AU T H O R’ S C H O I C E
S H O RT S TO R I E S F R O M T H E G LO B A L C LA S S R O O M |
2014
RA I N VA LLE Y
H A N NA H YO O N, Y E A R 6
C O M PA S S I N T E R NAT I O NA L S C H O O L D O H A , G H A RA F FA
Writing great stories is always about using your imagination, and Hannah
Yoon does that with terrific effect in ‘Rain Valley’. I loved the strong
descriptive writing that brought a world and a living creature into being
– it felt like I was in the hands of a terrific storyteller!
The characters in my story come from Korean mythology. The main character is an I-mugi, a fish-scaled creature
that resembles a giant snake. According to Korean folktales, an I-mugi starts his/her life – and afterwards lives five
hundred years– as a snake. When the five hundred years end, the snake transforms into an I-mugi. He then lives
another five hundred years in his new form. Once the thousand years are over, an I-mugi turns into a Yong – or, in
other words, a dragon. These Korean dragons have the head of a camel, the eyes of a rabbit, and the antlers of a deer,
and also have long, scaly bodies with short legs and feet. A dragon has the enormous power to control weather, often
rain, typhoons, and thunderstorms. However, to harness so great a power the I-mugi must perform an incredible
deed of kindness and earn a powerful and rare magical object called a yu-i-ju. Yu-i-jus look like pearls and are
hoarded by the King of the Sea, who resides in his coral palace in the depths of the ocean.
I gazed down at the shiny, pearl-like globe I held in my hands and its radiance seemed to grow, lighting the dim
underwater cavern with brilliance. ‘At last!’ I thought gleefully. ‘I will become a mighty dragon and finally be able to
control the forces of wind and sky!’
For last week, my friend had received a yu-i-ju. I had been terribly jealous then: how had he, my perfectly ordinary
friend, been granted this? I had lived in rage for three days until the Clever Thought had struck me. Its ingenuity had
appealed to me, and tonight I had swum silently into his home and just now had snatched the yu-i-ju from beside
his bed of tender seaweed and underwater grass.
So here I was now, marveling at the gleaming sphere and my own cleverness. Grinning wickedly, I leered at my
friend, sleeping peacefully and never even dreaming that H