Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 1-2 | Page 535

New Journey to the West
Western Academy of Beijing, Li, Claudia - 11
O
nce, in a faraway sea, was a little island. On the island, was a cliff, and on the cliff, was a stone.
The stone was great and proud and was a cloudy, smoke colored shade of grey. It remained there
for centuries and centuries, until one day, when it quivered. It shuddered, and then- crack! A
stone monkey jumped out! It’a huge, glassy, eyes darted around, then he shook his diminutive little head
and jumped off the cliff. After a while of walking, he coincided with a pack of other monkeys. He was made
out of stone, and the rest of the bunch were normal, but that didn’t matter. They instantly became friends,
and he decided that he would remain with them.
On a blithe morning, when the stone monkey and some others were bathing in the nearby lake, one
of the monkeys craned his neck in the direction of where the lake water was coming from and questioned:
“Where does this water come from?” Everyone looked at each other and shrugged. He suggested that they
go find out, and since none of the rest of the monkeys protested, they set off to find the beginning of the
river.
They climbed and climbed, carefully following the river path, with the stone monkey in the lead.
Finally, they reached the opening of the river, to find a magnificent waterfall gazing back at them. They
were all dazzled, and then went chaotic; everyone was pushing to get a closer look, and one of the monkeys
yelled: “If anyone can jump in that waterfall and jump back out, unharmed, we will make them our king!”
All the monkeys agreed, but no one volunteered to go. After an awkward few moments of staring and
expecting, a voice piped up: “I’ll try.”
When they looked around, they saw the stone monkey raising his hand. They all laughed but were
startled by his boldness and bravery. At first, they all thought that he was kidding, but when he took a deep
breath, shook his head, pushed himself off the ground and jumped into the waterfall, their eyes grew into
the size of tennis balls and all of their mouths dropped open. They worried about him but little did they
know what fun and mysteries were soon going to be exposed by this brave little monkey.
When he jumped in, he landed on something hard, but bendy. He was surprised, because there
wasn’t a single drop of water in what looked like a cave. Cautiously, he opened his eyes and saw that he was
standing on a bridge. He looked back, and it made sense- the waterfall was like a humongous curtain,
covering up the bridge. He walked deeper into the cave, and what he saw was beyond what a stone monkey
could ever wish for. There was an enormous circular room, with different passageways leading off to
hallways, like a hotel. It was so beautiful, words could not describe it. There were green, bushy trees and
blossoming, sweet-smelling flowers all over the courtyard. There were bridges and stairs up to who-
knows-where, and the whole place was so clean it was practically sparkling. The place was so big, the stone
monkey knew that all the monkeys outside and in their old cave could fit, no matter how young or old,
short or tall, skinny or fat they were. But the best of all, absolutely EVERYTHING was made out of stone.
There were stone doors, stone tables, stone stools, stone plates, stone forks, stone stairs, stone sinks, stone
bathrooms, and even the fires that lit up the cave were held by stones!
Seeing this, he returned to the bridge and jumped back out of the waterfall. He was greeted warmly
by the other monkeys, who asked him what he saw inside. Slowly, he told them everything he saw, every
detail and every step he took. After he was finished, they excitedly went to call the other monkeys and, lead
by the stone monkey, jumped into the waterfall to live in it. Inside, when everyone was settled down, they
had a ceremony and crowned him as their king. From then on, the stone monkey was called the “Monkey
King”, and ruled over the other monkeys in the cave behind the waterfall, the place he called Home.