Lord Shen Returns

Chapter 3: As Time Passes

Time seemed to move slowly.
The next day dawned through the slow hours that came with master after master being summoned from the spirit realm and thrown into cage after cage. Until by the late evening The Chameleon closed the door to the spirit realm.
"I think that's enough for now. I need rest yes that will do me good then I'll continue later. In the meantime, Guards! Make sure to check on the cages make sure no one tries to get out and Zhen! ZHEN!!" The Chameleon shouted.
Up on a giant and long staircase ran down a grey fox in light grey pants, a deep blue shirt and a blue head scarf around her neck.
"Yes here master" panted Zhen.
"Good took you long enough. Now as for you Zhen. You've worked long and hard so you deserve to take some time to rest. Or do whatever you want but don't leave the fortress understand?" The Chameleon said firmly.
"Yes master" said Zhen with her head down low.
"Zhen I don't like it when you slouch, stand up straight for goodness sake."
Zhen quickly straightened her posture then followed the Chameleon up the tall staircase.

Up above in Shen's cage he watched as The Chameleon and Zhen walk up the staircase into another part of the fortress. Shen stepped back into his cage but his long tail feathers hit the back of the cage.  Shen grunted in frustration at the limited amount space he had, he twisted his body to the left and swung his tail feathers around so they were wrapped around the right part of his waist.
Shen winced as the wound in his shoulder stung. He lifted his wing from his shoulder and glanced down at his wound, the bleeding had stopped but Shen just hoped it wouldn't get infected.

Shen slumped forward feeling helpless with himself. He despised feeling this way. All the while his thoughts were battling inside his mind which caused him to be even more agitated.

You will never get out of here
You are weak! You always have been
You are pathetic all because you didn't have the weapons to help you to defend yourself
Look at yourself you're completely useless, look at you, your trapped, your wounded, and you're meant to be a lord.
What kind of lord lets himself to be captured so easily?
You act like you're the bravest and the strongest person in the room but you're just afraid that you will never live up to your parents.
No wonder your parents never loved you.

Shen clutched his head as his wings shook violently while his thoughts kept talking to him like they had control over his mind.

STOP! STOP IT!!
Stop talking!
Stop! GET OUT OF MY HEAD! Shen fumed as he tried to block the thoughts out of his mind.
His heart furiously beat inside his chest and his body began to shake extremely.

Face it you won't get out of here
The panda won't let you out, why would he? You killed his parents, you took everything from him.
Your going to rot in here, you deserve it
If you stay here much longer you're going to go insane, INSANE!

No I will not go insane
I will get out of here!

Over and over he repeated those words in his head until the voices in his head stopped bothering him. If they would ever stop.

Just breathe, breathe slowly. Shen thought to himself. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, thankfully he started feeling much more calm.

No one knew how long they would be trapped in the Chameleon's fortress. Would they be here forever? Would the Chameleon release them once she had everyone's kung fu? Or would she make them do her bidding? So the masters stood in their cages in silence and waited until the silence that lingered on around them broke.

***

Two days later...

As two days passed by it felt like everything was frozen in time almost like the world had become empty. Once the first day went past The Chameleon had once again started to open the spirit realm and summoning more masters of kung fu. The masters who had been locked inside their cages grew restless and their eyes were drained with tiredness.
Shen who had tried to stay awake all that time felt his eyes drifting down. He kept telling himself he would not rest until he found a way out but he couldn't help feeling hopeless.