Work Text:
“I never wanted this for her,” Ming’s voice echoed outside Mei’s room. “Did you see how she was in the temple? Her eyes…”
Her voice was drowned out by Mei’s sobbing tears as she cried herself to sleep and poofed into a giant red panda, curling up in a ball. Large claw scratches and paw prints were plastered all over the walls and floor in her now empty room, a byproduct of what was perceived by some as a curse.
Darkness. That was all there was in her surroundings. Suddenly, a bright, shining light gleamed at a glaring patch of red hair.
Mei slowly opened her eyes as she turned on her side and adjusted her vision to the bright light shining at her. Chills tingled through her spine as she gradually started to realize that this wasn’t the safe, cushy mattress she had adjusted to earlier. No, it was way worse than that. Her hazel eyes widened as she looked at her surroundings and saw silver metal bars all around her while feeling its coldness from below her feet. She gazed around her environment and soon realized that she was in a huge, metal cage that was at least 8 feet tall.
Mei looked at her shaky hands; no wait, paws as she became horrifyingly aware that she had not gotten back to her normal self yet. Her breathing became shallow as she couldn’t even bear to look at any red fur regardless of where it was located on her body. The trembling red panda had never longed this much just to see the bare skin of her arms and legs return once more. Then, Panda Mei tried to do what she knew best to calm herself back to her human self.
She put both her paws on her cheeks and caressed them softly as she attempted to revert back. As Panda Mei lowered her arms down to her chin, she felt something around her neck that made her paralyzed with fear. She twitched her head from side to side and heard a metal rattle behind her. That’s when she realized there was a black collar around her neck, which was linked to the cage with some heavy-duty chains.
Panda Mei went into full panic mode as she fought with all her might to get the chain removed. She attempted to pull up the collar, but all it did was choke and squeeze her tighter. She tearfully ended her tussle prematurely as she collapsed to the ground, landing on her back in defeat. When she looked up, she noticed a big, red neon sign that was visibly bright from her cage.
“A circus?!” Panda Mei exclaimed in terror.
From that moment, another spotlight beamed behind her, and she turned around once more. Two barely visible figures were seen in the distance, and Panda Mei tried to figure out who they were. The red panda tried to step closer to get a better look, but the tight, secure chains prevented her from doing so. One of them had a tall, slender shape while the other one was much shorter and wider in terms of girth.
From there, she could visibly see the tall one do a quick nod as the other one handed over a fat wad of cash, almost looking like something straight out of a secret drug deal. They both shook hands, and the tall one then faced her directly. Panda Mei gasped softly and covered her pursed lips with both paws when she noticed the dark figure staring right at her. It took one step forward, then another step, and then slowly started to walk closer right in her direction.
She cowered in fear and crouched in a fetal position, covering her massive head with her furry arms. Panda Mei violently trembled as could hear the footsteps echoing closer and closer, as she started to realize the footsteps sounded like they were coming from high heels. Eventually, the footsteps stopped as she knew whoever it was stood inches away from her little prison.
“It’s going to be alright, my little Mei-Mei” a familiar, comforting voice could be heard from outside her cage.
It was pretty ironic to hear, considering the ginormous height that she currently was.
“Mommy?” Panda Mei expressed her relief, standing on both her feet almost immediately.
“Your new friend here will take very good care of you,” her mother assured her.
Panda Mei’s fluffy ears drooped, and her mouth gaped wide open at the sudden breakthrough. “What did you say?”
“Well, he’s right here,” Ming pointed down at the other figure she met with earlier. “Let me introduce you to him. His name is Fei.”
Panda Mei looked down at the other figure who stood awfully close to her cage. He was about a couple of feet shorter than Ming who wore a black top hat along with a red vest over a white garment, black dress pants, a red bowtie, and recently polished Dinkles. And, of course, he had to have the obligatory twirling mustache.
“Ah, perfect! She will be the perfect spectacle, the rare, exotic, giant red panda!” the ringmaster stood there amazed at the mere sight of Mei’s panda.
Panda Mei was in disbelief that her own mother would disown her, just like that. Her head kept spinning as she couldn’t hold back the watery teardrops flowing down her swirly cheeks.
“Mom, what did you just do? Sell me to the circus?” Panda Mei choked through her streaming tears.
“I’m sorry, but you’re just not the perfect little Mei-Mei that I remember,” Ming shook her head dismissively, trying to not make eye contact with her.
Panda Mei was completely speechless. “What do you mean? I-I-I’m your biological human daughter, see?”
She tried her darndest to change back to human, but the overwhelming, stressful conditions prevented her from doing so. She desperately rubbed her face with the back of her paws for comfort but to no avail. Not even her breathing exercises worked due to her nerve-wracking situation.
“No, no, come on, why isn’t it working?” Panda Mei muttered to herself, facing her mother. “You remember who I was, right?”
Ming finally looked at her straight in the eye, face to face, but it wasn’t out of love or pity. Her mother stared daggers with a face of disgust and disappointment, which Panda Mei had never seen such hateful looks from her own mother.
“All I see in this cage is a red, monstrous beast,” Ming replied coldly.
Panda Mei shuddered with guilt, for all she could muster up the courage to say with her quivering voice was, “How could you say that, mother?”
Ming furrowed her brow with resentment every time she was referred to as her mom.
“You’ll do much better business with them,” Ming replied, oblivious to the traumatic experience her daughter was enduring.
Without any warning, Ming turned around and stepped away, slowly entering back into the darkness without a trace.
“Mom! Mom, wait! Please, come back! I-I never asked to become a red monster! What did I do to deserve this…” Panda Mei cried out in desperation.
“You are not my daughter! You’re just another freak like the rest of them!” Ming’s voice echoed loudly through the dark void.
Panda Mei sat there absolutely speechless, still in denial that even her own mother would say such a thing. With those powerful words constantly repeating in her head, it soon became a motivator for her to try to set herself free. With that said, her eyes turned blazing red, and black claws protruded from her paws. From her newfound determination, she gripped her collar with both her pairs of sharp claws and pulled hard on it.
To her surprise, the collar ripped apart easily with her newly discovered sharp features, and she quickly ran over to the tall barriers of her cage. She gripped the steel bars tight with both paws as she tried pulling them apart. The first time or so that she heaved had no effect, but slowly, she made incremental progress as they started bending under her weight and creating a wider gap for her to escape. As she finally managed to create a gap around more than a few feet, she felt a sharp, stinging pain on her hip and collapsed to the ground, weakened by the great agony. She looked up which revealed her new ringmaster holding a long cattle prod in his right hand
“Oh, I’m sorry, little panda girl,” Fei apologized mockingly. “I can’t just let you escape like that.”
She growled with fury, and her eyes glowed with anger, baring her sharp fangs, but then she felt the same pain again, this time on her right shoulder. Panda Mei whimpered and gripped her paws tightly on the steel bars as she struggled to get on her feet once more.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he shook his index finger with disapproval.
“Please, you have to let me go!” Panda Mei loudly begged, now kneeling on both her knees. “You’re making a serious mistake!”
“Whatever you say, talking red panda,” the ringmaster ignored her pleas, his back facing her.
“The name’s Meilin Lee! I was once a human !” she attempted to clarify her identity.
He didn’t believe a word she said and assumed she was just another mythical creature.
“Alright, take her away, fellas,” he commanded and whistled using two of his fingers.
A large group of circus employees, all wearing identical outfits, surrounded her cage and began pushing it away. To her surprise, she now saw wheels below her cage as she began rolling away. In her last act of desperation, she rammed her body weight against the cage to break free, but the carriers pushing on her cage were left unfazed. She repeatedly pounded on her cage with all her might over and over until she got exhausted and stumbled down to her feet.
Before she knew it, she saw a freight train with one of the cargos having a wide opening as they were reaching closer. They lifted her cage up a steep ramp until it was secure inside the train’s cargo. They detached the wheels from under her cage, while Panda Mei continued to beg for her release.
“Please, please, please!” she wailed in pain, her body still feeling the lingering effects of her static shock. “You can’t do this to me!”
They ignored her constant begging as she blurted out various confessions. “I had friends at school! I had the perfect grades! My life was going great before this curse was bestowed upon me.”
They jumped out of the cargo train and started to lift the ramp which would seal away the only remaining light shining at her little detention.
“Noooooo!” Panda Mei shouted at the top of her lungs. “You can’t do this! Please don’t! Please, I’m begging you!”
With her final, shouting pleas, they sealed the ramp shut and everything in her view went pitch black.
Mei opened her eyes instantly with her pupils constricted and hyperventilated as she sat up immediately. For a brief moment, she felt relieved to be back on her single mattress and that all of this was just another nightmare. That was until she looked down and saw her red fluffy tail was still visible. She grew bitter with rage as the still panda Mei began banging her head against her mattress.
“I hate you — I hate you — I hate you!” Panda Mei repeatedly shouted to the heavens. “This is all your fault!”
She grew tired of the calming method she was previously familiar with and began to use brute strength to force the panda out of her. She ran back and forth using the walls and floor as targets with the sheer force of her furry body acting as a battering ram. It worked like a charm at first but as various panda parts kept poofing back, she continued tossing herself against the plaster in her room, even resorting to using her mattress as her launching pad. Eventually, all of her panda components finally poofed away as she crawled weakly with cramping pains until she collapsed on the floor and held herself with both her legs.
“Please…” Mei muttered with desperation, “just..go away.”