Den Wolf Einfangen

[Vigil]

(Solo. Or, Boosting activity up in this bitch.)

"A man's illness is his private territory and, no matter how much he loves you and how close you are, you stay an outsider. You are healthy." - Lauren Bacall

[Vigil]

Upon the ferry that had been bound for the small, strangle island of Akashima, Liam found himself quickly ensnared by the vibrance and freshness of such a rural and feudal community. Separated by only the sea, the Irishman found it hard to believe that such a place with its clusters of towering, wooden buildings and bowed roofs housed the yellow and slant-eyed people the old man had come to know as the Akashi. It was such a jarring transition from the staunch, decaying and industrious life of Corone that he was scarcely prepared what awaited him upon his arrival.

Even so, Liam already knew he was going to find himself in a hard way in such an alien culture. Since he stepped upon the ferry, he quickly realized before they had even disembarked that he was the only white man aboard the vessel. Everyone else there was of Akashi-descent and bore the impoverished, hardened exterior of peasants that made up the fishing villages and cities on the island. But, being the only man of his race upon the ferry didn't so much bother him as few men he knew in Corone shared his heritage as a native Irishman. What really struck him was not his own impression of the Akashi, but their reaction of his very presence upon the ferry.

Most of the peasants paid him a wide berth, even the Captain feverishly looked away rather then meeting the old Irishman's gaze. The uncomfortable feeling of rejection and feeling apart from his fellow man bothered Liam. He didn't like the wary glances and uncomfortable shuffling of feet when he looked upon the people who cowed before him. The same people he would be breaking his fasts with and sleeping with in the same homes. Being a man who grew up without his country, he already knew what it was like to be an outsider looking in to a world that wholly didn't belong to him. What he wasn't used to were the people who populated that world acknowledging him as a foreigner. At least as a white man he could blend into places like Radasanth. At least as a devout Catholic he could share the common bond with a Coronian that they both worshipped one, loving God rather then ghosts of dead ancestors. At least in some sense, in Corone, he could feel some sort of connection to Ireland without actively acknowledging that he didn't belong here.

It was for these reasons more then any other that Liam immediately began to dislike the Akashi as any outsider who was being shunned would.

Standing there upon the ferry with his back to the other passengers who stood around like cattle and waited to arrive at their destination in silence, Liam stared at the strange, new island that would be his home for the next month. With a simple suitcase in hand, his Stetson perched upon his head and his crisp, starched charcoal-coloured suit causing him already to sweat, the Irishman thought back to what had brought him here.

A hope. No, a rumor. He had become fixated on a tale of a shaman that resided in one of the inner cities upon the island that could help Liam with his ever present problem. The Wolf. With the parchment of a name and an address scrawled upon it tucked away in his wallet, Liam would not leave the island until he found the man he would come to call Yung Lee. Perhaps the little Akashi might be able to find a way to help him trap the monster inside of him, chewing upon its cage of flesh.

Ravaging his soul.

Liam soon found himself quietly contemplating the implications of such perils of being freed from his curse that he chose to look out to sea and do so in silence for the rest of the voyage. In a matter of hours, the ferry reached the island, and the Irishman again found himself an outsider braving a new world.

[Vigil]

Arriving at the small fishing village of Piyat, the ferry was not even moored to the docks when the Captain and his two attendants herded the passengers off the boat. The Akashi sailors focused particularly on Liam, trying to get him off the ferry as soon as possible, stopping short of pushing him off and throwing his luggage ashore with him. The old man glowered at the pair of brutish, young sailors who had insisted on helping him off the ferry and even rapped one across the back of the neck with his cane when he stooped to pick up his suitcase. "Keep your hands off of my things, boy." He snapped.

The attendants simply looked at him with a bovine expression, the old man unable to tell whether they even understood a word he said. But, before he could pause to say something else, the two sailors exclaimed something in their native tongue and began to push him towards the end of the ferry. He couldn't understand what they were saying, but the meaning was fairly clear. Throwing his payment for the ferry at their feet, he took his suitcase and turned to step smartly off the boat. Liam was halfway down the dock before the rest of the passengers even began to disembark.

The incident not going unnoticed, Liam eventually dismissed it all the same. From the first few minutes Liam had entered the village, he quickly found out that Piyat was not so much a village at all but that of a small city. The dirt roads that led about the small town were thick and claustrophobic with throngs of Akashi who milled about, carrying on with their lives as they paid the white man little heed. The traffic reminded the Irishman distinctly of the crowded streets of inner Radasanth during the morning, but without the industrial, sulfur smell of the city. Instead, his nose quickly caught the pungent, decaying stench of day-old fish and the spray of salt from the sea.

Trying to find his way about the village had caused the old man a great deal of trouble as crowds of Akashi threatened to trample him as they rushed down the roads, and others simply stopped and paused to stare at him. It occurred to the Irishman that not many of these villagers had ever seen a white person before, much less knew how to react to him. The thought of it seemed absurd to the Irishman, being only a stone's throw from Corone proper, how could they possibly never seen a white man before?

The question slipped his mind as he was beckoned over by a small, friendly Akashi who wore a straw hat and stood by a rickshaw. Even before he greeted the young man, Liam realized with some disdain that the Akashi smiled just a bit too much to be considered sincere.

"Hello, Cor-Man!" The Akashi said as he waved him over, "You want ride to Yanbo? You on business? What is a white man doing in tiny Piyat?"

Liam shrugged as he hooked a thumb over his Stetson and pushed it up, "Ferry man didn't seem to fond of me. Charged too much for Yanbo. But, you're right, Akashi. I'm on business and I need to make it to the city. Can you get me out of here?"

"Yes, yes!" The Akashi said with an exaggerated nod, his English quick and clipped by his native tongue. It was almost as if he had learned to speak it yesterday, and had a great difficultly pronouncing words that began with the letter 'L', instead supplementing them with 'R' to make it easier on himself. Or he just avoided them completely. "Get there in no time. Forty crowns!"

"Forty?" Liam said flatly, unable to mask his disbelief. "In that?"

The Akashi turned to where the old man was pointing, showing an extreme distaste for the rickshaw and used to better treatment. "Surely you don't have some sort of carriage? Where are the horses for this?"

"Horses?" The Akashi said, his face twisted almost comically at the question. "No horses. No crowns. I take you up to Yanbo."

Noticing that the Irishman didn't quite follow him, the Akashi thumped himself on the chest and smiled. "I be horse!"

Liam cocked an eyebrow and grabbed for his wallet before restraining himself. "But still, forty? That's a bit.. too much."

The Akashi smiled again and waved him closer to reassure him. "Yes, bit much, but Po fast. Make it over hills and down trails in no time flat! Forty crowns, get in Yanbo within hour!"

The Irishman was old enough to know when he was being lied to, but he had little alternative and didn't much savor the idea of venturing down the road as a foreigner in a place he didn't know much about. Swallowing his pride and surrendering his money to the man with the rickshaw, Liam pointed to his suitcase. The Akashi, with a smile on his face and rather muscular arms grabbed his suitcase and hurled it into the rickshaw with no illusion of being delicate with his passenger's luggage at all. "In! In! We go now!"

Ready to beat the little man for mishandling his luggage, Liam instead took the reins of his anger and stumbled into the rickshaw as he was being beckoned by the little imp. Sitting completely level with the Akashi, the old man thought the rickshaw was a bit to small for him as the bottom threatened to touch the ground and the wheels groaned as he climbed aboard.

The Akashi, smiling at his newest patron took off his straw hat and tossed it to Liam who sat it away from him. The young man who could not have been older then twenty bore the hardened physique of a farmer's son and he walked about in a linen shirt stained yellow with sweat. It was then that the Irishman also noticed Po did not wear any shoes and as he turned with his back to him and grabbed either pole connected to the rickshaw, the Akashi shouted behind him, "Get ready, Cor-Man! Bumpy ride!"

Pulling down on the poles to push the Rickshaw upright, Liam yelped as he fell back in his seat, stopping himself in time to keep his suitcase from tumbling over the edge. Cocked at a weird angle and with many of the peasants stopping to stare at the strange scene, Liam put a hand on his Stetson as the rickshaw took off with a snap.

In a matter of seconds they were down the main street as Po threatened to bowl a group of returning fishermen over. In another few minutes the pair were outside the city and into the winding foothills of the island, the only noise accompanying them both were the sound of bells and the heavy panting of the rickshaw man. Occasionally Liam would yell in protest at the narrow turns and the speed of such a ride. Once he even saw the rickshaw careen over a cliff, threatening to spill him and his luggage over the edge.

The white knuckle ride on more then one occasion made Liam curse Po openly for his ability to drive. The rest of the time was spent in silent prayer he would make it to Yanbo safely. True to his word, however, Po managed to get them both to the harbor in one piece in a matter of hours.