Chapter Text
Lord Shen looked upon the panda that stood before him. He drank the in creatures form and once again grew envious of them. Like him they too were bathed in white, the color of death. All born with it were marked, shunned, and avoided. But they, pandas, had all been mercifully spared that curse with generous spots of black like the night sky. Pandas once took it as a sign that they were from a divine world in the stars, and held a power that they would one day share.
They took too long. And today that sky was red.
The creature flinched as he approached. As if expecting a sudden strike. There was no escape. Backed against the tree and blocked by wolves on all sides. Tears in its eyes, its breathing relaxed, it knew what was to come. He had seen it so many times today. Either by his hand or another. The beasts giving up, resigning to their fate, when they would truly be embraced by the divine. Some of them prayed, others begged. A few even took there own lives.
But this one female who had given his commander the runaround, just stood there; eyes locked onto his, as he calmly strode in to give her to the gods.
The last panda. He felt obligated to let her speak.
“If you have anything to say. You have this one chance.”
She broke her eyes to the ground in thought. And looked up, eyes glistening with the fire of her village in the distance.
“Why?”
He wondered, how best to explain to a stupid villager, why her kind needed to die for the prosperity of his family to survive. For his line to continue. For Gongmen to have its golden age. For him to never be shamed by defeat or death.
To be worthy.
“Because destiny dose not control me!” He seethed.
And with that he plunged his blade into her chest. A wet squelch was punctuated by a cry as blood leaked from her body onto his blade. The air tuned foul with its funk as she pathetically gasped. He yanked it free and she collapsed into the snow; breaths shallow and full of life's struggle to hold on.
He tuned to leave just as a baby's cry permeated the air. Barely audible through the wind and the cackle of torches.
His head snapped to its direction, the sounds of despair from the dying panda forgotten. What child would be crying here that was not already slain by his command? He walked towards the sound though the black trees and snow, his wolves in tow; and came upon a cart filled with boxes of radishes. The baby cried out again, and he saw it. Ugly and fat, a baby panda hidden in the radishes, some with bites in them.
Stupid creature. He thought. Do they not think of anything but food? He commanded the leader of the wolves to bring it to him. His eye caught his commanders scared bleeding face. A villager must have been lucky enough to get a strike in. it was just that thought that placed a shard of fear in him. Pandas seem so benign, it was easy to forget that they were counted amongst bears, and had great strength even when untrained.
All the more reason to kill them young.
The creature cried as it was removed from the crate, held by the scruffy fat and skin of its neck. The commander sniffed it. “It bears the scent of the female my lord.”
Lord Shen felt sick as he was handed it. It green eyes wet as it fussed and grasped at the air. He was offended. Even more offended then he had ever felt from years of unlove and neglect. She abandoned it! She abandoned it to save herself. To be unburdened with it has she ran for her own life. And as he stared into the infants eyes, something uncoiled in him.
He was young once. He wanted to be with his family, when they had deemed him too sick to be around. A shameful reminder of how weak their creation was. When they had left them in the care of the only person in the palace that would even give him a chance to claim his birthright was the first time he felt any semblance of love. And it was only when he was strong and worth something that his parents even let him in to be their son.
“Lord Shen, aren't you gonna kill it?”
Worthless, pathetic, weak and left to die.
He held the baby up to his eye level. It mewled and whimpered. And he saw himself. And he laughed at the idea forming in his mind.
“Remember those old story's? About the crusading heroes seeking revenge on the ones who wronged them?”
His commander eyed him with confusion. “Uh...Aren't we hear to stop them, from...stopping you?”
He turned to his commander. “Well, what better way to stop one from killing you, then being their only family?”
The commander licked his lips in thought for a moment as the idea set in. his troops eyed each other. Finally an unsaid consensuses reached them all.“Are we really considering this, my lord?”
Shen gave it just one more thought before he raised the baby up. “Prepare the wolves to return to Gongmen. Once my parents see how I have defied fate, they will finally know I am worthy.”
Shen strode up the stairs to the palace gates. He felt good, greater then he had ever been before. The wolves had voiced their concerns about the whole situation. Saying that they would not understand. But it was irreverent. Once they see what he had done for Gongmen they would know he was right. The city's heir would not be felled by a prophecy, and when they see that fate can be changed they would never need to fear for their son.
The gates opened for him, and when he made it to his parents chambers, he could see them in each others arms, waiting for him with the Soothsayer and a number of Gongmen's solders. No doubt wondering why he had taken the palace guards. But as he strode up to them he could make out the faces they wore. His fathers stone, brow clenched. His mothers worried, and full of shock.
And the Soothsayer, full of tears. Hers was the only one that made him pause.
“I have returned.” He bowed as was custom. A pregnant silence met him. Why did they not speak? He looked up to see nothing had changed. Their silent stares baring down on him, it was unnerving. “Do you not have questions?” He half asked, half demanded. Why did they say nothing?
Finally a voice spoke.
“What have you done?” Asked the lady of Gongmen. But Shen did not understand why her voice sounded so pained.
“What?”
“I say again Shen. Why have your troops returned bearing the scent of rot and ash?” She eyed his guan dao, caked in dried blood.
“I have changed destiny mother. The Soothsayer was wrong. I have proven that fate is not preordained!” He walked up to them, arms open.
His father spoke next, his voice seemed to burn the air around him and halted him. “Then why have the villages to the north burned? We can see the ashes from here, wafting though the air, raining down on us like the omen we have learned.”
Shen's eyes turned to the Soothsayer, her face filled with shame. He could tell it was for him, but their was a hint of something else. “What omen.”
She spoke softly, her voice bereft of even the slightest hope. “I have had a vision while your were gone Shen. That the sky burned, and showered death, that you would return bathed in blood.” She let out a shuddering breath, as though recoiling from a whips strike, and spoke in a trembling voice. “I wished I was wrong, Shen! More then ever before. I wished I was wrong.”
Shen could not believe what was happening before him. He did this for the city! For his family!
“I do not want to believe it.” His mother spoke. “Please tell me. In no uncertain terms. What have you done!”
“What have I done.” He vomited out his words with the worst bile he could muster. “I did this, because destiny does not control me!”
He turned to his father
“I did this for Gongem!”
He turned to his mother.
“I did this for you!”
He turned to the Soothsayer. “I did this because of your prophecy!”
He spun and gestured grandly. “I did this...because Gongmen needs it heir! How long can you ensure that someone else wont discover the secrets in fireworks! Only I can protect us!”
He father strode forth. And so did the solders.
“Enough of this nonsense! Shen! You have committed a terrible crime! Robed the world of an entire culture and people! Broken all our hearts. You are no longer Gongmen's heir. No longer our son! You are banished from these lands under penalty of death!” He stopped as the solders filed forth, spears at the ready.
The face of the lord of Gongmen suddenly became devoid of stoic authority, and shifted to one of pain. He spoke in a hollow voice. “You've left me no choice.”
“I love you my son.”
Shen recoiled for a moment at his words. Finally. After years of unsaid words and veiled emotions. He said it clearly. It froze Shen.
Until his shock was replaced by a terrible rage.
Now? He chose now to say it? Shen's blood boiled, his crest and feathers fanned out. How dare he wait so long to say it! And to chose now, when he was laid low and beneath them. It was a lie! Just like all the times his family told he would one day rule the city!
But now Shen had greater ambitions.
“Then I shall leave! And take those loyal with me!” He flew out the tower as his parents chased him over to his wolves who had began to part to let their Lord through. He landed and turned to face them as solders gathered. “I will fulfill this last request. And leave.”
As he reached the gates, he turned one last time to the lord, lady, and soothsayer.
“But I will return one day! I will have revenge! And all of china will bow at my feet!”
As soon as they had left the gates beyond the sight of the city's scouts, Shen set them on a long journey to an old fortress that was used for metal work along the edge of china. It was of no use anymore since the mine ran dry, it sat in a strategically useless place and was falling apart.
It would be perfect.
“I just realized, you didn't tell them about the baby.” Said the wolf commander. His eye stitched and patched. Shen nearly wretched when he saw it after being untreated for so long. The pus had to be drained and the eye was cleaved down the middle. They had to seal it carefully by stitching it. Wolves were tough, but he could do without the commanders pained muffled screaming though his teeth.
Shen scoffed. “And what good would that do now? “Oh by the way! I spared one with the intention of raising him to make sure that the last panda would be loyal to me!” they would really be understanding of that.” The baby fussed in his arms, he had long stopped whimpering since Shen cut down some bamboo and fed him. Shen had spent the better part of the journey passing him off to wolves who had much more experience raising children, until the commander had all but forced him to carry the child. “Besides, I am now the master of his fate, just as I am the master of my own.”
Shen was about to say more when his index feather was taken by some force and became wet. He looked down to see the panda had taken it into his mouth and began to suckle it, making small sounds as he did. The former peacock lord let it continue for only a moment before pulling his finger free. The child was about to cry when Shen placed more bamboo in his mouth. “I hope that scout we sent gets back here soon with the those baby things, I grow less comfortable carrying this child around by the minuet.”
“Well Shen, you spared him with the intent of raising him. You might as well spend some time Raising him, or else he wont be loyal to you. He'd be loyal to, I don't know, the wolves.” The commander paused. “What if he finds out?”
“We tell him the truth. The pandas were going to stop me, so I stuck first. His parents abandoned him in a radish cart, and I saw something worthwhile.”
The commander did not seemed satisfied, but it wasn't up to him. “He's going to need a name. Any ideas?”
She gave a moment of thought. Yes. The boy needed a name. One that would represent what Shen had always wanted. The child would be his disciple, his student. And in return for his teaching, he would treat him as precious.
“Po.”