Sacrafice For Family, Freedom, So The Mountains Divided.

• Jessica Iuliano, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2007

There once was a peasant named Ali who every week used to collect water for his family. It was a tough job bringing loads of water back to the house. It took him all day and most of the night. The river he got his water from was getting lower and lower every day due to the high temperatures.
One day when he went to get the water, there was none left. The river was dried out from the summer heat. Ali did not know how his family would survive without water. Ali started to dig a hole in the empty river.
Ali dug and dug until dawn approached. Ali had hit something hard. He scrapped some mud away to touch scales.
Suddenly the ground he was standing on started to shake. There was no one around as every one had gone home. Ali jumped out of the dried up river just in time for a creature to appear. At first he thought it was a lizard but then he realized some thing special about its eyes. Then he noticed its wings.
The dragon’s eyes shone like diamonds. They gleamed in the moon light. Ali did not know what to do. The dragons put his head down and dug his teeth into Ali’s shirt. It lifted him up. Ali thought it was the end. The dragon then threw Ali onto his back and the dragon took off and flew far away.
Water started bursting out from below in the river. The villagers were happy but they knew they had sacrificed Ali for the water.
Ali had landed in a valley between two giant mountains. The dragon was lying down asleep. Ali slid down the dragon’s tail to explore the valley. There was a beautiful lake filled with water, and exotic flowers he had never seen before surrounded him.
Ali was amazed and exhausted. He looked around and found a tree he could sleep under. He wondered where he was and slept until the sun rose the next morning.
Ali woke to see a beautiful girl named Yasmin. She said ‘Hi and welcome to Presa. We all make sacrifices and you sacrificed yourself to bring life to your family.’
Ali started a new life with Yasmin and every day he would try and get back to his family. Yasmin and Ali fell in love and when they had their first child, Syla, the mountains that surrounded them departed, they saw the outside world.
A voice spoke to them. To get to the other side they would need to sacrifice Syla. Yasmin and Ali loved their daughter too much but they were determined to escape.
That night just before the mountains closed, Ali sacrificed himself to save his family. Yasmin and Syla were allowed to pass through the mountains but they grieved. Ali now opens and closes the mountains so those who find it will have to sacrifice something just as he did for their family, for freedom, so the mountains divided.