Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 1-2 | Page 289

Monkey King and the Giant Water Horse
Heep Yunn Primary School, Cheung, Jasmine - 11
A
fter five days and five nights of nonstop walking, it could be forgiven when Xuanzang and his
disciples, Monkey King, Pigsy and Sandy wanted to take a break at the first sight of water.
‘Lake!’ exclaimed Pigsy, ‘I can see a lake! We need not be thirsty anymore!’
‘Wow! The water really shines here!’ shouted Monkey King, ‘Strange, huh!’
Without hesitation, all four dashed as fast as possible to immerse themselves in the lake.
‘I only need a few minutes of this and I will be as good as new! Hehehe!’ chuckled Monkey
King. Xuanzang shuddered. ‘The water does not feel so good. I’ll rather not…’
‘Freeze!’ Sandy’s gaze slowly rose upwards, the others did not dare to look behind.
‘I think we better RUN!’ came the second signal from Sandy just before he sprinted away.
Xuanzang and Pigsy followed immediately. Monkey King, being the fearless and disobedient character
that he was, stood his ground and slowly turned his head to see what exactly was causing all the
commotion, he did not like to be disturbed while he was having fun. A giant water horse stood only a
few feet away from him. ‘Well, at least it looks friendly.’ Monkey King thought to himself when all of
a sudden, the water horse puffed out its fat cheeks and blew out a massive amount of water at Monkey
King’s face. Unamused and undeterred, Monkey King wanted to teach the water horse a lesson, but
when he touched his ear to get his magical weapon, he remembered that he had left it with his master.
Desperately, he quickly looked round but could not find his master anywhere, ‘Where is everyone?’ he
panicked. ‘Oh no, Master maybe in danger! Where is my weapon? A chain of thoughts rushed through
Monkey King as the giant water horse moved slowly towards him.
Meanwhile, not so far away, Xuanzang, Pigsy and Sandy finally came to a stop, breathless and
still shaken. Looking around them and not seeing the water horse anywhere, they were relieved and
satisfied that they were not safe…
‘Hey, has anyone seen Monkey?’ Pigsy asked. They stared at each other, eyes wide opened
and speechless.
‘We must have left him behind with that monster!’ shouted Sandy.
‘Then we must go back and help him,’ Xuanzang said calmly. Although Pigsy was still scared
and shaken, he knew that he must go back and help his friend. So together they turned to face the
direction from which they came and without losing any time they ran back towards the lake.
‘I can’t move!’ Monkey King said to himself, while struggling to free himself from under the
water horse’s giant foot. Exhausted and getting embedded deeper and deeper into the bottom of the
lake, Monkey King had run out of ideas to free himself from the wretched creature. ‘If I am buried in
the muddy depths of this lake forever, then who will protect Master from the evils lurking from every
path of his journey?’ he thought. Just then, a loud splash came from above. Monkey King strained his
head to look up towards the surface of the water and then with all his strength, he stretched out his
right arm and grabbed his weapon that was just thrown into the water. Armed now with his magical
stick, he struck it hard at the giant foot.
‘AHHHHH!’ yelled the water horse. Shocked and unable to stand the pain, the water horse
released its foot and swam away. Xuanzang, Pigsy and Sandy, who were standing nearby, laughed and
cheered as they watched the water horse swimming away and Monkey King springing out from the
water and into the air shouting, ‘Thank you, Master!’