Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters

by Margaret Dilloway

  The beast monster man stands there. He looks about two million times worse in real life than he did in my dreams or in any drawing. He has bulging muscles, and the muscles seem to have muscles of their own. A long monkeylike tail, reddish brown, swishes impatiently, and his knifelike scales gleam. He smells like a sandwich somebody forgot to throw away a week ago. His coal black eyes focus on me.

  That giant was a beacon for more than one person.

  Or thing.

  Salt. I need my salt.

  The beast-man grabs my wrist. I’m like a toddler fighting Superman. “No salt,” he hisses.

  I try to reach for my sword, but he crushes the fingers in my other hand, too. Inu, Jinx, help.

  Jinx leaps on the thing’s back, her nails clawing his eyes. He lets go of me, reaches behind him, and throws Jinx off like she’s nothing. My shaking hands grab my octopus netsuke and open the box for the salt.

  Inu goes after the beast, snarling like I’ve never heard him snarl before, his jaws opening wide and going for the thing’s neck. He makes contact and the beast tries to get Inu off, but my dog won’t let go. I didn’t know Inu had this in him.

  The beast screams. The tail whips around and slashes at Inu. My dog falls down with a wail.

  I throw the salt at the oni—only a few grains hit. He shrugs them off with a growl. I jump forward, my sword in my hands, and swing it through the air. The beast-man blocks it with his tail, but the blade penetrates the scales and slices through his flesh. The end of his tail wiggles on the ground like a cut worm. The monster hisses, then gets on all fours, and runs away over the hills.

  I fall to my knees, panting, my blood on fire. “Yes!” I pump my fist. “Oh my gosh. It worked. It actually worked.” I let out a big sigh of relief.

  Jinx glances at the darkening sky. “Now let’s get to shelter before it’s totally dark.”

  “Oh no,” Peyton breathes behind me. “Inu.”

  Inu, my best friend since I was a baby, lies limp on the ground. He weakly thumps his tail. Gashes wider than my hand gape open on his neck and along his ribs.

  For a second, I can’t believe my eyes. Then I see his blood pumping out and know it’s all too real. “Nooo!” I throw myself on my dog, over his soft furry body. I feel his heart racing. “No, no, no.” He doesn’t deserve this. He only wanted to protect me.

  Jinx gets up from where she landed. Breathing hard, she staggers over to us. “Inu! Not Inu.” She begins crying hysterically. “Inu. It wasn’t supposed to be Inu.”

  “It could be any of us,” Peyton says.

  “I don’t care that Momotaro is supposed to have a dog. I should have left him with Obāchan.” I stroke his neck. My dog’s brown eyes look up at me sadly. They say, I forgive you, Xander.

  But I’ll never, ever forgive myself. I bite my tongue to keep from screaming. A sob escapes. “I’m sorry, Inu.”

  I wish this was all a bad dream.

  Jinx touches my shoulder with a hand wet with her tears. “Come on. I know where to go to get help.”

  Peyton cradles Inu in his arms. I’m glad all over again that Peyton’s so strong. We run like there’s still a giant chasing us, following Jinx as she goes deep into the hilly terrain, Peyton breathing hard.

  Suddenly she drops right, heading down between boulders taller than a man. “Unnngh!” With all her weight, she pushes aside a large rock, and there’s an opening. A cave.

  I pause. “There’s not another yuki-onna in there, is there?”

  “No. This is Tanuki’s lair.” She looks back at me. “Come on. He’ll help us.”

  “Tanuki? What’s a tanuki?” The name tugs at my memory. I’m sure my grandmother said something about tanuki at one point.

  “Don’t worry.” She disappears into the dark.

  We duck to enter.

  Inside it’s warm, protected from the wind that’s whistling outside. A couple of candles, set in nooks above the ground, light the low, wide space. I half expect it to be a hobbit-style hidey-hole with furniture and a food cellar, but there’s nothing like that. Instead, thick piles of hay are scattered over the stone ground, like chairs.

  In one nest toward the back sits a raccoon. Or badger. Or dog. I’m not exactly sure. I stop moving. It looks up and lifts its brownish-black snout. A row of needlelike teeth comes at me.

  “Watch out!” I grab Jinx by the arm and hurl her back through the cave opening. Unfortunately, I’m not that strong, and Jinx outweighs me by at least a dozen pounds, so she sort of just stumbles to a stop right outside. “Run! We’re in a badger den!” I’ve watched enough Animal Planet to know that badgers are mean little critters. So are raccoons. Especially when cornered. Their teeth and claws can do a lot of damage. And this animal is some kind of crazy oni badger, as tall as my waist. A badger on steroids.

  I take my sword out and point it at the badger. “Stay back.”

  The badger hisses, then coughs. “Um. Excuse me.” It moves toward the opening on its hind legs, while shading its eyes with one clawed paw. It is wearing a child-size blue-and-white kimono, printed with lotus blossoms. “My, my. I shouldn’t have coffee so late. It disagrees with me.” It bows low from the waist. “Jinx, I haven’t seen you in a long time.” Then, to me, “Please, little boy, I do you no harm. I am your humble servant. Come inside.”

  “Xander,”—Jinx dusts herself off—“this is Tanuki. He’s not a badger. He’s a…” She cocks her head. “Like a raccoon dog. Another type of yōkai, Xander. A helpful one. Tanuki, we have an injured dog. He needs your medicine.”

  “Set him down.” Tanuki waddles closer to us.

  Peyton carefully places Inu on a mound of clean-looking hay. Tanuki peers at Inu, touches the wounds. Inu whimpers.

  Tanuki looks concerned. “Oh my. Oh yes.” He reaches into his kimono sleeve and takes out a fabric envelope. From this, he removes white tissue paper. He licks it and applies it to Inu’s wounds.

  He’s licking tissue? “What good is a piece of toilet paper going to do?” I shout. “My dog is dying! He needs stitches, not your spit! Which, by the way, is totally unhygienic.”

  “Shush.” Jinx puts her hand on my arm. “Watch.”

  The tissue paper sticks to Inu’s wounds. But it does more than that. Within seconds, it acts like a new piece of skin, stopping the blood, filling in the gashes. Inu relaxes. “It will take some time. All night,” Tanuki says. “The cuts are very deep.”

  I fall to my knees and throw my arms around Tanuki. “Thank you.”

  “Ah. Yes.” Tanuki pats my back awkwardly. “No problem. See? I am a good tanuki. It is true there are some bad tanuki. But also many good ones.” He struggles to his feet. He wears a pair of straw sandals with long laces that wrap around his legs.

  “Come more inside. Sit.” Tanuki bows again and bobs his head. “Take off your packs, make yourself at home. Have dried fish and matcha.”

  “Don’t mind if I do.” Peyton helps himself to the dried fish jerky that’s sitting in a shallow woven basket, popping a strip into his mouth. “Mmmm. Salty.”

  I hesitate. Should I take off my sword? I do remember reading someplace that it’s kind of impolite to bring a weapon into a friendly house. Or was that a Viking thing only?

  Jinx reads my mind. “It’s okay,” she says softly. “You can leave it.” I place the sword on the floor just inside the cave opening. Obāchan would be proud of my good manners.

  We walk farther into the cave, down a narrow hallway. Peyton carries Inu and tries not to knock over the knickknacks Tanuki has on shelves all over the walls. They look like broken plastic toys—a headless baby doll, partially melted toy soldiers. Junk, really. But I guess it’s not junk to Tanuki.

  He bustles away and returns with a tray carrying a white mug that says WORLD’S BEST MOM in pink letters, a plain brown mug, a brass goblet, and a plastic kid’s tumbler printed with an American flag. They are all filled with a frothy green liquid, like a milk shake you’d see on St. Patrick’s Day. I bow to him in thank
s.

  Jinx settles into a mound of hay and accepts the kid-size tumbler. “Thanks for saving my life, Xander.” She lifts her glass toward me. “Cheers.”

  Peyton selects the plain mug and I have no choice but to take WORLD’S BEST MOM. I peer into the mug and sniff. It smells like sugar. “What is it?”

  “My great-great-great-grandfather’s matcha posset recipe. Very good for warming up bones.” Tanuki takes a big gulp. “Try it.”

  “It’s like a creamy milk drink, mixed with green tea,” Jinx explains. “Kind of like that green tea latte they make at Starbucks.”

  “Bah! Starbucks!” Tanuki waves his claw and looks fierce. “Do not speak of Starbucks in my house!”

  “Sorry.” Jinx holds up both hands in surrender.

  Tanuki takes another swig from his cup. “Starbucks. No match for Tanuki’s posset.”

  I try a sip. A warm sensation moves from my throat to my stomach, all the way down to my toes. My muscles go limp. “It is good.” Tanuki beams at me. I take a bigger gulp. This time I swallow a lot of air, and I belch, loud and very long. My cheeks burn. “Pardon me.”

  Tanuki raises his cup. “Compliments to the chef! I accept it.” He makes a strange, high-pitched trilling noise. It takes me a second to realize he’s laughing.

  Peyton downs the entire contents of his mug in one gulp. “Oh man. That’s good stuff.” He sinks to the floor near Inu, his wings looking large and out of place in such a small space. Big bags line the undersides of his eyes. Poor guy probably didn’t find a plane to sleep in like we did.

  “Drink up!” Tanuki says approvingly. “There is more where that come from.”

  Something moves at the back of the cave. “Are you guys having fun without me?” a squeaky voice asks. “That’s not fair.”

  “Oh, dear.” Tanuki shakes his head and knocks back another drink. “Karakasa, while you are up, would you mind getting us a refill?”

  A folded umbrella walks into the light. Wait—what, now? A walking umbrella? I blink. It’s tall and made out of paper and bamboo. Yes, definitely an umbrella. Two large, round white eyes peer at me from near the top. I don’t see a mouth, though—maybe that’s down below, on the handle. I shake my head. I must have fallen asleep again. I mean, in the past day I’ve seen plenty of strange creatures, but a walking, talking umbrella? Who would even imagine something so weird?

  Peyton shakes his head, too. “Dude,” he whispers, “this drink…is it just me, or am I seeing things?”

  Jinx leans over. “Karakasa is a tsukumogami. Those are objects that come to life when they turn one hundred years old. For some reason, there are a lot of umbrellas.”

  Long bamboo skewers unfold from the umbrella—its arms. Spindly toothpick fingers grab Tanuki’s goblet. “The Japanese take very good care of their parasols. They last for generations.” I still don’t see how it’s talking. It walks to the back of the cave and pours more drink into the goblet.

  When it returns, I say, “Nice to meet you. I’m Xander.” I watch it carefully, looking for its mouth.

  “I know.” Karakasa bows, sloshing drops of the green drink out of the goblet. “We are honored to have a Momotaro in our midst.” It points to my head. “The silver hair. You cannot hide anymore.”

  I grin. “I wouldn’t say I was hiding. I just didn’t know I was a Momotaro before.”

  “Oh, you were hiding. Believe me.” The umbrella winks at me.

  “Try not to spill.” Tanuki holds out one lazy paw for his refilled goblet.

  “Don’t forget about me!” a low voice says from somewhere under Tanuki.

  He sticks his legs out. “I did forget. My bakezōri.”

  The sandals strapped to Tanuki’s feet wiggle on their own, and two black eyes—one on each shoe—roll up toward me. “It is a true pleasure to meet you, Xander. Would that I could be on your feet instead of on this stinky tanuki’s. But, alas, I am made too small.”

  I swallow. The room spins a little bit.

  “Nice to meet you,” I say hoarsely, really hoping I don’t have to shake the sandals’ hands, which I think would be the laces winding around Tanuki’s legs. That would be awkward.

  Two more animal forms appear in the cave entrance. Like Tanuki, they are furry and four-legged, but they walk upright. I hear a meow, like cats do when they want food, loud and obnoxious. “We heard there was a party.”

  “You can’t make matcha and not invite us. We all smelled it,” another adds.

  I’ve given up being surprised. I have another sip of the matcha and wait to see who else appears. My eyelids feel heavy.

  Tanuki doesn’t bother getting up. He points to each visitor in turn. “Bakeneko, the good-luck cat, and Kitsune, the clever field fox.”

  A huge shorthaired cat, nearly the size of Inu, all white with a black patch on its head that makes it look like it’s wearing a widow’s peak toupee, comes in. Its tail is ridiculously long, but then, the cat is ridiculously large. Its tail swishes as it bows to me. I catch a glimpse of long, sharp claws.

  Bakeneko looks very familiar. Then I realize I’ve seen it as a statue and figurine in stores. It’s supposed to bring prosperity by waving at customers.

  The other animal is a red fox. As it bows, it changes into a Japanese man wearing sort of furry shorts. He’s still got a feathery fox tail. Kitsune sees me staring at it. “That’s why I stay here on oni island,” he says. “I just can’t get rid of this tail.”

  I have a thought. “What about Peyton?” I ask Jinx. “Is he some mythological creature, too, now that he has wings?”

  She screws up her mouth. “If I had to say, I’d say a tengu. A man-bird.”

  “Man-bird! Man-bird!” Peyton holds his mug aloft, sloshing some liquid out. He stands up and beats his chest with a fist. “That’s right. I’m a MAN. No boy-bird around here.” He hiccups.

  The umbrella and the fox titter. “The man-bird had best slow down on the matcha,” the fox sneers.

  “Peyton.” I make a motion for him to sit down. “Dude, relax.”

  “You relax.” Peyton points at me. “Have some more of this delicious drink.” He gets up to refill his cup.

  I sip some more. My insides feel pleasantly warm, my fingertips tingly. “Do you think I’ll turn into an animal, too?” I put one hand around the golden bracelet from the kappa on my wrist. If I did transform, this thing might fall off. Or become too small. Depending on what I turned into.

  Jinx wrinkles her nose at me. “Does Momotaro turn into an animal in your comic book?”

  “No. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. We didn’t see a castle, either, or maidens washing away blood. Just maidens causing blood to spill.” I wipe my mouth with my hand. Somehow I’m dribbling liquid. Since when did I get so sloppy? “And I’m not adopted, either. It doesn’t have to be exactly the same.” I consider the comic book some more. “I mean, Momotaro made pictures of his battles. But I didn’t. Not ever. So that’s not helpful.” I squint at Jinx, who seems a bit blurry in this low light. “But we found you because you’re my monkey friend. It’s fate, Jinx.”

  She stares at the floor like she expects a bag of treasure to pop out of it. “I don’t really believe in fate.”

  “You don’t believe in fate. But you believe in all this?” I sweep my hand around the room. “Come on.”

  Jinx looks up at me. “Are we friends?”

  Weird question. I try to answer it honestly. “I saved you from the kappa. You saved me from the giant. You saved my dog. Yes, I would say we’re friends. Why?”

  She shrugs and her gaze falls to the floor. She seems exhausted all of a sudden.

  “Where are your parents, anyway?” I ask, still curious. Do they know Jinx is roaming oni backcountry in filthy clothes and a ton of eyeliner? Did she run away from home? Does anybody at all care about her? “You never answered before. Are they back on Kauai? I want to know.” My fingers and legs tingle in a nice, warm way.

  Jinx doesn’t answer, just sips at her dri
nk. Peyton returns and sits on the floor, stretching out next to Inu and putting one hand on his ribs. “He’s doing better,” he reports.

  “Good.” Jinx eats some more dried fish. She sniffles. “Good.”

  The umbrella comes around with the plastic pitcher and refills my mug. Suddenly I’m really thirsty, and I swallow almost the whole thing in three big gulps. I set the mug on the floor. “So answer my question. Tell us about Jinx.”

  Jinx sips her drink slowly, keeping her eyes averted. Her shoulders slump forward. “It’s a boring story.”

  “Tell me.” My words sound all squishy, like my tongue has stopped working. “I wanna know the whole thing.” I nudge her leg with my foot.

  Now she looks up at me, straight into my eyes. “I’m a princess. My parents are the fabulously wealthy emperors of a small Asian kingdom. They wanted me to marry some gross weirdo to unite two kingdoms, so I ran away.”

  I blink at her. Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure she’s making this up. “Jinx, you don’t have to be, like, ashamed or anything. I don’t care about your background. My mother ran off and left us when I was little.” I shrug. “Her loss. We don’t know if she’s dead or alive. She never even sent a postcard.” A wave of self-pity sweeps over me. My mother doesn’t know if I’m dead or alive, either. Doesn’t she care?

  “My dad wants to make me into his mini-me,” Peyton says from where he’s now prone on the floor. “I don’t want to go to military school.” His words sound like fruit in a blender, all whirred together. “He’s not gonna make me!”

  “That’s right! He can’t make you! You tell him so!” I raise my fist at Peyton, but his eyes are closed now.

  “Parents can make you do anything,” Jinx says, shifting uncomfortably on her pile of hay. “We’re just kids.”

  “We’re not just kids,” I scoff. I point at Peyton, then myself. “Wings! Momotaro!”

  A sound like a small train going by comes from the floor. Peyton has passed out like he just finished Thanksgiving dinner. He’s stretched out next to Inu, and both are snoring loudly.

  “That was mighty harsh of your mother to leave like that.” Jinx shifts her eyes away again, as if looking at me is physically painful. She takes a big gulp of the drink. Wetness appears at the outer corners of her eyes, but it’s gone almost as soon as it appears.