Episode Three: The Top Three ( 12 - 16 )
Chapter XII
Expectations
I. (XVIII) The Lord, the Lady, and the Prince
One Month Later
May 7, 1210
The Prince of Darkness and Lord of Gongmen on the Hollow's platform leveled their solar and crimson glares on shroud clouds that emerged, and veins of lava poured underneath. Sulfer and molten metal across the sea of darkness and fire chanted whispers while broadened, allowing the two warlords great tastes of their liking. Determining more significant numbers below the podium, Lord Shen wandered over the vastness as he had his own. Wolves were the strength of his pack, and now forming with his ally, the resilience was grander than before. Prince Huoju regarded several recruits and experienced fighters across stone pillars beside the line of his army. The rest, as the Fire Clan members converged outcast bandits and those who could achieve what was worth than losing: deception and hatred.
Hissings and squeaks swarming from charcoal clouds rumbled. The Prince of Darkness invited one of his best avians to commune his interest in conquering China with Emperor Khan's son. A hive of tiny gray and midnight wings swam out of the pyroclastic clouds, granting Prince Huoju's lips to curl again. The swarm sped around the mountain, and bats shrieked with admiration and hospitality. Lord Shen remained in his seat, searching for one bat in a red vest whose two comrades followed their leader.
The three with long gray ears and curve teeth bowed to Huoju, the Prince of Darkness, Mingling, the Lady of Shadows, and Shen, the Lord of Gongmen. "We are Zei, Bian Fu, and Mianfu. The three are at your service, my Prince," one tiny voice and the other introduced.
Prince Huoju determined their perception of his ideal, scrutinizing their remembrances of the Great War. Legends and the old after the Great War continued legacy histories of the Fire Clan against the Emperor's Rebellion. Before the Great War was the succession of the Qing Temple's desolation.
"Welcome, Zei, Bian Fu, and Mafan. I am Prince Huoju, son of Emperor Khan of Jinse Simiao," the bovine's hoof graced his heart, then gesticulated to two of his loyal companions. "These are my associates Lady Mingling from Inner Mongolia and Lord Shen, son of Lord Feng of Gongmen City."
The black bear in a heavy scathe armor robe nodded with gratitude to these newcomers. The peacock kept his head onward with satisfaction. Zei's brown eyes widened, the other two bats following their gape. "Lord Shen. So it's true, then. There were rumors about Lord of Gongmen's defeat, and none could claim that's authentic."
"Aside from the peacock lord's recognition, Zei, we follow deeds for Lord Shen and his reign," Mianfu patted his chest. "Yes. My bats and I are technicians! We build weapons; we craft metals to melt with flesh and bones after our meals."
"My clan, Dark Wings, heard of your defeat in Gongmen City, my Lord," Bian Fu said. "It's a shame that the fat bear who refuses to stop eating a whole country of dumplings defeated you. My brothers and I are always admired you, even at your loss. Those wolves who fell before you were brainless fools. No offense to my vulgar language, my Lord."
The peacock gave low chuckles with a whiz. "None taken, Bian Fu. As I am honored to hear the presence of enthusiasts," Lord Shen leveled his grimace at the three, "the Lord of Gongmen expects loyalty. If that is admiration you desire to follow, there will have a proposal for you three. Who among you is the chemist?"
Mianfu raised his dark gray wings. "I am, my Lord Shen."
"Good! Now the two shall search for the farthest towns and cities across Tibet. While you gather countless metals, forgers shall melt iron into scorching cannons. Which of the two is the blacksmith expert?"
"Me, my Lord," Bian Fu patted with a vicious grin.
The Prince of Darkness beside Shen buzzed his fruity throat. "Now that settles the anticipation. Lord Shen expects to assemble your teams. There are other blacksmiths forging artilleries, and they shall require assistance."
"Wonderful," Zei simpered. "Thousands of my clan mates are willing to train at barracks. My brother Mianfu wishes to know where cannons are to study the peacock's work."
"My artilleries are near crimson columns close to the platform there," the peacock pointed at the lava lake, the other side of the steeps. "Prince Huoju's men are experimenting with ranges and capacities of the blast radius."
Mianfu tittered with pleasant hisses. "Thank you, my Lord. I look forward to becoming your chemist partner."
The two bats, Mianfu and Bian Fu, soared onward to the swarming gray and black wings that echoed their mimicking titters and hisses. The alpha Zei remained on the platform's ledge. "I find my purpose in following one's matter about partaking to conquer China. Those underneath the soil from the Great War were prominent, not ones with tiny egg rolls. Dark Wings served previous leaders under Generals who followed the Fire Clan, and this era had no leader, find no soul who could claim this country. The warlord's name is Prince Huoju of Jinse Simiao."
Zei attempted to bend his knee, his gray wings holding high in admiration. "Dark Wings and I fall before you, my Prince, Lord, and Lady. The swords and wings are yours, and we are in debt to serve you well."
"Rise, Zei," Huoju gesticulated his hoof with pride, standing among the bat. "You will be one of my Lady's Commanders. Come with Lady Mingling and me."
Shen rose from his skull throne and trekked with the three within the rocky corridors. The Prince of Darkness chuffed his charcoal breath. "Shen, you remain on the Hollow's platform. The messenger will arrive soon and inform you about the Tournament's chosen disciples of three classes."
"As you wish, my Prince," the peacock obeyed. "Where will you be going, if I may ask?"
"To the forsaken world, my dear companion," Huoju answered. "Will be paying respects to those who left and banished to the Spirit Realm. Those who lost glory, whose masters betrayed their students, and those who seek vengeance in return to the Mortal Realm. The rest shall join; a few who will dare challenge the almighty may be stomped their bones to dust by my feet."
The Prince of Darkness's voice of crumbling rocks stiffened, yet might as the Lord of Gongmen regarded him with absolute. The black bear Mingling hissed her rasping tongue, revolving her claw toward the center of the Hollow's igneous structure. The violet stream rotating over the void sphere emerged, the breeze fiddling their furs as the peacock's robe glided behind him. "Make yourself comfortable before we return," Prince Huoju gave a soft pat on Shen's shoulder.
"Good luck to you, Master," Lord Shen wished him. Huoju broke his wicked smile before swallowing into the void sphere with his Lady and their new partner. A scorching hue around the ball dug within the heart, kindling with a thunderous clap of the metal cannon's trigger. The doorway left with floating ash embers, leading Shen to depart Hollow's Platform.
Lord Shen surveyed the courtyard's columns and igneous structures layered with scorching orange veins. All alone, the peacock wished to converse with someone, others like being loyal to him. Defining loyal as he reminisced of the name once before brought him into familiar songs of the forest, songs of the air that howled from his former army. That loyalty to who was the closest to his side no longer mattered to Shen. The peacock passed by statue monuments of Huoju's warlords and toward the broad platform before observing clouds of tiny gray wings swarming above embers. While neglecting his old companion's dying grunt, something entwined in Shen's thought.
Bo. . .
A soft female voice immersed him.
An old name had not been heard since the final days of banishment with Shen's army of wolves. His people who served him must respectfully address his title and surname, "Lord Shen," under their command. By the time the peacock leaned his feathers against the railing, other familiar voices of silver and soothing crept into his head and toward his heart.
Mother? Father?
A mother's voice grew. Something where Shen endured his excruciating soul as the family tone kept entering his head. Some voices had always called the peacock Shen, meaning divinity and thoughtful for his pride birth. What he gazed into some trance? The recall blends in with the dark and shifts into the light.
1150 ( 60 years earlier)
Beyond the land rested a harsh scent of the eastern sea, the silver light swimming its moon glare on thousands of street lights piling on craggy hills of the prospering metropolis. Gongmen City was the regal land; only one's pagoda tower stood mighty, and four defense towers stood before the main. Peafowls ruled this city, and the rest before the two defended their citizens and the Realm to protect and serve. Above the entry gate, their billowing sigil was the Tower with ornate yellow and red flame upward tiles. Their ten-story royal house was named Tower of the Sacred Flame.
Within the care room of Gongmen City Hospital, a peahen lady in a light rose with a cyan hanfu gown hatched their newborn resting in the nest. Her peacock husband in a cobalt and orange robe speculated with a pig doctor, who initially delivered an egg; the doctor inspected their infant shattering freedom above the shell. Embracing their feathers with elegance and hope, the father and mother shed tears, and their gift made it a success. Together, never before seen, the small figure was revealed as the omen sign that presented terrible luck in China.
Their child had white feathers. The color in China reflected a symbol of death, but on the contrary, the white illustrated purity and innocence: half blessing and half curse. The son mumbled his cry, widening his orange-crimson eyes at his biological mother, whose gasp intensified. "Mama," the son cooed.
Mama nuzzled her head on her firstborn, whose giggly laugh made the father and the doctor grin with chuckles. The Lord of Gongmen found a specific name; he discovered a perfect character to continue his father's legacy and many who served for hundreds of years before him. The father's side carried consciousness and ruthlessness. The mother's side was spirituality and brilliance. Their surname Shen persisted for generations after Lord Li Han's heritage fell, finding the calm waves that sang among the stars in endless times. Lord Feng and Lady Muqin of Gongmen City named their Prince. Shen Jianyu. A spirit builds the universe.
Instead of two names after a surname for their son, Lord Feng and Lady Muqin of Gongmen had to choose one. The father recommended their child manifest constellations, representing aspects of each soul's inception symbols. Lady Muqin had one who she adored. Her father, Heng Bojing, used her son's name to continue along with Jianyu's grandfather's name. She had a gifted hearing of the ocean's melody, which the surge lapped against the beach and underneath the sea, muffled crashing tides. There were deep gentle waves. Lord Feng and Lady Muqin nicknamed their son Bo, only agreeing to use Jianyu's alias in the family area during public meetings.
The two nobles met a goat caretaker within her new chamber, a brilliant mind of the fortune teller who had strong bonds with children. As Lord Feng had the urgency to manifest guarding the Realm and the Sacred Flame Tower, Lady Muqin craved to aid the people with credits. She needed her husband to do the same. So they brought their son's guardian to watch Jianyu.
Winter encroached its snow across the city in the evening, and Jianyu's parents offered their son a gray silk garment. Their son was born with a metal element, reflecting silver he robed in his favorite color. Jianyu rode behind Lord Feng's long neck and back, giving awe glances at his city. He and his parents trekked with a group of royalties from different houses in China. The last thing his parents narrated to him that night was his first Chinese New Year during his infant time. Many souls commemorated one of Lord Feng's companions, who celebrated the year of his kind—that year brought the child's wonderment of amber and white fireworks with black stripes.
Jianyu's Eighth Year (1158)
Within the following years of Shen's youngest days, Jianyu met a Tibetan wolf cub in rent clothing, whose red eyes poured into waterfalls. The young Prince never comprehended some people's reluctance to wolves and how vicious they became. Instead, he urged Nana Soothsayer to occupy the young cub with children. After hearing distressing news from Master Flying Rhino, Lord Feng invited wolf migrants to Gongmen City, who had lost their homeland. Boar bandits attempted incursions in Wolves Village, although intolerance from their leader was apparent.
A howling cry from a wolf cub named Zhong sauntered through the roads of Gongmen City toward the Sacred Flame's Gateway as the boy lost someone closer to his heart. After watching his new companion, who shed once more, Prince Shen embraced the young cub. Lady Muqin, in rose and aqua hanfu robes, met her eyes with her husband next to Soothsayer. "This child lost his home, Feng. Is there a soul for this boy who can reside in this city? We will address the catastrophe and hear newcomers."
"No soul in Gongmen City shall leave the poor creature in dark places, Muqin. Mali Soothsayer suggests to reside the boy with our son, and I will accept her proposal," Lord Feng insisted. He clasped his cobalt feathers as the Lord of Gongmen met Flying Rhino in dark silver robes with flared-up shoulder patches. "The Council shall listen to wolves and send our officers to cease boar bandits' abomination."
"Daddy. Can I keep Zhong? Please?" Prince Shen's ruby eyes locked on his father's.
Soothsayer Mali gestured her nod to the peacock lord, whose beak shattered from fading. Lord Feng knelt in front of his son and a wolf cub. "The boy will be in our protection, Jianyu," he smiled. "He will be living with Peafowl Nobles."
A few months later, things changed often. While Wolves Village had no survivors, the child's father became a victim of flesh and bones, devoured by boar bandits. Jianyu's companion and adoptive brother Zhong needed room without showing weakness in front of the children. Some of the young giving company with Soothsayer shared their losses, knowing how their wolf companion felt. Jianyu and Soothsayer's youths had more time with Zhong, bringing him into playgrounds across Sacred Flame Tower's courtyard.
In the Prince's ninth year, he started his class in Mandarin language and writing. Starting to become more achieving than students, Jianyu was the first to pass the academy on learning aspects of chronology. He could unravel into the next level of advancement if persisting in introductory astronomy around the middle class (not an appropriate age, but soon enough). His adoptive brother Zhong was only in home school with Soothsayer Mali. The tutors from academy elementary only allowed students at nine (Zhong was seven). Each time departed from school to meet his adoptive brother in a Throne Room, Jianyu craved to speak with his father more often. He participated in complex assertions that Lord Feng addressed with other lords and ladies in China. With several attempts to bring his father joy from meetings, Prince Jianyu remained with his mother outside the courtyard with Soothsayer's children and had Zhong with Master Flying Rhino.
"Why wouldn't Father come to see me, Mother?" Jianyu asked his mother. His small voice was stiff.
Lady Muqin had known the meaning of her husband not reaching over to their sons to be in touch with them. As more complex as the Prince needed to comprehend more about their responsibilities, Lady Muqin filled her answers to him. "Your father appears to be assembling with visitors every day, Bo. This may be difficult for you to understand, my son. Once your likelihood slowly changes to be like your father, you will notice what we are into the majority."
"I don't want to grow up, Mother."
"We age, Bo. That's part of life you must enjoy however you can. Your father and I shall have our intention to preserve you and your brother in happiness," Lady Muqin's head was closer to her son. "I will make sure of your father's attention."
Shen broke his smile once more.
Jianyu's Fifteenth Year (1165)
A year before his fifteenth, trio fighters ceased Wu Sisters' dictatorship. Their schemes put lives against village by village, later controlling city by city and even successfully governing a whole dynasty. But none of the Sisters' strategies prevailed. Across the Sacred Flame courtyard, an azure horizon casting shimmering rays from hazy gray clouds touched the three, who strolled toward the opening with admiration. The street fighters, who initially brought disgrace to their houses and Kung Fu dishonesty, restored justice. One of the three was Master Flying Rhino's son, Thundering Rhino. After the son of the Kung Fu master introduced Juren, the Storming Ox, and Croc, the Iron Reptile.
The young gray rhino warrior in patched shorts and a wide belt fell before his father. "I am proud of you, my son," Flying Rhino patted Thundering Rhino's shoulder.
This year, the boy's expectations descended to his father, who had always met individuals in his Throne Room, meeting his crucial subjects to revolve matters. "This day has become more solemn than yesterday. I deny the teacher's request, Father; we should focus on the concentration of gunpowder in the lab."
"That will be put on hold for the time being, Bo. And you shall not revoke your architecture instructor," Lord Feng said. "What you wish to discern this invitation your mother and I conversed about, the Emperor of China and his Prince are on our way."
Jianyu gulped, widening his glare at Lord Feng. "I beg your pardon?" he breathed with surprise and bitterness.
His father spread his feathers to a halt. "Control your posture, son. Suppose you wish to follow this route to keep the Realm into safety. In that case, there will be no mockery of Emperor Huángsè's presence. And this is serious," Lord Feng's eyes were sharp. "You should perceive his monarchy power, which the Emperor has unlimited strength. If you insult him, nothing will prevent the buffalo until he finishes everything into—"
"Feng."
Lady Muqin snapped at her husband, silencing him as he cleared his long throat. She proceeded to her son, rotating her voluminous sleeves over her stomach. "Huángsè is an ordinary being but lacks empathy," Lady Muqin said. "I suspect you will be the first to introduce his son at your instructor's field trip?"
Prince Shen faded his solemn posture.
On the courtyard platform, an honorable guest, standing before the Lord, the Lady, and the Prince of Gongmen, was a water buffalo in crimson and gold robes with dragon carvings. He stood firm with might, towering with a silent glare, that his wide and upward horns brought children into surprising and horrifying glimpses. The three gesticulated their bows to the Emperor of China, whose smile shattered. His son Huangdi in a gold attire, did the same, bowing with them with admiration. Promising to converse crucial topics on yuans and economic growth to several royal houses and trading, Lord Feng and Lady Muqin invited the Emperor to the Throne Room. Jianyu and his wolf brother Zhong escorted the Emperor's son to the field trip group near the Entrance Gate.
Enchanting smells of a salt breeze wafted as the group of chroniclers passed on public roads that filled a thousand signs everywhere you lead on turns and hike on irregular elevations. One of the tallest members of Shen's class was the visitor himself, Prince Huangdi. Keeping his pace with his classmates while their teacher beckoned to manifest the city, Prince Shen could see the buffalo inspect citizens passing by before they bowed to him.
Halfway to the afternoon, after a lunch break, the class, venturing to the eastbound, arrived at the dragon's entry, the path from within to lead the ancient underground that was built before Gongmen. Undercity. Prince Shen regarded. His father and colleagues ventured there and showed most of the old-fashioned texts and lost textures from the antique Mandarin times, many dynasties before the Song existed. So far, from his father's knowledge, they discovered hidden paths and shelters before the library, one chamber that was owned by his warlord ancestor from the Great War.
Observing the dragon's entry with awe, Shen was shoved by a mighty shove toward his upper shoulder, pushing him down to the pavement. Standing before the peacock in defiance, a water buffalo teased the peacock with two foxes. "Look at this freak, everyone. Do you think you are born by being the golden boy who PASSES CLASSES?" the bully flickered his hoof, glaring crimson eyes at the bird. "You know too much, and I think you are a cheater who CHEATS!"
"Those white feathers will make people bad luck, Shen!" the fox from the bully's left taunted. "You made China the worst luck!"
"Hey!" Zhong interfered and pushed the fox, darting his paw. "You leave my brother alone!"
"Who's gonna save your pet, dog? Your teacher? Your wolves?" the buffalo mocked and innocently held his hoof on his lips. The crowds' gasps intensified. "Oops, I hear they have been dead."
"You take it back!" Zhong clenched his teeth, growling.
"Look at him; he thinks we are scared! Ha ha ha!" the fox with a green vest and brown trousers guffawed with his and their buffalo companion. "What do you wanna do with him, Temutai?"
"Show these wimps some MANNERS!"
Temutai's first fox threw his punch before Zhong attempted to bark. The other tackled Shen, wrestling the peacock by throwing punches. Surrounded by whistles and classmates cheering for the affray, Temutai reckoned to grasp the wolf and bird, dragging them toward the hilly road from the teacher inside the Undercity's entry with tourists. No wolf guards were nearby, and other closest areas that Lord Feng ordered plenty to monitor his sons during Shen's field trip.
Thrown into the alleyway near the Harbor's pier, which the path above hung with lines of wet and dry sheets across, Zhong rose from his feet. Temutai hurled his heavy blow toward his stomach, pushing the wolf to the structure before heaving Prince Shen farther. "Get your hooves off me, you imbecile! I am a Prince of Gongmen, and my father will torture you for this!"
"Daddy's not here. It's just you and me. Come on, birdie, FIGHT BACK!"
Screeching, Prince Shen delivered his kick from spinning, but Temutai's belly bounced him off, having the bird repeat his attempts: slashing, booting. Chuckling with mockery, the bully caught Shen's wing and pounded his chest, pushing him down.
"Ha! Would you like to try that again? Er — Take a break? Try to warm up more?" Temutai taunted the bird, who screeched for his wing's feather fractures. "You are WORTHLESS!"
"HEY, PUT ME DOWN!"
The bully hastened his turn and saw Emperor Huangse's son clench two foxes, lifting higher toward the apex of his height. Screaming at the giant, foxes attempted to round their fists and kicks at him. Prince Huangdi slammed their heads together and hurled them toward the pier. "That's enough, Temutai! As the Prince of Huangse, the Emperor of China, I command you to step down and surrender!"
"You hurt my friends, princess!" Temutai grimaced. "Did your daddy teach you how to respect, coward?"
"Insult me one last time, and then my father will put you and your house in ruins," Prince Huangdi snapped his yellow eyes.
"What makes you think daddy will do, bastard?" the buffalo tapped his fist against the open palm. "Let's FIGHT!"
Two giants brawled toward the quay, wrestling their grips as they dragged themselves on the pier, which forced boatmen to scurry and witness the brawl. Temutai, twirling his head, struck his horns on Huangdi's head, jabbing his hard blows on his stomach and uppercut. The Prince of China tumbled back. "I am the best!" Temutai laughed, following his gibberish guffaws. "HE-HE-YOSTADABADA BOO-BUM-BUM!"*
A wolf bark screeching from behind tackled Temutai. Prince Shen grasped a wooden pole and whipped the bully's head. After seven strikes from the peacock, Temutai caught the bar and jerked Shen in the air, throwing him over Huangdi before engaging Zhong, who attempted to bite on his limbs. Bowling his body, Temutai tugged the wolf's vest and heaved, slamming him to the wood platform.
"Zhong!" Shen shouted once his wolf brother's sharp whine deafened, and Huangdi trotted on fours after puffing his snout. Countering Huangdi's round fists while swaying his limbs, Temutai rammed his head and swept his longhorn under, tumbling the Prince of China next to the pier pole; he grasped on from slipping.
Their teacher's shout approached from afar beyond the street hill. Still, the affray continued as Shen sprinted to Temutai and screeched, attempting to propel his front kick. "You have spoiled me FOREVER!" the bully clenched the bird's throat and held him to his height, treading his heavy steps near the Harbor's edge, where singing ripples tapped on junk ships' hulls. "No smart ass will fool Prince of the Moon in a tacky tower! One day my father finds the Medallion, and he shall crumble cities with his bare hooves!"
"You are ma—!"
The peacock's throat clogged his breath from Temutai's grip. "I'm not mad. I am — the UNSTOPPABLE!"
Temutai's feet were pierced by Zhong's teeth biting him, nibbling left and right in rapid jerks. The bully heightened his gabble guffaws. "Nice bites! Guess what, puppy?" Temutai thrust the peacock toward the Harbor, and Jianyu screamed before the water swallowed him.
Under his wings, he crawled out of foams from the resounding splash, his small train broadening behind his head. Following this cold that clogged his eyesight, Shen fluttered his arms one and the other in slow, unsteady motion; he had never been under this water nor experienced from his parents, who did not have their webbed feet. Glanced above were ripple flashes, and the bird held his wing long before his foams burst from his scream.
"HELP!"
The water absorbed the feather train that kept him sinking furthermore; the worst culprit, adding to his weight submerging, was his voluminous clothing, fluttering while he flapped his wings and talons. Neither of his attempts to swim above was working. Above these ripples, lights touching his head became the last thing to see a yellow figure before the water barged into the peacock's lungs.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS ABOMINATION? Prince Shen!" The bird coughed out salt streams from his throat before the giant with soaked yellow garb backed away, and his teacher darted onto the pier and checked the peacock. Startling, the teacher inspected the wounds and rented robes on Shen and Prince Huangdi's bruises. "By the Gods. . . Emperor Huangse is going to kill me."
The metal gates banged open, and the Sacred Flame's door knocked, emerging the giant buffalo and two peafowls with officials. Prince Shen's parents stormed down the stairs before the Emperor paced his loud stomps. "My Prince Jianyu!" his mother raced down from the platform, clenching the sides of her hanfu robe from tumbling. Lady Muqin spread her fragrant jasmine wings and clenched her son, who burst his tears before wolf guards stood at their sides. "By the Gods! What happened?!"
"He attacked me!" Jianyu sobbed.
"Who?"
"Him right there, my Lady!" Zhong pointed at the bully.
Temutai clenched his eyes, full of hate. "You freak! I should have crushed your skull by a chan—!"
Prince Huangdi pressured his blunt snout. "You want to fight someone else with your size? You should have teased me first—!"
"SILENCE!"
The courtyard thundered the Emperor's shout, deadening children's shouts. Emperor Huangse, towering before the group as many bowed to him, glared at everyone. Trembled by his presence, Lady Muqin stepped aside and arched her neck before her husband arrived beside the buffalo. The Emperor held his hoof under the bird's beak, inspecting shattered feathers, ripped garb, and one black eye. "By the Gods," Huangse filled his silent breath in his lungs, releasing Shen. Stunned by his iron breaths inhaling, he surveyed his son's bruise injuries on his shoulders and darkened fur on his upper neck. "You tell me, son. Where is the instructor?"
"THERE, my Emperor," Shen saw Huangdi point at the teacher.
Shen's father enfolded his son in his wings with his beloved, and peafowls and their wolf son watched before their feet sprang by the giant's heavy steps. The Emperor towered ahead of Shen's teacher, who trembled his body. "Where were you before the incident?" he demanded.
"My Emperor. I was on speaking terms with the Undercity's —"
"My colleague's son was almost murdered today!" Huangse roared, causing the teacher to shrink his height and flutter on his knees. "You were responsible for children's safety, yet you are unworthy to watch over two of the most important souls!"
"Forgive me, my Emperor! I beg you mercy, PLEASE!"
"Get him out of my sight! Take him to Gongmen Jail!" he commanded, and wolf guards seized the teacher at will. "I shall be dealing with him later."
"MY EMPEROR, PLEASE! NO!" the teacher wailed before Lord Feng and Emperor's guards dragged him away, over the bridge and to the iron gate before his cries deadened. Prince Huangdi's father bridged both hooves on his upper shoulders and had his gold eyes radiate before his father.
"Son. Tell me what happened?" Emperor Huangse demanded. "Who did this to you, the wolf, and Prince Shen?"
"Temutai and two foxes, your Grace. They taunted Prince Shen and his brother, and I intervented from them three," his son answered, ceasing his tears without studdering. "Temutai threw Prince Shen to the shore, and I saved him."
Shen remained his startling stare at Huangdi's father, who crept his eyes on his shoulders directly at Temutai, who sank his head to his feet. "Temutai struck me and opposed peafowl nobles' son, my Emperor," Huangdi added. "Among his crimes are his highest of treasons. He called Prince Shen a coward and called me a bastard."
The Emperor's grimace fueled his gold eyes to luminance, staring at his son's bully, who faded his mockery face as Shen looked at Temutai. "Escort these children to homes, Lieutenants," the peacock heard Huangdi's father command his gold cloaks. Huangse met the warrior in shiny armor with flared-up shoulder pads and a helmet.
"Commander. Gather you and your men to find the parents of the three and restrain them into custody. Bring them here," the wolf bobbed from the Emperor's command. "There will be a trial today, starting with you, Temutai."
Huangse dominated his pose in front of him, causing the bully to tremble his head, shitting his trousers.
The Prince of Gongmen, aiding himself on the tenth floor of his father's Throne Room, could hear the Emperor's thunderous shouts echoing beneath the silky amber winds from the salt sea. He was swathed in silver towels, croaking his voice from severe coughs. The amber dusk bathed its light to his front and had him close his eyes. He reflected on the misfortune and the water, where he screamed for help. Gods. . . I hate water.
"Prince Shen?"
The bird turned and found a behemoth buffalo joining his company with the wolf Zhong. Prince Huangdi, covered with a few stitches on his cheeks, wearing another set of expensive garb of gold waves and the dragon, presented his hoof flattened on his chest. "Are you feeling well?"
The bird coughed, presenting his bitter compliment. "Never been better."
"Those low lives do not deserve spitting their insults against you," the buffalo said. "No need to be harsh, but my father wished me to interfere with fists. As he's a stubborn leader who has me into lessons, I had no choice but to protect people from getting harmed, knowing people are my people to treat them."
The bird's red-orange eyes studied the buffalo's feet to head interestingly. "I hear people could not silence their mockery at you, mentioning your height and your shyness," Prince Shen mentioned, which had the visitor look to his own feet. "Their manners seeming to deliver their gossip to one another shall be punished accordingly."
"Hmm. I think you and I are even in common by being offended."
"What is?" the peacock asked.
"A few citizens I encountered were jabbering about you behind your back and mentioned the bad luck sign that you were born with albino feathers," Prince Huangdi clarified, snouting innocently. "I mean no offense, Prince Shen, but considering their lack of honesty in describing their superstition, they should have known better to hold their tongues and learn their manners."
The peacock arched his long neck and filled his inquisitive thoughts on Huangdi, who stepped closer to him with Zhong, maintaining his composure. "You and I may have been humiliated by those who said we do not deserve living. I say never let them overwhelm you," the giant advised, clasping his hooves over his stomach. "I hear your father shall speak with the Council and have every soul to meet by this week. Once Lord Feng invites most people and has a word with them with the Emperor, the citizens of Gongmen will have no choice but to end their bitter histories. If anyone dares to mock royalties and whispers about you and me, their comments and houses will be removed."
"Fair enough," Shen stretched his grin halfway. "Now, I will not have to worry about peasants with terrible tastes," the peacock grinned. "Forgive my manners. I should have presented you my thanks for saving me."
"Absolutely," Prince Huangdi nodded, kindly glancing at the two. "Does that mean we are friends?"
"Er. . . I say let's get to know each other," Zhong patted the buffalo's back, chuckling.
Once serving their dinner with peafowl nobles and the Emperor, Prince Shen, and Zhong accepted Prince Huangdi as their faithful companion.
II. (XIX) The Sign
Jianyu's Twenty-First Year (1171)
The son of Lord Feng was all grown from his previous years and soon became the next Lord of Gongmen City under his father's heir. For the last six years, the peacock managed to practice martial arts with Masters Thundering Rhino, his former Master on the combat square. As Lord Feng required his son's training for the importance of Kung Fu, Rhino trained Prince Jianyu regarding his wings were not perfect for attacking but deflecting fast blows and his talons for kicking. With the following activity to the peacock's advancement, Master Rhino showed his student rapid flows with a guan dao, his feet propping in the air. He taught him Cai Li Fo, one of the significant and challenging expert martial arts to astuteness, executing the peacock to perfect his attack and defense. Jianyu adapted his skills to eliminate opponents quickly. His wolf brother, Zhong, managed his talents to adopt Kung Fu well with Masters Croc and Storming Ox.
During Zhong's service with wolf guards two years earlier, Jianyu woke in his dormitory and headed to the balcony platform. The calming wind from the south stroked in his flowing robe, and the velvet night sky was bathed in a silvery-bronze stream of a thousand suns. The Prince of Gongmen had trouble sleeping but preferred to walk downstairs before he could get his tiredness back. Down from the main floor and up from his parents' chamber in the ninth platform, Jianyu searched his path through the dark cherry marble hall, where Lord Feng and Lady Muqin rested behind the golden door.
Unnoticed by deadening swooshes from four doors behind, Shen thought there were his parents' maids on this night-hour shift, who could prep their duties to be called upon and clean chambers. But this was no different than being bothered by his classmates for fraud and disappointment. Near his talons were nippy hushes, and fading hisses were near, closer than rapid swooshes. Filling his quiver breaths, Jianyu barged and bolted the gold door, sprinting for the crimson pole next to the king-size bed. Lord Feng and Lady Muqin felt their son's cold rush and tried to nurse him.
"Oh, my sweet boy. You had a nightmare, Bo?"
"Something is coming. . ."
"Son? What is the meaning of this?" Lord Feng asked solemnly.
"Father. I am being watched."
"By whom?" His father flipped his bed sheet and stood beside his son.
From the gold shoji unlatched with rapid clicks, the door attempted to open, but the bar ceased from the arm's lock. Amidst the center sliced with a white slash, the shoji door opened freely, introducing a dark gray form swathed in wraps, a hood cover, and a mask. Standing eight inches tall, glaring with dark cherry eyes at the three nobles, was —
"A weasel?"
The assassin amplified her roaring squeaks, unsheathing her dao sword.
"BO!"
His father shouted as Prince Jianyu lunged at the front and parried the Weasel's curve hits, battering to the center. So small, experienced with agility, the assassin sliced the tip and the next, mounting on Shen's pole before leaping at the peacock; Lord Feng backslapped his wing and sent the Weasel on the counter, crashing into the bronze mirror.
"GUARDS!" Lord Feng thundered his outcry.
The assassin, tittering with high pitches, crawled down from the drawer and darted silver knives. "BO!" his mother screamed.
At least two silver knives marked and slit on Shen's stick legs, spitting his brief gash gores as the Prince grunted, staggering once he whipped his pole to the ground. "SON!" his father yelled, attempting to tackle the assassin, but the Weasel bounded above Feng's neck and entered his garment, biting his feathers.
"Feng!"
"Father!"
"BY THE GODS!" Lord Feng snapped his cry, rolling to crush the Weasel, who snickered wickedly. Caused Jianyu to rip his father's robe while seeing a slight movement behind; crawling from the center, crotches, and armpits, the assassin bitten Feng with severe clenches, and the Weasel emerged at Feng's chest, tackling the Prince on his throat.
"BO!"
Shen was launched backward on the bed, tumbling him to the side. Once felt the firm grip on his feather strands by the assassin's clench, the peacock glared at the Weasel; the silver dao nearly plunged his throat before the killer chirped, dazzling her maroon eyes. "The Lord of Qidan Clan sends his regards, BIRDIES!" Weasel screeched, heaving her dao before Shen's mother clenched him with her talon.
"Get away from my son, you horrid creature!" Lady Muqin hurled the assassin at the shoji door.
Penetrating through the door's shoji paper to shreds, squeaking her cry, Weasel succeeded in her backflip with her rough land, skidding her feet on the marble. "Father!" she spun her dao and saw Jianyu and Lady Muqin gather around Lord Feng, who was rasping in agony as his chest was marked with scraps and fractured feathers.
"HEY, STOP!" The peafowls saw a wolf merging from the crimson stairs and holding a dao sword, growling.
Weasel licked her sword, reeling her stance as she faced Zhong. "Doggy. . . Would you like to play?"
"Like there's no one ever told you before, Weasel. . . You mess with a family; you get fangs."
"Alrighty then! LET'S PLAY!"
And the assassin shut the shoji door, unveiling silhouettes of the Mustela and Lupus in the brawl. Intense screeches and howls stormed, and Zhong fell. "ZHONG!" Jianyu shouted.
"Help him!" his father croaked. "Seize that creature!"
The Prince reached for the bedroom door, pulling the knob bar. Whines from the shoji creaked before Shen could hear Weasel and Zhong wrestle on the floor, snarling and choking. He forced the door open but stopped within a small gap, unable to spread freely. "Hang on, brother! I'm coming!"
His brother's roaring cry, combined with tearing fleshes, became deafening. A loud thud slammed to the side, and a sharp blade plunged through the flesh, stopping the whine.
"NO!" Jianyu cried, kicking the door; twice in a row, he whirled his crimson pole, ripping the shoji paper apart. The Prince broke through as several gore slashes spread from both structures, and farther from his talons lay a stiff assassin, and the sharp piece of blade stabbed through the Weasel's center.
"Zhong!" Shen ran to his brother to the left, who leaned against the structure and held his trembling paws, sharpening his groan. "Brother, look at me!"
A storm of wolf guards rushed from the hall and witnessed the scene. "Physicians!" Shen hollered the guards.
"Mother of blessings. . . Private Zhong!" the high-rank soldier, a wolf in dawn scathe armor, rushed to the incident and inspected his soldier's wounds. "Help Lord Feng, corporals!"
"Yes, sir!" three wolf guards ran into the Royal Chamber and aided Shen's father, whose groans in agony were harsh.
"What. . . have. . . I. . . done . . .?" Zhong sobbed.
"Brother, it's okay. You are alright," Shen shed his tears, wrapping his wings around his wolf brother.
Lord Feng informed the commander of his details about the assassination attempt and heard words from the Weasel, one who worked with a Qidan Clan; the peafowls remembered the clan leader's son named Temutai, who almost drowned Shen under the Harbor. Determining this act of retaliation, Shen's father urged Emperor Huangse to seek justice and resolve this matter. After eight months of waiting to hear calamity news, the Qidan Clan members were sent away to the north of the Great Wall, several to Mongolia for banishment, and most of their leaders faced the death penalty in both prisons of Chorh-Gom and Jianyu.
With that common name Shen had from his birth, the second prison was named after one of the vulture wardens, who had his father's ancestor built the dungeon within the living dragon's mouth and constructed it into the suffering beast's belly, where no prisoners shall escape from the giant's hunger. A huge dragon, who slept and was buried beneath the mountain, was once called Jianyu, one of the spiritual dragons who soared among the universe with the red dragon before their children reigned in heaven long before their extinction.
What satisfied Prince Jianyu, as justice did serve, Temutai's father and three of his officials were devoured alive — a cruel death.
Around the Prince's twenty-first age, following the young wolf's approval ranks from corporal to sergeant, Zhong and Jianyu craved to be blood brothers, with one that shall look over the city under his parents' care with the Masters of Gongmen's guidance and the other guarding his family. One of Lord Feng's requests was to invite impala guards, those who needed more authority across several streets. Disapproving his father's approval, Lord Shen preferred his wolf brother's people; despite their vital strengths and thoughts, wolves became fearless.
Several months after Zhong's promotion, Lord Feng strolled onward to the courtyard, the horizon bathing in dusk crimson and yellow. His son had been walking with Zhong and their wolf guards, who stood in line with their crimson banners. Regarded his son's difficulties, he apologized to Lord Shen for shattering promises that Feng could have fun with him and more attention than giving hard work on crucial aspects and meetings for priorities. Upon arrival near the Tower's entry stairs, Shen saw his father smiling at him dearly.
The charcoal night murmured the sea's waves, and Lord Shen was in the Laboratory Room. He had been going to his father's Laboratory most of his hobby after his duty, craving to gather mixed powders before the gunpowder. With lists that he carefully scrutinized and collected tools, learning too well to his father's recommendations, Lord Shen grabbed the jar with mixes and tapped it harder on the round bowl. Despite the harsh ingredients with sudden reaction, the inferno swarmed its hissing puffs of smoke, raising silver and charcoal silks from the ash. Gazed with stupefaction, Lord Shen searched dancing lights of crimson and white within the smoke, and above the shrouds was the grim-like head of the peacock smirking at him.
"Beautiful," breathed Shen.
The son created enthusiasm, without knowing his parents were behind the Laboratory Door, who frightened each other.
The following month, now washed in velvet cobalt with the silver moon, Lord Shen dried himself with his towel, quivering his drenched train from the bathroom down the first floor near the garden. He was robed in his elegant silver silk robe, gifted by his Nana Soothsayer on his twentieth birthday. With his topic that he had nearly finished his gunpowder project for the next Chinese New Year's celebration, he owed answers to his father's questioning upon his parents' matters to discuss for his next opportunity with allied lords and ladies beyond close and farthest temples with Emperor Huangse's connections. Although most generations of his before him have remained loyal to late Emperors, his father predicted their Emperor's loyalty could grow even more for the next thousand years and the next dynasty.
Lord Shen and Commander Zhong invented the iron cannon, crafted with elegance as a gold dragon, and its flowing hanfu and mane bore its colossal mouth, clenching the metal barrel, and four yellow limbs with wheels. Traveled far to the outskirt, with the cannon's wheels moaning woods, the peacock and wolves transferred the artillery upon the apex hill, where the sunset sank its rotten orange. For the bird's prime purpose, Shen desired to enhance this city's defenses, in which he was aware of tyrants from the grounds and sails from the raging sea. The compass towers were meant for mid-range battles with archers, but discovering defensive improvements, Shen searched for destruction to weaken dictators' activities. Signaled by Lord Shen's nod, Commander Zhong held his torch and matched the cannon's rope trigger. HISSSSSSSSS.
BOOM!
The cannon shot across the northern sea, leaving fading red trail as the ball screeched crimson and white sparks. Repeated other attempts to trigger once more and send four angry red flashes beyond the sky. Watching the fireworks plummet into the beach waves, Zhong praised his brother's work, and Lord Shen shared him, cheering at each other with their wolves. "SPLENDID WORK!" the peacock emitted with bliss.
Opening the Sacred Flame's door upon his arrival, Lord Shen trekked on crimson stairs, the yellow lanterns reflecting on him once he passed on five floors. Through the seventh, as the peacock wished to speak more with his father dearly, granting his wish by his mother's promise, he searched for Lord Feng and Lady Muqin in his presence. Not as he would be worried about their absence, despite the responsibilities weighed on his shoulders to observe the city and solve every individual's issues.
And finally, reaching the eighth floor of honorable guest chambers, voices emerged, with small echoes from the Throne Room two floors above him. Lord Shen crept onward without allowing their attention, narrowing his vibrant train.
"This is an absurdity!" his father thundered his growl, which had his son's crests flicker upward, flooding his cold heart. "Our son is leading to his obsession with my blueprints and the fireworks!"
"Mind your tongue, Feng!" hissed his mother. "You'll draw maids a scene."
"This isn't happening. . . What I have done to Shen was my responsibility, my love. And I am the fault to blame for putting my son in my Laboratory!"
The new Lord of Gongmen hid behind a large column and surveyed the two parents and — the old Nana? As enough to begin overhearing this discussion within this Throne Room, the only office to speak after a meeting or a family to discuss, Shen craned his neck and heard their words.
"Mali," his mother called the goat in front as she planted her whole feathers against her heart with anxiety, standing aside her mate Lord Feng behind the throne chair. "Why is our son keep forging those cannons and these hazardous mixtures of fireworks? Feng and I attempted so hard to cease our son's welfare. Is that my son's passion we are grave?"
"My Lady, everything about Shen's interests, is what makes your son overbearing," Soothsayer Mali stated with care and alarm. "By other means, if this happens in the wrong hands from your son's passion, his weapons defending this city may not be defending the innocent people of China. I am afraid that Lord Shen shall need to cease his actions by what is doing for the right to the wrong reason."
"My son is among this matter than the city's issues, Soothsayer. He is becoming the main problem," Feng was humbled, stretching his whole neck long with grace and bitterness as Jianyu could see the goat bear her head, looking at his father's glare. "My grandfather taught my father, and the rest of Li Han's forefathers before me invented high spirits to deliver people's joy for centuries. Now, Jianyu, who I educated to create fireworks, has considered developing hazardous, claiming the way you mentioned that the city should have defenses under my son's supervision. That is not what I instructed him to be a warlord or a tyrant with legitimacy. Bo created these fucking gunpowder mixtures loading with his cannons!"
"Feng!" his wife snapped her cry.
"Muqin and I have never seen our son's schemes he had done, Mali," Feng held his wing on his head, forcing his query. "No matter how many more times we attempted to convince him not to forge his cannons, he rather focuses on fireworks than giving us the attention we deserve. How do we stop him?!"
The goat pressed her glasses forward on her muzzle. "While there's the only hope to change his course, my Lady and my Lord, his fate may unveil the impossible," Mali said, gesturing at the peahen. "Fetch me his garment, Lady Muqin."
Lady Muqin handed her son's old silver robe. "My Lord. Step closer to me."
"What for?"
Mali delivered her sudden grip under Feng's wing without delay and yanked his feather. "OW! Imbecile! Why did you—?"
"With your son's silk and your feather, my Lord and Lady, these samples will manifest your son's inevitable fate," the goat munched the back edge of Shen's old robe and tore the fabric like a flesh of paper ripping apart. Their son puffed his feathers once he glared at Mali, and Muqin intensified her gasp.
"Are you mad?" the peahen glowered at her with cold eyes. "That was my son's favorite garb; I gave it to him on his fifteenth birthday."
"Does he not wear his robe like he used to, my Lady?"
Their prolonged glances at each other from peafowls were beyond realization, but they admitted their son's growth no longer had him robe his garb. "No," Muqin answered.
"Then, these samples of his are my recommendation to foresee your son's destiny. This is the only way."
Placing Shen's samples in her bowl, Mali held a handful of silvery powder and tossed those on the feather and a piece of fabric. Specks of ocean flashes popped, smoldering with hissing blue smoke. The Throne Room, dazzling with crimson fire torches and yellow lanterns, dimmed to slight darkness, but the center was left with sparkling white smoke, swarming with grayish haze streams.
What do you see? Shen muttered, leaning his chest against the crimson column. Moonlight smoke settled its billowing mist, winding its shift as something emerged above the bowl and their heads. A caw from the smoke lessened, unveiling a white peacock in a silver robe, which broadened his train and wings amidst the starry.
From the bowl launched a silvery gust, shooting under the bird's train as the mist swept the form to dissipation, silencing the caw. The middle started to form a slow vortex, then faster than before, shifting its breeze to a screeching whirlpool. Before the peafowls' eyes emerged a scorching gold fog, and a new character spawned a hoop, cracking its distant thunder. A circle, Lord Shen gaped, drenching his head in horror, sketched white with a black dot and black with a white spot.
The Yin Yang.
"Excuse me!"
Shen snapped out his consciousness and gave his quick sinister glare at the intruder, who disturbed the peacock's presence. Further on from the Hollow's stairs was the goose Yao, in a gold robe with a dragon sigil. Dreaded in tremors, Yao stiffened his breaths, panting before he could see three silver feathers under Shen's sleeve. The goose squeaked. "Ah! Don't kill me!"
Shen's crests sank at once; his memories were somewhat returned, and his surroundings became more regular than being lost in his thoughts. For the last ten years in service with the Prince of Darkness, his leader with a lack of determination to send his trusted officials to travel and invite every criminal from China, Shen had recovered his memories, regained his strength from the fall, and practiced his Cai Li Fo to dance his flow of water. The peacock reflected his parents, who were fond of him the most, good and bad. Notwithstanding that he had witnessed this sign before his red-orange eyes in the Throne Room, he felt the ice in his heart before, and it haunted him again.
What was it? Shen deadened his mutter. During his mild dementia, recovering his wounds and bones from his leader's healing, Prince Huoju had him educated on the meaning of his fighting, and what caught the peacock's eye near the temple's sigil was the symbol of Yin and Yang, the white that holds darkness and the black that cloaks the light. Both together in one piece presented the balance of life. Something swept a peacock away, and that sign appeared. That thing is destined to do what?
"Lord Shen?" Yao pardoned him, still crouched at his height with a gold scroll. "By the Gods. . . You—?"
Are you alive? Yao spoke no further, lost his thoughts on the peacock who arched his brows with confusion. "Forgive me. I could not find Prince Huoju and Lady Mingling nearby but found you instead," the goose said.
Neglecting the Yin-Yang sign, Shen sheathed his feather knives and looked away, glancing at the billowing ashes and streaming embers ahead of him, with an army of marchers on foot striding their heavy steps.
"Did I interrupt your solitude, my Lord?" Yao asked him innocently.
"You insulted me, Yao," the peacock twirled his train.
"Spare me, my Lord! I did not come to startle you," the goose twitched his height again, wincing. "I have come here to send you my report from the Emperor. And this message is for Prince Huoju only."
"What report?"
The peacock's silver voice grated with hisses, surveying Yao's scroll before him. Regarding the goose, who was only a messenger without a threat, Lord Shen grabbed the Emperor's scroll with care when Yao's terror expression slowly faded, easing his posture. "It's the Emperor's confirmation of three classes now participating in the Tournament, Lord Shen."
The peacock opened the knot and unrolled the manuscript. Once Lord Shen had opened the report, Yao relieved his breaths. The orange script with gold reflection layers, the peacock scrutinized, showed the Yin-Yang sigil with tower mountains with twirling clouds and red strokes that left three classes the Emperor verified their names:
I. The Righteous Seven - Tai Chi
II. Masters of Jade Palace - Kung Fu
III. Fellowship of the Nine - Wing Chun / Kung Fu
"Good work," the peacock handed the scroll to Yao. "What of the Tournament's date?"
"The scroll is just the original verification but without a note for the date, your Grace," Yao explained. "Huangdi had forgotten to write it down before he published the second version in all of China."
Shen looked upon the messenger from his webbed feet to his head. "What is your name?" the peacock asked.
"Yao, my Lord."
"Tell me, Yao," the peacock began, tugging his wings in his voluminous sleeves. "What did the people of China say anything about the death of the warlord?"
"Which warlord, Lord Shen?"
Uncertain to regard one that was defeated, Shen added. "One who was like me."
The goose's beak trembled slightly, arching his brows while clasping the scroll close to his chest. "You don't remember anything, do you, my Lord?"
The peacock reflected his youth memories. "He was the Prince of Gongmen. His ambition was thriving with fulfillment and honesty, but the rest was washed away," Shen said. "There was the reason he accomplished something for the better. Something that brought people to madness, loathing the Prince."
"I only know what you mentioned was. . . the most fearsome warlord who wanted to claim his Tower in Gongmen City," Yao explained, stretching his neck with suspicion. "Are you absolutely sure you don't remember, my Lord?"
"What was he?"
"The Lord of Gongmen, sir," he reminded the peacock.
Yes.
Shen unsheathed a single gray blade from his right sleeve, gazing at himself upon the reflection of the feather's razor light. "Lord Shen. Pardon me, sir," Yao cleared his throat, standing before him. "If I could ask you something for answers. How? How did you—? I mean — Would you like to know how he died?"
"What killed him?"
"An unfortunate death, sir. No one deserved to die from the cannon crushing his soul."
For a moment, the peacock took his prolonged reflection on white foams that turned fire below Gongmen Harbor. He had a frightful vision before he glanced at the light from the void, followed by inferno foams. "Most officials I encountered before mentioned the peacock lord who had his traumatic life and was banished from home before he returned for revenge," Yao continued. "They say in the beginning, the Prince was a pure noble, achieved greatness indeed, but did terrible things."
"What terrible things?" Shen broadened his glare eyes at him, his regard becoming aware.
"I— I wish not to say that disturbing tragedy, my Lord. No one speaks about the village," Yao feared, seeing Shen draw his presence close to the goose in a menacing posture. Yao swallowed hard. "The Prince of Gongmen did his drastic action, which had silent those who could kill him and his family."
"Attempted assassination?" Shen rolled his head.
"I may be wrong, sir. But something to do with ending the Lord of Gongmen's reign."
The peacock's metal talons tapped and drummed, motioning to Yao's right side. "I assume that Lord of Gongmen wished not to be defeated but then ended himself from. . . suffering?"
"I say he ended his suffering, my Lord. He found peace in the end."
"Peace?" the peacock turned to him, strangely surprised.
"When there's death ahead of him, the Lord of Gongmen was no longer in pain, free from misery," Yao said.
Glancing down at his metal talons had him daydreamed about a crimson shoji wall where the candlelight was radiant, like stars. Behind the silhouette was the goat with broad horns, overgrowth downward. Before he could see the being in there, an elder voice blending with soft and caring echoed from his back, the same tone that was not hostile but a reminder to cease his abomination.
"Odd. . ." Shen crooned his languid tone, glancing at the dancing stream of embers swimming past by the platform. "There was one in a factory with me — a place filled with molten metal and harsh black smoke. Those words were spoken to me, and said, 'The cup you choose to fill has no bottom.'"
"Sage words. Someone who used to know Jianyu well, fonded too close to the boy who had no love from his parents. Listen, my Lord," Yao stood to the side with Shen. "I am not here for trouble. I am here to tell you that serving with the bad is horrible."
The peacock's sinister glare raised Yao's feathers, causing his spine to grow nippy. "My Master serves me well, Yao. Take your words out of it somewhere else."
"But why? Why are you serving with this — madman, Lord Shen?" the goose asked worriedly.
"To conquer Gongmen City. From Prince Huoju's words of wisdom and leadership, his voice becomes authentic," the peacock emitted his tone to solemnity and rigidness. "From his conception, he claims that I will succeed once again in conquering my home and never face destiny."
Good heavens.
"You have those memories from the late Lord of Gongmen, Lord Shen, but may I give you my advice?"
"No."
"Never trap yourself in the past. It discomforts you, opening your wounds. The only way to move on from that is by letting it go," Yao suggested. "Does it still hurt when you see your memories?"
The peacock's immediate sense of wolf howls and affrays in the fire stung his head again, irritating him.
It hurts. Shen massaged his head, blocking his depressed sight from the goose. "Was the Lord of Gongmen ever forgiven before facing his destiny?" Shen inquired him.
"I'm afraid not, sir. Forgiveness is — what can I say? — to lead the change. That I overheard the Dragon Warrior's words that he wished to change one thing that Po could have him for, for the brighter future," the goose mentioned, puffing his beak to disapproval. "I fear the bear was insane because the Lord of Gongmen cost lives he committed, and that warlord was lucky not to face his death penalty."
Shen neglected the goose's words rather than hearing which fates were worse to bear the misery — crushed by a cannon? Or a long-suffering behind the cell before execution? Neither deserved the Lord of Gongmen's fate; Yao told him so.
"Just one more question, my Lord, and I'll leave you be. Please?"
The peacock's grunt reduced. "Go on."
"There is a class I was mentioned from Emperor Huangdi's words. The Wing Chun class has nine students who are young and fearless, unlike the Masters of Jade Palace. Each of them has their incredible story before they united as one who defeated the whole army of bovines and boars in Hajin Province. And then there is one student; many people spread rumors that the boy looks familiar — he looks like you, but younger."
"A peacock?" repeated Shen, leveling his inquisitive tone. "Who looks like me?"
"Yes, my Lord," the goose bobbed his head.
Shen kept his eyes squinting, attempting to recall other memories that had impacted him before; none emerged in front, but embers were replaced by flashes of snow swirling in the heavens. Quivering his head from hallucination, Shen clenched his beak, glowering at the messenger. "Never heard of him," he groaned under his throat. "You should go, Yao. I shall hand that scroll to my Master."
Yao handed the scroll back to the peacock and hurried to the ebony platform, reflected velvet diamonds by the silver light above the mountain. "Lord Shen, I—"
"Swear to me," Shen sharpened his cold eyes. "Swear that you will not gossip to those you know, not even. . . the Emperor."
Croaking to slight baffles but deadened as the vulture screeched at him with her ebony wings above the air, Yao remained his beak shut, nodding to Shen. "My words are sealed, my Lord."
Yao began soaring about the smoke shrouds, leading through the silver light that bathed on him. Will this poor goose ever return to Prince Huoju and Lord Shen for crucial details from the Emperor, even where the buffalo could travel any distance? The peacock witnessed most of the soldiers who failed in front of his Master, and Huoju showed them no mercy, scorching the rest of their remains rather than vanquishing their chi. "Min, you know what you must do," Lord Shen beckoned his head to the vulture.
"With pleasure," tittered Min.
The vulture's wings beating in the breeze were vibrant, shattering ember clouds as Min flew onward to the light, following Yao before they appeared no more. Quiet, at last, hearing the ambiance of armies marching under him, lava flows popping in the distance. For a moment, the peacock recalled the messenger's words that quite itched him momentarily. Regarding the name of the Dragon Warrior, Shen wished to know more about him.
Who is Po?
"My Lord Shen," the peacock turned and introduced the badger within the column stairs. "Prince Huoju and Lady Mingling are here, requesting your presence."
Mounting on the Hollow Platform's balcony railing, Shen broadened his wings before observing the mountain's gateway, which summoned its stream of ice-silver light, inviting ants of shadows and soldiers. Inhaling before the fall, the peacock sprang and soared down, along with intense winds that flapped his robe and vibrant train. Gliding farther down, squinting his eyes against the harsh breezes in front, Shen began to angle his body forward and tug his wings to his sides, increasing velocity. By the time he nearly arrived, sighting the Prince of Darkness who strolled with Lady Mingling on the igneous platform, the peacock pivoted his body upward with his quick flow, stopping his flight as the observers glanced and stepped away from him. Landing on the platform with the bird's vibrant train, walking with his metal talons brought the bovine's smile upon his comrade.
"Auh. My dear Shen," Huoju chuckled with his deep, charcoal grunts. "I find your solitude worth timing?"
"Indeed. Master Huoju. I brought good news," the peacock handed the gold-orange scroll to Huoju. "Yao delivered his message to me, and this scroll is yours."
Huoju opened the Emperor's scroll and read when the black bear Mingling exchanged her enchanting sight at Shen. Her grin, stretching to one side, made the peacock remain his pose from quivering.
"Wonderful," the bovine grinned but faded his smile after discovering the missing date. "It appears Yao has something missing here."
"Yao worded to me that Emperor Huangdi had forgotten to write the date on the scroll, Master. Such a disappointment," Shen shook his head. "The messenger will return to the Emperor's officials to discover the Tournament's date."
"Good. And I brought worthy warriors from the Spirit Realm."
The peacock gazed at unfamiliar subjects in flowing robes and sleeveless but invited with reptiles and familiar warriors, Shen recognized: Great Gorilla, porcupines, and Crocodile Sergeant. Most who were banished, plenty perished, appeared in dark gray and black blotches, those who challenged the Prince of Darkness but submitted to join his side.
"Lord Shen. I like for you to introduce our new companion in my Throne Platform. This warrior, who has a bitter history in China, compares to your ambition, but to restore his title once he wishes to reclaim what belongs to him from the temple. You will meet him soon before we ride to Chorh-Gom Prison and free Wu Sisters."
"Brilliant."
"Prince Huoju, Lord Shen, and Lady Mingling," three warlords exchanged glances with the crocodile bandit in a brown velvet scathe with a fire sigil. The reptile bowed to warlords with haste, silencing his harsh breaths from running from the front gate. "More guests from China are here. And the clan leader is very pleased to see you in person!"
Prince Huoju reverberated his charcoal-rich drones. "Who is the clan leader, Zhen?"
Giant steps from the igneous platform rumbled, approaching closer to a threatening presence. Most soldiers and visitors cleared their path for the guest as Shen took his long glare at sight from the mountain's gate. Sensing close once the invited visitor intensified these haunting, hysterical laughs, Shen filled his lungs with shock. He stared at the giant water buffalo in a red sleeveless top and brown trousers who bent his knee before the Prince of Darkness.
Gods! You cannot be. . .
"At your service, Prince Huoju!" Temutai honored the leader.
