Okay, I'm officially changing my ideal chapter release timeframe to very 2-3 months. I just did not have time to read through it and I kept finding mistakes with it, and I have been struggling with a choice of different titles. I wanted it to be perfect, for reasons you will see now. Enjoy!

Chapter 3: The Peacock and the Prophecy

Far away from the hidden panda village, stood a grand city named Tianzhu City. In the centre of this city is where the ginormous, wide-spreading royal palace stood proudly. Surrounded by a great amount of space that was filled with intricate gardens, garden rooms and buildings, and was surrounded by an imposing fortified wall, which was heavily guarded. Inside was just as elaborate as the outside, full of many over the top rooms and full of luxuries that only the elite could afford to own.

Unfortunately for the majority of the city's population, the rest of city was in major disrepair. Housing was especially a main problem in the city. For starters, there were not enough of them. The royal family had recently and unnecessarily expanded their already large enough palace and its gardens outwards, causing the destruction of many valuable homes, that were not replaced with new ones. This caused a lot of homelessness and created many beggars on the streets, including entire families. Any properties that were still remaining were crammed together, badly run down and could be considered inhabitable, barely holding together. It was not uncommon for those living there to use whatever buckets, pots and pans they had at their disposal during rainy seasons. Although nearly every house or building in this city was in poor condition, they were not cheap to live in and many large families were forced to cram together, just so they had some semblance of a roof over their heads.

The majority of citizens that resided in the city were poor and barely had enough food to eat as a result, and any food that could be gotten a hold of was usually rotting or rotten anyway. Many also struggled with their health, as healthcare and medicines were unnecessarily expensive. In total, the citizens here were unhappy, unhealthy and miserable, but they could not afford to leave and the try to find other cities or valleys to live in, as many struggled to save the money to do so.

Those who did were often robbed by the many bandits and thieves that had sought sanctuary in the city over the last two years, due to a crackdown on crime across China. Many bandits, criminal clans and groups of thieves were welcomed in the city and offered protection, in exchange for working for the royal family when called upon. With no better options, many criminals accepted and had full reign to steal to their hearts content. As long as a share went to the royal family, of course.

The royal family that ruled over this impoverished city consisted of two peafowl rulers, one of which was a peacock known as Mencius. His whole body had completely dark midnight blue feathers, with white eye spots on his tail feathers and a similar white pattern on his crest that stood contrast to his dark blue feathers. The only bright colours to his physical appearance were his eyes, which were a bright cerulean blue. This royal peacock was dressed in an elaborate royal purple silk robe, which was decorated with a distinctive silver pattern and held together with a black belt.

His wife and co-ruler was a peahen named Mèng Fang. Her feathers were a simple and plain grey, except for her eyespots on her tail feathers and the pattern on her crest, which were a mixture of bold red and violet purple, the purple matching the colour of her eyes. She also dressed in purple, alongside red and black. She wore these colours in a hanfu style robe with a black upper garment loose sleeve robes, and a red long dress that had a rich purple floral design on the dress. The dress was tied with a long plain purple thin sash belt, and the dress also had a slit in the back for her numerous tail feathers.

They had both together ruled for nearly twenty years, and while their citizens were left starving in poverty, they revelled in the luxuries and power that came with their reign over the city. A city they were never destined to rule over.

For starters, Mèng Fang was not of royal blood. She was born into a peasant peafowl family who were content with a simple life. Where they had enough food on the table and a roof over their heads, but Mèng Fang was ambitious, driven and thirsty for power. She left her family as soon as she could and planned to integrate herself into the royal court and family of Tianzhu City. She thought if she could win the heart of the eldest son of the royal family, and next in line to the throne, she could one day rule by his side. Unfortunately upon their first meeting, Mencius did not have any interest in her and cruelly rejected her in public, deeply humiliating her. This only spurred her desire to gain power and have her revenge, especially on Mencius.

As luck would have it, help would soon come from an unlikely source. You see, the Mencius who now ruled Tianzhu City was not the Mencius everyone thought he was. The Mencius that Mèng Fang would later take to be her husband was born under the name of Shilin; the identical twin brother, hatched only a few minutes after his brother and making him second in line.

Unlike his older brother, Shilin was immediately smitten by the young

peahen maiden and attempted to win her heart. Initially, Mèng Fang had no interest in the younger brother, but after spending time with him, she learnt that his ambitious, calculating mind and power hungry nature matched her own. It allured her, and the two soon fell in love, to Mèng Fang's surprise. She had never thought that she would have fallen in love for real, and yet she did. Shilin felt the exact way and the two desired to marry each other, not long after their initial first meeting.

After learning of these desires, Shilin parents refused to accept Mèng Fang into the family, as she was not of pure royal blood. For Mèng Fang, it seemed like a chance at the throne would forever be out of her reach. However, after the unexpected and premature deaths of two rulers, this left the throne to the real Mencius, who also disapproved of the match, claiming his brother should not marry someone he had just met.

That is when the two lovers came up with a devious plan.

For you see, the two peacock brothers looked so completely identical, that no one could tell the two brothers apart, except for their different clothing, personalities and interests.

Because of this, the two lovers murdered the real Mencius and Shilin took the identity of his murdered brother, and faked his own exile from the city. The murderous peacock then pretended to be his brother by posing and acting like him, he was so convincing that nearly everyone could not tell the difference.

As soon as he was officially announced as ruler of the city, he took Mèng Fang as his wife, and she became a ruler by his side. That was when Shilin could truly act like his true self, instead of pretending to be his brother. Although many suspected the deception, no one would dare to speak their thoughts out loud. No one could prove for certain it was Shilin and not Mencius who now wears the crown, and those who dared to speak out were quickly silenced.

For the first time in their lives the peacock and peahen were truly happy. They both had the power they craved, and Shilin or Mencius as he became, had taken his deserved place on the throne that had been denied to him for so long.

But their happiness would not last forever.

Five years into their reign, the peacock ruler began to have continuous troubling dreams, that he did not understand. The two rulers send for a soothsayer from Gongmen City soon afterwards, and she told them a prophecy that foretold their downfall. After hearing this prophecy, they did everything they could to prevent the loss of their power, taking drastic measures to ensure the prophecy would not come to pass. They both thought they had done enough to escape their fate, but then the peacock ruler had the same dreams haunting him again, after nearly fifteen years of peace from them. That was when he suspected that he and his wife were still not free from that prophecy, that still hung over them like a dangling sword.

Right now, the two peafowl rulers were sat in their elaborate throne room, in the middle of the night, on a extravagant double seated throne that was shaped to look like opened peacock tail feathers. They were eagerly awaiting news from one of their guards, in regards to the information they had requested from their new 'guest' of theirs from Gongmen City. Also present in the throne room was a Tundra swan serving girl and an assortment of guards; some were pangolins that were stationed on the left side of the room and some were Komodo dragons and they were stationed on the right.

The throne room itself, was was a long and narrow room, with many pillars made from black and white jade, in a continuous pattern of black and white. Shilin's ancestors had purposefully designed the throne room with the jade pillars representing the colours of yin and yang, not that he or his wife cared. Still, white and black jade was valuable and showed off their wealth, so they kept the design of the throne room untouched, except for materialistic luxuries, such as the the finest silk tapestries that were lined around the throne room.

The royal family emblem was also carved onto the white marble floor, which looked liked swirling peafowl feathers with nine peafowl eyes that made a full circle. It's was a symbol of longevity, eternality and immortality of the royal family, that would continue to rule over the city for the rest of time. The two rulers liked to show off this symbol to show others and secretly themselves, that their rule and power will be present for all eternity. Mèng Fang in particular liked to have this emblem dispersed and displayed frequently around the palace, as it acted as a reminder of how far she had come and how she broke free from her parents miserable existence to gain a good life for herself.

All of a sudden, a pangolin guard rushed into the room and hurried over to the two royals on their throne. As soon as Shilin saw the guard, he turned away from his wife, who he had been conversing with and straightened up in his throne.

"Well? Has there been any change?"

The pangolin guard shook his head solemnly. "The soothsayer keeps repeating the same thing. Over and over again, that nothing has changed."

At hearing this news, Shilin could not keep his calm anymore and the anger and frustration, which had been gradually building as they had been waiting for news, caused him to explode in rage. His anger intimated the guards and serving girl present in the throne room. His wife on the other hand, remained calm and cold to what was happening in front of her.

"Impossible!" Shilin roared. "There is no way that the prophecy can come true, we saw to that years ago!"

In reaction to Shilin anger, the pangolin guard causiouly took a few paces backwards and the swan serving girl silently slipped herself away to hide behind one of the white jade pillars. His wife was the only one not to be intimidated by his anger. Instead of pulling away from him in fear, she approached him and placed her soft wing on his cheek.

"There is in simple solution, my dear husband." She said soothingly to her husband, stoking his face to calm his rage. "We just need to…

Mèng Fang then leaned over to her husband and whispered something into his ear. None of the guards or the serving girl could not hear what she was saying and they were all curiously trying to catch parts of what Mèng Fang was telling her husband. Once she was done, Mèng Fang returned to her side of the throne. Her husband looked at his wife with a look full of admiration and soon a loving smile appeared on his face.

"I am so fortunate to have fallen for someone as smart and ruthless as you, my love." Shilin said lovingly to his wife, taking her wing and kissing it.

He then pulled himself away from her and turned back towards the pangolin guard in front them, his face once again becoming serious.

"Go get the heads of every low life bandit and thieves clan in this city, and bring them all here at once!"

"Yes sir!" The guard responded, bowing at the same time, and leaving shortly afterwards.

"Girl!" Shilin barked at the serving girl. "Go get me…"

The peacock had turned around to face the swan serving girl, but was surprised to find her missing from her usual position. Noticing his confusion, his wife gently got his attention and gestured towards the pillar the girl swan was currently hiding behind. This cowardice and disrespectful action infuriated the male ruler, but he was desperately trying to keep his calm.

"If you have finished playing hide and seek girl; I require scrolls and ink." Shilin ordered, sternly.

"Yes, my lord." She squeaked, emerging from behind the pillar she was hiding behind, and rapidly rushed off to get what her master needed.

Upon her return, the two peafowl quickly got to work, writing their orders on the scrolls provided for them. They had just finished when the heads of the different bandit and thieving clans arrived. A variety of different creatures entered the room, following one of the guards who lead the succession of criminals towards the throne and the two rulers. When they all got close enough, they all lined up in front of the two rulers sitting on their throne and all bowed respectfully, before straightening back up and strictly standing with a rigid posture. After they all had finished their bowing, Shilin addressed them.

"Here are your orders." The peacock ruler said, an a air of superiority in his vocal tone and body language as he spoke.

He indicated with his wing towards a pile of scrolls that the swan serving girl was currently holding, desperately trying not to drop them all onto the floor. She would be severely punished if she did.

"Tell your followers to execute these orders exactly as is written on the scroll."

The swan serving girl soon began distributing the scrolls to each of the leaders. Most of the heads took the scrolls without showing any thanks to the serving girl, except for two of the heads. One was the female middle aged cinereous vulture with light brown feathers. She gave a stern, but respectful nod of thanks to the girl, and also discreetly slipped a sweet into her wing. Similarly, a younger male grey wolf, who was the alpha of a pack of wolf thieves, gave her a quick wink after slipping her a few coins that he had acquired during the day, from one of the other heads that he deeply despised.

Once all the scrolls had been delivered, each head opened their scrolls and began to read their orders. While most of the heads were not bothered or concerned with what they were being asked to do, two of the heads did not agree with the orders in front of them.

"Your majesties, having my sons retrieve the old goat for you was one thing, but I refuse to kidnap children." Said the female cinereous vulture, defiantly.

"I second, Madame Song." Said the male wolf, that had slipped the serving girl some coins earlier. "My pack are thieves, not kidnappers. Stealing money and possessions is one thing, ripping families apart is another."

At these acts of defiance, Shilin's rage threatened to erupt again, if his wife had not placed her wing on his shoulder and signalled that she would deal with the situation delicately.

"You're not in a position to bargain, Madame Song." Mèng Fang stated to the head vulture. "Remember that your flock requires our protection. Especially after what happened to your husband."

Madame Song's face and body language remained stern at the mention of her late husband, but the sorrow was visibly present in her eyes.

"As for you, Jiahao." Mèng Fang said, turning her attention to the male grey wolf, "Don't forget you have a pack to protect. After all, it would be a shame if anything were to happen to your pack, brother or mate. Then of course there is your only son…"

"Don't you dare threaten my pack or my family!" Jiahao growled threateningly, interrupting the female peahen.

All the guards present in the throne room prepared themselves to attack the wolf threatening the royal peahen, but Mèng Fang raised her wing to prevent them from doing so, for now at least.

"Then you had best follow our orders, don't you agree, Jiahao?"

It was in that moment that Jiahao wanted to bound over to her and bite down hard on her neck. Knowing that things could escalate quickly, Madame Song placed a wing on the wolf's shoulder, as both a way to calm and warn the wolf. Gradually, the grey wolf straightened himself up and returned to his previous position, but his face held a scowl towards the royal family.

"Good, now that that business is sorted, you may all go and rally your troops." Mèng Fang demanded. "I want you all gone by first light."

The heads all bowed again in respect, although some of them did so reluctantly, and soon they all started to disband and leave the throne room. As soon as the heads had left, the same pangolin guard who had gave them the bad news before, once again cautiously approached the two rulers.

"My lord and lady, what of the soothsayer?" Asked the guard.

Mèng Fang paused for a moment, pondering her answer, until at last she gave her decision.

"We will keep the soothsayer imprisoned in our dungeons, until our fates have changed. With the right incentive, she may see the future a little differently."

"Yes, my lady!"

The pangolin guard bowed one last time and swiftly exited the room.

Mèng Fang glanced over at her husband to see if he had calmed down. She found her husband deep in thought, a frown of concentration on his face, his wing on his chin as he thought. Yet, she could see in his eyes that he was worried. It was her husband who kept having the dreams of impending doom and despair, and the lack of sleep he was getting due to his disruptive dreams was not doing him any good. He needed her comfort, but she knew he would not feel comfortable receiving it with a audience present. She turned away from her husband and looked in the direction of the guards, that were all still stationed either side of the room.

"Guards, leave us! All of you!"

As soon as she gave her orders, all the guards bowed and started to march out of the the throne room, with the pangolins filing out on the left side, and the Komodo dragons filing out on the right. The guards left in twos through the doorway, and soon all the guards had exited the throne room. This left only the timid swan serving girl, who could not leave until her lord or lady gave her the command to.

"Girl, you may leave."

The swan serving girl was soon gone in an instant, leaving the two rulers truly alone at last. Now she was alone, the peahen shuffled herself closer to her husband and snuggled into him, startling her husband out of his troubled thoughts.

"Do not worry, my love." She said soothingly, as she caressed his cheek with her wing. "We will soon be free of this prophecy, and then all of China we will be ours for the taking."

The peacock gave a grateful smile, placed his wing around his wife and pulled her in close to him. This embrace was comforting for both of them. In that moment Shilin knew his wife was right, as usual. Once they had taken care of the prophecy and as soon as he had perfected his new project, the whole of China would be theirs to rule over.

Have to admit, this was one one my favourite chapters to write, as you are finally introduced to the main villains of my story. I was thinking that as all the other kung fu panda movies had one main villain, why not have two for a change. If you are wondering why I chose a peacock and peahen as the main villains and not a different animal, I always thought of a peacock and peahen as the villains and hopefully you will all like the direction I am headed, as the story progresses.

So, chapter 4 is only half way through and I haven't started chapter 5 yet, so there will be delays on upcoming chapters, and your patience is very much appreciated.

Please leave a review if you feel any improvements need making and thank you all for reading my story.