#Part 20 of 20

[ask-de-writer]

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to CLASSICAL FANTASIES

THE FISHERMAN'S LEG (Part 20 of 20)

A sequel to Dee 1/2 Demon

by

De Writer (Glen Ten-Eyck)

25570 words

© 2023 by Glen Ten-Eyck

All rights reserved. This document may not be copied or distributed on or to any medium or placed in any mass storage system except by the express written consent of the author.

TUMBLR EXEMPTION

Blog holding members of Tumblr.com may freely reblog this story provided that the title, author and copyright information remain intact, unaltered, and are displayed at the head of the story.

Fan art, stories, music, cosplay and other fan activity is actively encouraged.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

New to the story? Read from the beginning HERE.

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

The others all laughed but just a little thoughtfully. As they were leaving the Tribunal, Takahara shook her head and noted, “I am less good than I thought. I find myself hoping that Minami will try to escape and thereby lose his head.”

High Priest Nandi san nodded a bit sadly, “Beings such as Minami often bring such thoughts to disturb the tranquility of the mind and heart. It is not a discredit to you that you feel so. It is a natural response to such as he. In his own way, he is worse than most Oni.”

Tanira looked up at the angle of the sun as she and her new daughters strolled towards the waterfront and asked Patsu, “Have we still time to launch the Rising Dawn today? It seems to be fine weather for it.”

Patsu looked about, smiling at kites being flown from one of two small hills just out of the village. She agreed, “It is a fine day and yes, we have plenty of time.

“Mikore told me that they are offering fried dumplings with minced crab filling over at our market. Let's grab some of those or other goodies, some rice and tea. We have plenty of time for a nice, if late, noon meal before we launch her.”

The crab dumplings were actually quite good. They were all happily agreed that the best item was a new offering. Sand shark fillet steamed first and then tempura dipped and fried to a light golden tan. Tea, rice, and some stir fried vegetables finished the meal nicely.

The newly finished Rising Dawn was pulled out of the Chiasu Estate boat house where it had been moved after the hull was done to finish setting up her rigging and sail. Using a pulling block and the same cart that was used to put away their smaller rental rowing boats, she was eased down the boat ramp to the water by the dock.

Several of the men owning some of the other fishing boats came to watch, faces clouded, brows drawn down in anger. “Tanira san, why are you setting up a boat for serious fishing? Do you really think that you can cut us out or lower the prices that you pay us?”

Tanira shook her head at their rudeness. “No, Satura san, we are not in any way trying to cut you out of anything. If you had only waited to see how the Rising Sun is rigged, you would know that. My boat is set up for trolling and the like line fishing.

“What we seek are cod, snappers, and such things. For you they are an occasional lucky by catch. If you have them, you will continue to get the same good prices as you have been.”

“One of my men told me that Minami . . .”

Patsu interrupted, “The child murdering thief who was just this day divorced from the honorable Tanira san? You expect him to say anything that would not cause her further harm?

“Even after it was proved in the Tribunal that all of his lies about Dee san being some sort of Sorcerous monster were totally false, he still tried to blame her for all of his problems! He ordered us to not finish healing his leg but still blames us for it not being neatly healed.

“He is madder than a sand flea!”

Abashed, Satura san cringed back a little and looked down, scraping his sandal on the wood of the dock. “That is true. We followed his lead and respected him for many years. I apologize for our unjust behavior.”

Tanira straightened up, bowing acceptance, she asked, “So will we be seeing you tomorrow at the public dock to buy your fish?”

“We will be there, Tanira san. I heard that you adopted Minara san and Takahara san. That is well done. We have seen how well you all work together and get along.

“May we watch the sea trials of your Rising Dawn?”

Dee chuckled as she strapped herself into floats, “Of course you may!” She pointed to the floats and added, “Yes, I can swim, though I don't really like to. My Aspect of Fire doesn't really get along with water!”

That drew a general laugh.

With all made ready, they cast off from the dock, stern line first and then the bow. A solid push from a boat hook gave them the room to unship the oars and begin rowing the Rising Dawn out a ways from the dock.

They let the boat coast while they raised the sail. It rose up along the fairly short mast, spreading out into a triangular fan shape, reaching from nearly the bow back just short of the stern and lifting well above the top of the mast. About a third of the sail was in front of the mast.

The Rising Dawn began to drift sideways. Wisely, one of the watchers commented, “Wind's wrong for this. It's going to just push them back to shore.”

Another of the watchers, shading his eyes with his hand, replied, “Don't think so. See, they are picking up speed going across the wind.”

Satura san added, “They are turning into the wind! Look! They are tacking around forty or forty five degrees into the wind. Now they are turning again! Still steep into the wind but coming back . . . And again, going back like they were before. Zigzaging right into the wind! I will have to talk to them about that rig! I might want to do one like it for my Sea Gull!”

They all watched as the Rising Dawn went sidways to the wind but slowly now. “They've put out a boom of some sort. I expect that is for their trolling.” Only a little time passed before, “Whoops! They either got a snag or they hooked something fair sized! Look at that boom bend!”

Aboard the Rising Dawn, Tanira and the girls were excitedly watching the trolling boom / crane bend nearly to the water. Patsu was manning the boom's line winch. She was counseling the others, “Get the big framed net to finish catching it! Takahara san, be ready to club it on the head when it is safely in the net! Be ready with a boat hook to the gills to finish pulling it in!

“Look! We can see it now! That snapper must be nearly a pace and a half long!”

The next few minutes were an organized chaos as they netted the fish in the framed net and pulled it up snug to the side of the boat! Takahara wielded the stout club to it's head to kill it! Dee slid the boat hook into it's gills and lifted the big snapper into the boat. It only took a moment to get the hook free and put the near monster into the catch box.

The triumphant girls made all sail for the public docks of Sabo, close to the Fish Market! Along the way, they caught three sand sharks as well! It was not long before they dropped the sail and finished their approach by oars.

The young women watching the Fish Market for Tanira saw them coming and sprinted down to the dock, pulling the cart with the box for fish on it!

The fishermen converged on them too! All wanted to know, “What did you catch!?”

As they were opening the Rising Dawn's catch box, Patsu smirked, “Just three moderate size sand sharks! And the biggest snapper that Sabo's ever seen!”

As they were loading the cart, one of the girls that had been watching the Fish Market was weeping quietly.

Miko asked gently, “Ontara san, what has you upset? You did a wonderful job keeping the Fish Market open and this trial of the Rising Dawn has gone very well.”

Ontara sniffled, “I wish that Ichuru was here to see it. I gave him the toy boat that got him drowned.”

Miko gave her a hug and replied, “No, Ontara san, it was not the toy boat that got him drowned. It was Minami, whose mind was twisted to evil by his leg.”

“His leg? What was wrong with his leg?”

Miko shook her head in bemusement as she explained, “He thought that he was transported to the Hospice by magic because he did not understand that he gave himself a deadly case of Gangrene. That started his fears. Then he thought that he saw us do something evil and forbade us to finish healing it. That caused a great scar that his working pants always hid. Only he was bothered by it but it drove him mad that he was scarred. That and his fear drove him to attacking us with lies, slanders, and even trying to ruin things of ours. It was that same madness that made him kidnap Ichuru and take him out in a stolen fishing boat.

“He demanded that a ten year old boy prove that he was a man by taking off the floats that would have saved him when he did fall in. His father and the others did not even notice when he went overboard.

“It was Minami, who drove himself to madness because of his leg, that killed Ichuru. His father gave him only anger and hate. You gave him a wonderful toy that he loved.

The END

<==PREVIOUS

Return to the Master Story Index

Return to CLASSICAL FANTASIES

[yallstar]

“I look forward to hearing what you have to say in another four months.”

(read left -> right) it's here!! the chapter 5 comic is done (for now, i might want to come back and do proper lines and colors at some point). i just couldn't choose one part of the Big Moment to illustrate so i did.......all of it (ᵕ・ᴗ・)

scene from differential burdens in displacement

[junkfoodcinemas]

Dune: Part Two (2024) dir. Denis Villeneuve Zoolander (2001) dir. Ben Stiller

[mymusic-is-too-loud]

[kensatou]

“if you could pick up another language, what would it be?”

“i’d go russian. i’d love to know what geno says or has said over the years… i’d love to know 🥰 i just want to know (giggles) 🥰”

[eemolu]

loved watching brennan consistently remind ally that they are getting kicked in the head over and over by his favorite hot npc. every time they come back to that scene it's "you're still getting kicked in the head" and honestly i'm so happy for him. it's revenge for all of it. you're gonna ribbon dance down a staircase? you're gonna slam me down big style? heeeyyyy girlie, you're getting kICKED IN THE HEAD UNTIL YOU DIE. and that's beautiful

[starstruckodysseys]

storyboard artists went crazy with this one!!

[rrat-king]

hey, everybody knows kingston!

[inkskinned]

okay i almost never address the very small amount of internet fame i have. and sometimes yes it sucks. people often repost my work, or clip it out of context, or flat-out steal it. but like it can be very funny. once a follower dm'd me to say a guy on hinge was pretending to be "inkskinned", and actually had even started his own insta. when she said "i've followed her for years i don't think you're her", he said - actually r.i.d is like seven people, we just made those initials up. (rude). when i found his insta and messaged him, he begged me to just lie and say he was r.i.d because "it's hard for men to date."

once someone said she should be allowed to plagiarize my work because she was a body-positive influencer and that if i "made a big deal" about this and "got her cancelled", i would be doing damage to my own community and i was never "actually" an ally.

i bear these things with the aura of a martyr, the way my catholic father raised me to. i message privately. i handle things quietly and quickly. i do not complain because i am very, very, very, very blessed and i know that. mercy and gentleness literally pour out of me every morning when i wake up, and then i have to mop the floors for how very Good i am.

however today is the first time i have ever had a very specific problem that neither requires me to correct this person nor throw them to the dogs but is somehow worse than years of hatemail, reddit thread death threats, and pinterest reposts:

someone quoted me and just got it, like, a little wrong.

[ask-de-writer]

I would like to thank

@inhumaninterest​​ for READING

and LIKING my

THE FISHERMAN’S LEG (Part 20 of 20)

A sequel to Dee ½ Demon

Classical Fantasy - Almost Feudal Japan

[parksnark]

I have great news. You make it to the first floor way before Angwyn does.

[reunitedinterlude]

nose pressure (1, 2, 3) // for @planetsonlali

[junkfoodcinemas]

Dune: Part Two (2024) dir. Denis Villeneuve

[xiewho]

i WILL take any excuse i have to draw the abernant sisters Btw

[heppileppi]

BOMBINIIIIII!!!!!!!!!

[egophiliac]

YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH