Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 151

Deep breath.
“Hi... I’m Sun Wu-”
“I know.” he says, his mouth unmoving as he speaks.
“Um, I’m here to-”
“I know why you’re here.” He says again, his voice monotonous. “Now let's go.” He turns his
gaze to the lead rope tied to the horse’s neck. It’s as if he pulled a plug on my foot, draining all the vigour
and excitement I had once had down onto the dusty grown below me feet. I take hold of the lead rope and
guide the horse away from the small house my father and I live in, built with our own hands, wondering if
I’ll see it again. As I’m thinking, I trip, stumbling a little before regaining my footing. I look back at the
monk, expecting to meet his glare. Instead he’s looking over his shoulder back at the hut. Then he turns
back to me, eyes wide and fearful.
Then I realise what made me trip.
The ground is shaking.
It rumbles again, a tremor spreading through the ground. Jostled, I look up at the monk,
wondering if it’s an earthquake.
“WU DI!” The monk yells, frantic. “RUN!”
I don’t understand, but my feet automatically obey, and I let go of the lead rope and sprint forward
with a quick glance backward to make sure the monk is galloping behind me. As a monkey, I can run on all
fours, meaning I can almost match a horse. But as I look back, I see that the monks hood has blown of,
revealing... What?
A pig’s head protrudes from the green cloaking, the pinkish snout I mistook as a nose scrunching
up as it meets the wind.
“Run, Wudi, RUN!”
I push myself to go faster, my thoughts going as fast as my legs. There is only one pig this “monk”
could be. But why?
The rumblings are coming more often now. Then one is truncated by a huge explosion. I have to
glance back once again, only to see a column of fire shooting upwards, right where our house would be. I
choke back a sob. My home.
The horse draws up alongside me, and I swing myself onto it, gripping the pigs cloak as the horse
speeds up even more.. I look up at the back of the pig. Could it be..?
“Bajie?” I ask.
“Who else, Wudi?”
Bajie the pig was one of my father’s companions as he made his journey west. Is he a monk now?
Just then, I hear a screeching battle cry, the one I know is my father's, followed by another
explosion. My mind goes blank, and I bury my face into Bajie and close my eyes.
When I open my eyes again, we are on a desert plain, in the middle of nowhere. I hop off the
horse to see Bajie sitting down on the sand, looking at me.
“What-what happened?” I ask him.
“One of your father’s old friends came back to pay him a visit.”
“Who?”
“The immortal Zhenyuan, your father’s most powerful enemy.” he says, looking back at me with
something new in his eyes.
“But they parted friends! My father gave him back his tree of eternal life!” I exclaim. “Why were
there-”
“He was lying!” Bajie says, nearly shouting. “Maybe he really thought of Sun Wukong as an ally at
first, but his dead brethren never left his mind. He came for me and my family first, with an army of troops.
I escaped but I’ve lost everything now. I knew he would come for your father as well, so I contacted him.
Zhenyuan didn’t know he had a son, so as long as he didn’t follow, he knew you were safe. So he asked me
to get you, while he tried to face his old enemy. He never had any chance.”
I am silent for a minute, processing. “So.. he’s dead?” The word exits my lips hollow.
“No. he can’t be killed. But imprisoned. Trapped forever. Unless we get him back.”
“us?” I
say, unbelieving, still reeling with the relief that my father is alive.
“Well, no, we can pick up a friend first. Remember Sha Wujing?”
“Yes, but.. If my father can’t take him, how can we?”