Dragon Book - The general and the dragon
Dragon Book - The general and the dragon
This story involves one of the greatest generals in Japanese ancient history and is an important addition to any dragon book.
While on a quest from the Emperor to rid the country of evil spirits, this general took his entourage to a hunting trip in the mountains, two riding days from the capital city of those days, Kyoto.
They rode though an autumn filled with golden tree leafs when suddenly they spied a party of people on the mountain ahead of them. The general sent one of his men to scout ahead and the scout reported that the people were a group of beautiful women.
The general and his men continued on and they bypassed the women, even dismounting so as to not disturb them. However, one of the women, their leader and probably a noble, turned to the general and asked whether they should be alarmed by the presence of the general's armed men. The general said that all he wanted was to continue on his way but the noble women invited him to watch the extraordinary colors of the trees this time of year.
The general joined her and they watched the brilliant colors nature produced. The woman offered the general wine and he drank again and again till finally he fell asleep.
In his dream the general saw a spirit. The spirit told him the woman he met was actually the monstrous dragon from the mountain and the spirit gave him a sacred sword to fight the dragon.
The general then woke and he saw the sacred sword laying next to him, just as he dreamt. The woman vanished and a giant storm cloud approached, spitting lightning and rolling thunder across the land. Inside the storm cloud flew the dragon, higher than any building, huge horns on its head, its dark scales swimming in liquid fire, its long arms sporting claws longer than any spear.
The general had a vision of this dragon destroying the ancient Chinese castle Hung-Yang, the dragon's tail coiling in its ruins.
The general picked up the sacred sword and charged the dragon while trying not to look into the awful light glowing from the reptilian dragon's eyes.
The dragon lunged and the general avoided the terrible jaws and hit the monster again and again with the sacred sword till finally he managed to pierce its hide, decapitate it and kill it.
We should remember to take heed to stories from a dragon book since any who visit that mountain in Japan can still feel the burning hatred of that dragon to anything human.