"We stumble and fall constantly even when we are most enlightened. But when we are in true spiritual darkness, we do not even know that we have fallen."
Thomas Merton
Kung Fu Panda
The Long Night
Chapter XV: Darkness
They force me forward in chains. "Hurry up fat panda!" says the polar bear in front of me loudly holding my rope in his paws. I sigh about this situation.
Days have passed since they have taken the golden dragon of the Jade Palace – and destroyed the roof of the Hall of Warriors in this way. The Jade Palace was nothing more than ruins after we left it. And I couldn't prevent them from doing it!
The bear pulls me and I fall on my nose in into the mud. Once snow was lying here, but after a horde of polar bears and a cart loaded with a golden dragon statue crossed this place only the wet and dirty ground remained, which is nothing more than mud.
…
I belong here…couldn't stop them from doing this…and how dad is I don't know….what will the others think about my failure?
"Get up, stinking panda!" the bear yells and pulls me up on my chained hands. I look into his scarred face…not so heavy scarred like his boss, this guy called Temujin. I bet my face is full of mud….what am I doing here?! Instead of wallowing in self-pity I should better stop these guys from bringing the dragon away even more…wherever their goal is.
Before he can react I swing my feet up to grab his mighty arm with them. I pull my hands free of his grip, while he swings his arm up and down to get rid of me yelling: "What are you doing stupid panda?!"
Before I fall down I jump down on my feet and now run at the surprised bear. A clout directly at his chest proves its effectiveness, when the bear trips backwards and lets my rope fall. YES!
I run at him and kick him hard into his chest, while he trips against the next polar bear in the front. The first one begins to growl, but a backflip kick sends him against his comrade ultimately.
Yes again!
Ouch!
…
Another bear has trampled on the rope and this one stretched out to its limit. I fall of course on my nose. Before I get up again, another bear pulls me up and to my horror I need to realize that it is Temujin. His grip is too hard for me to break free so I try to kick him, but he simply stretches me out of the reach.
"Whose fault was this?!" Temujin roars almost. The bear that has hold my rope comes forward and bows down his neck. "Mine, My Khan." Somehow I feel compassion to him.
"Temujin postpone your punishment to later." the voice of a raven says before flying on the shoulder of Temujin. It has three eyes as well. It is not the first time this raven has shown up and I can already guess that it needs to be the Player. But the how I still don't get really…
"Understood, Master. But what should we do with this panda? He can make further problems…"
"Of course I can, I am after all the Dragon Warrior!" I reply more confident than I am. I will not wallow in self-pity again.
The Raven keeps quiet first. "Knock him out." he says more whispering then saying.
"What?" I manage to say, before I see stars.
"Uhhh…where am I?" I moan, while waking up.
"Finally you are awake again." a voice from behind me says in an impatient manner. It comes flying around me and I look on a butterfly in an odd dress in pink and black. Her face is painted white and her wings are looking…beautiful in these different shades of red. I realize that this is a Lady.
"Oh you have beautiful green eyes, Dragon Warrior.", she says in a sweet voice.
"Eh…thanks." I reply a little unsure.
"I hate beautiful things." she replies with a completely different voice. I gulp.
"Shari, is he awake finally?" another voice says and I see like its owner wriggles inside….I realize that I am in a tent right in this moment! A white tent and judging by the things around me it seems to be a storage tent. I am handcuffed at one pole. The owner of the voice is a really light green snake, I have never seen.
"He is, like you see, Siqu." the butterfly called Shari replies, while flying over to my handcuffs. The snake raises his long neck so it is equally to my face. "So you are the Dragon Warrior…" he hisses in front of my nose, "I think it would be better, if you would not resist while coming with us."
"You think?" I ask suspicious.
"Yeah,…or not…no matter. The bears will shred you to pieces probably if not….but I am not sure."
I gulp. What is going on with this guy?
"Don't talk to him so long Siqu! Faster!" the butterfly behind me yells….D'OH! I have not realized that she has released me to handcuff me without the pole. This snake…that was his motive!
"Okay, okay…I think…follow me Dragon Warrior…I think…" the snake says while wriggling forward.
"Faster, panda! I don't want to wait for you!" the butterfly says while pushing….ow!...me not so soft forward.
We leave the tent and immediately the whole noise of this place hits me – to mention is that it was heard before as well, but I have not listened to it. I am in a camp filled with similar tents. The ground is muddy cause of the melted snow which was once here. Everywhere are polar bears going around or sitting at campfires – another thing to mention is that it is night already. I see like some bears eat fishes….iikkss!
We cross the camp slowly and reach a hill in front of another tent, a bigger one. It is lightened by some torches at poles. On this hill are Temujin and also a black eagle and…
"Bai Fen!" I yell.
"Oh, you are still knowing who I am, fatty." he smirks.
"You…! What are you doing here!?"
"He is my partner…" the last person standing on the hill replies: the dog from earlier. The Player!
"Your partner? I thought he is the subordinate…the messenger of Tian Yi!"
"I was…as a disguise." Bai Fen replies still smirking. I realize that he has one paw on a big urn right beside him….I know this urn!
"The Urn of Tenshu!" I say shocked.
"Oh you know this Urn?" The Player says happily.
"Of course I know! Tenshu, the founder of the Tenshu Army, is sealed away there! He was one cruel leader, which is why he tried to use his army for cruel things. But the noble warriors refused to do this, so Tenshu fled. He has summoned the ten thousands demons of the Scarlet Moon to find his traitorous army and punish them. There for he tried to destroy one village after another, but the army opposed him in first of these villages. They beat his demon army, but died there for…and Tenshu fled again, only to be hunted down by Exorcists who sealed his rotten soul into this Urn…"
"Oh that is good…fewer explanation." Bai Fen comments this grinning.
"What are you planning to do with this?" I say, while realizing something, "You have the Urn of Whispering Warriors in your possession as well…you don't try to…"
"I try and will succeed to bring Tenshu back into the world of the living." the Player replies also smirking.
"No! You will not!" I yell and try to free myself from the handcuffs. Temujin grabs me immediately and squeezes…..OW!...me between his paws. "Don't move or you will regret it.", he growls to me.
"I will regret it, when I don't move!" I say still struggling.
"It is useless." the Player says and rips open the Urn, before directing it at me. I feel the Darkness inside there. No…I see movement….No….this can't be happening.
NOOOO!
Darkness! It engulfs me.
No! No! It gets colder...
…colder…
No the light vanishes….
Cold…
…Darkness….
…
…
Nothing.
"Ahh….!" I feel the pain in my chest. "Argh!" I moan, while tripping forward….right into the fist of the boar.
"Tigress!" Monkey yells alarmed, while dodging an attack of another boar. I fly on my back. This pain…it doesn't come from the fist…it is so…intensive…Po?
…
The pain vanishes after this realization and fortunately in time: I dodge the attack of a spear of another boar and kick him away with a whirling kick during standing up.
"Tigress is everything alright?" Viper asks me worried after joining my side.
"Yeah everything is alright…again." I reply fast getting into a battle posture. Another boar is charging me – the guy who had hit me….payback time! I jump at him and he is obviously surprised, that I have recovered. Left fist against snout, right fist against snout and before he can dodge or block it a kick to let him see stars. I grab him, before he falls down and throw him at his comrade, who is fighting against Crane….Bull's Eye!
I turn to the other boar bandits, but either they are defeated or are fleeing.
"YEAH!" the villagers yell after leaving their hideouts.
"What happened?" Crane asks after he has fought himself to me through the crowd.
"Not here. Later." I reply, while trying to smile to the happy villagers. It takes almost the whole remaining day to get thanked and say goodbye. We have brought a short distance between us and the village, after it got dark already. We set up our camp in a hollow not far away, which we needed to free of the snow first.
After the fire of the dried wood, we carry with ourselves, burns warmly, we have peace again…at least I wanted to have. All of them stare at me. I sigh.
"I bet I will not get out of it without saying it to you, isn't that the case?"
"You would have won the bet.", Mantis replies. I sigh again.
"I don't know what happened…a sudden pain…in my chest….I have never felt this before…", and what has this to do with Po? I grab the necklace he has searched for me automatically. Po is safe and guarding the Jade Palace…or not?
"A sudden pain?" Monkey repeats me, "Maybe an old wound.", Viper suggests.
"Don't think so…had never a wound so heavy…maybe it was my imagination."
I see in their eyes, that they don't believe this. "I am fine again, guys. So don't worry."
"And what when it happens again?" Crane asks the question I have expected.
"Don't know…" I say hesitating, "…but even when, we can't abort our mission. Too many is at stake."
Their faces reveal that they know this. The attack on the village was not the first one, we needed to prevent. The more we come to the south the worse it becomes. I simply can't imagine that only Adum is responsible for all this...I look up to see southwards, where our path leads: rain is coming to us.
It rains the next days, while we continue our journey. We encounter destroyed or left villages, monasteries and even some schools of Kung Fu. The people we still meet tell us about the army which is rampaging here…but not where it is right now. The destructions come without a plan like it seems: One day they were southwards, the other northwards and even another day, they were completely elsewhere. There are not much things certain: One is that with the army Adum – the villagers describe always a lion as the leader – and his men is meant and the other that after they have come, the number of bandits and other criminals has increased. And neither imperial soldiers are seen, from who many have deserted nor Kung Fu Masters, because they are seemingly a target of Adum and his men. And there are too many of them to detect, who will be the next target. And so we continue our journey to the monastery where all this started….hopefully we find clues there.
Finally we reach our goal, the cliff where the Monastery of the Sealed Urn is found, when the rain begins to subside ….the monastery is destroyed. The information we got is right, but still…it feels bad to see it. This monastery was known for being unconquerable. We pass a left battering ram close to the destroyed gate and see like everywhere are lying bodies…corpses…I growl knowing who is responsible for this.
"We need to look out…maybe there is a trap somewhere here…" Monkey repeats the suspicion we all had already. We look around, but can't find a thing. Where are they…?
….
"Uhhh…." we hear a moan from one side and get into battle posture immediately. Of one of the burnt down buildings a…monk comes out. "They are not here…" he says like in pain, "Not anymore at least…" We look at each other and then run to him. It is a big tiger and he is bandaged at his chest.
"Are you alright?" Mantis asks.
"Felt better already…" he replies smirking. Then he sees me. His eyes…are icy blue. I get a shiver.
Viper and Mantis look at his wounds. "It will heal…but it needs time." the tiger explains his diagnosis and the two nod. The tiger still looks at me, but lower than my eyes.
"What?" I ask him.
He points his finger to me. "From where have you this necklace,…Miss?"
I look down to it again…"It is the only memento my parents left before abandoning me at an orphanage…", I reply a little hurt to refresh this memory. It remembers me also about Po, who has found it. I look into his eyes and realize that he is surprised…with a combination of shock. "Is everything alright?"
He grabs his forehead. "No….nothing is alright…" he looks at me with a sorrowful face, "…my daughter..."
I decided it: I will try to update this story monthly from now on. :-) Hope you have nothing against it, but I think it is better than complete uncertainess like earlier.
So a different point-of-view again ;-) Hope you liked this change. :-)
I would like to hear your opinion about this story like always :-) You can use the Review-possibility for this ;-)
And when you don't want to wait so long, check out my new work "Crossing the Rubicon". ;-) It is a little bit different, but I try to make it at least equally good like this story here :-) when not better :-P
"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.