Week 3 Story: A One Man Army
King Leonidas in battle in the movie "300"
The sun was setting, but this night did not result in the blanket of night, rather a blood-red sky covered the land as the beasts of the jungle roared and howled. Leonidas knew that the time for battle was soon approaching. Depraved of his spartans, Leonidas knew that he must protect his queen by any means necessary.
"My king, where should I position myself?" asked Lak, one of Leonidas' finest generals.
"Nowhere" Leonidas spoke. "As much as I would enjoy dying side-by-side with you on the battlefield, my number one priority is making sure my queen is safe. I need you to take her deep into the forest and find a cave to hide in. Guard her with your life, and do not come out until you hear my command."
Though one of the fiercest warriors in Sparta, Lak simply nodded and with a "Yes my king" he was gone, leading lady queen Gorgo deep into the dark forest.
The howls of the oncoming demon horde grew louder and more violent, and Leonidas knew the time for bloodshed was soon upon him. Armed with only a bow and short sword gifted to him by Zeus, Leonidas stood his ground, drew his bow, and aimed at the black forest in front of him.Soon, out of the abyss of night rushed forward tens of thousands of animalistic demons. The blood curdling screams of the monsters would strike fear in any man, but Leonidas stood still and calm as the ocean. He patiently aimed his bow, and launched a volley of fire-tipped arrows into the hearts of the beasts. The demons roared out in agony as the king continued to pelt them with a fiery barrage of arrows.
After all of the beasts were consumed by the fires of the gods, there was a long silence. Only the sound of the crackling fire among the corpses of the demons plagued the deathly still silence of the aftermath. As Leonidas was about to put his arrows back in his quiver, he stopped. Something was moving, but he could not find what and where the sound was coming from. As he began to speak into the darkness, thinking it must be Lak, a fiery chariot erupted from the darkness being piloted by 2 demons. But these demons were different Leonidas thought to himself. They weren't snarling or howling like the others, they were not rabid like their peers. These demons wore mismatched armor with their massive muscles causing them to be on the verge of bursting at the seams, unlike the rest of their kind who went into battle wearing nothing but blood stained pelts. The demons continued on their war path towards Leonidas, they spoke.
"Give us Gorgo weak king! We demand her blood!" While this stunned Leonidas, as he had never heard a demon speak greek before, he was not faltered. As the demons prepared to pounce from their chariot, Leonidas took his short sword and impaled one demon in the chest. The demon cried out in anguish, "This is impossible! No mortal weapons can strike me!" Leonidas calmly replied, "These are no mortal weapons. Feel the power of Zeus' lighting flow from my blade." The demon's last words were simply "Retreat! His weapons are from the gods! Find the king of demons and warn him!" This caused the other demon to quickly jump off of the chariot and flee towards the darkness. With one long pull of his bow, Leonidas shot a flaming arrow into the back of the fleeing demon and it burst into flames.
After all had quieted down, Leonidas yelled to the sky and Lak and Gorgo emerged from the darkness moments later. Though covered in the dark black blood of demons, Gorgo rushed to her king and kissed him, before promptly slapping him and yelling "Never scare me like that again!" with tears in her eyes. Lak simply smiled and whispered to his king "You're lucky you lived If you died, I imagine she would scourge through the depths of Hades just to scold you."
Authors note:
I wrote my story based off of page 30, of the Ramayana public domain edition, titled "Battle with Khara." In this page, Rama is tasked with fighting off 14,000 demons, lead by Ravana's brothers Khara and Dushana. In this story, Rama asks his brother to take Sita into hiding as he battles alone. The story concludes with Rama victorious over all of the demons, and he slays Ravana's brothers using a "great celestial weapon." The story concludes with Sita coming out of the cave and kissing Rama. This massive battle (14,000 against 1, that's crazy!) reminded me of the movie 300, where the 300 spartans were tasked with an unlikely war where they were severely outnumbered as well. If you have seen 300, you know how graphic the movie is. I took this style into my writing, hence why I emphasized the fear of the demons and blood that was spilled. I used special weapons from Zeus to compensate for the celestial weapon used int he story, as I had no idea what "weapon" it was, so I just picked a bow and a short sword. I used the name of the King and Queen from 300 to represent Rama and Sita, and I just changed Lakshmana to a spartan general named Lak.
Bibliography:
Ramayana Online: Public Domain Edition
http://ouocblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/pde-ramayana-battle-with-khara.html
Hi Matthew, I enjoyed reading your short story! I also enjoyed the way you used dialogue between characters in your short story. That is something I could grow and get better at. I also liked how you described and used imagery to explain the story and the setting of your short story. Again I enjoyed reading through your short story and look forward to reading your future stories!
ReplyDeleteI really liked this story! I think combining it with the movie 300 really gave it a unique flair but you're right, the stories are pretty similar and combining them does make sense. One thing I would say is to pay attention to your punctuation, especially in your dialogue. But overall, this was a really interesting read and I enjoyed your unique take on it.
ReplyDeleteMatthew,
ReplyDeleteAwesome picture and probably the best one you could have used from the movie. 300 is one of my favorite movies, so your post has automatically become my favorite. I really enjoyed how you put a twist on the original story and made it about the Spartans. This twist made your story unique and I even think your dark toned background added a special effect to your overall post. Awesome job!