This is the first piece that I felt that I really liked. It was without a doubt my favorite because it was my first real action story. It had many actions scenes that I was proud of. Looking back on it I realize that these sections were boring. They only felt exciting to me because I could see what they were supposed to look like but the words on the page didn't express even half of what I had envisioned. As well, there were various grammatical mistakes throughout the whole piece that I found embarrassing. Although I feel slightly embarrassed by this piece, it still makes me feel accomplished because of the confidence I had in this piece. So please enjoy reading this piece.
Battle of A Life
Brian Haven had been preparing for this all of his life. Ever since he could remember, he wanted to become a knight. He always wanted to slay an evil dragon too. He just never thought that the dragon would be so big. He looked around; all around him lay either bones and armor, or gold. But he wasn't aiming for any of that junk. Instead he was looking for the lightning sword Exelon. He quietly snuck around the dragon aiming for Exelon. As he touched the sword flashbacks immediately came to him of how this all started.
Waking up on a bright crisp morning all he could think about was getting to be in his first battle. He considered it to be an honor to fight for his kingdom. Running to get his clothes on, he tripped on a loose floor board in his room. "Shit!" he yelled clutching his foot. "Just my luck," getting ready for the morning he limped down stairs for breakfast. He lived apart from his parents because of his training for knighthood. He used to live in a barracks with his mentor Garret. When he became a squire he got to go on campaigns with Garret, eventually earning enough money to buy a house of his own.
Locking the door he headed out towards the main castle. The long route usually took a couple of hours, but Brian knew a short cut through a forest that would make sure he got to the castle within an hour or so. The sun seemed about mid-day. So Brian started running towards the castle. The castle was not one of those pretty little castles you'd think of in a fairy tale or one of those really bad historical fiction stories; this was a castle designed for a siege as well as being designed for comfort. This castle had walls quarter of a mile high, with towers another quarter of a mile from the walls. It had a giant moat with live piranhas and alligators, which peons fed every day and ate on occasions where there was a feast. On the walls stood archers, stationed 24/7 with long bows that could reach up to 300 feet away, they also carried long poles to push away ladders and small explosives to drop on enemies.
Inside the castle was more luxurious then the outside indicated with over a hundred rooms made for weapons, guest housing, and food storage. In addition the castle had a giant courtyard with a well and a big pool, used for everything from washing clothes to fishing. It even had a decent plumbing system. At first sight, it seemed frightening, but the King who owned it was quite friendly. Brian came close to the castle and looked up in wonder; it was still amazing every time he saw it. Going inside he found that the king was having a meeting about some sort of war so Brian decided to wait in the barracks.
The barracks was not the worst thing in the world; it just smelled really badly of sweat. Other than that it looked perfectly fine. It had everything a man would need to combat a siege. Walking about he sat down with the other soldiers and slept. He dreamed of a battle field filled with rotting, decaying bodies, which looked like soldiers of battle. After walking about the field he saw people cut directly in half with organs and blood seeping from their stomachs. Then he saw the grim reaper with his dark cloak and his scythe. It looked at Brian with deep red eyes and it said with a chilling voice "You're Next," raising its hand and pointing it at him. Brian woke with a start, surprising the people around him. He got up and looked around; the meeting hall was full of people talking about the war and how it was affecting their economy. He found it kind of odd that they were talking about this when they should be talking about how to win the war. He got bored of the economy talk so he went outside. He walked around the courtyard of the castle for a bit looking up at the sky occasionally. It was night and the moon as abnormally yellow. He wondered why the moon was such a color tonight of all nights. Sitting down under a tree he rested in the cool air of the night. As he sat down though, he saw a dark figure moving towards the castle. He didn't worry about it until he saw the silver glint in the figure hand. Immediately Brian ran after the figure as fast as he could. The figure was very quick but Brian was faster. He charged the cloaked person and tackled him to the ground. The guards, hearing the scuffle came rushing onto the court yard.
"Hey, what's going on!?" yelled a Guard.
"I chased down an assassin over here," pointed out Brian, handing over to the now knocked out assassin. The guards hurriedly arrested the now unconscious assassin and carried him away to the dungeon. But as they carried him away a tattered piece of paper fell out of the assassin's pocket. Discreetly Brian came and picked it up. As he looked upon it he saw a map to the dragon's horde. Filled with excitement he rushed to the king to show it to him. When the king saw it he was very surprised.
"Where did you get this?" he asked.
"I found it," Brian said his voice trailing off since he didn't want the king to know he stole it.
"Very well," boomed the king. "We will set off in a week." Unable to hide his excitement he quickly went to the barracks to train with his fellow knights.
On the day of the dragon slaying Brian woke up with an enthusiastic start. After all he had been preparing for this day for a long while. He immediately went to the king, where he saw hundreds of soldiers preparing for the on coming onslaught. Archers were readying up for battle and the warriors were suiting up in their shining armor. Brian felt a little poor as he watched the knights ride their horses. He only had leather armor, two knives, and a bow. But he knew they had to be prepared for a fight with a dragon, he was just a scout. Brian ran towards the castle as soon as he saw the army readying to go.
"Wait for me!" shouted Brian though he knew no one could hear him. He ran towards the giant army of warriors, archers and scouts marching in a single file line. He knew most of them personally. He quickly fell into line with the rest of the scouts happy to be able to talk with friends.
It took the army a week, as a whole, to reach the dragon's horde. For Brian it was an extremely long week. He had nothing to do the whole time. They were wither marching across barren plains, or across swamps and marshes. As you would expect, it was a long trip. He knew that he and most of the other scouts could have made it to the cave in about 5 days. When they finally made it across to the cave he excepted everyone to be excited; after all, not many dragons were left since they were mostley killed in the last crusade. Many of the troops though were exhausted.
"Brian, come here," commanded the king.
"What is it?" asked Brian.
"I would like for you be a scout since the rest of us are all tried."
"Sure!" replied Brian excitedly, not knowing the trials awaiting him in the cave above. He rushed up the mountain. As soon as he was hlaf way up the mountain he flet the lack of air hit him, hard. He panted for air and felt like a man of 70 years old. He went as quickly as he could up the mountain. As soon as he reached the cave he saw the dragon. It was tentimes bigger than he imagined, it had massive jaws with teeth like an alligator. It was sleeping, almost snoring with its big jaws. He imagined it awake, attacking him with its massive strength. He got pretty scared. So he looked around at the dragon's horde, something he could take with him to show the king that he had gotten to the horde. There he saw it, glimmering with a bright sheen. Though this time was different; it wasn't a regular glimmering sword it was the legendary sword, the sword of lightning, Exelon. It was beyond a rare sight, something you'd only get to see once in a millennium. He slowly reached for the sword. As he did he ehard a giant snorting sound. He slowly turned around fearing the worst, and saw the dragon look at him with deep feral eyes. It's awake, he thought.
