The Threat of Huoyan

Long ago, in a land down under, there was a town named Pianzi. The town lived in fear for they lived in the shadow of a great and mighty volcano. Now that in itself wouldn't be too bad, many great cities have been founded in the shadow of volcanoes after all. But according to legends this volcano was home to a terrible monster called Houyan. No one in town could exactly agree on how Houyan looked: some said he had big teeth while others said that he had eyes made of blue flames, and others said that he had arms the size of trees, but they were all well assured that he was a most terrible creatures no matter what.

Well in all honesty it didn't matter what he looked like for the villagers were too afraid to ever find out. Each winter a shaman would come down from the mountain to ensure the village that they would protect them from Houyan's wrath. As long as they gave them the ingredients that they requested for the ritual. And so the villagers paid for the ritual's expenses, and each following year the list of ingredients would increase, until eventually the villagers had nothing left for themselves. A young man, lets call him George, saw how impoverished his family had become since the shamans came and began to wonder “Is this all really worth it?”. And so George stopped paying his part of the ingredients to see what happens. At first the other youths made fun of George and told him to just shut up and help protect the town, but slowly they began to see that their families had become just as poor as George's family and they began to think. Suddenly his ideas didn't seem half as mad anymore, and so they two decided to give it a shot. What was the worst that could happen if he was wrong? It wasn't like they had anything of value to lose anyway. They began to join George in his disobedience and soon some of the adults began to join them as well. One of these adults was the blacksmith, who offered the boys an solution: weaponry. The smith said that “If we slay the beast we wouldn't have anything to fear anymore, now would we?!”. They could get anything they needed from his armoury free of charge as long as they slayed the beast.

They kindly declined the smiths offer and instead kept up their civil disobedience, no matter how slow it was. The older villagers were telling the youths to be thankful for what they had. But even they were slowly convinced as more and more of them converted to their side. Eventually everyone in Pianzi refused to be subjects to this terrible monster any longer. refusing to give them even a single cabbage. That winter one of the shamans came down as usual, ready to collect the new ingredients for the ritual, but to his surprise there was nothing. “We can't stop Houyan if we don't complete the ritual! Are you not afraid of losing everything you own?” the shaman said. “Afraid of losing what? We own nothing anymore!” replied the villagers back. “In that case be warned... In one week Houyan will destroy the village. We can only stop him if we have the ingredients before then.” the shaman warned, and he turned back the way he came. The days ticked down and the villagers became more and more nervous. What if the shaman was right and they all would die? Some villagers became willing to just pay up and go back to normal as they got closer to doomsday but the town held strong.

Doomsday came and to everyone's surprise: nothing happened. While some of the villagers expected to survive, even they expected that something would happen. Now they became awfully curious and every able body went up to volcano to see what was up. The shamans, who lived near the entrance of Houyan's cavern, warned the group that it was too dangerous to go in and that they had found a last minute solution to subdue his wrath. The villagers weren't buying it: they wanted the truth and they wanted it now. And so they marched into the liar of the beast despite the shaman's warnings and to their horror they found him. In a giant pool of magma swam Houyan, a monstrous lava creature in the shape of a fish. It swam in circles creating waves of molten rock, but it could never leave its pool or hurt the village from up here. For years the villagers had given the shamans everything they owned, and now it turned out that that had all been for naught. The villagers stormed back out of the cave, reclaiming what was left of their possessions from the shamans outside. From that day onward they promised themselves and each other that they would never submit themselves to their fears. The town of Pianzi grew prosperous once again. And Houyan? He became the town's mascot.