Ghoulies Abroad by Julie Steimle (ebook reader with built in dictionary .txt) 📕

“I wonder,” Daniel said out loud, though mostly to himself, “If the monkey king is real or fictitious.”

“Probably real,” muttered Chen, glancing back at the monastery.

James shot him a look. “But isn’t Journey to the West just a novel?”

“Maybe the author put a real character into a work of fiction,” Daniel said.

“Or maybe he put fictitious characters in a real setting,” Eddie guessed. “That happens all the time. The story so far seems to be a Buddhist metaphor, a bit like Pilgrim’s Progress was for Christians.”

“It probably is,” Semour muttered, his feet kicking the ground as he walked. “But I am sure they put creatures in it based off of real demons.”

Daniel shook his head, following him. “That may be, but I’ve notice that this Monkey King is a lot like Hanuman, the monkey god from the Ramayana. Both can somersault and travel large distances over the sky. Both help people on missions. And both are connected to India.”

“So Hanuman could be the real elf whereas the Monkey King could be the fictitious rendition of him?” Eddie suggested.

Shrugging, noticing Chen getting uncomfortable and shifting away from them to Rick’s other side, Daniel replied, “Or they could be the same guy with different names. Who knows how much of the Monkey King story is fiction and how much is real. Maybe the origin story has fuzzy bits, but the core has some truth to it. I mean the personality of the Monkey King is in line with a typical elf.”

“What?” Chen’s voice rose involuntarily in protest.

Meeting his gaze, Daniel said, “Many elves love mischief. And the naughty ones travel a lot.”

Chen colored.

“Most elves are grounded to a specific location which they must care for,” Andy explained more calmly. “If the Monkey King is real, then his domain was Flower Fruit Mountain. He was most likely not meant to leave it ever. But he did. And looking at the story, it his penance to serve the monk on his journey to the west.”

“Which is a pretty typical true elf fall and redemption story,” Daniel said.

“I’ve never heard such a story,” Chen snapped, trying to restrain his temper. All his feelings from the previous argument were visibly returning.

Daniel shrugged. “Neither had we until I started doing some digging about our patron elf.”

“Your patron elf?” Chen immediately looked confused.

Rick listened in, as he had not quite understood that concept either.

“Yeah,” Daniel explained to Chen, keeping calm. “We have a patron elf who, for some reason, has disappeared. I don’t think she is dead. But she had hidden herself from the world.”

“She?” James raised his eyebrows.

Daniel nodded as they walked along. “Yes. I do believe our patron elf was once known as the goddess Bast—or Bastet, or Obest, depending on how you read the hieroglyphs. With the zombie, I have been trying to track her origins, as apparently she did not originate in Egypt. And some elves change their names. Apparently she changed her name several times. I do believe she was called Wadget before she was called Bastet. Or Udjat. The eye is hers. It is also one of the Seven’s symbols. She has had several incarnations. Peter and I have to do more research, but we believe she actually came from a northern country and had traveled through Greece. Mr. Jones said she was known as the guardian of the tree of life and at one time carried the flaming sword that guarded Eden, and also that during the flood she took the tree of life with her to wherever she lived. Rumor is—”

“That’s all fascinating, and everything,” Eddie cut in. “But we need to focus on China right now.”

“Wait!” Chen raised his hand, “What do you mean by ‘with the zombie’?”

The Seven broke into chuckles. Rick rolled his eyes, about to answer—but Tom smirked out loud as he said, “That’s just what they call their friend Peter. They all have their goofy nicknames.”

Chen nodded rolling his eyes. He had heard enough of their nicknames already. Sir Coolie. Swift. Red. Sir Strength Heart. Sir Iron Fist. Even calling Rick Howie and Andy Abey. Rick had noticed Chen didn’t care of any of it and thought it was all juvenile. “Ok… fine.”

Tom pounced, wrapping his arms around Chen’s neck and giving him a noogie. “You really need to lighten up.”

Of course, he was soon noogieing a slim tiger.

Everyone in the Seven jumped back. Luckily they were still within the monastery grounds rather than on the street. Otherwise things would have been worse.

Rick moaned, shoving Tom off. “Stop it! His clothes will tear.”

Tom let go, cackling while tripping back without actually falling over.

But the watching monks stared with nearly bulging eyes. Their murmurs swelled up, several of them saying “Youguai…”

“We should go,” Rick hissed to them all. He then patted Chen on the head, “I hope you can turn back at will. I really don’t want to have to wait long.”

Shrinking back into his clothes so they were no longer tight, Chen crouched on all fours with a snarl for Tom. “You bloody imp…”

Tom snickered, entirely unrepentant as he hopped farther backward from him.

Yet Chen quickly got onto his feet and dusted off his hands, his eyes raking over the five from the Seven as if daring them to challenge him.

Yet James soon shrugged and said, “Ok. A spirit warrior.”

The others nodded. And that was it for the argument.

As soon as they were back on the street, Rick made calls to arrange for transportation. As they waited, they stepped into a nearby tea shop and ordered snack foods, a battered-looking white van pulled up to the curb, searching for his human cargo. Rick, when he saw him, hopped out and greeted the driver who quickly recognized him. The driver spoke a little English, was able to follow a simple instruction, and happily agreed to take them as far as Nanjing.

“He can’t take us the entire way to Yancheng,” Rick explained. “But I think I can hire a driver from Nanjing to drive us to Xinghua.”

“That will work.” Andy nodded more appreciatively.

Rick looked at all the seats and counted. He nodded to Chen. “You can ride shotgun.”

Chen blinked at him, wondering way.

“To give you space,” Rick explained.

Nodding appreciatively, Chen relaxed a little. It would be a long trip after all and they didn’t need him accidentally changing shape in the car just from leaning up against someone if he fell asleep along the way.

Chapter Eight

The journey to Suzhou went without a hitch. The drive was a little tedious, of course—but incident free. Rick found a restaurant where the Seven could hang out while he went on his business visit to the factory. And even that short trip went without mishap or trouble. Tom came with him while Chen stayed behind to act as translator for the Seven, despite his discomfort and general distaste for them. Chen was trying to be civil at least.

So when Rick returned from that errand, he was pleased to see they were still getting along. When he stepped into the doors, he overheard Chen explaining the difference between Taoism and Buddhism.

“…you see now? That is why they journeyed to the west. To the West was India, the homeland of Buddhism.”

Rick’s Middleton Village friends nodded with an ‘I see now’ expression, though some of them maintained that look of ‘I am nodding to avoid an argument’—or perhaps just to avoid being eaten by a tiger. Their expressions lit up when they saw Rick, relieved really.

“All done,” Rick said. “We can head to Nanjing now.”

They rose. Several excused themselves to use the restaurant bathroom while Daniel sauntered up to Rick and asked, “So, what is in Nanjing that we need to check out?”

Rick’s mind went to the wolf pack. However he said, “Tigers. Near Nanjing there is a village of weretigers. But I have business in Nanjing as well. So when we get there I will take care of that first.”

Daniel took him in for the briefest of moments. Rick could tell he did not quite believe him, which unfortunately was not unexpected. Daniel was the keenest of the group after all. “You shouldn’t go around alone on business so much. There are demons keeping an eye out for us.”

“I’ve got Tom,” Rick muttered with a roll of his eyes.

“Tom might not be enough,” Daniel said. “He’s not all powerful, you know.”

“Fine,” Rick said. “I’ll take Chen too.”

Daniel raised his eyebrows.

“He’s fluent in Chinese, and I watched him defeat a pretty stinking bad demon back in high school,” Rick explained.

“But that was then,” Daniel said, “He’s not too confident about his transformative abilities now.”

Meeting his gaze hard, Rick replied, “That’s just Chen. When that demon came to our school, he couldn’t even control his powers. He needs conflict to force it out of him.”

“You mean a conflict where you nearly get killed?” Daniel answered back with sharp concern.

Hanging his head, Rick groaned. “That won’t happen.”

“Come on.” Daniel shook his head peevishly. “We’ve all seen those claw marks. You kept telling people a bear did it.”

“It was sort of a bear when he scratched me,” Rick retorted as his cheeks colored.

Daniel shot him a knowing look, as those claw marks were not mere scratches. However, he said, “What are your intentions on this trip?”

With a reply determination to throw Daniel off the scent, Rick said, “I intend to help figure out and handle the problems the monk called me in for—and to do business on the side.”

Rolling his eyes, Daniel tossed up his hands, giving up for now. “Fine.” He walked into the building to use the restaurant’s restroom.

Once all of them were back in the van and on the road, most of them fell asleep while they traveled the distance from Suzhou to Nanjing. Andy continued to read Journey to the West, getting further along in the novel. It had around two thousand pages, so it would take a number of days to actually complete, but it was clear Andy had passed the legend of the Monkey King’s origins and was well into the actual journey. Andy usually sat with a pencil in his teeth, underlining passages, dog-earing a number of different pages, and putting notes in the margins. If he studied this seriously in medical school Rick was sure he was doing quite well despite how stressed Andy was about his schooling.

It was dark when they arrived in Nanjing

Rick quickly got them all set up in a hotel, including a room for the driver. He paid through the nose for the rooms since they had no reservations, but they were decent rooms.

“Ok,” Rick said, nodding to them all. “Tomorrow when it is light we will look for the tiger village.”

“I need to stretch my legs,” Daniel muttered, marching off.

“Me too,” James said, looking around at the hotel hallway, then hurrying after him. “I’ve been between four walls doing nothing all day.”

Rick shrugged, watching them go with a glance to Eddie and Semour who were just as likely to dump their stuff and wander off. “Ok. Just don’t forget where the hotel is and try not to get lost.”

“Yes, Mom.” James waved as he walked way.

Shaking his head, Rick turned to go.

“Where will you