14/12/2020
The cloud people… It was an old legend about strange misty people in the sky, who had houses in the clouds and maybe an entire city on a flying turtle, but they were legends, tales and most tales are exaggerated.
Deep in the northern side of china where mountains rose until the clouds, the only place where this legend still existed, deep inside the heart of only two farmer’s hearts, lived a boy. He wasn’t exactly the kind of person to be chosen for something big, he was just a farmer.
This boy lived in a village up in the mountain peaks, his job was to stand ankle deep in freezing water planting rice, he lived with his grandfather who was his only family. He would spend his days working in the rice fields just waiting for the sun to set so he could go home and listen to the tales and stories that his grandfather would tell him. These stories were not the usual dull bedtime stories, these stories were something else, something almost magical. When it wasn’t too cold the boy and his grandfather would sit on the steps to their little house and look down upon the sea of clouds. He would listen to the tales his grandfather would tell him, tales of dragons and a massive turtle that flew through the sky, a turtle so massive that a city lay on its shell and of course the story of the cloud people.
One year there was a drought and droughts were really bad for the people of this village. For one thing they needed rain for their crops, especially their rice which required a lot of water. Another reason they needed water was because their houses were made of dry wood and dry wood could easily catch fire. The people of the village started to worry, their fields were getting dry and water was getting scarce. The boy would work in the fields as usual just planting less rice so there would be enough water for all the crops. He didn’t worry much about the drought, but his grandfather did and he could see it. The stories had been getting shorter and not as exciting and even though his grandfather didn’t say a thing about the drought the boy could tell that it was the drought that worried him.
One night the boy was woken up by his grandfather, he took him outside the house and they both sat at the edge of the cliff outside their house gazing upon the sea of soft fluffy clouds in the moonlight. It was quite and the boy could hear his heart thumping in his chest. “Something is about to happen” he thought to himself. His grandfather turned to him and said “Chao” (for that was the boy’s name and I can’t keep calling him the boy) “Chao the village wont last long without water” to which the boy nodded. “you know all the stories I have told you are real” he said in a soft voice. Chao nodded again. “I need you to do something” he paused for a second, “I need you to find the flying turtle and find the cloud people”. Chao looked at him with a face of disbelief “I suppose I will have to find the rain dragon and bring him here too” he said jokingly. “Exactly” said his grandfather. Chao could tell that his grandfather wasn’t joking and that he would need to do that. “but you told me the cloud people hate humans” said Chao “and how can I find them?”. His grandfather then took out a old piece of paper and handed it to him. Chao held it carefully so it wouldn’t fall into dust. On it was a map leading to a cave in a cliff face not too far from the village. “First you will dress up like a cloud man” said his grandfather “then you will go through the cave and follow the path inside”. “When you come out the other side you will find yourself on a high mountain top and the flying turtle should be there”. “You said I will dress up like a cloud man, how will I do that?” asked Chao. His grandfather then proceeded to take him in the house and take out some white paints.
About twenty minutes later Chao was walking on a side patch that went down the mountain. In his hands he held the map and his body was covered in white paste. The path led down towards the cloud sea. Then he saw it, a cave shrouded in clouds. Normally you could easily see such a large cave, but with the cloud sea covering it it was almost impossible unless you were walking on that path. Chao nervously entered the cave, he immediately noticed that he could see perfectly in the dark yet there was no light entering the cave. After walking through a path in the cave he finally reached the end.
He came out of the cave and saw before him he saw a massive flying turtle, massive was not the right word. Chao knew from the stories that the turtle was quite big but the turtle was beyond big. Its fins almost as tall as the mountain itself and its shell had forests growing in it. Within the forests Chao could see a city with towers, walls and castles. A huge bridge led from the edge of the mountain to the turtles shell. Chao walked across the bridge towards the forest on the turtle. He walked across the forest and arrived at the city walls. That was when he saw the cloud men, they looked like a normal human just white, but when you looked closely you could see that their body was floating and waving slightly in the wind.
Chao approached the gate cautiously. The cloud men on the walls seeing his body covered with a white paste waved to him and opened the gate thinking that he was a cloud man. Chao entered through the gate and walked through a busy market with cloud men yelling prices and little cloud children chasing each other and making noise. Then there was a huge thundering roar that sent the city into silence. All the cloud children stopped yelling and looked up. Chao followed their gaze to see a huge dragon chained to the top of a tower. The dragon was just like the cloud people but shimmered blue.
Chao knew by the stories that this was the cloud dragon. He ran through the market towards the tower, opened the door and ran up the stairs. There was a little platform at the top of the tower where the dragon was chained. As Chao ran up the stairs he saw a huge pair of keys on a hook on the wall. He grabbed them and came out to the platform where the dragon was. The dragon looked at him menacingly but allowed him Chao. Meanwhile on the ground the cloud people took notice. Shouts of “Look it’s a human dressed up as one of us!” and “whats he doing up there!” rang across the town. A whole bunch of guards ran to the tower. Chao on the top of the tower knew he was trapped and the dragon seemed to sense his feelings. The dragon came right up to Chao and somehow he felt that the dragon was telling him to ride him. Chao hopped on the dragons back just as the guards came onto the roof.
With a mighty thundering roar the dragons leaped off the tower and gliding gracefully through the air. Clouds seemed to form wherever he flew and it started to rain on the ground. The dragon then pounded his wings on the air and flew straight up. Chao closed his eyes and clutched onto the dragon. If Chao had opened his eyes he would have seen the turtle give a grunt that shook the sky then moved shaking dirt off of its back. The whole cloud town went collapsing off the side.
Chao opened his eyes and looked off the side of the dragon. He could see the ground down below. Then he saw his village! And it was raining! The dragon soared to the side of the mountain where the villagers couldn’t see him and landed. Chao leaped off the dragon and ran down the muddy path in the rain towards his village.
Written by: Muhammad Khan
