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

Week 8 Progress

Thus far I'm pretty happy with my progress, I've managed to generally keep up with all the deadlines and snag some extra credit to get ahead a bit! I'm most proud of my stories, especially the ones on my portfolio!

Looking forward, I think I'd like to try and finish in Week 13 if I can. In fact, I'm going to do a bit of math here to see if I can figure it out:

238 points currently in the gradebook

24 points for this week's assignments that are yet to be turned in (including this one!)

So total of 262 at the end of Week 8

I need to hit 380 at the end of Week 13 to get an A

Which means I need 118 more points total.

So I can definitely finish on, or potentially even before, Week 13!

The image I chose is a commission I had done by Chiminio (formerly known as Bellachi) of one of my story characters. 

(Her name is Lena! She's a Rabbit Animus who fights alongside her twin sister Yin as part of the magical special forces team known as Hellstorm.)

The instructions were to find an image to motivate us to push onward, and this image of Lena fit the bill for me. I've had this piece of art for a long while, and I still love it just as much as the day I got it. (Plus her expression was fitting too, given my new discovery that I should be able to finish early.)

Week 8 Feedback and Comments

In terms of the feedback I'm getting, I get a mix of a lot of praise and some feedback in terms of what I could potentially do to change up my stories or improve them. Honestly, all of the comments are useful in their own way. The ones that are praise help fuel me to keep working, even if that's all that they do!

I think I've found some solid strategies for giving feedback in most cases. Generally I only struggle when there isn't much to actually leave feedback on.

I don't know how well I'm actually able to get to know others through their blogs or my own. I used to turn on notifications for all my comments on the blogs of others, but after never getting a single response comment, I stopped doing that. I respond to all the comments on my story posts, but again, no further response from anyone, and I doubt many of them even see my comments at all. I am still happy with my blog and introduction post themselves though.

I don't really know if I have any changes I feel I ought to make. I think what I'm doing seems to be working quite well so far.

I chose the above image from the Growth Mindset Site (link). I thought it was a nice sentiment that I agree with, and the picture is quite fitting. It's okay to fail, it's just not okay to stop trying.

Week 8 Reading and Writing

Overall I'm pretty happy with how my story-writing assignments have gone. I've been really happy with some of the stories I've written for the course. And so far it's been nice to be able to take my favorite story posts that I'm the most proud of and then add them to my portfolio. (Which thus far have been "The Three Roses" and "The Clever, Brave and Wise".)

My reading notes are useful for me to help me determine which story I'll be using as the base of my story posts. I usually use them to give an overview of either the full story or the part of the story that I would be most interested in focusing in on.

So while the assignment did say to use an image from one of our story posts, reading posts or project, this image was one that was at one point intended to be used for either a story or reading post. (I honestly don't even remember which now.) So I thought this might be a decent place to showcase the image, since I never ended up using it, but I really like the aesthetic of it a lot.

My primary hope for the rest of this class is to write more stories that I'm very proud of. I think I have some degree of idea how to go about it now. I've found that the stories I've liked most were often the ones I made the most significant changes to. Both of my portfolio stories exemplify that. So I think I'll try to find ways to work in twists of my own to the future stories.

Image Source: Pikist

Week 7 Story: The Giantess and the God of Mirth

NOTE: This story can now be read over on my portfolio site, A Monster's Bond, so please go check it out there, since it will have more editing and refinement than this version!

The Giantess and the God of Mirth

The fragile, yet stunningly beautiful, goddess princess Ninigi was tasked by her grandfather, Amaterasu the sun god, to descend to the world below in order to bring peace to the chaos that had enveloped it.

But, before she could set out upon her journey, a fearsome giantess, whose height was topped by the mountains alone, took up a position before the bridge.

Not one of the hundreds of gods and goddesses dared to face the fearsome giant, and so it fell upon Ninigi's shoulders to select someone to speak with the giantess. She pondered deeply before eventually calling forth Uzume, the gorgeous god of mirth.

"You beckoned me, Princess?" Uzume said with a flourish.

"I did indeed, Uzume," Ninigi said. "I require you to go forth and meet with the giantess blocking the bridge to the mortal realm to ask why she has come. Your looks are unmatched by any among the rest of the gods, and so perhaps you shall survive your encounter with the giantess since she may not wish to mangle a beauty such as you."

"Very well," Uzume said. "I will go and meet with this giantess that all are too fearful to approach once I have done myself up in my finest raiment."

And so Uzume washed himself in a sacred spring nestled in the mountains in which the waters ran crystal clear. He dried himself and then wrapped himself in a black kimono that was embroidered with elegant golden dragons. And then he made his way to meet the giantess.

The giantess had skin the color of river stones and long, flowing hair the color of the clouds above. Her toned body was wrapped in layers of charcoal colored dragonhide, and she held a metal staff that stood as tall as herself. Yet, despite her fearsome stature, her face was pleasant to the eye, and her ruby eyes glittered when Uzume approached.

"Who is it that has the strength of will to approach me? the giantess rumbled.

"That would be I, Uzume, god of mirth," Uzume said with a laugh. "And who might you be, fair maiden?"

The ground quaked as the giantess laughed, yet Uzume did not falter, and even laughed along with her.

"I believe you may be the first to call me a fair maiden, but they call me Saruta-niko," the giantess said. "I am the deity of the field paths."

Uzume smiled. "Well met, Saruta-niko," he said. "Why have you come to block this bridge? Surely you've noticed the fear that has been struck into the hearts of those that dwell here."

Saruta-niko frowned and stared forlornly at the ground. "While I cannot do anything to prevent their fear," Saruta-niko said, "I have come to be Ninigi's guide on her journey upon the ground below, for there are none who know the earth as well as I."

"Very well," Uzume said. "I shall bring Ninigi here so that you two might head down to the world below."

Uzume turned and began to walk away, but before he was out of earshot he turned and called back over his shoulder to the giantess. "Also, know that there will always be one god who does not fear you, Saruta-niko," Uzume said, and his pleasant laughter carried along the wind as he returned to Ninigi.

Saruta-niko smiled at his receding back and waited patiently for his return.

Within the day, Uzume returned with Ninigi, and he bid the pair off with a joyful wave and a smile.

Saruta-niko was indeed a faithful guide to Ninigi, and with her presence, none dared to intrude on Ninigi's mission. After a span of years, Saruta-niko constructed a palace from which Ninigi could slowly bring peace to the land.

With the need for Saruta-niko's services now past, Ninigi wished to reward her loyalty.

"Saruta-niko, you've served me faithfully for many years, what can I bestow upon you in repayment?" Ninigi asked.

"I would like to marry the one god who has no fear of me in his heart, if he will have me," Saruta-niko said.

"I shall summon him at once," Ninigi said.

And so she summoned Uzume to her palace in the mortal realm.

"Why have I been called, Princess?" Uzume asked.

Ninigi gestured at the giantess. "As repayment for her service, this one here has asked only for the hand of the one god who does not fear her," Ninigi said. "What say you, Uzume?"

Uzume chuckled and smiled. "I have no objections," he said. "I would be honored to wed a woman of such beauty and loyalty as she."

Saruta-niko smiled and lowered her open hand so that Uzume could step onto her hand. She stood back up with him in her hand, but then she frowned.

"Princess, could I perchance ask of you a second thing as a reward for my service?" Saruta-niko asked.

"What is it?" Ninigi said.

"Could you grant me the power to shrink so that I might hold my dear husband close without fear of crushing him?" Saruta-niko asked.

"Consider it done," Ninigi said. 

Ninigi stepped forward and laid her hands on Saruta-niko's ankle, and the giantess steadily shrank until she stood only a few inches taller than Uzume, who now stood beside her. The pair embraced and then smiled at one another.

They were wed in a grand ceremony with Ninigi's blessing, and they spent the rest of eternity together in their wonderful home atop a mountain covered in sakura trees that were always in bloom.

Author's Note

I technically didn't stray too far from the original story in terms of overall plot points, though I changed many of the details of the story, as well as the focus of it. The original was focused around Ninigi, but I was most interested in Uzume and the giant, so that's what I focused on in my story.

The most notable change I made was to gender-swap all of the characters, since I thought it might be a fun twist to have a giantess and a god of mirth instead of a giant and goddess of mirth. I've also found doing that helps inspire me by altering the characters into something new.

There were two notable plot changes I made, though they're rather slight. The first is that Uzume more directly flirted with the giant in their first interaction, since I felt that helped hint at the ending a bit better. And the other change I made was having the giant actually ask for Uzume, rather than simply be granted Uzume by Ninigi as the reward for the giant's service. I thought it helped to make a better ending for this little story.

All of the other changes were just adding or changing details to help flesh out the story's imagery in my rendition, so I won't cover those here, since they have no real impact on the story itself.

I hope you enjoyed this story of mine!

Bibliography

Story Source: "The Heaven-Descended" [Part A] [Part B] by E. W. Champney and F. Champney

Image Source: Painting of Sakura Trees by AnnaliseArt