
Stuck in Heaven by Matt S.
"I can do anything better than you!" shouted Wudi.
Wudi's sister did not respond.
Wudi stomped out of the house. He usually would say he was always
the best. He was a hard head. He could never realize that he was
not the best at everything. He was actually slow and chunky. He
was also kind of weak. He was always told "talk does not
cook rice." But he still did not listen.
As he was going to the farmer's house in on the other side of
town to buy some rice a green blinding light lit up the dark sky.
The light came from a swarming jostling clouds in the east. Out
of the clouds came a terrifying dragon with its sharp claws stretched
out. It was coming straight for him.
Wudi was scared sick. In his fear he tried to use his chi from
his Tai Chi class to scare off the dragon . He formed a ball and
threw it at the dragon. The ball hit the dead center of the dragon's
face. The dragon gave a mere flinch then started his approach
on Wudi. Wudi was frozen in fear. He had nothing to do but stay
there and let the dragon get him. That is what the dragon did.
The dragon grasped Wudi in his claws. The dragon, with his powerful
wings, lifted off the ground and flew back through the jostling
clouds. From all the excitement Wudi fainted.
Wudi's eyes slowly opened. Around him were soldiers.
"Where am I!'' yelled Wudi.
The soldiers did not reply. Just then a man in a jade colored
robe walked into the room.
"Take Wudi to the banquet hall and get him something to eat,"
demanded the man in the robes.
The tremendous dragon that had taken Wudi to this place came up
to to escort him to the banquet hall.
"This way," hissed the dragon.
Wudi was led into the banquet hall. There was a delicious hot
meal out on the table. There were fancy egg rolls, goblets of
pumpkin juice, cake with butter pagodas on the top, wan ton soup,
chicken, noodles with exotic vegetables, many different types
. Wudi was in awe. He stared down the hall. The hall was filled
with luscious food. He did not dare go near the food. He thought
it was for someone else.
" Eat," croaked the the dragon.
Wudi slowly approached the food and ate with his best manners.
The dragon seemed very unimpressed. It seemed like a dream. It
was too good to be true and it was.
" You will be building the Diamond Emperor's east side of
the palace with four other boys.''
"What!" cried Wudi.
" That is only the beginning. You are never to return to
Earth unless you complete the east side of the palace."
" No, that is not true. I am not staying by the likes of
you and your so called Diamond Emperor."
" Watch it, I am your only friend. No one else trusts you.
You have failed as a human on Earth. If you fail here you are
never to see light again."
Wudi was left speechless as he silently followed the dragon to
the east side of the palace.
There was the Diamond Emperor stand with the four other boys.
" When you are in the heavens, your strength is ten times
of what it is on earth." boomed the Emperor.
"Start working!" screamed the one of the two generals.
" I don't know what to do," squeaked Wudi.
" If you don't know what to do, come over here and sit. Wudi
and one of the other boys came and sat down at the Emperor's feet.
The two of them watched carefully at what the other three boys
were doing.
" When you know what to do you may start," said the
emperor.
Wudi and the other boy quickly jumped to their feet and went to
where the other boys were. They sawed up the lumber and then nailed
the pieces to the structure. The work was horrible. Wudi had not
realized how hot it was until he started to work.
They worked all through the day and late into the night while
the two generals ,the emperor and the dragon watched them.
That night the dragon escorted them to the bed rooms where they
would sleep. Wudi was so tired he didn't even notice that the
bed rooms were nothing more than what he had had back down on
Earth.
"Tomorrow will be the worst for you two, said the oldest
boy. While you are still hurting from working yesterday and your
hands are full of splinters, you will have to go and start working
in whatever condition you are in."
Wudi was very upset. He knew practically nothing about where was
or why he was doing. All he knew was he had to work for a long
time and what the dragon had told him. He did not know on what
side of Earth he was above, he didn't know his way around the
palace. He had only met the the dragon, and only the dragon is
who he would know personally.
He knew nothing about why he was here until one day when the dragon
told him something very important.
"You can never escape the heavens unless you finish building
the palace. If you do complete it this what will happen and I
will tell you what to do."
"They try to trick you into staying here by bribing you with
a promise. If you accept, you will be put in a dungeon cell and
never will come out again. If you resist, there is a chance of
about forty percent you may live. You must escape out the back
door. As you reach the brown cloud about twenty feet away from
the entrance, jump on to the cloud then yell where you want to
go. Next leap off the brown cloud. Jump off the cloud. For exactly
twenty seconds you will be whirled around by rushing winds. After
the winds stop you will be at the doorstep of your pagoda. Wudi
was your crime breaking the law of the proverb " talk does
not cook rice?"
" Yes," Wudi replied.
"Well then Wudi, the odds of you escaping are about four
to one.
Wudi's stomach lurched.
"I can make it easily,"said Wudi.
All the dragon could do nothing but smile. he knew that Wudi would
never be escaping
That night Wudi told the other boys about escaping. At first the
other boys did not believe him. But when they saw the serious
look on Wudi's face they instantly stopped laughing. It was just
The next day the emperor asked the boys," Would you like
to stay? I will give you high ranks and your life will be wonderful.
What the dragon said flashed through his head. "No!"
the boys said in unison. This happened for a few minutes until
the emperor started screaming to catch the boys. The guards bolted
after the boys. Wham! Two of the boys were slammed to the ground.
One by one through the chaos the rest of the boys were caught.
Wudi was the only one free. he was right next to the brown cloud.
The the emperor halted the army and to get away from the boy.
Just then they shoved the other boys to the front line of the
army.
The boys feet , knees and hands were tied and their mouths were
gagged.
"If you go, these fine you men will be executed or you will
stay. If you stay, you and these four be put in a cell for eternity
but you and the rest of the boys will be unharmed. Wudi in a mix
of fear and madness he formed an extraordinarily powerful ball.
He hit the soldiers and the emperor so hard they were knocked
unconscious forever. The palace was turned to rubble from the
blast.
The boys were free. They raced toward the brown cloud. Just then
there was a blinding green light and just in front of then stood
the dragon. He had a grin on his face that sent shivers down their
spines.
"You are staying. There is no way you can possibly escape
for I am invincible against your puny strength. Give it up! You
have no choice but to surrender or you will be crushed."
While the dragon was talking the Wudi had collected all the energy
that he could. It was so powerful the earth shook in it's presence.
He formed a ball of all the energy. He shot it directly at the
evil dragon. The ball hit him dead on. The four other boys were
blown back . As the smoke cleared there was the dragon. It had
barely affected him.
"Remember what I told you Wudi ? You could not escape unless
you had finished the palace. You broke the law of the proverb,
that talk does not cook rice. Even if you get past me you will
no longer exist on earth.. The only way you can exist is if you
can beat me in a fight."
The boys were horror struck. Wudi managed to squeak something
out.
"We need join to form balls of chi. Then we need to turn
it into one big ball and shoot it at the dragon," ordered
Wudi.
That is exactly what they did. This time it was so powerful the
earth started violently tossing and turning. The was enormous.
The world was on the brink of exploding. This time it missed the
dragon but it still damaged him moderately.
"You! Go!" yelled Wudi.
The boy obediently left. While the dragon was recovering two more
left. It left only two of them to deal with the dragon.
"My name is Sui," stated the boy.
"Well Sui, the only way we can beat this dragon is if we
work together."
The boys ran to opposite sides of the dragon. The dragon knew
exactly what Sui and Wudi were doing. The two boys followed right
after him. They must have reached speeds of one thousand miles
per hour. As soon as the boys did this it was all over. The dragon
shot two blast at the boys. They both instantly vanished. They
were warped two another dimension.
The dragon chuckled to himself.
"That Wudi never understood the crime of breaking the law
of the proverb, "talk doesn't cook rice."