Book Two of the Heroes of Legend
The Princess
L. A. Hammer
The Demon of Dragon-Blood Thirst
When Sun Wukong learnt that the boy Matthew had been bitten by the Serpent, he flew from heaven to return to the boy as fast as he could manage. Carrying the heavenly horse on his cloud is what slowed him down. Otherwise, he would have been there in one somersault.
When Wukong returned to the place where he had left Zhu Bajie watching over Matthew and his little pet dragon, he found that they had all disappeared. But his sense of the dragon Utredius told him the boy was not far from here. He made his way to the entrance of a large cave, and he was certain the boy and his dragon were inside.
However, when he attempted to enter the cave, he was repelled by a force field of powerful Air-Magic. ‘What is this?’ he asked, as he tapped the force field with the end of his golden-hooped staff. It was then that Wukong could make out the sounds of a ritual going on inside the cave. He listened carefully, and soon realised that the boy must have been captured by The Demon of Dragon-Blood Thirst.
This particular demon became much more powerful when he drank the blood of dragons. There had not been dragons in the world for some time, so Wukong was not surprised this demon would seize this opportunity to increase his magic abilities.
‘Why don’t you come out here and fight?’ Wukong shouted at the cave entrance. ‘So then, old Monkey can give you a hard knock about the head and we can end this!’
‘Go away, Monkey King!’ the demon replied, his voice carried across a fair distance within the cave. ‘Do not disturb my ritual. The dragon’s blood shall be all mine.’
‘You know that no matter how strong the blood makes you,’ Wukong roared, ‘you will still be no match for me!’
‘That may be so,’ cried the demon, ‘but look, you are currently unable to break through my defences, and I have only had a few droplets of dragon blood. If I drink the entire lot, you will not break through that Shield-Wall for a thousand years or more.’
‘That may be true,’ Wukong said to himself with great concern. Then he shouted, ‘I will wait out here, for as long as it takes for you to crawl free of that lair. Hungered and thirsty, you will have no strength left in you. Give up the boy and his dragon now, so that you may live another thousand years here in peace.’
The demon was silent for some time, then he continued the chanting of his dragon-blood ritual.
‘I will find a way to break down this wall!’ Wukong roared in outrage. ‘When I do, I will plant your skull on a spear and place it outside this door.’
‘What for?’ the demon asked.
‘As a warning to young children not to play in caves where demons are hiding out!’ He tried to control his temper, then he began to plead. ‘The boy is important. Our fate is in his hands. If you destroy his dragon, the boy will surely die.’
‘What do I care?’ the demon replied.
‘I have medicine for him!’ Wukong cried, suddenly remembering a possible way to appease the demon. ‘It is fortified Heavenly Peach Elixir. I will give the boy the three drops he needs, then I will give the rest to you. What do you say?’
‘I say dragon-blood tastes much better!’ the demon cried. ‘Away with you, Monkey King. Forget the boy, he is too far gone to save.’
At these words Wukong became totally enraged. He beat at the Shield-Wall of the cave opening and made many cracks and dents in the sides of the cave as he shattered stone with his staff. But wherever he made a hole in the cave wall, he still could not get through that shield that protected the entire interior of the cave.
He sat and thought for a while, until a whirlwind began to approach on the horizon. He looked closely and saw that it was Zhu Bajie, returning after a night of wine and women no doubt! He was furious with Bajie for leaving the boy unprotected. But when Bajie arrived and explained that he had gone in search for medicine, Wukong was not so mad with him.
‘What are we going to do, Wukong?’ Bajie asked.
‘I will have to seek assistance from the heavens,’ Wukong admitted.
‘But if you go to heaven now, the boy could be lost to us before you return.’
‘That is plain truth,’ Wukong said. Then he thought of the elixir again, and decided to have a few small droplets, to assist him with a summoning of the gods. He even gave Bajie a few drops to savour, and soon the two of them were burning incense and chanting as they danced around the campfire, as it was getting dark and Bajie had lit the fire to cook some rice.
The elixir awoke a powerful magic within them both, and after an hour or more of ritualistic chants and prayers, the light of the crescent moon broke through the clouds. Wukong and Bajie looked to the light of the moon, to see Buddha seated on a dark blue cloud traced in silver.
‘I have heard your prayers, Wukong,’ Buddha said with a sad smile. ‘The shield that blocked the cave entrance is now disabled. You must hurry to rescue young Matthew.’
‘Thank you, merciful Buddha,’ Wukong replied, as both he and Bajie kowtowed several times before dashing off to enter the cave.
The demon fled to the back of the cave when he saw Wukong and Bajie. Wukong knelt to lift Matthew’s head, and as the boy opened his eyes, Wukong lifted the gourd of elixir to his lips and said, ‘Drink!’
Matthew had the first two drops, then his eyes blazed with energy as he reached to the gourd to pull it free from Wukong’s grip. The boy poured a large portion of the entire gourd down his throat in heavy gulps, as Wukong tried to figure out how the boy had become strong enough to steal the gourd out of his hands. Then he recalled the fact that Matthew had lifted Wukong’s staff, that even the Dragon King had not been able to lift.
‘Should he have had so much?’ Bajie asked as Wukong managed to pry the gourd from Matthew’s fingers.
‘No!’ Wukong shouted. ‘No, he should have only been given three droplets.’
They watched as Matthew’s body began to levitate off the ground, a blinding light surrounding him as the boy spasmed and gasped from the vast surges of magic flowing through his body and soul.