Nine Dragons
First published in 2003 by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at 364 Innovation Drive, North Clarendon, VT 05759 U.S.A.
Text Copyright © 2003 George Herman
Illustration Copyright © 2003 Kristen Seaton
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from Tuttle Publishing.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Herman, George, 1928–
Nine Dragons / text by George Herman ; illustrations by Kristen Seaton.
— 1st ed. p. cm.
Summary: When a drought forces the members of two tribes for the first time to cross the mountains that separate them, the dragons that inhabit the mountains show the humans how to live in peace.
ISBN 978-1-4629-0125-8
[1. Dragons — Fiction.] I. Seaton, Kristen, ill. II. Title.
PZ7.H431515 Ni 2003
[Fic] — dc21 2002075063
Distributed by
North America, Latin America, and Europe
Tuttle Publishing Distribution Center Airport Industrial Park
364 North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436
Tel: (802) 773-8930
Fax: (802) 773-6993
Email: [email protected]
Japan and Korea Tuttle Publishing Yaekari Bldg., 3F
5-4-12 Ösaki, Shinagawa-ku
Tokyo 141-0032
Tel: 81-35-437-0171
Fax: 81-35-437-0755
Asia Pacific
Berkeley Books Pte. Ltd.
61 Tai Seng Avenue, #02-12
Singapore 534167
Tel: (65) 6280 1330
Fax: (65) 6280 6290
Email: [email protected]
www.periplus.com
First edition
07 06 05 04 03 6 5 4 3 2 1
Text Design by Gopa & Ted2
Printed in Singapore
The wind is a teller of tales.
Late at night,
when the darkness settles upon your world
like a warm and comforting blanket,
the wind may come to tell you a story —
perhaps, like this one,
a tale of angry and desperate men,
of gentle and generous others,
of ferocious, fire-breathing dragons,
and of a war — like all wars —
that did not have to be.
Long, long ago,
there were two villages
on a single island
in the middle
of the Wide Water.
The village of Wongsu was built on rich and fertile earth
by people from the Ancient Land to the east.
Flat and wet, it was good for growing rice, and it was encircled
by a wall of mountains where wild game ran.
No one could remember who first saw this valley and settled here
or what was beyond the high mountains,
but generations of Wongsu had been farmers and hunters in this blessed valley,
and they fed their children with the gifts of the earth and the deep woods.
The village of Makai, on the opposite side of the mountains,
was founded by people who came many years after the Wongsu.
They arrived from the west, from beyond the Wide Water, in great canoes of wood and fiber.
Their skins were sun-bronzed and, for the most part, they were a carefree people.
They fed their children with the gifts of the deep sea:
the fish mantled in many colors,
the clicking, clawing crab, the snapping lobster,
and the sweet grasses of the deep.
They also harvested the fruit of trees and vines:
the tasty fig, the hard-shelled coconut, the bright banana, the prickly pineapple, and the pear.
Separating the two villages were the massive mountains.
The people of Makai and the people of Wongsu
never climbed these
