The Eye of The Great Dragon

By Andrew Deakin

My story takes place in 1307 BC, when China and Japan were essentially the same country ( that is why their cultures are so similar). I imagine there aren't many things other than big sculptures left, so there aren't any scriptures left, or not many that most average people can just wander in and look at.

I was a young Chinese girl whose father was a shogun samurai warrior for the Jin Sung clan (Jin meant warrior, Sung meant dragon). He was well respected and loved by his clan. In those days, women were not allowed to fight at all; only seen as wives, cleaners, clothes makers and baby makers. But I was very lad-like, so I used to watch my father practice with my brother, and when they were off doing men things I used to go into the woods at the rear of my Jin Doe (house) and practice myself with the straightest tree branch I could find, pretending to fight dragon eaters and such. (Dragon eaters were akin to devils in those days).

I did this for two years of my life until I was 16 years old. But one day my father caught me and I was severely punished by doing chores around the house while my mother could relax, not to mention a slap in the face. But I carried on doing it and the punishments kept coming. But one day, after much persistence and beatings (because it got to that point) my father agreed to train me. After two years of training, word got around to the emperor that this was happening and one night, while I was in the woods training myself, I saw a shogun ninja enter my house. Having heard stories that if you ever saw a ninja you never lived to tell about it, I ran off into the woods and crowded into a small cave in the mountains near our house, hiding there for three days until I was sure the ninja had gone. I used to go outside and watch what the mammals of that time ate, berries and other things. I had my shorter sword with me, but it was wooden.

When I returned to my house after three days, my father, mother and brother were all dead, so I vowed to the clan of my father (the dragon sitting on our wall) that I would kill the man responsible. I came up with a plan, I would train myself with my father's sword until I was as good as any man. I used to hide and watch samurai fighting and then copied them on my own. Samurai were warriors for the clans and always fought one on one, even in big battles. They would choose an opponent and fight them. I did this until I thought I was good enough to fight. I then searched for armor that fit me and stole it. I had my father's sword shortened so it would be the right size for me. You see samurai swords were specifically made by the emperor's metal crafters; only the rich clans, or the emperor's guards were shogun samurai.

After I had an arsenal of weapons hidden in the cave I hid in from the ninja, I used to go about dressed as a man with a shogun helmet on, looking for a fight. As I picked my fights carefully so as not to be killed straight away, I chose the younger samurai first. I found them by walking around as a trader woman, then finding the weakest opponent I snuck away and challenged them as a male, and killed them and took their weapons (as was the right of a samurai warrior). I hid all the weapons in the cave near my house.

After I got good enough to be labeled a warrior I went to the emperor's province to try to get near him to kill him, but the guards at the gate took my helmet off and found out I was a woman. I killed two of them, but because I was a woman they didn't kill me but over-powered me and repeatedly raped me. They held me captive in the guard house chained up until I forced my smaller hands out of the manacles and escaped. Angered at the fact I lost my virginal flower I vowed to kill all those that raped me, but I knew that being a samurai was not enough.

So I thought in my cave, I must learn the way of the shogun ninja. But I knew it would be difficult to find a ninja training ground, so I had to be sneaky about it. After much asking I found out rumors of the ninja being trained in the far province of China (now called Japan). So I had to cross the Dragon Ssea, which was the sea between the mother lands of China and the far province. So called because dragons used to reach up out of the sea and take the people and their boats and devour them, but being of strong mind I vowed to cross, but there was a problem.

I was now nineteen years old and had no money with which to get across the sea. There were only two options, one was to sell my body (which I was not willing to do after what happened at the guard house and the fact that I had a very small chest so I wouldn't be as appealing to men) or as an actor in traveling musical plays. What I decided to do was to follow a musical troop around and watch them dance and learn the moves for myself.. I watched from afar with a small version of a telescope, which were very expensive those days as astrologists used them to watch the stars. The telescope itself was made from a large bamboo shoot that had been cut and made into a cone like shape with a hole at either end, in each hole was a specially made glass magnifier. The telescope wasn't as powerful as nowadays but back then, it was the best we had.

After I became good enough to be hired I approached an acting troop and was hired to replace a woman that had been sold to a whore house. After a few months in China performing, the troop eventually chose to go to the far province because there wouldn't be as much competition over there. I gave my prayers to the great eye of the dragon that he may bless us and keep us safe over the sea journey (the Eye of the Great Dragon was our name for the sun). The journey across the sea was calm and uneventful. In the far province things were different; some of the people talked in a strange way, and I could not understand all of their words, but we had a translator in the troop so things were not too bad. I enjoyed the time in the troop - it took my mind off battle - but I was still determined to seek my revenge and had to remind myself why I was here as we were traveling all around the far province.

Eventually, I heard of a shogun ninja training ground far in the mountains, so I slipped away and went to investigate. After a hard journey I found the ninja camp and set up a vantage point so I could watch them from a safe distance with my telescope I had stolen. They were doing things I thought not possible for a person to do, walking over hot coals, and even branding. They trained day and night, they entered trances and people hit them with sticks and they did not cry out in pain. I knew this way would be difficult but I was determined to get my revenge on those that hurt me and killed my family.

By this time I was twenty years old by the Chinese calendar. I found myself a cave and trained day and night, copying what the ninja did. I fed by killing small animals in the forests near the cave. But I found I was no good and I could not be as good as them by copying them from afar. I had to try another way. I chopped off my hair and stole some black cloth to make myself a ninja garment (as I was a woman I knew how to sew and make clothes). There was one problem, if I was caught I would be killed. But I had an advantage, the ninja never removed their cloth head masks so I wouldn't be seen.

I waited near the entrance to the camp and hid, waiting for someone to come back. Eventually someone came and I listened to the password they uttered. I waited until night and came alone to the camp. I was accepted in without question ( the ninja were so confident of their superior fighting skills that they thought no one would dare enter a ninja camp unless they wanted to join). I spent three years in the training ground and it was hard. I was laughed at a lot because I was not that good, but I was congratulated for the fact that I never gave up. I kept trying until I eventually got the honor of the dragon brand on my upper arm. It was of a dragon eating a man. As ninja came from all over I was not questioned about my accent or my form, I was thought to be just a young man from the mother land.

I was then sent on my first true mission, to kill a clan lord that was an enemy of the clan that hired us. Knowing I was good enough to creep and kill with the ninja stealth, I went to scout the intended victim. But a problem arose, I became infatuated with the man I was watching. He was so kind to those lower than him. He was honorable and had a certain spiritual glow to him that I found appealing. I began having second thoughts and I did what no ninja should -- I changed my clothes and went to his house to meet him -- (little did I know I was being watched by another ninja of higher stature). I fell for him instantly and we made love in his house, but when I awoke I saw him fighting the other ninja. The ninja was too quick for him for they did not fight for pride, they killed without remorse.

I quickly grabbed his sword from the mantle it was sitting on and turned to face the fighters. The ninja had just stabbed the samurai and his back was facing me, so I thrust the sword deep into his heart meaning to kill him instantly. As I stood there I felt a little ashamed of what I had done because of what my father taught me about the honor of a samurai, but I was also upset about my true love being killed. I went to his side weeping, luckily he was still alive, but dying. His last words were, "I will see you at the end, my love," then he died. I cried and cried until my eyes were red before leaving the house.

I gathered up my things from the cave and went to try and get back to the mother land. Back to my personal vendetta. In my new arsenal of weapons I had two ninja swords, several throwing implements and a suicide pill made from poisonous herbs for the self death. I threw the suicide pill into a stream, I was on more than a ninja mission-- a personal vendetta -- and didn't want to kill myself. As I entered a Japanese city looking for another troop to hook up, with I began hearing stories of a dragon eater woman, who was said to eat the souls of those she killed and may be a demon in disguise. I looked up at the eye of the great dragon and knew they talked of me.

After a few days I found the old troop I was with before, in a small town. I told them I'd been captured by this dragon eater and she raped me with a sword, but I was lucky enough to escape before she could kill me and eat my soul. They took me back into the troop as I was a good enough at acting and singing to be useful to them. After another two years traveling around the far province the troop had made enough money to travel back to the mother land.

When we got back, I disappeared and went back to my cave near my old house. I found disaster there, the emperor had sent guards to my old house and had cleaned out my cave and taken my father's sword. I had to get my father's sword back, so I went to the head guard and told him I'd encountered the woman in the far province and she told me where she lived and that if I didn't go back there I would have my soul eaten by her.

The guard swallowed the story whole, and told me they would protect me from her. I told the captain that he would make a good husband (a chat up line in those times). He was very flattered and took me back to his camp, and even carried my things. (In the back of my mind I knew I had to kill him, but he was nice, so I would make it a quick death). At his tent I had sex with him and told him that he was the man of my dreams, but I was thinking of my true love from the far province.

Afterwards, when he was asleep I took out my ninja swords and beheaded him. I stole all his money, took my father's sword, and sneaked off into the night to wreak my revenge on the guards of the emperor's house. But now I had a new weapon that no man had, my flower. In the dead of night I snuck into the guard's house and they were so frightened of the fact I was the dragon eater that they wet themselves. I killed all of the guards that were there; the three that saw me, I did quickly before they could make any noise, and the others I got in their sleep. The man who took my virginal flower I saved till last and killed him slowly.

But I had a problem -- I would not be able to sneak into the emperor's palace without an army as it was too heavily guarded. So I thought that I could take all the raped and unwanted women and train them to be shogun ninja's. I spent three years looking for and finding the unwanted and angry women and trained them in a camp in the lower province, (one I had killed the occupants of, that was out in the forests and isolated.) The female ninja would be trained to use their flower and seduce the men who had raped them, then kill them however they deemed suitable.

But word was spreading about us and our deeds, and one night three ninja of the highest order came to our camp. I was asleep when they came and started killing our ninjas. I was awakened by the alarm being sounded, and came out of my room to find the three ninja masters battling some of my ninja. Half of my camp had already been killed and there were only ten of us left. We managed to kill two, but now there was only seven with one ninja master left -- the ninja master, himself. He killed all of the rest of my ninja and spared me until last.

He was so quick and kept dodging and blocking my attacks. I knew he was just toying with me and I felt this was a losing battle. He stopped and so did I. He then took off his mask and said to me, "Dragon Eater, you have dishonored my ninja clan, you have seen my face, this means you will die slowly."

But I had something up my sleeve, I noticed the ninja never had sex, all they did was train. I told him I surrendered and asked him to kill me quick, I then took off all my clothes and stood there naked. He was shocked. I walked over to the stunned ninja and wrapped my arms round him and again asked him to kill me quickly, but unknown to him I had been working on a new weapon. I had inserted into my arm a long sewing needle, I pulled it out and inserted it into the back of his neck up into his spinal column and he dropped to the floor immediately, paralyzed.

His shame was written all over his face. Feeling sorry for him as I had a lot of respect for what he had taught me, I removed all his clothes. He was scarred and tattooed all over. I pleasured him for the first time in his life. Afterwards I told him that I did not eat dragons and that I was on a vendetta against the people who murdered my family. What he said next was a shock to me, he said that I was not an eater of dragon, but that I was a dragon and a master of the ninja arts. He called me the first female dragon (it was the belief that the greatest masters became dragons and their spirits would live in the sky and be seen as stars).

I asked him if he wished to remain alive. He told me if he was found alive like this it would dishonor both him and his clan for a long time. I beheaded him quickly and cleanly, and put his clothes back on his body; but before I left the area to look for a new hideout, I wrote on the ground, Dragon Woman.

After a few days thought whilst traveling, I thought of a way I could get to the emperor -- I would become a whore and try to get into the palace that way. In China, in that period, it was considered dirty to perform oral sex for a man, but prostitutes did what no housewife would. The nick-name for a whore was man eater. So I went to the middle province and joined a whore house. At first I was no good and was not asked for a lot, so did not make much business. But I was determined to get good enough to be taken in by the emperor's house, and after a while I became a favorite of the whore house, and was told I could make a man melt in my flower.

My plan was set. In my private bath time I trained my muscles to keep me agile, and told the males that profited from us that I was making my self more limber and good looking for better business. After a year, the word about me as a prostitute spread, and it got back to the emperor. Before long I got a special letter requesting my presence at his palace saying I would be well paid. I hid the needle in my arm and went by horse driven coach to the emperor's palace. When I saw the emperor, anger filled me, but I kept my self calm and acted nice towards him, knowing that my time would come.

When we were eventually left alone, and the guards were happy I posed no threat, I began to pleasure him with my mouth, and then bit down hard and he screamed in pain. I then took out my needle and shoved it into his eye and killed him. As I was waiting for the guards to come to his rescue I turned and looked out of the window, at the eye of the great dragon and prayed to him to keep my soul safe, thanking him for allowing my revenge.

The emperor's guards rushed in and grabbed me and took me to the dungeons. I was hung from the ceiling by my arms and my legs were manacled down. The emperor's son who was fourteen at the time came in and spoke to me. He said that I would be tortured to death by a thousand needles, a very painful way to go. They inserted needles all over my body and in my eyes, just enough for it to hurt but not enough for me to bleed to death quickly. I cursed at the guards and at the emperor's son.

It took me three weeks to die, and I vowed that I would come back and get my revenge on the emperor's son. But in my last seconds of life, when I hung there sleepy and felt like I was when I was a little girl, I felt someone come to me. It was my true love from the far province. I saw behind him my mother, father and brother. And I heard my true love say, "Come with me into the Eye of the Great Dragon, let this mortal world continue without you, it's time to let go of this vendetta, the emperor's son was right to have you killed -- you killed his only father."

I then thought of my father and understood now what the path of revenge had brought me, so I let go, and as I felt my last breath escape my lungs, I felt myself fly up to the light of the Great Dragon's Eye to be with my loved ones. ©2003 Andrew Deakin aka One.