Dragon Boy

Arthur Alexander was a dreamer. He would spend all day dreaming. Nothing could keep him focused. One second he would be taking a test, the next second he would be in another world fighting and slaying a fire breathing beast the size of a bus. With an imagination like that how can you blame him? Arthur went through his life being the weird spaced- out kid with no friends and nobody to talk to. He always had to resort to his dreams for any nurturing or advise, but Arthur always knew that one day, just one day dragons were going to come, and he would have to save the world from them.

On Monday, the first day of the school week, Arthur got up and got ready for school. Putting on the first thing saw when he woke up was Arthur style, but always wasn’t the most hygienic way. His socks smelled like burning sulfur from all the sweat absorbed in them. His shirt smelled like a fat man’s armpit from his lacking use of deodorant, but what does he care? You don’t need to smell good to slay a dragon. Skipping breakfast, Arthur made his way out of the house and made his way on his long journey to school. The walk to school was always long and boring. On the walk to school he could feel the happiness sink out of you and heaviness slip in. He felt as if you’re walking with weights on, but really it’s just the burden of school bearing down on you. The sights are always the same everyday, crack after crack on the sidewalk until you reach the big house; school.

Arthur’s walk to school that day actually wasn’t going that bad. Instead of looking down to the sidewalk and counting cracks, Arthur had his head up high and looking at the trees wave in the wind, looking like people swaying their hands in the air cheering him on. The wind that day was also different. The swiftness of the wind felt as if he were being picked up and carried. This had to have been the best walk to school Arthur could ever remember. He couldn’t explain why, but definitely knew something was different. Right as he was examining the day and its brightness he noticed an odd looking stone, a stone he had never seen before while walking to school. Was it because he was always to busy counting the cracks on the sidewalk, or has it really never been there? When he stopped to investigate he noticed a dragons face carved on the stone. "What a cool stone" he thought. Wondering if the stone belonged to anyone or not, " My stone now," Arthur said with great enthusiasm, " finders keepers, losers weepers." Reaching down to pick it up he felt heat. The kind’ve heat you feel when you almost touch the eye of a stove. A warning heat that tells you "Stop! Don’t touch this." But Arthur being a kid full of curiosity tried again and when his fingers touched the stone he let out a screeching yell so loud it could be seen because the sound waves were so powerful.

"What’s going on," yelled Arthur. He was being twisted, flipped, and thrown in some type of weird funnel that was spinning profusely. Not knowing what was going on Arthur thought he was in some type of tornado until SPLAT! ! !

Arthur landed hard and flat on his back in some type of spongy grass. He was in a swamp. The thick humid in the air gave it away immediately. The air in a swamp is so thick that it fills his nose with a stuffy feeling of wet grass and bugs. Arthur, not knowing were he was, sprung to his feet immediately in a confusing shock. Looking around he became more confused not seeing the sidewalk, road, street lights, buildings, or anything else that was just before his eyes.

After scanning the area for a while Arthur noticed a shack in the distance harboring smoke with an awkward scent. The smoke itself was quite awkward. It waved around, swifted up and down, and swirled in funnels. The smell of the smoke was quite seductive. There isn’t a word for the smell of the smoke. It just made Arthur think of running through perfumery with all the beautiful smells hitting him all at once. The way the scent funneled it’s way up his nose encouraged him to go investigate.

When Arthur reached the door it opened immediately, letting out all the smoke he saw coming out of the chimney. Floating and shimmering around him he saw a small figure coming from the inside of the shack. As the smoke cleared the figure became more clear. It seemed to be an old lady. Looking more carefully Arthur noticed it was a Witch!

The Witch looked like your typical old Witch. Her hair like the smoke was long, curvy, and white. She had a big nose with a green tint to her. She was wearing an old black robe with pointy wooden shoes that looked awfully uncomfortable. She must have been over 300 years old. The smell of the shack was a mix of all the potions she had bubbling all over.
"Hello Arthur. What took you so long? I’ve been waiting," said the Witch with a voice sounding like more wood cracking than a human talking.

"What do you want?" asked Arthur in a tone sounding more like a scared dog.

"I want you," said the Witch. " For you are the chosen one. Its is you who will save the world. It is you who holds all of your friends, families, and future loved ones lives in your hands."

"WHAT?" gasped Arthur sounding like a confused stoner.

" Yes, Arthur. You are the reason you are living right now. The year is 1111 and there is a dragon so big so fierce that if it is not slayed it will kill everything on earth. Eventually killing itself for having nothing left to eat. And you Arthur, you are the only thing stopping it. You are the only thing in its way," said the Witch straying from her normal wood cracking voice to a more lively voice.

"The year is 1111?"Arthur asked still sounding confused

"Yes, I brought you back in time to this year because of this dragon that’s scraping the earth of life like a fat kid scraping the edges of his ice cream bowl. I was sure that this dragon would destroy all life on earth until I looked into the future and saw that earth beaming with life. Confused by this, I concluded that there must have been a hero of some sort. I also felt it was my destiny to harbor this hero, and I feel it’s your destiny to be this hero and save all that is all."

" You can’t be serious, this can’t be real, and I can’t be a hero. I’m not strong, I’m not smart, and I’m not clever. I don’t have the makings of a hero. I am a modern day loser," said Arthur in a low mumbling voice.

"Oh how wrong you are," said the Witch. "For you are the only human of any time that can possess the power to use the Sword of Helios and the Shield of Hydrona. Your power is your mysterious imagination. No one else could imagine a sword that shoots fire and a shield made of ice that can’t be damaged.
"
Yeah your right, I am pretty weird," for Arthur was finally being excepted as a weirdo. His weirdness is actually paying off. Oh how he couldn’t wait to be back in his time and tell his mom. Wouldn’t she be amazed. Right then Arthur felt a thump and then he was spinning out of control and flipping around in a funnel.

BOOOOM! Arthur’s fall made a furious sound that echoed and rumbled all the walls around him, for he was in a cave. The cave was dark and empty of light except for The Sword of Helios. It boasted a beautiful glow that surrounded it like a halo. There was stench in the cave that smelled horrible. The smell was very similar to the smell of a baby’s diaper. There was a noise that was loud, deep, and echoed through the cave like smoke going through your lungs. As Arthur was observing the cave and examining it he saw to big yellow balls hanging in the air. When all of the sudden the cave lighted up with fire and Arthur realized the big yellow balls hanging in the air where the eyes of a giant dragon.

"HOLY SHHH"

-"ROOOOOAAR," exhaled the giant dragon in an angry rage.

"OH MY GOD, GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Arthur screamed in his head. For his adrenaline was pumping faster than gas pumps into your car. His mind was racing in fear. "What to do, What to do," Arthur thought. The room was getting very hot now because of the dragon’s breath. Making each and every decision that much more hard to make. The pressure was bearing down on Arthur and he had no idea what to do. There was no way he could come close to this fire breathing dragon.

In all this confusion Arthur looked up and saw the dragon running his way. Not knowing what to do or where to go Arthur just dove down and covered himself with the shield hoping for some miracle. Then the Dragon roared with fury, Fire spilling out of his mouth, hoping to burn Arthur. Arthur thought he was dead until he noticed he wasn’t. The flames were all around him, but not on him and not hot at all. The shield was completely flame proof. "Oh what a shield," thought Arthur.

Now feeling confident Arthur started to think of a way to kill this dragon. For he was close and had a shield that could protect him. The first thing that came to his mind was "CHARGE!" Arthur got up ran toward the dragon with his shield in front of him and his sword high in the air. Oh if only Arthur could have seen himself, for he looked like a crazed soldier in fear of nothing and willing to sacrifice their body to the better of others. When all of the sudden the dragon lifted his hand swung it at Arthur and sent him flying into a wall.

"Oh what a let down," thought Arthur barely able to move. "What a wasted effort." Feeling discouraged and injured Arthur took his time getting up when he saw the dragon sprinting towards him with fire being spitted and thrown everywhere. Once again not knowing what to do and being discouraged Arthur dove down and hid behind the shield, but this time the dragon didn’t stop. He kept going full speed and almost trampled right on top of Arthur. And with a swoop of his tail the dragon sent Arthur once again full speed into a wall.

"I’m bloody tired of this," yelled Arthur at the top of his lungs. His voice was so fierce that even the dragon flinched. Getting up quickly he yelled, "Come on you heinous beast. Come kill me now." Arthur had a glow about him now. Something had clicked inside of him. For he now looked, walked, and talked like a hero. The dragon having seen many hero’s come and go to his fury was startled for a second then reclaimed himself and once again sprinted at Arthur, but this time with a more furious focused rage. As he got closer and closer Arthur just stood their with his heroic glow. Not even moving an inch. Not even revealing one slight bit of fear. When all of the sudden Arthur pulled the handle of his sword to his head and thrusted it down deep into the ground. When The Sword of Helios hit the ground it made a wave of hot lava spread all around it and all through the cave stopping the dragon right in furious path. The dragon now on the ground in great pain huffing and puffing fire could not move. Though there was lava all around, Arthur was not affected by it. In fact he could walk on it with no problem. He had the dragon pinned down and now had to finish his duty’s of slaying the dragon

Arthur walking very slowly towards the dragon had nothing to say and nothing to think about. He was completely focused on the job at hand. The cave was collapsing right around him in a scorching manner that very much resembled the sun, but not one bit of the lava covered debris hit him, and each step he took on the burning coals of the caves didn’t burn him one bit. Why was this? Was it the Shield of Hydrona? Not at all. Nothing was affected Arthur because of his heroic glow. The glow surrounded him like a bubble and in this bubble he couldn’t be affected by anything.

Finally Arthur made it to the dragon. The dragon now just barely huffing and puffing for he was almost dead. Arthur took the sword and jabbed it right into the top of the head of the dragon. Instead of blood spewing out of the dragons head water started shooting out like a geyser. Soon water filled the whole area. And with the water little plants started to grow, on top of the plants trees started to grow, and in a matter of seconds there was a whole jungle around Arthur growing more and more rapidly around him. Then the trees started receding and roads and building came all around. It was starting to look just like the world that Arthur knows until-
Beep. . . Beep. . . Beep. "Arthur Alexander. If you don’t get up right this second I’m gonna light a fire under your ass," yelled Arthur’s mom. Arthur sprang to his feet in a second

"What in the hell just happened," Arthur thought to himself. "Was it a dream. Did that really just happened." Arthur ran to the other room where his mom was looked around and realized it was just a dream. "Well hell." Thought Arthur. He could’ve sworn it was real. He was sure he had slayed a dragon. "Oh what a bummer," he thought.

Finishing getting ready for school Arthur got his things and walked out the door. Taking the normal route to school counting the same number of cracks on the sidewalk Arthur was quite disappointed realizing that it was just a dream and he was still just a weirdo loser.

The saddest part of this story isn’t that Arthur’s dream wasn’t real. The saddest part of the story is that it was real, and so were all of his dreams. Arthur is the greatest hero of our time. Every night going and battling off dragons and other monsters, saving our lives everyday without us even noticing, and him waking up every morning thinking he’s a weirdo loser who just dreams of being a hero.