Pilgrim, p.17
Pilgrim, page 17
Danzen almost smiled once the barmaid came to ask him if he wanted another.
“I can’t decide,” he finally told her.
“Well, you can’t just sit here all day,” Zorya said in a tone that was both playful and firm.
“Bring me another in about thirty minutes.”
A fresh flagon of ale came to his table thirty minutes later, which he enjoyed slowly, trying not to think about anything. None of his previous marks, the two years it had taken him to reach the valley on foot, the things he had encountered in his life. Nothing. Just mental silence.
Thoroughly relaxed, an idea came to him on how he could test Sarnai’s lion dog theory.
Settling his tab, Danzen paid Zorya and quietly slipped out of the tavern, no one noticing that he left.
The alcohol had little effect on Danzen, but he did feel a subtle buzz as he made his way to the outskirts of the village, and from there to the long and winding road that led up to his monastery.
There were a few times that he paused, certain that something had moved in the fields to his left, Danzen scanning the area, his hand on the hilt of his famed blade. Flowers were starting to bloom on many of the trees, others still barren. It would be harder to scan for assassins once the flowers fell and the leaves took shape, the foliage providing the perfect camouflage.
Maybe there wouldn’t be any more assassins.
Maybe the Diyu Brotherhood would allow him to live in peace and eventually give up their search.
Danzen shook his head. He would never be able to think that way. They would always be coming for him, and he needed to accept that.
Now wasn’t the time to be optimistic, there wasn’t ever going to be a time to be optimistic. Even if he managed to stay here for fifteen years without something happening, he had to be prepared for that one day when Norwin showed up, or Soko floated back into his life.
When it happened, he would either kill them, or allow them to kill him.
That would be the end of it.
And while that was a normal outcome for a fight, Danzen had something else he was fighting for now. He was fighting for not only peace, but for the peace of those whom he had already befriended in the Third District. They didn’t deserve the baggage that he had managed to hide away by coming to the edge of the known world.
Reaching his monastery, he found some supplies that Khamdo had left behind. He grabbed a bucket of blue paint, which Khamdo had used for detailing on the doorframe of the outhouse, and approached the lion statue that sat next to the door.
Danzen made several rings around the base of the statue before he ran out of paint.
With that, he stepped inside the monastery and shut the door, locking up. He brought the chicken into his bedroom but kept her in the cage this time, wincing yet again once she flapped her wings and spat a fireball of illusory flames.
The lantern in his bedroom was bright enough for Danzen to leaf through his field diary, looking for something that resembled either the statue out front, or Sarnai’s suggestion that it was a lion dog.
The creatures did indeed look like lions, about the same size as well, but their faces were wider, with muscular bodies and curly manes, their claws on display.
He had also seen some lion dogs with horns, but the one in front of his monastery didn’t have this additional feature.
At about the middle of the field diary, Danzen came to a rough sketch of a proportionally similar creature to the one outside.
He read what it said, ignoring Basan, who started to cluck quietly.
Kona inu are holy yokai who are usually employed as guardians of monasteries and shrines. They are noble beasts who act like watchdogs and live together in male-female pairs. Traditionally, the female kona inu guards the inside of the monastery, while the male guards the outside. They are generally presented with one that has its mouth open, as if it is roaring, and the other with its mouth closed.
The locals often call them lion dogs due to their unique appearance, their faces flatter than that of a typical lion.
Now that he really thought about it, he’d seen these lions all over the place, shrines across the land selling lion dog trinkets that a person could put in their windowsill. This made him wonder how many statues of yokai he had encountered in the west and simply ignored.
Danzen didn’t know if the creature outside was male or female, but he assumed if it truly was the lion dog making all the commotion at night that it was the male, considering it had never come inside the monastery.
Once the lantern was out, Danzen settled onto the ropes he had arranged as a sleeping mat.
He placed his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling, listening to his chicken breathing, the rhythm slowly lulling him to sleep.
Once again, he was awoken by disturbance. Rather than going for his scabbard, he stayed in his bedroom, alert, wanting to let whatever was happening outside play out.
Eventually, he was able to go to sleep again, Basan waking him up at about the time light started to slip through the bottom of his door.
Slipping into his warmer robes, Danzen passed through the main space of the monastery and came to the front door. As soon as he opened it, he looked down and saw blue footprints in the dirt and grass.
He stopped in front of the statue to see that there were footprints all around it, and that they circled around the monastery.
He also saw that the statue itself was covered in blue paint.
“I know what you are,” Danzen told the stone lion dog as he looked up to it, the statue about a foot taller than him at the moment, but only because of its pedestal.
Danzen waited patiently in front of the statue as a light zephyr whistled through his hair. He hadn’t brought his sword with him; if he was able to wake the statue, his weapon would have little effect on its stone flesh.
Danzen reached his hands back and pulled his hair into a bun. He crossed his arms over his chest as he once again looked at the statue, its curled mane framing its face, its mouth open.
The lion dog was motionless, and for a split second, Danzen felt foolish in talking to the statue. But then he dropped his eyes just a little and saw its paws were covered in blue paint, which had transferred to the lower half of its body.
“I know what you are,” Danzen said again. “I know you are guarding this monastery, and that the statue without a head was your partner. I’m going to be living here from now on; I think it’s best if we come to terms with each other, and learn to be a bit more neighborly.”
When the statue didn’t respond, Danzen came forward, stepping around one of the circles of paint, even though it had mostly dried. He placed his hand on the lion dog’s leg, noticing that it was cold.
For a moment, he wondered if it could only come alive at night.
But something told him to keep trying his luck.
Looking down at the pedestal, Danzen saw that there was just a small gap between the creature's feet and the base that it rested on, once again evidence that it could move.
“Last chance,” Danzen told it as he placed another hand on the lion dog. He expected the yokai to try to bite him, but it didn’t, the beast remaining frozen.
“Have it your way.”
Danzen sent energy into his legs and began pushing the creature off its pedestal. An ordinary man would have trouble doing this, but with Danzen’s enhanced strength, all it took was a concentrated effort, the assassin was able to shove the yokai off its platform.
As it hit the ground, the lion dog suddenly came alive, its stone muscles bulging once it was back to its feet.
“Easy,” Danzen told it, showing his hands now, wishing he had brought Astra even if it wasn’t going to help him any.
The stone lion dog growled, its eyes narrowing on him.
The beast roared. It lunged forward, swiping its blue claws at Danzen, the former assassin able to jump back at the very last moment and dodge its attack.
This had the effect of putting Danzen with his back to the monastery, which gave him an idea.
Crouching now, his arms out as if he was going to catch the stone lion dog, Danzen waited for it to charge him again.
This time he slipped out of the way, the lion dog cracking its head into the stone wall of the monastery.
The beast lumbered from side to side for a moment, shaking out its head.
“I don’t want to fight you,” Danzen said as the creature prepared its next charge. Once again, he stepped aside and the beast slammed into the wall, leaving an indentation this time, the lion dog out cold.
The lion dog now lay on its side, breathing, its stone stomach moving up and down, a dazed look on its face.
As risky as it was, rather than do anything like try to tie it up, Danzen simply, and very cautiously, moved over to the creature.
He sat with his legs crossed beneath his body, noticing that the creature had spread blue paint to his robes, Danzen just a foot or so away from the lion dog’s sharp teeth.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” he told it. “I don’t know if I can hurt you. I just want to come to an understanding.”
The lion dog snorted and came awake, hissing for a moment until it registered the calm look on Danzen’s face.
It let out a grunt and stood, the creature baring its teeth as it took Danzen in.
“No,” Danzen told it, still with his palm out.
Danzen was well aware that the lion dog, which was clearly male, could kill him in a matter of seconds. But something on a plane of existence higher than he could ever hope to understand told him to remain still, to not startle the yokai, to let the lion dog be in charge for a moment.
The creature continued to stare him down, but he never came forward, and he eventually stopped baring his teeth.
Soon, the lion dog sat as well, the two keeping their positions for fifteen minutes or so before he lowered to the ground, resting his head on his two front paws.
The look on his face softened, Danzen’s natural response being to slowly reach his hand forward and place it on the lion dog’s stone mane.
“My name is Danzen Ravja,” he told the creature.
The creature grunted.
“I’ll think of a name for you as well, unless you already have one in mind.”
Even though his mane was rough against Danzen’s palm, he continued to pet the yokai, the stone yokai eventually purring.
“We should wash your paws,” Danzen told him, nodding to the blue paint that covered the lion dog’s feet.
Danzen stood and motioned for the lion dog to follow him to the well at the back of the monastery.
Retrieving some water and a rag that Khamdo had left behind, Danzen crouched before the creature and began cleaning his paws. He felt something rough against his head, Danzen looking up to see that the lion dog was attempting to lick him.
“Careful,” he said with a chuckle, instantly thinking of the yokai’s abrasive tongue. “You and I are going to have to be very careful around one another.”
.Chapter Four.
Danzen spent the rest of the afternoon getting used to having a lion dog companion.
Together, they made their way around the property, the beast sniffing at the ground as if he were a real dog. Aside from the sniffing, the lion dog's behavior was more like a cat than a canine.
He didn’t bark, but he did growl.
He also moved in a feline way, skulking in a way when he walked. As the afternoon progressed, Danzen found himself drawn to the lion dog. He wanted to pet him, but the yokai’s skin was abrasive. The creature’s tongue was rough too, Danzen having to push him away every time he tried to lick him.
“You’re not going to be able to do that,” he said firmly as they came around to the front of the monastery. “And I’m going to need to give you a name.”
Danzen sat and looked toward the valley, the sun beginning to set, the sky partially pink, the sound of insects in the air, an occasional breeze bringing with it the smell of flowering plants. The lion dog sat next to him and nuzzled his head against Danzen's shoulder.
“Yama,” Danzen said, deciding on the creature’s name in that instant. “It’s the name of the monastery I once visited, one near a city in the west called Sainshand.”
The two sat there until the sun had gone down, the sky darkening, a noise at the other end of the valley catching Yama’s attention. The lion dog tilted his head to the right as he heard the sound again.
“What is it?” Danzen asked.
Yama hopped to his feet and took a few steps before stopping, snorting, and looking back to the pedestal that he normally sat on.
“Do you know where she is?” Danzen asked, referring to Yama’s counterpart.
The yokai grunted, Danzen not able to interpret if this meant yes or no.
As the lion dog circled around the pedestal, he returned his thoughts. Danzen would begin in earnest over the next week to find an odd job or two for him to complete. He wanted to be able to pay Khamdo for his hard work, and continuing to improve the monastery would be to his advantage, especially once winter came.
With the plan to find work solidified, Danzen finally made his way inside his monastery.
Yama stopped at the edge of the door, the lion dog clearly unsure of if he should go inside or not.
“It’s fine,” Danzen said, motioning the creature in.
But Yama wouldn’t cross the threshold of the door.
“Your choice.” Danzen went to his bedroom and noticed that it smelled a little like chicken droppings, an earthy, natural smell. Basan clucked as he lifted up the cage by the handle on top. He took the chicken out the back door, where he was greeted by Yama.
“Basan, meet Yama,” Danzen said, showing the lion dog to the chicken.
The beast jumped backward once Basan let out a ball of fire, and was just about to come forward again when Danzen stopped him.
“See?” Danzen said, waving his hand through what was left of the fire. He shook the cage with the other hand, Basan flapping her wings together and releasing another fireball.
Yama approached the cage and curiously sniffed at it.
Finally, the lion dog stepped away, allowing Danzen to return Basan to her coop.
“It’s your job to protect her,” Danzen told Yama. “Sometimes I may be gone, and if I go out, you’re in charge around here.” He pointed at the coop, and while Yama didn’t nod or anything, Danzen got the feeling that the lion dog understood what he was telling him.
He invited the lion dog into his home again, but Yama circled around to the front of the monastery instead, taking his place on the pedestal.
Danzen boiled water in the kitchen and made a grain bowl that he seasoned with a sauce made out of marinated pork bones.
He ate quietly and retired to his bedroom, once again leafing through the field diary.
The former assassin finally drifted off to sleep, his dreams nonexistent, his troubled past locked and sealed, a distant memory.
Or so he hoped.
Part Five
.Chapter One.
Danzen greeted Khamdo at the door of his monastery, the carpenter with a pack of supplies slung over his shoulder. He took a look at the ground, noticing the bright-blue footprints.
“I owe you a new can of paint,” Danzen told the man.
“You owe me an explanation. What happened here?” Khamdo lowered his pack to the ground. He reached into the top of it to pull out a meat pie wrapped in paper, which he handed to Danzen.
“She doesn’t have to keep making me these…”
“And she’s not going to stop either. Have you met my wife yet? Were you able to tell her no? And besides that, you eat them, right?”
“They’re great.”
Khamdo snorted. “As long as I’m coming up here, she’s going to keep sending them with me. If ever you stop by, she’s going to either make you some, or invite you to eat whatever we are eating. I know that in the West things are a bit different—people maybe keep to themselves more, and there are hierarchies in society, those at the top and those at the bottom—but things are different here. I’m not saying that the valley doesn’t have these aspects, but especially this close to the end of the world, we have to look out for one another.”
“I’m beginning to see that.”
“Are you going to tell me what happened?” Khamdo asked as he took another look around at the blue paint splattered across the ground.
“Are you sure it won’t startle you?”
“I’m starting to get used to seeing strange things around you. By the way, Temur finally gave me a rundown on everything that went down at his place.”
“Everything?”
“Those men had to die,” said Khamdo grimly. “And don’t worry. I’m not going to tell anybody about what happened. Anyone who tries to go after someone else’s kid deserves an arrow in the back of the head, but that’s just my opinion.”
Danzen didn’t say anything about how one of the men who had died in their quest to get the fire-breathing chicken had clearly been the son of the man in Chutham, the man named Harsha. He too was technically someone’s child.
They all were.
Danzen included, even though all he knew about his mother was that she was a prostitute, and all he knew about his father was that he had sex with his mother at some point.
And for some reason their union created a boy who had an inhuman ability, one who unleashed hordes upon hordes of demons if he ever broke his skin.
“Well? Are you going to show me?”
Danzen whistled and Yama came alive, the lion dog hopping off his pedestal.
“Sunyata’s tears!” Khamdo dropped his pack as the beast moved past him. Yama stopped next to Danzen and sat, the former assassin placing his hand on the lion dog’s head.
“Your wife was right.”
“I’ve never…” Khamdo swallowed hard. “Is it friendly?”
“He is friendly; he hasn’t attacked you yet,” Danzen reminded him.
Yama lifted his hind leg to scratch himself, the sound of concrete rubbing against concrete meeting both of their ears.
