Dragon Eyes-The story of the Great Wall of
China
Alena Heise, Group 3: Fiction, British International School Puxi, Shanghai
here are many stories about the Great Wall of China. Some are true. Others aren’t. The story my
grandfather always told me whenever I couldn’t sleep was the story of a dragon; he was the biggest
dragon the people of China had ever seen. His scales were gold and they glittered in the sunlight, he
had razor-sharp teeth that could cut through anyone or anything. And his eyes were sapphire blue, the
colour of diamonds that lay buried deep under ground.
His name was Death. He destroyed everyone and everything that came into his way, feeding on cattle
and pigs that were sleeping outside.
Legends say that when he dies he will only sleep and when he wakes again it can only mean that the
world is going to end.
One day he dropped like a stone from the sky, landing hard on the ground. His sapphire eyes closed
and his coat went dull.
No one went near him, century after century. Moss and trees grew on him, his body mixed with the ground and
he was as hard as stone.
Until one day a young boy slowly and carefully came up to the dragon. He hesitated. But then he
touched him, he then laughed and called out to his friends “He’s stone, he’s stone!” His friends were first
stunned. Of course everyone knew the legends. Everyone knew what it meant if he woke up from his sleep.
The boys came closer, edged their way to the sleeping dragon. “Come on, come on. He won’t bite.” The boy
ushered. They came closer. Stretching out their small hands touching the rough surface. “Stone” the oldest one
said. “Truly, stone.”
That night the young boy couldn’t sleep; he rolled in his bed wondering if all these legends were true.
In the end he decided to ask his grandmother, she told him the story that he told me.
“
One day my child” she said, “one day the dragon will wake up, this will only mean bad for us people. Darkness
would come over the world and us and we would die. The only way how to stop the evil would be to find the
dragon and slay it once and for all, place a golden scale on the place of where it lay and everything would be
fine.”
And that young boy was my grandfather.
After a long night restlessly rolling in my bed, I finally slept. My dream slowly became to reality.
Voices. Screaming. My little sister is crying. I run down stairs, my mother grabs me and pulls me to our
window. The dragon, had gone…
My grandfather stood next to me. “He went north.” He told me, “Set half of Yulin city in flames.” I
stared at him in disbelief. Gaping at the now empty space of land. Well you couldn’t really call it empty, where
the dragon lay a few hours ago was now a wall. A wall made out of rock.
No one knew this yet but one day, we would call this wall the Great Wall of China.
We were all standing in the town hall. Waiting for our governor to speak. And then finally he did.
“
Fellow people, we have gathered to make plans, to destroy the dragon. We need a volunteer, someone who is
brave enough to kill. Someone who knows his way around China and someone who has enough courage to save
us all!”
Silence. No one spoke. We all just stood there and stared. I stood there hopping from one foot to the
other, waiting like everyone else for a volunteer. Then I had had enough. I stepped forward and all I heard
myself say was “I will go.”
Sniggering. Laughter. “A girl!” The people repeated over and over again. “A girl…”
“
Let her go!” I heard my grandfather bellow. Then again he said in a softer voice “let her go.”
The governor sighed and stepped forward. “If she wants, she can go. But I do not guarantee that she
will survive.” I turned and slowly left, feeling the eyes of the villagers resting on me. Everyone just stood there
and waited. Slowly everyone filed out. No one spoke.
As soon as we reached the house my mum went crazy “are you serious! You can die! You can get
hurt. You are way to young and I forbid you to take one more step out of the house till this is over!”
Tears glistened in her eyes. All I did was turn on my heal and stalked off, up to my room.
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