"This is madness!" shouted Ngawang Nyamgal Tashi as he whittled yet another wooden yak. Having carved yaks for years now, he no longer needed to even look at where his hands place the knife. Instead he could focus on staring at Andrew Warden with the most disapproving glare. "There is absolutely no reason to go to war with Bengal!"
"He is right," spoke Archbishop Trakpa Chunge. "For as the Buddha has said, blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God."
"But we
do have a reason!" countered Andrew Warden. "They are of the Hindu faith, and now that our nation's very ideal is to conquer the world in the name of the Buddha, that is reason enough!"
"He is right," spoke Archbishop Trakpa Chunge. "For as the Buddha has said, I come not to bring peace but a sword."
"And about that!" Tashi was whittling furiously now. "I don't really like the fact that you just came in here and changed the entire focus of our nation just like that. The people started to lose faith in us and yak production went
down! Besides, I
liked our old national idea of mandatory church attendance."
"He is right," spoke Archbishop Trakpa Chunge. "For as the Buddha has said, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."
"And you're not helping!" yelled Tashi, this time at the Archbishop. "Besides, I don't think the Buddha has ever even said those-"
"Stop."
Everyone turned to look at the man who just interrupted, one Tensho Shubun, who was facing them from a corner while painting a picture on the easel.
"Please, stop your arguing. Here." He turned the easel around to show what he was painting. It was a picture of three yaks of different colors, who were sitting around a prayer mat much in the same way Tashi, Trakpa, and Andrew were.
"The red one," he indicated it, "looms large. It is quite angry, and pines for the old ways. The yellow one is small. It is not very smart, but it means well, and is very agreeable. The gray one in the middle, his ideas are strange. But they both sit on the same mat, and the mat is balanced on the world. These three yaks have their differences, and sometimes they seem so great so that they cannot be overcome, but they must work together to achieve balance, lest they fall off."
"You are right, Master Shubun." Tashi was contrite. "Though Mochitoyo Tokugawa has gone far outside the boundaries of his office to borrow from foreign creditors in order to raise a mercenary army to fight this war, a war that was declared on his initiative by the changing of the national ethos which was also on his initiative, we would be better served if we worked together to win this war rather than argue."
"What? No, that is not what I meant. I just wanted to show you all my latest painting. It is a nice painting, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is a nice painting," agreed Trakpa.
"Oh and by the way, Archbishop," said Shubun. "As the Archbishop, shouldn't you be leading the army that is marching into Koch this very minute?"
"Why yes, I should!" said Trakpa, getting up hurriedly.
"And shouldn't you be going too, Tashi? As the highest-ranking advisor."
"Yes, I suppose I should," he grunted. He also got up, and followed Trakpa, still carving that yak.
When they were gone, Andrew rose and walked up to the painter, who had resumed painting.
"Uh, thanks for all of that, Master Shubun."
"It is no problem. And do not worry. I will maintain the fiction that my home nation has allied to Tibet, and agreed to join in this faraway, inconsequential war."
"Here." He turned around the easel once more. "Do you know why the yak that represents you is gray?"
Andrew shook his head.
"It is because you are a mystery. I do not know why you pretend to be a diplomat, especially one from my homeland. I know even less why you have done all of these actions just discussed. But I do know that you have in mind the best interest of this strange nation of yak-herders that I had decided to retire in. And besides." He smiled. "Painting yaks on snowy mountainsides does get quite boring. And thanks to yourself, I will soon have things much more interesting to paint."
