The Last Honor

11. Dangerous river trip

It was early in the afternoon. Po had retired himself between a few boxes for a midday nap and let the day go by.
Shen had positioned himself again at the front of the ship and was watching the area. Only now and then he looked back. It was a mystery to him that the panda could sleep so well. Shen was used to being constantly on the lookout. And he always kept a watchful eye on Shenmi in particular, who, as so often, was busy folding paper figures.
After she had finished a paper figure, she stood up and ran towards the sleeping panda. Po mumbled something in his sleep when the white little peacock girl tapped his foot. When the girl started tickling him, Po snorted with laughter.
"Haha, no, stop it! That tickles!"
He looked at Shenmi in surprise.
"Look, I did that for you." With a smile, she held out a paper figure to him.
Po looked at the folded paper figure, which looked like a fat bear.
"Wow, what's that?" he asked.
"That's you."
With big eyes Po came closer with his face. "Wow, that's really good. You really are..." He paused and looked around in amazement. "Oops, we're not at sea anymore."
"Did you finally notice that too, panda?" Shen reprimanded him and walked slowly towards him. "We passed the estuary an hour ago."
"Really? Oh, I must have slept away that."
Shen wrinkled his nose. "Very careless of a so-called warrior like you..."
"Wow!" Po jumped up and ran to the rail. "Unbelievable! The last time we were on this river was over 5 years ago. It's crazy how fast the time flies. It seems to me as if it was yesterday."
Shen rolled his eyes.
"What is it?" Po asked in confusion. "Isn't it? You seem to take no stuck in nostalgia, do you?"
"Nostalgia blocks the view of the future," Shen said in an arrogant tone.
Po sighed in annoyance. "Your future madness again? You'll never get rid of it, will you?"
The panda giggled.
"Look, daddy, what I've done."
Proudly, Shenmi held out the little paper panda figure to her father.
Shen knelt down next to her with a smile. "That's very nice, my child. But maybe you shouldn't waste your time with..."
"Shouldn't we paint it?" Po asked quickly and got a withering look from the peacock.
The panda put his fingertips together in embarrassment. "I'm just saying." He smiled broadly.
Shen might have held him accountable in a private conversation if Shenmi didn't feel like playing.
"Do you want to play a game with me?" Shenmi asked the panda.
"A game?" Po could still feel the sore muscles from playing the water slide. "What kind of game?"
But little Shenmi grabbed the panda by the finger and pulled him with her. In a corner she had made more animal paper figures that were lined up next to each other.
Po opened his mouth in disbelief. "You folded everything alone?"
Shenmi smiled shyly. "Mmhhm."
"Wow, you're really talented. Isn't she, Shen?"
He gave the peacock a pleading look that he should say the same thing. The peacock sighed deeply when he saw his daughter's face, who was desperately hoping for some praise from her father.
"Yes, you did," he said finally and walked away.
"So, what exactly do you want to play?" Po asked the girl and sat down on the floor.
Shen twisted the corners of his mouth. This panda was still as childish as he was before. He was probably the kind that never grew up. Unlike him, as a child, he always wanted to get to the top of the adult world right away. And as soon as possible.
He went back to his observation post in silence and let his gaze wander.

The ship kept going up the river and it was getting a bit dusky. The sky was partly covered with cirrostratus and diminished the evening sun rays.
Meanwhile, Po had made himself comfortable in his sleeping corner again and was snoring.
Shenmi lay in his arms next to him and was sleeping, too.
The ship passed a couple of cities, later only isolated villages, until everything turned into a lonely landscape.
Shen felt a bit tired again, but didn't want to take a nap. This river didn't hold fond memories of what was ingrained in his defensive instincts.
Suddenly the peacock raised his comb. Something was wrong. Although he saw no one, he felt that something had changed in his surroundings.
Since peacocks had an extremely good hearing, a creak on the side of the ship made him sit up and take notice. Immediately he ran to the side of the ship, but he didn't walk too close to the railing. Instead, he crept in a crouched position, then lifted his head and peered very, very carefully over the edge of the ship.
Suddenly something shot up, like a big fish jumping out of the river.
The big thing whirled through the air and landed with a loud crash on the wooden planks of the ship.
"Today is our lucky day!" The crocodile shouted triumphantly.
Shen had recovered from the horror again and reared up angrily in front of the reptile. "How dare you enter my ship?!"
Po had woken up from the impact of the stowaway and looked around sleepily. "Who, where, what...? Are we there yet...?"
The crocodile grinned broadly. "Yes, toll paying time."
In the next moment another shadow jumped on board, which was a monitor lizard.
With a jerk, Po lifted his head. "Hey, wait a minute. I know you."
The monitor lizard hissed in amusement. "Well, what do you say, if that isn't the flab from a few years ago."
Po twisted his mouth.
"Oh, and did you get a wrinkle more on your face or am I wrong?"
The two reptiles hissed angrily.
"That's the end of it!" the monitor lizard commanded. "The ship is ours now."
In the meantime, Shen had grabbed Shenmi and hid her behind a box at the back of the ship. Then he jumped forward and took out his sword.
"You are leaving now!" He threatened sternly.
The monitor lizard hissed. "Oh, does the little bird want to play again?"
Po cleared his throat. "If I were you, I would do what he says. After all, we are stronger than you and you are just in sets of two."
The monitor lizard chuckled in amusement. "Who says that we are just in sets of two?"
At the next moment the water began to boil around the ship. Then, little by little, many monitor lizards and crocodiles crawled up the ship's side.
This change of power sobered the panda for the time being. "Oh, this time he's got a whole army."
Shen looked around tensely. His wings clung tighter around his poised sword.
Suddenly a child's scream made him startle. One of the crocodiles had climbed over the rail at the end of the ship and was holding a ball of feathers in its claws.
"Look what I found," the reptile laughed. "Looks like a small snack."
Shen's eyes narrowed to dangerous slits.
"LET HER GO!"
Immediately he stormed forward. For Po this was a sign to rush into battle as well. Although he was mostly on his own, because the few antelopes on board were not well-trained fighters.
Shen punched his way through all the reptiles that were jumping at him, dodging them several times, striking back here and there with his lance. When he was not far from Shenmi and the crocodile anymore, he threw the knives at the reptile. But his knives only made a few scratches on the thick armored reptile skin.
The crocodile giggled. "You want to play? Here you go."
He raised his occupied hand. Shen's eyes opened in horror.
"SHENMI!"
Shenmi was thrown through the air and caught by the next monitor lizard.
Immediately Shen jumped after her, but when he was flying, his vision blurred suddenly. Shen blinked vigorously. But he could not drive away the sudden dizzy spell.
In the next moment a huge fist hit him, which threw him over the whole ship surface.
"Hey!" Outraged, Po grabbed the crocodile by the collar. "Nobody hits my friends!"
He gave the reptile a hard kick in the stomach. The crocodile slumped with a groan, but in the next moment five more large reptiles appeared and grabbed the panda by the ears, arms and legs.
"HEY! You don't hit our buddy either!"
"AAHHH!" This time it was Po who sailed through the air and fell through the hatch into the ship's belly, where several hard wooden boxes caught him.
"Ouch! Oh, my head, my back... ouch, my poor bottom." He examined one of the boxes that had burst open as a result of his fall.
"Oops, what's that?"
He reached for the hanging object.
It was a firecracker.
Po frowned, then he got an idea.

After Po had prepared everything for his plan, he climbed up the boxes and peered over the edge of the hatch. His mouth opened.
Several lizards had pounced on Shen. Shenmi wriggled in the grips of a crocodile and had to watch helplessly as the reptiles held her defenseless father on the ground.
"We have a rule, mate," the monitor lizard growled. "We don't tolerate mutiny."
He took out his broad, big sword and stroked the razor-sharp blade.
"Time for roast bird today."
"Don't hurt my daddy!" Shenmi shouted desperately.
Shen managed to turn his head in her direction and smiled at her. "Have no fear. Nothing will happen to me."
"Oh, really?!" Brutally, the monitor lizard pressed with his paw on the peacock's neck. "Who should stop us, eh?"
"Hey, guys!" All eyes wandered to the ship's hatch on which the panda was standing. "You want our shipload? You can have that!"
With that he took out several firecrackers and aimed them at the lizards.
"Greetings from Gongmen City!"
He lit a match and the first rockets sped off. The lizards dodged. The first crashed into the railing. But Po fired more and more rockets that the reptiles could hardly save themselves from it. One of them let fall Shenmi in shock.
Shen broke free from the handles and caught the girl.
The lizards jumped off the ship into the river and swam away.
Po chased after them to the edge of the ship. "And if that's not enough, we have even more in stock!"
He lifted his chest in triumph. "And once again the great Dragon Warrior saved the day! Hey guys, give me..."
Po dropped his arms in disappointment when he realized that his friends weren't there to celebrate the victory with a handshake.
"Well, it doesn't matter."
His attention was diverted by Shen's low moaning. The peacock stood leaning against the railing and rubbed his eyes wildly. Shenmi stood next to him and pulled her father's robe. "Dad, are you okay?"
"Shen? Are you alright?" the panda asked worriedly now too.
"It's okay..." Shen fought off.
Po ran up to him and straightened Shen's upper body. "Is everything really okay? Can I do anything for you...?"
"I'm fine!" the peacock shouted and pushed the panda away.
"But it didn't look like it before," Po said dryly.
But then his gaze wandered to the railing, shattered by the fireworks and reptiles.
"Oh dear, the outside is a bit damaged. We'd better have it repaired before we go aground."

They discussed the matter with the antelope captain. He in turn agreed. "There is a village not far from here. We could dock there..."
"A village?" Po pricked up his ears. "What kind of village?"
"As far as I know, many mountain sheep live there..."
"Mountain sheep?! Wow, could that be the village from back then? Wow, today we really have a nostalgia day, huh?"
"Great," Shen remarked dryly.