The Last Victory

23. Clouds of Smoke

The friends looked up, startled. Tigress was the first one who rose from the crowd. In the meantime, they had got the enemy army under control when suddenly the ground trembled beneath their feet.
"PO!" Tigress took a giant leap and landed on the palace wall. In the distance, houses had collapsed with a loud rumble and moaning and disappeared in a thick cloud of dust. The other four jackknifed after her and stared ahead in disbelief.
"Po wasn't there, was he?" Viper asked anxiously.
In the next moment, the Furious Five felt loud wing beats next to them. Xia and Sheng had landed on the palace wall, too. Both got a bad feeling.
"Father?..." The rest of the words of her question stuck in Xia's throat. Everyone knew that Shen had followed Xiang. Only one of them could have caused the explosion. Sheng set up his peacock comb and tried to see something in the thick smoke in the distance.
"What happened?!"
Everyone stared at Yin-Yu in horror. The peahen was still covered over and over with half-dried white paint that had stuck all of her plumage together. She was extremely restricted in flying, but that didn't stop her from coming up to them.
"Mother, I don't know," Xia tried to downplay her concern, but she was unsuccessful.
"I'll check now!" With these words, Tigress jumped off the wall and raced from one roof to the next to the scene of the accident. Her friends followed her as fast as they could.
Sheng immediately flew after them. Xia wanted to go after him until she remembered her mother. "Mother, you stay here."
"No! I need to know what happened!"
"You can't fly in this state..."
But her mother just pushed her aside and swept over the rooftops, albeit somewhat with awkward flaps of her wings. First, Xia looked after her in amazement. Then she rose into the air as well, heading straight for the remaining cloud of dust.

"Po!? Po! Po!" The five kept calling their friend. They had reached the edge of the rubble and were feverishly looking for a sign of life.
"FATHER!" Sheng and Xia shouted now, too.
And her mother couldn't suppress a helpless shout either. "Shen!"
Everyone carried hope and deepest concern around with themselves. Especially the extreme silence gave them a cold chill. In addition, the visibility was quite low because of the dust that was still blowing up. You could only see a few meters clearly.
During a pause, the group huddled together and listened. There was just silence again, as if the world had held its breath in horror after the bang.
"Hey, friends."
All faces turned to the left, where in a wall of dust the outlines of a large figure became visible, moving with difficulty.
"Could someone call the fire department?" The voice gasped on. "I think, someone left something burned in the kitchen."
The person, who turned out to be a panda and a peacock, fell to the ground with a cough.
"PO!" Immediately, the friends flung their arms around their panda friend's neck while the three peafowls threw themselves on the immobile figure of Shen.
"Shen! Shen!" Xia and Sheng let their mother through. With trembling wings, she straightened Shen's head. But after some gasping, the white lord slowly came to.
He blinked up at Yin-Yu, which took a great burden off his shoulders to see everyone safe and sound. Still a little dazed, Shen took her wing in his. After so much extreme excitement what he didn't have to endure every day, her presence in the dirt and dust was pure relaxation.
"Did you see the explosion?" Po's excited voice interrupted the moment of reunion. "Wow, that might have been loud." He wiped his ear theatrically. "I think, I'll be running around half deaf for a while."
The five couldn't suppress an amused laugh.
"Dragon Warrior?!"
Everyone raised their heads in surprise. In the next moment, not only King Wang appeared, but also the soothsayer.
"Shen, you are fine!" the goat said in relief.
The white peacock rose quickly and brushed off his clothes. "I don't know why you have to worry about me."
"I didn't say anything about that," she said with a smile.
Shen paused. "But you thought so."
"But we were worried!" Xia cut him off.
Shen wasn't angry with her and sighed with a smile. "The main thing is that nothing happened to you."
Xia looked down. She was close to tears, but she suppressed them in time. The white lord's eyes slid over his family. Sheng didn't say anything, but his gaze was evicted of a peaceful calm and his father nodded gratefully to him for his silent gesture. But then he could no longer hold it back and spread his wings, which he wrapped around all three of them. He couldn't close it all the way, but it was enough for everyone. "I'm just glad that I didn't lose you."
"Father." Xia and Sheng returned the unfamiliar hug immediately, only Yin-Yu hesitated a little.
But before anyone could wonder at her behavior, Wang asked a question which no one had asked before. "Where is Xiang?"
Everyone turned to where traces of the explosion still rose in the sky. Po stood up sadly. "Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything. The time was too short for that." His gaze looked at Yin-Yu. "I'm sorry."
The peahen's eyes went to the ground. Shen felt her shiver and put a wing over her shoulder.
Tigress had less understanding. "Maybe it's the best for him."
"We'll take care of his dead body," Wang said finally. "Would that be okay for you?"
By that he meant Yin-Yu. The peahen looked up at him, then she nodded to him. She stroked her head hastily. "I'm sorry. It's all so much today..."
"I can imagine," Soothsayer said and looked around. "I think, we should go to the residence. You can rest there. And maybe washing, too."
Po looked down at himself. "Is it already Sunday today?"