Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 2 - 2 | Page 106

And the Journey Continues…
St. Paul's Co-educational College Primary School, Sung, Jacqueline - 9
I was one of the sailors on Captain Zheng He’s fleet of ships. We brought cargos of gold, silver and other
fancy jewelry like jade on our ships. They were for us to give out to different countries, to show that China
was in peace with the world.
I really missed home after a week. Some sailors even had tears in the corner of their eyes. We
sailed to some remote islands that no man has ever found. There were only different kinds of birds and rare
animals on those isolated places. As Zheng He loved nature and wildlife, he decided to set foot onto one of
the islands. Suddenly, the sailor with a pair of sharp eyes shouted, "Hey, why is there a ship?" He pointed
to the horizon. At first, we thought the sailor was pranking us. Then, we saw a tiny lump that resembled a
ship! Everyone, including Zheng He, gasped. "Why would there even be a ship except for us in this part of
the ocean?" Zheng He wondered aloud, astonished. I guess he thought that the ship was just passing by,
because he told us to continue exploring the island. We lost sight of him when we became more and more
enthusiastic in looking at the birds that we had never seen before.
In the blink of an eye, the sky turned dark. "It’s almost nighttime," one of the sailors called. "We
should return to the ship." Some of us objected. "But we haven’t seen Zheng He yet!" "I want to see the
puffins a little more!" they argued. "Maybe Captain got bored and returned to the ship," I said hopefully.
Then, something bad and unexpected happened…
When we returned to the ship, Mr Co-Captain ordered us to search the ships to see if Zheng He
was there. He "assigned" another batch of sailors to search the islands nearby. Then, the bad news came.
Zheng He was missing! With a pang, we realised that either Zheng He was kidnapped, or he drowned,
which was very unlikely of him. Zheng He was clever enough to be careful of "the traps of Nature".
"Maybe Captain was kidnapped by the people in the ship we saw earlier today," I said. "Let’s hide our ships
in that channel over there and send some sailors to search for him."
Mr Co-Captain sent three of the bravest and smartest sailors, including me to find Zheng He.
Everyone wished us good luck as we set off eagerly at dawn the next day. We lost sight of them quickly.
We trudged along the rocky path, with a leather bag full of food and water. Suddenly, we heard some
footsteps approaching. "Quick! Let’s hide in that huge underground nest of the puffins!" Chan, my
teammate whispered urgently. We slipped into the hole and covered it with heather. Unfortunately, Ping,
another teammate was too slow and was found by the enemies. We saw him get tied up and dragged away.
Hopefully he would not give us away and get us caught as WELL. Now, only Chan and I were left.
A while later, I heard the footsteps again. Chan had enough sense to keep quiet. I strained to hear
what the enemies were saying. "Psst…that Zheng He…he probably has a lot of treasure from China in his
fleet…the cave in that lagoon-island…" A chill went down my spine. I quickly whispered what I heard to
Chan. He gasped. "We must go to that lagoon-island NOW! I’m sure Zheng He is tied up there and
possibly Ping!" he exclaimed. I nodded. The problem was, we had no idea where the lagoon-island was.