The Tale Of The Four Dragons

It all happened in the beginning of time itself.

There were no rivers or seas, just the big eastern ocean.
The dragons chased eachother in the air.
The bravest dragons were the Great Dragon (the dragon who loved the water), the Yellow Dragon (the dragon who loved the Earth), the Black Dragon (the dragon who was the greatest flyer) and the Pearl Dragon(the dragon who controlled the fire).

But on sad day, a prayer rose to the heavens.
"Mighty Ancestors, Help us!"
The prayer came from a village down on the earth.
Brought there by the smoke from the incense, the Dragons approached the Earth.

The Yellow Dragon, the Dragon who loved the Earth more than his compainons did, went down to see what was happening.

The prayers continued.
The people on the earth had gathered and was praying to the heaves to get some rain to their dry fields.
"May the heaves open themselves! May the rains return and bless our fields! That is what we pray and hope for!"
"Those poor people" said the Yellow Dragon. "It is the great drought that has destoyed the crops"
"The supplies are almost gone and their end is neigh" said the great Dragon.
The Yellow Dragon's eyes were filled with silvertears and he said:
"They are suffering great under great deals..."
The great Dragon spoke:
"Let's ask the great JadeEmperor for help..."

The Dragons flew to the heavenly palace where the JadeEmperor lived.
however, they did not recieve a cordial greeting.

The JadeEmperor sat on his throne in his great palace and granted the Dragons an audience.
When the Dragons entered the throneroom, the Emperor spoke:
"Why have you come here and bother me instead of staying up among the clouds?"
The Great Dragon took one step forward and bowed his head.
"The People are suffering and will soon succumb" he said to the Emperor.
The Emperor nodded.
"Well" he said. "If that is true, I will have to do something about it. Go now and use your time for more important matters."
That was how the Emperor spoke.

Ten days went by after the Emperor had made his promise and those were ten days without rain.
The women had no food for their children, some people ate bark and some ate roots.

The dragons decided to help all the people.
The great Dragon had an idea.
"The ocean!" he said. "It contains all the water we want. With that water, we can help the people. We have to gather it and release it into the heavens so it will turn into rain and fall down on the crops"

The dragons did so a hundred of times.
The desperate people could hardly believe their eyes.
Now they had water for their crops and did not have to starve.

But the JadeEmperor did not like this miracle and his anger was terrifying.
The chained Dragons was taken to his palace.
The Emperor had planned a horrible punishment for them.
"You have defied my power and you ill be punshied for it" The Emperor said. "This is the order to the King of the Altitude..."
And he looked at the Dragons.
"These four Dragons will be locked inside four mountains."
The Great Dragon objected to the punishment.
"But we were only doing what was right."

But the Emperor didn't care about the dragon's words and his order was carried out.
"That will be the end of anyone who awakens my wrath" the Emperor said. "Now, they will never be able to do anything good."

But the nymph Xin Jing, the empress of Courage, did not keep her peace.
She went to the Emperor's palace to speak to the Emperor.
Her words were very stern.
"Your cruelty can only be compared to your conceit" she said.
The Emperor was not afraid of the nymph.
"Your beauty is as usual uncompareable" he said with a grin.
The Nymph was not disturbed by the words of the Emperor.
"Your revenge will be your punishment" she said and pointed at the mountains where the Dragons had been sealed in.
"Look closely at those mountains, for you will never see them this way again"
"What are you going to do?" the Emperor asked. "You cannot make my verdict go away."

The Nymph could not repeal the unfair verdict of the JadeEmperor, but she wanted the courageous sacrifices of the Dragons would be remembered for eternity.
She unleashed her power over the mountains.
The power of the nymph penetrated the mountains and gave her magic to them.
In return, the Nymph gained their Dragon being.

And so, the nymph Xin Jing rises to the heavens, forever tied to the Dragons, freely over the world.
and the four Dragons were turned into four rivers.

The black river, the yellow river, the great river and the Pearl river, the most important rivers in China.

The only remains of the Nymph was a memento in the shape of a crystalamulet, containing the beings of the four Dragons...
and her own.

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