Torii Gate Reloaded
George McNeur
Published: 2011
Tag(s): "gate of power" "young adventure" lost fog portal
the
Torii Gate
RELOADED
flash fiction
by George McNeur
Dedicated to Adrian - “Ask and ye shall receive”!
The original version of the Torii Gate was cut as-is from the prelude of another story I am currently working on. Adrian provided feedback that made me realise that as a prelude/introduction it might be ok, but as a stand-alone story, it lacked that “je ne c'est quoi” that makes a good story. Hopefully this “reloaded” version addresses that.
The cover art has been inverted with respect to the original also at Adrian's suggestion to reflect the nature of the change - darker …
May all my readers note that I certainly value their feedback.
THANKS ADRIAN !
© Copyright George McNeur, April 2011
Autumn, Oamaru, New Zealand
Danny was scared – as scared as only a four-going-on-five-year old whose active imagination sees monsters and murderers lurking behind every object that swam in and out of sight amongst the thick, clinging miasmic mist that shrouded his immediate world.
He was lost.
He was sure that home was just “over there” maybe a hundred metres away, but every time he got to “over there” he found he was still lost.
He had sneaked out of bed, out his window, and had been trying to get to the farm at the outskirt of town. His friends Tommy and Chris were camping out there in the tree hut that they'd been building there over the fading days of summer.
But he didn't realise that he was heading almost exactly in the opposite direction - turned around by the dis-orienting tendrils of the enveloping vapour.
The bright yellow slash of his torch was no help, swallowed by the murk mere metres from the bulb, and his young heart was pounding at every shape that seemed to suddenly lunge out at him as yet another swirl of that dampening veil roiled away at his cautious approach.
Normally at night there would be sounds to add to his imagination, but the thick white-grey blanket had muffled the usual voice of the night, and the deadness was almost worse than the noises from ill-imagined sources. He kicked a stone and the dull “thock” as it hit the side of a brick fence further along the path seemed to come from the other side of the road. His sense of direction was totally messed up by the ethereal sworls.
He was about as desperate as he had ever been and wondering what on earth he was going to do, when across the road, he thought he glimpsed what looked like a farm fence.
He gingerly crossed the road, glancing left and right continuously, straining but not trusting any of his senses 100% in this thick fog.
His heart picked up a bit when he got to the fence – rough-sawn slabs with the orignal tree trunk outlines still with their bark forming the edges, spaced fairly wide apart. It DID look like a farm fence – more like a horse farm than any other which might have featured a multi-strand wire fence, and there were no houses on the other side. He must have reached the edge of town and now, once again he figured he knew where he was. He convinced himself he'd seen horses in the paddock next to where they'd built the treehouse, so if he went into the field about 50 metres and kept parallel to the fence, he should soon come to the treehouse in the next paddock.
His spirits rose again with this encouraging thought.
Once again he was the brave explorer - his favourite hero Baden-Powell. He unslung his backpack and pushed it through the gap in the fence planks along with his stick (every adventurer always had an adventuring stick with them!), then wriggled through after it. Once on the other side, he slipped back into the straps of his bag, shrugged it up a little higher on his back, and strode off into the field, angling towards where he thought the treehouse was.
After a few more seconds he turned fully to his right and strode directly towards it.
Only there was a nagging little doubt at the back of his head telling him that it still didn't feel quite right …
After about 5 more minutes he knew it wasn't right.
There were too many shrubs and smaller trees dotted around what he had thought was the farm paddocks. And then he noticed a low hedge in his way edging a crushed stone path heading off towards his left – further into “the paddock” that he now knew wasn't.
Having no better idea about what to do, Danny decided to follow the path. Paths are made by people to go somewhere, so even if he was lost, somewhere down that path would be someone who could help him.
But it was still an unknown place and largely invisible wrapped and shrouded as it was with the obscurring haze.
As he crunched hesitantly along the path, Danny noticed that perhaps he was going into a forest as the trees seemed to thicken up and become taller, and more powerful. The occasional dark, towering giant was holding up the sky and their longer, reaching, branches tried to snag and grab hold of his hair and his back-pack as he passed under their unseen canopy.
Nearer to the trees, the tenuous vapours intensified into something more substantial, and the moisture laden tendrils snaked around him more frequently, dampening his clothes and skin and deadening the sound of the gravel.
The fear rose up in him again, and settled in his throat so that he was constantly swallowing to hold down the sourness.
The bold adventurer had gone and Danny's eyes were darting everywhere as he imagined all the terrors that a small boy can imagine lurking in the wisps and deeper scudding cloak of clouds surrounding him.
Then out of the soup just ahead of him he saw a monster alien shape straddling the path.
In the first instant he saw it, indistinct and threatening, he imagined it was the legs and belt of a huge ogre and his heart leapt even further into his mouth. His stomach churned and fizzed in an involuntarily reaction like a tiny chunk of sodium dropped in water, but then, a half second later, the mists seemed to magically clear around the uncertain shape and he could see the whole of it.
It was something he had never seen before – kind of alien but also strangely human and reassuring. He had no idea what it was.
The 'legs' were two poles, slightly slanting in towards each other off the vertical. These poles were connected across the top with another pole that extended past the uprights, somewhat like the old cowboy ranch gates he had seen on the old westerns on TV but again completely unlike them at the same time. In fact there were two slim poles, one above the other with the top one lightly curved – somewhat like an upside down longbow, but with the curve not so pronounced. And in the centre, where he'd thought he'd seen the ogre's belt buckle, there was a central board or plaque with some kind of ancient runes or symbols etched deeply in to it.
Danny had no clue what it was, but for some reason he felt a peacefulness around it as he got closer. It seemed like a calmness had settled upon him at the same time that the fog had oozed away, leaving him floating in a little bubble of tranquility.
He stopped just short of it and stared, sweeping his eyes up the majestic legs to the cross beams atop them, then down the other side. It was a simple structure, but in its simpleness, he sensed a singular power. Something to chase away any evils.
His heart stilled.
His panic subsided and was gone.
He stepped over to the nearest upright pole and stroked his hand up it in curious wonder. He imagined he felt a magical power rippling out from the simple smooth wood.
He would be safe here. It was the most certain feeling he'd ever had.
He sat propped against the foot of the pole, his back soaking up the power radiating from it. After a few reassuring minutes Danny felt the w
eariness descend, stealing into the places that the fear and panic had been before. He took off his back-pack and pulled out his sleeping bag. Flicking it open, he took off his shoes and climbed inside. Then, pulling off his bulky sweatshirt and stuffing it into his back-pack, he snuggled all the way into the padded bed-tube, pulling it up tight around his chin. Then, settling his head down on the backpack, he lay on his back with his eyes soaking up the strangeness of this unwordly construction that straddled his supine form like a protective guardian.
Slowly his eyes drooped shut and he drifted off to a restful sleep.
As his eyes closed and his breathing steadied, a change started taking place in the air around the Torii Gate. The wooden structure which had seemed to be holding back the mist from its form up until now, started to pull wispy tendrils towards it as if it were a Geisha girl drawing a gauzy veil across her face. After a few minutes the top beam of the gate was almost invisible behind a thick blanket of fog.
All of a sudden there was a sound like a clap of thunder and a feeling of hardness came into the air.
Danny came to a startled state of half awake, wondering what was happening. Looking up at the wooden structure, he thought that once again it looked as it had in that first half instant – like the legs of a giant ogre whose belt buckle was now shining. This time however the impression did not go away and turn into the form of the Torii Gate. This time, as the vapourous haze swirled around the form, he glimpsed more ogre-like features.
There was some substance of form above the upper beam that hadn't been there before, and as he struggled to wake more fully, and free his arms from the shroud-like wrap of his sleeping bag, he glimpsed a giant hand swinging down through the smoky funk.
As he opened his mouth to scream, the shape-shifting torii-ogre snatched the young adventurer out of his sleeping bag, squeezing the breath out of his lungs.
In an instant it was done, and Danny was no more to be seen.
The befuddling steam swirled again around the form, and then with a kind of sideways “crack”, the gate was back and the ogre gone – back to its alternate dimension, leaving the mysterious scene of a quiet park, with an empty sleeping bag, a back-pack and a pair of shoes beneath a simple ornamental gate.
And the young owner of these articles, would never be seen again.
For you see, a gate of power often leads to hidden places, and the fog hides many secrets …
About the Author
George grew up on a farm in the countryside of the South Island of New Zealand and attributes his sense of adventure to that upbringing. Growing up without a television in the house, he read a lot with his tastes running to mainly adventure, western and science fiction/science fantasy genres. He joined the NZ Air Force (RNZAF) directly out of High School at age 18, learning his electronics trade there. After serving 15 years in the Air Force, he moved into the civilian world, where he has worked in almost all areas within the hi-tech electronic industry including manufacturing, engineering, test, and the associated project management and logistics areas, whilstsimultaneously rising to senior management & executive roles. He filled a small company General Manager role for several years before turning to his current role as a business development manager in the international aviation industry.
He lives in Christchurch with his wife, 3 sons and 2 cats, and has over the years enjoyed various adventurous activities including international travel, a half dozen plus marathons, multi-sports events (such as Speights Coast to Coast), tramping, skiing, kendo and the like, as well as fine food and wine. He very recently started writing in his spare time from a crazy idea that wouldn’t go away and turned it into “The Hand of God”. However, he doesn’t pretend to be “a book writer”, and has no plans to give up his day job!
He hopes his attempts at writing bring entertainment, amusement, education and pause for thought to his readers.
Coming Soon from this Author
Hachiman Beckons (working title)
Torii Gate is a prelude to this story. Dan has grown up and as a recent ex-SAS officer is trying to find his place in the civilian world. His world has always been a rapid juggling act between life and death action and a search for inner peace, where his death-dealing 'day job' seemed to win over peace most times. He left the Army to escape the death and violence but it seems the civilian world is no different!
Join Dan in Japan on his quest for inner peace and watch the body-count rise …
Abdullah and the Man Who Owned the World (working title)
Sequel to Abdullah and the Vacuum Cleaner Salesman.
Daniel still yearns to rule the world, and with the help of his new friends and business colleagues, maybe hejust might do it …
Special Package One (working title)
A Companion story to Planning Armageddon.
The so far untold story behind Tom's “Special Package” delivery to Africa …
From the same author on Feedbooks
The Hand of God (2010) A hint of Sci-Fi and religious philosophy lie behind this story of modern Hi-Tech business interrupted by a terrorist bomb...
Jim is about to find out that life isn't always fair during a regular business trip to Mumbai, but can he and his friends all survive the experience?
* * *
Planning Armageddon (2011) What would it take to make you commit bio-terrorism on a global scale?
When Josh and Tom's wives discover there are people 'out there' planning to ensure the 2012 Doomsday prophecies are fulfilled, they decide to take matters into their own hands and on their terms. But how do go about exterminating the human race with a pre-emptive strike of your own?
This story of global bio-terrorism perpetuated by a pair of 'ordinary' married couples will have you turning the pages furiously!
* * *
Hachiman Beckons - When Life Gives You Lemons (2011) Dan has lost his way - but now it's not as a small boy lost in the fog, he's an experienced lethal instrument of death. A one-time officer of the NZ SAS, who has seen too much violent death.
In search of some kind of answer (peace), he finds himself in Japan, ensnared with a Yakuza plot against the Japanese Imperial family. But this time they kidnapped the wrong guy, and Hachiman (the Japanese god of warriors), will want a reckoning . . .
NB - this is an excerpt of the full book which can be downloaded at the Amazon Kindle store.
* * *
Abdullah and the Vacuum Cleaner Salesman (2011) Daniel wants to clean up the world - but as a vacuum cleaner salesman, his friends think that's just fine. Little do they know...
Folk lore, fairy tales, myths, legends, flights of fancy, - call them what you may. We all grew up with them. Sometimes we find out fairy tales are based on fact. Most times they are told to convey a moral. But when a fairy tale comes to life in the modern world the effects can be very powerful...
Follow Daniel's rise to global dominance as a number of fairy tales are brought to life in the modern world bringing him a little bit closer each time to the world power he craves.
* * *
I'm Alive (2011) Auto-biographical short stories of raised adrenalin moments.
From moments spent dicing with death on precipitous mountain slopes, to exhilerating high speed terrain hugging flights in jet fighters, the author presents a selection of true-life moments where you know you're alive - but might not be soon!
* * *
Torii Gate (2011) Danny was scared – as scared as only a four-going-on-five-year old whose active imagination sees monsters and murderers lurking behind every object that swam in and out of sight amongst the thick, clinging miasmic mist that shrouded his immediate world.
He was lost.
Flash fiction of 1400 words.
* * *
Special Package One - Opening Salvo (2011) The first three excerpt chapters from Special Package One - A companion story to Planning Armageddon.
Special Package One details the back story behind the premise of the original Planning Armageddon story.
In this book, the militia and terrorists who seek to bring about the various Doomsday Prophecies by creating an Armageddon of their making are pitted against the Government agencies and specialist army units dedicated to stopping them. Somali pirates, Al Qaeda terrorist groups, Aum Shin and other militant and terrorist groups line against the specialised men and women of NZ SAS and the French Foreign Legion, with "the spooks" directing from the side-lines.
From New Zealand to darkest Africa, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Japan - this story charges with non-stop detail and action through the unrelenting underworld of they who deal with death daily on both sides of the law. If you enjoyed the original, this story is better!
www.feedbooks.com
Food for the mind
Torii Gate Reloaded Page 1
