[DL] Valentines' Labors Part 2

[Michael Cone <Michael.Cone@phoenix.edu>]

Now, Nine-fingered Chen had grown up way across the ocean in a place they
called Tibet. He had grown up and taught to be a priest of some kind over
there before his village had been attacked and burned by a bunch of bandits
they had running all over the mountains. It turned out the bandits sold him
into slavery to a bunch of pirates that ran around the coasts there. He said
that he spent almost twenty years serving them because he didn't know what
way to swim for home. Chen made friends from some of the other slaves kept
in the hold, and together they managed to pray in the hours that they wern't
being made to wash the deck or being kicked around by the pirates. Not long
after that, the captain decided to get in on some of the piracy that was
supposed to be going on the West Coast of the Americas. If nothin' else, he
had a load of slaves he could sell to just about anyone who wanted a work
force. After months at sea, the captain announced that they were about to
land in a port called Seattle. Chen and his fellow slaves decided that this
was their last chance. As the Junk pulled into port, the slaves broke into
revolt. And there were some ugly surprises on both sides.

	Chen and his friends discovered that their techniques had suddenly
had a lot more behind them when one of the biggest slaves pulled out a deck
hatch with his bare hands. Chen said that he moved like the wind and could
dodge almost any blow the pirates tried to land. Unfortunately for them, the
captain's advisor and part time astrologer found out that she could get some
prayers answered in ways that they only dreamed of. When the fighting broke
out and Chen and the slaves started to fight their way free, the advisor
just kind of prayed for a moment, threw a piece of paper at one of the
slaves and the poor bastard burst into flames. The revolt turned into a
panic as the slaves just started jumping overboard as the pirates kept on
hacking away. Chen and his new buddies swam to shore in what turned out to
be Puget Sound and hid in the trees on the beach. They watched as the junk
burned in the harbor and decided that maybe they ought to get somewhere else
before the captain decided to come looking for his property. For many years,
they found work wherever they could and tried to stay away from the coast.
Slowly working south trying to find others like them with out running into
pirates. They were in Northern California territory when the Great Quake hit
and migrated to Shan Fan when they got word that others were rebuilding
there. And the rest, as you writers say, is history.

Now where all this is leadin' is to what Chen told me after my birthday. He
said that on that day that the slaves had discovered that the could do some
amazing things with the discipline that they had developed and had been
horrified at what the astrologer could do with a simple prayer, on that day,
the world had been changed. He said that the whole pack of them had a vision
of the spirits of those who had passed on before them being pulled away from
where they were supposed to be going. Nobody could say what had been pulling
the souls away but they felt the agony of them being torn from their
rightful reward. A few of the others had spoken of a vision of the Gates of
the Chinese Hells being thrown open from within, but were thrown awake
before they could see anything else. Chen and the others had decided to make
a place of their own, to meditate on what they had seen and to try and think
of what they had to do next. Pretty heady stuff to think about comin' from a
bunch of ex-slaves. When the group found the old Mission house out side of
the ruins of San Francisco, they decided to make it their own. Chen had
talked to the society re-building the city and the city fathers agreed to
leave the monks alone. While the others were restoring the mission and
turning it into something that could be lived in; Nine-fingered Chen had
wandered the country for a year to see what he could learn. This is where he
had met all those people and learned a real horrible truth.

	Now the rest I'm gonna tell you, we ought to discuss in private. I
have a room upstairs, number seven. You just wander back to Tico and get
another bottle of that popskull and I'll join ya inna second. That little
redhead at the bar just stole his last kiss from that poor barmaid...

	That's better. That damn pipsqueak won't be botherin' her anymore.
Why? Did ya hear any shots? Well then, there's yer answer. Now then. I
pulled you up here because what I wanna talk about now really just don't
need to be bandied around downstairs. People ask too many questions when
they just ain't ready for the answers yet. I hope to high heaven that you
are.

	Wow! Tico actually gave ya a good bottle! The day that Chen and his
buddies emancipated themselves and watched some of their friends get
immolated in the process was July 3rd of 1863. That date don't mean much to
you now but I think it will soon. What Chen pieced together from his
wanderin's was on that date most of the old rules got chucked out the
window. Something had happened, something bad in a real fierce way. And it
was only building up steam to get worse. He found that all over the place,
things were starting to show their ugly faces from the shadows. Things that
had no business bein' up and walking around outside of folks' nightmares.
And more of them were showin' up by the day. Most people wouldn't talk about
it but Ol' Chen found a few that would. He began to tell the folks that were
wonderin' what was going on where he was going to be and that he would work
with them in uncoverin' the dark things that were runnin' around and more
importantly, how to undo the damage they caused. They could come to the
mission and leave word with him to find help if they were workin' to fight
the darkness. Now, he often had to argue with some of them because they
didn't cotton much to the idea of this little chinese man tellin' them the
way of the world. But he would always tell them that the darkness, the Evil
that was comin' out had many, many masks. And that it would take many brave
faces to try and protect the light that was left. Indians from the plains,
soldiers from across the land, mystics of every color and description, and
folks of all walks of holy words were now gonna be needed to fight a fight
that most people couldn't see let alone face.

	Chen took a long pause here and just looked more tired and worn out
then I had ever seen him before. I could almost feel the weight that he had
put on his shoulders and I knew right then what I was gonna need to do to
repay his kindness. I put a hand on his shoulder and told him I wanted to
help. He looked at me, smiled a small little smile and told me that the road
that was ahead of me was longer and darker than anything I could possibly
dream of. I felt my heart get a little colder but I told him after years of
learning purity, grace and thought from him and all the others, there was
nothin' else that would be right.

	He took me out into the garden, and we sat on the grass where we had
spent so many hours in motion and stillness and slowly began to speak. Fear,
he said, was what seemed to be the result of all the machinations of these
terrors from the heart. They wanted people to stay in their homes with the
doors locked. To have good folks hide and do nothin', to be suspicious of
their neighbors, and to be cruel to others to survive. This was what he had
tried to get the others to stop. To get good folks to stand up and face the
darkness with whatever was at hand. He also told me that the sacrifices
necessary would beggar the soul. On that afternoon at the docks, he had seen
where my path was to take me, that my time with him and the others was only
the beginning of things to come. He shed a single tear as he said that I
would walk on forward with out him. 

	This about broke my heart right then and there, but he continued. He
said that there was some strange and unusual tools that had come up in the
wake of the shadows and that the monk's ability to fight was only one of
'em. He asked if I would be willing to learn another to take the fight to
the lurkers. I thought for a minute and told him that I would. He looked
into my eyes again, like he had all those years ago on the docks, and gave
me my first and last hug. He said that there was someone comin' to the
mission house, someone he wanted me to meet. And that next morning was when
my world changed forever.

	Here's where we see how much you're willin' to stomach. This gets a
little wild and more than a little unbelievable so just kind a stay with me.
And ya can just keep that Tequila close at hand. I'm gonna need some myself
before this speech is done.

	The man who arrived that morning was an Apache half-breed dressed in
the clothes of a saddletramp, with a pistol low on his right hip. Chen said
that folks called him Blackfeather. The way he looked around all the time
and sat with his back to the wall told me that he was some kinda gunfighter,
and by my reckonin', he was no man to cross. He had a talk with Chen for a
short while, and then took him to the garden to meet me. He looked me over
from top to bottom and asked Chen in deadly still voice if he really thought
that I had strength. Chen said yes. He crossed his arms and asked me to
think real hard about how often I was afraid. I looked at the sky and the
dirt on the beach and then into those cool blue eyes of his. I said that I
had been afraid lots of my life. But that I wanted to change that. He nodded
and the told me that I was going to stare fear in the face more times that I
could count before my time with him was done. I think I shivered but I said
that couldn't matter any more. I had to stand and stand where it would do
the most good. He looked at Chen, who only nodded to me, and then told me
that I could leave with him and to go and get a travelin' bag together. I
gathered what little I had and changed out of the robes that I had spent so
much time in. I folded them up and laid them on the cot in my room. If I had
only known, I would have taken them with me as a keepsake if fer nothin'
else. I went outside and all of the monks had gathered on the practice
grass. Without a word, the all bowed as one in a gesture of parting and
respect that I still keep in my heart to this day. That sight is one of the
few things that has seen me through some damn awful times, but I'm getting'
ahead of myself again.