31 days: August 21, "Who would take us to be women?"

[tarigwaemir]

DeWolfe Apts., on the Feast of St. Pius X

No, I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this fic. I also stretched the theme beyond recognition. Er, forgive me? There was a connection there...somewhere. It just got lost along the way. Also, the result of having read Samguk Yusa, which has way too many stories about Buddhist monks having sex. >_<

Illusions
Dedicated to irian, because she also loves this series

On an unnamed mountain in old Joseon, there was an old paulownia tree that blossomed once every ten years. To this tree, a young monk made a pilgrimage, with nothing but his bare feet, the robe on his back and a lotus seed he carried in his palm. He had heard from a traveling mendicant that Gwaneumbosal had manifested there as a beautiful maiden a hundred years ago, when the tree had first burst into flower. He set out on his journey in the summer, that season of heavy storms and hot, humid days, journeyed through flame-colored forests in autumn, and climbed the snowy slopes of the mountain with red, blistering feet. Cold, hungry, exhausted, he did not find the tree until the ice melted.

To his drooping eyes, the tree's branches seemed to arch and sway as if to embrace him. He stumbled forward and sank to his knees on the muddy ground. When he looked up, he was startled to see a beautiful woman, her face white like sea-foam, her earlobes long like the Buddha, standing before him. She seemed to shimmer, like the air above burning incense. He prostrated himself.

She smiled, and if he had raised his eyes to her, he would have seen that the smile was long and cruel.

"Oh Goddess of Mercy," he began.

"Foolish little monk," she said and lifted his head with the toes of her left foot.

He scrambled to his feet in astonishment. She smiled once more, and her face shifted more subtly into an alien design, sensual yet sinister, a face which seemed neither male nor female, only desirable.

"Are you a fox-spirit, come to tempt me from my vows?"

"Don't be stupid," she--or was it he--said sharply. "You deal with the master, not the servants."

He stared at her helplessly, his eyes dazed. The creature changed shape again, into a young boy, with a scholar's forehead and long eloquent eyes. It leaned forward, grasped his trembling chin, and kissed him slowly, savagely. He could not stop shaking.

The next morning, he woke up, half-frozen beneath a blanket of fallen flowers--the tree above him bare and blackened. He did not need to touch it to know that it no longer lived.

END

Notes: Gwaneumbosal is the Korean name for the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. Paulownia trees are, if I'm not mistaken, a symbol of longevity.

Yours &c.

Comments

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

OOh! I like! Nice and creepy. Poor confused mr. monk. Don't let the mean bisexual Endless scare you~

^_____^

Yay for monks having sex ::cough::with eachother::cough::!

[troisroyaumes]

Hahaha, monks having sex with each other never seemed to happen, but monks having sex "falling in love" with young "fairy youth" (I kid you not!--even if they were supposed to be incarnations of the Maitreya) did occur.

[tryogeru.livejournal.com]

Well, in China they certainly had sex w/ each other. Or rather, with their young apprentices. >_>

[matrixrefugee.livejournal.com]

WOW!! I'm always looking for *good* Desire fics, and this fits the bill! It reminds me a lot of "The Sandman: The Dream Hunters", which I re-read recently. ((Hard-core "Sandman" fan here.))

[troisroyaumes]

Yes, The Dream Hunters mostly inspired me to write this--I thought I would take a slightly different Asian mythology and see what happened. XD Thanks for commenting! Always glad to meet another Sandman fan. (Your icon rocks, by the way. ^_^)

[baka-neko.livejournal.com]

Wow, I loved that heady dose of myth and legend. :)

[troisroyaumes]

Very glad you liked! ^_^

[cynic-in-charge.livejournal.com]

<3333333 this is gorgeous. It's surreal in the way that Gaiman's "Dream Hunters" was, but it has its own tone and style to it. And the juxtaposition of the Mercy Goddess with Desire and the androgyny and <33333333333333

[troisroyaumes]

Thank you! ^____^ Whew, glad to hear that the setup worked and made some sense. XD;;

[team7.livejournal.com]

Loved this :)

[troisroyaumes]

Thank you~ ^_^

[serena-b.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is beautifully written. The pace reminds me very much of the series. <3

[troisroyaumes]

Thank you! Glad to hear that it fits the feel of the series; there's no higher praise I could ask for. ^_^