Shenlong（the divine dragons) 神龙
1
when Nuwa woke up, the sun was already high in the sky; though she covered her face with some leaves and branches, the bright light still shone though

she turned her body towards the forest side; as she moved the mesh hammock she was lying in swayed, relaxing the stiff joints one tended to get after sleeping there all night; it felt rather comfortable

it was the idea of her brother Fuxi to make mesh hammocks to sleep in: tie a few ropes between two trees, then criss-cross them with a long rope knitting a mesh, cover it with some leaves, and your bed was ready; a hammock was not only more comfortable to sleep in than on branches; one need not worry so much about snakes;

you had to make the height right however; if too low, during you sleep you might get bitten by those monitor lizards that came out at night from the reeds next to the river - which also had those even more scary creatures, the crocodiles - too high and it was difficult to climb into them; Fuxi was very agile and could do it by hopping while pulling on the hammock ropes, but it was harder for Nuwa; however, she could play up her younger sister part, and get Fuxi to carry her into her hammock

as the oldest daughter of the clan chief, it was her job to light the clan's fire of life each night, with Fuxi helping to collect enough dry logs so that the fire would last all night, so that it would keep the man-eating beasts hiding in the forest from coming to the campsite; he would then carry her up to the hammock; as he lifted her up, her body touching his strong chest, she felt secure and comforted

the night before, as he was lifting up her, his hand somehow slipped and she might have fallen, but he immediately caught her and for a moment held her close to him. Nuwa felt her whole body hotting up just then; she so much wanted Fuxi to keep holding her like this; but the moment passed and he gently set her down into the hammock, then, as usual, rocked it to help her fall asleep before going off to his own hammock; he did not know that this time Nuwa was not actually asleep; in fact she was unable to sleep till very late...

Fuxi and Nuwa were actually not born of the same mother; their mothers were clan sisters of the same age; when they were both 14, they took part in the fertility bathe in the clan's Yao Pool, when boys from the neighbouring clan would come and peep at them, taking the clothes of the girls they fancied; if the girl also liked the boy, then she would lead him into the woods and let him lie on top of her; late a baby would start to grow in her stomach; however, Fuxi's mother died while giving birth, and he survived only because he was suckled by Nuwa's mother, who later became the clan chief; as her oldest daughter, Nuwa would be the next chief, and from young childhood Fuxi had followed her around, answering her every beck and call.

However, soon it would be time for him to leave the clan and find a companion in the neighbouring clan during their annual bathe.

Fuxi would not be short of companions; their mother's brother, who joined the other clan and became its hunt commander, after he axed and killed a crocodile that had grabbed the old commander, and saved his life - because of this, he was chosen as the companion of the commander's three daughters and was later made the commander's successor - brought presents from the other clan not long ago; during the visit he told her mother that Fuxi, such a bright boy, would be the most welcome new member of their clan and his uncle had already selected two girls who would be at the coming fertility bathe and told them to accept Fuxi as their companion. Nuwa was upset by the news; soon Fuxi would not be there to keep her company as she lit the fire and to carry her up into the hammock...

Nuwa climbed down from her hammock; no one was around; the clan seemed to have gone for their morning fishing; she went towards the seashore to look for them, but was surprised to find tha the sea had disappeared: the water had receded far far away, and the rocks, seaweed, abalony beds, ... that normally were covered by water were all exposed; then something else surprised her: part of the beach was covered by red shell crabs, that used to come out just once a year, always at night, to crawl towards the forest, where, Fuxi said, they would do the same kind of things boys-girls do there; and on the side of the beach towards the river, bigger creatures: crocodiles, snakes, turtles.. were all rushing, some of those very dangerous things that Nuwa were warned to keep away from; however, they were so intent on their rush towards the river that they took no notice of her at all.

"Sis.." she heard Fuxi call her; turning around, she saw him coming from the forest side, with a colourful bird in his hand "for you.." she took the bird from her but not with much interest "Look at what happened to the sea"

"The sea has gone missing?" he frowned and looked out; they could see at a far distance a low surf coming slowly towards the shore; suddenly his face turned pale: "this is a very big wave"

"Really? it looks so small, and so slow"

"That's because it is very far away; oh no; we'd better go and tell them..." taking her hand, he tried to run towards the seashore, but then saw the rushing snakes and crocodiles blocking the way and hesitated; he turned and rushed up a little sand dune, from which they could see their kinsmen on the shore next to where the river entered the sea. With the receded sea leaving behind many puddles from which fish could be readily scooped up, they were busily occupied.

"We can go there by boat" Nuwa pointed at a canoe next to the river. Running down the dune to where the canoe was, it took them some time to push the canoe into the river because the level of water dropped and the canoe was some distance from it. They then rowed it downstream using their hands as paddles. Turning the corner of the sand dune, the could see the people in front, as well as the surf coming up, now clearly one very big wave, charging up with a faint rumbling sound.

"Go up the hill; go up the hill" Fuxi shouted, but he was too far away to be heard, and the rumbling sound was growing louder and would have muffled his voice. Even the busily fishing folks were beginning to take notice, and were looking up at the incoming surf, pointing and discussing. Suddenly their mother threw down the fish basket she was carrying and pointed at the sand dune, and the whole crowd began to run towards it.

Fuxi and Nuwa turned in the canoe and began to row it upstream; behind them, a high wall of water was starting to rush through the mouth of the river, pushing in front of it a strong wind and a thunderous roar. Suddenly Fuxi pressed Nuwa down in the canoe "hold on to the boat tightly; dont let go!"; he then laid on top of her, embracing her waist tightly along with the log canoe with his arms. A wave cam from behind, pushing up first the rear end of the canoe, then the middle, then the front, but causing only a small shake up to them; then another wave, and another, each bigger, thrusting them higher and higher; as the canoe turned and rolled, they were sometimes above water, more often under water; fortunately, having grown up in a fishing clan, they knew how to swing with the waves, holding breath when under water, breathing in when above it; as the wave pushed them up the hill into the woods, it grew weaker, then receded, leaving them and their canoe among the trees

Fuxi and Nuwa had survived the tsunami

2.
Nuwa knelt on the beach looking out to the sea with Fuxi standing beside her holding a fishing spear, which was made by sharpening the tip of a branch, with backhooks that stopped fishes escaping, using a stone knife, which he carried in the mesh waist pouch. The sea was calm, and sunlight reflecting on its surface displayed a golden shine.

To the left lied the river, and the bank on the other side was a low cliff, under which the neighbouring clan used to live in several caves. It was rather troublesome to get there: one first had to go upstream to where the two sides of the river were about level, and go across by walking on the submerged rocks, to reach the grassland on which the buffalo herds roamed, then walk back downstream to the cliff, and crawl down along the path cut into the cliff to reach the caves; however, inside them it was very nice, warm in winter and cool in summer, with the floor covered by soft animal hides.

The neighbours had lived by hunting buffalos; whenever they needed food, the clan's hunting team would set out under its commander with spears and javelins, made by tying sharp flints to straight branches, preceded by the clan's dogs. When they see a suitable prey, the dogs would first rush up to surround it, harassing it to prevent it from escaping, and the hunters would then run up, wounding the buffalo from a safe distance by throwing javelins, making the animal tumble down from loss of blood and exhausion, so that the spearmen can approach and finish it off. They would then cut away the best pieces of meat to take back, leaving the dogs to eat their fill on the remaining carcass. What the dogs left behind would then be finished off by jackals and vultures.

However, the caves were now empty: yesterday's waves, reaching almost to the top of the cliff, had washed away everyone and everything, leaving behind just some heavy pots and jars, plus the jade axe their uncle used to carry. Even the spears and javelins, with their wooden handles, had been washed away along with the people. The few corpses left on the beach or among rocks were already chewed on by jackals and vultures beyond recognition.

They brought back the axe and laid it under their clan's sacred tree, so that the soul of their uncle returned to his birth place. A few dogs were lying around idly on the cliff; recognizing them, the dogs followed them home. With no one to take them hunting, they busied themselves catching rabbits and squirrels for food in the woods.

After Fuxi went fishing and brought back his catch - he found a new way to catch fish with a mesh: tie strings to four corners and lay it flat in water waiting for fish to swim above it, then lift up - Nuwa scraped the scales and removed the internals with a stone knife, then wrapped the fishes with mud to bake on the fire: this way they got heated more evenly and the juice stayed inside. By the time the fishes were cooked, the mud had turned into a hard red crust, which was how their pots and jars were made. Putting a fish and some water into a pot and hanging it over the fire, and you ended up with a tasty soup.

Now and then Nuwa would take some mud, mould it into human figurines, and bake them in the fire, then she left them standing around the sacred tree. Sometimes she cut some grooves on the backs of the figurines making up a mesh, and left them lying down as if they were sleeping on hammocks; maybe one day they would wake up, and then she would have family again.

As before, each night they would light a fire of life, and Fuxi would carry her into her hammock, but she no longer felt secure and comforted, but was frightened that one day he too would vanish like the others; though he still stayed beside her hemmock and swayed her, it was a long time each night before she was able to fall asleep.

All their family members, the whole buffalo hunting clan, all gone, the girls who were going to be Fuxi's companions, the boys that would come over to the Yao pool and become her companions, all had disappeared; they would have no one to be their companions...

Tomorrow would be the day when the sun would rise highest into the sky; tomorrow was the day to go to the Yao pool...

She asked Fuxi: "are you leaving here to search for a companion tomorrow?"

"That's the way it was supposed to be, but..."

"You go across the river tomorrow; last time I went over to the caves, I saw a girl living there by herself; she will be at their Yao pond tomorrow"

"What about you?"

"Dont worry about me; you must obey the ancestors' orders and follow the tradition"

"I will come back to see you often"

He swung the hammock gently, and Nuwa fell asleep soon ...

The next morning, Fuxi crossed the river and reached the Yao pond. On the edge of the pond was a buffalo hide robe, and a girl was bathing in the water. He went over and held the robe in his hand, and the girl turned around. She wore a buffalo horn on her head, as a buffalo hunter clan girl was supposed to do during the fertility festival, but her face was black with charcoal and he could not see her features.

She climbed up, wrapped the robe around herself, and led him by the hand into the woods.

3.
Fuxi and Nuwa were taking their children and dogs across the river, to visit their new neighbouring tribe, the Jinweis.

More than 10 years ago, on the day the sun rose highest, Nuwa said farewell to her ancestors under the clan's sacred tree, and crossed the river to the sacred rock of the buffalo hunting tribe, begging the clan's ancestors for permission to become a member. Since neither side's ancestors expressed anger, she darkened her face with charcoal, put on the buffalo hide robe that had been placed under the sacred rock for blessing, and wore on her head the clan emblem of buffalo horn, and went to the clan's Yao pool to wait for her brother Fuxi, who was coming to search for a companion.

After he had lied on top of her, the charcoal came off and Fuxi was shocked to discover that his new companion was in fact his own clan sister. That would have been against the teachings of their ancestors, but since there was no one else available to become their companions, and since he did love his sister very much, he accepted the fate accompli. It seemed however that the ancestors of both clans endorsed their action: they not only had many children, but all were healthy and smart.

Every year when the sun rose highest in the sky, they would first present their greetings to their birth clan ancestors under the sacred tree, then to their adoptive clan ancestors under the sacred rock across the river. Afterwards they would go to the edge of the cliff, each to throw into the sea a branch picked from the sacred tree and a stone taken from beneath the sacred rock, plus figurines of buffalo, dog and fish, to show their washed away family members that they are still remembered. When the weather was particularly cold, they would go and live in the caves for a few days, and occasionally even take the dogs to hunt a young and not so fierce buffalo, just to show that they were keeping up the buffalo hunter traditions. Their oldest boy could already take a javelin and go with them to hunt.

One day they found a new tribe had arrived across the river, also a buffalo hunting clan, in fact a very large one. Instead of living in trees or caves, they lived in tents made from tree trunks and hides, and hunted using small javelins shot out using a rope on a curved stick, able to wound a buffalo from very far away. They stuck a feather at the end of the javelin, which helped it to travel more straightly and on target; this was because their own ancestors were birds and the feathers provided their ancestors' blessing on the arrows.

To obtain feathers they had to shoot and kill birds, and each time this happened, they prayed for forgiveness under their sacred pole, which they set up in the middle of their camp wherever they went, and on which birds often perched. Their customary hunting grounds up north had a great fire, forcing them to go elsewhere.

Nuwa was very pleased to see them, since her own children would soon be 14 and would need companions. The family visited the new neighbours, taking along dried fish and pottery figurines as gifts. Their hosts did not seem to appreciate the smell of the fish that much, but were very interested in the figurines, passing them around, and each turned them to different angles and looked again and again. They had not learned to make pottery, and cooked by roasting big pieces of meat on an open fire, or heating up a rock and then frying thin meat slices on them. When they made their return visit and saw Nuwa cooking using pots, they were very interested and took some back as presents, leaving their curved stick and javelins, which they called bow and arrows, behind as presents, in addition to dry meat and hide. Soon Nuwa taught them to make pottery, as well as presenting them with some dogs to help in the hunting.

On the day when the sun rose highest and they were across the river on the other side, they found the Jinwei clan out on an open field standing in a semicircle, with a row of boys in front and a row of girls at the side; at the shout of the commander, the boys shot off arrows, and the boy whose arrow travelled furthest then went to the row of waiting girls, chose one, and led her into the woods; then the boy with the next furthest arrow, the next ... By the turn of the last boy, there were no girl waiting, and the commander looked around, saw the Nuwa family, and came over to suggest that their oldest daughter should go with the boy. However, Nuwa explained that in her clan, boys that wanted to be companions of its girls need to join the clan; the commander went back to talk to the clan chief, and they saw her nod in agreement, so that the commander came over again and told the boy to go home with Nuwa.

The boy was a bit thin and frail, and looked sad at having to leave his clan. However, Nuwa's daughter boldly went over and took his hand to lead him home, and he looked happier, but she was only 13 and it would be another year before she could go to the woods with him.

4.
Nuwa felt old. She became a mother at 15, grandmother at 30, and now another 10 years had passed. She looked at Fuxi, who used to be so agile, but now he was not only much slower, but had also lost half his teeth. She thought of her 12 children, most of them having left with the Jinwei tribe when it returned north to its ancestral hunting grounds, snake turning into bird, dragon turning into phoenix.

Nuwa's clan worshiped the snake; it was by praying for the help of the snake ancestors that a girl of the clan could learn to act correctly when she was with a boy in the woods, and also ensure the smooth passage of her baby at birth. On the clan's sacred tree there hung a clay statue of a serpent that swallowed its own tail, revealing the endless cycle of life: the end was also be beginning, and when one died, one merely started another life in a different place; it also mean thing was the same as nothing; the immortal teaching of the snake ancestors.

Now and then they would also witness the phenomenon of black snake rising: out over the sea, a black snake circling and circling, with its head in the clouds, lifting up sea water towards the sky and throwing thunder and lightning. Nuwa's mother said it was the snake ancestors reminding us of its power, lest we begin to neglect our duty towards them. Because it looked different, the divine serpent rising to heaven was called by the different name of dragon, and the clan called itself by the name Shenlong Divine Dragon.

Sometimes the tail of the dragon would come ashore, and wherever it passed, trees would be uprooted and people would be lifted into the air, while the sea water, sea weed, fish, etc it lifted earlier would be dumped on the ground. This happened not along ago: the tail came ashore at the cliff across the river, and passed the Jinwei campsite, destroying all their tents and killing/injuring many people.

Afterwards the Jinwei clan chief, the hunt commander and the chief's aunts/sisters held a meeting, and decided to return north: since their arrival, the number of buffalos had gone down considerably, showing that our ancestors felt this was not the right place for us to stay permanently, and the dragon ancestor's anger showed it did not welcome outsiders living here. They also talked about whether it was correct for the clan to have started eating fish and other food, instead of just meat as was their tradition, though the discussion was inclusive

The boy that came over to Nuwa's clan was a bit small in build and did not pick up hunting well; he also was not so steady in a boat so could not be a good fisherman. However he liked to go into the woods and fields looking for fruits and nuts that could be eaten, and knew where everything was and when it would be good to eat. Just before things were ripe enough for monkeys and birds to take, he would lead clan members out and cut down branches bearing the edible stuff, bring them back to ripen and give them out to everyone to share. These foodstuff not only provided a change of taste; the stomachs felt better with these supplementing fish and meat.

A few Jinwei boys stayed, but all the Shenlong boys and three Shenlong girls left with the Jinweis, whose customs were different, allowing companions to be found within the clan or brought back from outside, as well as boys leaving to be companions of others.

Nuwa made three terracotta dragons for the girls at the time they left, asking them to always honor their ancestors, and to drop branches and stones into the sea on every year's high summer day to remember their drowned kinsmen.