Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 - 2017 | Page 231

New Tales of The Old Shanghai
Island School, Soni, Smayan - 12
O
ld Shanghai was under the depths of darkness. Insects and other tiny creatures were creeping in the moon’s ray,
hiding from a gargantuan, powerful beast. The beast had fangs as sharp as a knife, it had scales as plates of armour,
savage sapphire eyes sat on its large and bony skull giving the beast a more intimidating look. The beast’s claws
were strong enough to slice any metal, its wings were as massive as a mammoth and its tail ended in a scythe-like
blade. The beast was a Dragon.
The people of Old Shanghai feared the Dragon more than anything else; a wave of fear hits them and their blood turns
to solid ice as their heart pounds like a drum when they hear or see the Dragon. Every Chinese New Year, the Dragon
comes down from its home high up in the mountains above the clouds to feed on the innocent people of Old Shanghai.
Every year the Old Shanghai people could not celebrate the New Year properly because of the malevolence of the
hellacious Dragon because it consumes the guiltless people of Old Shanghai. Until one year, a young little boy who was
12 years old named Ping wanted to stand up to the Dragon. The previous year Ping had lost his father to the destructive
Dragon, Ping’s father had sacrificed his life to save his precious son Ping. Since then, Ping had vowed to slay the Dragon.
Ping’s idea was to lure the Dragon, he asked all the people of his town to stand together close to each other in the town
square as bait; therefore the dragon would come to the people to devour them. Ping would then courageously sneak
behind the dragon and use his sword to slay the Monstrosity. However, when he to