Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 2020complete | Page 169

The Greater Bay Area in 2199 : Home of Monsters, Gods,
Dragons, and Flying Pigs
Korean International School, Tsang, Maurice Pak Hei -10
My day wasn’t very good until my pet wyvern said, “Hey, there is some ice-cream!” You see my “Pet”
happened to be a winged dragon with two legs and a barbed tail. You are probably wondering why I am
playing around with a dragon, but I just found it wounded and nursed it to health. Now it is acting like my
assistant though it breathed fire. Oh yeah, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Yinglong and the
wyvern is named just Wyvern. I am still twelve but I don’t have a mother or father. They died in a car
crash two years ago. I have some aunts and uncles in the neighbourhood, though only Wyvern stayed with
me at home.
It was 2199. We lived in the area known in the Chinese Empire as Athens, Greece. You see, in the
past hundred years, China was gaining power so quickly that it became a powerful empire with a lot of nice
surprises for enemies. Like the Roman Empire, the Chinese Empire conquered most of Asia and part of
Europe, including Greece. So, here I am living in Greece in peace. My family originated in China but now
we lived in Greece.
So, anyway, the whole mess started out with a bad dream. After eating the ice-cream that Wyvern
mysteriously made, I decided to go to sleep since it is pretty late. I don’t really have dreams but this time
when I went to bed, I had the most horrible dream in my life. It was night time and I was looking at one of
the most familiar skyline. On one of the islands near the HZM bridge, a beautiful woman with a dark dress,
a strange symbol of two crossed torches shaped like an “X” hanging down from a necklace stepped out to
the open. Behind her, there was a growl. “Shush,” said the woman, “Let me just finish this
ceremony.” From her dress, the woman pulled out a wand, muttered some spells and waved the wand.
The reflection of the moon changed. Now, it showed a dragon curled up inside a volcano. The
dragon was a weird one. It had six legs, nine heads, four wings and five tails. Its main colour was black and
it had ginormous horns and its fangs dripped with venom. I watched as the dragon stirred a little bit but then
went to sleep again. “_____ (unprintable word) it”, said the woman, “It’s not the right time, I have to do
this in the lunar eclipse two weeks later.” The woman went into the jungle where the growl was coming
from. Then, I woke up with a headache, with dragon saliva smeared on my face and Wyvern looming over
me. “Quick!” he hissed, “You are three hours late for school.”
After that night, I decided to pack up our bags and go on a quest for the Greater Bay Area. I did
not want to go on a plane so rode Wyvern. When we settled down at Moscow for a night, the Egyptian
god Apep surprise-attacked us. First, he sank his fangs into Wyvern’s flesh. The god Apep’s venom
instantly paralysed Wyvern. I was afraid because I had no weapon except for the old sword I picked up from
the attic of my house in Greece. Each time Apep lashed out to attack me, I slashed him with my sword but I
knew Apep was just playing with me, like a cat plays with mice before devouring them. If Apep seriously
tries to eat me, I am dead meat. This time, Apep lashed out at me so quickly that I did not have time to
even raise my sword. Then, Apep suddenly fell down to the floor and was motionless.
Turns out another dragon saved my life. This dragon was named foolishly, Bob. He was basically a
winged serpent with two wings, two arms and no legs. He did not spit fire but he did spit venom. He was
the one who saved me. Anyway, after the Moscow incident, we had been chased by a band of giant flying
lightning-breathing-pigs. By the time we reached the Greater Bay Area (GBA), the pigs had destroyed
most of our equipment. Luckily, the soldiers that were guarding the GBA saw us and welcomed us. They
took care of the pigs pretty quickly. In less than 5 minutes, all the pigs were no more than food that would
feed the GBA for two years.
Once inside, we spotted the problem. We were right smack on the day of the lunar eclipse, which
meant that the woman who I saw in my dream was Medea. She was going to use her magic to awake the
giant destructo-dragon to destroy China. We rushed to the island where she was supposed to wake up the
dragon. When we got there, Medea was waiting for us with the two of her sun dragons pulling her chariot.