Fiendish
design
From
the journal of Awaji no Zenji Kanenari, retainer in the household of
Yashida no Shosho Fujiwara
25th day of the 10th month, the year Keicho 19 (Western reckoning:
1614)
My master's quest to capture the legendary Sword, Mirror, and Jewel has
not met with success.
The blind old man, who has refused again and again to tell us where the
sacred girl was hidden, found allies. A group of foreign devils, or
perhaps oni, were waiting with him when we arrived on the third night
and made our final demand.
They were not an impressive group. Children and women, and only a few
men. Though Gunyuki urged caution, noting several of them had
flame-coloured hair. We should have listened to him.
One of the women challenged my lord directly, and when Lord Yashida
admonished the men to control such disrespectful behavior, she drew
swords and attacked! She fought like a demon! One of the children
seemed as vicious and invincible as the woman.
Two of the men were armed with muskets. One was of a fiendish design
(Gunyuki insists it was black magic!), that could fire at least a dozen
times without reloading!
My horse was shot out from under me. Then I was struck in the head, and
knew no more.
When I awoke, we were scattered, wounded and broken, upon the shore of
the island. We were no longer in the land of the spirits. We had
returned to the ordinary world. Lord Yashida very nearly died. Half of
our fighting men were critically injured. I myself have only now, five
days after the battle, recovered enough to put brush to paper.
Our armourer does not know if the breast plate and back plate of my
lord's blessed armour can be repaired.
We sail toward home. I do not know if my master will survive this
ignomious defeat. But we must return, so that if his life is forfeit,
he may pass his sword and ring on to his sons.
From the log of the Immortal Captain
Jack Sparrow
Date: Once Upon A Time
Position: In Harbour
Met a very interesting fellow today, O'Flaherty by name. An experienced
drinker, though his singing could use a bit of work. He and his
shipmates came to this shore through an improbable series of events.
They did not seem to understand the nature of these metaphorical seas.
However, they were in search of the Sun, as so many who are blown this
way are.
Clearly they were in need of a wiser and more experienced hand to show
them their way. And not wishing to see more bones littering the
entrance of the dragon's lair, I agreed to show them the way.
O'Flaherty provided a suitable distraction while I led the rest of the
stout-hearted crew into the depths from the hidden entrance. We
executed a perfect three-cornered attach. While O'Flaherty and a couple
of his shipmates kept the ten ravening heads of the beast busy, another
group of us attached the creature from behind, and the remainder
convinced the Sun that she was not really being protected, but rather
being held prisoner.
The creature put up a ferocious fight! But we prevailed in the end. The
Sun is now in the heavens where she belongs. O'Flaherty and his
companions have returned to whencever they have come from.
They were a servicable crew, though none of them as companionable as
their leader. They made mention of one of my namesakes being in a bit
of trouble. One of them made the ridiculous suggestion that no one has
heard of me. Preposterous!
It is a such a glorious day.Weigh anchor! Run up that canvas! The
Immortal Captain Jack Sparrow shall ply the waters once more!!
From the diary of Lobsang Lu, servant in
the household of Admiral The Honble. Sir Miles Naismith
2 May, 1875
Ghosts sang to us. The song is similar to one I learned in Singapore.
Except, of course, that was in Chinese. The English words the ghosts
sang went something like:
Over
the edge, and over again to find the destiny,
The Kig as his court must gather again
to save the seven seas.
Yo! Ho! All hands, hoist the colours
high!
Heave ho! Thief and begger, never shall
we die.
The sun hides her face, the fates are
concealed 'til bravery brings it to light.
The moon in the depths, with destiny
sealed, until the time comes to fight.
If you dream of mercy and making amends
and a passage through heaven's bar,
Cut out your heart and betray a friend,
then wish upon a star.
Yo! Ho! Haul together, hoist the
colours high!
Heave ho! Thief and begger, never shall
we die.
From the five quarters the lords will
descend to mend heaven's dark scar.
The sun and the moon will dance with
the wind and into the heavens will soar.
The mystery unravelled, the winds howl
with wrath, the riders will fight hard and long.
The angels will shudder, the devils
will laugh, and we'll sing the victory song!
Yo! Ho! Haul together, hoist the
colours high!
Heave ho! Thief and begger, never shall
we die.
The first ghost lured Miss Wilhelmina into this cave between the roots
of a cacao. We followed and found a blind man. The blind man's face was
wrapped with bandages, but he walked as if he could see.
We weren't in the Loompa village, any more. We were on a beach. There
was a wrecked ship and another ghost, who seemed to be someone Miss
Wilhelmina knew. He sang the song again and told her some things that
she seemed to understand.
A swordsman on horseback rode up and demanded that the old man
surrender someone to him. The old man refused, and the swordsman rode
away.
Then Mr O'Flaherty, Mrs Salmalin, and Mrs Voach came around the bend.
They had heard the swordsman. They had also seen ghosts and heard the
song. The old man invited us to his hut for tea, and he told a tale,
that sounded very similar to the stories of Amaterasu hiding from her
angry brother.
The swordsman, he said, was looking for the Sun, who was hiding because
she believed she was in danger. The old man would not say where she was
hiding. But then the swordsman came back with a whole bunch of other
warriors, and when the old man refused again, they attacked.
So we defended him. I'm not sure he really needed defending, because
Mrs Cuthbert said he was some sort of retired god. As she told it, it
sounded like the story of Izanagi, which is close to what he said his
name was.
The swordsman had some kind of magickal powers. One moment he was over
there, then the next he would be right on top of you. And Sir Spencer's
big gun barely put a dent in the swordsman's armor.
We were tending the wounded (and arguing about how to deal with them),
when they all just vanished. That was annoying.
The old man indicated that we were somehow in the Time of Legend, and
could not get back to our friends just by walking there. A decision was
made to go seek information at the temple that is one Lt Pellew's map.
First we had to go fishing, so we would have some food. Then we hiked
up into the hills. We could see a city on the plain below.
We continued toward the temple until we encountered a family fleeing
the city. They were bickering among themselves, and one of the women
was turned into stone! Like in a fairy tale. And the rest ran away, but
then these chariots rode up. Five of them, and the charioteers were
carrying weapons just like the statues we had seen earlier.
Miss Wilhelmina had to pet the horses, and that kept us busy for a
while. The others got into some discussion with someone else who came
with the charioteers, I think. Anyway, the chariots thundered down the
hill toward the city. And the city just went up in flames! There were
explosions like nothing I've ever seen. The whole place was destroyed.
I heard one of the ladies trying to explain to Mrs Wooster that it was
one of those cities in the Bible that got destroyed because the towns
people wanted to mistreat some angels.
We hiked some more, eventually reaching the spot where the map said the
temple was. All we found was a small shrine and a single monk living in
the shack nearby. The monk said that many people believed the Sun was
being held prisoner by one of the dragons that live on the island.
While we were there, the strange man from the dream showed up. He
offered to help us defeat the dragon, if Miss Wilhelmina would ask him
to. He turned into a dragon and flew away, just before a sort of green
man with hooved feet ran up to us, looking for him.
Mr O'Flaherty found another cottage, where a man who claimed to be the
Famous Immortal Captain Jack Sparrow was getting very drunk. Jack
Sparrow! The Jack Sparrow, legendary great-grandfather of Captain Will
Sparrow! How could it be?
The ladies claim they never heard of him!
He said he knew the dragons on
the island. One dragon, he said, was good. The other was not. He said the bad dragon was holding the
Sun prisoner. He agreed to show us the way and help us with the dragon.
The dragon lived at the bottom of a pit. It appeared to be sleeping. Mr
O'Flaherty went down to confront it. I followed. Mrs Frazer followed
me. Mr O'Flaherty fell down, and woke it up. It was definitely not a
noble dragon. It was a ling shi tu... ten-headed serpent might be how
you would say it in English. It warned Mr O'Flaherty away. When he
refused to leave, the dragon roared.
The earth shook very hard. I barely managed to keep my grip. Did that
mean it wasn't a ling shi tu, but a li lung? If it was a li lung, I
knew how to defeat it! While Mr O'Flaherty grappled with some of the
heads, and Sir Spencer and Mrs Wooster started shooting at the heads
from the top of the pit, I got Mrs Frazer's attention and asked if she
had a candle. She did, and she tossed it to me. I watched the heads for
a moment, then picked one and dropped down onto it.
I don't really remember exactly what happened next. It tried the throw
me off and I hung on. I managed to shove the candle into one nostril,
which made the head whip around more violently. I was smashed against
the wall of the cave several times. It hurt more than anything I've
ever done before. And then everything just went black. Just like they
say in the stories.
When I woke up, Mrs Cuthbert, Mrs Salmalin and Miss Wilhelmina were
gathered around me, asking if I was all right. I think I answered. I
don't know, because I didn't stay awake long. But this time I had
dreams. Mostly of people singing the song the ghosts had sung. When I
woke up again, we were in the Loompa village. George and Miss
Wilhelmina tell me that I managed to break the candle in two and put
the second half in the other nostril, which seemed to kill that head.
Between everyone else all the rest of the heads were killed and the
serpent defeated.
Miss Wilhelmina wanted to know why the candle worked. I tried to tell
them the story of the poor farmer whose daughter was taken by the Li
Lung, but I didn't do a very good job.
The rest of the group had snuck into the cave through the other
entrance, following Captain Sparrow. They convinced the Sun to leave
the cave, and it became daylight. And then we were returned to the
village somehow.
Curator's note: The dates recorded by the various
witnesses to the strange events of this chronicle do not agree. This
discrepancy occurred to other parties spending time on the so-called
Island of Souls (cf. "The Wreck of the Cumberland" by Matthew
Flinders). It has been theorized that the passage of time in the
vicinity of the island varies from that in the rest of the world.
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