Through the Looking Glass: Penance: Chapter 1-B
Cream: Chapter 1
Cream held the map in her hand nervously as she set her bright beige eyes on the small town in front of her. She looked over all of the buildings that were in the town, watching a multitude of townspeople running around doing their last duties of the day as the sun set in the horizon. There was no doubt in her mind that she was at the right place. It looked peaceful... exactly the kind of place that looked like a refuge to runaways.
"Evening, miss. How may I help you today?"
"Evening. Do you have a room available?"
"Of course, dear. Do you mind where it is, or...?"
"I really could care less. I'm not really here for seeing the view so much as I am searching for somebody. Tell me, have you seen the person in this photo?"
Cream thumbed through the pocket of the pants she had acquired during the two years she had been chasing after Tails, and when her thumb rested on the portrait of Tails that she always carried around, she took it out and took one glance at the fox that was there. Looking up and crossing her arms over her red shirt, the teenage rabbit walked into the town.
"I'm afraid not, Miss. I'm sorry, but this inn has not had many tenants lately, and unfortunately I haven't seen this face either."
"Oh, dear... I think I might've lost track of him."
"Oh, I dunno about that. Is he a runaway?"
"Yes, sir..."
"Aha! I know just the place that can help you with that!"
"You do?"
"Certainly! It will take an entire day's trek to get there by foot, though, so I hope you're an early riser!"
"Oh, don't worry about that! Now, where is this place?"
Cream walked through the town, watching all manner of rabbits and pigs move about as they closed their market. Everything was only slightly frantic, and Cream found herself dodging people more than she would have liked.
It was not until she felt her weight bump straight into something else that she was snapped out of her reverie quite disturbingly. Grunting, she fell on the ground in a sitting position. Rubbing her head lightly, she realized she had bumped into an old goose that was struggling around with a noodle cart.
"Oh, my God, I'm so sorry!" cried the rabbit girl, instantly standing up and helping the old goose to his feet. "I'm so, so sorry!"
"Don't worry about it," said the goose nervously. "You looked like you were thinking of something, so I didn't see it fit to think like that."
"Still..." said the rabbit girl. "I... I shouldn't have been thinking like that! I hope I didn't do too much damage!"
Looking around his cart, the goose shook hise head as he glanced all over it. "Nope, everything is fine," he said. "You look new here. It's always good to see new faces. Always good for business, you know?"
"Oh?" asked Cream, a little taken by surprise by the sudden change of subject. "Oh, uh... actually, I was heading to the Jade Palace...?"
"Oh, you're going to see my lovely son?" asked the goose, his features lighting up in glee as he brought his wigs together.
Perplexed, the rabbit raised one of her eyebrows. "Your son?" she asked.
"Yeah!" he said excitedly. "My son is the Dragon Warrior!"
"He is?" asked the rabbit. "Wow, I never would've guessed. But no, I'm actually here to find a friend... He ran away from home, so I'm trying to find him."
"Oh!" said the goose, a little surprised. "Well, he will still be able to help you. My son is a good man. I brought him up well, I did!"
Cream nodded with a smile on her face. "I'm looking forward to meeting him then. I'll send him your regards, Mr... uh...?"
"Ping," finished the goose with a satisfied wink. "And you are...?"
"Cream," she said somewhat gingerly. "Cream the Rabbit. A pleasure, Mr. Ping."
The goose nodded. "I do wish you luck in finding your friend! I'm sure my son and the Furious Five will be more than willing to help you!"
"Thank you for telling me about him," said the rabbit. "I'm sorry to take up your time."
"It is no problem at all," reassured Mr. Ping pleasantly. "I'll be on my way then. Good luck, and may good fortune be with you!"
"Same to you!" Cream replied as Mr. Ping picked up his noodle cart and walked away.
The rabbit's gaze was trained on the noodle cart as it was carried away.
"What a nice man..." she muttered, more to herself than anybody else. "I'll bet the Dragon Warrior is a great person!"
Turning around, she suddenly noticed a stairway that seemed to come at the end of the road. Looking up, the rabbit thought she could see the outline of a grand temple at the top of the staircase.
Looking at this, she nodded. "This must be it," she muttered to herself.
"It's the Jade Palace. Here's a map of this country. Now, what you want to do is you want to go to where the Valley of Peace is. The Jade Palace should be atop a huge set of stairs. It's really hard to miss. All the runaways I've known have been trying to get to that point, and even if it's not their ultimate destination, I'm sure the people there would be more than willing to help and give you a place to stay while you wait."
"And... And what should be there?"
"You'll find the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five up there, along with their master. They are the strongest kung fu warriors in all of China, and they teach young children how to defend themselves while also providing refuge for runaways. Even if they have never seen your friend, they are also excellent trackers and I'm sure they will be able to find him in no time."
"Oh, thank you so much for the help, sir!"
"Don't mention it. I just hope to see another person reunited with friends and family."
"I dunno; I've been following his trail for two years now and I still haven't found any signs of being close to him."
"Well, then again, you can't go wrong with the Furious Five. I'm sure your journey will end soon."
"I hope so. Thanks for all the help!"
"No problem. Oh, and the room is five gold tonight, so you don't forget."
Cream had ascended the staircase, her long ears flopping a little behind her as she found herself in front of a great temple with open doors. She looked into a palace with its walls shining of jade. She saw a small pool at the far end of the temple as she entered it, the pool giving off an ethereal green light. Above the pool sat a stone dragon head mounted on the ceiling, a scroll situated in the dragon's maw. As she entered, she saw a small gong over to the side that seemed to be of very small use.
Looking around, the rabbit's eyes wandered the hall, awestruck at the sheer beauty of the place they were in. However, upon an immediate glance she saw nobody there. She figured this to be a function of the fact that the sun was now barely over the horizon, twilight already beginning to settle onto the sky.
The gong that she had noticed upon entering caught her attention. Shrugging and deciding it was the only way to get somebody's attention, she walked over to the instrument. Picking up the beater gingerly, she looked at it for a second before whirling around. The gong then let out a loud boom, the sound reverberating in the space that the palace occupied as Cream instantly dropped the beater and covered her ears.
Her eyes remained open, though, and suddenly her ears picked up the sound of footfalls on the floor as the gong's noise died away slowly. Opening eyes that she hadn't realized she had closed, she looked in front of her and found a rather small person standing in front of her, almost as if he had appeared there magically. Taking note of the red robe he wore, Cream uncovered her ears and looked down at the person who looked a lot older than she did.
"Uh... Hi..." she said, realizing that his glance was making her more nervous than she had any right to be.
"I see you must be nervous," said the small creature simply. "You're a runaway, I assume?"
"Uh, not really..." said Cream, gulping softly as she thumbed through her pocket for her picture of Tails. "But I am looking for one." She got a hold of the picture in between her index and middle fingers, and then she took the portrait out, holding it out in front of the red and white furred creature in front of her. "Tell me; have you seen this person?"
The creature's gaze went right to the photo before he took the photo out of her hand gingerly. Listlessly, he looked at the portrait, almost as if this had been second nature to him. After about five seconds of this intent gaze, the person in front of her shook his head.
"No, I haven't," he said simply. "Are you a parent?"
"Friend," she replied. "Nobody that knows him knew what became of his parents. He only had a brother figure, but he died. I still think he took it too hard."
"Nonsense..." replied the older person insightfully. "I have seen many runaways come here after a loved one of theirs dies. Usually, those runaways return home of their own volition after three days."
Cream shook her head. "I'm afraid this isn't one of those runaways," she admitted, sheepishly. "The circumstances behind the brother figure's death are really, really complicated. And I actually travelled the world for two years trying to find him, and he's never stayed in the same spot twice..."
Surprised, the rodent in front of her raised an eyebrow, his glance betraying his true amount of surprise. "Two years?" he asked. "That is an unusal case... What happened?"
Cream gulped uncertainly before shaking her head. "I shouldn't tell you," she said earnestly. "Again, it's complicated. But I need to find him. He did something wrong, but I think running away for two years like this is the worst thing he could have done. And I need to find him, and I need to find him soon."
"Revenge is the path of the coward," recited the creature almost mechanically.
The rabbit was appropriately miffed like this, her fists clenching the slightest bit. "That's not what I meant," she replied sternly. "What he did was none of his fault. I'm trying to find him... so that my friends can forgive him. So that I can forgive him. But he's gotten too hard to find..."
Here, Cream got on her knees, fighting back tears. "I've gone on a wild chase for some time..." she said. "And... I just want it to end. For his sake as well as mine... Please, sir, you have to help me... He's one of my best friends... and it breaks my heart to think what he might be doing..."
Having listened to the explanation, the old man nodded, a small smile coming to his face. "I see..." he began simply. "Very well. But I cannot promise to make it a priority. Our priority is to China first and then to the runaways. So if something happens that threatens the peace, then we will pull back on the search for this friend of yours."
"Oh, thank you so much!" Cream exclaimed, bowing down to the man she had only just met. "I'm Cream by the way..."
"I am Xang Li Shifu," replied the older man as he began walking in a particular direction. "Come. We have some dormitories this way. The Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior should get to know you."
And with this, Shifu simply walked away, Cream standing up and following him slowly as they exited the temple and climbed up a long, winding path up the mountain.
"Oh, so you met Mr. Ping?"
"Yeah. He was a very nice man, he was. I... I still can't believe that he's your father."
"Niether can I, Cream. Niether can I."
Cream had been introduced to the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Five shortly before they had all sat for dinner. The rabbit was considered the guest of honor, so she sat with the Dragon Warrior to her right and Shifu to her left.
She was utterly shocked and surprised to find that the Dragon Warrior that Mr. Ping had spoken so positively about was a fat panda by the name of Po. She was quickly silenced by the respect he earned from the Furious Five and Shifu, however, and he really was a very nice man, so she decided to see how the warrior performed. The panda was currently busy at work cooking up some noodles for the night.
Down the table she saw the rest of the Furious Five, whom she thought had the most redundant names of all; Tigress was appropriately a tigress, Viper was a snake, Mantis was... a cricket, but she tried not to dwell on the fact that he was actually something else entirely, Monkey was of course a monkey, and Crane was of course a crane. She would have found herself hard-pressed to think of the animal kingdom again without one of them coming to mind, but as it was she decided to play along with it as a name was something she knew she could not change.
"Still, you have a good upbringing," said Cream, continuing the conversation. "It's always good to have good parents."
"Speaking of that, aren't your own parents worried sick about you right now?" asked Mantis from where he sat across the table.
Cream shrugged. "I never knew my father..." she said, glancing at the ceiling temporarily. "But yeah, I'm sure my mom is worried sick. I wrote back to her at least three times a week before I came here, and I did say why I probably wouldn't be sending anything the last time I was able to send something, but still..."
"You definitely don't sound like your average runaway, that's for sure," commented Tigress across from where the praying mantis sat as she rapped her fingers lightly against the table.
"Well, again, I'm looking for a friend that ran away," replied the rabbit... "I hope he's been taking care of himself..."
It was then that the panda had started parading around the table, dropping a few noodles into the bowls that were out in front of everyone. "I'm sure he has," he said reassuringly. "If he managed to survive outrunning you for two years, then he's taking care of himself."
Cream nodded as Po dropped some noodles into her bowl carefully. "I hope he's okay..."
"Then why not just tell us the nature of what he did?" asked Tigress impatiently. "I think it'll spare us all--!"
"Master Tigress, please," said Cream, sighing. "I told you, it's a sensitive subject. Even after two years, it still gives me the creeps what happened on that day..."
Viper seemed to glance at the rabbit before speaking. "And why not tell us about it now? I would think it would be easier to handle if you did not keep bottle it within yourself."
"Well, that's the other thing," replied the rabbit. "I wasn't the only one to see it. And I know I'm not the only one to hear about it as well. So there's nothing for me to bottle up. If I want to tell you, I'll tell you."
"Yeah, and then you'll tell us when the Yangtze River dries out two years after it's happened," quipped Mantis quickly, earning a chuckle from Monkey.
In reply, Cream shot the nastiest glare she could manage at the insect. The glare alone was enough to shock Monkey into a quick silence, the mantis rearing back a little as Cream's gaze seemed to penetrate his exoskeleton.
Crane shook his head as he took a hold of his chopsticks with his feet. "Could we leave her alone about it?" he asked slowly. "She obviously doesn't want to talk about it, and I don't think that pressing the issue is going to help when she finally does decide to tell. Let her come forward by herself."
Nodding appreciatively to the bird, the rabbit smiled. "Thank you, Master Crane," she said politely as she took a hold of her chopsticks gingerly. Slowly, she brought the chopsticks down to the bowl of noodles. Gingerly, she lifted the chopstick full of noodles up to her mouth.
The truth was, even with her small experience handling chopsticks, she was still a little unsure of how to eat noodles. She tried her best, however, gingerly taking the noodles in her mouth and tasting them.
"Mmm..." she said as she chewed and swallowed her food, looking at the remaining kung fu masters doing the same thing. "This is delicious!"
"Yep, Po is the best of the best," complimented Mantis. "What can I say about that?"
"Thanks..." replied the panda after he had swallowed his bite.
And they ate their dinner in silence as Cream pondered on the events that had taken place that day.