The Elemental Sword

                                By: Chad, 7^th grade

                “Hermes! Hermes!”                                                                                                                                                                             (I came to after a few more calls from Servien my mentor.) My head ached after the sudden hit to the head, must have gotten knock out; even him calling my name gave sudden strikes of pain trough my scull.

                When the pain and partial dizziness went away I asked Servien to help me up because I found that my ankle was sprained during the sparring session. When I came up on my two feet I looked for the brass sword I was using in the battle. Looking right to left, beyond the flowers and the light green grass that made up the field stood a group of dark shaded bushes where lied underneath was my weapon. Even though I was sparring with one of the most skilled warriors in all Lathieland his hit to my blade must have been swift along with great force to have done so much as to make it fly thirty feet away in the opposite direction; at that moment was most likely when I got knocked out. I walked over to my sword and picked it up and walked back to Servien.

                “Alright, started Servien that ends our training session for today.”

: If it wasn’t over the next blow such as the one from earlier might as well could have killed me!:

                As we started walking back from our training grounds towards the royal cathedral that stood 150 feet tall and 400 feet wide, also known as the greatest cathedral in all the land. We stepped into the cathedral and even so after all these years of being in this house of worship, it is always a mesmerizing site to see on the inside with the molded ruby and Safire windows leaving a thick and purple flash of sunlight flashing down on anybody sitting beside it, a twenty foot gold cross standing behind the bishop’s stand and in the middle of the golden cross was a three inch wide ruby symbolizing the blood that was shed from Jesus. Towards the right of the stand was a wooden table which held a representation of the Holy Grail which was two feet in height molded from the richest gold with jewels planted around the one foot wide and half a foot deep dome. Of course the size of the cathedral was to massive for only one grail to drink from so, there were many sections of communion services spread around the church. There were many, many rows of seats three feet standing and each with thin gold and silver plating amongst the back and with fine velvet cushions that lie across each row of seats.  The floor was made of fine marble and stone that are in a cubic form making a pattern of each parallel along each other.

                The ceiling held humongous painting of Jesus rising from the grounds of Jerusalem looking down among his followers while up above in heaven angels look down as they await Jesus’ return to heaven as the holy light of God lay among all of them. This painting was so huge yet, so detailed. This was the most famous of paintings in all of all Lathieland and the painting that took the longest for such artistry. This extraordinary painting took three months with the elimination of any mistake even the slightest along with working 6 days with most of the sunlight. The cathedral took half a year without too many of the decorations. The general cathedral structure was made of stone with a steeple that held a twelve foot tall solid gold bell with a long rope to signal all kinds of church services. The king usually attends church on Sunday and sometimes night services on Mondays.

                As I snapped out of the trance that the church had held me in I realized that Servien was as well gazing upon the church as I was. The Bishop apparently was in his chambers, probably checking messages from around the kingdom for lists of prayers for themselves, for family and of all other sorts. I asked where we were headed and Servien replied and said that I go back home and he to the king’s castle. I said my goodbyes and started the opposite direction when we came to an intersection of pathways alongside the tool market and the old but popular pub- Long Horn’s. I turned and looked northward where the king’s castle was upon; the tallest of all hills actually is where it lay for two centuries. It came to me once more that the castle was so humongous that even from the farthest of distances in this kingdom the castle always stood high in sight. The town was also fairly wealthy as well. We are practically the gold mine of the land; many kingdoms have debts to pay from borrowing so many times. Only few citizens are poor but we all support our fair share to the church to help such occurrences.

                I turned from castle’s direction to the direction of my house and started walking down the dirt road when it suddenly came to my mind that mother had asked me to pick up a bottle of red wine, a new sword sheath  for me, and also a new saddle for anomorous our horse and a couple of other minor items. But, the thing was the market that carried these items, was a small old building named Old Humung’s that was almost in the opposite direction of my house in an hour’s worth of time. It was already getting dimmer in the sunlight and I am on a time limit only for a few hours but, I must do as my mother tells me even if it will make me late. When I made it to the Old Humung’s shop, I opened the wooden partially worn out door and saw sweeping behind the counter Old man Humungs and his assistant Ralf.

                “Hello!” I called out suddenly, with a bit of frustration in my voice.

                “Greetings ‘’ ! Humungs yelled out with great joy.

                Getting to the chase, I said- “Do you have a fine bottle of red wine at least aged to fifty years, a new sword sheath made of leather and with iron plating on the inside and a good saddle for my horse!,” I was practically blurting all of this out. It would be a miracle if he could possibly make out what I had just listed abruptly.

                “Well, I think I have just about all those items, replied Humungs in a peaceful voice..: as if he understood what I just said:

                “My, my, you sure did get here pretty late, nightfall is among us and there have been rumors of Dark League planning to invade our Kingdom. Anyone of those monstrous he dens could be here among Lathieland, waiting stealing information to make a plan to strike this fair kingdom and steal it’s ancient treasure. The king has advised all of the villagers that are not authorized to be out after dark”, said Humungs.

                “Wait, I started, I thought we drove off the Dark League a long time ago and I haven’t seen so many people going in after nightfall”.

                “ Yes, yes I know, replied Humungs, but the last battle half a century ago was won with a great victory and we were able to drive off Dark League with great fear and ever since haven’t seen hair or hide of them, not even a trace!”. It’s been years since then and the land has been as peaceful as ever that the people of Laithland went back to their lives without turmoil and fear of dark League. Even the king’s word is not convincing enough for them to go back on the alert.”

                “Well I’ll try to not be out from home or wonder off so late in the evening for as long as the King tells us”, I said.

                “ Good thing to”, Humung’s young assistant Ralf said caution, the  other day, hmmm… about two nights ago Humungs left for home and asked me to lock up and make sure everything to be in order several moments after Humungs was out of sight making his way into the pathway leading to his house surrounded by lines of bushes, I heard rustles in the trees standing along the sided of the shop and heard a thud. So, I came running out of the door, worrying that a thief or rogue could have been waiting to rob our shop but when I made my way to the tree I looked up moved around to try to get a better angle. It was to late in the evening must have been dusk but I heard something move over where a bunch of bushes where bundled up. I had paused when I heard a snarl come from the same place but approached quickly before whatever was there would run off. So when I had moved a handful of branches aside a dark silhouette jump swiftly to the left, and ran quickly backward into bushes running alongside the same pathway that Humungs took. I was scared for his safety but the goblin was too deep in the thorn bushes to even hope to follow”.

                “Wait, I cut in, why did you say a goblin”?

                “Well, of what I saw, the silhouette had two stubby horn shaped figures on it’s head and also long pointed ears. It would make sense that the first thing you’d think after seeing that silhouette’s figure would be a goblin”.

                “I see… has any other person see such creatures?”,I asked.

                “Yes there has, but only in rumors, replied Ralf, Old man Humungs and I believe such rumors though.

                One daring rumor has been told from few of the town’s people that one of the pawn shop owners came early in the morning to arrange his antiques for sale. He was heading back outside to throw out unneeded items and garbage he had went back inside when all of a sudden was scratch across the face from a bumpy and blistered, green and brown hand that had suddenly swiped the shop owner’s face from the side of the doorway entrance. The creature had left a bloody mark on his face, blood trickling down his face staining his shirt.