Outstanding Story (Sub-junior) - The Kingdom of Dragons

“The Kingdom of Dragons” is one of the outstanding stories (sub-junior) of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2019 written by Bozhao Lyu, K. International School Tokyo, Japan.

The Kingdom of Dragons

Chapter 1 The Dragon Egg

Two years ago, when I was walking home from school, I remembered feeling sad because of a big fight and losing a friend. I had gotten home, I had done my usual responsibilities and had lied down on my bed. But when I woke in the morning, all of a sudden, my bed was gone, and I was standing on a small hill wearing a black and blue suit – almost like that of a superhero. Surprised, I looked carefully at my suit. There was hard silver armour on my chest, knees, and elbows. On the left wrist, there were two silver buttons. There were three colorful buttons on the right wrist. The suit made me look cool. I looked around the hill, and then noticing something at the bottom of the hill, I slid down the hill just like I would down a slide. At the foot of the hill was a flag written in strange words and an arrow drawn on it. I tried to read it, but I couldn’t because the letters and words were not English. Instead, I decided to walk the way the arrow pointed.

I saw dragons everywhere in a meadow. I quietly walked forward to try to get closer and then found a castle behind the dragons. Its shape looked like New Swan Stone Castle (Neuschwanstein Castle), but the color was very different. It was silver and had scratched markings all around it with a brown map on the top. There was a person with a crown standing at the entrance, and he saw me! He called me to his side and told me that he was the king of dragons. He gave me a giant white egg with green and red dots on it and told me it was a dragon’s egg. The Dragon King pleaded with me to take care of the egg until it grew up to be an adult. He told me it would be very hard to raise the dragon at the beginning, but the dragon would be very helpful when it grow up. I was curious about my suit and asked the Dragon King if he could tell me something about my suit. He said it has powerful functions, and he would tell me the details next time. Then he used magic to send me back home with the dragon’s egg.

I kept the egg warm in an incubator I borrowed from my father’s laboratory. After 20 days, the egg hatched and out came a happy blue baby dragon. I hugged him and as it was still dawn, I went back to bed with the baby dragon. He snuggled next to me.

The dragon grew up to be an adult in two years. Then I wanted to teach him how to do tricks, so I taught him to hide, roar, attack and defend, roll, and fly. I also tried to teach him the English alphabet. I taught him a hundred times, but he could only write the dragon alphabet, the one I saw long ago.

On a sunny day, I took my dragon to the place where I had been lost before, but there were no dragons this time. The Dragon King stood there instead, looking upset. He told us why. Five days ago, when they were having a gathering with all the dragons from different areas, a giant monster had suddenly broken into the castle. The monster was very strong. It had made a tornado which whirled up with black sand, and it swept away all the dragons to a place called Mushroom Forest. The king needed my help. He then told me that my suit would be my weapon. As my suit magically appeared, he began to explain the details of my suit. There were two buttons on my left wrist. The button with a dragon mark called my dragon to appear by my side; the other one was for normal calls. There were three buttons on my right wrist. The green button could freeze an enemy for 15 minutes; the red button could make special barriers around me and block enemies for a while; the purple button changed the color of my suit, enabling me to camouflage into my surroundings. When he finished explaining, I couldn’t believe the power my suit had! In fact, I was very excited about it. We flew away back to our home. I searched on Google for Mushroom Forest and printed out a map for the way there.

Once again, I rode my dragon. We followed the map until we came to the place we wanted. When we arrived at the forest, we immediately noticed that Mushroom Forest was a dark forest filled with hundreds of different mushrooms that pervaded a weird smell. There was a cave nearby. We saw a sign hanging from the cave. I didn’t know what was written. Fortunately, my dragon knew, so he read it out for me. It said, “Do not enter.” I knew there was something strange just by looking at the sign. I walked in and there was a light switch. I switched it on and the lights flashed up. Astonishingly, there were the dragons, and they were all inside cages. Shocked, I released all of them. We tried to leave the cave.

At the moment, a giant mountain-like monster blocked our way. It attacked us. I tripped accidentally and pressed the button on my left wrist. Immediately, my dragon appeared next to me. I had an idea about how we can defeat the monster, and I shared it with all the dragons. First, I divided them into four groups. One group will take charge of blocking the monster in the front; the second group will surround the monster and attack from every direction; the third group will attack from the top; and the last group will try to push the monster into the river nearby. We just did it, and it worked. Afterwards, the dragons flew away happily. My dragon and I went back to our home.

Chapter 2 The Green Orca

A few months later, I woke up one morning for my bed had started to shake. Then my pajamas turned into the same black and blue suit. But this time the suit shined red and quickly returned to normal. I tried to get out of my bed, but the room got dark. And before I knew it, I was standing on a hill which was next to the one I had been standing before.

This time, the hill was extremely high, so I was quite scared. I slid down with my eyes shut. I heard a horrible sound. It was my dragon’s wings flapping strongly. He had come to join me. My dragon landed next to me as 20 skeleton warriors surrounded us. Then, flapping sounds came from the south – it was the other dragons. One of them told us they had come to help as the warriors charged in a line. We didn’t even charge. I just spoke to my dragon for 12 seconds, and then the warriors all crumbled into pieces. There was a message from the Dragon King in the middle of the rubble. I picked it up and tried to read it. I recognized my name, but I couldn’t understand the dragon words, so I gave the letter to my dragon. He told me it wrote, “Sorry for the warriors. Find the green orca and send it to me.”

I wondered how the king knew my name, but I was more curious about the green orca. I wondered what the green orca was and where it was. While I was thinking, my dragon took me home. He placed me on a chair before a board. That day, he taught me the dragon alphabet letters of a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i and j. The next day, he taught me the dragon alphabet letters of k, l, m, n, o, p, q and r. On the third day, he taught me the letters of s, t, u, v, w, x, y and z. From that day on, I could read the dragon alphabet. And the next evening, straight away, my dragon and I dove into the ocean in an effort to find the green orca. We searched 3/4 of the ocean but we couldn’t find any orcas. The following day, there came another message from the Dragon King in my mail box. I searched for one more “cave” on Google. One of the search results showed that a certain cave was the darkest. My dragon and I decided to go to that cave.

I printed out a map to the cave quickly, and my dragon and I flew as fast as we could. When we arrived, we used two flashlights and slowly crawled into the cave. The green orca appeared in the air. It was controlled by an evil person with evil magic, so the orca was also evil. It jumped up. It didn’t need water and could fly; it was a magical orca. My dragon and I ran quickly out of the cave, but the orca followed us.

The orca attacked fiercely from the sky. My dragon dared to attack back too. He flew as high as the orca and used red thunder to attack the orca. The green orca was strong too; it shot acid and sand from its fins. My dragon and the green orca fiercely fought for an hour without rest like it is done in wars, until at last, the green orca was tired out. I tied the orca with my rope and rode my dragon to the Dragon King’s palace. I carefully gave the green orca to the Dragon King. He used his good magic and released the green orca free from the evil magic. The green orca changed back into its normal color. The Dragon King said I had done a good job and gave me special vision, called fantasy vision, which lets me see all the secret alphabet writing hidden in the normal alphabet writing. The Dragon King told me that I was reading his letters correctly; he said I had a magic power, but I still didn’t know how to control it. After he said I could go home, he told me that the orca will help me wherever I go, just like my dragon. He said my dragon, the magical orca, and I should be tired, so he used his magic to send us home. After all of us were home, I made my room bigger so the magical orca could also fit inside. That night, we slept happily together on my bed.

Chapter 3 The Age of the Phoenix

That summer one night, I felt sick because of a smothering heat in my bedroom. At dawn, I felt much better, but I knew something was strange. I woke my dragon and orca as I found a note under my bed. I knew it, it was from the Dragon King.

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Dec. 2, 2018
Dear Bozhao,
I have a new task for you. The task is that you need to go to ancient Egypt and fight an evil sorcerer, the one who had turned your orca into green before. You will have to come to my palace first, and I will send you to ancient Egypt. I can only trust you, so please don’t fail.
The Dragon King

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I was shocked. I still felt the heat of the night and yet I needed to go on a mission?! It was the last thing I wanted to do as my body was too hot. But the heat slowly cleared, and I forgot I had been hot at all. I rode my dragon to the Dragon King’s palace, my orca flying by my side. We arrived at the palace in no time at all.

The Dragon King, quick as a lightning, used magic to send us to ancient Egypt. Together, we ended up on a pyramid. A soft, cool pyramid. It was a strange view from the pyramid. The pyramid was next to the two hills I had slid down when I had met my dragon the first time, and the second time when I had returned to the land. This time, we took a huge risk and jumped down the pyramid. Interestingly, I felt nothing as I was jumping down. Then, two gods came. One looked like a camel and the other was like a cactus! I laughed so hard but quickly stopped because I didn’t want to embarrass them. The two gods told us that they were going to help us. They led us to a nice, tall building which they said was for me, my dragon, and my orca. I entered, and I saw it was like a rich person’s home. It had a nice, comfortable, big room and very nice service awaited us. We stayed there for three days. During that time, the gods helped me to train my dragon and my orca to get special power. My dragon could soon fly very fast and spin in the sky. My orca learned to move things with its mind.

On the fourth day, we decided it was time to leave and fight the sorcerer. We all felt sad since we had spent a fantastic three days together. But before we had walked a meter, I tripped on a black stone. It looked like a small motorcycle. I didn’t know why, but I put it in my bag and continued walking. Seven minutes later, we arrived at a very quiet but mysterious village. It was in a forest along a river, where birds chirped in the trees. There, in the quiet, lived furry, nice creatures called Oobjas. They gave us a wave and ran inside a house. Then they ran back out with a pizza for us. It was a giant pizza. We walked over and joined the feast. I ate so much I lost count of the slices! That night, we slept on top of the roof of an Oobjas’ house. I remembered hearing a flapping sound in my sleep. It had been mixed with a roaring sound, like fire burning. When morning came, we waved to the Oobjas and followed a track of burned sand until we came to a round field made from shiny red stones and rocks.

As we stepped into the field, a phoenix appeared in front of us. Its size was as big as my dragon and had burning flames on the giant wings. It seemed very fierce as if it was going to poke me like a small bird. It gave a loud squawk as it flew in one place. Feeling something shaking in my pocket, I took it out. It was the black motorcycle shaped stone which I had picked up before. My dragon told me it was a meteor, in fact. Surprised, I dropped it onto the ground. The ground was soft, but the meteor cracked into three pieces. Then, the three pieces of the meteor flew into the air and pulled the phoenix into one of the pieces. When the whole phoenix had been pulled inside the meteor piece, I saw my dragon and orca being slowly pulled into the other two pieces. I picked them all up, and then threw the pieces of rock against the ground again. With a whoosh, my dragon and orca were released from the meteor pieces. The two gods and I rode my dragon, following a slimy trail and a stinging smell that came from the west where the sphinx was. It led us to a big crown shaped palace.

We entered the palace, and the whole place transformed itself into a cold and rainy battling field. In front of my very own eyes, the evil sorcerer came out of nowhere. Short, old, skinny, and dressed in torn rags, the sorcerer took a purplish meteor from a tiny sack and threw it up. A slimy goblin came out. My dragon stepped on the field and started to attack him with purple fire. The goblin threw garbage from its hands. How disgusting! I quickly ran in front of my dragon and blocked all the garbage the goblin was throwing with my shield. The goblin started melting and dripped a liquid from its hand. The liquid hardened and split into two cannon balls which aimed to hit me. I chopped both cannon balls with my sword until the goblin tired out. The evil sorcerer tried to run away. I pressed the red button on my right wrist and blocked the sorcerer with a barrier, while the phoenix came out of the meteor piece and caught him. He brought the sorcerer to me. I pressed another button on my left wrist to call the police who mastered the magic world, and the officers took away the sorcerer. We asked the phoenix if it wanted to join our group from now, and the phoenix happily, excitedly agreed. Soon, a silver staircase appeared in front of us. We climbed it and ancient Egypt turned into the Dragon King’s palace once more.

The Dragon King sat in his chair and talked in his deep but excited voice. “Well done! You completed your task for today. I will now send you home. Please come next time too!” He used his magic to send us home safely and quickly. Returning home, I realized the existence of heat, once again, in my bedroom. But for some reason, I knew what it was now. It had been my dragon! I had forgotten that there would be heat coming out of my dragon’s snout. I told my dragon to stop it. I made some room for the phoenix and prepared to eat lunch with my three magical creatures (my dragon, my orca, and my phoenix).

Chapter 4 The World of the Magic Beasts

It was on one peculiar night at 10:53. I found myself falling from the sky to the ground. But then I heard the alarm clock ring, I flashed up like lightning, walked to my bookshelf, and started to read the book about beasts. I read a minute before my creatures awoke. As I read, a wind started to pick up in a circle around me. Soon, the wind started to turn into a tornado. It blew me away from my home to the Dragon King’s palace.

This time, my dragon, my phoenix, and my orca didn’t come. The Dragon King told me he’d needed me to go on another mission. The mission was to go to a place called Rainbow Forest, where there lived three magical beasts who carried three magic stones and bring all of them back. He told me the three beasts were Rhinoceratops with the Power stone on its horn; Pterofalus with the Time stone on its head; and Astramoste with the Galaxy stone on its back. As the king had said, he sent me to Rainbow Forest. I was ready for my new adventure – I had already dressed in my powerful suit. I pressed the button on the left wrist, and my dragon appeared next to me with my orca and my phoenix. We departed for the Rainbow Forest. An hour later, we landed in front of a sign written in a mysterious alphabet. I used my fantasy vision and read it to my dragon. It said, “Danger.” I looked around, but there was nothing. We waited.

Soon, I heard many things charging towards us. It was the beast called “Rhinoceratops.” It was a huge rhinoceros with three horns on its head and armour on its back. It held a stone on its third horn, the “Power stone.” I defended myself with my armour and pressed the green button on my right wrist. The Rhinoceratops became frozen instantly. I took the Power stone carefully from the horn of Rhinoceratops. Then, I used one of my meteor pieces to catch the Rhinoceratops. I had caught my first magical beast. I started to ride my dragon again until we arrived at a different sign. I read it quietly, “Look out for Pterofalus.”

I looked up to find a blue beast diving towards me. It was the Pterofalus! Its sharp beak was heading straight towards me. I pressed the red button on my right wrist to set barriers, and then pressed the green button immediately. The Pterofalus became frozen too like the Rhinoceratops. I found a stone on its head, the “Time stone.” I carefully took it and caught the Pterofalus in the second meteor piece. “Last one to go,” I thought.

We began preparing for the night. I unfroze the Rhinoceratops and Pterofalus. My dragon started a fire, my orca made a hut, and my phoenix collected food with the Rhinoceratops and the Pterofalus. After we ate some fish, we went inside the hut and prepared a bed for each one of us. The time we slept was at 9:51. We slept until 1:59. Like the day before, after we woke up, we collected food. After we ate them, we found apples and pineapples. We left the hut and walked and walked and walked, looking for the last beast. We walked the whole day! At nightfall, we came upon a beach.

From the next day on, we swam in the ocean in search for the third beast. There were no predators there and had many fish to eat. How lucky! Together, we built an underwater house. We continued looking for Astramoste, without success.

However, on the day we were going to leave the ocean for good, a giant shadow appeared on the top of the ocean, a silver shadow. It was the shadow of Astramoste. Astramoste was a golden, black and silver colored beast. The “Galaxy stone” was on its back. The Astramoste swooped down on me as I pressed the purple button to hide myself and jumped on the back of Astramoste. Then I pressed the green button one last time, and Astramoste instantly stiffened. I took the stone from its back carefully, then took out the last meteor piece and threw it quickly at Astramoste. Astramoste was sucked into the meteor piece. Having secured all three beasts, I looked for the silver staircase to the Dragon King’s palace.

As I turned around, all my meteor pieces floated in the air and formed two triangles. One was the triangle of the three beasts I had just caught, and the other was of my three magical creatures. The two triangles combined forming a glowing golden star. Then, a red meteor came out of the middle of the star. The red meteor had an “X” on it. I thought it was just a marking. All the meteor pieces then dropped into my pocket. In a flash, the silver staircase appeared, and we walked to the top. We opened the door, and silently, we entered the Dragon King’s palace.

We gave him the three meteor pieces that had Rhinoceratops, Pterofalus, and Astramoste inside. The Dragon King said he felt so proud of my magical creatures and me, we had accomplished the important mission in such a short time and had come back safely without any injuries. He also told me the three magical beasts would be trained and sent to assist me in all new missions to come. I asked about the red meteor with the “X” on it. The Dragon King told me that it meant I was becoming strong, and it was the powerful mythical stone. It was a gift for me. To use it, though, I needed to develop its power during the missions in the future. While the Dragon King used his magic to send us back home, I started to wonder what the next mission would be like. After we got home, as it was almost midnight, I took a shower quickly and fell into a deep, deep sleep.