Fiction: Group 2
New Tales of the Pearl River Delta
Diocesan Preparatory School, Chan, Beatrice - 11, Fiction 2
arred trudged through the thick slimy mud of the Pearl River Delta as he filmed the bubbly, foamy water
rushing along beside him. His employer had sent him here for no reason but to film the river. He had no
choice but to obey. After all, he was a reporter. And reporters are well known for their strange jobs.
He sat down for a moment, catching his breath and enjoying the little amount of scenery beside him. If only
the people had not polluted the environment so badly!
Suddenly, Jarred saw that the water in the river had risen to form a large mountain and was rising before his
very eyes. Pulling out his needle-sharp dagger, a present from his wife at home should anything go wrong,
he jumped to his feet, surveying the mound of water cautiously.
In that moment, a huge dragon exploded out of the river. It was as long as a freight train, “and probably as
heavy too,” Jarred wondered as he gazed up at the beast. It had a deer’s horns, and huge, swiveling eyes that
could spot prey from a hundred miles away. But what kind of gigantic prey could wake the dragon from a
hundred-year slumber? The answer was, as the dragon fixed his swiveling gaze onto Jarred, “Me. ’’ he
realised, “I’m the prey.”
For years the dragon had slept underwater, with no desire to catch prey, for it had grown accustomed to
eating the fish underwater.
Now, with the dragon towering over Jarred, he made a quick, life-or-death decision. He ran towards the
village behind him, to try to get safety and help. The dragon watched Jarred’s process with amusement.
When Jarred was halfway there, panting for breath, the dragon rose into the air with ease, hovering just
below the clouds, and quickly caught up with Jarred.
Jarred was halfway to the village when the dragon roared loudly behind him. Looking back, Jarred saw that
the dragon had jumped into the air and was catching up to him. He dashed to the village, shouting for help.
But none came. With a start, he realised he was running into a ghost town.
Jarred scampered into an old, run-down house. He paused for breath while the dragon floating outside,
hissing in annoyance. He recognised that for once, he had done the right thing. By running into this until-
recently abandoned ghost town, the scent of the old villagers masked his own scent. He watched the dragon
sniffing around and smiled to himself smugly. He was feeling extremely proud of himself until the dragon
apparently got fed up of sniffing around and decided to use a more destructive way of looking for Jarred; he
whisked his tail around and smashed the house beside the house Jarred was hiding in into a thousand
splinters.
Jarred cursed and dashed out of the abandoned house as the dragon’s tail whipped around and smashed into
the house where he had been staying in just a few seconds ago. The dragon snarled and whipped around to
face him. Jarred looked around for a random object he could use to annoy the monster. Suddenly, Jarred
remembered his camera. He fumbled around for his camera while the dragon slowly hovered nearer and
nearer.
The dragon slowly shambled closer. It wasn’t worried, for now the human was searching in its bag for some
weapon that didn’t exist, because if it did exist, the human would have used it by now. And the dagger
could not harm the dragon, because it could only be used in short-range. No, the human was defenceless.
The dragon took a deep breath and dived.
Jarred found the camera. Not a moment too soon. The dragon had started diving down towards Jarred,
baring its teeth. Its hot breath was blasting onto Jarred’s skin when he had only taken his camera out.
The dragon was nearly touching the human now. “Soon,” he giggled to himself, “very soon I shall be able
to taste human meat again.” The human took out a tiny black box. “What is that?” the dragon wondered,
“Never mind, it will taste just as fine.” the dragon assured himself. That was just before the seemly harmless
black box started flashing painfully bright lights.
Jarred smiled. The camera was working! He hadn’t expected it to work so well. The dragon was becoming
disoriented, looping and twirling in crazy circles to avoid the unbearable light. It landed in the middle of a
pile of rubble of an abandoned house and spoke pleadingly to Jarred,” Mercy! I’ll do whatever you ask if
you stop the black box from flashing!”
J
