Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Light and Dark (05/21/09)
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TITLE: The Escape | Previous Challenge Entry
By Tammy Bovee
05/28/09 -
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“What’s that commotion down in the courtyard?” the elderly nursemaid moved from folding a blanket and waddled across the toy-strewn floor of the nursery. Flinging open the stain glass windows she peered out far below and froze in horror. The other nursemaid, a teenage girl looked up from where she sat playing with a little girl. “What is it?” she asked, picking up the child and running to the window.
They both stood gazing down into the throngs of dark soldiers climbing down over the castle walls and quickly filling the courtyard. The cadence of the soldiers marching thundered off the stone walls. Suddenly a flaming arrow swished through the open window barely missing their heads. For an instant the servants stared helplessly through the smoke as the flames quickly caught from fabric to fabric throughout the nursery. “Try to put out the fire while I take the princess down the secret stairway! Then, grab some supplies and come down after me!” said the younger nursemaid. Still holding the child, she rotated a large bookcase and disappeared. “Three hundred and fifty-two, fifty-three…” the young nursemaid counted the stairs until she finally reached a door. She opened it. A gust of smoke rushed passed her as she stepped out onto the balcony. Behind her an army of heavy footsteps marched down the stairs she had just descended.
All at once, from far below, a knight wearing the emblem of the Kingdom of Light rode up on his horse. “Throw me the child to me!” and “I will catch her and take her to safety!” he yelled.
The young nursemaid gasped, looking behind her and then down again. She hesitated, turned toward the ledge then raised the child and released her.
The knight extended up now, reaching higher as the child fell. When the child came near he raised his arms up then let his arms drop with the weight of the child until she rested securely in his arms. For a tense moment he checked her then he smiled up to the nursemaid then rode away.
…
The pounding of many hooves followed till they cleared the castle grounds. The knight halted his horse and looked back to the trail of dust behind. He saw no one yet something felt amiss, the horse sensed it too.
Suddenly a voice yelled out from the nearby forest, “You won’t get far you dog.” All at once a horde of mounted knights charged out from the nearby forest galloping forward in circular formation, wielding their weapons and yelling at the top of their lungs.
Still a furlong ahead the white knight turned his horse in all directions. They were trapped… quickly he signaled his horse toward a steep precipice. The grand stallion lunged forward, increasing his gait till foam clung to his sleek pelt. He neared the cliff’s edge. His muscles bulged as he stretched out his neck. In fluid motion the knight lifted his reign, urging his horse off the cliff and into the dark clouds that hung over the abyss.
The enemy halted just short of the cliff’s edge, showering debris as their horses hooves ground into the dirt. “Where’d they go?” yelled the leader.
“None could survive that!” said another.
…
“That should shake ‘em” the Knight said to the little girl who clung to his armor. The horse’s wings flapped gently as he emerged from the dark clouds and swooped up out of the chasm, over a waterfall and then down into a deep valley.
The sun began to dip behind the mountains now, and a gentle wind tossed the grasses in the meadow beneath them. Riding the winds of evening they flew down through a hazy golden meadow as the horizon shone with clarion blue and a few bright stars twinkled in the sky overhead. The horse snorted and shook his mane; jingling his bridle he whinnied as his master signaled him to duck under the leafy branches into the trees. The horse with its riders weaved back and forth till all at once the knight gave the horse free reign. This time they followed a glowing pathway which wound its way through the dark forest.
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It seemed as if it belonged in a larger work, though--I felt like I'd been plopped into the middle of a story, and I needed to know the back story to fully understand this. And it didn't really end...
But if this IS part of something bigger, you'll find a market in the YA crowd.