The Hero Man | Teen Ink

The Hero Man

April 30, 2018
By Anonymous

There once was a little boy from a little village called Hawktree hall. He was a nice little boy, hung out with friends, had a dog and did work on his parents farm. One day he wandered off into the forest a little farther than normal. He found the sacred ogre’s swamp. He found the ogres house and knocked on the door.
“What are you doing here?” said the ogre. The boy was terrified, he backed away from the ogre and said
“Sorry, just walked in here by accident.”

“WELL THEN YOU BETTER GET OUTTA HERE PRETTY SOON OR ELSE I’LL STEAL YER EARS!” That did it for the little boy. He ran all the way home to his parents. He could hear the ogre listening to all star as he ran away. He tried to convince his parents about what happened but they did not believe him one bit.
“Young man, you know you. can't go around calling random people ogres, it's very rude,” His parents told him.

He kept on trying to make them believe him but it was no use. He took his father's horse and rode into town looking for work. As he was riding, he saw the ogre walking around in the woods dragging a deer behind him. He’d heard news about a party of men who went into the forest looking for the ogre. He thought he could hear the deer yelling for help. The hero made it to town and asked the blacksmith for work.

“Ye can grab that bag right there and put it in the back” The blacksmith said. The hero did as he was told and went to lift the bag. It was then that he learned the bag was filled with varying bars of metal and smithing supplies. The hero groaned as he realised that he would have to pick up the bag and carry it up two flights of stairs to the smith’s store room. He picked up the bag and carried it up the stairs. He dragged the bag through the door to the smiths house and put it on one of the many shelves in his store room.
“Anything else you need me to do sir?” asked our Hero

“If you can sharpen this sword then it's yours.” Our Hero excitedly took the sword and looked at the dents and nicks in the blade. He knew it would not be a perfect blade after but it would at least be a blade. Our hero kept on doing all these petty little jobs for people around town and raised himself some money he could use to buy some chainmail. He walked sluggishly over to his father's horse who was grazing on a small patch of grass and mounted him.
“Where have you been all day young man?” Asked his mother.
“Sorry Ma. I was doing a couple of jobs so I could make some money.”
“Well, next time at least tell me you are because I was worried sick all day that you had gone back into those woods and gotten yourself lost.”

Our hero hugged his mom and then tied up his dads horse to one of the fence posts. He walked inside and sank gratefully to his bed. He laid down and thought to himself if he should really go through with trying to slay the ogre. He laid there for about an hour and then finally caught some sleep with his mind still trying to work itself through the problem.

He awoke suddenly and looked around his room. Something had aroused him from his sleep. He stood up and walked into the main room of the house. He checked all the rooms in the house but everything was all where it was supposed to be. He checked his armor and his sword but they both seemed to be in good condition. He shrugged it off and went back to sleep. Little did he know someone or something had sabotaged his sword.

In the morning his mom made him some breakfast with eggs.
“Please tell me you're not actually going to go through with this.” said his mother
“Cmon Ma, I have to do it, you and I both know that ogre is a problem to more than just our town.”
His mother looked at him as if it could change his mind but she knew that it was the right thing for him to do.

“Alright, just make sure you are home for dinner young man,” She said with a wag of her finger and a sad smile on her face. Our hero grabbed his gear and put on the chainmail and mounted his father's horse. He rode slowly through the woods to not put a strain on his dads horse and risk it breaking its leg on all the uneven surfaces. He tried to plan everything out in his head before it happened. He found the ogre’s house once again and could feel the butterflies in his stomach bouncing around. He spotted the ogre and yelled a challenge.
“Ogre, I challenge you to a duel.”
The ogre turned to look at him and when he saw a small young boy who was probably still wet behind the ears.
“You must be out of ye mind to challenge the like of me.”

The ogre grabbed the closest thing to him and swung it experimentally. The hero dismounted his horse and tied him to a tree. He stepped forward to face the ogre

“Hear that frog croaking in the bog to your left? The next time it croaks we shall begin the duel” Our hero acknowledged that there was a frog in the bog and his mind began racing with strategies to try and fight this ogre with but for some reason, none of them seemed to start to materialize for him. The frog croaked and immediately the ogre took a surprise swing at our hero. He danced swiftly to the side and prepared to attack the ogre. He stepped forward and into a distance where the ogres club would not be as effective.

He swung a overhead thrust at the ogre and he easily deflected the blow with his club. That's a strong branch he thought to himself. The ogre had been planning on the boy returning to challenge him so he had inserted a metal rod into this specific club and he kept it close by to make it seem like it was just a random stick that he had just found next to him. The boys sword would not be able to take much of a blow because of the hollowed out inside. The blade was still razor sharp, but was as brittle as a tiny stick. The ogre took another swing and this time the club got stuck in the ground and our hero noticed something.

That armor he’s wearing separates from the head whenever he tries to pull up the club! He thought to himself. He now had a plan that he knew would work. He didn't know how he knew it would work but he just did. He waited for the ogre to take another swing at him. Here it came! The ogre smiled in triumph as the boy feinted a trip and he swung an overhead swing to come crashing down on him. The boy immediately sprung up and as the ogre tried to pull his club out of the ground he slid his sword through the crack in between his helmet and his armor. The ogres face was surprised and then dull as he crashed to the ground.

Our hero stood there for a couple of seconds and just looked at the ogres dead body in awe. He finally got a hold on himself and decided he should take a look around. He checked inside his house, which was surprisingly well decorated for a massive tree stump the ogre called home. He found a little room in the back and saw that there were people locked up in a cage and they were all either asleep or crying to themselves. These must be all those people that went missing. He walked to the cage and one of the people looked up at him thinking it was the ogre about to take one of them away for his next meal. But his facial expression changed quick when he saw that it was a young boy wearing a bit of armor.
“Who are you?” asked the man in the cage “And what are you doing in here! That ogre said he would be back in a couple of minutes!”
“That ogre is dead sir.” The man in the cage’s face lit up so fast

“Guys! Guys, get up! This man has saved us!” all the people in the cage started to wake up. There were a total of four people in the cage. Two young kids, the guy who had seen the hero and a girl about the same age as the hero. He found the key on a table near the cage and unlocked the cage. He showed them to his horse and told the girl and the two kids to get on. They did so gratefully and the hero knew that they would not be able to walk for long. The other man said he could walk and the hero grabbed the horses lead and they all walked back to town.

When they arrived back home, the heroes mother had assembled a group of people to congratulate him and thank him for what he had done. But since it had taken him so long, people had started to lose hope and the group shrank. Now it was mostly all the people who had had their family taken from them by the ogre. When the hero and the people he saved stepped into the clearing where the party was waiting, the parents all rushed to meet their lost but returned loved ones. The hero’s mother and father ran toward him and his mom had tears running down her face.
“I'm so happy you're alive! Are you ok?” asked his mom
“I'm fine Ma”
“I'm proud of you son, you did a great thing today.” His father told him.
“Thanks Pa” His mom hug him and his father gave him an approving nod which was good as a whole paragraph of praise. That night the town came together to have a bonfire in the name of the hero. You could hear everyone chanting his name when he arrived.
“Turner! Turner! Turner!” They all shouted. People came up to him, shook his hand or slapped him on the back congratulating him and thanking him. At one point the girl he had saved came up to him and kissed him on the cheek as a thank you for rescuing her. Turner’s face turned red and he nodded to her with a smile. He knew he had done a great thing and spent the rest of the night dancing with that girl. He never figured out her name but for some reason, he thought asking would ruin the moment. His parents saw and they were filled with pride and happiness. Today has been a good day Turner thought to himself. A very good day indeed.


The author's comments:

I wrote this little short story on a whim of just making something fun


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