One of the things I did as a child was wish that I could create things from thin air like the magicians on television. It was a thrill to see rabbits and birds appear from behind a magician's magic hand with a wave of a wand. In the following story, Mike had a way to create things by drawing with his magic paintbrush.
Mike blinked his eyes, and blinked them again. The brush was on the table, waiting for the boy to pick it up. Mike picked up the brush and a tingle ran up his arm. He had to try out his gift. He unrolled a torn piece of cloth, mixed some ash with water to make ink, then drew a bird. Nothing happened for a moment but then Mike couldn't believe his eyes. The bird blinked, then ruffled its feathers. With a stretch of its wings, the bird came to life and flew off the paper. Mike fell to the ground! He tried again, but this time with a turtle. The turtle came to life with a hard shell and a head that popped in and out of that shell. All night, Mike drew little animals that came to life.
A week went by and news of Mike's paintbrush spread through the village. Neighbors visited Mike to have him draw new farming equipment. He was happy to help them all. One neighbor who heard about Mike was Mustache Sam, the mean rancher who lived at the end of the village. No one liked him. He abused his animals and stole from the village.
Mustache Sam had a plan. He told his henchmen to kidnap Mike and steal his paintbrush. Wednesday night, Mustache Sam's men grabbed Mike when he was walking home from the farm. Mike was thrown into an abandoned shed and two guys stood guard at the door while another ran for Mustache Sam.
During this month, stories of Mike's magical paintbrush travel all over China. People described animals coming to life and how one village poverty turned around with the aid of new farming equipment; all of this because of one little boy's big heart and his paintbrush. The news reached even to the ears of the Emperor.
Mike was captured by the Emperor's soldiers and brought before the emperor. Mike was separated with his brush and then thrown into jail. The Emperor wondered what was to be his first drawing with the magical paintbrush. He drew what he thought was a golden phoenix. A golden phoenix to lay him golden eggs. The bird flapped its wings and came to life as a common chicken. "Bock," it cried and ran around the royal throne room. The emperor tried to draw a bar of gold. Since he was a greedy man, he drew a long bar of gold. The gold bar wiggled off the paper in the shape of a snake. The huge snake crept towards the emperor and wrapped itself around him. The emperor yelled for his men of court to free him. At the same time, the chicken ran and jumped up on the head of emperor, and laid a big yellow egg.
With all of the confusion, no one saw Mike sneak away, draw himself a horse and ride away. Where did he go? Some say that Mike went home to continue to help the poor. Some others say he created animal refuge in the middle of China's mountain range and drew animals until the day he died.
When I was young, I never thought of having a magic paintbrush. If I did, I would have painted my mom a new vase. One to replace the one I knocked off the shelf causing it to fall and shatter to pieces. Never run in the living room. Trust me on this one.
पैंट ब्रुश Adventures
I
Pan Gu separated heaven and earth for 18 thousand years. Tired and weak, Pan Gu died. His last breath became the wind and clouds, and his last cry became thunder. Stars came from his hair. One eye became the sun, the other the moon. His arms and legs became the four points of the compass and the five great mountains of China. His blood flowed to become water of rivers and seas while his bodily hair sprouted up to become forests. His flesh became soil fertilized by the rocks and minerals from his bones. 
It was Nu Kua who decided to put people on the earth. She was lonely and had idle time. She molded yellow fertile clay to make men one at a time. This took too much time and too much effort. So she made mud from the clay, dipped a cord from around her waist. The mud which fell from the cord became men, but not as strong as those who she molded by hand. The strong and the weak, Nu Kua loved them all for they were her children and her loneliness went away.
Two demi-gods, Kung Kung and Chuan Tsu, watched Nu Kua make her little men. When she wasn’t watching, they came to earth and created havoc for the men. Sometimes they would eat a man or two. One day Kung Kung and Chuan Tsu had a big fight over who was going to eat the next human. They rolled in between mountains and caused the sky to rip open. The earth rumbled with earthquakes and rainstorms. 
