A Tale of the Islands and What Can Be Found There

By Daniel R. Robichaud

In the realms of the red sun, Basho Haiyu walks alone. He is the undying samurai charged by Emma-O to find the heart of this mysterious world and to plant Hell's standard there. As well, Haiyu must face the minions of the Oni Worlds, standing against whatever monsters and devils threaten the populace of this mysterious world. Haiyu is the Samurai of Hell.

On the remote island of Iriogaki, the small town of Edoka ekes out an existence as a port of call. The townsfolk live and work in a constant state of wariness for their community is nestled in the remains of an ancient ruined city whose populace went to dust generations ago. The strange buildings and the jungle beyond them are home to unusual creatures, mysteries, and strange miracles. Among the latter is the Wanoikokiyama, a tree whose spiky fruit is rumored to have mystical properties. A short time ago, a party of scholars ventured into the island's interior in search of such a fruit. The jungle seems to have swallowed them.

Recently arrived on the island, Basho Haiyu finds himself concerned for the party's fate. He suspects the presence of enemies hiding in the jungle, and so goes in search of the missing group. His journey along the river will reveal strange creatures and unleash bizarre, ancient sorcery. Will he discover the truth behind the disappearance and return to tell of his discoveries?

"A Tale of the Islands and What Can Be Found There" is a short novel (16000+ words) featuring the continuing adventures of the Samurai of Hell. Although it is the fifth such adventure, it stands on its own and provides an easy point of access to the saga.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Twice Told Tales II
• Release date: Jul 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463469439

Daniel R. Robichaud

Daniel R. Robichaud has lived in southeastern Michigan, central Massachusetts and southern Texas. He is a Rhysling Award nominated poet and the author of over one hundred stories, articles and poems, which have appeared in such markets as Shroud Magazine, Rogue Worlds, Goblin Fruit, Rage of the Behemoth, Green Prints, and WritersWeekly. Daniel holds degrees in both Physics and English, and his career path has reflected these passions. In addition to his numerous writing opportunities, he has been an Igor For Hire (aka a freelance research engineer), a substitute teacher, an automation engineer, and a neurophysiology lab manager. Daniel enjoys entertaining people with his words and stories. If you enjoy a good read, why not try one of his works? You might just love them.

Book preview

A Tale of the Islands and What Can Be Found There

By: Daniel R. Robichaud

A Tale of the Islands and What Can Be Found There

On the night before the small ship reached mainland, the sea turned as motionless and flat as black glass. The stranger, a man in samurai armor but bearing the markings of a lord and house he did not know, joined him at the rail. The crew are frightened, the stranger said. They huddle in terror and clasp hands over eyes, ears and hearts.

There is an emptiness that calls the sky home, the captain said. Once a year, it creeps out from behind the moon and scuttles across the heavens, and should it spy a ship while prowling among the clouds, it weaves a special magic to still the waters.

Will it attack? the warrior asked. His hands clutched the pommels of his two swords, the daisho of his office.

If it cannot be quelled.

The samurai considered this. How can the emptiness be quelled?

With a tale, the captain said. Something it has not heard before.

You have many stories, the samurai said. Can you not--?

All mine have been spoken, the captain said. The emptiness has heard any tale that has been said aloud. I have nothing to give.

Perhaps I do, the samurai said.

Then I will leave you to it, the captain said. He walked away. I will know if your tale does not appease when it scatters this ship and our bodies.

The stranger stood mute for almost a full minute, feeling tension tightening around him. This emptiness, like a cat, could coil and spring. The stranger broke the spell of silence, saying, Let me tell you of a most terrible thing that I saw and experienced. An awful thing.

With that, he began his story: "My name is Basho Haiyu, warrior in service to Emma-O, the lord of Jigoku. In his name, I left the world of my birth and came to this one. I ride these waves and walk these lands in search of its heart, so I might plant his standard. As well, I slay any invaders from the Oni Worlds outside this sphere, so they might not plant the standards of their foul lords before I can lay mine.

"There was a time in my earliest travels, I found myself wandering through the jungles of the southwestern islands. In those places, there are trees that stand almost as tall as torii gates to the holy shrine of Ameterasu near mainland's mighty Fukiji-san.

The mightiest of these, a tree called the Wanoikokiyama, grows on the slopes of the Okiyama mountain, which dominates the island of Iriogaki. The tree's oldest specimens stand almost seventy feet tall, and its branches are adorned with broad bladed leaves wider than a man's face. Nestled in these leaves are spiked fruits, which the locals regard as poisonous intruders from an unwelcome world but which mainland prizes as ingredients for potions to sway abstinent moods, mend broken spirits, or cure impotence . . .

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Haiyu had come to the country on a smallish boat packed with cattle to be traded for the bananas and other edible fruits the islanders cultivated. Despite the long journey, and an outbreak of fungus that spoiled the perishable stores, he arrived neither hungry nor thirsty.

Having died once already, only to return to this place as the emissary of Emma-O, lord of Hell and the dead, the samurai supposed he had many lifetimes to perform his quest.

The weird warrior walked this soil with one mission, to bear the standard of his lord and master to the heart of this world and to plant it deep. The more he traveled, the more he came to realize that finding this heart might well be several lifetimes' work.

The jungles along the southern reaches were strange places, filled with voracious growing things and weird animals. These things possessed recognizable shapes to some small degree – a tree was a tree, or a mountain cat was a hungry beast with yellow eyes and sharp claws – but the details were different than in the place he called home. No slouch when it came to learning, however, Haiyu acquired names for things with ease and soon enough had a working vocabulary for dealing with the local people in this port town of Edoka.

As with many of the towns in those islands, they were built on the bones of older settlements whose originators had long since gone to dust. The ground where Edoka now stood had belonged to a civilization that appreciated the loveliness and enduring power of marble and granite. Neither of these stones were in evidence on the island itself, however; they had been traded for and transported from other regions, as had the long dead craftsmen whose hands shaped