The Last Hope

31. Bitter Truth

Oookay, I'm sorry about this long absence, but because my computer decided to retire without warning, unfortunately I was forced to work with a replacement device that was not exactly optimal for working. Not only because the comma button, but also the writing program didn't work well sometimes. :-/ Fortunately, it didn't delete any text files. -_- 'In addition, I also have health problems. I hope it didn't burn your nerves away. So here it finally goes on ...

It was dead silent in the room. As if the world had stopped breathing, it caused a moment of blackout in the minds of everyone. Po's glance automatically wandered from one peacock to the other. "What?!" But the others looked also incredulously between the two rulers. Master Ox's jaw dropped open, while Master Croc and Master Shifu stood there with big eyes.
Liu had to hold on to her daughter's bed and looked over at Yin-Yu. But she only held the wings in front of her beak. Xia shook her head incredulously. Sheng had to hold her so that she didn't tip over. The young children also stared, completely stunned. Only Shenmi dared to open the beak. "Then you are my uncle?"
Mr. Pong was the only one who clapped the wings a few times. "Well, that's a surprise. The family is getting bigger and bigger, isn't it, brother?"
He boxed Mr. Ping in his side, but his brother felt rather unsettled. Likewise, Liana, who didn't know the family relationships exactly, but she suspected that what the old goat had said was no reason to be happy.
Shen, on the other hand, looked like struck by lightning. His wings clenched into fists and he stared at the old goat. After all, his whole body began to tremble slightly. "You lie!"
Ān-Mā shook her head wistfully. "Shen, I can imagine how you feel." She stretched out her hoof to him, but Shen struck her away. Ān-Mā paused. Shen had never hit her in her whole life.
Everyone was startled when Shen pulled a feather knife at lightning speed and kept it in front of the goat's face. Po feared Shen would lose control of himself. There was nothing more of self -control as he had found in recent years. No, Shen seemed to be back into his old outbursts of anger, which he had given up through the years, out of consideration to the children.
"Tell me that is not true!" Shen cried.
The old goat swallowed hard. "Shen. I didn't believe it at first either. But everything is true." Her gaze wandered back to the sick child in the bed. "And that Xiang's daughter has the same hereditary disease, it proves, you almost have the same blood."
Shen shook his head wildly. "NO!" He turned to Xiang. The blue peacock stood completely in shock on the wall. Xiang had the feeling of falling into a deep abyss. Nevertheless, he managed to bring one word over his beak lips at least. "Y-you you just say it so that I take this thing! I have a father! And he was definitely better than his!"
He screamed when Shen threw his feather knives on him. But it didn't hit his body, but rammed around him into the wall.
Yin-Yu's eyes widened. "Shen!"
But her cries didn't help. Even Shenmi, who couldn't believe what her father intended, was unable to scream. Shen threw the next feather knife, which Xiang fixed in the middle of the chest. But before it hit the blue peacock, a barely audible hissing cut the air. Something threw the feather knife out of his trajectory and the sharp metal bored into the ground in front of Xiang's feet.
For a moment, everyone was paralyzed. Only Dao, who had swung his katana and had rejected the deadly projectile, stood there and looked at Shen's angry face.
"How can you dare?!" Shen shouted at him.
"DON'T DO THIS AGAIN!" Dao roared at him.
Po looked at Dao stunned. "Dao?"
The younger white peacock had pushed himself like a wedge between his brother and Xiang. Dao's view looked at Xiang. This one caught his eyes and both looked at each other.
At that moment, everyone heard a quiet whimper. The chick in the bed moved a little and seemed to cry, which could hardly be heard. But Liu heard it too well. Quickly, she took the baby out of bed and rocked it comfortingly in her wings. "Please stop with it, please stop it!" she pleaded. "Please, be quiet. You scare her."
Quickly, Yin-Yu took her into the wings, even though she was completely confused. Only with every further second that she stroked Liu, she knew, should the soothsayer be right, she was just hugging her half-sister-in-law.
In the meantime, Shen's rage had subsided, but he was far from calmed down and turned back to the old goat. "No, no, no, no! You just lie to me again!"
The goat narrowed her eyes together. "Shen, tell me when I lied to you."
Again a shake went through Shen's body. "I would rather die instead to be related to him! What kind of pop-up job do you play again with me?!"
Ān-Mā braced herself on her walking stick. "Shen, not even in my wildest intentions I would dare. It's a fact that, in my opinion, should not be hidden. But your father never seemed to have wanted it."
"I don't believe you!" Xiang screamed and pushed Dao aside. Even if he had no resentment towards Dao, he would never see Shen as a family member of him, not even half side.
Finally, Po dared to move his lips again. "T-that has to be a misunderstanding," he stuttered and looked at his five friends in help, but they also didn't know so say anything about it at the moment. Only Tigress kept her iron face as well as possible.
Now Xia spoke up. "He's right," she agreed to Po, hopefully. "You have to be wrong!" The young peahen frightened inside when Xiang's cutting look hit her. Again she felt back in her childhood, where he had threatened her with a knife. Throughout the years, she was able to make friends with the fact that Xiang was not one of her family. But now, the new knowledge hit her like a jump into the cold ice water.
Wordlessly, Ān-Mā unrolled the letter again that she still kept in the hooves and looked back at Xiang. "Xiang. Was your mother called Fengya and later called herself Zarina? And your aunt Chiwa was her real name Fengyi?"
Xiang was petrified for a moment, but Ān-Mā could see in his eyes that she had hit a sore point with it.
"This is how he describes your mother and your aunt in the letter," she continued.
Xiang turned around in a flash and hit against the wall with one wing. "I never wanted to hear these names again!" He pressed his forehead against the wall, whereby his shoulders shook, so that everyone could might think that he had trouble not breaking out in tears.
"But when he's my half -brother," Dao hesitated. "Who was... how did he...?"
"Indeed", Master Ox finally intervened in the conversation. "If that's a bad joke, then it's not funny."
The old goat looked at Liu and the sick child. "The situation is far too serious to make a joke."
Master Croc opened and closed his mouth. "I... but I can't imagine that Lord Liang should ever have had an extramarital relationship with someone."
"I'm not talking about infidelity", the old goat contradicted. "It happened before the marriage to Shen's mother Ai." Her gaze wandered back to the letter. "I will explain it to you in short words, what he wrote down here." She once again gave a look at the chick in Liu's wings. As much as she worried about the health of the baby, it was probably necessary to inform everyone, which had happened at the time according to Lord Liangs. "It happened in the time when Lord Liang had already been promised Lady Ai, but they didn't really know each other yet. Lord Liang was initially not interested in family life in the palace and often he secretly went for walks outside the palace walls. One day, he met a lonely peahen that was harassed by predators. Your father had not yet been a master fighter in kung fu, but it turned out to be an easy thing for him to chase away the bandits. The peahen introduced himself as a poor farm girl with the name Shila and he had to admit that her good look had fascinated him. From then on, they met almost every day. However, secretly. Liang's parents asked to marry a noble women and he had been disinherited if they had known. Shila claimed that she had no one. She literally urged him to marry her. Otherwise, she couldn't live without him. Liang had been young and naive, he gives it in in his letter. He thought, he had found the love of his life and to renounce everything just to be with her. So it came that he ran off with her secretly and they went to the next registry office. After a few days, she was pregnant from him. But then soldiers suddenly stormed the house in which they were and claimed Shila was the princess of a city named Mendong. Suddenly, she would have been completely changed. She made a confused impression. Then she suddenly said, she wouldn't even know Lord Liang and didn't know why she was with him. Of course, Liang has confronted her. Only then, she revealed to him that her real name was Fengya and was already married to someone. As if that hadn't been bad enough for Liang, he had to find out afterwards that the wedding was played. The marriage broker was not real, just a paid farmer. Even the marriage certificate was invalid. Even the robbery on her with the predators was only pure theater just to win his pity. And there were no witnesses who could have supported Lord Liang in his statement. Your father could never prove that she had entrapped him." Ān-Mā sighed heavily. "Fengya threatened to say to everyone that he kidnapped and raped her if he didn't do what she asked for. Lord Lange had no choice but to inflect. He had not been able to deny pregnancy and would only have been proof of his fault. Fengya, on the other hand, was able to easily pretend her real husband that the child was of him. Liang had hurt that she had only used him. Over the years, she had blackmailed him with this incident so that he paid her an amount when she wanted it. Even years later, she could hold it out without any problems because Xiang really looked like him. For this reason, she forbid him to ever see his son."
Xiang shook his head in disbelief. "No, this can't be! She was a demon! How could he love her?!"
Ān-Mā shook her head sadly. "She had deceived your father. Even so much deceived that he would have given everything for her..."
"Stop it!" Xiang cut the word off. "He is not my father! Definitely not!"
"Yes, Xiang," Ān-Mā insisted. "Shen's father is also your father."
"NO! Then I prefer to die! "Xiang pulled one of the feather knives out of the wall at lightning speed and wanted to stab himself to dead. But before he was able to do so, other wings stuck him and pressed his down. With wide eyes, Xiang looked at Dao, who snatched the feather knife from him again. But Xiang pulled another knife out of the wall shortly afterwards, but Dao grabbed it too, but Xiang kept it tightly clasped, so that Dao couldn't immediately take it out of his wing.
"Let go of me!" Xiang hissed at him. But Dao didn't think of loosening his grip, but pressed Xiang against the wall with his back. In vain, the blue peacock tried to fight back and tried to point the tip of the knife at himself again. "Go away!"
"Stop it!" Dao cried. "I don't want that! Stop it!"
Xiang paused. Dao held his wings around him almost in a pleading way as if he were asking him not to do anything. Finally, Xiang dared to look at him back in the face. Dao almost had tears in his eyes to his surprise.
"Please, don't do that," Dao said, which Xiang almost frightened and he felt the younger peacock trembling. Everything was so different around them with one blow. It was no longer a comparison last night.
Finally, Xiang had loosened his grip around the knife so that Dao could take it out of his wing without any problems.
But just when everyone thought that the situation would relax, Shen jumped and took a feather knife out of the wall. "Then I'll fulfill your wish!"
Po jumped up when Shen lifted the feather knife. But Dao reacted quickly and pushed Xiang to the next room that he was founding and quickly he closed the door.
"Hey, that's our room!" Zedong called outraged.
But nobody paid attention to what he said. Dao then fell into the door frame and stood in the way so that Shen couldn't open the door. At first, both brothers looked at each other with stony faces, but then Shen's anger boiled again.
"Step aside!"
But Dao vigorously shook his head. "Leave him alone! He's also your brother."
Shen pushed out a malignant growl. "How can you dare to call this scum your brother?! If then he is only the bad half." Shen tried to tear aside Dao with all the violence, but Dao pushed himself against him.
All others stared at the two brothers speechlessly. Po winced when he felt how Shenmi clung to his pants leg. Comfortingly, he stroked her over her head.
In the meantime, the show of strength between the two brothers threatened to tip over, which Dao prompted to answer harder. "Keep your feathers off him!"
Po winced when Dao gave Shen a hard slap in the face. Shen rubbed his painful cheek. "You don't want to seriously accept him. He wanted to kill your family!"
Dao's beak started to tremble. "And how many people did you kill?"
Everyone was startled again. With the exception of Master Ox and Master Shifu. Only with the difference that Po's teacher moved no eyelash, while the first kung fu council member stood there with a stony face, as if he agreed with it.
"How many victims had it been in the village?" Dao continued to speak regardless, while Shen looked at him. "How many of them were women and children? Was that less cruel? Or is that a difference to our family?"
Po bit on his lower lip. Tearing open ancient "scars" hurt a lot. Basically, Dao was not wrong, but quite inappropriate for this situation. Because Shen stepped back and started like an aggressive snake. "Is that all that comes to mind as an argument?" He tried to talk himself out. "Or do you enjoy keeping this for all eternity? Or do others do it, too?"
Shen's glance went to Po. The panda hurriedly wagged his paws. "I don't stick to you anything at all! Honestly not! You should know me so well now! That wasn't my idea!"
"He didn't tell me that," Dao came to the aid of the Dragon Warrior, who sigh in relief, but it didn't defuse the situation. On the contrary. For Shen, these words caused a dark suspicion to him. "You prefer to sympathize with my enemies than with me!"
Po's mouth angles sank back into the basement. Did he just mean Xiang, or still him?
Dao, on the other hand, had no inhibitions to clarify this accusation. "If you want it so direct. I would exchange him against you as a brother at any time."
It was silent for one second again. Even Dao was scared about his own words for a moment and looked around ashamed. Po was the only one who stood there with open mouth, while the others looked at him with big eyes. Yin-Yu was leaning against another wall and was shaking her head sadly. It also became too much for Shen. The white peacock laid his wings over his head, then he turned. He couldn't stand the eyes of the others around him. "Leave me alone!" He ran past everyone and raced down the stairs. Everyone looked at him. He behaved like a little child. Although Po had to admit that it would have become too much for him, too.
Dao lowered a little sad, but also angry his head. "I'm sorry."
He picked up his katana from the ground and left the closed door. It became depressingly quiet. Nobody dared to say a word.
Po had the feeling that his world standing head down. No, it even showed everything wrong. He didn't know Shen's parents very well, but he hadn't necessarily expected such a story.
After all, Master Ox overcame something to say. "So it's enough for me today." He turned to the door. "Let me know if you have clarified your family matter."
The other two masters also followed him outside. Po caught master Shifu's head-shaking look. The panda still hoped that his teacher would say something encouraging, but he was disappointed when he just left the room without a word. Did he also have to sort his thoughts? Po felt pressured into sitting down. And it didn't matter where. Since he did not immediately find a chair, he loved with the floor and stared holes in the air. Wang did the same and also sat on the floor. The Hun King scratched the head at a loss. "Have I already mentioned that this family always surprises me?"
Po pushed out a deep sigh. "You're not the only one, buddy." His gaze wandered to his father and Pong. The two ganders still stood in the hallway and did not seem to know if they should also move away. But since Liana still stayed, they wanted to wait. Sheng had turned to Xia, but she was escaping his comforting hug and ran outside. Po let the ears hang. He knew that Xia might have hated Xian as much as Shen did. He could understand that she couldn't stand to stay longer in the apartment. He also saw the little children stand in a circle who exchanged whispering words, with the exception of Shenmi, whose gaze rested on the closed door, as she expected that it would open up at any moment. Just when Po wanted to rise to go to her, Dao threw his katana on the floor. Then he leaned against the wall with his back, crossed his wings and stared darkly. His eyes fell on Liu and the chick. Both seemed so lost. Yin-Yu stood a little away from them and seemed to try to calm down again.
Dao briefly detached himself from the wall and went towards the two. "Hey." Liu looked up. She trembled slightly while she was still holding the baby in her wings. But Dao smiled encouragingly and looked at the chick. He even stretched out a finger feather after it and gently stroked it.
Po smiled. At least one who accepted it calmly. But maybe it was also because Dao never had to see anything from Shen's and Xiang's earlier violent arguments.
The panda perceived the old goat from the corner of the eye. "Will they ever get over it?" he asked and meant Shen and Xiang.
"This is secondary at the moment," Ān-Mā said and went over to Liu. The peahen looked at the goat uncertainly. Ān-Mā would have loved to save her worries, but she had to say it. "The child urgently needs medical help, otherwise it could happen that she..." She paused.
Po was also shocked and remembered the conversation with Dr. Wu. "But it's not quite sure that it comes that far, right?"
"What do you mean, Po?" Mr. Ping wanted to know.
Po tapped the fingertips nervously. "Well, it's ..."
But Dao also seemed to know what Ān-Mā wanted to say. "Do you really think it could happen?"
"What are you talking about?" Liu asked anxiously.
The old goat lowered her eyes. "I can't say anything with absolute certainty. But it's very likely that her condition will deteriorate."
Liu winced and hugged her baby even firmer.
Yin-Yu quickly hurried to her. "But Shen and Dao also survived. Then you have to be able to help her."
Ān-Mā nodded. "There is now only one person that could help her. In Gongmen City, there is a doctor who is familiar with this disease and could help her."
"Why didn't the doctor come with you?" Po wanted to know. "Or why didn't you bring the medicine with you at least?"
The goat sighed heavily. "I wanted it. But the ninjas have severely damaged his house and also destroyed the medication."
"The ninjas?" Po's jaw dropped down.
Zedong raised his head. "Ninjas in China? That's crazy."
Ān-Mā didn't share the enthusiasm of Zedong. "They could arrive here at any time."
"How did they get out so quickly where we are?"
"This is unimportant at the moment," the goat defended. "Dr. Wu stayed in Gongmen City and I hope that in the meantime he could make a new medicine. Nevertheless, the little girl should come to Gongmen City as soon as possible."
Mr. Ping frowned. "The fastest transport is still the flight path."
Dao nodded. "So then we have to fly her? But peafowls have not been able to do this."
Ān-Mā agreed. "You don't have to do it. The eagle who had flown me here could take her over."
At that moment, Po's face brightened. "Hey! Crane can fly her. He is much faster than an eagle. She would be there in no time."
Crane looked up in surprise. "Who? Me?"
"Of course you," Po said and hung up with the crane. "You know the way to Gongmen City anyway. And with your kung fu power you will get her there safely and quickly. Or what do you mean?"
He looked at his remaining friends first, then at the others. Liu, on the other hand, did not seem to be at the thought of giving up her baby without supervision.
Ān-Mā noticed her concerned look. "Do you agree?"
Liu hesitated. Then she nodded. "If it's the best."
Yin-Yu stroked her shoulders soothingly. "Everything will be fine again."
"Then we shouldn't lose time." The old goat pushed them and hurried to the exit.
The others followed her with hasty steps. With the exception of Zedong, who showed violently to the room door. "What about our room now? Will he stay inside now?"
Yin-Yu took him aside. "Leave him. We'll talk about that later."
She perceived Shenmi, who somehow seemed lost. The girl still looked sadly at the closed door as if she wanted to try to look through it.
Yin-Yu took Shenmi on the wing. "Come on."
The white peacock girl reluctantly followed her mother, always taking a look back to the door as she left the apartment.