Chapter Text
“Please Monkey King, you should try and hang out with everyone more and I promise, everything will be fine!”
MK pleaded, following behind Monkey King as they walked around Flower Fruit Mountain, jumping from rock to rock on a simple stream nearby some spectating monkeys.
“You wanna bring all your friends here for a camping night? Look, I don’t mind you accidentally making plans on the same day, we can do meditation another time bud.”
“I know I kinda messed up but I think this a good thing, trust me things have been awkward at the shop, if you and my friends can hang out for a bit and make up-”
“By friends you mean?”
“ Yeah mostly Pigsy, but WOA-”
Mk slipped on one of the wet rocks, being caught by Wukong’s tail, only his hand touching the water. Wukong sighed before placing him back on dry land, himself still standing on a rather large rock in front of MK. Accepting defeat, the boy slugged himself down with the monkeys, which had grown quite fond of MK the more he visited and trained.
Wukong watched for a moment before following.
“Look, I know you wanna just making everything better but-”
Wukong was going to continue but he saw MK’s expression. His face did have an underlying tone of disappointment but he seemed content playing with a baby Monkey on his lap. He thought MK would’ve reacted differently, come up with a scheme to get him to make up with his friends, maybe another sneaky tactic that would eventually backfire.
He simply accepted it.
This kid.
“Ok, fine.”
“Wait, Really!?”
“Yeah yeah I’ll try okay- hEy.”
Almost in an instant, MK tackle hugged Wukong sending them both flying into the stream. The student did not seem phased at all, only backing off slightly to look at Wukong.
“Thank you Monkey King! I should go tell everyone so we’re all ready for tomorrow, I’ll see you soon!”
Before a second later, a golden cloud engulfed MK, an eagle flying away in his place. Leaving Wukong sitting in a puddle, instead of getting up he simply accepted the fact that he’d have to wash his clothes and relaxed in the slow moving water for a bit, the baby monkey MK was playing with coming over to observe.
“What am I gonna do with that kid?”
Sometimes Sandy felt like he was being watched.
That shouldn’t be surprising to him, living with a whole boat full of cats, he should expect to always have eyes on him, or when his box of special homemade tea was always in a slightly different spot. When his cats seemed to meow at nothing as a greeting, or the cold breeze when all the windows were closed, perhaps doors swaying or creaking more than usual.
All things that would usually creep someone out, it was abnormal. Although, to Sandy it was new and strangely comforting like someone was always there.
After making a batch of tea for himself and placing his homemade tea back in its usual place, knowing it would be moved later on he heard thumping on the outside deck. Going to check it out he met a familiar face at his door who seemed very excited.
“SANDY!”
“Oh, I thought you were with Monke-”
“Yeah to figure out the schedule but , why don’t you join us for a picnic on Flower Fruit Mountain!”
“I wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“Don’t worry, Monkey King’s fine with it.”
“Then, I suppose it should be fine.”
“Awesome! I still have to find Mei but Pigsy and Tang are going too!”
The two waved each other goodbye as MK ran off to find Mei, Sandy saw him trying to pull out his phone while running and saw him almost trip over the boards of the dock.
“I guess I better make sure everything is alright with all of you while I’m gone.”
Automatic feeders were definitely a good investment as he could focus more on his actual cats than their feeding times, that cold breeze felt near once again when he heard shuffling from the counter.
A box of tea, shuffling slowly to the edge, this was the first time he was actually seeing anything happen. A faint blue glow was near, like desperate hands reaching out for a final meal. Sandy could only watch as a few of his cats hissed and the, intruder? He wasn’t quite sure what it was.
Snapped out of his thoughts by the box falling on the floor, a few teabags inside spilling out he didn’t feel fear. His suspicions were confirmed that there was something .
That cool breeze didn’t linger for long, dissipating as his cats became less tense, a few rubbing up on his leg.
Sandy wonders if he’ll see it again.
Whatever or whoever it was.
“Please, I don't mind, let me carry the tents.”
“What do you mean? Wouldn’t want the great Monkey King to burden himself with such trivial matters.”
“ It’s not trivial at all, at least let me help with something.”
“I think the Monkey King has helped enough, right Tang.”
“I haha, I’m gonna go talk to uh, MK.”
The tension between Wukong and Pigsy, while it was expected to have some animosity at the beginning. Isn’t this a bit much? The entire walk through the mountain, carrying the stuff to the spot Wukong chose for the camp and picnic was nothing but passive aggressive arguing between the Monkey and the Pig.
“MK, I thought you said everything would be fine?”
“It will be, trust me! I just, uh. This isn’t going according to plan.”
The bag MK was carrying felt like nothing compared to the new weight on his shoulders, trying to get Monkey King and Pigsy to co-exist neutrally.
The bare minimum.
“I have an idea! Mei, Sandy, Tang, come here quickly.”
The calm argument between Wukong and Pigsy kept them distracted from the group falling back a few steps to come up with a plan.
“Everyone’s In?”
“Let’s do this Monkey Man!”
Operation P&M
Tactic 1 - Change the Subject
First up was Mei, she was always good at getting off topic, easily fascinated by everything in sight.
“Pigsy! You haven’t been to Flower Fruit Mountain have you? Aren’t the sights just so cool?”
Pigsy managed to take his glare of Wukong to really take in the sights, the trees that shone a golden light in the sun, how if you squinted you could see the native monkeys observing the newcomers with a cute curiosity.
“I guess, yeah it’s pretty nice here.”
“Not any natural predators here so if you wake up to a Monkey sleeping on you, take it as a compliment. We’re just about there.”
Wukong jumped ahead slightly, still in sight but enough where the others felt like they needed to job for a second to catch up. The area chosen was a small patch of area where the grass worn down, becoming a more solid dirt patch next to a large cliff that would keep their camp in the shade of the hot sun.
Setting down all the bags and supplies, everyone grabbed different supplies to set up, Wukong trying to figure out the fire pit. Waving the singe from his fur as he burned himself. A small sigh from behind him came closer, Pigsy coming over to help with the fire.
“Aren’t you over three thousand years old? How do you not know how to start a fire?”
Wukong only grumbled, the two starting to glare at each other once again.
Operation P&M
Tactic 2 - Separate
Tang knows Pigsy better than anyone, his suggestion was to separate them and resolve the issue remotely.
“Monkey King, why don’t you get some rocks for the fire?”
“Alright.”
As he walked away he grumbled something about pork which Pigsy thankfully chose to ignore. The few Monkeys in the area looked to have run off, they know what Wukong is feeling and know it’s just best to steer clear. Sure, he was mad, but there was this other feeling he couldn’t quite pinpoint. He looked back as he grabbed a few good sized rocks.
He knows what it is.
Deja Vu.
Arguing with Zhu Bajie, Tripitaka playing peacekeeper. Sha Wujing knowing to keep quiet.
Maybe this was the reason he didn’t want to connect with MK’s friends.
He never really let go of his own.
Wukong dropped the rocks beside Tri-, Tang and Pigsy. The best idea would be to sit and actually watch the fire be built, he’s surprised himself that he never learned how because of how much his original crew had to camp outside. Though, his memories of setting up camp was him sitting on his cloud or arguing with his Pigsy.
“I hope I’m not intruding on anything.”
That voice creeping up from behind him, Macaque stepped out of Wukong’s shadow almost too casually, sitting himself right beside Wukong to enjoy the fire. Everyone else was more or less speechless of how casual he was, The Golden Monkey groaned loudly before moving away to sit on a nearby log.
“Aw what? You don’t wanna sit beside your best friend?”
“Not the mood Macaque.”
“You never are, but! I do have a reason for stopping by. Have any of you seen anything of the Spider Demons?”
The only one that had some sort of reaction to the mention of the Spider’s was Sandy. Something that had been eating away at him slightly ever since the event, one of the Spider Demons. He didn’t even know his name.
“You got anything big guy?”
“Oh! I uh, no.”
That nickname.
“Well, I’ve been looking for them. It didn’t really make sense how they just disappeared .”
After a moment, MK had something to chime.
“Yeah! I’ve been wondering that too, the thing is, the last time I saw Spider Queen. It was kinda weird because she, saved me?”
This caught everyone’s attention. Tang speaking first.
“Spider Queen, saving you? When did this happen?”
“Well, it was the morning that the Lady Bone Demon attacked, so much happened I guess I just didn’t have time to tell you.”
“The last we saw of the Spider Demons they-”
Shock overcame Tang’s face, like a horrible realization he didn’t wanna say. Sandy and Pigsy had a similar look.
“Tang?”
“We came for a nice camping trip, why don’t we just-”
“OW!”
The conversation started to grow tense, but it was interrupted by a cry of pain from Wukong. Two scared monkeys clinging to his face with a deathly grip.
“AH! Why?!”
He managed to pull one off, the other still on top of his head gripping his hair. The monkey he held by its shoulders began to speak, nobody could understand so everyone waited to gauge Wukong’s reaction, which seemed to be changing from shock to confusion.
“Calm down, I can barely understand you, something was in the forest?”
“I know two monkeys that happen to be big on tricks, probably messing with you.”
Pigsy proceeded to get scolded by the other simians, Wukong struggling to hold onto them.
“Just tell me what you saw! Try and calm down while you’re at it. There’s no way something is gonna try and mess with the monkeys here.’’
“There aren't any natural predators here, so if something scared them it means trouble.”
Pigsy and Wukong continued to argue about it but Sandy felt something, it was the cool breeze that’d been following him. He wasn’t expecting it to follow him but he’s glad it wouldn’t bother his cats when he was away.
But the more Sandy thought the more worried he got, did he bring something dangerous that was scaring the animals? His thoughts were interrupted by a sound in the forest, was it, singing?
A rhythmic hum in the trees caught both Sandy and Tang’s ears, looking at each other with worry. Sandy stood from his log to get closer while Tang alerted the others.
“Guys.”
“Monkey King! I swear to Buddha, I’d trust the Monkeys and at least go look.”
“If you trust them there’s now way I will!”
“Guys.”
“The Great Sage Is Equal To Heaven! Can’t even listen to his monkeys.”
“Macaque is probably the one scaring them!”
“What’d I do?”
“GUYS!”
“WHAT TRI- TANG!?”
“WHAT TANG!? Wait, where's Sandy?”
“ That’s what I was trying to-, there’s some weird sounds coming from the forest and Sandy went to check it out.”
“You let Sandy go by himself!?”
“ Uhhhh.”
“SANDY!”
The humming grew louder, to a point where no matter where he went he heard the enhancing music. There was a point in the forest where the volume of the voice didn’t grow louder or quieter, a small clearing where he could only try and look for the voice.
Sandy turned and observed too much he felt like he lost his way, not knowing which way led back to camp.
Ok
Maybe now the cold chill was kinda unnerving.
Really Unnerving.
It wasn’t the comforting cool breeze he had gotten used to, this fog around him was filled with this frantic energy, like it was searching for something.
“Sandy!”
It was Tang, MK and Mei with Macaque close behind although Tang wasn’t looking at Sandy, he was looking up. Tang’s glasses were white with reflections, almost blinding. Sandy followed Tang’s eyes to right above him.
Spider Queen
Her form was transparent, a sickly blue with some details having a more white cloudy look. The fact you could see right through her was more than just creepy, you see ghost's in media all the time but the uncanny valley levels of horrific it is to actually see through someone. Those observations cut away, the Queen tackling him to the ground, but it didn't hurt that much.
“Don’t worry Sandy! Here comes Monkie-”
MK attempted to knock the Spider off of Sandy with his staff, only for it to phase through the ghostly body though not completely. The staff slowed as it passed through her torso, like he was trying to hit through a waterfall his staff lost momentum halfway.
Like MK was only a small bug annoying the Spider, she simply pushed him away with one of her spider limbs, making MK shiver from the feeling.
“Ghost plus Spider equals nightmares! What is happening!?”
She continued to do what she was doing before, it was strange because she didn’t look like she was attacking Sandy, only observing him before letting him go. Before walking over to MK, Mei, Tang. She didn’t attack, only observing before she started to walk away from them, when she started humming again.
“Sandy, are you ok?!”
Mei ran over to Sandy who was still on the ground.
“Yeah! I’m good, but what just-.”
“Spider Queen but she, why does she look like that?”
Tang grabbed MK who was still frozen with both disgust and fear and sat him down beside Sandy. Tang and Sandy shared a look because they’d seen her previously in their fight with the Lady Bone Demon.
“Well that’s convenient for me.”
Macaque walked over to a tree where shadows rose from the base of it, the monkey stuck his hand inside and continued to fidget around for a while, enough time for Wukong and Pigsy to finally realize everyone left and caught up. Wukong noticed what Macaque was doing.
“ Please tell me you don’t still hoard stuff in your little shadow pockets.”
“ I don’t hoard , I just keep stuff that could be useful.”
Wukong growled under his breath before shoving Macaque to the side and sticking his own hand in the cold shadows, pulling out a doorknob. Wukong and Macaque share a complicated look. Wukong being completely and utterly done before lightly chucking it at Macaque’s face. Macaque passive aggressively pushed Wukong aside to go back to searching.
“There we go.”
When Macaque retracted his hand, he held the Spider Queen’s helmet, one side being completely shattered from who knows what.
“After the Lady Bone Demon fight, I kept wondering where the Spider Demons went, I searched both the battleground and their old lair. This was all I could find of them.”
The mood soured with this knowledge, the ghostly appearance and the broken helmet.
“When the Lady Bone Demon forced me to do her dirty work, she repeated this one phrase a few times, I will erase the very memory of you . This is all that is left of the Spider Demons, at least, until now.”
Macaque gestured to the direction the blue wisp of the Spider Queen went.
“Who wants to go Ghost Hunting?”