Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 185

The captain shrugged. “You’ll just have to trust me!”
The first mate nodded. “You heard the captain! Prepare the cannons!” The captain was thankful for the first
mate- not just for trusting him, but also being there for him when he was just a young boy wary of the
world out there. Everybody instantly got to work, heaving and shouting, untying knots here and tying
more there. The pirates were getting closer and closer, almost close enough to touch.
“NOW!”
At the captain’s command, cannonballs shot out of their side of the ship, blasting into the pirate’s. The force
of the hit sent the pirate ship careening, sections of their ship set ablaze. The pirates scrambled around the
deck, trying to put out the multiple fires and keep their ship afloat. The captain cheered to himself. His
plan had worked!
“Alright, men, full speed ahead!” The captain roared.
“Aye, Captain!” Mere seconds later, their massive sails were up, billowing in the sudden strong wind. The
men began to paddle, oars pushing through the water. The ship glided through the water, easily evading the
pirates. The crew cheered as they sailed away from the criminal ship. However, the captain had bad news-
he had given away his compass to one of the tribal leaders of Africa, who had been so amazed by the device
that he had offered them the qilin creature in return for the gift. The captain had never seen the area they
were in; to sail back into the fog and familiar waters would be suicide. They were lost. Quickly, the
captain prayed to Mazu, goddess of the sea. Time and time again, she had protected the fleets, surely she
would be with him and his crew too?
“Captain, what’s happening?” A frightened voice cried.
The captain yelped as the water below them started to bubble and boil, frothing and coughing up mist. He
squinted at the strange sight. Was a deep sea monster here to gobble them up for tea? Something pearly
white exploded out of the mists, and the captain let out a shout as liquid splashed onto his face.
“Be at peace, men.”
The captain blinked in shock, then blinked again. Similarly, the men on his ship stood staring at the sight.
There was a dragon in front of them, rising out of the water The captain took a double take. A dragon? He
stepped and looked again, and almost fell over. The creature before him was no dragon- it may have had
the head of one, but it had the body and rear of a horse. It was truly magnificent, covered with glistening
white scales that shone in the midday sun, almost blinding the captain and his crew. Its pearly black eyes
gleamed with wisdom and intelligence, with a hint of curiosity, as if it were trying to read his mind. Its
scaly tail swished from side to side impatiently as it pawed at the water with large hooves. The captain
gasped. Before him stood no ordinary dragon horse- it was the famous immortal bailongma , that only
appeared in the company of gods and goddesses such as Nuwa, who saved the world from destruction. The
captain only had one question. What would the immortal creature want to do with him?
Perhaps the answer lay in the creature’s companion. If the captain thought the bailongma standing in front
of him was the most magnificent, beautiful thing he had ever seen, he was wrong. A woman stood beside
the dragon horse, a woman who looked both young and old at the same time. She was huge, almost twice
the size of the ship, and the captain had to tilt his head up to look at her. Water swirled around her legs,
mist drifting around her long sea blue robes. She wore a necklace of beads that looped around her pale neck
like a snake, glowing faintly blue. They glowed faintly, like a lamplight in the night. Her glossy black hair
was streaked with grey, tied back in a neat bun behind a crown and veil.
The captain knew who she was- how could he not? She was Mazu, goddess of the seas, protector of
seafarers, after all. He remembered the stories the first mate had told him as a child- “Mazu is the goddess