Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 1-2 | страница 252

New Journeys to the West
Dulwich College Beijing, Zhu, Brian - 11
S
tanding in the middle of an endless desert was making everything seem hopeless. There was a vast blue
sky on top of me, and a never-ending sea of sand in front of my eyes. The ground below me sizzled
as my camel inched forward with the last bit of its strength.
My vision blurred as the strong winds carried sprinkles of sand and rock into my eyes.
Far away, I could vaguely see the figure of a man coming in my direction. As he got closer, his looks came
into focus. His eyes were dark as night. His hair was brown, and he wore dusty rags.
“Hello.” His voice was so deep that I could barely make a word out of it, “Where do you travel to?”
“It is a pleasure to meet you and I travel to the west in search of peace for my country.”
“Oh, don’t do that!” the man exclaimed, “There is danger everywhere and death looms out there. There
are ferocious beast, nasty monsters, and-”
“I have made my decision to travel and no one will stop that.”
He just stared at me like I was mad. The wind still spun around, twirling sand up from the ground and
smashing it back down.
He had a point, going forward into that endless desert was useless. The desert itself seemed hopeless, just
blue on top of yellow. The marvelous blue sky on top of a boiling desert.
Suddenly, sand swirled in the air. The blue sky was then painted a light yellow as the sand covered it. My
head throbbed with pain as the sand pierced through my eyes. All the sand then gathered together and
exploded like a box of confetti.
My vision cleared as the sand dripped out of my eyes. Then I noticed the man. He dropped to his knees
and fell face-first on the ground.
“Are you-” his body dissolved into sand and all that was left was his clothes.
Fear showered over me as I dropped to the ground, trembling and unable to process what had happened.
Usually I would have sat down on the burning hot surface of the desert for a quick sip of water. Usually I
would have lied down for a bit of food as for my growling stomach.
But today I was too stunned and terrified to move, paralyzed of the scene that just happened in front my
eyes.
“I am a monster, one who only can be seen when it wishes.” a voice trembled the ground.
“What who what-” I stuttered.
“Don’t worry, I’m just going to have you for dinner. One quick gulp.”
“Who-who’s there? And-and p-p-please-”
BOOM!
A white strip of light zipped past me. There was a horrible howl, so horrible that I seemed to have lost my
poor eardrums. When I could hear again the screaming of the terrifying monster, a drip of liquid dropped
down from the sky, painting my shirt red.
Then a golden flash, one much brighter than the white light, zoomed through the sky and crashed on a
rock near me, smashing it to dust. It wasn’t an object that destroyed the rock, it was a…monkey? Its light
brown fur was messed up with leaves and grass sticking out here and there. It wore a rusty old crown on its
head.
“Master, I have come to serve you.” The monkey said, “I’ll defeat this monster for you.” He said as took a
long and thin stick out of his ear.
“What a-a-are- how?”
There was another flash of gold, and a great yell as another huge drip of red came out of the sky.
I then began wondering what the monster looked like. Is it huge? Is it tiny? Is it ugly? Is it…
As I got lost in thoughts, a huge thud shook me out of my mind. Out of nowhere appeared a giant, one
who had his mushed-up face smashed on the ground. It wore a worn-out shirt that was light blue, and
pants filled with cuts and holes. Its forehead had a few stripes painted with blood, I guess that was the traces
of the monkey who helped me defeat this monster. His head was wobbling, and his knees were shaking.
“Get up!” the monkey shouted as he kicked the giants leg.
“As you wish.” the giant said.
It got up, and sprinted as fast as his strong legs could carry him. The monkey didn’t seem to panic a bit, he
simply lifted himself off the ground and elegantly danced around the panicked giant, who tried to swat the
monkey but ended up tumbling to the ground distracted by the monkey who made him turn around and
around.