Clamping down angrily on the thought, Shen got up and began to pace, he still needed to loosen up his body after being chained for that long. An and Jie and the others were trained well, they'd be fine. Besides, the older guards, the Masters Council and everyone else would look after them.
Remembering the fire, Shen tripped. He managed to catch himself, but his heart still pounded. Had the fire been stopped—?
Shen took a breath, trying to calm down. Clearly the fire had been set by the Wu Sisters or on their orders, and surely it had been stopped by now, it wasn't like all of Gongmen City would be burnt down if—when he got home.
The boy stilled, his tenuous attempt at calm cracking. It was likely the fire had been the Wu Sisters' plan, not a random occurrence they took advantage of...so had it only been because of him? Was the fire's only goal to distract everyone so that he could be kidnapped?
Shen closed his eyes at the memory of some woman's scream, the little kids crying in the streets, all the chaos and those who'd been burned, some might've even died...
Shivering, the boy took an unsteady kung fu stance. He jerkily practiced a set, trying to ignore the growing guilt. He still pondered; if his kidnapping wasn't the only objective, the Wu Sisters could have launched an attack on Gongmen City during their distraction, maybe even tried to kill his parents and—
Shen's kick stabbed forward viciously, then remained lifted in the air as the boy panted. No, his parents were alive; they were too strong, and if they were dead, he would've been by now too, surely—the Wu Sisters wouldn't have anyone to hold him as a hostage against...unless it was against the whole peacock clan. But Shen didn't think there was a real guarantee the clan would consider him worth their protection, it might just be the opportunity for them to find a better, normal-colored and fortuitous heir...
Head aching, Shen sat down on his pallet, breathing harshly. He couldn't handle thinking about what happened after his capture or trying to figure out provincial politics or anything else right now.
But what else was he supposed to do? He was locked up alone and wasn't an iota tired, despite the lack of sleep he'd found on the voyage. Perhaps it was the sheer terror giving a shot of adrenaline to his system and keeping him awake.
Shen gulped, then bolted upright and practiced another kung fu set, moving faster and more viciously than the last. It was training, it would let off steam, it would soothe him, it was...probably the most uncommon way to fidget and pace. But it would surely tire him out, and maybe his sleep would be deep and dreamless this time.
A/N: Ending visual meant to parallel canon adult Shen practicing with his staff while waiting for Po's arrival, it looked like a rather violent way to fidget and pace to me.