I charged through the clouds, waiting for my family to greet me. But none came! “Perhaps they were eating,” I thought so I rushed to the Palace. But still none! I heaved a great sigh and flew to my Grandma who was making biscuits, while no one noticed that the hunters had dodged around.
“Where’s Lu?” I searched for my sister. “Hunting,” Grandma replied. However, when Lu returned, her horns were gone. She died in the night!
We realised we were being hunted! We tried everything to keep the humans away. Otherwise we would all die. I couldn’t bear it so had to do something. I ran away and asked the Jade tree for advice. Without fail, it replied, “ Take rods, a shell, a feather, a star, and one of my leaves for strength. Then go east. If you can earn the three mysterious jewels, you must then swap for the Dragon Pearl.”
The next day, I took those things and flew east. When I reached sky barrier, I threw my star towards the gate, and the star cracked with a key. I took it out and slid it into the gate. The gate opened! A gargantuan waterfall showed. While hovering over the waterfall, I tied the rods, shell and stone to create stairs, which led to the Night Beach. I took out the Jade tree’s leaf of strength and flew to the edge effortlessly. A glittering chest popped out from the navy sands! On the chest was inscribed,
“A MESSENGER ANIMAL
WHICH FLIES AT NIGHT
WILL GIVE YOU
MY KEY.”
I pulled out the feather and gasped. The feather turned into a luminous pearl, glowing beautifully in the dark night. I hurled the stone into the sky and watched as it melted into the moon. Suddenly, a ghostly bird appeared and pecked the chest open. Inside were JUST three black coals! “No jewels at all,” I moaned in despair. Suddenly, one coal glistened and burst into flames. It turned into a ruby! Just then, a monster appeared, slashing at the chest. I roared, leapt over the monster and killed him in seconds. His blood dropped at the second coal, which started to grow into a sapphire! I stared at the third coal. So quiet, nothing happened yet. I would have to force it. Tremblingly, I sliced my horns and sprinkled the powder over the last coal. Smoothly and suddenly, it turned into an opal. In the meanwhile my horns grew back covered in gold. My scales turned into jade, my claws into peal and my eyes into emerald. The weak fire I used to breathe was now as alive as a magical monster. However, those three jewels had disappeared. I understood though: They had been swapped for the Dragon Pearl, ME!
I flew home and fought against the hunters. They never came back beyond the dragon border, which was named as The Great Line of Dragon Pearl.