Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 -1 2019 | Page 11

The Magic Sword
Bradbury School, Ho, Jocelyn - 8
It was Zheng He’s seventh voyage. He had spent most of his life at sea on special missions. He was a strong
and courageous boy, ever since he was separated from his family, he had looked after himself. Zheng. He
was an amazing Chinese explorer who had visited many countries and was fortunate enough to have seen
fascinating places. He even saw animals he had never seen before, making new discoveries every day. He
had traveled as far as the African coast and built relationships with over twenty countries and had even
visited Arabia. Zheng He had many wonderful experiences, trying many foods, herbs and spices for the first
time which he brought back to China to share with his people.
One of Zheng He’s most favourite places that he had visited was India, the smells, colours and warm people
really made him happy. India is where he saw an elephant for the very first time and he couldn’t believe his
eyes, he remembers it so well. He was on a tour with Sukayna, a local girl that was looking after Zheng. He
and his crew became good friends with Suka, as he called her, and he plans to find her again if he is lucky
enough to return to India one day.
“It’s HUGE, what is it?” exclaimed Zheng when he saw the elephant.
“It’s an elephant and this is his trunk.” Said Sukayana, matter- of- factly, while stroking the giant beast’s
huge floppy ears.
“It is incredible”, whispered Zheng He as he stared at the elephant in awe.
“Elephants are very peaceful animals and they have the largest brains in the animal kingdom.,” informed
Sukayna.
“Wow, they are smart and beautiful. I cannot wait to tell my country about this magnificent animal.”
Zheng He and Suka rode the elephants and it was one of Zheng’s best days.
Zheng woke from his daydream and looked around the deck. He had better get to work. There were always
a lot of jobs to be taken care of on the ship and the crew had a busy day ahead of them. Zheng knew how
lucky he was to have seen such amazing things on his adventures and he always shared many stories in
China. However, Zheng and his men had some dangerous experiences too, on his many voyages. They had
fought against mighty typhoons, rough seas and even pirates!
It was a fine morning at sea when without warning, looming ahead in the distance Zheng He saw a pirate
ship heading their way. Zheng warned the other members on the ship by sounding the horn but the ship
was still approaching, they started to head away from the pirate ship, but the pirate ship was too fast and
caught up to them. The crew were crazily running around like they were on fire, shouting in every
direction, “PIRATES, PIRATE ATTACK!” The crew were securing the treasure and handing out
weapons. However, the pirates got on to Zheng He’s boat. Zheng and his crew hid along with the treasure.
Suddenly, the pirates heard some mumbling at the bottom deck where the treasure was and headed towards
it.
“Where are our other ships? We need help here, they are going to attack” Mumbled Zheng He. He
thought he had seen this pirate ship before from his fourth voyage when they were attacked. The crew had
defeated the pirates and ended up finding a very special sword covered in precious gems that had a special
symbol on it that none of the Chinese could understand. However, they had kept the sword as no typhoon,
tragedies or rough sea seemed to happen when the sword was on the ship with them. This could be a
coincidence but Zheng He didn’t think so, he knew the sea well and believed the sword was magic.
“We would like to talk to the captain, we mean no harm!” shouted a pirate.
Zheng He looked around in disbelief. Were they trying to trick them? Why would a pirate mean no harm!?