"Life itself is but the shadow of death, and souls departed but the shadows of the living."

Thomas Browne

Kung Fu Panda

The Long Night

Chapter XIV: Living Shadow

"Uhhh….." I moan.

While my eyes open slowly, the darkness in front of me vanishes. I begin to see details. A wooden roof…? ….That needs to be a joke?! Again?! Are you kidding me! "Ahhh….!" headache, headache….!

…

"Pffuuuu…." it subsides.

I hear the loud opening of a door and steps after it. Soon a very nice picture is seen in front of me: My gorgeous vixen Aijna. She looks worried.

"Cien, are you alright?" she asks in a – like expected – worried voice.

Because I still not feel pretty well, I reply: "Worse before I saw you." and a smile right after it.

…

She smirks and slaps my shoulder playfully. "OWWW!" I yell. What a pain…why is it hurting so much? I look to the surprised face of Aijna. The question seems to be written on my face, because she asks: "What is the last thing you remember?"

I search in my memories…"We fought against three members of the Order of the Black Claw…a boar…and a deer….and an OWL!", again headache…"And it looked like we would lose…but then….I can't remember a thing…"

She sighs, while others enter the room: Benkei and Sijna. She looks at them and then says: "It is like you said…"

"Who?" I ask. They look at me with a face, which tells: We know something you don't know…I hate this feeling…

"Let us better start at the beginning…" Aijna begins to explain.

"Ow…" this hurts….I open my eyes and see like Cien is freeing himself from boards on his back. He looks at me happy…he has probably saved my life, when he pushed me away with his staff. He takes the fallen staff to stand up, while Benkei appears behind him as well. He looks around before whispering something to Benkei. I stand up as well in the mean time, but need the wall behind me as a support…my ears are still howling, but it subsides fortunately…

Cien goes to the broken door and enters the main chamber…

BUMMMM!

Ow! …

I fall on my belly when the shockwave hits me. And again this howling in the ears increases…I try to stand up once again, but my stance is still not very stable….At least I begin to hear something again.

"…r this guy!" I hear a stranger's voice behind me and turn around. My stomach growls, warning me, that it wants to vomit, but I force it back. I take the first steps and my stance gets more stable the more and more I move. Beside the broken door I see Pantu bleeding from a wound at his head…Crap!

I look back to Benkei for help, but he is kneeing and begins to recite…no help from there. I hear a moan from Pantu, so he is still alive at least. First I need to help Cien, then you, you traitor!

After going through the door I can finally look inside the chamber and see like Cien is attacking three – a boar, a deer and an Owl with violet eyes – black garment wearing strangers. Their clothes have the sign of the Black Claw on their bellies.

While Cien is using his staff to hit them I charge them myself, while drawing my knife. The boar – the closest to me – turns around when he sees me. He throws something at me….I can dodge it by sliding below it: needles. I come on my feet and try to thrust my knife deep into his belly…he grabs my hand. A punch against his head follows by me. No effect, except that he is growling now. Again…but he throws me away, before I can hit him.

CRASH!

….Ow! Damn boar. I open my eyes again and see like he is charging me like a bull. Fast I get up and throw my knife at him. He blocks it obviously, but this slows him down. I jump on his snout and kick him hard in his face….he goes only a step back! He grabs my leg, when I am still in the air and smashes me hard against the ground….OW!

I see only the ground, while he grabs my other ankle…and smashes me hard on the ground again. Ouch! No time to wince in pain! I get on my hands before he can lift me up again and use them as a stable stance. I try to free my feet, but his grip is iron-hard and…..this hurts. He had whirled me around so I land on my ass again. Before he can grab me again, I push my body back…to the wall.

"You are weak, vixen." he says in an annoying voice…Cien has not overestimated them, when he talked about the Order back then. These guys are strong. I glance to him and need to see to my horror that Cien is on ground as well…this Owl is smirking over him, while the deer repositions the iron dragon…a canon like the ones I heard about.

Then we hear a loud yell…a familiar yell. All of us look back to the door and see like Benkei is entering the chamber, with pure white eyes. Berserk Mode….that was what Cien has told him!

I grin. "You have lost." I say to the surprised boar. He doesn't look at me, but charges Benkei immediately with his deer comrade, while the Owl stays by Cien looking curious. I look back at Benkei, who attacks the boar first…, what an unbelievable speed. The boar can only block the attack, but this leads to his doom: One punch of Benkei and the boar is flying the whole road back to me.

"Wahhh!"

CRASH!

Almost hit me. I look at him shocked and realize that he is knockout….even my kick was useless against this guy. I look back to Benkei, who has grabbed the scared deer in both his paws and throws him against the canon….I could swear that even the canon moved few centimeters. The Owl leaves Cien finally and goes to Benkei.

"A strong one, what?" she smirks…she is too confident for my taste…anyway I need to bring me and Cien to safety before Benkei sees only us as a threat. I go to him, after I have grabbed my knife again. He is lying flat on his back and his eyes are closed….Crap, I will need to carry him. I touch his arm, when something happens: the staff of Sun Wukong in his hand begins to shine…like back then above the City of the Star. Around Cien's body the black light lines are shining as well…

"What have you done?" I hear a voice behind me and see that the Owl is glaring at me. Benkei is glowing in the same color like Cien and he is reciting…what is going on?

"Don't be afraid. Fear is an illusion, which controls the weak. You are not weak as long as you fight for the right thing. Fight now and see the courage in you."

He repeats this several times; while the Owl comes closer to me…I draw my knife. "Don't come closer! I warn you." I threaten her weakly. Without Benkei we are lost.

The Owl laughs. "Have you even a slightest idea who I am?"

I know…I have recognized her from the beginning. "Fenghuang…yes…I heard you were in prison closed up in a cage, after the Dragon Warrior beat you." I nod.

She seems surprised….maybe I can buy some time for whatever is happening with Cien and Benkei right now. "Quite amusing….in a way I am still there." she replies and I don't know what she means, "But that doesn't matter. You will lose like your friend here."

Crap! The boar and the deer are getting up again. I…..

…"What?!" I yell as a black light engulfs me….

Look for "Sun Wukong Kairo" via Google/images. The first picture is a picture drawn by the DeviantArts-Artist KairoGC and the one I want to show you. Then you will know what I will describe.

And it would fit, when you listen to "The Forbidden Kingdom OST – 01 A Mountain of Fruit and Flowers" till 1:11 on YouTube during this scene.

As fast as it came it vanished also. The light of the torches can't break through that what I am seeing in front of me: a person, big and strong, wearing armor, a helmet and having the now white shining staff in his hand. It is like the shadow of a person…a living shadow.

It steps forward, while I hear Benkei collapsing. I look down and realize that Cien is missing…what the hell is going on with this day that such things need to happen?

Fenghuang is perplexed first, but then contains herself again. The boar and the deer on the other way begin to do like they would be still unconscious.

"And what are you?" Fenghuang says uncertain. The shadow is not replying, but instead raises his staff at her. Before she can react, he has hit her…hard. She gets smashed against the stone walls, but has got up quite fast.

"You will regret this…" she threatens, but then she begins….to vibrate? "What the…" she murmurs looking down at her wings.

"I am a Real Shadow.", the shadow says with a voice, which resembles Cien's, but also not…and it has a loud echo despite being in this chamber, "Be gone false one!"

He begins to point his staff at her and from one point to another the vibration around Fenghuang's body intensifies. "What are you doing?!" she yells obviously panicky. She glares at him, before she jumps to kick him….and then she disappears and only a small, amorphous shadow remains…which flees out of the chamber immediately.

I look at this, while the Living Shadow turns around to me. He has no face inside the helmet.

"Say to him…" he begins to speak to me and my ears begin to hurt of the volume, "…that he needs to go to Tian Yi."

"And after this I fainted." Aijna finishes her explanation, "When I awoke, he was away and only you lying unconscious remained. While I could wake Benkei, you were not to waken up."

I looked down at my paws after hearing this….Tian Yi? …what has he to do with this?

I look back to them: they all look worried. I smirk. "It's okay…it seems that this…whatever it was….has not led to brain damage…by the way you said: 'like you said'…what have you meant with this?"

"I said, that you will have much pain in all your muscles and in your head, when you wake up.", I hear a voice from the background and realize that it is Benkei's, "Also you will not remember a thing what happened."

"From where do you this?"

"Because he knows what happened with you…" Sijna replies instead of him. I look at all of them and they nod. I don't need to say the question… "The soul of Sun Wukong took over your body."

….it seems that my face needs to show my disbelief paired with really big confusion, because Aijna chuckles. Where is the connection?

"Better you start from the beginning Benkei." Sijna suggests.

"You see when dead souls take over bodies of the living it is always quite painfully for the living…don't know why, but so it is written in the scrolls", I still look at him quizzically "Eh and….dead souls can come to this world", I snort disbelievingly, "…of course...under special circumstances. First is that it needs to be always temporarily. Second there needs to be a catalyst…something which belonged to the owner of the soul once…"

Like Sun Wukong's staff…but till now nothing like this has happened…except the one time above the City of the Stars. Benkei continues less confident.

"…third there needs to be a code…" he adds this shortly after, "I've never known what this meant, but it seems that the recited Berserk Mode of me was something like this…"

I still look at him like he has lost his senses. "Considering you are right…why it hit me then?" I ask the obvious question, although it is not the only one lying on my tongue.

Benkei gulps. "Because of the fourth circumstance: The new body needs to be related to the soul…spiritually or physically…like you."

I gawk at him. I am related spiritually to an old Chinese Hero? That becomes really great! …but have I a better explanation than that? I snort again.

"But…" Benkei adds and sounds like someone, who thinks he should not talk further, "…when this is true, what Aijna-sama told, then this resurrection was not complete."

"Why not?" I roar at him almost.

"Because…of the shadow thing. It said it itself: 'I am a Real Shadow' and not 'I am Sun Wukong'. Also the outlook doesn't look like a real resurrection…"

"Call it better possession!" I correct him angrily.

He gulps again and stays silent. No matter what I can think of, there is no better explanation: I got possessed by a damn dead guy! …How this could end up worse?

….I lean back on my hammock….

….

"´Only when Light and Shadow merge your goal can be found.` You are Light and Shadow.", Tian Yi once told to me and Tai Lung…Light and Shadow.

"Tai Lung is missing that's why." I say finally, calmer than a moment ago.

"What…do you mean?" Aijna asks confused.

I sit up in my hammock "Let's say this whole thing about possessions is possible – and till now I don't have a better explanation to it", as well why Benkei knows so much about it, "– the possession was not complete, because he was missing. He is the Light and I am the Shadow…or so Tian Yi once told us. It seems to have a connection to this…" I scratch my cheek and the pain lets me wince once again, "And also here we have the connection to what 'the Real Shadow' told you."

Who knows more about possessions than a guy, who has prolonged his life by controlling several shadows…souls? And there is also this thing with Fenghuang….

All of them nod except Benkei, who doesn't know who Tian Yi is.

"Then we need to go there…" Aijna says, before explaining the one or another thing about Tian Yi to Benkei.

I shake my head.

"No. We are still searching for Moc, already forgotten…by the way how is Pantu?"

They look surprised at me…did they want to go there, where a dead guy has ordered us or what? I grumble.

"He is still unconscious like you were." Aijna replies finally a little unsure, "But by him it seems to be the wounds."

"I see…" I remember something, "How long I was out?"

"Only few hours…thanks to Benkei I could carry you both back to Sijna quite fast." Aijna replies. At least an improvement to last time.

"Cien-san.", Benkei wants to say something and I glare at him. He shuts his mouth immediately and I sigh. "What is it?" I ask still angry.

"Eh…you want to pursue behind Moc-san, but we don't know where he is, don't we?"

"Yes, even Pantu doesn't know and we can't trust a word from him anymore…after all this was a trap." Aijna summarizes what happened. I growl although I know it is true…although the situation has changed.

"We are at the start again." I say finally. Months of searching for nothing…

"Maybe not…" all of us look at the moon bear, who has spoken. He gulps.

"What do you mean with this?" Sijna asks.

"Eh…you see…the Shadow of Sun Wukong-dono said that Fenghuang is a fake shadow…am I right?", Aijna nods, "So there is a connection between shadows and the Order…and when this Tian Yi is connected to shadows as well, so he is also somehow connected to all this…and not to forget what the Shadow of Sun Wu-"

"Come to the point." I interrupt him. He looks even less confident, when this is possible. "We need to go for Tian Yi to find out more about the shadows and the Order."

"Yeah, but we are not hunting the Order, but Moc….and I don't think Pantu lied about the thing that Moc has left the Order.", this says my logical thinking mind, not my emotional…this still doesn't want to accept that he has done it, after what he has done to me and my family.

"Yeah, but Pantu didn't know what happened…the Master of the Order maybe."

I gawk at him….I could face palm myself for this, if it would not hurt my muscles. He is right!

"I think we have another reason to go to Tian Yi now except that the Shadow of a dead guy has ordered us." Sijna says after seeing my face and before leaving the room yelling, "Get ready to depart!"

"We could also ask Pantu about the Order…." Aijna mentions after Benkei has left the quarter as well – he looked like he would wet himself.

"Like you said: It is too unsure." I reply getting calmer again.

"More unsure that this weak link?"

"…No….we will ask him…but we will also go to Tian Yi. Two weak hints are better than one."

She thinks about this. "You know that there are many uncertainties attached to this plan?" Aijna reminds me.

"I know…but in this way we have a reason to do what Sun Wukong told us."

"Ah this is it…So your anger was acted?" she deduces smirking.

"No…but I am hopelessly curious. Probably I will regret this decision one day…would be not the first one of this kind. And it doesn't happen every day that a dead man orders someone to do something, you know…" I reply smirking also.

"So you believe that it was him?" she asks coming closer in a seductive way.

"Like said, no better explanation.", although I still don't know why Benkei knows so much about this specific topic…my thoughts stop: Aijna is really close to me now. I look at her and see the beauty once again, which has spoken to me in the middle of a desert, when all hope was lost….I chuckle. I was obsessed with the topic Moc for too long, I realize now…maybe I need this detour.

Next chapter...took some while :) again... maybe I will take one month time from now on ;-)

Hope that you like Aijna's Point-of-View as well like the image. :-)
When you like this story, I would be happy, if you would review it.

"Kung Fu Panda" (c) DreamWorks Animation

I own nothing except for the written word.
Characters you don't know are from me. The Idea is also from me.