The Dragon King is an antagonist in the Magic Tree House book series. He is the main antagonist of, Day of the Dragon King.
History[]
Day of the Dragon King[]
Two weeks after the new Master Librarians saved the story of Hercules from the destruction of Pompeii Morgan le Fay was sending Jack and Annie to ancient China to save another lost story. She gave them a piece of bamboo, what the Chinese wrote on before paper, and told them to save this story before the Imperial Library is destroyed. The book that took them there was called The Time of the First Emperor.
Jack read about the first emperor of China, the Dragon King, named due to him choosing that symbol. Once there, a cowherd requested the kids to tell a silk weaver to meet him at twilight. However, he seemed scared when they asked where the Imperial Library was and told them to beware of the Dragon King. As a thank you for the message, the silk weaver gave them a ball of silk. She said the Dragon King will have anyone who steals the making of China’s most valuable secret arrested and put to death.
Upon hitching a ride in an ox cart, Jack read that the Dragon King forced his subjects to build the Great Wall of China for protection from invaders. He was the first, but later emperors made it longer. The man in the cart was actually a scholar, they have gone into hiding because the Dragon King was afraid of the power of their books and learning, he wanted to make people think only his thoughts. Jack and Annie realized that this was the day of the book burning at the Imperial Library! They revealed to the scholar that they were Master Librarians, he agreed to take them to the library to save the story, he knew it well, it was true and recent.
They passed the Imperial Burial Grounds where the Dragon King’s ancestor is buried, soon he will join them. Jack saw smoke and realized the burning was already starting! The Dragon King himself stepped outside the palace, he watched the bonfire burn and made his soldiers throw more of the books in. One bamboo book had fallen off a waiting stack, the scholar said that was the one they wanted, Annie quickly snatched it. This made the Dragon King mad; he ordered his soldiers to capture them. As archers shot at them, the scholar told Jack and Annie to hide in the burial grounds as the soldiers fear the spirits of the ancestors.
Inside they found life-size clay figures that the Dragon King also had made hoping they would protect him after he died. Although amazed by the statues, the kids realized they were lost and couldn’t get out. Morgan had told them that while the research would guide them, the story would save them during their darkest hour. Since it was really dark in there, Jack asked the story to help them get out. Suddenly, the ball of thread rolled to the exit, leaving behind a trail for Jack and Annie to follow outside. Before they left in the Magic Tree House, the two saw the silk weaver and the cowherd waving goodbye.
A Perfect Time for Pandas[]
In this book, Jack and Annie had to go to China again to get ingredient to unpetrify Penny, Merlin's pet penguin. They remember how the Dragon King burned those books and tried to kill them.
Trivia[]
- Although, not referred to by name in the main story, the Dragon King is based on the real-life person, Shi Huangdi. He had united China into a country after it was divided into many kingdoms in 221 B.C..
- Ever since the 1970's, archaeologists have been investigating the Dragon King’s tomb. Over 50,000 artifacts have been unearthed.
- The book he appears in is the only one where the story is not a powerful being rescuing Jack and Annie. In Vacation Under the Volcano, Viking Ships at Sunrise, and Hour of the Olympics, they were rescued by Hercules, Sarph (a sea serpent), and Pegasus. Each story is connected to the stars, in this case, the Chinese legend of the silk weaver and the cowherd is connected with the stars, Vega and Altair. The two were married on earth, but when they returned to heaven, they were so happy that they refused to work. The king and queen of Heaven grew angry and separated them by the Milky Way. However, once a year, they are together. On the seventh day of the seventh moon, magpies make a bridge between them.
| Magic Tree House Villains | ||
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Main books Merlin Missions Both | ||