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Minli lives in a small house with her parents. She loves to listen to stories that her father tells her for fun. They are very poor and own only a small house and farm.
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The Story starts in the Village of the Fruitless Mountain in China. Fruitless mountain is completely bare with no vegetation. Minli lives in a small one room hut with her family. They also own a small field for a farm where they grow different crops.
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The charecters in the exposition are Minli, Ma, Ba, the goldfish man, dragon, and the villagers. You will later find the old man of the moon, the king. the monkies, the stone dragons, the merchants and the buffalo boy.
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Ma and ba, Minli's parents, come home to find that Minli has run away. They are very upset and afraid for Minli, so they decide to go after her. Instead, of finding Minli, they meet the man who sold her the goldfish.
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Minli and her parents are very poor and lack many resourses. Her mother is always unhappy due to their condition. When she meets a goldfish seller, she uses her little money to buy one because it is said to be magical. Ma is upset so Minli lets it go. The fish grants her the directions to never ending mountain so that she can change her family"s weath. She embarks on a mission to go to Never Ending Mountain and meet the Old Man of the Moon, so that he may answer her question.
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Minli meets a dragon trapped in the vines and he tells her how he was trapped by the greedy evil monkies. Minli helps him escape and they become friends.
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Dragon and Minli's friendship bonds as they trick the greedy monkies, so that they can have peaches for themselves.
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Minli and Dragon journey to the city so that they can find the man of the moon together. There, they meet two stonelions who help them by giving advice.
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When Minli gets into the city, she meets a boy and he lets her stay with him in his little house. He tells her about a magical mysterious girl that he had been seeing.
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Minli realizes that the beggar was the King in disguise. She follows him through a secret door and then befriends him. She tells him of the quest that she is on and how she is looking for the borrowed line. He finds a borrowed line and gives it to Minli, to help her on her quest.
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While Minli is in the village, Dragon talks to the two stone lions who give him a different borrowed line. This one is a red string.
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Minli is walking through the village when she sees a merchant being cruel to an old beggar, begging for one peach. Minli feels terrible for him, and people stare as she buys the beggar a peach. He then takes the peach and plants it in the ground. It immediately grows into a magic peach tree, which really was coming from the merchant's stand. Everyone eats the peaches and the beggar thanks Minli. As he turns to leave, she notices the dragon symbol hidden behind his clothes.
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While in a cave, a poisonous tiger tries to attack Minli, but Dragon fights it back, getting a poisonous scratch in the progress.
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Two children named Da-Fu and A-Fu trick the evil green tiger into falling into his death. This saves their small village. They become friends with Minli and Dragon and they go for help to save Dragon's life.
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Dragon becomes very weakened from his wound, so Da-A-Fu take them to stay with their family until he got better.
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Minli and Dragon finally reach the mountain, with the guide of Da-A-Fu when Dragon is finally healed.
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When they reach never ending mountain, their "borrowed lines" help them to reach the top. When she finally sees the old man of the moon, he tells her that she can only ask one question. She chooses Dragon's over hers,
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The Old man of the moon answers the question and they figure out why dragon can't fly. They fix the problem and Dragon flies Minli home.
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As Minli comes home, the once fruitless mountain is not full of beautiful nature. They believe that is was the return of dragon to the village. Minli realizes how happy her family really is and they live happily ever after. :)
