Yomngga and the Dragon

YOMNGGA was a beautiful girl. She lived with her grandmother. Actually Yomngga had
two sisters. But they lived in another village.

Yomngga was a kind girl. She always helped her grandmother in the field. Every
morning they went to the field and they always went back home in the afternoon.
Every day they took the same route.

They did not know that a dragon was always looking at them when they passed by a
big tree. It was the dragon's house.

The dragon was not an ordinary dragon. During the day he was a dragon, but in the
evening he changed into a handsome man. A witch had cursed him.
The dragon fell in love with Yomngga. However he did not know how to express his
feeling. He could only stay in the trees during the days. He was afraid people, people
would kill him if he showed himself. He wanted to visit Yomngga at night when he
changed into a human. The problem was he did not know where she lived.

Finally he could not stand it anymore. When he saw Yomngga was almost passing by
the big tree, the dragon got off from the tree and approached Yomngga and her
grandmother.

Of course they were shocked. They became more shocked when they saw the dragon
was able to talk like a human.

"Don't be afraid. I will not harm you. I just want to know where you live."

Yomngga was shocking. She did not know what to do. And after she calmed down, she
told the dragon about her house. And it made the dragon happy. He then let them
continue their trip.

At night the dragon came to the Yomngga's house. He came as a handsome man. At
first, Yomngga was confused. But after the dragon explained about the witch, she
understood.

“Yomngga, Please accept me as your husband. Please, accept me as I am. Due to the
witch, this all happened to me”

The dragon continued to come to Yomngga's house on the following nights. Soon they
fell in love and get married. Yomngga could understand that her husband always
changed into a dragon during the days. The grandmother agreed to their marriage but
she asked the dragon to keep on staying in the house when he became a dragon. She
did not want the villagers to kill him. Yomngga kept her marriage as their big secret.
She even did not tell her two sisters.

Later Yomngga got pregnant. Her two sisters heard the news and they were very
curious who her husband was. So they came to Yomngga's house. When they saw the
dragon, they got very angry. And they got very angrier when they knew that the
dragon was Yomngga's husband. They did not care although the dragon changed into a
man at nights. They hated the dragon very much. Therefore, they planned to kill him.
“Oh… my sisters, please accept him as your brother in law, He is innocent as a witch
cursed him, this is fate”
One of her sister angrily answered “No… this is not fate at all, He is a disgrace to our
family” then, they leave the pregnant woman alone.

One day the two sisters visited the dragon. The dragon did not know that they had
prepared poisoned food. When the dragon ate the food, he died instantly.

The villagers saw the dead dragon. The two sisters told the villagers about the
dragon. And when the villagers knew that the dragon was Yomngga's husband, they
asked Yomngga to leave the village. Yomngga was very sad. She lost her beloved
husband and she had to leave her grandmother in the village.

Yomngga left the village with a sampan. She rowed it along the small river. Since then
people named the river as Yomngga's river.