Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 3 2018 | Page 301

“No, no, no…” Altsoba rushed toward Peros waving her arms frantically. “Shoo! You heartless beast!”
The dragon, wearing a smirk, seemed to be satisfied with the trouble it caused and left in a flap of wings.
Just then, a sound of shattering glass was heard. Dillan in his shock, had loosened his grip on the porcelain
bowl and every drop of water sank into the soil.
Everything was lost! Without even realizing, tears flowed out of Altsoba’s eyes and she began sobbing,
something she been continuously doing on this quest. Then, a shaking hand reached up and brushed the
tears off her cheek, “Leave…no hope…dragon returns.” Peros tried to smile but grimaced instead. “Please,
don’t die…” Dillan dropped to his knees. It was all over.
Lost in their thoughts, they had not realized that a patch of grass had crawled out of the burnt field.
Then, another and another patch of grass appeared. Soon, the whole ashen field had transformed into a lush,
green grassland! Flowers of different colours danced in the grass and the treetops were even touching the
infinite sky. The silence was soon broken, birds sang and chirped, bees buzzed and hummed. Suddenly, the
grass near where Peros lay grew long like vines and wrapped themselves around Peros’s stomach.
“What’s going on?” Altsoba murmured.
When the grass unfurled from Peros’s stomach, there were no signs of claw marks or blood left!
“The Water of Purity must have cleansed the entire Earth!” Dillan exclaimed.
“Since Peros was covered in mud and dirt, the Water of Purity must have thought that he was also a
piece of unclean Earth!” Altsoba said, crying tears of joy.
“To think I’d have a heroic death, now I’m being referred to mud…” Peros muttered with a laugh.
“Humph, at least you got all the attention. They didn’t even look at me.” Gunner, harrumphed.
And so, the four young questers returned home, each with a content smile in their face.
“Remember the Iron Fan Princess fiasco? Let’s put it in her cave!’
“Sun Wu Kong, do you really think it’ll be a good idea to put it there? You knew we took days
walking through the desert and the burning ground to get there.” Tang Zang questioned. “Oh, well, we got
through in the end anyway…”