Trials: War by Stephanie Jones (the snowy day read aloud txt) 📖

pressing heat. I began to hear their terrified screams along with searing wolf howls. They continued to grow in numbers as more of my fire began to reach more of their soldiers. My foe started to collapse to the ground not to long after my fire touched them. I could see that they no longer had the breathe of life in them; that I had killed them. This part of war, the killing has never been okay with me; I will never let the idea of killing other men settle in me in such a way that I will find it acceptable. In war you must never take your eyes off of the enemy, or allow your attention to wonder in fashion. That is the error I just made; with the split second that I wasted watched my fire devour the goblins, another storm of them approached me with such velocity it astounded me. I backed into a defense stance and readied my sword to take on the onslaught. More was in the storm than what I anticipated; none of the goblins held back. I can see the anger in their eyes that I had taken the lives of their brothers. So many have already been lost in these 75 long years that if I wish to truly have peace then I must put an end to the battles and if that means more killing then so be it.

                With the force that the goblins attacked with I returned to them with double the magnitude. I refuse to give any ground, along with not letting any of them get near the gate to the castle. If one of them got past me and took a life of one of my friends I would never been able to forgive myself. I have to defeat this foe and quickly, before my brothers and sister decide to come join me on the battle field.

                I quickly elongate my sword to form a double bladed sword to maximize my ability to wound and kill my enemy. They hesitate when they see my sword change but they swiftly overcome it with rage. I cut at their heads, throats, and abdomen to make the chance of them getting back up close to none. Soon I see more and more bodies pile up around me; when I cut down the last goblin I bow my head and send up a prayer for forgiveness for taking away more lives that shouldn’t have been ended, but they needed to be so our world can come closer to knowing peace.  I start to hear the shouts of joy coming from within the castles walls and I’m reminded of whom all I did this for and how badly I want this retched war to end.

                Walking back towards the gate I see a captain and order him to start the clean-up immediately as well as to pick up our fallen comrades so we may give them a proper, respectful burial. I can’t look back to what is now soiled ground, for I know that if I do tears will come to my eyes and I will not be able to stop them. I walk briskly to my chambers so no one will dare to disturb me while I am in my rooms. I pass drapes torn and hanging limply from the walls; while I also see families rejoice and hug each other to celebrate the battle ending tonight.  I wish that I could go to my own family to join them in happiness of winning a battle, but I know I mustn’t. For if I wish to keep the reason why I’m so willing to fight by myself then I have to avoid any mention of the topic around my family; they will know if I’m lying as well. So I must be careful with how I act around them till my plan can get set in motion.

                When I get to my chambers I immediately light up my great hearth. It’s a grand one that’s taller than me and the width of it is twice the size of my height. I light it with a flick of my wrist that sends a small ball of fire towards the hearth and makes it come alive with a whoosh. Feeling warmth of the fire helps calm me down and allows me to process what just happened. Along with the fact that I had been careless and didn’t even try to find out why the goblins had attacked us. They have never attacked this close to either of the kingdoms; they’ve always done the towns and farms farther away. They have to be getting serious about trying to finally end this war. Over the past months it seems that almost everything has been dying, the trees, plants, animals. Even more people have been dying over the past couple months due to ‘natural causes’. I’m not so sure they’re natural anymore. I don’t know why the goblins are doing this to our world but they will be stopped. No one has the right to play master of the universe. I also will find out why the goblins have been so hell bent on continuing this war for so long. To find out these answers I need to meet the goblin whose responsible for it; Sdegr. Some people tell me that I’m psychotic and that I’m ridiculous. Well if it can bring peace to our world then I will do whatever it takes; even if that means going up against a satanic man.

                Now all I have to do is think of a logical plan to meet him. I’ve been counting on meeting him for 3 years now.  Each year he has gotten more and more radical. I must stop him. My fist goes straight through the table. I look down and see my hand full of splinters with blood cascading down from my knuckles to my fingers. I hold my hand up and look at it as the scarlet river known as blood now flows to the floor. Anything with the color red has always fascinated me. I don’t know if it’s because flames are red or if it’s because it’s so compelling and transcending. Slowly the blood stops to flow as my blood clots and my wound heals. I smashed the table straight in half; in-between those two halves was a pile of my blood. The pile was quit large, letting me know that I lost a considerable amount of blood. I turned my focus to my hand and saw that it was covered in scratches and already forming bruises. With my luck I probably broke at least one of my knuckles. Sighing, I knew I needed to go see a medic so my blooded hand doesn’t get any worse.

                I picked up my cloak that I had thrown over one of my many large chairs. Getting to the door I sensed someone else in the room with me. That said person was using magic to cloak his presence; I knew it couldn’t be any one of my siblings for they would have come out already and they wouldn’t have bothered to hide themselves. I also ruled out dwarfs for they never would have made up here, they also would never have done this. They are too proud of a race; they would have confronted me before I got in room. This all meant that it had to either be a fey or a goblin; a fey would never leave their precious forest unless it was a direct order from their queen and I highly doubt that the queen would waste her time telling one of her charges to sneak into my chambers.

                The presence moved; it jumped from one corner of my room where my desk was to the side where my bed is. How it moved gave me no doubt in my mind that it was a goblin. Out of my pepherial vision I saw a very dark squat form move with the shadows on my wall. The shadow was not as smart as it thinks it is. I threw my cloak towards where the goblin was hiding against the wall my bed was on. Not even a split second after I tossed my cloak I was on top of the creature. I use my fire to burn his hands and wrists as he tries to throw me off of him. He’s more skilled than I think he is; he hooks his right leg behind my knee and takes it out while using his elbow to thrust up into my abdomen, causing me to release his wrists. To regain my balance I lean more of my body on top of his. He uses this to propel my backwards against the wall. Landing on the balls on my feet, I’m finally able to see my foe. He’s one of the taller goblins I’ve seen, standing at close to 5”4. His skin on the other hand had to be one of the worst one I’ve ever seen, it’s green with gray spots that are either moss or large moles. The eyes of the creature are hawk eyes; they share the same intelligent look in them. He’s looking me up and down; assessing me and looking to see if he has the correct element I’m guessing. The goblin straightens up and goes down to fix his trousers. I know am paying attention to what he’s wearing; which is no shirt but with dark brown trousers that almost looks like leather. He clears his throat with a disgusting gurgle causing me to give him my attention.

                “You, I’m hoping is Lúldes, the element of fire.” Says he with a raspy voice hard on the ears.

                I look him square in the eye and nod my head to acknowledge what he said. He waits a couple to seconds to see if I’m going to do anything else, or to respond using my voice. When he sees he’s not going to get that privilege he shifts as if awkward, like he doesn’t know what to say now. I don’t have patience to deal with this goblin. I stare at him dead in his hawk eyes to tell him to either say what he needs to say or else I shall slaughter him where he stands. With this he realizes he’s made a grave mistake and goes to try to cover it.

                “Lady Lúldes, I have news from my master which I think will be of great news to you, if you allow me to speak it.” Hawk eyes try to look me in eye as he says this, and with great pain he sees he is not able to compete with my hardened stare.

                “Who’s your master.” I startled him by speaking. He visible takes a step back at the power I have put in my voice.

                “None other than the man you wish to see.” He fired back at me.

                This creature cant possible mean Sdegr. He sees hes once again made a mistake while I walk straight up to him so we are so close that only a small child would have been able to fit inbetween us. I look deep into his eyes to let him know if he even trys to fool me I will slowly tortur him to where no one will ever again be able to tell he is a goblin.

                “I advice you to use a name fool.” I growl right at his face. I can see he wants to back up so hes not as close to me but im not letting with my deadly stare. If this creature has any brains at all he will spill his guts to me this instense. I precede to tell him so to move this process along.

                He takes a slight step back before beginning. “Sdegr ma’m. Sdegr sent me to retreave you.”

                I am visible taken back by his statement. I