Nephilim

        My mind began to drift as I looked down at the vast expanse of blue water below. My head was resting against the window, which only made fighting off sleep harder. I was too busy preparing for the trip the night before to sleep and too excited on the plane ride to Taipei.
         It seemed like the helicopter had left Taipei hours ago, but I knew it hadn’t been that long. We were bound for a small island in The South China Sea. The locals knew it as Xiudao, though it had no official name. I was going there to study the inhabitants of the island, who had little exposure to the outside world since the early 1900s when it was briefly colonized by Vietnam. It was an exciting opportunity for any anthropologist, let alone one fresh from the university.
         To keep myself awake, I took out my notebook and started jotting down notes about what I knew about the islanders already. I had been invited to Xiudao by James Mathers, a fellow anthropologist and a good friend of my late father. His studies of the island found the locals to be highly superstitious and hostile to outsiders. He was a very charismatic man and had gained their trust during his year-long stay.
         I forced myself to wake up as I saw the island on the horizon. It was scarcely larger than Rhode Island with a small mountain peak on the south end. The rest of the land was mostly beaches and jungle. The helicopter passed over the tall trees to land in a clearing outside of a small village. We had arrived.
           James and a woman, who I assumed to be the partner he had spoken of, came to greet me. “Chi le ma? (Have you eaten?)” asked James happily. This was his favorite greeting. He had picked it up from his time in Taiwan.
         “Yeah,” I said. “It’s good to see you again, Uncle James. And this is…”
         “Right,” said James. “This is Jennifer. She’s been studying this island even longer than me, so if you need to know anything, ask her. Anyway, welcome to Xiudao, m’boy!”
         James and Jennifer led me into the village. All around, the villagers watched me tensely, a suspicious, almost accusing look in their eyes. They all wore simple peasant clothes from a time gone by. From what I could see, there was almost no technology to speak off. I was guided to the place where I was to stay, a humble dwelling near the center of the village. I unpacked my things and went out to meet the people.
         Few of the villagers would talk to me, even with James assuring them I could be trusted. The ones who did talk spoke in an archaic dialect I had trouble following. I had studied modern Mandarin, but it did me little good here. James translated what I didn’t get.
         They slowly began to become more receptive to me. Within a month, I had picked up enough of their language to communicate without James present. I learned their customs and studied their daily behaviors.
         When travelling to other villages, I noticed they all seemed to be located on the northern half of the island. When inquiring about this to the natives, they responded that the southern half belonged to Jùrén de Nǚhái. I asked who this was, but none of them would give me a proper response. All they said was that they gave offerings to them four times a year.
         I talked to Jennifer about it. “Oh, yes. I’ve heard of them too. One of their superstitions. They believe two ancient entities control the mountain and forests to the south. Nothing to concern yourself with.”
         “So, no one goes to the south?” I asked.
         “It’s forbidden,” Jennifer said. “Anyways, there’s nothing out there.”
         “Why did the Vietnamese leave this island?”
         “Well…it has little strategic value, no resources beyond lumber…”
         Something told me she was hiding something. “What really happened?” I asked sternly.
         “…The Vietnamese that came to colonize the island never returned,” Jennifer finally said.  “They just vanished. Like Roanoke.”
         “Did they go-” I started.
         “You had better get some sleep,” she said. “Early day tomorrow.” She ended the conversation there, but I wasn’t satisfied.
         I decided then to explore the southern half of the island alone. I wasn’t sure what I would find, but I knew I had to see for myself what was happening here. One night I slipped out into the forest with a flashlight, some rope and climbing equipment, an old hunting rifle, and a machete.
         There were no dangerous animals known to inhabit the island, but I still found myself nervous as I traversed the dark forest of the night. One theory I had was that another group of people, more fierce than the villagers to the north, lived to the south and they killed the Vietnamese colonists. My search, which only covered a fraction of the jungle, found no sign of people.
         Leaving the jungle behind, I went to the base of the mountain. As I started to climb the mountain, I found a very large cave entrance.  I thought I heard a noise coming from inside. I couldn’t be sure but it sounded like a voice. Curiosity got the better of me and I went in.
         The ceiling of the cave stretched high above my head. Huge Chinese characters were carved into the walls here and there. The characters were simple pictographs from the earliest form of the language. They must have been hundreds of years old, but how were they carved in such a grand scale so long ago?
         I continued further into the twisting cavern, my machete drawn and raised.  The noise I heard continued and became more distinct as I advanced. I realized it was a woman singing. Then, I saw the flickering glow of a fire on the cave walls ahead. The source of the light was just around the corner, so I braced myself and proceeded.
         A large fire made from whole trees broken roughly into pieces burned to my right. Further back, close to where the cave passage terminated in a wall covered in archaic symbols, stood a girl. She had smooth black hair which ran down her back and over her shoulders. She had a gorgeous, innocent face with big brown eyes. She wore no clothes, but what really caught my attention was the fact that she was about twenty-five feet tall. I stared in disbelief as she continued to break trees to stoke the fire. As she worked, she sang in a beautiful, rhapsodical voice.
         The song was one I had heard before, an old Chinese poem set to a simple tune and sung in Mandarin:
         
         In the North, there is a beauty;
         Surpassing the world, she stands alone.
         A glance from her will overthrow a city,
         A second glance leaves the nations in ruins.
         There exists no city or nation that has been more cherished
         than a beauty such as this.

         Her eyes rose from her task and she saw me. A sudden look of terror came across her face and she backed away. She sat down with her knees raised and her back to the wall, cowering in fear.
         Unsure of what to make of all this, I moved toward her and she drew farther away. That is when I realized I was still wielding the machete. I dropped the blade and my rifle to the ground and continued forward. “Everything’s all right,” I told her in Mandarin. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
         She didn’t seem to understand, so I repeated it again in the village dialect and she calmed down. Not knowing what to say, I asked, “What is your name?”
         “Lai Ka,” she said in a timid voice.
         “I’m Victor,” I said. “Don’t be afraid. I heard you and just wanted to see who was here.”
         She still wasn’t convinced. There was a great rumbling noise and Lai Ka placed her hand on her stomach. She looked like she was very hungry.
         “I only have some trail rations, not nearly enough to feed her,” I said to myself. “Do you want me to get you food?” I queried.
         She nodded. I picked up my machete, sheathing it. Taking up my rifle, I went back into the jungle. It wasn’t long before I came across one of the wild pigs that roamed the island. I shot it and returned to Lai Ka.
         I presented the pig to Lai Ka. She took it and bowed. She said a prayer, giving thanks to the earth for the food, and began cooking it on the fire.
         As the food cooked, Lai Ka slowly moved from a sitting position to kneeling in front of me. She leaned forward to get a better look at me, her fear replaced with fascination.
         She set her hand on the ground palm up. I hesitantly stepped on to it. She leaned back and raised me to eye level. After a moment, she brought me close and gave my whole body a quick lick. I was afraid she might eat me, but I think it might have just been her way of greeting me.
         “See?” I said. “I’m not scary.”
         She smiled, but it soon faded. “The others were.”
         “Others? The ones who taught you that song?” There were faded scars on her arms and legs and I got the impressions that ‘the others’ were responsible for those.
         Lai Ka cast her eyes on the floor. I could see she didn’t want to talk about that. 
         I couldn’t believe I had made such an extraordinary discovery. This must be one of the demons the islanders talked of, I thought, but where was the other? “…Are you alone?”
         Lai Ka shook her head. “Li Fei is out in the jungle.”
          “Li Fei?” I said. “Who is that?”
         “My big sister,” she replied. I didn’t want to imagine the size of Lai Ka’s big sister.
         When the pig was cooked, Lai Ka tore off a piece for me, but I turned it down. Then she ate the whole pig in one bite. “Thank you, but you should leave before Li Fei returns,” she warned.
         “All right,” I said. I started to walk away before I turned back to Lai Ka and said, “Goodbye”
         “Goodbye” she said quietly.
         It was close to dawn when I left the cave and made my way back to the village. I immediately went to wake up James and Jennifer to tell them of my discovery.
         James opened the door with an tired and uncharacteristically angry look. “What is it?”
         I told him to follow me and went to where Jennifer was staying. She didn’t seem any happier to see me. “This had better be good.”
         “I went to the south end of the island,” I said.
         “What?!” Jennifer asked in a harsh whisper. “I told you that no one is allowed-“
         “I know,” I said, “but I found something amazing. A giant girl.”
         “What are you talking about?” James said.
         “The two creatures they say rule the south,” I said. “They’re giants. Sisters.”
         “Are you drunk?” James asked. "Did I not warn you against drinking the rice wine they make here?"
         “I’m sober and I'm serious,” I said. “Those stories about Jùrén de Nǚhái…is there a description?”
         Jennifer hesitated. “In the myth and I emphasize the word 'myth'…they are giant maidens, but they’re no more real than Nessie or Sasquatch.”
         “I can prove it to both of you,” I said. “I don’t think it’s safe to go back until late tonight though. Lai Ka made it sound like her sister would kill me if I stayed.”
         So we set out for the mountain. While we were in the jungle, we felt a series of tremors shaking the ground. “What the bloody hell is that?!” James exclaimed.
         I motioned for them to stay quiet. We couldn’t see what was causing the quakes, but they soon began to move away from us until we couldn’t feel them. “I think that’s Lai Ka’s sister. She goes out at night to get food and firewood, I think.”
         We went into the cave and the other two were just as amazed by the cave drawings as I was. I lead them to the back of the cave. There, by the fire, laid Lai Ka sleeping on her side. She faced us, giving James and Jennifer a good view of her beautiful features.  James stood, his mouth agape, unable to speak. Jennifer just looked bewildered.
         “I told you,” I said quietly as I walked toward her.
         James grabbed my arm and tried to pull me back. “Don’t go near that thing.”
         “She’s not a thing,” I said. I made him let go and walked up to Lai Ka. I shook her arm as much as I could and her eyes soon opened.
         “Victor,” she said excitedly as she sat up. She picked me up and pressed me to her chest, like a child hugging a stuffed animal. She set me down and then she noticed the others and she became tense again. “They’re fine,” I reassured her. “They’re my friends.”
         “Do you realize what this means?” Jennifer said. “A discovery like this could make us famous…and rich. People would pay a lot of money to see her.”
         I turned to look at her. “You can’t be serious.  You want to turn her into a side-show attraction?” Lai Ka, unable to understand us, just sat there watching.
         “It will be better for her than living in this cave,” said Jennifer. “We found her and we deserve something in return.”
         “You mean I found her,” I said. “I won’t have it.”
         “You make a good point, Jennifer,” said James, “but, the boy is right. He discovered this…Lai Ka. It’s his decision.”
         Again came that rumbling we had felt before. I looked to Lai Ka. “Li Fei,” she gasped. “You have to hide or she will kill you.”
           I grabbed James’ arm and we ran back toward the entrance of the cave with Jennifer following close behind. Soon, the giant footfalls were close and I knew we wouldn’t be able to leave the cave before Li Fei arrived. I turned off the flashlight and dragged James and Jennifer to the right wall.
         Fortunately, the cave was very dark. The tremors got closer as we hid, not daring to breathe. We could see the faint outline of a mountainous, feminine silhouette coming toward us. I was nearly crushed as her foot landed just in front of me. The shadow, which must have been thirty feet tall, continued past to the light at the back of the cave.
         Suddenly Li Fei stopped. She began to sniff at the air as if she had caught our scent. I heard some movement behind me. I turned to find Jennifer shouldering her rifle and taking aim.
         “No-”
         BANG! Jennifer fired a round into the giantess’ back. Li Fei staggered forward with a groan before turning to us. Jennifer racked in another shell. “What are you doing?!” I shouted.
         “Saving our asses!” she said. She prepared to shoot again as Li Fei charged toward us.
         Jennifer shot again, hitting Li Fei in the side. Li Fei reached Jennifer and raised her foot to trample her. Jennifer dodged the foot as it stomped down, but a follow-up kick from the other leg sent her flying towards the entrance. Then, Li Fei turned her attention to me and James.
         We both ran toward the exit, but I wasn’t fast enough. Li Fei wrapped her right hand around my torso and lifted me into the air. I stared into her furious eyes as her grip on me tightened more and more. “I won’t let you hurt her again,” she said venomously in the same dialect Lai Ka spoke in.
         I started to black out as the pressure became too great, but just then a voice shouted, “Li Fei! Stop!”  Li Fei turned to face Lai Ka. “Let him go.”
         “We can’t trust them,” Li Fei said. “I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
         Another gunshot echoed through the cavern. Li Fei flung me aside to clutch the new wound on her thigh. The next shot Jennifer fired struck Lai Ka in the shoulder. With a rage-filled growl, Li Fei ran over to Jennifer and crushed the poor woman beneath her foot.
         I ran as fast as I could to the exit. James had already gotten away and there was no hope for Jennifer. Li Fei spotted me and I would have been dead if it were not for Lai Ka’s intervention. She held her sister back, allowing me to make it out of the cave.
         I caught up with James in the jungle near the base of the mountain. “What happened back there?” he asked.
         “I don’t know,” I said. “I think Jennifer just panicked…She’s dead.”
         James’ pace slowed a bit. I glanced at him covertly. He wore a morose expression and his eyes were beginning to tear up, but his English reserve quickly returned. “That means the big one’s out for blood and she won’t be far behind us. We have to get back to the village. There’s a SAT phone at the house I can use to call for help.”
         “I’ve been thinking,” I said as we ran back through the jungle. “Lai Ka mentioned ‘others ‘ that hurt her. I think she meant the colonists from Vietnam and I think Li Fei killed them.”
         “Don’t be foolish,” I said. “That was a hundred years ago.”
         “They could be a thousand years old for all we know,” I responded. “I’ve been thinking about it…Every culture has a myth about giants. The Greeks had the Titans, the Norse had the Frost Giants, and the Old Testament had the Nephilim who were destroyed in the Great Flood. What if it’s not a coincidence? What if all those ‘myths’ were based on the same ancient race of giants and this island holds the last of their kind?”
         We got back to the village. James called the pilot in Teipei to come rescue us. Then we roused all the people from their sleep and told them that they had to leave as soon as possible. If they asked why, I simply said, “Jùrén de Nǚhái. They’re coming.”
         With the people all hiding in the jungle, we waited in the clearing outside the village. That’s when we saw Li Fei emerge from the jungle. We quickly took cover behind some trees. She began carving a path of destruction through the village, stomping on buildings and smashing them apart with her fists.
           Then, Lai Ka appeared. She implored Li Fei to stop. Li Fei said, “They broke the agreement and attacked us just like last time. They brought this on themselves.”
         “But I don’t want you to do this,” Lai Ka cried.
         “You just don’t understand,” Li Fei responded as she turned away. She destroyed another building with a vicious kick. “I’m doing this for us.”
         To my surprise, Lai Ka broke into a sprint and tackled Li Fei from behind. The two giant women hit the ground with a thunderous crash. They began wrestling and rolling across the ground, each trying to overpower the other or gain the advantage. They flattened the flimsy buildings of the village like steamrollers.
         Li Fei ended up on top of Lai Ka, pinning her sister. Lai Ka planted her foot in Li Fei’s stomach and kicked her away.  Lai Ka scrambled to her feet and the two locked eyes as they prepared for the second round.
         “You would turn against me? For them?” Li Fei said.
         “Yes,” Lai Ka answered.
         We watched as they exchanged kicks, grapples, and punches. When it began to look like Lai Ka would lose, I had to resist running out into the open. “We have to help,” I said.
         “There’s nothing we can do,” James said. “They have to settle this.”
         Li Fei kicked. She struck Lai Ka in the side, but Lai Ka trapped Li Fei’s leg with her arm. Lai Ka swept her sister’s other leg, knocking her to the ground. Lai Ka took the opportunity to get Li Fei into a pin she couldn’t get out of.
         Li Fei struggled to break the hold, but finally gave up. The two sisters came face to face.
         “Why are you helping them?!” Li Fei screamed.
         “Because humans aren’t all bad,” Lai Ka said. “These people are innocent and they don’t deserve this. Can’t we just go back to the way things were? Please, sister.”
         “…As you wish,” Li Fei reluctantly said. The two rose from the ground. “But I will never trust them.”
         Then, against James’ objections, I ran out into the open. “Lai Ka!” I shouted.
          Lai Ka picked me up. “I’m sorry,” I said. “This was all my fault. If it weren’t for me-”
         “Don’t apologize, Victor,” Lai Ka said sweetly. “You showed me that we were wrong all this time.” Behind me I could hear the approach of the helicopter. “Thank you.” With that, she pressed me to her lips and gave me a single kiss before lowering me. 
         James and I left the island. We got caught up in things when we got back, but we did return for a visit a few years later. Lai Ka and Li Fei were able to establish peace with the villagers. The village was reconstructed quickly with help from Lai Ka and Li Fei and the people are now allowed to hunt on the southern part of the island.
         We never told anyone about what happened on the island until now. I’ve always wanted to share the secret of the island with someone, so I thought this was the best way, because no one will believe such an incredible story posted on the Internet. It may get passed from forum to forum or possibly show up on some conspiracy theorist’s blog, but no one will really believe it. I hardly believe it and I was there.