Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction Group 3 | Page 306

Then I fell asleep.
The second day, I saw no one beside me. I walked around and saw that they were working with the ships.
I quickly helped the crew to find food. I felt very sorry for them. I should do more work to compensate for
my mistake.
Later, I added in to help finding some wood for resembling the ships. Back in my country, I never did this
kind of work. Although I didn’t like it, I need to do it for my fault. We all were sweating all over our
bodies as the sun is burning right on top of us.
After one week of hard work, we sailed to the roaring sea again.
One day, the ‘real nightmare’ happened.
At the middle of the night, I was woken up by a large noise.
I went up to the deck and saw pirates shooting at us. There was an array of ships in front of us. On the
wide sea, it was only us and them. It was time to battle.
Some of the pirates boarded on my ship. I quickly grabbed my sword and killed them.
Suddenly, their cannons, which were bigger than any cannons I had seen, started firing at our ships. Their
bullets were on fire. One of them got onto our ships, which made the ships starting to burn. As the wind
was strong that night, the fire spread out really quickly, making severe damage to our ships. I saw some of
our crew abandoned their ships and jumped into the sea. I quickly put down a ladder and let them get on.
The ships with part of the gifts that we had brought from my country were burnt and sank into the ocean.
It was time for revenge. We started lighting up our arrow with fire and shot at the pirates. Their ships are
connected with metal chains, one of them started burning, and then other ships will burn one after another.
We successfully defeated the pirates, but we suffered a great loss of the gifts that we prepared.
After two weeks, we finally stepped on the land of Africa. The gold and silver that we have prepared were
all gone except for two bricks of silver. A group of natives welcomed us and invited us to visit the place. It
was very different from my country. Nothing but grass is in front of us. They lived in a few houses.
A few villagers came out from the houses. They seemed very friendly and kind. Soon, they started
speaking in their own language which we didn’t understand. However, they then looked at us with their
smiling faces. One of them took a fruit which is like an eggplant and gave it to me. He let me eat it.
I was shocked by the good taste of the fruit. It was sweet and juicy. It was even better than what I had
eaten at Ming Dynasty before.
After that, I gave the silver and the gifts that I brought to the natives.
They waved at us and walked to the houses. We immediately followed them.
Their lives were very different from ours. Their houses were made of grass. Their tools were mainly made
of wood. They wore clothes that we didn’t usually wear. They had a very special life.
They invited us to stay in their houses. They played with us at the morning. At night, they always had a
campfire at the center of the village. We cooked the animals that the hunters caught at daylight. They also
showed us how to play their instruments. I surely had a great time there. They even made some gifts for us.
After a month of the stay, my crew and I were back to my country with the gifts from Africa.
One day, the emperor wanted to see me.
‘I heard that you were lost in the seas and went to an island.’
‘Yes, and I have to apologize for the fact that it was my wrong decision.’
‘Therefore, you have to be responsible for it. You…….’
After the punishment, I was sailing out again. I was sitting on my ship, waves were splashing on the
ships, and the sea was roaring. It was the time that I have to open a new page in the book of sailing history.