THE RAINBOW DRAGON

Once upon a time there lived a ferocious dragon named Renaem.  He could cause so much trouble in the land with his fiery dragon flames that the people would run for their lives when they saw him.  They never dared to go into the forest, where he lived.  He would prowl the land, angry all the time.  When he got especially angry out of his mouth would spout huge fiery dragon flames. Renaem had a son named Wobniar.  Wobniar was learning how to be a dragon.  Every day Renaem would take his son deep in the forest so that he could teach him the ways of being a dragon.  Renaem would stand and think about hatred, resentment and get angrier and angrier.  When he was full of ugly thoughts he would take a deep breath and he would spout huge fiery dragon flames .   

 

Wobniar was amazed.  Then it was his turn.  Wobniar would try to think of hatred, resentment and anger, but an extraordinary thing would happen.  He couldn’t seem to hold onto these thoughts in his head.  His mind would always wander.  Soon Wobniar would be thinking about the birds and soft animals and how thankful he was for the blue sky and the green grass under his feet. Then his dad would shout “Wobniar, where is your dragon flame?”  “Oh, here I go Father”, said Wobniar.  He would take a deep breath and out would come the most beautiful RAINBOW. Wobniar would stare in disbelief.  “What kind of dragon spouts RAINBOWS?” he thought.  This must be a mistake thought Renaem.  “Try again son, said Renaem.”  So Wobniar would think of hatred and anger and resentment…but suddenly he would look over at a bunny or a bird and…Out would pour the most lovely RAINBOW that anyone had ever seen. Higher and higher the RAINBOW would fly into the sky.  All the birds and sweet animals would smile. 

 

Day after day, week after week, there were no fiery dragon flames, just magnificent RAINBOWS. Renaem would shrug his shoulders not being able to explain what was wrong.  Soon people in the land saw the RAINBOWS in the sky and learned about Renaem’s secret.  His son was not a flame spewing dragon like his father.  People started calling Wobniar the “RAINBOW DRAGON.” 

 

Children would go into the forest and hide behind the bushes to get a look at the “RAINBOW DRAGON.”  “Wow, Ooh, Aaah!” would be heard as the children would squeal watching RAINBOW after RAINBOW fly above the tree tops.  Wobniar would spout RAINBOWS in all sizes and shapes.  He would write words in the sky using RAINBOW letters.  As he spelled out his name, the children lying on their back and staring at the sky could see the letters backwards.  All of a sudden one of the boys said “Look, look… Wobniar spells RAINBOW backwards.”  “He really is a “RAINBOW DRAGON” one of the girls squealed.” 

 

One evening Renaem and Wobniar had a talk.  His father asked “Wobniar, what kind of dragon spouts RAINBOWS?”  Wobniar thought for a moment and then said, “What is a dragon anyway, Dad?”  “Is it someone who has to walk around angry all the time, thinking about bad thoughts, just so he can spout fiery dragon flames and make everybody scared?”  Wobniar said “If you ask me, Dad it feels a whole lot nicer to think about good things and make RAINBOWS!”   Renaem was shocked, he had never really thought about it before.  His father had taught him how to be a dragon and his grandfather had taught his father how to be a fire flame sprewing dragon.  “Dad, why don’t you just try to do it for a week, and then after that week if you think that I should try to stop making RAINBOWS, I will”, said Wobniar.  Renaem said, “Okay son, I’ll try it for a week and see if what you are saying is true.” 

 

A week went by and the people in the land saw the blue sky filled with the biggest RAINBOW that they had ever seen.  It went from one end of the land to the other and it was in the shape of a huge arch.  The people ran as fast as they could to the end of the RAINBOW, which was on the other side of the forest.  To their surprise, when they got to the end, they found both Renaem and Wobniar together in the forest making RAINBOWS. They were each writing words in the sky.  Wobniar shouted, “Look Dad, Renaem spells Meaner Backwards!”  They roared with laughter so hard that they rolled around in the grass. 

 

When Renaem and Wobniar noticed the people from the town watching them, the people got frightened.  They were so afraid of Renaem.  Renaem shouted “Come and join us, don’t be afraid.”  The people were shocked, and slowly they came out from behind the trees and the bushes to join them.   They all sat around and enjoyed the beautiful sky and the warmth of good thoughts that radiated from the two dragons. 

 

From that day on, no one feared Renaem.  Wobniar taught everyone that it is so much more enjoyable to think about wonderful things than to be angry about ugly thoughts.  Renaem promised never to spout fiery dragon flames and cause trouble again.  “Making RAINBOWS is ever so much more fun than being angry”, he shouted.  All the town’s people cheered in delight. 

 

They crowned their beloved Wobniar The RAINBOW DRAGON.  Wobniar would sit on his thrown that the carpenters had made especially for him.  All the children that lived in the town would line up to whisper their name in Wobniar’s ear.  Once he knew how to spell their name, he would write it in the sky in his huge RAINBOW letters.  Each child would watch in wonder as their name floated high about the tree tops. 

Sassoon, The Dragon and The Lantern Festival

“Grandma, where is your lantern”, asked Sarah. “Oh, don’t worry I have one, and so does Mommy.” Ashley ran into the room “hurry up, hurry up, we have to go so we can buy the light-up sticks before they are all gone.” “Okay Ashley, let’s go”, said their mother. Sarah, Ashley, their mother and grandmother walked out the door of their townhouse and through the gates of Burnside Estates.

Across the street was the post office, a pet store and a small convenience store. All the shops were closed now because it was such a special night, it was the Chinese Lantern Festival. They walked two blocks to the beach where a huge stretch of walkway with all kinds of things to buy could be found. Floats in all kinds of shapes and sizes, beach blankets, trinkets and tonight they were selling light-up things in all kinds of designs. 

 As they walked along the boardwalk a man carrying balloons and all kinds of light-up things walked by.  Their mother called him over and said, “Sarah, Ashley what would you like?” “I’ll take a necklace and light-up stick please”, said Ashley. “I want those light-up glasses and a light-up stick, please”, said Sarah. The beach was starting to fill up with people on blankets, chairs and children were running everywhere.

They loved the Lantern Festival which was held every September. Sarah and Ashley were from America but they lived with their family in Hong Kong for their father’s work. Repulse Beach was on the south side of Hong Kong Island and they loved it there. All the people in nearby villages would gather at the beach with their lanterns. The whole beach was lit up with candles and lanterns against the dark sky, it looked amazing. The beach was surrounded by mountains. In the distance you could see little lights twinkling on the mountainside, which were lanterns belonging to people who lived there.

They walked towards the shop that sold lanterns.  Hundreds of lanterns hung from the ceiling of the lantern shop. Master craftsman made multicolored paper lanterns that looked just like butterflies, dragons, birds, dragonflies, and many other animals. There were teddy bear lanterns, and cat lanterns, round lanterns and tall lanterns. There were light-up sticks that everyone carried, and light-up headbands, eyeglasses and necklaces for the children. “Look, look they have lanterns like Bambi” Sarah shouted, as she picked out the lantern in the shape of a deer. “I want the fish lantern”, said Ashley as they selected their favorite kind. While their mother paid for them, the shopkeeper handed them candles to use for their lanterns. Now they all had lanterns and candles to light for later when the sky grew dark.

In China the dragon is very sacred, very lucky and very welcome. The legend was that a dragon named Sassoon lived in Repulse Bay.  He lived across the street from the beach, on top of the mountains behind a huge apartment building. The apartment building was designed with a square hole right in the middle of the building so that Sassoon could still see the ocean. It is very unlucky when a dragon cannot see the ocean. The story was that Sassoon hated the Lantern festival because he liked to sleep at night and all the lights kept him up every year. No one knew if this story was true, because only a few people had ever actually seen Sassoon. But the building was proof that he must have existed at one time.

“Let’s walk the whole length of the beach with our lanterns lit up and see all the different kinds that people have”, said their mother. “And then we can set up our blanket at the other end of the beach and have a bite to eat.” Their mother was carrying a basket filled with a picnic dinner. The night was beautiful, the dark sky against a large full moon twinkled against the waves crashing to shore. The sand was cool and the weather was very warm, but with a cool ocean breeze. Many families had set up little areas with chairs and some had even built sand castles. People had small candles in the sand against their sand castles. They had them in all kinds of shapes, some were hearts, some were circles and some were sitting on bits of the sand castles. Children were tossing the light-up sticks, and because it was dark from a distance you thought that sticks were flying around. Beautiful lanterns were sitting on each blanket. “Oooooooooh, did you see that one Sarah”, said Grandma. “Look over there”, said their mother, “Have you ever seen so many lanterns in your entire life?” They walked and walked and when they were almost to the other side a breeze started.

Within moments huge gusts of wind started to blow from all different directions. The bright full moon was covered by dark clouds that were blowing past the face of the moon. Sarah grabbed onto her lantern and the candle blew out. Ashley said “look, look everyone’s lanterns are being blown away.” With that a huge gust got hold of her lantern and it started to be whisked down the beach. They all ran and her mom caught it just in time before it went into the sea. They turned and the rain started to come down in buckets. The light of the lanterns went out from one end of the beach to where they were standing. People scattered to pick up blankets, hold onto their children and salvage their dinner picnic baskets.

Sarah looked at the mountain, passed the beach, passed the large apartment building and saw something very large moving on the other side of the hole in the building. She gasped “It’s Sassoon, It’s Sassoon.” He was large and red and he had little wings but a very big head. He was smiling. She smiled too, because she knew that he had done this, he had blown all the lanterns out and probably provoked a storm cloud. Sarah stood there and said “Look it’s Sassoon!” They all stopped and looked in the direction that she was pointing. “Oh my, it is Sarah, I think that you are right”, said the Grandmother. Ashley laughed at the mischief that he had caused, she was quite mischievous herself. “What a crazy dragon”, said Ashley.

Their mother looked inside her large bag and pulled out two tiny packages that held raincoats for each one of the children. Something that came in handy in Hong Kong, you never knew when a storm might appear. Everyone was running, and the rain started to come down harder and harder. They could see Sassoon waddling back to his home in the mountain tops. He had accomplished what he set out to do, put all the lights out before he went to bed.

As they all reached the curb, their grandmother hailed a taxi cab. “Wow, Grandma how did you do that”, said Ashley. She knew that everyone else wanted to hail a taxi and they had been very lucky indeed. Sarah thought that the dragon Sassoon had brought them luck because they had actually seen him. They all went home very wet, very entertained and happy that they had gotten to see the lanterns all lit up, before Sassoon had blown them out. Sarah and Ashley would never forget the Lantern Festival and especially Sassoon the dragon.

 The End