Moon Princess

A MESSAGE FROM CHICKEN HOUSE

W
hen I was young, I had some fantastic imaginary friends – made-up folks and animals who seemed as real to me as the cat next door. The adventures we had together were awesome too, but not as exciting as Barbara Laban's amazing tale where two cultures' mythical and imaginary creatures combine in an all-action race against time!

BARRY CUNNINGHAM

Publisher

Chicken House

Contents

1 Shanghai – Over the Sea

2 Jia – Home

3 Nanhai – The Boy

4 Qiezei – Thief

5 Pengyou – Friend

6 Guaiwu – Monster

7 Daifu – Doctor

8 Long – Dragon

9 Simiao – Temple

10 Huozhede – Alive!

11 Gege – Big Brother

12 Xiao mao – Cat

13 Meikuang – The Mine

14 Jiejiude – Rescued

15 Yishujia – Artist

16 Guanyin

17 Zai yiqi – Together

EPILOGUE Zhongguo – China, the Middle Kingdom

What's your invisible animal?

Copyright

For Stefan and our daughters

1 Shanghai – Over the Sea

S
ienna's invisible dog, Rufus, had fallen asleep on her lap.

‘Mmm, first class,' the little spaniel murmured contentedly, before sinking his nose into Sienna's legs. The dull roar of the plane's engines had sent him to sleep, his long black floppy ears twitching as he dreamt.

Sienna stroked his fur. She was glad Rufus was with her. Her invisible friend had been by her side for as long as she could remember.
Surprisingly, given he could be a little bad-tempered, Rufus had taken the news of the move from London to Shanghai pretty well.

Sienna had been less happy. ‘You can't be serious, Dad. Why do we have to move to China? And why now? What about my school, and our home?'

‘I don't have a choice,' he replied. ‘If I want to keep my job, I have to go to China.'

They were both silent for a moment, then Dad hugged Sienna tightly. ‘I can't stay here,' he finally whispered.

Sienna wanted to cry, but she had held back her tears and breathed out heavily against Dad's T-shirt.
And what if
I
can't go to China?
she thought. But she hadn't said it out loud. She didn't want to make things even harder for her dad. Even though she was only twelve years old,
she
had learnt to be strong for
him
.

Now her dad was sitting next to her on the plane, working on his laptop. The small light above his seat was on. He took off his glasses briefly and rubbed his eyes. He looked tired and sad. Sienna gazed out of the window into the dark sky, Rufus licking her hand in his sleep. It
was one of his little habits.

‘Stop it, Rufus, that tickles!' she said with a smile.

Her dad looked across at her, tired and irritable. ‘Sienna, we've talked about this. You're going to have to stop this nonsense.'

Rufus growled softly, suddenly awake. ‘
Nonsense?
Is that all I am? I can go if you want. But who will keep you company then, while your dad works and works and works?'

‘Shh, Rufus,' Sienna whispered softly. ‘It's hard for him to understand.' Then, more loudly, she said, ‘It's fine, Dad. I'll be quiet now.'

‘You need some
real
friends,' said her father with a frown. ‘You can't keep up this rubbish about an invisible dog. What will people think if you go around talking to yourself? It needs to stop.'

Sienna's dad used to make jokes about his daughter having an invisible friend. But now everything was different. Sienna sighed and closed her eyes. A moment later, she heard her dad tapping away on his keyboard.

Mum had always laughed when Rufus appeared. She couldn't see or hear him, of
course; only Sienna knew when her invisible friend was with her. But Sienna would translate the things Rufus said for her mother – well, most of them. She kept some comments to herself, such as, ‘Your mum should have her hair cut a little shorter, it would make her look younger!'

‘When I was small,' her mum had told her once, ‘I had an invisible friend called Minka. She was a beautiful white cat. Only I could see her, just like only you can see Rufus. She wore a blue collar with a sparkly bell on it. She was very outspoken but she was my best friend. Sometimes, first thing in the morning, she would wake me by softly touching my face with her paws.'

Sienna would have liked to find out more about Minka, but Mum didn't speak about her again. It was as if she was ashamed of her invisible friend. But Rufus had been with Sienna for ever, and she hoped he would never disappear from her life.

‘Oh, look. Shall we turn this little TV on? There might be a good movie to watch,' came the voice from her lap. ‘And let's order a couple of ice creams!' continued Rufus bossily.

Sienna didn't acknowledge him.

‘Oh, come on, they're just waiting for you to order something!'

Sienna stared straight ahead. Rufus
knew
she wouldn't want to annoy her father even more!

‘OK, well, ignore me then. See how far you get without me in China!'

And with that, Rufus disappeared. Sienna hoped he wouldn't be angry for too long. She never knew where Rufus went when he disappeared, and he was always vague about it when she asked him. She suspected that he could travel anywhere he wanted, never being seen by anyone else. He certainly seemed to know a lot about the world and often talked of distant places and people.

Dad closed his laptop and looked over at her. His face softened. ‘You should sleep now, little one. When we land, it'll be early morning in China, and you don't want to miss your first day there.' He put the laptop in his bag and tipped his seat back. ‘Goodnight, Sienna. Sweet dreams.'

Sienna wanted to sleep, but she missed the warm, reassuring presence of Rufus on her lap. Resting her head on her dad's shoulder, she
closed her eyes. Immediately she had a vision of her mum sitting beside her. She looked across, met Sienna's eyes and smiled.

Sienna opened her eyes, startled. It had felt so real. So real that she wanted to be lying in Mum's arms, touching her long blonde hair, so similar to her own hair. She could no longer hold back the tears …

Sienna didn't know how she managed to get from the plane to the taxi. She hadn't fallen asleep until the early morning light was shining through the plane's windows. Before she had closed her eyes, she had just seen the first grey suburbs of the big city. The vast green hills gave way to houses and straight roads. Then the plane flew across the sea beside the city, and Sienna remembered that the words
shang hai
meant ‘over the sea' in Chinese.

She only vaguely remembered waiting half-asleep at the baggage claim, then trudging outside, leaning heavily on Dad's arm. In the taxi she immediately fell asleep again, and as she woke once more she felt as if she was still dreaming, even as she looked out of the car window.

It was grey and rainy outside. They turned on to a huge wide street with cars veering from one lane to another. Ancient buses jostled for position between fancy cars. Sienna watched the people at the roadside. Some were on their way to work. They carried briefcases, talked on their mobiles and seemed in a hurry.

But perched on the pavement there were also men smoking cigarettes and drinking from plastic cups. Some of them were lounging on large red-and-white-checked plastic bags. Their clothes looked old and worn. Her dad had told Sienna that the city was full of migrant workers, men who'd moved from the villages to the big cities trying to find work.

Sienna's mum had spoken a lot about Shanghai. She'd told her about the new buildings that went up every day, and she had shown her many pictures of Chinese cities. Now Sienna saw for herself the glittering towers, some of them endlessly stretching up into the sky. Passing cars and pedestrians were reflected in their facades.

The car was now travelling more slowly and took a turning into a narrow street. Suddenly everything looked older. Cables hung down from
the walls at the backs of the elegant skyscrapers, and stretched between the tightly packed houses. Rows of small shops lined the streets.

Sienna would have liked to know what was written on the neon advertisements that hung over the shops, though she could recognize numbers, and sometimes an address – her mum had taught her some of the Chinese characters, which Sienna thought were so beautiful and delicate, like tiny paintings.

Their car passed by a small restaurant. Roasted ducks hung from hooks in the windows. In the entrance to the open door sat a boy, perhaps a year or so younger than Sienna. His dark hair was almost shoulder-length, a few strands hanging in his face.

When the car paused briefly, the boy's eyes met Sienna's. He smiled radiantly, as if he had been waiting for her. Sienna returned his smile shyly and lifted her hand to the window in greeting.

‘Ah, you're awake, sweetheart,' said Dad, smiling at her and putting his arm around her shoulder. ‘We'll soon be at our apartment block. I hope you'll like it. It's where your mum lived
when she stayed in Shanghai.'