The Amazing Dragon and Ladders Adventure

“The Amazing Dragon and Ladders Adventure” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Tan Yi Ling, Sri KDU Primary School, Malaysia.

The Amazing Dragon and Ladders Adventure

We just finished the movie, Jumanji. My sister and I loved it. It was fun and exciting to watch Dwayne Johnson dropping into the jungle. It would be cool if I was in the game.

As we left the cinema, my little sister, Sarah kept pestering for a toy. I reluctantly gave into her demand and brought her to a very big toy store, so it took her one hour to choose a toy. Finally, she settled on a board game, the Dragon and Ladders. We paid for it and rushed home for a quick game.

The front door was not even properly shut as Sarah and I ran up to our room to lay our hands on the new game. The wrapper was hastily torn away. Suddenly, I heard a strange thumping sound. I turned to my left, and the sound was gone.

“Sarah did you hear that?” I asked.

“What sound?What do you mean?” she replied perplexed.

“Didn’t you hear the drum!” I exclaimed.

“No! Don’t waste time, I get to roll first!No cheating.”

I picked the crystal dice from the box. It was very shiny and as cold as ice. Sarah even said she felt magical when she held the crystal dice. Sarah was fading away. I was stunned.

“Dom! Dom! Dom!” The sounds of the thumping drums had returned. I looked left and right frightened as a mouse. I was trying to yell, “Sarah! What’s happening?”but there was no sound from my mouth. The thumping sounds grew louder and louder. My hands and legs were fading away. My world turned topsy-turvy as the thumping sound grew louder.

I dropped from the sky landing next to Sarah that we realized we were in a box. Not a box that you put things in, but in a Dragon and Ladders box! We were in the game!

“This is so cool!” exclaimed Sarah.

“How are we going to move forward?” I asked Sarah.

“I don’t know but I am going to stretch first after the fall,” replied Sarah.

She lifted her right hand and the crystal dice fell from the sky and landed on six. Sarah was carried by a blue dragon to box six. I too raised my right hand.The dice fell again from the sky. I got three. The blue dragon flew me to box three. I saw red dragons and ladders up ahead next to me. The red dragon will bring you to a lower box.

Sarah was scared of heights, but she overcame her fear. I told Sarah that we have to advance to the last box to get out, like the movie. She raised her right hand. The dice rolled a five. A boat with a rabbit boatman came and brought her to box eleven. She was lucky to have a ladder at box eleven. From box eleven, she climbed to box twenty-five.

At my turn, I got six. The blue dragon grabbed me with his claws and dropped me at box eight. Sarah then got a six. The blue dragon flapped his wings twice. Sarah was flapped away to box thirty-one. I looked at Sarah, she was getting closer to the higher end. I quickly raised my hand and rolled the dice. I got a six. This time I had to ride a punctured bicycle to get to fourteen.

Sarah laughed at me because I was far behind her. Sarah rolled the dice again. She got a one. A blue dragon just grabbed her to box twenty-six. “Wohoo!” Sarah gracefully screamed. It was my turn to make a move. I got four. Luck was not on my side. I had to swim through a muddy river to get to box eighteen. I was soaking wet. Sarah was then carried to box thirty–one by the blue dragon. I got moved to box twenty-four which had a red dragon. When it ate me, I ended up in box twenty. I was all slimy and wet when I came out of the dragon’s mouth as he spat me into the box.

Things were different after I was “eaten”. Suddenly, a giant came out of the blue. Our dragon carrier came to rescue us. The giant was big and fast. It caught me with its left claw, while Sarah was on her way to box one hundred. As I was about to get eaten by the giant, I got scared, I covered both my eyes. Suddenly, the giant shouted with a familiar voice, “Time to go to school!”

I opened my eyes, it was my mother. She is waking me up for school. I am glad that it was just a dream. If it was real, I could have eaten again, but this time for good!