Chapter One

No On-rol was an old Buddhist monk. He was striving for Nirvana, Buddhist heaven, and he was closer than any man he knew. He had lived a long time, and done many things. He had done so many things, in fact, that he wasn't sure what to do next.

"My next challenge," he thought, "should be dealing with something totally unexpected."

Master No decided that a search for the unexpected would not be out of order, so he planned a journey to visit his friend Park Aye-bee who lived a long way away. Master No was a humble man, so he set out alone and on foot.

The journey to Mr. Park would take Master No west on an old, little used trail over two high mountain ranges separated by a high desert plateau. It was late October as Master No walked slowly over the first pass, and as he walked the first storm of winter started. The storm was windy, cold and snowy and soon Master No was having a very hard time walking along the trail.

"This is unexpected." thought Master No.

As he looked for a place to get out of the wind and snow, he heard a horse gallop up behind him. As the horse came close he heard the man riding the horse say, "Make way! Make way for the prince!" The man on the horse looked at Master No suspiciously, then rode on as the main body of men appeared. They were galloping their horses recklessly through the blowing wind and snow.

Master No moved off to the side of the road; the leader of the procession saw him and drew up his horse about six meters away. The leader was clearly a prince. He wore fine clothing, and he rode a beautiful, big horse.

Master No looked at the prince and his men and thought, "How odd these people are! The prince's guards' uniforms are all absolutely identical, and so fresh looking they could have put them on just five minutes ago. The guards' horses are all the same size and have the same markings. This prince is very handsome as well as richly dressed, and he rides his mount easily."

The prince looked worried as he looked over Master No. He didn't say, "Hello" he just looked. After thirty seconds his face changed from worried about Master No to worried about something else, and he spurred his horse, and rode on down the trail. His men stayed close to him as he rode off.

As the prince rode off into the storm, Master No chuckled, "He's a prince, indeed. And not just any prince, but a prince made a prince by magic!" And he thought, "Now that's unexpected! Is this the unexpected I've been searching for? If so, why is he now gone? This will take some musing." Master No pulled his cloak closer around him and continued his journey. Master No ended his day's journey not long after encountering the prince at a small mountain inn near the pass.

The second day of Master No's journey started early: before dawn he had breakfasted and was out of the inn. He followed the trail down from the pass, and noted the hoof prints of the prince's party in the trail's mud. As he walked down the trail he saw that the prince and his men had pushed their horses hard: There was a crushed bush where a horse had slipped and fallen.

The trail led out of the mountains to cross the desert plateau. The trail on the plateau was wide and dusty, and Master No walked quickly. But Master No became uneasy. "I have met a magic prince, but I feel no new insight. Yet surely, this was the unexpected event I was seeking."

He walked and thought more, "Perhaps I am part of his story, rather than he being part of mine?" He stopped for a small lunch. "But surely the Great Buddha could arrange for us to share the same story? Such an event! Such an event! Yet there has been no change... Wait!"

As he ate he noticed the change: the prince's trail was missing! Now the only tracks on the trail were his. He looked around. The desert was covered with dry sage brush; there were no people or animals to be seen, and the sky was a flat slate gray which meant that there was more cold weather and more storms coming. And Park Aye-bee's home was still a day and a half away.

Master No sighed, "Buddha's Messengers of Destiny do not always get the right address. I'm afraid if the Magic Prince is part of my destiny, I'm going to have to chase after him for a while. How silly this must look and sound: a hobbling old wise man chasing after what he thinks is a magic prince."

Master No turned around and went back the way he came, looking for the trail of the magic prince. Buddha was merciful, only an hour later Master No found the prince's trail, and he quickly determined that it ended right at that spot! The horses had been galloping hard, then vanished, flew away, or somehow left the trail without leaving a trace! Master No circled the site, and soon found an old oil lamp, but nothing else.

"Yin and yang. The expected and the unexpected" he muttered as he picked up the lamp. The lamp was old, and well crafted -- much too well crafted for a common oil lamp. This level of skill should have been used to make a crown or a royal wedding ring. It had strange glyphs on its side. And yet, as Master No looked at the lamp he thought, "How ordinary it seems."

Then he thought, "Ah... I understand. This is magic camouflage. The lamp is extraordinary, but it is protected by a spell that makes people think it's ordinary. How else could I consider a lamp of this antiquity with unreadable glyphs on its side to be common?"

Master No took the lamp, and searched the area for another ten minutes. There were no other signs of the prince and his party, and no sign of the prince meeting anyone here. They had come, now they were gone, and only the lamp remained.

Master No studied the lamp once more, then laughed. "I'm a wise man. What need do I have for a magic lamp?

"Still, it's most unexpected... and most uncommon. I cannot recall a single tale about a wise man and a magic lamp. This is worthy of thought." Master No hooked the lamp to his belt and continued his journey.

The rest of the day the wind blew hard and cold in Master No's face. The clouds got thicker and lower as he walked across the desert plateau, and as he reached the base of the second mountain range, the tops of the peaks were covered by the clouds. "Tonight is not a night for a pass crossing because there will soon be rain and snow. There is an hour of light left. I can walk two kilometers to the next inn, or I can investigate this lamp, right now."

Master No looked around. He was all alone, which was good for investigating strange things, but the storm was an unlucky sign. "The signs are not good. My investigation of the lamp would be rushed, and I could make mistakes. Now is not the time." He continued walking rather than stopping. He hurried up a bit, in fact, as he thought of the warm inn ahead. Minutes later the wind died down and the rain started.

The storm was hard on Master No. For the first kilometer the ground was wet and muddy, and the air filled with mist, rain and heavy snow flakes. Master No's knees hurt, and his feet were carrying mud stuck to the bottoms of his slippers. For the second kilometer the weather turned even colder. The rain and snow turned into a thick snowfall. As the ground froze, the path changed from sticky mud into slippery snow-on-ice.

For the next hour walking the trail required Master No's full attention and energy. He worried that he might slip, fall, and be too tired, old and cold to get up. At one point after a slip-and-near-fall, he stopped, panted for a bit, and thought, "The next rotation in my Great Cycle may come a little more quickly than I expected."

He was most happy when he saw the light of the inn.