Volume Four: Snow and Fire
Chapter X
Where the Winds Blow
Hope regained in Li as if the dragons answered the panda's prayers, hoping for him to see his son once again. He had prayed to them for nineteen years. Nineteen. He was at the age when he left home and met the love of his life. The life of being a Shan, living from the mountains, was the inception of his life as if his ancestors were the monk defenders and healers. He never knew them, but all the pandas did was stick to themselves as farmers rather than being discovered — all their historical ancestors omitted.
"You saw him?" Mei Mei asked Li, gaping with high hopes. "Your son?"
"I saw him with my own eyes, Mei Mei," Li answered, gripping his torso when he sat down on the flat boulder. The pandas were in front of him, listening. "I mean, he has my eyes. And I know Little Lotus is out there somewhere."
"But how?" Grandma Panda asked, pressing her cane.
"A voice spoke to me, Grandma Panda. I saw no one, but I felt someone close to me."
"Was it a dragon?" the girl, Lei Lei, asked, holding her mother's paw next to Grandma Panda.
"Something. . . showed me where my son lives, living in peace. Living far," Li Shan said, arching his brows. He looked up to the heavens and the ice peaks in between. "A message from the Universe is guiding me to him."
The horde of panda villagers gasped in awe, exchanging their glances.
"Listen, everyone!" Li uttered. "My prayers to the dragons had answered, and there is hope. Wherever my son is, I must find Little Lotus and bring him home."
"What about Boqin and the volunteers, Li?" one of the panda villagers asked, and several agreed with his query. "They hiked and haven't come back ever since then. They would never abandon us; Boqin told you last time that he and the rest would return. Are there any messages from them by any chance, Li?"
"There are no new messages from them, as far as I am aware of, Qin," Li was concerned. "Their last message was received three years ago. Boqin wrote a letter to me that he and his volunteers led into the forest. They only went there to avoid big roads from Shen's forces."
"You think they were captured?" another villager amidst the gathering asked.
"I don't know," Li was uncertain. "While Shen remains conquering the eastern land with his army of wolves, I will find my son."
"But do you know where Little Lotus is, Li?"
"No, but I will find him with my heart," Li answered.
"You can't go!" Mei Mei stepped forward. "What if those wolves who work for Shen will find you? They can be anywhere but here."
"I am worried about that," Grandma Panda said. "This village is our last resort, Li. Don't throw away your life for the dragons' sake."
"I will not, Grandma," Li swore. "Even if they capture me, I would rather die than spitting out beans to those criminals."
"Everybody. Who is that over there?"
One of the observers thundered, and many pandas looked beyond the archway entrance before the bamboo hoist. Stirred close from the mist stream showed the bear silhouette struggling on the rocky soil, the paw stretching wide, the voice purring while moaning. One of the villagers in a sleeveless green qipao and a flat conical hat moved closer with caution.
The silhouette, emerging from the streaming mist, was —
"YU MING! By the Gods!" the villager wailed and stormed to the tired panda.
Yu Ming was in her sleeveless pink qipao, drenched with wrinkles and shreds, her feet muddy, her eyes tearing. The two clutched their arms in one piece when sobbing; three physicians storming beside the horde caught up to Yu Ming, who almost collapsed in front of her sister. On Yu Ming's paw fell a rolled parchment in yellow.
"Yu Ming! What happened? Talk to me!"
Her sister asked as she held her tired arm around her back before the physicians came and carried her with the stretcher. "I. . . got lost," Yu Ming winced. The first doctor inspected her arm injury, filled lacerations with slashes, and under her torso from behind. "The woods. . . They. . . they—"
"Take it easy, Yu Ming," the second doctor calmed her. The villagers drew near and gave them space. "Get the door open!"
The third doctor dashed to the nearest cottage. When the physicians entered, the child near the archway, Bao, opened the parchment. "What is that, boy?" said the farmer in baggy trousers with a conical hat.
The boy handed it to him just as a few villagers gathered and inspected the farmer reading the parchment. Li, Grandma Panda, and Mei Mei approached from the horde. Mutters from the people mixed with dread and anxiety. But what came next as soon as the breeze from the nippy ridges fiddled their clothing, muttering in their ears, the farmer heightened his gasp.
"LI! GUYS! EVERYBODY!" the farmer shouted with joy. "You all are not gonna believe this! By the Gods!"
"What is it, Dim?" his twin brother Sum asked.
"GREAT NEWS, BROTHER! GREAT NEWS!" Dim mounted himself to the closest boulder and surveyed the confused pandas, who waited for his answers. Li Shan watched his twin nephew throw his fist when jumping. "WHOOOO! The army of wolves is defeated! LORD SHEN IS DEAD!"
Mutters and gasps lifted.
"What? Is it true?!" Sum looked at the scroll once again, and so did many.
"IT'S OVER! LORD SHEN IS DEAD!"
Pandas went from joyful cheers to overjoy, several hugging their loved ones and their children. Grandma Panda found herself in relief as justice was served. Mei Mei had filled her spiritual bliss; her fear was initially overwhelmed when her parents discovered Shen's story, which had her trembling for annuals. But now, fear had drowned in the deep after the peacock's death; thank the Gods and the dragons for hope and blessing.
As for Li, relief was in his heart and mind, but his darker thoughts of wanting to kill Shen with his own hands surged.
Three Days After Lord Shen's Fall
The night drew a thousand webs of dazzling stars, lanterns, and pendants glowing on ropes on one corner and the next towards cottage house roofs swung by the calm wind. Across the ridge platform, pandas drank their rice, devoured handfuls of dumplings, and cheered one another. Laughs thundered as if the tyrant who slaughtered panda villagers was officially dead. Those who survived the catastrophic event made their relief and had music to their ears. Many wished for the Lord of Gongmen ruler to suffer. And they were confident that they reckoned to hear what Lord Shen's cannon crushed him to death. Freak accident, but those in all of China regarded him as he preferred not to surrender. Rather than staying dead and breathing behind the cell, or otherwise, the punishment would have led to a prison of high treason to torment Shen to death either way.
Most of the drunk pandas shouting joy drank more rice ravenously, some of the others sipping when meeting their cups. "CHEERS!" Dim and Sum gave others countless rounds, and most around them laughed with glee. "GIVE IT A GO, MEI MEI!"
Amidst the platform, the ribbon dancer motioned her sidesteps when unfolding her fan ahead of her muzzle, rounding her stick with a crimson sash. Panda musicians toning their notes blew air within dizi sticks, their fingers tapping and fiddling strings on pipas and guzheng. Across the platform, the old pandas stepped in and grasped their paws together, dancing.
"This is the best day of my life!" a small villager hailed, holding his mug of rice.
"Aren't we all!" his neighbor in a sleeveless top and brown trousers simpered, laughing.
Li Shan smiled at his people and crossed the path next to the pandas. He was in his green vest coat with plush edges and baggy trousers; he held two mugs as he found Grandma Panda at the nearest cottage, in front of the horde of glee bears. Li Shan noticed she would not give a damn about her condition, but regarding this celebration day, Grandma would drink instead of shed her joy and tears. She was too old to cheer; nevertheless, great news made her smile, healing her heart.
"Come on, Bao! Show us your skill!"
Close to both pandas were the children of five, their guide teacher close to them. Gathered around, the boys and girls watched Bao hop his feet, his knees sending his toy with feathers in the air. Kneeing one and the other, the boy changed his combination course by hitting the toy with the sides of his ankles.
"Whoa! You got it, Bao!" one of the pandas in his yellow trousers and sleeveless patched tops of red and lime green praised him.
"Finally!" another was in a red top and dark crimson trousers surprised.
Li could see the other in her aqua tops with colorful pins (the medals and pendants) and light blue pants. The girl, who had a downcast figure, broke her smile once she saw her friend performing his toy tricks with his knee and ankle combos. Sipping his rice, Li Shan turned the villagers into tears; they restored happiness as if he regarded how long the people wished for the tyrant to be either captured or destroyed once and for all. Li Shan imagined the rest wanted pleasure by bringing every panda to confront Shen and punish him. With the peacock being dead now, it was enough for all the survivors and the victims.
Li Shan held his cup high and gestured his mug to Mei Mei, who had finished twirling her poses, her voluminous sash drooping on her crown. She simpered to him back. cup
The celebration party persisted, and Li Shan mounted the platform and surveyed the villagers. "Everyone! Gather around!"
The cheers and the giggles deadened, the breeze dominating its mutters. "The news has been great," Li uttered. His sense wore off with a wave of drunkness as his limbs wobbled a little. He shook his head with chuckles. "Don't mind me, folks. I'm just warming up my dancing."
Villagers lightened their laughs.
"Anyway. Many of us prayed to the spirits that we deserved justice. For nineteen years, everyone. We had waited for Lord Shen to bring him to justice. But guess what?"
"He killed himself!" one villager exclaimed, and observers roared their whistles and cheers, clapping.
"That's right, Jin," he agreed, blanketing his vengeful thought. "He's finally dead. We should be grateful to be alive; Shen is now gone for good." Li Shan displayed the parchment that the victim dropped earlier. "As for the news officially announced, we are not the only ones who have been the Lord of Gongmen's victims. Thousands feared him, and now, all of us can stand up to our feet once more."
"How is Yu Ming, Li?" another panda in her dark blue hanfu asked next to Mei Mei.
"She is resting well, my dear. Yu Ming will be in fast recovery as our doctors are aiding her," Li answered.
"Who are the Dragon Warrior and Furious Five, Li?" his twin nephew, Sum, beside his twin brother, wished to know. The parchment had no posters of the well-known fighters.
"We do not know who they are. The poster says they are the kung fu masters from the Jade Palace. The warriors entered Gongmen City and stopped Lord Shen's reign of terror," Li elaborated.
The panda leader stroked his chin, reflecting on the moments of seeing the other with green eyes ahead of him. "Now that we have celebrated Lord Shen's death, sending his soul to torment to hell, I want for all of us. . . to think about our people who had lost. Our people who were murdered. Our people who wanted to hear great news from us. We should give our ancestors, the late, and the victims that there will be no more pain to live on forever. As much as I wanted revenge, as many of you had, there is no need anymore because our enemy finished breathing, drowned under the depths. Our good friend mentioned that vengeance will not bring our loved ones back. Even then, Shen is gone now; we must look forward to our bright future.
"We can mend our wounds. We can rebuild better," Li kept looking at the spectators, the weight of his heart and eyes dragging inside when thinking of his own. "Remember the names of our people, your loved ones. Hold your cups up, everyone. And name the lost and the missing."
Every panda villager did, but their children listened as they held around their parents. "To my wife Xiuying, my son Little Lotus, and our friend Boqin," he named the three he cared about. All the bears shared the list of those who were gone. Mei Mei grieved for her missing parents, and Grandma Panda for her late neighbor. After the names, the villagers drank their rice.
"A new day will heal ahead of us, everyone. Head to your homes and start praying to our ancestors and loved ones," Li said. "Let our pain go."
The summit's mist cloaked the village when Li Shan lit candles at the counter, illuminating the pictures of Little Lotus, Xiuying, and Boqin. His neighbor was in his sleeveless long coat with patches and puff edges, grasping the bamboo pole with a silver meteor. What was strange to see Boqin had a staff with him: the story itself had carried for generations before the previous owner gave it to pandas. Boqin mentioned to Li Shan that the meteor, fragmented from the falling star, could shine in dark places. As a small boy, alone in the bamboo forest around twilight without the moonlight, Boqin saw the eyes of yellow encroaching and slithering in the shadows, stalking him. He found a hidden cave to remain hiding; at once, the eyes approached closer and closer, and the meteor itself glittered and flashed their sights, warding them off.
Li Shan remembered the staff saving Boqin's life, guiding him to his home. Boqin's father said that the meteor chose a soul with a good heart.
Seeing the picture of his own family brought tears to his eyes, knowing one of the days would for Li to search for his son, alive somewhere in all of China. The start of his journey was ahead of him, and by the time Shen was out for good, Li could now travel anywhere safely on big roads; his anticipation, however, gave him slight concerns about bandits and thieves who lingered across the streets and the nearest towns.
Giving his deep meditation, Li Shan was in his old cottage, washing the bowl, sighting Xiuying and their hundred-day-old infant son outside. The painter, their panda neighbor, scribbled the brush on the parchment while surveying the cub in Xiuying's arms. Little Lotus rounded and wrestled his body, which Xiuying could not hold him still, but the painter caught his smile right before Little Lotus wriggled and clutched his mother's flabby arms. Good times, Li thought. Before the pandemonium incident, they had numerous paintings of young Li and Xiuying with their parents and only seventeen painted pictures from Xiuying's pregnancy to the latest one. He had all those until the night scorched their whole cottage, and only one painting survived ever since.
What simpered him and giggled Li, he and Xiuying were distracted in the living room when Grandma Panda called them from the front patio, wishing for the couples to choose which flowers they like for her to plant in her garden. Grandma Panda preferred to have lily flowers, lucky bamboo, and pink orchids from them, thanking the couple. Their son cooed and grasped something crushed from a paper; Grandma Panda gasped and pointed at Little Lotus, and Li Shan and Xiuying saw him chewing the painting.
"Whoa!" Xiuying stopped her baby from eating it. Only the corner of the painting was a bit, and Li Shan let out his intense chuckles.
"Our boy must be very hungry!" Li Shan determined.
"No kidding," Grandma Panda commented.
Xiuying, carrying her son in her arms, inspected the parchment painting, nearly half soaked in saliva. "Oh, well. It's only a painting," Xiuying beamed, kissing the baby when tittering. "How would you like some radishes, Little Lotus?"
The infant cooed and beamed. "Mmmma."
"That's a boy!" she thrilled, encouraging him.
Around the day before the catastrophe invited the wind, carrying the kites of the diamond red and strings. From behind the hilly ridges of rice vineyards, Li Shan held a box of radishes and a graze pole when the two kids scurried with the lines, and Xiuying waved at her son; they beamed when Little Lotus came out of their house, crawling on fours as the infant watched the sky with glee, grasping his panda doll.
I will find you, my son. Daddy will bring you home for your mother.
Waking from meditation, Li Shan, unaware of the cold presence, blessed his portrait. Blowing the candle to a soft darkness, the panda reached for his cover before the wooden door tapped thrice. As far as he comprehended the terms of his, Li Shan had visitors, his nephews sometimes to meet their uncle, and he allowed to bring one in for his company. But late at night? Unless it matter was critical.
"Li. It's Grandma. May I come in?"
Li Shan would not mind how late this evening was, but Grandma Panda was still the alpha of the pandas; despite being a leader, Li Shan was her right hand and was in charge after Boqin. Nearly reaching for the door, his feet strangely met the warm, and the sense of grass brushed, but there was no soil.
Did I walk into something earlier? Maybe on wet grass with dirt?
Neglecting the previous thought, he opened the door, and Grandma Panda was nowhere to be seen.
Misty clouds dominated, swimming past him and the village in front.
"Grandma?" he called on both sides of the platform. None emerged, but the whispers mimicked the breeze.
With hisses, he glanced at the rocky charcoal steeps, blanketed in snowy spots and falls. Sketched with ivory and bits of onyx from the millennium ages of these mountains, the ridges behind the thin walls of the rippling mists gradually sank as if the structures formed themselves. Unveiling from the thin gray webs, Li Shan gaped and saw what he hoped never to see that haunting sign again. On the steep ridge, the onyx rocks melting to an ink formed its motion to an oval, revolving horizontally before the blotches splattered around it, three dots on one side and other three on the next, and at the center of it began to broaden its iris.
The symbol of Lord Shen struck in the bear's eyes.
A haunting laugh from afar crooned, and Li's spine churned with ice fragments. To his left, down the hills, the mists hued to dark to light oranges, popping out miniature specks of embers. No. No!
It's not real!
Something snared on his belly and jerked his whole weight in his cottage. Wrecked onto the dash and drawers, with the pots fragmented and the door slammed shut, Li glimpsed ahead in petrified, the indoor house swirling the outer structure into hissing sparks and a raging fire.
From the door, shrouded with ebony silks and ghastly ribbons, the figure in black stepped out, and the eyes of red-orange glared. Once shown in its authentic form, the avian hissed out his haunting laugh.
"GRRREETINGS, PANDA!"
Shen darted onward with his silver guandao and slit —
June 10, 1211
The room, lit with a dawn of Swiss cheese from the open window, quivered the walls by Li Shan's awakening gasp. The streams from the old panda's flesh raced in his thundering heart, letting him clutch his torso. Burning his lungs with apprehension, Li glimpsed around, swimming his head. He almost clenched his fist as soon as he started towards the door, but behind him, the window itself chronicled with the ambiance of the pedestrians' greets and the children's laughs.
By the Gods. Was I dreaming?
He inspected himself, pinching his forearm before heading to the window. The smell of aromas and the alleyways invaded; the panda and the antelope (small children) crossed paths to the main road, and bird tweets chirped beyond reach. Everything was ordinary here, alright.
Good heavens. Li rubbed his tired eyes. It was only a dream.
A dream, yes. But Li Shan remembered the fond memories of his dear wife and their son too well, thus the catastrophic incident and the ending era of Lord Shen's conquest. Grandma Panda was in his cottage when he remembered the conversation about him going on an adventure to find Little Lotus on his own, the last thing Li Shan thought about Grandma that night before he trekked across China. After several months of Shen's fall, searching for the Jade Palace, the only site he could ever find the village of the Valley of Peace to start from there, he found his son, all grown at the Noodle Restaurant.
Robing his sleeveless coat and baggy trousers, Li headed to Mr. Ping's room behind the door left ajar. He checked on the goose, who muttered in his sleep. "Noodles. . . just like my Po."
Rather than not wanting to wake Mr. Ping, the panda arrived in the kitchen. Clearing the mess on the dash while prepping for the work in a few hours, Li could hear a few giggles racing across the street near the archway. "Look, Mama!" beamed the small boar, pointing at one of the tower mountains. "Look at those balloons!"
Balloons? Li puzzled.
After he cleaned the kitchen, Li walked towards the road and saw something floating next to the Jade Palace temple. Hovering in the air was an airship with four orange balloons. He thought of one soul that Li Shan had himself worried about.
"Son."
Li Shan sprinted over the river bridge, passing by the random spectators and the Pandivas before reaching the ridge stairs.
Panting heavily, Li Shan crawled on fours and flattened himself near the top before the Arena's gateway. He took his time recovering the harsh breaths that burned in his lungs and throat, shutting his eyes before he once sighted Xiuying in his mind. And then Po.
"Unhitch the moor!"
The captain hailed, and the mooring rope was free from the bulky trunk underneath the Jade Palace platform on the side. No! Li rose with haste and made it through the front gate of the Arena. Gasping for air when sighting the goose servants in robes and yellow caps, the panda let out his rough voice.
"Open. . . The gate. I need to see my son," he clutched his torso.
"Sir. The Dragon Master, Master Crane, and—"
"No time."
Li struck the entry and continued, having the worried geese follow him. Halfway there, the airship hovered away.
"PO!"
Li Shan held his paw high, but his son aboard could not appear. The ship leaned forward, and the winds from the south carried it to the northeast. Without knowing Lei Lei, Bao, and their friends Fan Tong, Jing, and Nu Hai were at the palace's front gate, watching the airship enter the cloud stream, Li Shan sighed into overwhelmedness.
The foliage flowers swimming upon the old panda's shoulders curved and hovered beside Li Shan, depicting the form that the teenagers caught their sights on the blossoms crowing and fastening. The ghost figure, drenched in light pink surroundings, revealed ocean eyes, a long neck, and aquatic robes and feathers tinged to velvet ultramarine.
"Po," Li Shan sighted the clouds above the mountains devouring the ship. "I love you, son. Good luck."
And the spirit patted his old friend's back.
End of Volume Four
Author's Note:
— And that's the end of Volume Four!
— Tay, Gabi! I hope you both enjoyed these two chapters to see Li Shan from his perspective!
— Volume Five's release is uncertain, but I am writing two books to keep my inspiration going for the warlords's tale and the gang who are going into separate ways. Wish me luck!
— As the celebration is near, about a week before the majestic beasts appear, I wish you all an early Happy Chinese New Year! Go fly high, dragons! I'm looking right at you, DRAGS!