Shiren entered the next structure can firstly looked around.

He was realising how quiet it has become again when he was alone on his own, yet it was peaceful despite his attitude, believing on the bad behind every bush.

Like he used to he sought out for a place to hide while being asleep to keep him save during the absence of his awareness.

There were things to consider now he was alone but now was just not the time to speculate due to him being tired from the entire day and still a bit angry after his talk with Viper.

He wondered how they managed to make each of their conversation developing into a mess of emotional words fighting over each other instead of having a mature conversation going around.

The problem he had was apologising seemed to not work with her, just making him vulnerable for up coming conversations.

He knew all of this would keep him awake for at least two hours but using the time to find peace with it wouldn't do the trick either. He just felt it already.

Also considering things with a more demure mind later would be way better than just trying it now.

Perhaps on the next day he would realise everything he did was a mistake and he would try to catch them and do whatever necessary.

He doubted it but it was an option worth considering so going too far away for now was not preferable, especially with the absence of Yong; A confirmation of a save and secure place.

The vegetation on this part of the complex was way more advanced than what he has seen before.

Moss now connecting bushes, statures barely visible behind leaves, ancient walls coated with green textures, and of course the big tree in the middle of the entire building. It was as sized as the last building they just explored this day and the tree growing here was even bigger than that. Shiren wondered how it even fit or how it grew in here but it was another issue he chose to not investigate in this moment. He rather took things as they were for now and would look for whatever he was hoping to fin here on the next day.

He laid down next to a wall, covered by leaves so he was pretty difficult to spot. There were walls all round this room but the roof was entirely open and the ground was covered by grass.

He did not know which room he might have just entered but it was the last thing that mattered to him at this moment.

Instead he wondered what exactly he was hoping to find here.

He said to the others he wanted to find a home or finding out what happened here and though it was true, he started wondering.

Which indicators would tell him his answers if there would be any?

Would he truly be happy about a life with little to no meetings to other people?

What would happen when he found out what eventually truly happened to this place? Was it worth knowing or was it something rather staying forgotten?

Nights like this would be normal. He knew people would spend like fifty years within caves to seek for answers about themselves.

To him that always sounded ridiculous and barely worth the time and effort and even this day he would not consider it. Oogway for instance was a turtle. A long living creature for which fifty years are not that much compared to other species.

Shiren wanted a life to live and being alone wasn't the answer unless he discovered otherwise here. Whenever he was alone, something went wrong. He admitted it to himself. And just like when he met the Jade-Palace, when other people came to his aid, his life was getting better again. He wasn't in the position to deny that they were in fact taking good care of him and he was a bit ashamed he didn't treated them as well but in a way they just made him feel uncomfortable. Like they were trying to put pressure onto him and he wasn't ready to take it.

His thought process did go on in that direction, hoping to find an answer on how to treat this situation for now but eventually his thoughts turned into chaos and he fell asleep.

In his dreams he was haunted by what happened. But he was not just going separated ways. He was running from them. Fleeing from everyone from the expedition approaching him in a maze of corridors.

He was hectically searching for corridors to flee to but they weren't long enough, were dead ends or there was someone approaching him from there. He did not know what they wanted but he felt haunted by them, getting grounded when they would catch him.

When he found a save spot to sit he heard voices. Viper talking to someone. Shiren knew it was the dragon she spoke with so he looked around and saw her talking to a statue which was moving and talking to her:

"I can't accept your failure for too long!" the dragon complained: "You disappoint me. Either you all leave my home until dawn or I will handle things myself!"

Shiren was excited to hear that. Finally he was able to meet the dragon in person and talk to it. It had a familiar voice but he wasn't sure who's it was.

"Yes, master," Viper replied and bowed down. "As you wish."

"You are such a good girl, Viper. Now go and do what I said,"

"Yes, master," she replied again.

"And no more failures! I know he is listening!"

"Yes, master," she replied again and Shiren turned away quickly.

Now the dragon she talked to was a living stature. Dangerous and an iron will.

And Viper did obey her and with her like she was possessed. And when Viper was complying then Tigress did as well and Tigress was the leader of them all.

He looked up. There were two ways ahead. One that would lead to Viper and the dragon and the other that leaded to the way he came.

He realised it was up to him to make a change here. The paths existed but their outcome was yet to be made. By simply turning to the wall and putting away a stone he chose to use a tunnel underneath him to go one of the paths past everyone without being seen.

When he woke up he was not sure why he suddenly had a tunnel there. He just wished it to be there. But he had not much time to think about that dream when Mantis was waking him up:

"Oh, sorry. I was just seeing you were having a bad dream. Are you alright? You seemed stressed."

"You could say so… eh…" he realised Mantis was here.

"How did you find me?" he wondered.

Mantis explained as it was casual: "You were quite loud here. Bad dreams, eh? Sorry. It felt wrong to me leaving you alone like this. As your doctor I need to make sure you are healthy."

"You really are not quitting, are you?"

Mantis grinned: "Hehe, I can't quit any more. When I got back to being a doctor again, I remembered one of Po's first inspiring words: A real warrior never quits. And so am I."

Shiren started to get truly awake and raised up. "That's… an attitude. But I still thank you. Having company would help a bit certainly."

"Not certainly. It's proven. Now, where do we go first?"

Shiren stopped for a second like he was freezing and he wondered: "You're… asking me?"

"As long as you are not jumping down this canyon I don't mind going anywhere. But according to what you said, you survived a whole long time alone. That's not nothing. At least enough to trust you are not just jumping into an obvious trap."

Shiren relaxed again and begun to warn Mantis before he made his decision: "I suppose I have no idea where I am ending up going in here. Are you certain you do not want to go back? I do not plan to reunite with the others anytime soon. I have a lot of personal issues to deal with."

But Mantis was not backing up here. He was still arguing: "Don't we all? Don't worry, I'll try to not get in your way. I'll be right behind you."

Shiren was not sure what to think about that.

The morning was way too early to give Mantis a proper answer but all in all so far he did not mind his company.

He silently started moving and investigated the room he was in. Since he only saw it in the night he could have missed some things like one of these tiny little holes.

But the room looked as like when he first entered it. There was nothing really special about it, only despite the fact the sunlight shined beautifully into this room. A little bit of dust floating around was visible within the sunlight.

He briefly took a look to each exit. There were four in total, one being the one he took to get in here. Maybe he could also climb up the wall since there was no roof in here but as the professor said, the answers to some questions may lie within this walls, not above them so he chose to go straight forward, not left or right. Yesterday everything that was not straight forward was a circle not leading anywhere meaningfully.

He made his way towards the tree.

On the way he asked without looking at Mantis: "So what did the others say?"

Mantis wondered for a bit and asked: "Say when?"

Shiren still inspected the walls, looking for some clues like hidden ways, paintings or scars from battling. "When you left," he explained. "I don't think Tigress didn't say nothing."

Mantis shrugged and looked aside: "Nothing all too special. Just like: Alright, Mantis. Take care of him and yourself and so on. The professor firstly wanted to come with me but she refused to let him. Either just me or all, which meant no one. I don't yet fully understand it but meh.

Crane was…" he paused for a moment: "different. He… he wished me good luck. Said he would like to support me with flying around and keep an eye on us and them but he quickly dropped that thought. He still does not feel save flying with a dragon around."

""Birds…" Shiren mumbled and moved on.

"Don't tell me you dislike Crane. I can understand everyone else but Crane?"

"No it's not him. I have fought him during the fight over Wang Fu. He was very protective and honourable." Without saying more about it he moved on into a part of the building that looked healthier with less plants. The sun was not shining as much in here, just trough cracks in the roof or windows.

The architecture reminded him of a temple. A big one, like a palace but just all made out of stone. This place was just very awkward to him.

At the end of a room where the way continued he sighed and asked for Mantis to follow him into this room.

"What is it? Did you find something?"

"Well," Shiren explained: "Just one of these weird things again."

"You mean like the one you stared for a good amount of time? Why can I not see it?"

I don't know. Maybe I'll figure out. And hopefully I'll remember things this time. Last time it felt like a dream. If you don't mind I'm going to check it out. Shouldn't take long. … I don't know actually. You can look around or something in the meantime."

"I don't like this one bit but sure, you do you. I'll keep you covered. Maybe I'll find some things in the meantime."

"Thank you. And I really mean it," he said to Mantis before heading to the weird violet cloud. Everything around him disappeared within it and he came back to a place unknown to him.

„Here again…" Shrien mumbled after he slowly opened his eyes and found himself in another plane, similar to the one he once already visited, yet it was not the very same place.

Right as he saw this place and tasted it's senses he remembered. The air tasting like really nothing, the islands with weird combinations of things he knew.

Gates of a village which were holding a rock, a house which looked pretty normal honestly but it was leading nowhere. It was missing an entry. And instead of water, nothing actually connected the two places and it was too much for Shiren to reliably jump over it.

A lot of weird things around him but the surroundings looked different this time. It was not the same exact place like last time.

He wasn't sure what this place was called but he knew from last time that there was something to fix. That something broke a door and tried to escape with just one individual that tried to keep it from escaping.

But at the same time it was not able to close the door itself, so it had to rely on Shiren who pulled a rope up a hill and connected it there.

He remembered that things weren't like they seemed, that everything was just an imagination of his own mind that made things up; Translated them into structures he was familiar with.

Yes, that 's what it was. It felt weird to imagine he forgot all this stuff and all in all it was just very confusing and not fitting. But honestly he had other problems to deal with on the other side.

Other than in this place. The problems he had to solve here seemed way more easier to solve and apparently he fixed even more important problems with them.

Yet there were many questions. He wasn't sure what to expect. Something tried to escape, but how long did he have to find and fix all the problems. And what was this danger? What would have happened if it escaped?

Was he helping the right guy?

He shook his head immediately after that thought.

Whatever this person he met was, he seemed like an honest person and there was no reason for him to dig deeper into this until he solved his own problems.

He kept this place like it was and there was no reason to risk it. Nobody would blame Shiren for anything here.

"Oh, hello there, fellow," someone greeted him but Shiren recognised this voice.

It was the comodo dragon again. Or whatever it actually was. Some kind of god but it did not call himself god.

"Wait. I remember you," he continued: "your name was Sorin or something? Oh, Shiren. Right, that was it!"

Shiren turned to him while he was speaking. "I remember you too. I… don't remember much but… at least your voice," Shiren said and came closer.

"Oh, that's all too common. I think you had problems in your own world, as you mentioned. Oh, I have thought about your appearance."

Shiren did not know what actually he was talking about now. He apparently switched from one topic to another one within one breath.

"What do you mean?" Shiren wondered: "Do I look bad or something?"

Gently he heightened his hands and shook his head and chuckled a bit: "Oh, sorry, I did not mean to insult you. I was talking about your appearance here and why you are able to communicate with me. Because as you can guess, another door opened and need to be closed or this will expand and destroy a part of your world. Your remember all this, right?"

Shiren looked around and thought for a moment. But as much as he tried, he was not able to remember the part of something getting destroyed. "… I'm sorry but I think my memory comes back just slowly. It all felt like I just dreamed when I left this place…"

The comodo dragon nodded quickly and as quickly answered: "Oh, as I said, it's fine. Very fine."

"How much time do we have before the door opens?" Shiren asked to get to the topic.

The comodo dragon smiled and loosely answered: "Oh, until I scream or something. You know, once I can't hold this much longer. Don't worry, but at the same time please don't take extra long. I assume you can imagine how annoying it can be to keep a door closed! The poke and poke and… it's just precedes."

Shiren shook his head understandingly: "Oh, yeah. Then… where to start?"

The comodo dragon looked into the island and explained: "Well, last time you connected some ropes, as you said. Maybe you will have to do similar things again as you precede. This will eventually help you to understand these tasks in order to fix them more efficient as we are locking them down again. It is hard for me to tell… I see things you might not understand. But imagine you are constructing a push tool to close gates. I am terrible at explaining, ain't I? It's okay. I'll shut it now."

Shiren took a look to what was supposed to be some kind of puzzle. There were two houses which were split between two islands actually. One house contained a rope and the other one was missing a door but there was a chance to get trough the roof.

However, connecting these two places turned out to be a bit harder than just climbing up a mountain like last time.

Shiren spoke up: "Yes. I see a system within this. I don't get everything presented here but it's just a matter of time. It feels like I have done this before…"

"Then I will just leave you to it then. Do you want some background music in the meantime?" he asked and started to do a little bit of beatboxing.

Shiren grinned but shook his head: "I don't think so, thank you. I admire the effort though. You better keep focussed on your door."

The comodo dragon silenced and patiently waited for Shiren to make progress.

He looked around the area to find something to help him.

The first thing he looked for was something to make a bridge and what he found was a plank which looked long enough to fit between the islands hopefully.

"This is a communication transport device. It helps you connecting two se- islands and allow a save transfer," the comodo dragon declared as he saw him interacting with it and picking it up.

Shiren looked at him and explained himself: "We call it a plank. That's usually what it does outside of everything else like being used as material for several constructs like houses."

"Right. I just thought it could help you. Only you know what you see. It may be something not very important in your eyes. Better being save than sorry, right? Alright, Continue."

Shiren did just that without commenting on anything. Tasks like pulling a plank however was something Shiren would have loved to let someone else with arms do. It was very hard crawling with just half of his body while the other half had to grab the plank. It surely took some time but he realised he had to somehow get it on the other side to build a bridge and he was not strong enough to just manoeuvre it there with the other side on top of the island. That was a challenge now.

He was not able to just jump across the two islands and he just had one try. Whatever he had to do needed guarantee.

To do that he first used the rope to tie it up around the plank so he could have a chance to pull it up again if it falls and the knot held.

Then he had to get creative and he looked around for something like a heavy rock. Something to put on the one side of the plank while he would push it over the cliff.

Heavy enough to hold it but easy enough for him to get it there.

And he actually found one very convenient looking one. However it was right within a bamboo wood cage that somehow happened to exist here.

He was able to slither trough it but he had to lead the rock trough specific paths. It turned out to be like a labyrinth puzzle to roll the rock trough while he was able to slither trough anything and he had no problems with climbing he had to find a path for the rock.

If someone like Crane would have been forced to do it, he would have had some problems. Having not to rely on arms and legs had advantages in these specific scenarios.

During this puzzle he spoke to the comodo dragon again:

"So you were actually saying something. Something about my appearance," Shiren started the conversation..

The comodo dragon areplied: "As I observe you. I begin to understand more about you the more of this puzzles you are solving. I think your people call your life energy something like Chi, if I'm not mistaken. Let's just assume for a minute some sort of Chi gets bequeathed to other generations, then I can tell that I'm starting to see similar patterns. Please don't ask me when I saw it though. Time is a difficult issue here. I do not have intervals you call "days". And I am bad at explaining."

"First question:" Shiren asked: "Same patterns? What do you mean by that?"

"Simple as seeing colour schemes. Imagine you wearing orange Chi as much as orange eye colours, I could say I have seen such a thing before."

"You want to tell me you have seen one of my ancestors perhaps?"

"Precisely. Maybe. Maybe other people have the orange eye colours as well. Do you have orange eye colours?"

"Basically. It's a bit brown in there too but I call it orange. Anyhow, my second question: You know the term day but you also do not have days here. How?"

The comodo dragon looked at Shiren for a bit and hesitated with an answer like he was searching for the right words: "I live in another world yet I know a thing or two from your world, don't you worry. It is not any kind of connection and it's very important that there doesn't start being a connection to travel trough our worlds."

"Why though?"

"Well, first of all, who would be interested in a place out of their comprehension, not even reachable at all? Surrounded by illusions made up by your head? And second, I wouldn't want that. It risks people trying to reach this place and operations like these problems you are solving are a resolution from those attempts. It's not supposed to happen. It destroys your world. And perhaps even mine," he explained calmly.

Shiren however still wondered: "But I am here. I do not understand that."

"Well, as I can tell, you have the fitting Chi"

Shiren sighed heavily and stopped working on the puzzle he nearly solved: "Fitting Chi, fitting Chi. What does that even mean? Do you say, I am some sort of chosen one?" he asked and turned to the comodo dragon who nodded smilingly at him:

"Exactly. Each individual has it's own destiny and fitting Chi suitable for his or her task. After all, that's what makes you apart from other people. But other than solving these problems, and maybe another task or two, there is nothing I can detect yet. Maybe you are a good problem solver or something. But I can't tell. You seem pretty intelligent. I can tell that much."

"So that's why Viper can't reach this place?" Shiren wanted to know. If what he said was true, and Shiren hat no reason to not believe him yet, then that would make sense. And everyone would have a task. Maybe it wasn't here or maybe it was just making sure the expedition goes smoothly. He although wouldn't say the individual Chi was made for your tasks. But he got the core of his statement.

The comodo dragon asked:"You certainly mean the other snake you mentioned last time, right?. Since being another one of your kind this question has it's reason. However there is something that puts you both apart. There isn't much I can tell you right now. But maybe I have already answered that question. I know you are a smart snake, that can solve that question on your own. Maybe patience would do the trick. It works for me all the time."

"I just hope you do not put wrong words for me… " Shiren sighed and continued with the puzzle.

"Don't stress yourself all too much. As they say, do one step after another. You can translate this to your own snake language if you wish but the meaning is the same. And right now, this thing you are working with should have your attention."

Shiren continued working on it, got the stone, put it on the plank and slowly but steadily moved it to create a bridge. Luckily it seemed to have just the right length. It felt good when it touched the surface of the other island and everything was holding. He sighed with a relief and started getting the rope away in order to get it over the bridge. Now there was the house without a door. There was no chance to climb somewhere but the wall. He used his agility to carefully climb that one up. Other skilled persons like Tigress would just have jumped up to that roof but he wasn't such a talented guy.

"Can I ask a question?" he asked the comodo dragon which was following him and watched his progress.

He looked up and responded with a nod: "You sure can. I just am not that sure if I am able to answer."

Shiren paused for a moment, still holding the rope and he asked: "What exactly is trying to escape there? You mentioned someone trying to reach another realm, plane, whatever. Is that what happens? And who is it?"

The comodo dragon sighed disappointingly: "I wish I could give you an answer. As you were gone I was trying to spot it but I happened to have no success yet. However if it is the same source to this problem as last time and it will try it again and again, I will eventually being able to tell. Considering the time since these problems came up, wouldn't it be funny if it would be one of your group? Oh no." he shook his head quickly: "I should stop talking."

Shiren calmed him down though: "They are morons from time to time but I don't think one of them is up for such mean actions. Would there be even any reason to get to you or something?"

"Not as far as I know I'm afraid. Maybe curiosity. But let's hope not. Do me a favour and fix this. The earlier I can find out. Hopefully you will never know what it was."

Shiren got on top of the roof easily, jumped down to the house and connected the rope there.

Thinking about it, he actually was very lucky. If the connection would not have been this house, which he just assumed, he would have wasted a lot of time. The most hilarious outcome he could thought of was the connecting being right next to the starting point.

He climbed out again tough the rope and was greeted by a happy comodo dragon:

"Another problem solved! You know that feeling when a huge burden falls off your body? Feels great. But you know what that means. You and I have to go separate ways again."

Shiren smiled back. It felt good helping another individual, even if it was from another plane or whatever this was and even if there was no good chances they ever meeting again but it still just felt good. "You know, although I have to think three times about what you say, I start to see the whole thing. Like a huge puzzle with new pieces that suddenly fit into problems I wasn't able to solve earlier. It sounds crazy but maybe I understand things my body is not able to know."

"You better make sure that's not getting worse. As they say, the entire life is a big school, don't forget that. You always are able to learn a thing. Or two. Or three. But you have given me things to think about as well. I have to figure out some things or three. Until next time. Nah, hopefully not. You know what that would mean."

"Don't worry. I'll find the next problem and solve it like these ones when it comes down to it."

"Counting on you. Me out."

Shiren came back to his senses again but his entire body felt like… weird. He had huge circulatory disturbance for a few seconds until everything turned more and more to get normal again. It felt like he felt sick and was just forced out of bed and into standing up right immediately without having time to actually wake up.

"Shiren?" he heard Mantis asking. He looked at him, still seeing some dots in the air glimmering around from his light-headedness and slowly vanishing.

"Yes?" he asked and coiled his body around. It was like normal creatures sitting down. It felt much more stable. It was a sign he was having Shirens attention. He looked at Mantis and he seemed a bit worried and at the same time confused.

"Well, how do I put this into the right words…? Nah, who cares. You know, this time you were completely gone. Means, your body was gone as well."