Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 1-2 | Page 48

A New Challenge
St Margaret's Co-educational English Secondary & Primary School, Li, Chloe - 8
O
ne stormy night when the monk Xuanzang was asleep, he dreamed his mother said to him, “My
dear son, I’ve left a treasure in a faraway desert, and I want you to get it. But beware of evil
things, even though I sent someone to protect you. Goodbye.”
After he woke, Xuanzang started his journey straight away. When he walked past a mountain, he suddenly
heard somebody crying. He followed the sound and went into a cave. A strange feeling came to him, and he
said to himself, “If I am in the desert, how come there are icicles on the ceiling?” Suddenly the floor and the
ceiling started to compress. The monk saw that they were not icicles, they were daggers that shone in the
darkness! When the monk was about to give up all hope, a little girl suddenly grabbed his clothes and pulled
him out of the cave before he was trapped.
The monk asked her, “Who are you? Why did you save me?”
The little girl replied, “Somebody told me you’re going to find treasure. There will be lots of evil things
trying to kill you, so me and my friends need to protect you.”
“Who are your friends?” the monk asked.
The little girl said, “I’m Ashley, and my friends are Violet, Liberty and Wengie. We have magic powers. We
are going to help you on your journey .”
The next day, they started their journey together. They stopped for a rest, and Violet went to a river to get a
drink. Suddenly, a big slimy dragon jumped out from the river and grabbed Violet. She screamed for help.
Liberty shouted, “This dragon is called Zaxrok, he is very strong and powerful but he is afraid of the cold,
because the wind will burn his eyes and turn him into stone!”
Wengie waved her wand then said a magic spell. In a flash a giant typhoon drilled down the water. The
dragon jumped out of the water begging, “Please send the typhoon away, I will give the girl back to you.
Please don’t kill me!”
The monk said in a calm voice, “Since you returned the girl I’ll let you be free, but if any of us got hurt I
would not be merciful.”
After they started their journey again, they suddenly saw that everything had gone very weird. The cacti
started dancing, the sand started making strange noises. They realised they were seeing demons’ illusions.
The monk didn’t have special powers but he had a very wise brain, so he shouted, “Don’t you know that
illusions are made by unhappy thoughts? Why don’t we think of something calm, peaceful and happy?”
The girls tried to follow his advice. Believe it or not it actually worked! After the illusions stopped, they saw
the treasure room. The monk found a scroll. He opened it and read it aloud.
“Dear son, congratulations for using the precious treasures of teamwork, cooperation and confidence to get
here with the girls. Lots of love, Mum”