EXCERPT: ‘One Man’s Hero’ by Bill Simpson

This week, dear reader, as a sign of gratitude for your continued patronage of my blog and as a holiday gift from me to you, I’ve decided to share a brief excerpt from my first fantasy novella, One Man’s Hero, for your reading enjoyment. While the story is fairly far along in the editing process, there is still some work to be done before I consider it ready for formal publication, so please do pardon any errors or possibly clunky paragraphs that may be present. Even so, I do hope that you enjoy this small sampling of what the world of Penglai has to offer, and that it proves a tantalizing enough taste to whet your appetite for more.

Before we dive in, however, allow me to set the stage for what you’re about to read….

One Man’s Hero is the story of Achala, a teenage girl gifted with preternatural strength, who discovers a blue-skinned, ogre-like oni washed up along the river bordering her adopted family’s farm. Upon regaining consciousness, the oni reveals himself to be a qi user by the name of Gaki, who was attending to business in the nearby merchant-town of Jiangdu when it was attacked by monsters of some unknown description. In the ensuing chaos and explosion, Gaki was flung into the river, unconscious, and lost all of his possessions, so he pleads with the family of farmers to let him borrow some clothes, food, and a horse to return to Jiangdu and ensure the safety of its citizens. While reluctant at first, they eventually agree to the oni’s request, though with a single condition added by Achala herself: she will accompany Gaki to make sure that their horse is returned to them in one piece and that the compensation he’s promised them for their supplies is paid at journey’s end.

 

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The system of inlaid-stone highways that branched out across Penglai from the capital of Kwenlun had been one of the last major projects of the Imperial Dynasty, a monument to the ingenuity of their nation and rivaled by few other such works across the world. By the way Gaki described their layout, Achala pictured them woven through the five provinces like the veins and arteries of a living body, ferrying resources and personnel wherever they might be needed or wished to go. Even now, so long after the days of the last empress, the highways were still impressive to behold, maintained by the local communities that used them and the Guardian Lords who ruled in the Imperial family’s stead, though nowhere near the supposed perfection they once were. Cracked or missing tiles could be found wherever one looked, and weeds and tall grasses sprouted from many of their seams. Of course, Achala hadn’t seen any of these past glories for herself – she’d traveled these roads less than a handful of times in her life, and they had long been in their current state by then – and had nothing but Gaki’s recollections to go on to know about them. By the way he spoke, however, she could hear the passion of an eyewitness in his voice who had once seen something amazing but knew that he’d never see it again.

A twinge of his regret rung within her heart as she listened.

Astride her father’s sandy-coated mare, a mound of muscle and dusty hair more formidable in size than Gaki himself, the old, bearded oni had a regal look about him, due in no small part to the wine-colored knit-silk robe which veiled his considerable girth. Even in spite of how worn and sun-bleached it had become with age, Gaki had been shocked at the outfit’s extravagant quality and confessed all the more to understanding why their family was so eager to have it back. Her grandfather had been a merchant of some success, they explained, and thus had the money and the right connections to own such fine clothing. Though most of the people they knew would have blushed at or even outright turned down receiving help in such a form, for fear of being unable to repay their family should the worst arise, the oni accepted the robes with a mixture of humility and relish and looked quite comfortable in wearing them. Of course, he was probably just happy to be dressed again and not running around near-naked, Achala imagined.

Walking at his side and just behind him, the girl found it difficult to take her eyes off the old man as he went on and on and reminisced about his former travels through Kun Lin and the glory days of the empire. Just who or what was this strange oni, to have been through such fabulous and fantastical experiences? To have control of such power as he did. To have fought monsters, of all things, once upon a time.

Despite her best efforts to conceal her watchful eyes, her focused attention on him did not go unnoticed, which cause Gaki to pause mid-sentence in his current story. Turning back towards her, he raised his bushy eyebrows in concern.

“What? What’s wrong?” he said, a measure of sincere concern in his voice. “Are you alright? Am I alright?”

“No, no… you’re fine. I’m… I’m just thinking, is all.”

“And is there any insight that you would like to share, or will this remain your own, hidden little secret?”

“Well, I… I just was thinking that, the more I hear you talk and the more I watch you…” Achala hesitated, averted her eyes, and fidgeted with the tie of her ponytail before continuing, “The more convinced I am that you really aren’t a bandit or a murderer or anything quite so sinister. Even though you’re an oni and people automatically assume such bad things about your kind, you look too… too noble to be anything so dangerous. Maybe even too kind. Even my father told my mother and me, before we left, that he didn’t believe you to be a danger to our family, and that, with your kind of power, if you had wanted something from us, you could have easily just taken it.”

As he listened, Gaki studied the girl with a keen gaze and an iron-clad expression, which he held for several seconds after she’d finished, the force of which caused a nervous fidget in her stance as she awaited his reaction. Not until his face creased in laughter at last and a great, bellowing chuckle rumbled out from his belly did that nervous energy fade away and Achala allowed herself to relax.

“I must say, that surprises. It surprises me a great deal, in fact. I’ve heard a great many people give a great many appraisals of me in my lifetime, but kind and noble have never been among the words they’ve used.” From the sack of supplies thrown across the mare’s hindquarters, Gaki retrieved a loquat and took a hungry chomp out of its yellow skin, spraying juice all about. “That being the case then, oh Achala of the Observant Eye, if you don’t think that I’m some kind of ne’er-do-well or villain – which I would certainly hope you wouldn’t, considering your insistence on coming with me – then just what do you believe me to be, hm?”

Arms folded behind her head, Achala looked up towards the sky and watched the shifting plumes of smoke rising from Jiangdu. “I think it’s more likely that you were a soldier at some point… maybe some kind of mercenary.  Ooo – or, better yet, a traveling hero.”

“A traveling hero.” Gaki sniffed and took another bite of his loquat. While his gaze remained focused forward, Achala still felt as if his eyes were on her. “Now that’s quite curious. An unusual guess. Something I’ve heard even less than my looking ‘kind.’ Tell me, what do you know of such heroes, young one?”

“Just what I’ve heard in stories from my father or the boys from the neighboring farms… or what I’ve read in my books. They defend both poor and rich alike, without any hope of reward other than the peace and security of our nation. They solve problems that no one else can understand and fight battles no one else can face. They’re strong and brave, but also wise and merciful – well, the really good ones, at least.”

With a smirk, Gaki snorted, tossed the seed of his loquat aside, and reached back for another. “Not a bad description, but, like you said, those aren’t exactly the kind of traits most people would associate with an oni.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be true, though.”

“A fair point. Reality is far stranger than most people realize,” Gaki said, snorting a laugh. “Still, I’m curious. While you describe the generalities of what makes one a hero well, what kinds of heroes have you heard about from your father, these boys, and your books – specifically, I mean.”

Achala blinked in surprise. She hadn’t expected her comment to garner such interest from the old oni, but she was more than willing to oblige him, all the same.

“Off the top of my head, let’s see… there’s Grand Commandant Yue Fei, the first Preceptor of Kwenlun Castle. There’s… the courageous Lady Mui Guiying, who led an all-woman army to defend the Imperial dynasty from eradication. Umm, who else?… oh, and there’s also Linghun Xun, the legendary Peng Onmyoji who was said to have exorcised ten thousand spirits in his career and was even granted the chance to commune with the divine.”  Eyes narrowed, Achala paused and looked up at Gaki with a pleased, fox-like grin, savoring one final bit of information. “And, of course, last, but certainly not least, there’s my father’s favorite and Penglai’s greatest hero, the mighty Huang Jie!”

“Penglai’s greatest heroes, you say?” Gaki snorted. “That’s a bold claim.”

“Maybe, but he’s certainly done enough amazing things to earn it!” One by one, Achala began to dredge up all that she could recall from the hundreds of stories she’d heard from her father, as if the more facts she listed would better prove her point. “They say that Huang Jie, in his heyday, once single-handedly defeated bands upon bands of oni raiders who’d plagued the five provinces for years, and that he even at one point dueled the High Mage of the Sand Wizards of Sisera in single combat and won. No matter whether he’s faced the yama-bito mountain men with the nian beasts they keep as pets, rogue dragons who betrayed the wisdom of their elders, blood serpents the size of small houses, or dark spirits, demons, wraiths, or any other manner of foul, blood-thirsty monster, Huang Jie did so with unfailing courage and the determination of keeping the innocent citizens of Penglai from harm.”

“Fighting monsters and slaying beasts doesn’t necessarily make a great man, as much as it makes a capable warrior, though.”

“But he was also educated, talented, and wise, too! They say that his ability to manipulate and channel his qi was so precise and so amazing that there was no way he couldn’t not have been trained by the likes of the dragons or the naga. And not only that, but his life was said to be so overflowing with acts of compassion, righteousness, loyalty, wisdom, and honesty that he’s still considered an embodiment of the five virtues even to this day!”

The more that Achala spoke, the more animated she became, to the point where she transitioned from just ticking off the points on her fingers to waving her arms about and almost pantomiming her current subject, much to Gaki’s amusement. Instead of commenting on her tale, however, he looked down on the girl with a smirk and said, “Tell me, then, because this intrigues me most of all: how did a young farm girl like yourself come to learn how to read, hmm? That’s a very rare gift.”

“I’ve been trying to learn for as long as I can remember,” she said with a grin that threatened to overtake her cheeks. “Father’s collected five whole books from my uncles over the years, and I’ve been working my way through each of them with mother’s help.”

“While I’ll never berate a person for improving themselves, the question remains – why, though? Unless you have frequent dealings with merchants and men of the city, reading really isn’t a skill many farmers have… or even desire to have, really. It’s not an absolute necessity in their day to day lives; more a luxury of the higher classes.”

Quite to his surprise, Achala’s smile faded and a cloud of dire seriousness overtook her. “Because, for someone like me… someone who’s probably never going to leave her family farm much farther than the nearest town to sell produce or buy animals… reading’s probably the only way I’m ever going to learn more about the world.”

Gaki snorted and pursed his lips, despite himself. “The world? Why would you ever want to learn more about that? It’s all disease and danger and war, no matter where you go, just like here. The same problems and the same prejudices exist wherever you turn.”

“Yeah, but still – it’s just so big!” Achala matched Gaki eye-for-eye and upturned an eyebrow, looking at him as if he’d just spoken nonsense. “Even if it is full of horrible things, that doesn’t meant that there aren’t even more amazing, wonderful, and beautiful things out there, too, just waiting to be discovered. How could I not want to read more and find out, either way!”

With his head cocked halfway between forward and side, the oni appraised the girl for several seconds, shook his head, and then took another vigorous bite of his loquat.

Along the near-distant horizon, the column of smoke drifting from Jiangdu loomed large over the surrounding forest and blotted out the sun. Even worse, with every step closer they took in their last kilometer towards the merchant-town, the stench of scorched earth, charred wood, and… other things best left identified choked the air and threatened to make Achala’s eyes water if she focused too much on it. Whatever battle had taken place there earlier in the day, there was no doubt that it had been severe and ferocious, but neither she nor Gaki could have imagined just how severe it had been until they rounded the last bend in the highway and came to the river-crossing leading into Jiangdu.
Or, at least, what was left of it.

When Achala had last come to town with her father, the Jiangdu bridge had been a work of true craftsmanship, wide enough for two carts with two horses each to pass each other side-by-side and still allow room for pedestrians in between. According to rumor, its wood beams had been cut and laid with such precision that not even a drop of water was able to drip between them, while the stonework pillars which had held the bridge aloft were able to handle the violent torrents of the rainy season as if they were the tickle of a gentle breeze. The people of Jiangdu had been proud of their handiwork and reverential in its care, which showed given how, even after fifty years of use, any sign of wear had been minimal.

The bridge she saw now, though, was not the bridge from her childhood. What was still standing amidst the river’s currents looked as if a great fish had swam through and taken most of its mid-section out in a single bite. Three of the six stone pillars were missing as a result of the destruction, as well, and those remaining were left with the work of supporting the loose collection of splintered, smoldering, uneven boards that met the riverbank on both sides.

If a bridge on the outskirts of Jiangdu had been left in such a state by the battle that’d occurred there, what must the town itself be like, then?

No sooner had they caught sight of the river crossing than Gaki hissed, waved Achala to a halt, and backtracked the mare around the bend and onto the side of the highway before any of the workmen picking their way through the debris on the far side of the river could notice them.

“Did you see that?” Achala said in a rasp, trying to be discreet but missing her intended whisper by a long shot.

Brow furrowed into row after row of blue steppes, Gaki snorted through his nostrils and clasped his hands together into a sigil in front of his chest, the index and forefingers of both hands parallel and pointed upwards. “I did…”

For several minutes of tense waiting, Achala kept her eyes trained ahead and on the road. With how they’d approached the city, only to then back away again just as fast, she was afraid that there had been some looming danger that she hadn’t noticed, given her focus on the bridge. However, when nothing but the sounds of stonework and babbling water met them, she exhaled and relaxed her guard.

That was when she noticed it.

A warmth radiating from nearby, unrelated to the fires in Jiangdu.

A buzzing and a tingling on the breeze, like the softest of chimes.

A charge of electricity all around them, which made the hair on her arms and the back of her neck stand on end.

In confusion, Achala looked up to Gaki in concern and boggled at what she saw. His eyes shut and hands still pressed tight into the sigil, the oni shimmered and pulsed beneath his skin with the same supernatural glow she’d seen within him back at the farm. The same glow as when he’d used his qi to heal himself.

Something about this was different, though. Where before she might have described the energy as refreshing and woven with peace, whatever he was doing now was powerful and dominating. Overwhelming, even.

“I – is everything alright?” she said once she’d managed to collect herself, her tone more controlled than she thought it would be.

“I would be lying if I said yes, but there’s nothing physically wrong with me, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m simply taking precautions so that our arrival in Jiangdu does as little to disrupt the peace as possible.”

“Disrupt the peace?”

“As your dear parents will attest, the sight of an oni approaching one’s home is not exactly a delight under the best of circumstances, much less when he’s on horseback and not openly displaying the proper credentials to signify his peaceful intent. And even if he was, his mere presence still tends to make people rather jumpy.” Gaki paused. Inhaled. His eyes remained still and shut. “As such, our work will be much easier if the townspeople aren’t overtaken by the mistaken assumption that I’ve come to rape and pillage what belongings they still have in the midst of their tragedy.”

Achala grunted and her wild eyebrows knitted with displeasure. “I wish you would’ve said something sooner, then. We could’ve done a little bit more for you back at the farm… figured out a way to disguise you, maybe. Now, though…”

“That won’t be necessary.”

Achala opened her mouth to speak, curious about what Gaki had meant, when the light within the oni flared and consumed his form in a blaze brighter than summer sunlight. She yelped and stumbled backwards, shielding her eyes with her forearm and dropping to the ground in alarm.

After several heartbeats, each pounding harder than the last within her chest, Achala blinked, squinted, and tried to look up at Gaki through the now-fading light. An audible gasp rose sharp from her throat as the blue-skinned oni she’d found washed up along the river had disappeared from atop her father’s horse, replaced instead with an artistocratic, fair-skinned human man. His general facial features were the same, the long, squared beard and slicked back gray hair were the same, but there was no sign of his distinctive horns or fangs.

“I… you’re… how!? I didn’t think that –?”

“— oni could shape-shift?” A smile bordering between pride and arrogance carved itself into Gaki’s features. Were the expression on a younger face, Achala may have found herself irritated at the display, but, on a wizened figure such as his, it was somehow more tolerable. “That’s a fair question, as normally they can’t. I, however, have something no other oni in this world has. I have been trained in the Dragon Arts.”

The teen cocked her head in confusion “The Dragon-what now?”

All at once, the pride drained from Gaki’s face, and now he was the one who looked irritated, if not disappointed. “In this world, and in Penglai in particular, there are many species that are born with the natural ability to change their forms at will, with varying degrees of complexity and diversity. Dragons, however, are not amongst those blessed beings, and have instead managed to develop their own version of this skill through wisdom and deep study. As a result, they are then able to pass down their techniques and training to others and instruct their chosen students as they see fit. This whole school of learning, consisting of shape-shifting and many other specialized abilities, comprise what are known as the Dragon Arts.”

“So that means that you…” Regaining her composure, Achala rose from the ground and began to dust off her pants. “…you studied with the dragons, then?”

Gaki nodded.

“Just like Huang Jie?”

“I suppose so, yes… though only very few people have heard of Gaki the Fatherless and multitudes know of Huang Jie.” Again, the former-oni’s brow grew heavy and his nostrils flared. “Sometimes to my annoyance; sometimes to my relief.”

“Still, that’s amazing! And kind of surprising, actually, that no one knows who you are, being as skilled as all that.”

With a click of his tongue and a kick of his sandaled feet into the mare’s side, Gaki drove his mount back onto the road and towards Jiangdu once again, Achala keeping pace at his side. “I never said no one had heard of me. There are, of course, people who know who I am and what I can do, but I… I just don’t go around flaunting my abilities like Huang Jie does, that’s all.”

Achala smirked at the old man, but said nothing.

Returning to the river-crossing’s entrance, the pair stopped short of what remained of its wooden planks and stood silent as the full panorama of Jiangdu’s plight presented itself before them. Gaki’s eyes widened in horror, far beyond their usual focused gaze, and his face went lax, while all Achala could do was gasp.

What had, at sunrise, been the great round plaza of Jiangdu’s famed central market, nestled among the surrounding businesses and homes, once bustling with crowds and rich with commerce, was now flaming, blackened crater at least four and a half meters deep at its center which had consumed that and at least another quarter of the city. The rest of the town, fanning out in an ordered geometry of streets and buildings to the south-east until it reached the fields along which the Imperial Highway continued, had faired better, but just in comparison. There was not a single home, shop, warehouse, or shrine within that grid work free from some manner of structural damage or the continued hunger of flames. Citizen firemen buzzed through every corner of Jiangdu, armed with buckets, jars, and anything else that could hold water, in an effort to find and extinguish any fires they could find. Those townsfolk who weren’t evacuating their homes, serving as firemen, sorting through the rubble, or excavating the dying and the dead for either healing or later identification, had gathered in the fields across from the far opposite end of the city. Even though they were at least a kilometer away, Gaki and Achala could still hear the chanting and shouting of the crowd, which gave the impression that this was no peaceful gathering of the citizenry, but an armed and enraged mob. Yet more concerning was the effigy which they had raised atop a three meter bamboo pole – a scarecrow wearing the charred and tattered remains of a red and yellow dragon-faced mask, a helmet with a pale green dome and a wide, steel gray brim, studded and gilded plate armor over its chest and floppy shoulders, and long, dangling cloth sleeves. Whenever the wind blew across the fields, the figure took on the appearance of billowy ghost doing an erratic, mocking dance above the crowd, which stirred them up even more.

Gaki gulped and wiped his brow.

“That can’t be good,” he muttered under his breath.

Achala paced forward and placed her hand on the horse’s side, stroking its hair. She squinted and strained her eyes to make sense of what she was seeing, but couldn’t other than the bare details. “What are they doing? Is something wrong? And what’s that they’re waving about on the pole?”

“You don’t recognize it?”

The teen shook her head.

“I can… and it bodes ill. That effigy they have is wearing the armor – or what’s left of it – of that hero of yours, Huang Jie.”

“But… but that can’t be, can it?” Achala squinted even harder at the rabble but accomplished nothing but giving herself the very early seed of a headache. “Why would they have – how could they could they have – ?”

Without acknowledging the girl’s protests, Gaki sidled his horse up along the river and paced back and forth until he caught sight of a fireman sprinting to the opposite bank to gather water in his bucket.

“Hail, noble savior!” Gaki called, waving his right arm in wide arcs over his head, his voice rolling like thunder across the town and drawing the attention of more than a few of the emergency responders. Despite his prior mood, he plastered a smile that looked almost genuine on his face and downturned his brows in sympathy. “My servant and I were passing through the area, and we saw the smoke from your fair town in the distance. By the heavenly kings, what happened? Is everyone alright?”

Not expecting or having noticed the visitors from across the water, the man with the bucket started when Gaki spoke, and even after shook with a nervous energy. He looked from the water to the strangers and back and forth several more times, unsure of himself, and when he spoke, even his voice cracked with uncertainty. “Honestly, good sir – no, we’re not alright. Our market is in ruins, our homes are burning to ash, both our citizens and our customers have become our tragedies, and our greatest hero has become our worst nightmare. Truly, there aren’t many days as worse than this.”

“Your greatest hero has become your nightmare, you say?” With his chin, Gaki motioned towards the mob in the far fields. “Would I be correct in assuming, then, that this has something to do with yonder effigy your citizens have erected? If I’m not mistaken, that appears to be the armor of the famed Huang Jie. Am I correct?”

“You have sharp eyes, stranger.” Filling his bucket, the man summoned one of his co-laborers, passed the water off in exchange for a clay jar, and then began to fill that also as he fidgeted in place. “Though this might seem far-fetched given the legends and the tales, that armor is the genuine article, it is. The destruction and tragedy which you see around you was inflicted by the hands of none other than the Champion of the Five Virtues himself… though I suppose that title seems hardly befitting now.”

Balling her fists, Achala bounded forward, a fire lit in her eyes and her arms waving about in a frenzy. “That’s impossible! There’s no way a man like Huang Jie could have done this. He’s a hero – the greatest hero! The hero’s hero! A pinnacle of righteousness and principle!”

With a sigh, the fire fighter set down his jar and stood to full height. “I can understand why you’d be so worked up, girl, truly I can, but what I say is true. Ask any citizen of Jiangdu, and they’ll tell you the same.” He paused, massaged the bridge of his hawkish nose, and ran his hand back through his sweaty hair. “He appeared out of nowhere in the early morning, as the vendors were opening their stalls for the day and the people were filtering out into the streets. With his bare hands he struck down men and women alike, tossing them about as if they were nothing and calling out some nonsense about how all monsters who threatened the peace must be slain.  For the safety of the people and the protection of the empire and so forth. This went on for a good fifteen minutes, I’d say. And then the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen happened, right before the end: he began to bandy about, quipping and sparring with monsters that weren’t even there… not to our eyes, at least. That was when he unleashed some damned ferocious attack of magic and dragon-fire that left our city in the state of ashes that you see now and disappeared.”

“No one saw where he went after that? I find that rather hard to believe, given the number of people that must have been about,” Gaki said and wrinkled his nose with a grunt.

“It’s just as I said, sir – he caused the explosion and then he was gone, as if he’d never been here in the first place… well, except for all the carnage and mayhem about, mind you, and the scraps of armor the crowd has all gathered up there.”

“Speaking of, do you know what plans they have for their strawman Huang Jie? Are they going to burn it?”

“Maybe at some point, I guess, but for now, they’re using it as a rallying symbol.” The fireman turned about and motioned out over the entire crowd with one hand splayed wide. “That whole group there is going together to see the Guardian Lord in Long Shu to seek his help in hunting down Huang Jie. If the old qi master is still alive after all of this, they want him secured and locked down before he can cause any more damage.”

For half a minute, Gaki sat, stroking the long central strand of his beard, before he tapped the horse’s side with his heels and spun her about. “I won’t take up any more of your time, then, my good man. Thank you for your assistance, and may the heavenly kings be merciful to Jiangdu in your time of need.”

Gaki didn’t wait for the man’s reply before he leapt into action. With one arm, he pulled Achala up onto the back of the mare with a yelp, kicked into the horse’s side, harder this time, and clicked his tongue to prompt her on into a full gallop. Achala was quick to wrap her arms tight around the oni’s midsection, and he didn’t protest.

“What’re we going to do now!?” she shouted over the wail of the wind rushing past them.

“We’re going to fulfill the second part of your job – to see me home. It’s only from there that I can truly find out if what this man has said is true.”

Looking up over Gaki’s shoulder, Achala discovered that, since they’re galloped off, the oni had returned to his prior self, horns and all. What surprised her more than even that, however, was the sight of something on his face that she hadn’t seen up until that point: an expression of genuine panic.

 

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For more updates on One Man’s Hero and my writing progress in general, check out my Twitter page at @wsimpsonwrites today!