Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 1 | Page 65

New Tales of the Ming Treasure Voyages St Stephens College Preparatory School, Cheung, Michelle - 7 In the 1400s, a fleet of ships set sail from China to their neighbouring countries. They brought lots of gold and silk in the ships as gifts in order to build up friendship with the people of the countries they visited. There were altogether seven voyages. For the first two voyages, the ships from China brought gold, silk, tea and also fruits and gave them to people of the nearby countries. People there were happy because they were poor and they did not have all these precious items. They asked the Chinese ships to come back and bring more things for them. The third time they went, there was a big storm at sea. The ship was too fragile and not strong enough. Sea water kept getting into the ship and the ship almost sank. Some sailors fell into the sea but luckily they were saved by a mermaid called Amira and her sisters. Amira was the eldest mermaid princess lived in the castle under the sea. She had six younger sisters. All of them had magic powers. Amira’s mother was called Queen Abreyshia and she had the strongest magic power. Amira and her sisters saved all those sailors who sailed into the sea. The sailors felt very happy to have pretty girls helping them. They did not know they were mermaids, but they wanted to see them again. The ship went many times to these countries but they did not see the mermaid again until the seventh voyage. This time the storm in the sea was very huge and the ship was tossed around in the sea. The captain also lost control of the ship and the sailors felt very dizzy. This time the ship sank into the sea. Amira found the ship sinking, but this storm was too big, even Amira and her sisters couldn’t help. Amira and her sisters were very kind, they asked Queen Abreyshia to help them to raise the ship out of the water. Queen Abreyshia agreed to help, she used all her strength to lift up the ship, Amira and the other mermaids drained the water from the ship. The sailors saw the mermaids through the portholes of the ship, they were very surprised because they thought they were human beings but they were not, they were “Mermaids!” The sailors went back to see the emperor, they told him about the things that had happened in their voyages. The emperor asked the sailors to bring the mermaids back, so he sent the sailors to find the mermaids. The sailors kept looking for the mermaids and they did see them swimming in the water. The sailors shouted “Thank you!” to the mermaids from the ship. The sailors did not catch the mermaids because they liked them. When the sailors saw the emperor, they told him mermaids couldn’t live on land and so they did not bring them back. Since then, no one ever saw the mermaids again.