Dusk's Glory

[Taijitu]

Walking carefully, unsure of his footing, Di moved on through the valley. Cherry trees surrounded him on all sides, and the confusing sight just brought more pain to his eyes. He was in the land of Nihon, only a few miles from his home, Zhengshi. Out of shame, he could never return there again until he had regained his powers. The Taoist had let a simple demon seal his connections with the gods and destroy his Chi paths. Such a big mistake would be frowned upon, and his Priesthood may end. Tainted, they would call him. And with these rotting seal tattoos, he wouldn’t deny it.

His eyes were weary and as Di looked at the road before him, it seemed to wave back and forth. Then, suddenly, reality hit him and he saw that it truly was wavering as a purple mist drifted up from dark waters on the road. His surroundings came to him all at once, and he saw the cherry trees were beginning to turn black at their bases, and their leaves were falling because they were dying. Flood waters surrounded the road on all sides, and were beginning to encroach upon the raised dirt surface. In some places, the water had already crossed the path. Even worse, dark eyes stared out from the water and the Priest could feel massive dark spiritual energies coming from the growing ponds. Up ahead, far down the path, where the village of Suiyou lay, even greater dark energies were lingering.

Vengeance was in his soul, inscribed upon his skin, and the chance to rip and tear through dark spirits was just what Di needed most right now; something to release all this anger on before he hurt an innocent. Grabbing his Cheng Huang tighter in his hand, he burst down the path. The block shoes made an obscenely loud sound and around him he could hear the monsters moving through the waters, following him. The gates to the village were in sight, and six guards were readied with bows and katana, prepared to fight off monsters. Moments before he left the cherry tree valley and into the sight of the guards, a dark shadow lingered before him, cutting through his path. Thinking himself facing a monster, he drew back and went into a defensive stance, using the flute as a shield. Instead of attacking, though, the shadow spoke.

“Use…them…the…night…is…strong”

Somehow, even in the light of the nearby torches, the shadow remained completely featureless and enshrouded in darkness. Reaching out one very human hand, it proffered a small white box to the Priest. Confused, he reached out slowly and carefully, keeping the flute at the ready. The monsters behind him were approaching faster and coming closer every second, and keeping this in mind, Di gave up his hesitations and quickly grabbed the box. Just as his fingers touched it, the shadow blasted apart, disappearing. Tucking the box under one arm, figuring that he would work it out later, he burst forward and skidded to a stop before the gates.

“Monsters are coming, a lot of them.”

He said carefully and calmly in Nihongo before turning and pulling up his flute. Ready to telescope it in and summon his sword, he watched the cherry trees. The guards looked at him suspiciously, then one spoke timidly, “For some reason, they never approach the gates. We…are safe…I think.”

It didn’t do much to ease Di, but he accepted it. The beauty of the Cherry Trees had been marred. Darkness was seeping up their cores, and from his vantage point on the hill he could see the petals thinning through the valley. Sadness crept into his soul, knowing he could do something to help these people. They had gone without assistance against such a strange threat, and he was weeping about something he couldn’t change. All of that didn’t matter anymore, and Di was still a Taoist Priest and Xian, so it was his duty to assist these people. Without relaxing one bit, the Taoist turned and entered the city, a mission in mind. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.

Midnight had crept into the sky by time Di Guan reached the center square of the village of Suiyou. Raising his flute to his mouth, he wasted no time at all. Normally he would have rituals and ceremony before calling upon spirits, but the anger was building in his body and it needed to come out. Playing a soft and melancholy song, the Taoist pushed his chi into the notes, letting them float through the village and caress everything. Doors, teapots, tables, chairs, and even people. That which didn’t like the touch of the Chi fled its home, spirits that had possessed the weirdest of things. There weren’t many of them that had gotten past the guards, but a dozen or so soon made their way to the source of their discomfort, the town square.

“So…you are the ones plaguing this town? Personal minions to annoy these good people? How dare you…you don’t deserve to remain here. Your time on this planet is done. Meet your maker.”

Lowering his flute, Di reached to telescope the Cheng Huang but never got the chance. The box that the shadow had given him fell from under his arm and hit the floor with a loud crack. With the lid flying off, he simply stared as half a dozen glowing white strips of paper floated gracefully around his form. Playing like butterflies with the curves of his clothes, they finally made their gradual way to his flute, spinning rapidly around it then finally attaching themselves to its surface. There were writings on the talismans and they seemed to be some sort of exorcism charms. Staring in puzzled amazement at the development, the Taoist was caught farther off guard when his flute burst into white flames, the outline of a white sword surrounding it. While it didn’t burn, it definitely give off a holy heat and it calmed him somewhat. The monsters were still encroaching upon him, however, and their surprise wasn’t going to keep them back too much longer.

“Well…that works.”

Grinning deeply, the Taoist burst into a dash. Chi and air condensed behind him, thrusting him forward to the first one. With a single wide strike his flute arced through the beast’s chest leaving a clean cut. The physical form of the dark spirit broke to pieces before Di ever even looked at what it was. The others looked like malformed people without weapons and strange clothing. Another dash, thrust, parry, flames sprouted from a monster’s chest. Sidestep, leap, cut, falling to pieces yet another burst into flames. Running along the wall with a burst of renewed vigor and fury, Di brought his flute through the forms of the last two, watching their amazement in deep glee. They didn’t even know what was coming when their bodies were torn asunder.

Only a few moments after it had began, Di Guan stood in the center of a circle of ashes, watching the hovering spirits. Serenity had replaced the anger, but every muscle in his body ached. His chi was almost gone, yet there was one more duty to perform before he could rest. It was his responsibility. Lifting his flute to his mouth, the flames and talismans fell away, returning to their container. A tune played out, words hidden in the lyrics. Gods, lift these souls into your arms and give them the judgment they deserve. Gao Dao, bring them justice. Each golden ethereal spirit faded away, some rising up to embark to the heavens and other falling to the hells. A sad but satisfied smile replaced the grin on Di’s face, only moments before darkness consumed his vision and he fell to the ground unconscious. Chi wasn’t endless, after all.

But, Suiyou wasn’t safe…not even close.

[Reiko]

A white haired girl wagged her fluffy silver tail as she practically drooled over some rice pastries. “Um sir, can I um please have one, if you don’t mind.” She wagged her tail in hopes.

“Unless you pay, I mind.” The merchant snapped harshly.

Ki hearing the man yell at Chiyo, ran at all haste and bowed. “I’m sorry for bugging you, I’ll pay for anything she wants.” Doji apologized, hiding her ire at the man, her daughter merely asked.

“This place isn’t for children or weird women. Our town is cursed because of oni like you.”

Another fox child, this time a wild young boy ran up and jumped on to the counter. He was playing the hero, to Ki’s dismay. The boy was far too young for heroics and it was only going to make things messy. “Hey, why don’t you leave the girls alone?”

Doji twitched her nine tails and sighed, her child was too young for Chivalry too. Worse it provoked the chef to raise a spoon to whack the small fox boy. But the rude food seller didn’t get to swing before a blade touched his throat. “Don’t harm my children, I’m sorry for this but we’re leaving and you are just going to continue like nothing happened.” Doji then removed the blade from its near fatal position and put it back in its sheath. Then turned to her children with a smile. “I’m really sorry about that, we’ll have to find somewhere else to eat.” She picked up Ryo the fox boy and put him down then led the twins away.

Ki still felt bitter but she wanted to hide it and maybe do something fun for her kids. “Hey, how about a race to the gates. Winner has to give a piggy back ride to the loser.” Ki giggled as she got in a position to run.

“Hey, not fair, you’re faster.” Ryo complained as his sister nodded.

“Well we could just walk…” Ki tailed off knowing that the air would agree to the race after that.

“Ok we’ll race!” The two said in Unison.

“Alright… Go!” Doji yelled and gave the twins a head start, she knew she’d beat them but that’s why the prize was giving a piggyback ride and not receiving one. Once they had a good going then she bolted, her nine tails not slowing her down.

But there was something strange, the town’s gate had a crowd looking outside, a whole forest of peasant Kimonos. There were all impeding her path and she just could keep up with her kids, who ran through the legs, causing several ladies to yelp, as they felt furry tailed children scurry under them.

“Ack, I’m so sorry!” Ki called out to the embarrassed women. “They didn’t mean any harm, we’re just playing.” Ki would have continued her apology but she heard some music, it was very beautiful and yet painful at the same time. It was like her body was trying to be folded but it was fighting.

Chiyo and Ryo were screaming, and lying on the ground, the crowed stepped back and started murmuring about what was wrong with them, were they demons or freaks. “Back off!” Ki yelled and they scattered as the even stranger yet beautiful woman went to her kids. “Are you ok?” The music stopped and they seemed fine, Ryo was sniffling while Chiyo was still crying. “It’s alright, you’ll be ok.”

Doji then looked out in the forest to see the demons being banished, explaining the pain they were feeling. But the priest had past out, and none of the townsfolk were going to set foot out of town. “Kids, stay here, I’ll get the man to safety.” Ki went out and dragged the man in quickly; the demons weren’t going to get near just yet for fear of his power. Ki even wondered why she was doing this since the man had unwittingly harmed her children. But then it wasn’t his fault; he was doing what needed to be done.

“Is he going to ok?” Chiyo asked while swishing her tail.

“Yeah” Ki answered.

“What was that, why did it hurt?” Ryo asked.

“It’s sacred magic, foxes are weak to it, it wanted to change us to are natural form but our bodies didn’t want to be change.” Ki said in an over complicated explanation. “He had to, to protect the village.” Ki looked back to the collapsed monk, “Hey, wake up.”

.

[Nymph and Dragon]

“What the hell is this?”

The nymph’s voice echoed shrilly in the small shop, seemingly unhampered by the yards of cloth that hung from the walls and that should have muffled her screech. The Elemental was studiously ignoring her frequent complaints, his attention turned to the open doorway through which he could view the city square. He stood amongst standing bolts of cloth near the door, his aqueous form dismissible to any possible onlookers as heat waves or imagination. Despite the fact that his natural form was positively mammoth on his home plane, he was used to the minuteness of his size on Althanas and had even come to consider it an advantage, especially in situations like this one that required surveillance.

“You can’t be serious. People actually wear this crap?”

He heard the flustered murmuring of the shopkeeper and felt a pang of regret for ever putting the idea of this trip into the nymph’s mind. She couldn’t go anywhere without causing trouble, and ever since she’d gotten the Pillar Pearl she’d been practically insufferable. She’d complained throughout the journey, silent only when the tossing of the waves as they’d traveled by boat made her seasick. Apparently she had never before been on one of the ships that she'd spent so much of her life capsizing, and the rocking lull and constant exposure to salt water had been too much for her delicate composition. The reminder made the Elemental bare his transparent teeth in a draconic smirk. Oh, the irony . . .

“Yeah, thanks, but no. If my foreign apparel upsets the natives, they can kiss my dragon’s aqueous butt. Speaking of the devil . . .” The Elemental felt her presence drawing nearer and winced at the wave of dislike that accompanied it. It seemed that she hated him now just as much as she did when their souls had first been bonded together. Every attempt on his part to make peace had been met with scornful refusal and derision. How could he make her see that their forced companionship didn’t have to be a burden?

A bolt of blue silk moved at his side and another of red fell over as the nymph carelessly pushed them aside to reveal the dragon. The lower part of her face was wrapped in a sheer pink scarf that allowed only a hint of her features to be evident, but even with just her blue eyes plainly visible the Elemental knew that she perfectly fit the human description of beautiful. If only her heart matched her face in attractiveness.

“There you are, little snake,” she said, her voice still conspicuously loud in the small shop. “These ‘kimono’ things don’t appeal to me, so I’m going to go find something that does. If I had any trust in your opinion I’d get your recommendation on what’s good to eat, but considering that this little shop was your idea in the first place, I think I’ll figure out what I want on my own.”

With a tug on her hood the nymph swept out of the shop with a jaunty flick of her blue robe.

Wait, something’s going on out there! The Elemental knew his cry would go unheeded and with a small sigh he crawled after her, hoping that his foot-long size and liquid composition would be enough to keep himself unnoticed. Considering the tumult of the crowd, he was fairly certain that it would be. Crawling along the outside wall of the shop, he followed the link in his mind and quickly caught sight of the purple-cloaked nymph. She was taller than much of the crowd, but her brightly colored clothes didn’t stand out as they did in other parts of the world. She’d disdained his suggestion to wear less conspicuous colors, but now her showy clothes almost blended in with the kimonos of those around her.

It was hard for the Elemental to see through the forest of people who stood between himself and the action at the center of the crowd, but a quick sweep of the minds in the town square told him what was going on. An unconscious man lay in the dust, some kind of flute in his hand that had elicited a strange response from the tailed woman who stood over him. There was a lingering apprehension in most of the minds that had something to do with shadows and water, but human minds were too flighty for much in-depth learning.

What’s going on, snake?

Her peevish voice was loud even when she was only speaking to his mind. He hadn’t had the courage to teach her how not to yell when communicating telepathically.

There’s some confusion about the man. Some people think he rescued them from demons, other people think he’s the demon lord who called them here. I think the woman is protecting him from the people who want him imprisoned or killed.

Demons? He could feel her trying to put a clamp on her emotions, but a rush of fear traveled down their link despite her efforts, a feeling that he was loath to admit was present in his mind as well. Who’s the gal with the fox tails on the back of her kimono? Is that some kind of sign of authority?

The Elemental scanned the crowd again, detecting the woman to whom she was referring. She’s a . . . those are her tails.

His words were greeted with a brief moment of silence, but he could detect her movement as she got nearer to the front of the crowd.

Is that kind of inter-species breeding normal? Her voice was filled with a mixture of curiosity and revulsion, a tone he’d come to recognize meant that she was itching to Mindwrite what she was learning for her record of humanity.

I don’t think so. Definite answers seemed to rile the nymph, so the Elemental had learned to stick to ambiguous responses. Sensing that she was still moving closer to the center of the crowd, he tried to think quickly of a tactful way to make his suggestion. Perhaps it would be wiser not to confront her on her ancestry at the moment; she seems a little preoccupied with the priest.

The nymph took the recommendation better than he’d expected. Save your advice for the few sentient beings who are stupider than you. A moment later she had stopped moving and continued with, I’m not going to talk to her, I just want a good view of what’s going on. I'm supposed to be on a well-needed vacation, and this trip so far has been atrociously boring. Maybe a little excitement will help to leaven the agony of your constant presence.

The Elemental sighed in relief. He’d made a suggestion, she’d explained her actions to him, and the exchange hadn’t ended in a passionate tirade on the evils of lizards. She hadn't even bothered to insult him! He must be getting better at communication.