Shortlisted
“
The Story of Yang Long”
Orla Godfrey
ong, long ago in China there lived a red, yellow and green fire-breathing dragon called Yang Long. He
was covered in shiny scales which glistened in the sunlight and his claws and teeth were as sharp as
kitchen knives. He was born in China and loved it from his head to his tail – which was a lot! Yang
Long was very brave and he protected China for many centuries by helping the army. He advised the
Emperors and Generals, helped to train the warriors and fought alongside them in their battles.
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Group 2: Fiction, International College Hong Kong Hong Lok Yuen
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But even dragons get old and tired. This was a problem. You see, China didn’t have anyone or anything as
big or strong as Yang Long, so if there was an attack on the country in the future, who would help to protect
them? Before Yang Long got too old the Chinese people had to ask him what they should do, because as well as
being very brave, he was very wise.
Yang Long thought for three days and finally he replied “I will build a wall to protect you.” The people
thought this was crazy! How could a wall protect them? But they trusted Yang Long, because after all he was
very wise.
So Yang Long made a wall out of stone bricks that the people brought to him. He stuck them together with
“
frue”, which was really strong glue Yang Long made himself by breathing fire. After the wall was built,
although they were still a bit worried, the people felt reassured. They called it “The Great Wall”, because Yang
Long was so great.
Yang Long’s plan worked very well. But because the Great Wall protected China he wasn’t needed much
anymore and after a while he got very lazy. He moved to a mountain close to the edge of the Great Wall and all
he did was lie around eating dragon fruit – his favourite food.
But one day China’s old enemy came back again to fight them. They had newer and stronger weapons.
Because China was isolated behind the Great Wall they didn’t know about these modern things. With their new
weapons, the old enemy managed to actually get into parts of China. The people decided they needed Yang
Long’s help again.
General Ping, who was in charge of the Chinese army at that time, went to see Yang Long. He was in his
usual spot on the mountainside, lying around doing nothing with a pile of dragon fruit beside him. The General
was a very fit, kind and friendly person - but a trifle bossy. He was dressed in his shiny armour most of the time.
He ran all the way up the mountain to see Yang Long. Exhausted and panting very hard, because of running in
his heavy armor he struggled to say “Yang Long we need you!”
Yang Long looked up and yawned “I’m getting old, sorry I can’t help you.”
“
But there are so many things you could do - you could advise us or train us or even try to fight for us.”
General Ping said respectfully.
“
Okay I’ll try to fight for you.” Yang Long said sounding more like his old self again.
General Ping was surprised how easy it was to persuade Yang Long and he was also happy because Yang
Long was back to normal.
The great dragon did fight alongside the army and in fact he was as strong as ever. With General Ping’s
warriors he protected China and defeated the enemy. After this battle he kept fighting for China. This showed
that he was a good-spirited, dedicated dragon, so the people forgave him for being lazy before. With the Great
Wall and Yang Long, it seemed as if China was safe again.
But some years later a warrior was patrolling the wall and discovered a hole in it. He asked General Ping
about it. The General said “I don’t know but I’ll ask Yang Long.” Yang Long also didn’t know why the hole had
appeared, but he said he would try to fix it if the warriors could help. But no matter how hard the men and Yang
Long worked, they couldn’t fix the hole. Every day it seemed to be bigger than before – and they couldn’t find
out why this was happening. Unknown to them, their old enemy was making the hole. Every night when they
went home after working on the wall, their old enemy came back to make the hole bigger again. They wanted to
make the hole big enough so their entire army could get in.
Finally one day the hole was big enough and the enemy army prepared to attack. However they were so
noisy you could hear them coming from miles away. This gave the Chinese army a warning and they were
already prepared by the time the enemy arrived. General Ping realised what the enemy had been doing and ran
to Yang Long to ask him what to do.
Yang Long listened while the General told him about the enemy. He realised that the enemy was too strong