As evening embraced the room, a warm glow spilled from the window, illuminating Shendu’s back as he sat at his desk. He carefully lifted his son onto his lap, ensuring the boy had a clear view of the mysterious book in front of them. Shendu was in the midst of explaining his plans for acquiring new magical powers to his curious son.
"...and with these 12 magical animals, I will become the strongest and most powerful demon to ever exist," Shendu declared with a hint of excitement in his voice.
His son, wide-eyed and filled with admiration, chimed in, "But daaaddy, you're already the strongest!"
A soft chuckle escaped Shendu’s lips. "That may be true. But with these," he gestured towards the intricate drawings of the 12 magical animals, "I will become unstoppable. See these two animals here?" He pointed at the illustrations of a rabbit and a rooster.
The son, eager and curious, followed his father's clawed finger. "Yeah, the bunny and the chicken!"
"With the combination of these two," Shendu explained, "I should be able to fly at great speeds and perhaps even travel around the whole world within a day." He lifted his other hand upward, emphasizing the possibilities.
His son's eyes lit up with excitement. "That is so cool! I want to do that! Daddy, I want magical animal powers too! Please! Pretty please!"
Shendu, however, was not amused by his son's enthusiastic demands. "Absolutely not," he said sternly.
The son's grin faded, and his voice took on a whiny tone. "But why!? That's not fair! I want to be strong and unstoba- unst... un-"
"Unstoppable," Shendu corrected.
"Unstobble!!" His son insisted. "I want to be strong too!" In a fit of frustration, he crawled onto the table, facing his father, and stomped his feet in a tantrum. "I want magical animal powers too!"
Shendu, unyielding, lifted his son and patted him on the head. "These powers are meant for me... and only me. You are far too young and inexperienced to try and use this sort of magic."
Defiantly crossing his arms, his son turned away, sulking. "It's not fair... I want to be strong, like you," he mumbled pitifully.
Shendu contemplated for a moment and gazed down at his son. "Perhaps... one day, when you're older, I will help you find and obtain a different set of powers. Something fitting for a young spit-fire like yourself," he soothed, closing the magical book.
Still pouting, the son turned to face his father, hope flickering in his eyes. "You... promise?"
"I promise."
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So this was something I thought of the other day when I was thinking about a favorite childhood show of mine, Jackie Chan Adventures. Drago’s background in the show has always been open to interpretation and I’ve always had the idea that he was born back when Shendu ruled China, 900+ years ago. Drago would be very young here and like most young children he idolizes his father and wants to be like him, which I would argue is still accurate even in season 5 of the actual show. Also, I don’t believe the name “Drago” was his real name, no way Shendu would name his kid something that wasn’t Chinese, so I just refer to him as… “his son” in the short story above.
I don’t normally do backgrounds for my drawings so this was more of an experiment to see if I could do it, and see if I could accurately capture a “mood”. Also note, I don’t know how to write Chinese so all of the characters are just scribbles, maybe think of them as “demon language” if that helps. Just don’t try to read it, its just fake text.