Volume Three: Deng Wa

Happy Father's Day, everyone.

This chapter took me a while to fill this draft that reflects the hidden meaning which will be significant to our beloved character.

— GrayZeppelin

Chapter XXXVI

Finding Purpose

November 20, 1210

The Mightiest Warrior unwrapped his wrist wraps after wading in the bathroom pool. Not long ago, he had finished battering wooden dummies with his wolf teacher, who guided him on fast block forms to deflect incoming fists and elbows. With a stark curiosity manifesting Lotus on several hard material pads, which her feline partner thrashed on for his fists, Kai had tested out samples of Ironwood Trees. Instruments which he strongly mentioned were far more resilient against regular blades; what had made him ponder his teachers' pain was that they felt almost nothing while punching them. Chen Xing and Lotus buffeted Ironwood Tree pads for more than fifteen years, despite improvements from their grimacing discomfort.

Kai wore his patched shorts after drying himself with a large towel, brushing off his moist mane just before he departed the Bathroom interior. Ahead of him, the elder feline in light cobalt hanfu holding a lantern stood strong and brilliant. "Oh?" Kai was baffled initially, then cleared his rough throat with an introduction. "Master Ming."

"How was your training with my granddaughter today, General?" Chen Ming simpered.

The yak examined his hooves, sensing a thousand specks of flesh screaming at him; he hardly ignored the ache, as real warriors masked their weakness in combat. "Quite a rough start on punching Ironwood Trees, but they are mesmerizing. The girl and I are most casual than the other one."

"So as my grandson, Kai?"

The eyes of his feline teacher swarmed in his mind, deep down to his cold heart hindering pulses. "Kitten's a more suitable character than Lotus," he nodded. "I suppose I put myself difficult on him, which he and I are typical on knowing common senses too well. The boy reminded me of someone I knew, a warrior of mine. The only way to recognize him is through meditation. And this meditation does unlatch memories."

Chen Ming composed her sigh with approval. "So as can reduce your stress. Let your memories flow in the water rather than fight against the current. Ironically, my last meditation was my granddaughter Lotus, who never stopped eating my cookies," she chuckled. "Come with me to my chamber, General."

The yak entered the rice restaurant beside the Shui Palace as Ming's chamber lay between the kitchen's small corridor. You find a pleasant smell of scented cherry sticks before you turn to the shoji door, which has detailed vines across the opening of blooms and onward into the thick woods of Xinshi Senlin (Chen Xing and Chen Ming's old home). Maintaining his height as his horns almost caught the ceiling above him, Kai entered Chen Ming's chamber, the tangerine light from the feline's lantern pulsing to a bright yellow star. There rested a goza mat bedroom, the polishing wood cabinets with a bronze mirror to his left. In front emerged the tortoise master painting amidst vivid pictures of bovine master and striped felines, whose broken smile had the yak downcast his floppy ears.

"Have a seat, Kai. You keep growing while standing," Chen Ming angled her paw to another rug.

Kai chuckled. "My fellow brothers joked about my height, and I liked their enthusiasm."

"I can only imagine the positivity and hilarity," she pressed her lips when chuckling.

"The boy stands with those bovines?"

Chen Ming followed Kai's gaze at a large portrait beside her. Two yaks in brown swathed cotton garments stood with their striped feline companion, whose sleeveless silver tops and black trousers broke his smile upon her eyes. "Ah. Those two are Chen Xing's good friends, sons of Master Gidahn, the wood maker. The young one to the left is Tai, and the right is his older brother Mel," the Nine's Master hummed in delight after she stood next to the painting. "Two yak villagers became guards in a small town, and both volunteered to patrol the village. Tai and Mel were on duty for four years; they rarely used training weapons instead of swords. Instead of continuing their path of serving, their father had other plans for his sons to be his students."

The moment that the yak perceived this "serving" years of his life at war, fighting for not only justice but to end tyranny and cruelty, Kai had been drifting his eyes at the tortoise painting he had hated, his chest ticking the grip of his heart while he beckoned his tight grip. Words from his brother murmured in his head, following Oogway's nonchalance voice of rippling water and tenderness.

Change lies ahead of us, Kai. The reign's end in Gongmen City is imminent, and I fear that our journey as the Supreme Warlords of all of China and the Emperor's Mightiest Warriors will continue with casualties, win or lose. Our battles will not be worth fighting anymore. This path redeems me to a new life.

The yak's hoof fingers remained clasped, despite the familiar conversation being a big deal to him, which his thought unflustered by his dear tortoise brother's calm and extreme voice. Brushing off his unpleasant thoughts, Kai watched Chen Ming organizing shells of "Jiu" disciples on a flat table. "These are the rest of the Nine, General. They went from the origin before all united as the Fellowship family," the Nine's Master caressed and bore a silver scroll, handing it to Kai before she sat on the rug. "One thing you have always been asking a good question to my granddaughter, Kai."

Kai managed to untie the parchment's ribbon and open it, slowly unveiling soft pulses of gray hues into white scathes within charcoal clouds. The White Dragon soared among Guilin Mountains, and underneath the rain, the yak's atmosphere churned into rime, his thumb stroking the tiger who formed his crouching stance.

"My grandson is such a lovely boy than my children, on top of everything. Never been the same after his nightmares crept in him for years," Chen Ming buzzed her throat often, whose head unmasked her disappointment when Kai browsed a painting of the cub with two parents. "I had taught Xing harder than his father was into, my only son who filled inspiration on ways of the bravery and persistence."

The yak checked the father of Chen Xing in a midnight vest and dark gray trousers, who nudged his round head on his son's temple in the mother's arm. In a light cherry garb, the mother sat on a giant root beside tall trees that poured green mist. "What was he looked like — your firstborn son?" Kai asked with wonderment.

"My treasure, General. A vivid creature who thrived his father, his grandfather, and generations of my great-grand linages before Chen Shui's grandparents," the Nine's Master simpered, her stone eyes shifting to the next soul. "The other made me accept my son's unbreakable bond to someone he adored. She was a pure breed from the ocean of another realm. My daughter-in-law, Yingtao."

"After marriage, my daughter delivered her gift to her son as a blessing. His blessing had been obscuring for tens of generations after the Great War's end once my ancestor Chen Wing submitted her gift to her sister. After Wing's passing, her young sibling reached out across the East and to the stars. Blessing of the White Dragon had not appeared for countless moons. For nearly five hundred years, the Mind of Metal had come again. One with a gifted mind of mine shared his praise with love to the innocent girl, who traveled from the angry sea, the water that hailed ripples to the land. To her, a stranger loving a great fondness for Shui, she gifted us one I lost after Tai Lung's rage. Hope, Yingtao said to me."

Kai rolled the scroll more, scrutinizing the mere detail of striped felines gathering around the pavilion. Silver and white scathes of the dragon from Yingtao's paw kissed her son's body. Keepers of the Hidden Dragon pledge their vow to the warriors' eyes of dawn and stone. The Realm's souls share their blood and honesty toward the boy's blessing.

The uncle and aunt propel their swords and shield her flowers against unfriendly eyes.

The grandparents steer winds and heal wounds to the boy's strength.

The godparents lay their minds within the boy's eyes: one gardener, one protector.

"This boy has been special, isn't he?"

Chen Ming's paw flattened on the yak's hoof, making him cease rolling the next after Kai watched her moving Chen Xing's biography. "Everyone is special. My grandson's beginning may not have his joyful origin," she said. "Understanding the history is part of the aspect, and the rest of my grandson's tale proves his worth what his fights for the cause: his family."

"Where does the White Dragon come from?" Kai asked.

"Particle elements into sparks of the heavens," Chen Ming answered, gesticulating her paws into a circle, expanding wide. "Thousands of years before Qing Temple construction, the origin of dragons inherited from the stars. Many mythical beings populated the nature of crops we eat, the rain we drink, the ocean we swim in, the land we stride, and the air we breathe and fly. The first Emperor of China was the dragon who taught souls how to survive in Mother nature; later, a century followed four youths of a Jade Emperor. After that, the forefathers' descendants appeared before their days ended.

"The last known dragon fought beside the living in the battle against servants of the darkness called the Curse of Men," Ming added. "One of the nine dragons was among his siblings to cleanse evil spirits from us sentient beings. And his child from the west was part of the symbol of purity, a beast known with brilliance from one of the five elements that chopped wood and carried water. The Mind of Metal."

The yak drummed his interesting hums. "I think I would have gone reading lore before understanding battles. This one fills my curiosity," Kai smirked. "Someone else who I fought by my side brought wisdom."

"Well, this 'someone' I grew up with always spoke to me in my youngest days: Knowledge is power."

My brother did tell me this once. Kai nodded after giving his eyes rest on the tortoise painting. Chen Ming matched the fire next to the golden dragon, whose muzzle clasped its tongue behind the cherry-scented stick. "I believe your tension is dissipating yet stirring your feeling to be remorseful," the Nine's Master read the yak's downcast face, sitting ahead of him. "What troubles you, General?"

This question kept Kai's core toward his corner, despite that he put comments damaging to Little Kitten. The yak could hardly see the boy's scarred face giving the edge of his smile beside Little Puppy. "The boy has been a sympathetic soul in front of the relentless warlord," said Kai, eying at the elder teacher's stone eyes. "In all likelihood, I had said something rude against the child. My tension toward Little Kitten made me tear his heart enough."

"Totally," Chen Ming agreed. "As by being anxious about the change, you fear, Chen Xing offers his help to the one who lingers in the shadow. Proving to one who was admirable, he sees what my Sunzi fills compliments to his friends as they are always brothers and sisters to his blood. The next student to teach from Xing is spirited, yet difficult."

The yak reflected on himself verbally insulting his feline teacher, weighing his head down. "I had hurt most people, Master Ming, and my last straw was putting my mental effort against your grandson," Kai shook his head.

"So as one facing difficulties from the past refused the help," Ming added, which Kai returned his sight to her. "The Dragon Warrior visioned pain as his former adversary carried the same in common. This foe would have wanted to silence his suffering, but Po's daring conception was to have Shen restore one that he could serve his purpose. And his ambition beyond the unsettling peacock made him reflect on the void: peace.

"You find the purpose of your own when the one I knew too well started his journey after the war," Chen Ming elaborated. "Worry not the future, nor repeat the past. Even though you are known as the Supreme Warlord from your time, you still have your journey ahead. Something that one of your own could have done the same by convincing you to let go of suffering."

Of course, someone did. And I was a fool not accepting the Great War's loss.

Kai narrowed his ocean eyes to his feet. "I'm not this Supreme Warlord anymore; no one will recognize me."

"Oh, Kai. Even if the world does not recognize who you are, only you can attain ideals with talents," Chen Ming released her soft drones. "What is something good for you to deliver aspects? Motivation is your armor. Dress up one, display the world that you fit in with a word my grandson sees."

Motivation will do.

Approving the feline's words of wisdom, Kai managed to rise from his crossed limbs. "I should be back to my chamber. It's nice chatting with you."

"Here. One more thing, Kai," Chen Ming requested when the feline rose and went for the locket wardrobe. She dug her paw within accessories and found something soft and giant drape to her fingers, manifesting the yak something reminiscing, which Kai deepened his breath in his throat.

The Mightiest Warrior widened his ocean eyes. "The Supreme Warlord's cloak," Kai described the voluminous emerald cape wrapped neatly with five folds. Chen Ming handed the cloak to his hooves, letting him stroke the garment's silk material. "Where did you get this?" he asked with half concern and wondrous.

"My neighbor left it here when your gray cloak had ripped since Lotus brought you," the feline elucidated. "I find green presents the blessing that you became the Jade Warlord with someone you knew. This silk belongs to you, unlike any material in the world that has ever been created. It has been stashing in a chronicle hall since I owned the palace, and before me, my master kept your cape for centuries."

The Mightiest Warrior regarded Chen Ming while rummaging his silk. The Nine's Master continued. "The Magnificent wished not to bear your cloak in his depository library, which kept him remembering you hurt his heart. I knew one who brought shame to my house. My brother, Chen Zhen, invited the outcast who sought his nephew to perpetuate devotion as his blood-brother. The outsider was ethical, but he promised my brother's nephew that he could die for the Chen family. In the end, betrayal drowned loyalty."

One word repeating in the yak's head haunted him in various encounters through his experiences. On top of the warriors' eyes filling glares across bloodshed battlefields, the closest stroking his reptile hand on the yak's shoulder rested his green eyes on his fellow brother, so innocent and kind. "Winter is upon, and your cloak gets you warm when traveling through harsh weather. Try it on," Chen Ming encouraged him, smiling.

The yak unfolded his silk into five times the length and wide, about the height of his base neck to his feet, which continued draping behind. He wrapped it around and tightened a knot under his long throat so that you could see his amber-red necklace underneath. The voluminous green silk drooped upon his bulky shoulders, nearly closing his front chest.

"My cape has sewn well," Kai crooned with favor, reaching for the silk's edge as he found a stroke layer in dark emerald from his back. "And a new layer? What is this?"

"My neighbor Mrs. Yan detailed the word as my students interpreted their student," Ming clarified with grace. "Lotus wished to brand a name 'general,' but my grandson grants a word that presents the true warlord that serves his duty."

Chen Ming pointed to the paper on her table, where Kai went there first. Soft black strokes to a one-character noun filled his sense of delight. "Rongyu," he read.

"Honor," she simpered. "Allow your cape as it serves you well, General Kai. This silk is only one of a kind and never to remake again."

The shoji wall introduced gentle taps thrice, and Kong opened the door. "Master Ming," the Nine's Messenger entered, startled with a surprise in front of the yak, glancing at his emerald garment. "Goodness gracious, that's an elegant cloak you got there, Master-General Kai."

I share your thanks. Kai hummed.

Ming chuckled when she strolled next to the Mighty. "What can I do for you, Kong?"

"It's your grandson, Master Ming," Kong worded. "He's here getting ready for a bath after your Sunzi unpacked his traveling bag."

After hearing the messenger's words too well, Kai stretched his brows upward, reflecting on the boy. Little Kitten came home. I need to have a word with him.

"Good. I must speak to Sunzi at once," she straightened the neck collar of her hanfu robes.

"Master Xing wishes to speak in the morning, Master Ming," Kong pardoned. "He had a long trip from Wukong with Jade Palace students after finding the scroll."

The Nine's Master harshened her throat. "Terrible things are still happening there. Master Bingwen's Library burned down to ruins when Jade Warriors entered the city with full incursion," Ming elucidated, now turning to the messenger from Kai, who held the edge of his cape. "What scroll has my grandson brought?"

"A long, forgotten history, Master Ming. Xing brought an ancient scroll called Followers of Realm. Your grandson found a name that one of Master Wuxi's five students."

Chen Ming flooded her silent breath in her throat. By the Gods. I had forgotten Bingwen's father's text for years.

The Nine's Master crossed her paws on her belly with wondrous once Kai continued inspecting his cape. Chen Ming maintained her posture by strolling back and forth beside Kai, so ponderous. "Followers of Realm were Master Wuxi's disciples who performed their incredible capabilities. Their kinds of abilities are dangerous, not just the Wuxi Fingerhold his students learned by sending souls to the Spirit Realm. Instead of using their teacher's fine grip, they coursed their ways to enter the next. Meditation, I remember, is one thing that can let you fly to the next domain, be with a family of your own."

She readied her gaze at the messenger. "What name has my grandson been looking for, Kong?"

"Deng Wa, Master Ming."

Deng Wa? When have I ever heard that name before?

"That will be all for now. I will speak to Xing tomorrow. Get some sleep, Kong," Master Ming gestured her paw, allowing her servant to depart and gather with his partners outside. Kai rotated around while his hoof pinned the fabric's front, concealing his whole front.

Kai's cape drooped on his front shoulder once the yak rotated around, his hoof raising his cloak's edge. "My grandson is like my own son, has his mother's eyes, and he is the bold one than his father. While my son Chen Shui rests with his beloved under the Earth, Chen Xing does not have a father figure for so long. His adoptive mother, Lady Xia, achieves what love means in his heart. The fact is, General. Bravery lies in him, but deep down, his guidance must be filled by one."

Puppy seeks his long-lost girl. He accepts Little Kitten as a member of the wolves' pack for watching Little Puppy under the boy's care.

The yak reflected Wolf Boss giving his pat to Chen Xing after long training days with Lotus, a week before the tiger's departure to Wukong and seeing this moment to have a company deserved Xing filling accomplishments. Kai felt his hoof flattened by Chen Ming's warm paw. "Remember the path of redemption. Not many people who were good toward the cruel deserve a second chance, General Kai."

The Mightiest Warrior knelt ahead of her. "I shall have no dishonor when using my cloak. I wear this cape as I have been over a hundred battles of the Great War," Kai vouched.

Chen Ming beamed her smile with a slow nod.

The Mightiest Warrior sauntered into the Nine's Chamber, which nearly filled only one room's tangerine candlelight. About two chambers down, Kai beckoned to squint in the gap's inch of a shoji door. He leveled his hoof, wanting to knock on his feline teacher's door as far as the yak wished to admit his terrible behaviors. He hoped that one's respect was the grandeur to keep him inspired. Chen Xing perched on his crumpled rug with a patched traveling bag in front of him. Dressed fine in light cobalt and a navy neckline, the tiger inspected the painting of his mother in rose robes and his father's silver garments to his left.

The feline's paw bore the large model that the Mightiest Warrior sank his heart last time. The action yak figure with a scathe armor and a double halberd weapon. Never before, something on Chen Xing's stone eyes made the tiger hold his lips. One warm tear at a time while shuddering his breath from his muzzle, Xing cast out his long sigh while examining his toy, including the bag that the tiger unpacked his equipment and one scroll earlier. The tiger placed his toy next to the tangerine candle and blew the light, dimming the corridor with silence but soft snores.

Kai quietly reached for his room before the shoji door behind him slid open. His feline teacher grabbed his folded garments of midnight and black trousers in his arm, nodding to his student. "General," the feline greeted as Kai returned his respective posture to him. Chen Xing sauntered to the Nine's Barrack's door as Kai entered his guest room, placing his antique cape on the counter; his wife's necklace beamed its cherry hues over his chamber, whispering with vivid ripples from Wugu.

The yak stroked his weary eyes. "Little Kitten supports me," he mumbled, his thumb caressing the amber stone. "I should be doing the same to him and the Nine as I did to soldiers of mine."

And to our old brothers. Wugu's stone voice fiddled in his ears before the Mightiest Warriors lay on his bed.

The Nine's Leader unwrapped his clothes just as the cold water inside the bathroom streamed, letting Xing wade in while the Nine's Second Messenger observed beside the door. He needed to remain in solitude and start reflecting on what happened ahead; too many issues were hindering him, which could be handled at once. At first, one problem haunted his last day. Contemplating one's harsh breaths, the bandit spoke to the tiger. And those paws, he shook when shaking, followed another gruff voice.

Murderer.

This "accident" killing the bandit had never occurred to him ever since. Despite all the wisdom shared by his grandmother being essential to fighting, only self-defense and prevention were his key to vitality. Remembering too well under his teen years, he once asked the Emperor's guard about what was all the killing against tyrants before. He elaborated to the boy that killing for sport was not an honorable way. He let the boy not pursue this dark path the guard went through unforgiven. The eyes of a yak guard became the being who followed his code for survival. This survivability, he forwarned Chen Xing last time before engaging the Boar Army in Hajin Province, was either you or your combatant. Only one should survive.

Kong's partner Biyu neared the tiger on the pool's edge. "Would you like me to clean your clothes, Master Xing?"

After washing his face with his paws, Chen Xing brushed the soap bar on his bruised left shoulder; the sense of flashing muscle was slightly intense. "No. I'll take over from here, Biyu."

"Are you alright, Master Xing?"

"I'm okay. Just had a rough trip for a few days."

Xing is hurt.

Biyu only answered with her clasped feathers, stretching her brows upward with a nod. With grimacing hisses, Chen Xing stroked his soap on his forearms, which were impacted by the Clan's fast blows. His silver eyes glid on the messenger. "I like to have my privacy here. I'll see you in the morning."

"Of course, sir. You have a good night."

Good night, Biyu.

Kong's partner departed from the bathroom door; only the tiger's ears registered water ripples and the cold gush between his legs. Xing observed his paws when the surface was above his belly height. Only wordless to sense his limbs quivering and his throat wobbling his chuff as the ripples were mirroring cherry and cinnamon eyes of the Mad Prince and Argali, he sank into the water deep before above.

The rest of his foams ascended while screaming.

The Nine's Leader strolled back to the Nine's Barrack as his throat left with burns. While massaging his sore throat, the corridor enchanted rose light with zen ambiance from his student's chamber to his front right. Behind the shoji wall towered the yak's sharp horns before Xing entered his room, lying on his bed as he bent forward. He wanted to end this excruciating mentality. With this "No-kill" code, he worried about breaking brought the consequence, and every member of the Nine knew the outcome.

A rose light probing in the tiger's chamber embraced a soft gray bovine in crimson robes, both hooves folding Xing in one's arms. Hushing the poor tiger's pain, Wugu rendered her soft drones, commencing memories of Xing's peahen mother, who danced with her loving son underneath the ocean with singing dolphins. Above the Realm that shattered with ripples molded into harsh gray winds once the mother and son kept swimming into the void, finding their paths toward another eternity from the tiger's reality. Descending further on strokes of charcoal surroundings emerged a mystical creature finally slithering in the basil sky.

Pale smokes shaped the dragon's face, whose snow eyes widened.

Oh, my child. What did you become?

The shadowed face emerged the warrior's white head with two ebony stripes, glaring his green eyes at the White Dragon above him.

Your monster.

Author's Note:

— Characters Tai and Mel, sons of Master Gidahn, belong to writer SheyConYamo. Later on, they'll introduce in future chapters of V3 with their father, Gidahn, and their sister, Mika.

— My apologies for taking a little longer publishing this story so far. For over a month, I was on a short episode of writer's block, preventing me from writing while working and gaming (thanks a lot, Elden Ring). It's time to rise from my feet and start walking.

— As for Sunday becoming Father's Day, give your dad (including your stepdad) a long hug and thank him for everything. Some of you might not have a father, but someone you know as either your uncle or a friend of your family who has a father figure type finds his way to be in touch with you. Po has one who is not the panda; even then, Mr. Ping is the Dragon Warrior's family.

— Po has two fathers, Mr. Ping and Li Shan; Tigress and Tai Lung have Shifu and their grandfather Oogway. During his rule with his beloved wife, Lord Feng gives many blessings to their child, Prince Shen, and later after the Prince's exile, the former Lord of Gongmen always has his thought about his son Lord Dongji. Despite longing for years of duty with lupines, Wolf Boss kept his thoughts on his own family, though his lack of parenting had him cornered before he returned to what he always wanted: becoming Lotus's father. Both souls of Masters Flying Rhino and Thundering Rhino in the Spirit Realm live together as the father and son, thinking of early times. And Master Storming Ox, never wanting to cross his path of arrogance after losing his companion Rhino, makes sure that his son Niu will be triumphant and respectable, making his promise as a gentle-giant father. For a month of brainstorming ideas for current and future volumes, I like to bring this concept to Kai's relationship, which will manifest him as a ruthless warrior outside, and inside has a fondness (similar to his tortoise brother, but a stronger affection than Oogway). Does this remind you of Disney's Treasure Planet, anyone? Long John Silver mentoring Jim Hawkins?

— I hope you guys enjoy Summer this year! You made it, graduates!