Wikipedia Trail: From Palisade to Underground Hangar

So the article that I started at was "Palisade", which I has looked up for my story I'm writing for my Novel class.

A palisade is basically a simple defensive wall made of wooden stakes, often entire logs that have been cut down, but sometimes just pieces of them. The ends are often sharpened into points to make it harder to get a firm grip on the time to climb over and to make it potentially dangerous to do so. Palisades were also often reinforced with a degree of terraforming, such as digging a ditch or elevated the ground leading up to the palisade. Palisades were useful in that they could be set up quickly using local materials, since they were just made of wood. But of course, that also made them relatively weak when compared to more permanent structures.

The next article I went to was "Cave Castle", which was listed in the Fortifications category box at the bottom of the Palisade page.

I thought the concept of a castle constructed in a cave was really interesting, so I looked into it. The basic idea behind the castles is that it greatly decreases the number of directions from which the castle could be attacked. With the rock surrounding three of its sides, it made for an excellent defensive position, forcing attackers to come directly at the front of the castle. In addition to that, the caves could be used to create a secret escape route if they were enlarged or altered properly. That could be used to escape if necessary, or to sneak in food in the face of a siege.

The next article I arrived at was "Hardened Aircraft Shelter", which was also off of the Fortifications category box at the bottom of the Cave Castle page.

A hardened aircraft shelter, or protective aircraft shelter, known commonly in shorthand as HAS and PAS respectively, is a type of reinforced hangar used to protect military aircraft from enemy attack. However, such shelters are not cheap to build and additionally, due to the practicalities of building them, only fighter size aircraft could be stored within them. Their effectiveness dropped significantly over time, as modern smart bombs could pierce such shelters and destroy the aircraft within them.

The final article I ended up at was "Undergound Hangar", which was a direct link from the Hardened Aircraft Shelter page.

Generally speaking, an underground hangar was basically a far larger and more effective version of a hardened aircraft shelter. They would be dug into the side of a mountain, which made them much harder to destroy or capture. They could store much larger amounts of aircraft, and could also contain facilities reminiscent of a military base in order to keep the aircraft properly operational, such as fuel and ammunition storages and maintenance areas.

Image of the cave castle Predjama in Slovenia.

Week 9 Story: Rise of the Dragon Princess

Rise of the Dragon Princess

Fujihara was a brave warrior who was well-renowned for her skill with a longbow.

One day, as she went around in search of adventure, she came before a bridge that spanned across a large and beautiful lake.

Sitting upon the bridge was a massive and extraordinarily long dragon. The creature was coiled around the bridge several times, and the width of its body was at least that of three men standing abreast. The dragon's snowy white scales shone brightly and smoke drifted out of its nostrils. However, its eyes were closed and the great creature did not stir.

Fujihara stood unsure as to what to do. She could continue forward and potentially risk the dragon's wrath, or turn back in search of adventure elsewhere. But Fujihara was brave, and so she walked across the dragon's coils to continue on her way.

"Warrior with the pale purple hair, have you no fear of a dragon's ire?" a voice called from behind her.

When Fujihara turned, a stunning woman in white robes stood where the dragon had been. She had pure white hair, but looked no older than Fujihara herself. A crown fashioned to look like the head of a dragon sat upon her head, and golden dragons were printed on her robes.

"A dragon is a creature as mortal as any other," Fujihara said, "and so I continued on my way. What of it?"

"Then you are brave indeed," the woman said. "Perhaps it is you who can finally help me."

"Who are you?" Fujihara asked. "What did you do with the dragon?"

"I am the Dragon Queen," the woman said. "It was I that you stepped over just now."

"And what need would a Dragon Queen have for a mortal warrior such as myself?" Fujihara asked.

"A great and diabolic centipede has made its home in the mountains nearby," the Dragon Queen said. "Each night it carries off one of my children or grandchildren and none of us have the courage to slay it, for we have lost so many." 

The Dragon Queen prostrated herself upon the ground. "And so I humbly ask that you help us by slaying the terrible creature," she said.

"But why me?" Fujihara asked.

"You are the first warrior to have the courage to walk over me," the Dragon Queen said. "I waited here in hopes of finding a warrior with enough courage to move past me, but all before you have turned and fled once they caught sight of me. And if they could not face me, they stood no chance of slaying the vile centipede."

"Very well," Fujihara said. "I will help you to slay this enemy of yours."

"Thank you," the Dragon Queen said and rose. "If you will but follow me, we can wait in the palace for the centipede to arrive tonight, for that will be the easiest way to fight the creature."

Fujihara followed the Dragon Queen and she walked down to the water's edge. When she stood at the edge, she flung her hands apart in a sweeping motion and the water parted before her to create a channel ten feet wide in which no water flowed. 

Fujihara followed her down into the lake and they descended until they reached the center of the lake, in which there was a stunning palace made of white stone. A massive bubble of air surrounded the entire palace, and once they were within its border, the Dragon Queen closed the channel of water behind them.

Within the bejeweled palace filled with riches beyond belief, Fujihara was treated to a wide array of exquisite dishes created from the finest ingredients and served upon plates of precious metals.

 Finally, a few hours after the sun set, the ground began to rumble.

"It comes," the Dragon Queen said. "Are you ready, warrior?"

Fujihara adjusted her quiver and noted she had only three arrows left. "I am ready, bring me to the point from which I can take aim at this foul creature," she said.

The Dragon Queen performed a motion with her hands and a platform made of wind formed beneath them. They shot to a point high above the surface of the lake. From there, Fujihara caught her first glimpse of the massive creature.

The huge centipede stretched for miles over the mountains and its body was as wide as a house. The creature's churning feet sounded like drums beating upon the ground and the creature's two huge eyes were like crimson beacons in the night.

Fujihara took aim with her longbow and loosed an arrow. The arrow struck the side of the centipede's head, yet the arrow failed to penetrate.

Again, Fujihara took aim and her arrow flew true, striking the centipede in the center of its head. But the arrow again glanced off of the creature's hide.

"Your arrows fail to pierce the creature's chitinous hide," the Dragon Queen sobbed. "There was never any hope to begin with then..."

"It is not yet time to give up hope," Fujihara said.

Fujihara took hold of her final arrow and then slashed the tip of the arrow across her palm. The arrowhead bit into her flesh and blood wept from the wound. Fujihara coated the arrow's head in her blood and then nocked the arrow in her bow. She drew, took aim and then released the arrow.

The arrow flew straight and true, landing right between the creature's eyes. And this time it pierced the creature's hide, burrowing deep into the monster's brain.

The centipede froze, and then the lights of its eyes dimmed and the creature crashed to the ground in a deep and reverberating thud.

"You did it!" the Dragon Queen exclaimed. "But how did you know your final shot would pierce the creature's hide?"

"It's been said that a human's blood is toxic to centipedes, and so I used the creature's weakness against it," Fujihara said.

"How wondrous," the Dragon Queen said. "And with that, you have saved myself and all of my family. For a feat such as that, you deserve to be rewarded. And so I would like to offer you the the opportunity to become a Dragon Princess and all of the power and riches that entails."

"I would like that," Fujihara said.

"Additionally, if you will take him, I would like to offer you my eldest son in marriage," the Dragon Queen said. "He is strong and courteous and will grant you powerful heirs to carry on your legacy."

"Very well," Fujihara said. "If I find your son to be amenable, I shall take him as my husband."

Fujihara found the Dragon Queen's son to be worthy of her and so they were thusly married and had many powerful children to succeed them. The dragons she spawned were all born with pale purple hair and they became renowned for their great courage and martial prowess, especially against any dreadful giant centipedes that dared to show themselves.

Author's Note:

So I made a couple of changes to this story when I created my telling of it.

The first notable change I made was doing a gender swap of the Dragon King to a Dragon Queen and making the male hero female instead. I thought that would be a good way to help get me to make sure my story was notably different than the original by changing the characters at play.

My Dragon Queen is much more proud than the Dragon King of the original story, who was much more fearful. I thought this was a logical change, since dragons are rarely fearful in most stories.

I also cut out the large sections in the original story in which the hero feasted with the Dragon King, for those added little to the story.

I changed the thing that slayed the centipede from saliva to blood because I thought saliva was rather strange, so I went with blood instead.

The largest change I made to the story was the ending, since the original story had the hero leaving the dragons behind with an array of gifts from them in his possession. I decided to instead have her stay with the dragons and become the next Dragon Queen.

I made the hero's hair color a pale purple because her name, Fujihara, means "wisteria field", and wisteria is a lavender flower.

The other changes I made were all minor and just changes to small details with no major significance.

I hope you enjoyed reading my story!

Bibliography:

Story Source: "My Lord Bag of Rice" by Yei Theodora Ozaki [Part A] [Part B] [Part C]

Image Source: Dragon vector by OpenCliapart-Vectors

Week 9 Reading: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki), Part B

Of the readings in Part B, two of them somewhat interested me.

The first was "The Goblin of Adachigahara". The story is about a priest who unwittingly wandered into the abode of a cannibalistic goblin in the guise of an old woman. She actually treats him somewhat well at first, but when she heads off to go get firewood to rekindle the fire, she warns him not to peer into the back room while she is gone. He does well for a long while, but eventually falls prey to his curiosity and peers into the backroom to discover the room filled with blood and bones. He immediately flees the cottage at full speed and the goblin chases after him, revealing her true form. He eventually escapes her when she is erased by the light of the dawn.

The other was "The Ogre of Rashomon". The story is about an ogre who supposedly lingers near a particular gate and captures and eats any who pass by it. A hero hears of the tale and goes to investigate it for himself. At first he does not spot the ogre, but it eventually reveals itself and the two fight. The ogre is unable to beat the hero and flees, but the hero finds the ogre's arm on the ground and takes it with him. He's praised for fighting off the ogre, but in fear of the ogre's desire to reclaim its arm, he fashions the strongest box that he can and refuses to open the box for anyone. Eventually, the ogre comes in the guise of his old nursemaid and manages to convince him to open the box. The ogre then reveals its true form and reclaims its arm, and the two fight once again. The hero is nearly able to slay the ogre once again, and when the ogre escaped this time, it never bothered anyone again in fear of the hero's retribution.

Story Sources:

"The Goblin of Adachigahara" by Yei Theodora Ozaki [Part A] [Part B]

"The Ogre of Rashomon" by Yei Theodora Ozaki [Part A] [Part B] [Part C]

Image Source: Ogre Clipart by GDJ

Week 9 Reading: Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki), Part A

Of the three stories in Part A, the story of "My Lord Bag of Rice" was the only one that particularly caught my interest.

In particular, it could be interesting to potentially explore the potential future of the relationships between the hero and the dragons he saved.

In the original story, the king of the dragons lies in wait, covering a bridge with his fearsome bulk. When the hero steps over the dragon, the dragon transforms into a human and asks the hero for help. Each night a dreadful giant centipede attacked the palace and carried off one of the dragon's children or grandchildren.

The hero goes to the dragons' palace and after feasting all day, confronts the centipede as it approaches. His first two arrows fail to strike true, but by coating the third arrow in his saliva, it strikes the centipede dead and the hero is praised and rewarded by the dragon king.

A potential story idea I had would be to do a gender swap of the dragon king to a dragon queen and make the hero a woman. Then, when the hero slayed the great centipede, instead of leaving with some rewards, I think it might be interesting for them to instead marry one of the dragons and become the next dragon queen by proxy.

Story Source: "My Lord Bag of Rice" by Yei Theodora Ozaki [Part A] [Part B] [Part C]

Image Source: Dragon Yin-Yang Clipart by CLkr-Free-Vector-Images