New Journey to the West
Western Academy of Beijing , Kim , Lina – 10
More than 1,300 years ago , there was a brave young monk , Xuanzang , who always had dreamt of becoming one who saves the world . Yes , he wanted to be a hero , a super hero ! To become a great hero , he prepared a journey to India to meet Hanuman , a powerful god in India .
Hanuman was a powerful , brave , and heroic god in India . And we believe this is why Xuanzang wanted to meet him . But , do you think it was super easy to meet and ask Hanuman for a training or something ?
From China to India , it was a very long journey , and Xuanzang needed friends to go with . So , he found three friends who wanted to join his journey : a monkey king , a talking pig , and a friar . The talking pig could speak as a human , so he translated what the monkey king said to Xuanzang and the friar all the time . For what Xuanzang and the friar said , the monkey king could understand without talking pig ’ s help .
Because Hanuman was really brave and heroic , the monkey king wanted to learn from Hanuman about how to be brave and lead his monkey world well . Also , the talking pig wanted to be a Batman ! Joking , the talking pig wanted to be a super pig ! Lastly , the friar wanted to be more heroic and kind .
With great passion , they started the journey to the west . However , they only had a map , compass , little amount of money , and clothes . Therefore , they always walked , rested for a few minutes , and walked again . When they were thirsty , they had to drink from the ocean .
Once , the friar asked , “ What if we just make a boat with tree trunks ?” Everyone nodded and agreed with the idea . They all started to collect tree trunks from the forests . But the problem was that there were only twigs found on the ground . For tree trunks , they had to climb trees and cut them , but it was not easy to cut the trees ! At the end , they just decided to pick up some twigs and make a little boat .
When they finally made a little boat , they started to go on board carefully . When Xuanzang first went on the boat , it was still and fine . When the monkey king went on , it was still steady . Next , when the talking pig slowly put his feet in , it began to tremble . Lastly , when the friar was just about to put his one foot in , the boat started to sink slowly ! Everyone was panicking , and the water was coming into the boat ! They quickly jumped out of the sinking boat . Now , they had to think about another way . The talking pig suggested , “ What if we just hike those southwestern mountains ?” Everyone , except the friar , nodded . So , everyone asked the friar why . And he said that it would take much longer to walk across the mountains . Later , Xuanzang came up with another idea of just borrowing a boat . Everyone sighed and said , “ Are we stupid ? It would only cost us just little .” Xuanzang laughed aloud and borrowed a boat to cross the ocean .
Xuanzang and the three companions sailed day and night , but the ocean seemed endless like the whole universe . One day , in the middle of the ocean , they heard creaking and groaning noises , and the boat started to leak . Everyone tried to pump out water , but all had to jump out of the boat and swim . Among them , no one was good at swim , so after jumping out of the boat , they could not do anything . Water was freezing , and everyone was in panic . The monkey king was messing around and being loud ; the talking pig was just floating around ; and the friar was losing consciousness and drowning . Xuanzang was the only one who was trying to calm down and think straight . Little later , the boat sank to the bottom of the ocean .
Xuanzang and three others were all safe , but they were all wet and freezing . Without a boat , all they could do were just floating around the ocean and cloud-spotting . Soon after , Mr . Alligator , a giant dragonfly who lend Xuanzang the boat , came and rescued everyone .
Mr . Alligator salvaged the boat and found a hole in the bottom of the boat . He said everyone that the hole caused the sinking . The friar said that he saw the boat crashing into a quite big rock in the beginning of the sailing . He added , “ I didn ’ t see any water leaking or damage , so I thought it was okay .” Everyone got angry and shouted at him , “ Why didn ’ t ’ you tell us ?!”