Duck Fang? That Duck Fang who began his life as a classless nobody and won fame subjugating the bandits east of Swift-Cloud Mountain?
“The very same.”
That Duck Fang, who when only a boy, went out hunting and discovered his father had been killed by brigands, and swore never to rest ‘til he took revenge?
“Him, indeed.”
The same Duck Fang who, after he had made his name as a protector of the weak, after he had fought and bled for the poor of ——- District – he had given them his money, protected them from corrupt officials and been a vigilante in their defence; after he had established himself thus, this is the Duck Fang who journeyed to India?
“You are speaking of the right man.”
That Duck Fang who, fighting a robbers’ gang outside a sacred temple, entered its ruined, hallowed halls to find the last monk of a long line coughing up blood, and, doing what little he could to give comfort to the priest in his last moments, decided to transport the sect’s sacred writings back to the capital? And on his way, he gathered three erstwhile companions, and inspired legends for ages to come?
“It’s certainly him.”
That Duck Fang who, on reaching the capital city, brought his treasures before the Emperor himself, pushing his way like a proud and noble brute past the centuries of Kafka’s guards and orderlies, and, laying the scriptures down gently, spoke directly to the sovereign as though to a childhood friend, and who was given as a reward a place to live in the palace grounds?
“You have identified him rightly.”
That Duck Fang who, after living in the palace for a few months, caught the eye of the Emperor’s favourite concubine, and, being a man of honour refused her advances, until she, offended at his upstanding honour and her failure to win her prize, had him slandered and framed for the crime of assault?
“Correct.”
That Duck Fang who, with the ire of the kingdom upon him, fled civilisation and lived among the savages and barbarians in the northern mountains for years, unsure of anything, from the seasons’ passing to where he might hunt his next meagre meal, but who survived?
“Yes, that same Duck Fang.”
That Duck Fang who, when desperate, built a rocket such as nobody had ever seen before, and sealed himself within a locked glass chamber, and had a friend launch the rocket, and who then disappeared for many months, and returned claiming he had seen the stars up close, that the Earth was a large ball floating in the void, and that it was surrounded by a colossal demonic snake and a spilled glass of stars?
“You speak truly – this is the hero of whom such rumours are told.”
That Duck Fang who launched off in a second rocket, this time aiming to circumnavigate his supposedly globular earth?
“Are you an idiot? How many more times do I have to tell you it’s me!”
verso folio 