Enemy Territory | Teen Ink

Enemy Territory

February 9, 2015
By Esteban Hurtado BRONZE, Grand Prairie, Texas
Esteban Hurtado BRONZE, Grand Prairie, Texas
1 article 0 photos 2 comments

“Clunk clunk clunk”. I heard the armor of my fellow soldiers as we marched toward the castle. I couldn’t believe what was happening. It felt like it was only yesterday when the guards arrived at my house and forced me to join the army.  I did not want to be here. I did not want to be freezing in this cold air, and I sure did not want to fight in this battle.  I tried to run away two times already, but the officers caught me both times. This unnecessary war was all King James fault! He sent an assassin to murder King Edward’s son so now King Edward sent us to attack King James’s castle and destroy it.
All the soldiers were walking slowly and looked terrified. I guess they also didn’t want to be here.  No one did. We were all terrified at what awaited us at the castle. Rumor had it that King James had a dragon to protect his castle. Other rumors said he had witches and sorcerers casting spells at us. I don’t believe in magic so I decided that the rumor of the dragon was more realistic. Either way, both rumors made me want to pee in my pants by just thinking about it. I don’t want to die! I’m barely twenty years old. I’m barely starting my adult life. I’m supposed to be trying to run a shop and starting a family, not fighting in an idiotic war.
Suddenly I felt a change in the air. It felt different, a bad different. It felt like we didn’t belong there.  Everyone around me started to whimper and some soldiers even started to cry. I didn’t know what they were scared of so I pushed to the front of the line to see what they had seen. When I got to the front, I began to tremble almost immediately. In the distance I saw the castle. And standing right next to the castle were a ton of soldiers and an enormous dragon. I then realized why the air felt different. We had entered enemy territory.
One of the commanders, Robert, started to shout at us. He said, “We are MEN, not boys! It is better to die brave then to die scared. Do not be afraid to die. We will unite and defeat them.” He kept on talking but I ignored him. I really doubted that we would win. I began to think of ways of how to survive. Should I pretend to die and then run away or should I just run away when everyone is fighting? Robert broke my train of thoughts as he screamed “ADVANCE!” We all began to march again, and I calculated that we would reach the castle in less than 30 minutes.
Those 30 minutes went by in a blink of an eye. We soon arrived at the castle. I saw the dragon again and I wanted to throw up because it was so repulsive. It had green, slimy scales and its eyes were a bright red. It was 30 feet tall and it had huge wings. King James soldiers looked confident and strong while my comrades were trembling and whimpering. Everything was silent until Robert yelled “ATTACK!” And that is when chaos was unleashed.
Everyone scrambled as the dragon breathed fire. I looked at the ground and saw that some of my companions were turned into ash. At that point, I wasn’t afraid. I was furious. It wasn’t fair that they had a dragon and we didn’t. It wasn’t fair that we had to fight someone else’s battle. I ran and hid behind some trees. “What should I do?” I asked myself. The rage inside me commenced to control me. I began to think of ideas of how to harm the dragon. The only weapon I had with me was a knife. I decided that I was going to climb it from the behind and then stab it in the eye so it couldn’t see where it breathed fire. I took a deep breath and began to run.
  As I raced toward the dragon, I saw many of my fellow soldiers on the ground. Some were turned into ash and others had knifes protruding from their stomachs. This fueled my anger and made me more intrepid. I jumped on the dragon from behind and started to climb. Its scales were so slimy and greasy that I almost fell multiple times.  I focused on my anger so I could complete my task. As soon as I got to the neck, I plunged the knife in the dragons left eye. Blood immediately started to gush out. The dragon roared so loud that I lost my sense of hearing. Using the rest of my adrenalin, I took out the knife and stabbed it in its right eye.  The dragon screamed again and I fell to the floor.  I began to cheer until I felt a sharp pain. I looked down and saw a knife protruding from my stomach. I fell to the floor and blood kept on gushing out. I looked up at the sky. It was already night and I saw the stars.
“Is he dead?” asked a soldier.
Robert checked the pulse of the soldier that blinded the dragon. He said, “He is dead.  Thanks to him, we won the battle!”



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This article has 2 comments.


on Mar. 3 2015 at 11:42 pm
Esteban Hurtado BRONZE, Grand Prairie, Texas
1 article 0 photos 2 comments
Thanks fam

on Mar. 3 2015 at 2:53 pm
Jesus Medina BRONZE, Arlington, Texas
1 article 0 photos 1 comment
Best story I have ever read