appear in fairy tales, shouldn’t they?” I murmured to myself. How untrue it was! I set foot on the grasslands.
“
Oh! It is so soft!” I shouted out. I began to move forward since I wanted to find out what else was in this
mysterious land. Every step I walked was like walking on marshmallow. After I walked almost one hundred
paces, I saw a village in the western corner of the grasslands. I was inquisitive about the village. Did it have any
inhabitants? Was the village real or just a hallucination? It didn’t exist. If there was a person living, he/she
would help me to go back home, even my grandmother’s home. I asked myself many question as I was afraid
that I would be disappointed with the truth. If there wasn’t any person, I would need to stay here for a lifetime.
Would I see my parents again? I hoped the answer was “yes”. I walked to the village full of expectations. When
I reached it, I couldn’t believe my eyes! I rubbed them seeking clarification of my vision. However, that didn’t
work. Perhaps I was wrong, but alas, it was true and my eyes had not been mistaken. There were about 80
“
people” that I could see in the village. I was shocked by the physical makeup of the villagers since all of them
had tentacles on their heads. Moreover, their eyes and hair were blue in colour.
“
Hi!” I said to one of the female villagers. “I am Boa!” “Where do you come from?” she asked. I explained
to her what I had just experienced.
We talked for about thirty minutes and I told her lots about the world above the tunnel. She, in turn, told me
a lot of stories about both the underground world and the village. From her, I learnt that the village was
previously on the land and that the villagers were the offspring of the dragon. They were guardians of the Great
Wall. In order to protect the Great Wall, they chose to live underground. The tunnel that I had seen previously
was the only passage to where I now was. The words I had seen previously were the literature of this world.
I lived there for a week and the villagers were kind and friendly. They all treated me as if I was one of
them. My affection for them grew, as it did for the underground world because of its purity. However, I knew
that I couldn’t stay here for a longer time, because I missed my family. Therefore, I asked Boa to send me back
to the world above the land.
Boa agreed to my proposal since she knew I missed my family and so that was the last day I stayed
there. She and the villagers held a farewell party for me. At the end of the party, Boa gave me an ornament as a
goodbye gift although it was just made of some flowers and it wasn’t very refined. It was the best gift for me.
Then, Boa took me to the grasslands where she read the spell. “In the original dark sky, seven stars appeared
abruptly. They formed a logo of a dragon and came closer and closer. They rotated faster and faster……”
Soon after, I returned, to my grandmother’s home. The experience under the spell has become my own
precious memory. It has not been shared with another person; it was just for me. I know that I can’t go to the
underground world again but I will remember them all in my heart---especially the offspring of the dragon, the
guardian of the Great Wall, the picturesque underground world……
* * *