Ghoulies Abroad - Julie Steimle (great novels to read txt) 📗

you are a body builder and you want to become Mr. Universe—if they still have that sort of thing. No one gets that ripped by bench pressing pillows. You have to lift weights that make your muscles kill for hours on end and whatever else. I didn’t become a good swordsman by watching movies about swordsmen. I trained under the best while spending most of my life in battle. It was do or die.”

“But I don’t want to be Mr. Universe! Not everybody does,” Chen protested. “And don’t want to go to battle. I just want to survive. Why is suffering so necessary?”

Turning a weary eye onto Chen, as clearly he thought the guy was whiny, Semour said, “Let me put it in easier terms for you, kid. Life was never meant to be smooth sailing because it makes us weak. If we were to remove all opposition, all stress—such as gravity—we would all be flaccid creatures incapable of standing up on our own. That’s what happened to the astronauts when they returned from zero gravity. Their muscles atrophied.”

Chen colored, shifting his eyes away a degree. He clearly did not like hearing this.

“Fact is, life is pain. Anyone who tells you different is selling something,” Semour said.

Rick’s head perked up. “That’s a Princess Bride quote.”

Semour nodded. “Good film. And it’s also true.”

Sun Laoshi nodded. “I enjoyed it.”

Chen shot him a look. Then he shook his head. Perhaps the idea of the Monkey King going to the movies was unreal to him. But for Rick it just endeared him to the guy more.

They hurried on their way, getting on the bus and riding it to the shopping area where they immediately sought out that bus service to the mountain. When they finally found it, they saw Andy and his crew already there but Tom and Daniel were not. Tom, of course, had gone far ahead and had not intended to meet them there at all. As for Daniel, he probably had hopped onto an earlier bus. Rick decided that their group should act as if they did not know Andy’s cluster—which was also how Andy had played it. They gave a passing nod to them though, as to not acknowledge a foreigner they saw would also be suspicious. And when they loaded onto the bus with all the other tourists, the members of the Seven kept their eyes peeled for demons masquerading as tourists and locals. So far, none of those on the bus seemed to be suspicious. However, as they journeyed closer to the mountain through the picturesque countryside that was oddly being bulldozed over and filled with apartment blocks and government buildings, the Seven could feel they were coming closer to a den of supernatural beings who were still living in the nature of the mountain. Their palms surged warmer and warmer. And as they did, the Seven shared looks, now really wishing they had Jessica, Michael, and Peter with them. This was a horde waiting for them.

The bus pulled into a large snow-cleared parking lot where they got out. Stepping off the bus, their eyes raked over the numerous stalls selling tacky souvenirs, all sorts of food, and even one with shoes for hiking the paths inside the mountain. The tourist business for Monkey King paraphernalia was huge.

After a ten minute walk past all this, they came to the large set of stairs with stone monkeys lining the stairway toward the gate which towered over the tourists with a huge stylized monkey king face over the top center archway. Chinese calligraphy was carved into the stone of the gateway just below his face and four large stone carved lion profiles guarded the entrance. They weren’t the usual standing lions with cubs and balls you see at businesses and banks, but lions climbing down the sides of the entrance openings, active as if they would attack anyone who did not deserve to enter the park. Sun Laoshi stared up at it the huge gateway momentarily before leading them off to the entrance.

Rick sidled next to him as he sorted out their torn ticket stubs. They had cost fifty yuan for each of them, which was nothing really. “Those pictures of you—”

Sun Laoshi huffed. “What of them?”

“Are any of them accurate?” Rick asked.

Looking sideways to him, Sun Laoshi closed one eye. “Are you serious?”

Shrugging, Rick colored a little. “Well…”

“Pure fantasy,” Sun Laoshi said, strolling toward the entrance as if he were instructing Rick and the others as students. “I mean, you already saw me as a monkey once. Did I look anything like those plush toys or that carving?”

Coloring more, Rick shook his head, now understanding that the Monkey King had been trailing them the entire time from a distance. He most likely had his reasons, but it was irritating to even think that perhaps one was that the Monkey King hadn’t exactly trusted them and was scouting them out.

“For all that movie aggrandizement, I find it highly flattering but entirely inaccurate,” Sun Laoshi said. He got behind the considerable line of people going into the park. His eyes tracked Andy’s group who had copied him.

“Including the armor which they claim you stole from a dragon?” Rick asked, chuckling.

This time Sun Laoshi colored, especially when some people ahead of them glanced back at them after hearing English spoken. He whispered, “Stole is such a harsh word.”

Semour laughed.

Chen rolled his eyes. He then leaned near Rick, speaking in a low voice, “The events within the legend are perhaps exaggerated. But he did have some pretty special armor and a staff which he had taken from a sea being who could only be described as a dragon in the same way that he is a monkey.”

Rick raised his eyebrows. Then he looked to Sun Laoshi. “Do you still have that armor?”

With a wink, Sun Laoshi said, “Never throw away a useful thing.”

He had it then. That also meant he had the staff too. But where did he keep it? Even elf magic had its limits.

As they passed through the main gateway and came out on the other side, they looked up at the back of the giant entryway. On it was inscribed more Chinese characters. As Rick stared up at it, he overheard a tour guide from a group of foreigners nearby say in English, “The stone monkeys around the square are the usher monkeys of Huaguo Mountain, which originally were one hundred eight in total. They represented thirty-six Ploughs and Seventy-two Malignant Stars, but they found one extra after completing them. The builders felt that he was lonely so they put him with rest so in fact there are one hundred nine monkeys total.”

Chen leaned near Semour, hissing, “Are they demons?”

Semour shook his head, watching the foreigners. “Nope. Actual tourists. But that does not mean there aren’t demons here. I feel them down that way.” He pointed toward the valley below where there was a path of slab stone with a solid rock sign at the side, carved in Chinese characters—one of which looked like a plus sign next to two lines sloping down like the sides of a volcano then a more complicated character.

“…Huaguo Mountain is hometown of Sun Wukong. Now there is a saying: ‘If there were tigers, the monkey couldn’t live at ease.’ That saying is similar to our saying ‘in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is the king.’ What it means is…” The echo of the tour guide continued to drone on while Sun Laoshi peered down the path to see where Semour had indicated.

“That’s the way into the center of the mountain toward water curtain cave,” he said.

“…Sun Wukong represents justice and wisdom in the people’s mind’s eye, which is why his legend is so loved in China….”

Rick peered down there also, wondering how far it was they had to hike. He had decent shoes on, but this was not his territory.

“This is my mountain,” Sun Laoshi said through his teeth. “My homeland. And they have desecrated it.”

“Ok, where should we go from here?” Andy said while walking close by Sun Laoshi, pretending to just be strolling. His group followed up next to him.

Daniel wandered over to them from wherever he had been waiting and hissed low, “We should head to the peak first and then go down the mountain. If the demons have the high ground, we will be too exhausted just trying to get to them. If we go down to the top then down, we can have the advantage.”

“Go to the peak first?” Eddie stared at the wide mountainous scenery ahead of them. “How?”

Pointing toward the path Semour had indicated, Daniel said, “That way over there is an aerial tramway. It will take us to the top.”

“How do you know that?” Eddie asked, exasperated.

Daniel held up a folded pamphlet. “I bought a map.”

Andy reached for it. Taking the map, he looked at the drawing, trying to make out the blurry English words under the Chinese characters. He then lifted an eye to Sun Laoshi. “If you were those demons, where would you go?”

Gently taking the map from Andy, extending it out flat and pointing for their benefit at the right half, Sun Laoshi said, “There are several caves and waterfalls in these mountains. Much of the geography has changed since I lived here though, mostly human-changed. But I would not put it past my enemies to occupy places dear to me. I agree with Swift here. We go to the peak and then make our way down. From the cable cars we can scout out the scene below us and decide where we need to go.”

Daniel lifted his eyebrows, pleasantly surprised that Sun Laoshi called him Swift. He could never tell if the guy approved or disapproved of him as he got the brunt of Sun Laoshi’s dirty looks most of the time. Daniel was still annoyed at being called a pyromaniac.

“Alright then,” Andy said. He then looked to the path. “Let’s go everyone. Keep an eye out for demons.”

“Keep an eye out for Tom,” Rick murmured.

They headed onto the path labeled on the map as the Path of Eighteen Bends which was the main cut stone footpath along the mountainside toward the center of the mountain area. The footpath itself was solid slabs of stone. A fair number of hikers walked down it in the chilly wind, though most tourists opted to take the shuttle bus as the air was frosty and most of the trees were covered in fair amounts of ice. That English-speaking tourist group did, at least. The path itself had been cleared of snow, but there were so many stairs leading down into the valley with eighteen terraces, and ice formed in patches. It was a good thing the path was wide.

So far, no demon came at them.

But the Seven doubted the demons did not know they were coming. They got past the map location called Squirrel Park without incident. However, as they continued on toward the Wind Pavilion, the air stirred up over the mountains. Rising from the trees, like a black cloud, came birds. The group recognized them immediately.

“Stymphalian birds,” Daniel muttered, staring at them as he paled… especially since they had not prepared any cork armor.

“So this is where they are roosting,” Eddie grumbled, drawing his sword.

Chen groaned inside, looking prepared to go all dragon. He tugged at his scarf to pull it off and then began to remove his coat.

Sun Laoshi set a hand on his to stop him. “Wait. This would be better handled by a bunch of pyromaniacs.” His eyes turned toward the Seven.

Daniel rolled his eyes—but taking the hint, he grasped the red crystal hanging from a chain around his neck. The others grabbed theirs, focusing their eyes and lifting their hands so the heat of their palms were directed at the black birds with red eyes and sharp metallic feathers, which were coming at them at near breakneck speed, their shrieks grinding the air with bloodlust.

At first,