Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4 - 7 2018 | Page 208

On the count of three, let go.
“Are you crazy? You’ll get everyone killed!”
Trust me for this. I have an idea. I’m starting to tire anyway, so I have no other choice. The ground
around me starts to crack.
Ready…it’s coming…soon now…LET GO!
I let go of the horns and use his momentum to swing myself over the well and onto the ground.
Simultaneously, the ground around my feet breaks open, and a great, golden pillar, some twenty thirty
meters long etched with words of an ancient tongue, shoots up from where the well had previously stood. It
catches the angry bull right under the chin, sending him reeling backwards in pain.
I grab the pillar and force it out of the ground. With a mental command, it shrinks until it’s
appropriately sized for me.
The Staff of the Golden Brace, said Sun. The same I pulled from the ocean hundreds of years ago.
With this staff, you can go to all nine layers of hell and back alive, brave all dangers of the four realms, or
even rival the might of the gods. This is my gift to you, kid, and use it wisely.
The bull lord picks himself up from where he has fallen, burning with fury. “How dare you oppose
me, silly monkey. You will feel the true rage of a bull!” He extends his hand, and his axe returns to him. He
roars, and suddenly lifts his axe and charges, bellowing. Pity that the staff has a red shaft. I feel the urge to
run, like anyone would in front of a raging bull.
Instead, I tug off a strand of my hair and blow it away. Immediately, twenty duplicates of me appear in
all directions, yelling and behaving like apes.
All twenty one of us leap forward, little monkeys screaming bloody murder. I manage to whack
him on the skull. While he is dazed, I whack him on the side, and he topples over. The duplicates dissipate,
and the staff shrinks.
I walk up, but he surprises me when he sweeps me off my feet with a hand. We both scramble up.
“You wave a mean stick, I’ll give you that,” the demon grins. “But you’re not powerful enough to
kill me! I will crush you, and I will eat you!”
I shrug. “You have to catch me first.”
He’s big, strong, but slow. I dodge his every blow, sometimes getting a free swing when he leaves
himself open, but it isn’t enough.
How was he defeated in the myths again? Sun had to summon a few gods to subdue him. I cannot.
He over-swings, and my staff elongates. I mean to hit him under the chin again, but it hooks onto
his nose ring and tears it off. It’s pretty disgusting, and the bull is really angry. I do remember how he’s
defeated, though.
I shrink my staff and grab onto the cleaner part of the ring as he barrels forward, howling with
anger and pain. I dodge his cleave and sidestep his next attacks. I need the right moment.
Finally, he does a back-hand, aiming for my legs. It’s now or never. I jump onto his axe, and using
it as a jump pad, I flip onto his shoulders. Ring in hand, I cram it onto his head, and it slips over the horns
and locks at his neck. He cries out in anguish, and suddenly vanishes.
The silence is broken by a sudden fit of crying. The child I’d saved is pointing at me, tears rolling
down his face. The rain has stopped, and people are coming out of their homes.
Quick, to the right! Don’t just stand there! I leap onto a near-by building before anyone else can see
me.