The Shih

Chien Fen halted in the shadow cast by the smoking torches stuck into the ground in front of the food vendor's stall, then bent over, his hands on his knees, until his heart stopped racing and his breathing slowed. A few cautious glances behind him showed no sign of the outraged merchant's guards and Chien Fen allowed himself to relax, before wearily shaking his head. Who would have thought they would have reacted so badly? It had been only a very small egg, after all....

As his pulse rate settled more towards normal, Fen sauntered further into the night market. The cheapest food and drink stalls were closest to the river, if he recalled correctly, so he turned his steps in that direction. After all that running, he could certainly use a drink. The night market was busy and Chien Fen glanced left and right at the various wares laid out. Things that might look tawdry by daylight acquired a certain glamour in the flickering orange light of the smoky fish oil lanterns. Around him people swirled, intent on their business or drifting, looking for new amusement. Buyers and sellers bargained in tones of mock outrage. How much life there was here, compared to the grey stone walls of the Temple of the Seven Golden Gods! Truly the study of the Tao should be undertaken in the streets, he thought. Shortly thereafter, he approached his favoured teahouse, which leant out over the river in an apparently ramshackle fashion. On seeing it though, he groaned inwardly. Right next to it, a gaggle of fishermen squatted on the riverbank encircling a vendor selling the new drink the servants of the Black Foreigners had bought. Already their voices made the night raucous.

He paused, undecided as whether to take tea here or not.

Fen hesitated for a moment, his agile mind turning the situation over. Loud drunks next to his favorite teahouse was certainly not conducive to relaxation, and while this merchant was certainly turning a good profit he had probably already extracted a large amount of coin from these fishermen, probably all they had. For a while, he balanced on the razor edge of conscious, a very long while. About two seconds, in fact. For him, taking two seconds to decide on a prank or not was an eternity.

Approaching unobtrusively, he bent down to whisper in the ear of one of the fishermen who was sitting on the fringe of the group. "Excuse me, cunning fisherman, but I am afraid I just saw someone attacking your boats with a chisel. Is he a rival of yours?" Fen asked with a small smile on his face even though the fisherman's breath was nothing short of revolting.

Angrily the fisherman lurched to his feet. "Kyung Po? WHERE?!" he bellowed, drawing the attention of his comrades. Fen smiled and pointed a direction, toward the other end of town. Immediately the fisherman was off, stumbling down the road yelling about the vile despicable Kyung Po and what he was going to do to him for trying to hurt his boat that Kyung Po was so jealous of. The other fishermen heard him and decided they didn't really like Kyung Po either and followed, drunk as monkeys but intent on vengeance.

Chien Fen smiled and shrugged at the merchant, who stared at him in shock. "They'll surely stumble into a ditch or something long before they find him," Fen said reassuringly. "And with the headaches they will surely have in the morning, I doubt they will remember anything about it at all."

With a small bow to the merchant, who looked almost ready to clobber him, Fen walked into the teahouse in search of someplace to sit in peace and quiet.

Passing boats trailed golden wakes on the water from their lanterns as Chien Fen finished his third cup of tea. He noticed an gradually swelling uproar and on listening more carefully, realised that certain fishermen might be returning. However, it seemed unlikely that they were intent on any kind of vengeance - they had probably forgotten what they had set out after in the first place, he mused. Instead, they were apparently egging one of their number on in some foolishness, as he could hear shouts of encouragement and ribald comments.

Then Fen noticed something else - the sounds of the market, which had formed a backdrop to the shouting of the fishermen, had suddenly diminished

Chien Fen tried to ignore the commotion outside, and he did. For about three seconds. Finally, curiousity won out over prudence and he got up. Setting coins on the table for the tea, he went outside to take a discreet look...

From the steps of the tea house, Chien Fen could see the fishermen - if anything, their numbers had grown. Between twenty and thirty of them formed a rough ring about one of their number, who pranced in front of a woman. She was well dressed - too well dressed for this part of town - and was plainly seeking some route of escape from the ring of jeering men around her. The man nearest her shouted something, inaudible over the general outcry, but Chien Fen could see the woman flinch. He also noticed the nearest stall-holders discreetly withdrawing from the vicinity.

The decision was immediate. Fen had no idea who this woman was or what she was doing there, but unless he did something it was going to get ugly. He moved quickly and quietly to where the Black Foreigner drink merchant was packing up his wares and managed to filch a bottle without him noticing. Uncorking it, he took a sniff and wrinkled his nose. Good, it would burn beautifully. Next, he pulled a small candle from a pocket and lit it from a nearby torch. Tucking the bottle up his sleeve where he could reach it easily, he concentrated and let the mists of illusion gather over his face...

Once the spell was in place, Fen began to growl and yowl maniacally as he spun through a gap in the circle. He stopped in front of the woman and gave the drunk fishermen a baleful stare from his now-demonic face. "I am Shah-Yaga, demon of the blackest hell! Who among you fools dares disturb the bearer of my mystical talisman?" he bellowed, giving them all a hungry needle-toothed grin.

The reaction was all he could have hoped for. The grotesque mask of his face was given extra life by the flickering torchlight, and the circle of fishermen who had been hungrily closing in around their victim exploded outwards like a school of startled fish - an image that did not fail to amuse Chien Fen. The woman, who had been attempting to maintain some composure, took one look at Chien Fen and fled, shrieking. The fishermen made no attempt to stop her. The fisherman who had been closest to the woman - and thus now sprawled closest to Chien Fen - had fallen in shock at the "demon"s" sudden appearance. Now he struggled to his feet and waving a large and wicked looking knife in Chien's direction, mumbling some kind of charm as he did so. Chien took a swig of the liquor he had stolen - and almost swallowed it in shock - it was like liquid fire! Managing to control himself, he stepped forward and sprayed it towards his opponent - at the same time lifting the candle. Chien Fen's antics passedlargely unnoticed by the drunken fishermen in the poor light, and the resulting cloud of flame convinced the remaining fishermen that remaining in the vicinity of a fire-breathing demon was poor idea. By the time Chien Fen had finished beating the flames from the end of his beard, he was quite alone in the street.

Or so he thought. Just as he was relaxing a deep voice spoke from behind him. "Hmmm. Li Chung had told me that there was some trouble here. He didn't mention that it involved a fiend of Yomi. Prepare to die again, unliving one!"

Fen spun about. In the middle of the street, facing him stood a bulky figure, legs wide-spread, and arms akimbo. The figure's face was largely shadowed by the lights behind him, and firelight glinted from his shaven head. Even in the poor light, it was plain that he was massively muscled - his robes had been pulled to one side, leaving his sword arm and half his chest bare.

Even as Chien Fen gaped, the figure swept up one arm and gestured at him, beginning a chant that Fen recognised as a buddhist sutra. Chien Fen didn't recognize the sutra being chanted against him and didn't especially want to find out what it was, at least not in the manner he probably would. So it was up to him to either get out of the way or stop it before the sutra was finished. Better yet, both.

"By the eternal flames of Wing Pei, I shall devour your rice dumplings! Raaagh!" Fen yelled as he ran and dived at the bald whoever's ankles. Thanks in equal parts to his physical training and his natural talent for confusion, he knocked the man down and they both went rolling in the dust. Coming up on his knees, Fen made a motion as if to rip the demonic mask from his face and let the spell go. Smiling like a cat, he got up and went to offer his assailant a hand. "Or perhaps I shall find my own breakfast instead?"

The bald man ignored the outstretched hand, instead whipping something from his robes and striking for Chien Fen's face with blinding speed. Fen rocked backwards slightly with the force of the blow, although it was not hard enough to injure him, but found himself with a piece of slightly sticky paper dangling from his forehead. His opponent meanwhile had rolled backwards, rising to his feet with a speed slightly ominous in one so large. He pulled a short blade from his belt, but made no move to attack, instead hissing "Take that, deceiver!"

Chien Fen reached up and removed the paper, turning it over and looking at it with a slightly bemused air. From the smell, it was coated on one side with sticky rice paste. On the other it bore a verse - from the diamond sutras, he guessed.

The bald monk facing him gaped for an instant, his eyes actually appearing to bug out slightly, and then his alert posture slumped.

"You're no demon!" he stated in an accusatory tone, pointing at Chien Fen with his blade. "You're some kind of cheap market-wizard, aren't you? I ought to break your arms for making so much trouble!"

Chien Fen could not help but notice that his shortsword was made, not of steel, but of wood.

It was all Fen could do to keep from laughing at the monk. "You are disappointed that I'm not a demon? This seems a little backwards somehow." he remarked, carefully folding the sutra scroll and tucking it into a pocket. "And no, I am not a market wizard though I suppose I am inexpensive. I am Chien Fen, humble follower of the Tao. And as for trouble, if you had been here sooner you would have seen the true cause of it. Some drunken fishermen were accosting a noble lady, had I not frightened them away, who knows what unspeakable things they might have done? By morning they will be convinced that the drink the Black Foreigners sell them makes them see things, and the lady will hopefully learn not to travel unprotected at night. All in all, no lasting harm has been done. Wouldn't you agree?" Fen asked, bowing humbly.

The monk stared at Fen for a few more seconds and then shook his head. "Perhaps I spoke too hastily. Li Chung did say something about those fishermen from upriver. Your lady friend might thank you for your aid, but I have been too long delayed tonight in any case."

He turned abruptly and stalked back through the market, which was suddenly coming back to life around them.

Fen shrugged as the Buddhist walked away. Considering the opinion most had of Taoists, he'd gotten off surprisingly easy. He was never one to complain, though. Looking around, he found a bucket of water and peered at his dim reflection. The beard would have to go altogether, it had looked rather ridiculous on him before, and with the singed parts it was completely unsalvageable now. Ah well, he'd only grown it to try and add some maturity to his boyish features. There were far worse things in life. Shrugging, he walked through the marketplace, contemplating where to sleep for the night.

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