Dragon boat

 Chen lived with his grandmother in a poor mud-covered village. Most of the people who lived there were full of bitterness and resentment due to their poverty.

Chen´s grandmother used to be a lively and beautiful woman. All the children of the village would come sit by their house and listen to grandma tell thrilling stories.

But now grandmother has fallen ill. The healer had visited her a few times, but he couldn´t help her and now was at his wits end. Chen did as best he could to take care of grandmother, but every day she got a little worse. Chen cried bitter tears,  where his grandmother couldn´t see of course; he didn´t want to make her even sadder than she already was.

Chen was thinking and thinking, and one day he came up with an idea. He needed a wise man, or maybe a wise woman who could tell him how to restore his grandmother´s health and to make good fortune return to them.

Chen asked everybody where he could find such a wise person, man or woman. But people mostly laughed at him, even mocking him.

- “Go away!” they yelled at him and laughed at him behind his back.

Chen kept on seeking for somebody who could point him to a wise person. He was about to give up and fall into despair, when he noticed the old village healer sitting by a pond.

- “Young Chen! He cried out to the boy, “come here!!

Chen dried his tears, he didn´t want the old medicine man thinking he was a week boy.

- “You were going to pass me by without saying hello?” asked the old man. Chen started shaking his head as if he had no idea what the man was talking about.

- “Yes! You were!” but now the old healer smiled a little smile.  “Sit with me here!”

Chen tried to think of something to excuse himself from wasting his time and sitting with the old man just staring at the water. But the old man would not let him off the hook, he raised one eyebrow, and Chen knew that protesting would be useless. Reluctantly he let himself fall in the high grass and sat next to the old healer.

-         “Why did you never come to me and  ask me your question?”

 Chen was a little surprised at this question, he didn´t know the healer knew and he thought that he was going to lecture him about the nonsense of his quest.

- “I´m not sure what you are talking about healer.” Chen hurried to say, but the old man put an index to his mouth to signal Chen that he could save his breath. Chen grew a little anxious. Maybe he had offended the healer.

The old healer told Chen a story, of how a long, long time ago a very wise woman lived just around the riverbend. From far and wide people would come to her with there ailments, and she would have a cure for every single one of them.

Chen looked at the old healer with big eyes. He could not believe his ears. The healer was an incredibly wise and clever man, surely, he would not just tell him fairy-tale.

The wise woman had died of old age. But it was rumoured that the crystal who provided her with the magic power to cure the sick was still in the cave where she lived.

- “Oh?” disbelief started to creep up with Chen “and nobody ever tried to steal it?” he asked.

The healer shook his shoulders. He didn´t know, and he had never heard of such a tale. People were very superstitious and maybe they were scared that the ghost of the old woman might still roam the cave and cause them harm.

That did seem to make sense to Chen, and he looked impatiently at the old man to hear the rest of the story. But the old man remained silent. After a while Chen asked him:

- “Please go on.” But the healer just stared at the water.

- “Can I go get this crystal master?”. He put his hand on the man´s arm because he feared he had drifted off in silent reverie.

- “You can try. Nothing is certain but everything is possible.” And then he fell quiet again.

Chen thought hard for a few moments. If everything was possible, it was not impossible for him to bring the crystal back from a cave beyond the  riverbend. That´s where he needed to go. Right away.

He jumped up and ran to the little cottage where his grandmother was sleeping and having feverish dreams. He took a piece of cloth to wipe the pearls of sweat from her forehead and whispered softly in her ear:

- “Don´t worry grandmother! I will get you something that will heal you. Please try not to worry. I will be back as fast as I can” he kissed her forehead and ran off.

He walked on air; he was so happy the old healer had told him this story. He was determined to find the crystal and bring it back so his grandmother could be healed, and all would be well again.

He came to a point where he could see the river curl her way through the landscape at the foot of the mountain. He took a deep breath and went further on his way.

The clouds started to glow with a brilliant  orange. It wouldn´t be long now before the night fell. Chen started to feel just a little bit scared. He realized he had left home without much of a plan. Too late to turn back now. And then it hit him: a boat! He would need a boat to go down the river. Tears started swelling up and Chen let himself sink into the high grass along the mountain path. He could not help it, he had to cry. His eyes grew heavy and slowly but surely Chen drifted off.

Chen opened his eyes. For a moment he didn´t know where he was. What was that? It came back to him that he had fallen asleep while the sun was going down on the side of the mountain path. But now he felt a blanket of leaves under him and he couldn´t see the stars. Maybe he was dreaming. That must be it; all he had to do was wake up and go on his way. He rubbed his eyes, but nothing would change. All of a sudden, out of nowhere a huge fire ball appeared. Poor Chen thought he was lost in a nightmare; he had heard such stories from the old people in the village. The big fireball had settled for a cosy fire from a pile of wooden twigs, and everything was shrouded in an orange glow. Chen let his eyes adjust and started looking around.

- “Hello there” a deep but friendly voice boomed out of the dark.

Chen was convinced that his heart was going to give out any moment now.

A very loud laugh came roaring at him. He couldn´t believe his eyes: a dragon! And not a little one. Chen brought his knees under his chin and squeezed his eyes close. This must be it! He was going to meet his end as the supper of a dragon.

 After a short while he opened one eye and noticed the dragon was sitting cosily opposite him by the fire, softly singing. He found the courage to open both his eyes now. He tried to think of what to do, but he had never heard a story of a hero encountering a dragon and live to tell the tale.

- “H h hello” he stammered.

- “Oh, so you can speak,” said the giant dragon, “Good! Very Good!”

Chen brought his hands to his head, he thought he must had fallen on it  and now was seeing things. But he could feel no injury or wound on his head.

- “What´s the matter?” the dragon inquired “your head hurts?”

Chen shook his head and thought of something to say, but nothing would come to him. All he could do was stare at this enormous dragon in front of him behaving like a golden retriever.

- “Don´t be scared now!” the dragon roared. “I found you by the side of the road and I brought you in here so you wouldn´t roll off the mountain.” The dragon was laughing so loud he snorted. Chen had to laugh too.

Suddenly Chen jumped up: “I have to go!”

- “What do you mean? It´s the middle of the night out there.” Said the dragon. But Chen kept shaking his head and tried to walk around the fire which was not an easy task since the dragon’s long body was curled around it.

- “Come, come now.” Hushed the dragon, “Stay a little longer. You can go when the sun comes up. You have no idea how dark it is out there. You might take a wrong step and really fall off the mountain!”

- “B b but, I have to go and hurry back to my village. I have to get medicine for my grandmother. You see, she´s very sick. She might not have much time left. Oh, please mister dragon, let me go!”

The dragon looked at the boy with concern.

- “You know what,” he started “in a few hours the sun will be up, and I will take you to where you need to go and help you bring the medicine to your grandmother.”

Chen looked at the dragon in disbelief: “Really?”

-         “Of course, really!” the dragon puffed. “I never utter words in vain! Now sit down and tell me  where you have to go to get this medicine.”

Chen took a deep breath and cautiously asked: “You´re not going to eat me then?”

The dragon started roaring and laughing again. A few flames escaped his breath.

-         “Hmm hmm; sorry about that!” he said while blowing out the little fires he had started with his laughing.

-         “What an awful suggestion! I don´t eat children or any humans for that matter.” The dragon stated seriously.

Chen sat down again and started to tell the story of how he was on a quest to find a crystal, which had once belonged to a very wise healer, and he wanted to bring back for his grandmother who was very sick.

The dragon listened attentively to everything young Chen told him. When Chen was done talking, he said:

- “Hmm Hmm Hmm! We leave before the chickens wake up!”

Chen looked at him with big eyes:

- “You have chickens?”

- “They give me the most delicious eggs. One day I will let you taste one, but for now you will have to do with fruit, because they get very moody when I wake them up before the rooster’s morning call.”

Chen nodded his head. That made sense. They had a couple of terribly angry chickens in the village too. They were always running after him, trying to pick his feet.

- “So, it´s true? There is a magic crystal?” Chen hurried to ask.

The dragon seemed lost in thoughts for a while.

- “There was, once a lady who had a crystal that warded off all evil and restored fortune.”

Chen´s heart jumped for joy:

- “Good! Let´s go get it!”

- “First you try to get some sleep. I will wake you up. The road is long and there could be danger. So, you need your rest. Not another word now. Lay down and close your eyes.”

The Dragon pushed Chen back on the bed of leaves, and curled his long body alongside the boy, to keep him warm.

The dragon did as he had promised; he woke up young Chen gave him a few longans and guided him out of the cave without making any noise so as not to upset the sleeping chickens.

Chen thought the dragon would guide him from the air, but he kept walking next to him.

-         “Are you going to walk the whole way with me?” he asked.

The dragon was humming a song.

- “No.” he said and continued his song where he left off.

- “What is your name?” asked Chen.

- “You can call me L0ng. My mother gave me another name, but I think it might be a little difficult for you to pronounce. So, call me L0ng.”

- “I´m Chen!”

The dragon kept singing his song and Chen tried to keep up with him.

- “How come you don´t fly?”

- “Because I´m a water dragon. And that´s a good thing for you, because I see you didn´t bring a boat and I don´t think we would find one around here.”

That made Chen think, and also a little scared.

- “A boat?” he asked

- “Hmm Hmm Hmm! A boat!” L0ng looked at Chen and he noticed his worry.

- “you´re not scared now, are you?”

Chen hurried to shake his head, hoping it would convince his dragon friend. But L0ng started laughing again. Chen frowned:

- “You´re not laughing at me, are you? I´ve never been on a boat!”

- “I´m sure you never spent the night in a dragons cave or cross the mountains with one either, now do you?

- “Well… you see nothing is certain, but everything is possible.” Hummed the dragon.

Chen started humming with his dragon friend. He trusted him now, especially since he just said something he had heard before.

After a long and arduous walk, they arrived at the river. Gracefully the dragon glided into the water and told Chen to jump on his back. It wasn´t far now. As they drifted down the river, L0ng told stories of long ago about people who once lived near the riverbank, and selfish monkeys and talking lucky fish. Before long they could hear the sound of rapids clambering.

Chen threw his arms around the dragon because he was very scared.

- “Don´t worry little friend! We´re not going down that way.” The dragon laughed.

- “Look, just around the riverbend is the cave that holds your precious crystal. Go get it and we will be on our way to your village and your grandmother will be better in no time”.

The dragon moored along a cave, he curled his tail so Chen could get off easily and enter straight into the cave.

Chen marvelled at the beauty that surrounded him. The cave was not dark or dirty. The walls didn´t even seem solid. This was the most beautiful place he had ever laid eyes on.

There was a circle in the middle. And there he saw a shimmering crystal. Chen let his eyes rest on it for a short moment and then carefully picked the precious crystal up.

Outside L0ng started to growl and shouted that it was time to get back, else they would never make it before dark. Chen hurried out of the cave, climbed on L0ngs tail and off they went to his village.

Chen thought about what the people back home would say when they saw him coming with a dragon. Would they be scared? Would they throw stones at his new friend? L0ng didn´t seem too be worried. Surely, he had met humans before. And he was a dragon after all. A big one!

And then another fear got hold of him: what if his grandmother hadn´t made it? He squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on L0ngs son. It soothed him.

When the sun began to shroud the world in an orange glow, they finally made it to Chen’s village.

People looked in amazement as they watched the duo who came walking up to their hamlet. Fear was written all over their faces. Chen began to wave at the crowd and the broad smile on his face reassured them that everything was fine. The old village healer came forward to embrace his little friend. Chen showed him the precious crystal and tears ran down the old man´s face.

- “Come!” he said, “let´s so go see your grandmother.”

The moon was already high in the sky, when the old woman finally sat up and took her grandson in her arms. Chen was so happy….

And L0ng?...

Well, the villagers hurried to find every egg in the village so they could make him the best omelette he had ever tasted!

From that day on, the villagers were no longer so bitter but learned to laugh again. Every year L0ng would come visit and he would always have the most delicious egg recipes prepared for him. Everybody would listen to his stories of talking fish and selfish monkeys and he would sing the most beautiful songs!

L0ng even got a new name: Dragonboat!