By Arjun D.

I see her. In my scope. The daughter of the chief of the elves. I watch as she talks to her guards and advisors. She’s currently preparing for a peace negotiation with the king of the dwarves.
She’s moving too much; I can’t get a clear shot.
A bead of sweat rolls down my face.
It’s mid-afternoon. The timing is tricky. If I shoot too early, I might hit one of the guards instead but if I shoot too late my shot will hit nothing. Nevertheless, I put my finger on the trigger and fired. My shot lands home and my target goes down.
I hear panic but I’m too busy packing up my stuff to care. I practically shove my smoke grenades into my pouch before taking off, running. My wolf, Nightmare, is waiting for me near the Mortis Forest which is quite close to where I am. As I run, I hear shouts behind me. The elves have found me.
I quicken the pace, pelting down the beaten-up dirt road. I see Nightmare now; the massive wolf is flapping his wings in agitation. And yes, Nightmare has wings and is slightly larger than your average African bush elephant. He spots me and hurries over, his large paws thudding against the ground. I run over to him and jump onto his back, securing myself on a makeshift saddle I created years ago. He senses that something is wrong and starts to take off from the ground. Right then I hear screaming and I realize that the elves are shouting things at us. But they are not insults or curses. They are some kind of incantations. I don’t understand exactly but I can tell something is wrong and so can Nightmare. He starts to growl but just as suddenly as the chanting started it stops. I glance around in confusion.
Then suddenly a blast of fire comes out of thin air and hits Nightmare in the face. He howls in agony, and I’m thrown off his back. I hit the ground hard and rolled to avoid being trampled by his massive paws. My mind whirls with thoughts of concern. That wolf has been with me since the beginning. My thoughts are interrupted when I see an elf say another word, “Vatn.”
Seemingly out of nowhere, a massive wave of water hits me in the face. I struggle to stand up and spit water out of my mouth. I see the elf about to say another word, but quickly kick wet sand into his face. He spits and tries to blink the sand out of his eyes, but I close the distance and punch him in the stomach. He doubles over in pain, and I push him onto the ground.
I turn around to see what’s happening with Nightmare. He’s in the air, his normally green eyes are now bright purple, and his mouth is wide open. There’s a faint purple glow radiating from his mouth, and I realize what’s about to happen.
He blasts a wave of purple fire across the lines of the elves. Most of them don’t even have time to scream. They die as soon as the purple flames hit their bodies.
One elf comes crashing down next to me and I frantically back away. I don’t want to be hit by another wave of water.
The elf grunts out a word. “Salus” Instantly the elves burn wounds begin to heal and he groans in relief. He looks over and his calm expression turns to one of alarm. He opens his mouth to say something, but I quickly draw one of my pistols and fire. Nothing happens. It’s jammed.
My opponent says another word: “Exarmar.”
My gun goes flying out of my hand and I cry out in confusion. He opens his mouth again, but I kick him as hard as I can in his face. He cries out in pain and rolls over.
My head tells me I should end him right here, so he doesn’t know who I am but on the other hand, I’ve done what I set out to do, kill the chief’s daughter. My work here is done.
I run towards Nightmare and whistle as loud as I can. He stops breathing fire and flies towards me. I jump on top of the makeshift saddle, and he jumps into the air. Down below I hear more elves screaming more strange words as we fly. I urge Nightmare to fly faster as more and more elves start screaming. I see a large dark shape looming above me and I realize with a yelp that it’s a boulder.
Nightmare also notices and desperately tries to dodge but it’s too late. The boulder hits him straight in the head and he starts falling, unconscious.
Desperately I hold onto the saddle trying not to fall off of him. I see smaller boulders also flying toward us. They hit him so hard that I went flying off of his body.
A shard of the boulder also hits me in the head as I fall. The last thing I remember is seeing Nightmare’s colossal body falling as a valley of boulders raining down upon us. Everything goes black.

About the Author

Arjun D. is a 13-year-old from North Carolina. He enjoys spending time with his dog, reading and writing creative story ideas and concepts to share with people.