Pigsy was not the sharpest tool in the shed. We decided he’d stay with Ao Lie in the stable until we left tomorrow morning. Letting him back in the house would just be awkward after we promised the family we’d kick him out. But we let them know he’d be coming with us and they were very pleased to know their daughter was now single again.

  To thank us, they gave us some food and money, which was good because we were beginning to run low. They also let us have a whole courtyard to ourselves rather than just beds to sleep in for the night.

  Trip had taken over the main room, and the servants of the manor were attending to him.

  The tried to serve us too, but I sent them away, as it was clear they were nervous around us, and I didn’t want them interrupting anyway.

  Wukong had gone to talk to Tripitaka at my insistence, and I was getting ready to prank him when he came back.

  I was invisible, and stood quietly next to the door. I heard the sound of Wukong’s footsteps getting closer and suppressed a giggle.

  He opened the door. “Okay Yue, I talked to Master and-“ He stopped when he saw the room was empty.

  Before his confusion could turn to panic I leaned in and blew on his neck. He shrieked and jumped up.

  “Yue! I know that’s you! You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

  I giggled and kept moving. I didn’t want to end the game too soon. “So, you talked to Tripitaka? Do you accept him as your master now?”

  His eyes scanned the room for me and narrowed. “Yes, we spoke about the circlet and created some rules on when he can and can’t use it. I suppose if he’s to be my master he needs some way to keep me in line. Hah!” Wukong grabbed empty air where I was just at.

  I leaned over and whispered in his ear again. “Good. Maybe you can start learning from him then.”

  Wukong flinched again, and whirled around and grabbed me. “Hah! Now I’ve got you!”

  I dropped my invisibility. “You did. But I’m still the winner. Have you forgotten our bet?”

  Wukong’s fur fluffed up. “Oh, uh, yes.”

  “Really? It was only an hour ago.”

  “Uh, I meant no. Yes as in I remember.”

  “Then you should also remember that you lost. Now’s the time to pay up.” I leaned forward and kissed him. He kissed me back, and I pushed him to the ground. He broke it off and stared at me, confused.

  I flashed my dress off. “I won, which means I get to lead. Now, stay down.”

  I was exhausted, but happy the next morning as we packed up. Wukong let me rest on top of Nimbus while he and the new guy got all the luggage squared away.

  “Why doesn’t she have to do anything?” Pigsy complained loudly for the umpteenth time.

  I didn’t have to look at Wukong to know he was speaking through gritted teeth. “Because she’s not a disciple, she’s my wife, and she’s tired. Now shut up and grab those bags. We’re moving out.”

  “If she’s your wife then she should be helping you. A man’s burdens are his wife’s burdens after all.”

  “Yeah, because clearly you’re the person I want to take marriage advice from. Now pick up that bag before I smack some sense into you.”

  Pigsy grumbled some more, but under his breath so we ignored it and we set off again.

  We had to travel a little slower to keep pace with Pigsy, but not by much. Even though he complained about it, he carried the luggage well, and kept up a good jog. He didn’t tire easily it seemed.

  Wukong was up on Nimbus with me purring, resting my head in his lap. It was nice and sunny too, and Lie was nice enough to realize I was resting and kept her voice down so only Trip could hear her. Today was nice.

  “Okay, we should be coming up on the border of Tang soon. After that, we’ll be in the lawless lands. Everyone, keep your eyes out for a river.”

  We continued on, with me napping intermittently. It was during one of these naps that Wukong gently shook me awake.

  “Yue? I hate to wake you up, but we’ve run into a problem.”

  “Mnn.” I blinked and rubbed my eyes, and sat up. I gave a yawn before looking up at Wukong.

  “Are we camping yet? Should I get started on dinner?”

  He smiled at me briefly before looking back up. “Um, no, but we might end up camping here. There seems to be a problem at this river here.”

  I looked out. Oh.

  That was a big river.

  So big, I could barely see the other side when I used chi sight. I frowned as I looked at the river.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  Something was wrong with it’s chi. It was circulating weirdly. It looked like it was taking anything from the surface and dragging it to the bottom where it stayed.

  The water was almost stagnant it moved so slowly. It was so thick with silt that it was impossible to tell what was under the surface.

  I looked along the bank. There was a small building with a dock, but they were both rotting away. A faded sign advertised a ferry for Flowing Sands River, but I didn’t think waiting would make a boat show up.

  I stretched and looked back at Wukong. “Can’t Lie take us across like last time?”

  “Ah, that’s another problem.” He turned Nimbus around and we saw both Trip and Pigsy losing a tug-of-war match with Lie’s reins.

  “I said NO! Have you seen that water!? It looks fucking terrible. Anything could be in there! I’m not throwing my life away just so you guys can drown in the middle of the nastiest river I’ve ever seen!” Lie screeched as they continued pulling.

  “Come on Lie, it’s not that bad.” Trip tried to convince her, but with one shake of her head she ripped her reins out of their hands.

  “No! There’s something wrong with that river. And until we know what it is, I’m not dipping one scale in it!”

  “What kind of dragon is scared of some water?” Pigsy scoffed.

  “Oh, well then Mr. Bravery, why don’t you go ahead and jump in? Carry Trip across on your back and the rest of us will fly over.” Lie stared Pigsy down until he looked away, grumbling.

  Yeah, this was a problem all right. I shook my head to fully wake myself up. “Okay, I see what you mean. Any ideas?”

  “Maybe you could make another water bridge?” Wukong suggested but I shook my head.

  “Sorry, but there’s no way I’d be able to make a bridge that long. Maybe my father could, but I’m nowhere near as good as him.” Once again, I regretted blowing off my chi lessons in favor of romance novels.

  Trip heard me and perked up. “Then maybe you could bring your father here and he could—” He shut up and I turned around and confirmed Wukong was furiously shaking his head and crossed his arms in an x.

  He froze when he saw me watching, and tried to play it off like he was stretching.

  I sighed. “It’s fine Wukong. I won’t break down just telling him about it. Sorry Trip, but my father is dead.”

  Trip turned red. “Oh. Oh, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have suggested that.”

  “It’s fine, you didn’t know. But that still leaves the problem of what we’re going to do about that.” I waved at the giant river.

  And the giant man coming out of it.

  Trip shrieked as the mud-covered man suddenly rushed him, only to be intercepted by Pigsy.

  As Pigsy swiped at him the man pulled out a wooden staff and used it to fight him off.

  The two continued to duel for a few minutes, and the mud slowly slipped off the most unusual man I’ve ever seen.

  He was blue. I didn’t know humans could come in that color. And as the muddy water dripped out of his hair, it revealed a vivid red hue. He was wearing necklace that seemed to be made from skulls.

  I didn’t think this guy was human. Well… maybe a poisonous one.

  Regardless, he and Pigsy were evenly matched. As they battled it out, I spied Wukong’s hand twitching from the corner of my eye.

  He sprung into action, suddenly springing out with a vicious swipe of his staff. The blue man suddenly sprung back, and dove back into the water.

  “Hey! I didn’t ask you to jump in! I could have beaten him!” Pigsy jutted out his rake at Wukong who looked at him sheepishly.

  “Sorry, sorry, I just saw the two of you going at it and I wanted a piece of the action you know? The only people I’ve fought in ages is you and Lie, and neither were really that good.”

  Pigsy sputtered at the new insult, but everyone ignored him. I kept watching the water, trying to see if I could spot the blue man, but it was no use. The water was just too thick.

  Lie whined. “See? There’s some kind of monk-eating demon in there! And you wanted me to swim in there!”

  Pigsy and Wukong were now hurling insults at each other, with Trip in between them getting them to calm down.

  I rubbed my temples. What now?

  “I got it!” I looked up at Wukong who seemed to have an idea.

  He smiled broadly. “We’ll capture that monster and get him to swim across with Trip on his back!”

  Pigsy snorted. “And how exactly do you propose we do that? Jump in and fight him?”

  He grinned at Pigsy evilly. “Thank you for volunteering.”

  Pigsy’s eyes widened. “What!? No! You’re the super powerful monkey capable of razing heaven! Why don’t you jump in and do it?!”

  “Because I can’t swim. I just sink. But don’t worry! Like you said you almost had him right? Just jump in, and if he gets to be too much for you, just come ashore and I can finish him off.”

  “I won’t even better able to see in there! How the hell am I supposed to fight him!?”

  “Guys!” I shouted and everyone turned to look at me. “There’s a simple solution here.”

  I cupped my hands and shouted out over the water. “Wujing! You’re Wujing right? The pilgrim is here! You can come out now! We won’t hurt you!”

  I waited for a few moments, and sure enough a muddy head started sticking up out of the water. He watched us until he was sure we wouldn’t attack before poking his mouth above the water line.

  “You guys are really the pilgrims fetching the scriptures? You’re not going to attack me again are you?”

  “No! We’re not! You just made us panic when you rushed like that. You’re Wujing, the last disciple Guanyin mentioned right?”

  He stood up, out of the water completely and nodded. “I am! I’m Sha Wujing! I’ve been waiting for you guys for a while. Sorry for scaring you, I was just so excited to see a monk. I thought you might be the master I’ve been waiting for.”

  He jogged up to the bank, wringing his hair out, and brushing the mud off. He bowed to Trip.

  “Disciple greets Master. I’m Sha Wujing, but you can just call me Sandy. Everyone does. It’s nice to meet you!”

  He gave us a smile and stood up. Now that he was standing next to another human, I could tell he was tall, about seven feet. He towered over the rest of our group.

  Wukong greeted him next. “It’s nice to meet you too! I’m Sun Wukong, the first disciple and your older brother. I like your necklace!”

  “Thanks! I made it myself! I’m pretty crafty you know?” Sandy beamed at Wukong, and puffed out his chest to better show off his skull necklace.

  Pigsy nodded. “I’m Pigsy, the second disciple. I see you used a sailor’s knot to tie it. Do you have experience with boats?”

  “Yeah! I used to be a commander over a heavenly fleet, but I pissed off the emperor and got exiled here. But I love boats and sailing! I tried running this ferry here back when I first got exiled, but I didn’t have any customers. Not a lot of people want to cross into the lawless lands I guess. But hey! You guys can be my first and last official trip across! Here, you’ll love this.”

  He trotted onto the ancient dock without fear. He took off his necklace and tossed it into the water.

  It didn’t sink, but instead transformed into a small dinghy. It would just barely have enough room to fit Sandy and Trip, but I guess that was all we needed.

  Trip looked uneasy as he got on board, but Sandy wasted no time in shoving off. “Alright! The rest of you can fly right? We’ll meet you on the other side!”

  He jumped into the water and began pushing the boat across. We watched him as they began to quickly cross the wide expanse of water.

  Wukong hopped up onto Nimbus, back next to me. “Okay! Problem solved! Let’s move out!”

  We started across with Nimbus, and kept pace with the dingy to keep track of Trip.

  Wukong gave me a smile. “What would we do without you here?”

  I shrugged. “You’d probably be complaining to Guanyin every day about how impossible this journey is.” I gave him a mischievous smile as he chuckled.

  My smile faded. Sandy was the last disciple. Now we had everyone in our little adventuring party. I don’t think any more problems we run into will be solved this easily.

  It was up to us from here on out.