Girl Giant and the Monkey King

by Van Hoang

  Jae smiled brightly at a group of ladies walking past them. They were also dressed in áo dài, with matching round headdresses, creating colorful halos around their heads. Even though they bowed politely to Jae, they didn’t stop to talk to her, and when they’d walked away, Thom noticed that they leaned their heads together to whisper and laugh. They reminded her of the dynamic trio. Thom was relieved when she glanced at Jae and saw her new friend briefly give the ladies a sour look.

  “You can tell me,” Thom said when Jae still didn’t speak.

  “It’s just…” Jae looked down, blinking rapidly. “I’m not as strong as you.”

  “But that’s good. I told you how much of a curse my strength is.”

  “No, it’s not just that. I’m not as strong as anyone.” Jae wiped at her cheeks. “It’s not something people talk about really. At least not openly.”

  “What?”

  “When a god falls in love with a mortal, their children come out … odd. Unpredictable. You never know what ability they’ll be born with … Sometimes they have really amazing powers, and sometimes they turn out just like me.” Jae held up her palms. “Weak.”

  Thom wanted to reach out to her. “You’re not weak.”

  “Everyone here values strength and power,” Jae said, looking around. Thom followed her gaze. Men in black robes and uniforms strutted around, and to Thom’s shock, several Jade Soldiers were there. They towered over the other guests, attracting attention no matter where they walked.

  “The Jade Soldiers are some of the most respected people here,” Jae said. “All the Lotus Students study for years to join the army. The immortals are ranked according to their abilities. Even the fairies have gifts. But me…” Jae looked at her hands. Her jade ring glinted in the bright peach-colored light of the party. “I’m weak.”

  “You’re not.” Thom’s defense of her was automatic. “I would give anything not to be this strong.”

  “But why, Thom? You could do so much with your power. You could belong here. You belong here more than I ever have.”

  “But you’re part god, aren’t you?” Thom pointed out. “Can’t your father or mother help you? Can’t they give you power?”

  “It doesn’t work like that, and Father wouldn’t want people to think he abuses his position. And there’s no one I can ask, because no one likes to talk about it. No one wants to acknowledge that I’m part mortal. It’s a reminder that Father broke the rule.” She took a shuddering breath. “I’m a walking sin.”

  “No, you’re not.” Jae was kind and sweet—how could anyone call her that?

  “I am. I’m a warning sign, a cautionary tale for any god tempted to fall in love with a mortal, because then their children could turn out like me, or worse.”

  Or worse? Like Thom?

  Was Thom part immortal? Was that why she’d turned out so weird? Was that why she was superstrong, maybe even as strong as an immortal like the Boy Giant?

  “Jae,” Thom said hesitantly. She didn’t want to make this about her, not when Jae was confiding something so emotional. But she was too curious to stop herself. “Did the Boy Giant fall in love with a mortal? Didn’t you say he lived in the mortal world for a long time? Why did he come back?”

  “Thom! There you are!”

  They both startled at the voice of the Boy Giant himself. Thom went red—had he heard her talking about him?

  But he wasn’t alone. Approaching with him was a tall man who towered over the Boy Giant, with a black beard, in golden robes that trailed on the floor. Perched on top of his head was a glittering, jade crown. His skin had the same golden shine that the Boy Giant’s had, and together, the two men lit up the path leading to Thom and Jae. His eyes studied Thom intently, his thick brows drawn together.

  “Father!” Jae exclaimed, rushing to him. He spread his arms, lifting his robes, and the fabric was so heavy and immense that when he hugged Jae, she almost drowned beneath the golden folds of his wide sleeves.

  Everyone at the party dipped into a curtsy, arms folded, heads bowed. Silence settled over the garden. Thom started to lower her body, but the man waved an arm at her.

  “Enough of that,” he said, turning to the crowd. “This is a party, isn’t it?” He clapped, and music started, someone picking a happy tune on a đàn bầu, as conversation erupted.

  “Thom, this is the Jade Emperor,” the Boy Giant said.

  Thom dropped into a bow. She couldn’t help herself.

  The Jade Emperor chuckled. “Enough, I said.” He kept one arm around Jae, who beamed at Thom. That was when it clicked—if the Jade Emperor was Jae’s father, then she was a princess. A princess! And Thom had been talking to her as if she were just a normal girl, as if she and Thom were on the same level.

  Jae had continued to smile at Thom like they were best friends, but now her face was starting to tighten, like she was waiting for Thom’s reaction. Thom gave a reassuring smile, and Jae’s face relaxed.

  “This is your new friend, Jae?” the Jade Emperor asked, keeping his eye on Thom.

  Jae nodded, looking up at her father with pure adoration and love. Thom felt a pang in her chest, and she suddenly missed her mom so much it hurt.

  “Then we must all sit together,” the Jade Emperor said.

  Jae and her father walked arm in arm, while Thom fell into step beside the Boy Giant, her mind still racing from the idea that they might be more similar than she’d thought.

  They walked in silence for a while, and then he smiled down at her, something twinkling in his eye. “I have something that might be useful to you,” he said, reaching into his pocket. He handed her a piece of string. It was golden and so thin it felt like it would snap if she pulled on it. “It’s magical. It can’t break, and will always be as long as you need it to be. Once bound, it can only be loosened by the person who tied it.”

  “Oh, wow.” She wrapped it around her wrist twice, and the end adhered to the other coils, creating a bracelet. “Thank you! But are you sure you won’t need it?”

  “I think you might find more use for it.”

  She reflexively started to tuck her hair behind her ear, then remembered the Monkey King was hiding there.

  “Why are you giving this to me, though?” she asked. “Wouldn’t your other students like it, too?” Not that she was ready to give it back so quickly.

  “It’s my job, you see. To protect people.”

  “Like a superhero.”

  “Like a giant,” he said with a smile. “I try, but sometimes…” He shrugged.

  “You can’t protect everyone.”

  He held his hands together, tucking them in the folds of his sleeves. “Thom.”

  She looked up expectantly. His mouth opened and closed a few times.

  “I hope you know,” he said finally, stumbling a little over his words, “if you need anything … I can … you can … always … I would help you.”

  Why did that bring a lump to her throat? He was just being nice, doing his duty as an immortal and a hero.

  He nudged her, held up a fist. “Remember, Thom. You are mighty.”

  She ducked her head, her cheeks heating up.

  When they reached the banquet table, the Boy Giant pulled out her chair, then took the seat next to her. Jae sat on her other side, the Jade Emperor at the head of the table. And directly across the table from Thom … was Kha. He wore a black-and-gold áo dài, with a headdress that made him look taller and older, more sophisticated.

  He leaned toward Thom when no one else was paying attention. “What are you up to?” he hissed.

  “Nothing,” she whispered back.

  “We need to talk.”

  “That’s what we’re doing right now.”

  “No, in private.”

  Then Jae noticed him and gasped, and both Thom and Kha straightened in their seats.

  “Father,” Jae said to the Jade Emperor. “Why would you seat him here?”

  “I am not in charge of the seating arrangements,”
the Jade Emperor said cheerfully as servants brought out heaping platters of food. The smell of salted pork, steamed dumplings, fried rice, and oxtail soup flooded Thom’s nostrils.

  “I’m here in place of the general,” Kha said, bowing his head at the Jade Emperor with such grace and sophistication that Thom hardly recognized him. Then when the Jade Emperor wasn’t looking, he stuck his tongue out at Jae.

  Servants set more food in front of them, on plates of gold that gleamed in the warm peachy lighting, each so full they threatened to spill over.

  “Now is my chance to steal the ring,” the Monkey King said to Thom. His fingers and toes tickled her as he crawled down the back of her neck.

  “Did you say something?” the Boy Giant asked.

  “What? No, uh … This is so much,” Thom said, looking at all the food.

  “Save room for dessert,” the Boy Giant said. “I designed it myself.”

  “Eat!” the Jade Emperor commanded, and everyone at the table dove into the food, filling their plates, clicking their chopsticks, slurping their soup. Thom was too distracted to eat at first, as she watched the immortals stuff their faces and talk between bites. Light reflected off the jewelry on the fairies’ necks and ears, the metallic details of the gods’ hats and the soldiers’ helmets. Conversations came from all directions, drowning one another out until it combined into a dull roar. She shut her eyes, resisting the urge to clap her hands over her ears.

  “Thom,” someone called out to her.

  When she looked up, Kha was inclining his head toward the Jade Emperor.

  The emperor smiled at her. “I hear you’re incredibly strong.”

  “Um, yes, Your Highness.”

  “As strong as my friend the Boy Giant?”

  Thom glanced at the immortal next to her. He smiled. “I don’t know,” she said.

  “We should have a battle!” the Jade Emperor said, laughing.

  “Now, now.” The Boy Giant chuckled. “That wouldn’t be a fair fight.”

  “To whom—you or the girl?”

  Everyone laughed.

  “My daughter would do anything to have your strength,” the Jade Emperor said, clapping a hand on Jae’s shoulder. Jae winced, but Thom couldn’t tell if it was because of her father’s hand or his words. The laughter died, cut off abruptly, leaving the Jade Emperor to chuckle alone at his joke.

  An awkward silence ensued. The tension stretched across the table until Jae broke it.

  “If only you could give me some of your strength,” Jae said to Thom. She was trying to sound casual and happy, but Thom heard the hitch in her voice.

  “We can’t choose who we are,” the Jade Emperor said. “And we can’t choose our gifts, so we must make do with what we have.”

  Thom didn’t know how to respond to that. He looked so confident and authoritative, a grown-up who knew things. Still, his words didn’t sound quite right.

  “But what about the people who don’t have gifts?” Thom asked. Or don’t want them.

  The Jade Emperor spread his arms and shrugged. “They must make do with what they have.”

  “So you don’t think people can change?” Thom asked.

  The emperor looked surprised, as if he wasn’t used to being questioned at all. “They can grow, definitely. Improve. But at the end of the day, you must accept who you are.” His expression was kind, if a bit condescending. He spoke carefully, as if making sure she understood each word. “You can’t avoid your true nature. In fact, you should be grateful for your place in life.”

  That was easy for him to say when he was an immortal and a royal in the heavens. But what if he had been born a demon instead? Demons never had a choice. Were they just supposed to accept their fates and live the rest of their lives in exile while the gods and fairies got to enjoy banquets and cookies and peaches of immortality?

  Then again, some demons could change. She’d seen it. The monkey brothers in their peaceful sanctuary. The Monkey King, who had never been anything but a friend to her.

  “But…” Thom said. “But I don’t think that’s true.”

  Whispers hissed down the table. The Jade Emperor leaned toward her.

  “You … don’t,” he said slowly. His laughter was gone, and his fingers were curled into fists on the table.

  Thom gulped. Everyone was watching her. She wished she hadn’t said anything, but the Jade Emperor kept looking at her, and she felt like she had to go on.

  “Some people do change their fates,” she said. “Some demons can be good.”

  Faces twisted in disgust. “Demons?” one fairy blurted, dropping her spoon.

  “Oh?” The Jade Emperor sat back in his chair. “Enlighten us.”

  Thom wanted to slink away instead. “Well…” she said slowly. “The Monkey King did.”

  Everyone reacted at once. The fairies gasped; some men thumped their fists on the table. The Jade Soldiers reached for their swords. The Boy Giant touched her hand, as if to quiet her. Kha held her gaze across the table and shook his head slightly.

  Thom touched the spot behind her ear, but the Monkey King was still gone. She wished she could turn herself invisible.

  The Jade Emperor held up a hand, and the crowd quieted. He never looked away from Thom.

  “That demon certainly tried to change his fate, but he learned the hard way that he should have just accepted his position in life.”

  “The hard way?” Thom asked.

  “He was defeated and captured,” Jae explained, “sentenced to live for five hundred years under a mountain.”

  A mountain? No—Thom had found him in a temple. They were wrong. They were wrong about the Monkey King; they were wrong about so many things. People could change. The Monkey King had changed. His brothers were good. Even the other demons on the island were kind and playful.

  Thom understood now why the Monkey King wanted a better life for the demons. They didn’t deserve the fairies’ disdain, the way the gods sneered at any mention of them, this hatred from people who didn’t know them. She looked at the immortals in their bright outfits with their stuffed faces and the piles of food, the glowing peaches, the golden plates on the table. All this decadence for people who made her feel as if she didn’t belong. She thought of the demons, banished to a lonely island, the monkey brothers in their oasis, where she’d wanted to stay forever. The immortals in the heavens didn’t understand, or didn’t want to understand.

  “But why?” Thom asked. “What did he do?”

  “He tried to make himself a god,” the Jade Emperor said. “Such a thing is impossible.”

  “But isn’t he? Wasn’t he born in the heavens?”

  The crowd murmured. The Jade Emperor spoke loudly, drowning out all the whispers.

  “He is a demon!” he boomed. Thom cowered at his voice. “And nothing will change that.”

  Under the table, Jae touched Thom’s hand. Thom looked down at Jae’s bare fingers, placed over her gloved ones. She gasped. Her forearm, just above where the gloves ended, was covered in that same ashy scab. Even while she watched, it was spreading, her skin cracking, turning into gray scales. It was getting worse. She was running out of time.

  Thom jumped when something crawled up her arm. She stopped herself from swatting at her sleeve just in time when she realized that it was the Monkey King.

  “I…” she said. She couldn’t think of an excuse. “I need to, um…” She got up from the table.

  “Go,” the Jade Emperor said. He waved a hand dismissively.

  The party guests looked at her with disgust. Pity. Embarrassment on her behalf.

  The Jade Emperor was kicking her out of the party. She’d said the wrong thing, disgraced herself. What would Ma think?

  Kha gave her an apologetic look, while Jae seemed like she might cry. The Boy Giant was simultaneously sad and yet reassuring. Sympathetic.

  “Leave,” the Jade Emperor ordered.

  Behind her, she heard stomping. Jade Soldiers were standing at attention, rea
dy to take her away if she disobeyed.

  Thom took a few steps back. Then she spun around and walked as fast as she could away from the party.

  27

  WHEN SHE WAS SURE SHE was alone among the peach trees, Thom tugged up her sleeve and held the Monkey King in her palm.

  “I have it!” He lifted the ring to show her, but remained lying down. “The key. We can go.”

  “Are you sick?” she asked. He looked terrible, his face sunken, his movements slow and heavy.

  “I am weak,” he said, closing his eyes. “I just need to rest.”

  Thom had been hoping he would tell her what to do, but he went completely still and began shrinking.

  “Wukong! Wukong, what’s wrong? What’s happening?”

  But he was just a hair again. She bounced her hand up and down as if that would revive him, but nothing happened. The jade ring he’d stolen rolled over in her palm.

  What was she supposed to do now? She inspected the scabs on her arms, pulled off her gloves, and bit back a gasp as flakes of dried skin fell off. Her fingers tingled as she turned them over, scrutinizing the damage, which had moved up past her elbows. She needed to decide now, on her own, before time ran out and she wouldn’t have the chance.

  Thom looked in the direction of the party. Even from the trees, she could hear people laughing and talking. She imagined how much fun everyone was having, already forgetting about her, the girl who had been kicked out. She should have been embarrassed, but she was too disgusted to care. Why would she want to sit with people who treated her friends with disdain? What did they know, anyway? The Jade Emperor was wrong—they all were. If the Monkey King could go from being a monkey demon into a god of his own making, if he could master the Seventy-Two Transformations and became undefeatable, then she could certainly get rid of her strength and make herself normal.

  It didn’t matter what Jae said, or what Thom might suspect about who the Boy Giant really was. Even if her suspicions were true, she had nothing in common with them. She didn’t belong here, and it was only a matter of time before they discovered that. The only way out of the mess was to find the cudgel and bring it back to the Monkey King.