Coloring the comic strip

Finally I figured out how to color my comic strip.

Also the Buddha stature in my illustration is based on an amazing Gandhara Buddha stature, here is a photo, the original is in Guimet Museum in Paris.

Fantabulous Nanomorphique Adventure of M Hardoon Rotman - (Week 4)

[Previous Week Plot Review]

The Jade Exhibition held at the Pellimet Museum in Paris attracted great audiences, but the most eye-catching item in the exhibition rotunda, was a huge poster, hanging over the balcony banister from the 3rd floor to the middle of the 1st floor.

The poster was a lovely photograph of a couple – Alfonse de Baux, the original owner of the ancient Chinese artifacts, and his fiancée, Chinese movie star Tang Meiye; both in Chinese period costumes.

This highly anticipated exhibition was about to open in two days, but what happened next stunned the entire city of Paris! Alfonse de Baux disappeared into thin air!

With such unexpected happening, Parisians were even more anxious to see the exhibition, therefore it was a block buster on the opening day, and the museum almost received non-stop visitors from the morning to the night!

Catherine and Cassandra stopped by in the early evening and followed the visitors through the exhibition.

But Cassandra raised her head and looked up again and again, the mother asked what she saw, she said there was a man on the ceiling.

ONE  –  The little girl looked up again and again  – Continue  <Week IV>

Catherine again squinted her eyes and looked at the vault ceiling, still, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. But she somehow knew that she could not ignore her daughter's acute senses. She discovered that Cassandra, at a very early age, exhibited telepathic abilities.

 "A man? on the ceiling? How is that possible?"

She focused on the stucco surface of the diamond shapes, searching for signs of cracks, flaked paints, or even remote possibility of a bird nest illegally set up in a hidden corner.

If any of those cases happened, she would have to report them to the engineer department of the museum for repair jobs to be done; but the ceiling right now looked in a mint condition to her.

"There is a man lying on the ceiling." Cassandra said.

"How can a man lying on the ceiling?"

"like a lizard."

"Lizard is crawling on the wall, or on the ceiling, with its four legs, not lying there."

A group of visitors led by a guide moved to the glass case where they was viewing.  They heard the guide said: "In this glass case, we see this jade piece, caused quite a debate in the academic world. From the shape and color of the jade, it should be, as Chinese scholars would call it, a CONG, it is a ritual piece used in various religious ceremonies, but when the museum received the collection, it was mixed among a small amount of Mayan jade pieces. Our researchers wanted to raise the question to Mr. de Baux directly, but unfortunately, Mr. de Baux suddenly disappeared several days ago, right now, searching efforts were launched all over the world, yet all in vain; therefore, unless we find Mr. de Baux, otherwise, no one could answer this question: why a Chinese jade was in the midst of Mayan pieces."

Cassandra saw that her mother's attention was shifted to the visitors, listening on the guide's explanation; she tucked on her mother's clothe again, and pointed her finger to the vault.

Catherine looked at her wrist watch, then softly said: "Silly girl, let's go back to my office, there is another piece, I need to take another look."

Catherine's office was on the first level of basement. Mother and daughter had to take elevator at the north side of the circle, where the entrance to the rectangular building connected to the rotunda.

Pellimet Museum had two levels of basement, where all museum's collections were stored. But the basement space was not as big as the entire street block; because there was no sub-level underneath the rotunda.

She picked up her daughter's hand and went for the elevator by the entrance to the rectangular section of the building.

The third floor of this rectangular building was mainly offices for the employees, with the Electronic Control and Security Room at the south end, overlooking the rotunda.

The first and second floor were various sized room for themed exhibitions.

On the first floor, the entire space was divided into 3 sections by two walkways. The middle section was larger than the two flanking sections of equal size. They were utilized for specific themed collections of the museum.

Two passenger elevators were located at the end of the west section. The space in front of the elevators, was a 6-foot wide “curved” corridor separating the rectangular section with the rotunda.

Only elevator number two stopped at all five floors, i.e., from the third floor to the second level basement. Elevator number one descent down to the top level basement only, skipping the second level.

At the north end of the building, two more service elevators situated next to the fire exit, one at each corner. The one on the east side was a freight elevator, three times larger than the stander size, to accommodate any over-sized artwork.

At the end of the east section, in the middle of the curved corridor, a beautiful and grandeur spiral staircase twisted and twined from the first floor, through the second floor, landed on the third floor balcony. It was pretty spacious, wide enough for a two-way traffic, as long as each using the right side.

Only a packed exhibition like this one, the museum kept it for one-way traffic only, upstream in the morning and downstream in the afternoon; any wrong direction at the wrong time, would have to wait for the elevator.

(To be continued next week)

水月觀音 （一） 【中古絲路宗教武俠奇幻短篇】

水月觀音    姬璘璆著

【中古絲路宗教武俠奇幻短篇】

一  海市蜃樓  死亡之海

這真是一次死裏逃生的恐怖經驗！我曾在阿拉伯海遇上颶風，在帕米爾險些摔入深谷，在喀什掉進流沙，但從未曾陷入如此驚怖而險惡的境域！一如急速地向地獄墜毀永無回頭……

起初遠遠看去，我以為終於見到了一片綠洲和駱駝商隊。沿著塔克拉瑪干沙漠邊緣，已經兩天孤獨跋涉，飢渴失魂，一見到人類我喜極奮力展開輕功向前狂奔……

那時我清楚地知道我是於公元1541年四月間，進入中國西北疆域的。而在我離開葡萄牙里斯本海港時，當時天主教教宗是保祿三世，法蘭西國王為弗朗索瓦一世，西班牙的查理三世則同時又是神聖羅馬帝國國王。

我是於母親過世後，只剩了一人，因此決定離開歐羅巴洲，前往中國尋訪我父親的故鄉。我母親來自葡萄牙，但我父親是中國人，而我從沒見過他，因為我是遺腹子，我的中文和中國武術全由母親一手傳授的。

公元1534年我十七歲，母親讓我單人前往投靠並服侍老師——在法國從事聖職的方濟各沙勿略神父。1537年，我跟著老師和另幾位神父回羅馬教廷國時，卻接到母親過世的噩耗，因而獨自趕回里斯本家鄉奔喪。

 （附圖一  聖方濟各沙勿略神父 [St. Francis of Xavier 1506 - 1552]）

之後，我在父親的遺物中發現了一個毫不起眼的木盒，裏面有三物，想不到這些物件竟改變了我今後的一生！一是殘缺的小石雕，底下壓著兩張枯黃的紙片，一張似乎是幅拓印的畫像，另一似乎是地圖。褪色的地圖頗難辨識，那拓畫雖則斑駁模糊，但朦朧中一眼即能看出畫上竟是一位絕色女子！愛幻想的我幾乎一眼就愛上她了。

（附圖二  祆教女神達艾娜 [Daena]  /  祆教四臂女神娜娜 [Nana]）

她的眼神，是能洞徹一切靈魂的睿智，我願五體投地捨身頂禮膜拜。她豐美的雲髻上戴著一頂桃形寶冠，她的臉邊，又似乎畫了一隻小狗，她的頭似乎罩在光環裏。

是什麼女神呢？她似乎穿著華麗的服飾，其他就分辨不清了，但像的底邊有幾個中國文字隱約可讀——康藍……神……供奉。

康藍，女神就是妳嗎？

紙片最上頭另有一些我不認識的古文，似乎是由右向左橫寫的一些字。如果給我博學的老師沙勿略神父來研究，定能琢磨出其中奧秘來。

（附圖三  尼雅出土佉卢文木簡－由右向左書寫）

至於那小石雕，十分殘損磨缺，幾乎所有細節都已不可辨識了，我反覆審視，直覺感到那是某異教的小神像，但很奇怪我卻毫無排斥的念頭，這點要是讓教皇知道，必定會將我送去宗教審判。

神像似乎斜坐石墩上，含頷微側，一膝屈起，一足踏住一物。背後肩胛處又有兩處凸起，但猜不出那究竟是翼翅？是兩束火燄？甚或是兩隻手臂的殘餘部份？

（附圖四  犍陀羅藝術風格菩薩像）

更特別的是石雕的質地，成份內似乎摻有某種性質相反的物質，因為小小石雕握在手中顯然比一般的石頭要重許多，而握久之後竟會令人覺得石雕入手變軟！我猜不透父親為何擁有這些，是如何得到的？與他傳授給母親的武功玉冊有關嗎？

像這樣一個可能是異教的神像竟令我感覺十分親切！這或許是因為我體內流著父親血液的關係，而就在當時緊握石雕那一刻，我突然感到一陣暈眩和激動，父親的形象突然就湧現眼前，可是我卻從來沒見過他！渾身顫抖著，我決定要回到父親的家鄉——中國，追尋父親曾經踏過的路，走過的橋！

母親傳授我武術，全得自父親所留下的一本秘笈——《夔黿玉冊》。我將已背得滾瓜爛熟的玉冊，追隨著母親埋入了墓地的一角，但卻以葡文翻譯，另抄寫了一本。帶著這副冊、石雕、畫像、和地圖，我於是上路，開始了我生命中的另一個歷程！

搭船過海目的地，是身毒西岸的果阿，船行了十三個月。再過四年之後，我的老師，沙勿略神父，也取這條路線來到果阿，然後乘船往日本傳教。但我一到了果阿就發覺，父親留下的地圖，畫的正是由果阿更往北，翻山越嶺進入中國的路線！因此我決定改水路為陸路，翻越蔥嶺踏入中國，這幾乎花了我兩年半的時光。期間我備嚐的辛苦真可說罄竹難書。

（附圖五  蔥嶺－帕米爾高原）

可是就在我慶幸見到綠洲與商隊而飛身迎上去那時，陡覺身後一股強大的熱力向我推到，我一回頭便嚇呆，只見二三十丈高一片沙浪沙牆滾滾壓來！前面綠洲的商隊毫無警覺，我大聲喊快逃……剎那間我被暴風沙刮上半天，卻立時又摔下深谷，忽又被倒埋插入滾滾流沙中，卻立即被連根拔起，折騰翻滾……  

灼熱的氣流企圖全面封殺我的心肺，窒息緊捏我的鼻子，我口早被鉗住！七葷八素突然我聽到有人絮語，眼前一片昏黑，又無法睜眼查看。卻於此時，我懷裏石雕似乎嗡嗡作響，一陣陣涼意襲上心頭，我立即奮力曲膝彎腰，在劇烈翻騰的空中，抱頭埋入懷裏吸著涼氣，讓自己拳起成球體，任強風要將我吹向東西南北何方！

運起祖傳內功的龜息心法，呼吸立時暢順，我像皮球隨風浮沉，在沙浪的沖擊、漂流、載覆中逐漸失去了知覺……

欲知後事  請看【二  藍花瓷盒  白衣大士】 不日續載

～ 繼 續 閱 讀 ～

【一  海市蜃樓  死亡之海】

【二  藍花瓷盒  白衣大士】

【三  龜茲旋舞  殘石變異】

【四  分水綠洲  聖火地宮】

【五  祭司女神  星外飛仙】

【六  水月觀音  尖峰雪影】