Week 6: Storytelling -- My Journey to the Nether World

My Journey to the Nether World

It had been a long day, so naturally I was tired. I decided to take a nap after eating a sumptuous dinner, placing my magically shrunken staff inside my ear. I hadn’t thought I would need it as I fell into a slumber.

I was wrong. As I started to dream, two men appeared, carrying a card that bore my name on it. And then they grabbed me, cuffing me and forcing me to go with them. They took my spirit to a city, the likes of which I had never seen before. Until this point, I had been completely confused as to where I was going; that changed as I saw the city’s gate, which held the words ‘The Nether World’ on its arch.

“Ah!” I realized. “This must be Death’s home. But I’ve already gained immortality. How dare Death bring me here like this!”

I reached out for my staff, which was still in my ear. After it grew to full length, I hit both of the two envoys imprisoning me. I then freed myself from my shackles and made my way into the city.

In the midst of the city, I found the ten princes of the dead. With terrified faces they bowed before me, asking who I was.

Annoyance flared inside of me at the question, and I answered harshly, “If you don’t know who I am, then why did you bring me here? I was born under the heavens, the saint known as Sun Wu Kung, on the Mountains of Flowers and Fruits.

Now,” I asked with impatience, “who are you? If you don’t tell me, I’ll hit you with my staff!”

At my threat, they each said who they were. And after hearing their names, I demanded the Book of the Living be shown to me. A minute or two later, their scribe came, carrying with him the Book. I looked at the words that tried to determine my life’s end, saying that I would die without illness at three hundred and twenty-four years old.

Further angered, I took one of the brushes on the table and crossed myself and my family of apes out of the Book of the Living. “Now we're even,” I said smugly. “And never bother me again with this sort of thing!”

With that, I left, using my staff to clear a path out of the Nether World. Eventually, I walked outside the city’s limits, where I tripped and fell. The jolt woke me up, and I realized I had been in a dream, which I had since forgotten.

“Friends!” I called to the four baboons who lived with me. “Guess what happened today? I was forcibly taken to Death’s castle in my dream and chaos ensued because of me. And because they were  intimidated I was able to cross our names out from the Book of Life!”

From that day, none of the apes of the great Mountain of Flowers and Fruits died.

Sun Wu Kung

(Source: DeviantArt)

Author's Note:

This is a retelling of The Nether World, a chapter in the Monkey King unit. The original was written in third person, which I changed it to first person (in Sun Wu Kung's point of view) in my retelling. I didn't strictly keep the dialogue as it had been in the book -- instead, I tweaked and reworded it. I even converted part of the dialogue into narrative. But I did stick to the storyline. I didn't add anything important that didn't happen in the original, nor did I take anything important out. 

If you're wondering who Sun Wu Kung is, he's the Monkey King in Chinese mythology. He was born out of a stone egg on the apex of a mountain (the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits). He learns magic and has adventures, and his main goal to become immortal (which he clearly does in this story). 

Bibliography:
"The Ape Sun Wu Kung" by R. Wilhelm (1921). Web Source: Project Gutenberg