I think I saw the bad guys before they burned down my house and killed all my brothers and took my sisters away. I was supposed to be minding the geese, but actually, I was playing in the field. I was chopping down dry thistles and mullein plants. I like chopping thistles because they break easily. I like chopping mulleins because the top flies a long way if you hit it right. I was playing Adlerod Foe-clobberer. That's my favorite game. I got a good sword from the tree that Dad had pulled off the wagon trail last summer. It was hard, but it finally snapped. A piece of bark almost hit my eye and I said some pretty bad words. Then, I named my sword Grod. The scop Wendlehof told us that was the name of Adlerod's sword, the one he beheaded the giants with ten thousand years ago. Yeah, anyway, in the field, I saw a foot print in a cow pie. It was gross because that cow pie was fresh. I saw that someone had cleaned their boot on an old stump nearby. They had kinda scraped it against the edge of the stump. After that, it looked like they had kicked some dirt around and stomped on some grass. I don't know who could have been out there, so I looked around and in the trees at the end of the field, I saw a guy. I think he was peeing on a tree. When I saw him, I turned around and ran away because I thought he might be a farm hand. Those guys always tell on me. I ended up going to the little fort that I built in the woods near the little creek that goes to the river. It was a pretty dangerous trip. On the way, I killed lots of bad guys. I went through a thistle patch and chopped down every one of them. I even got the King Mullein! First, I cut down all of his guards, then I spun around and chopped his head clean off. Finally, I chopped apart all of the leaves. There was nothing left of him when I was done! I left all the little ones, though. After all, heroes don't kill kids. When I went down the little hill that led down to the creek, I ran into the big monster. I called that monster Urdlug from that story about the creature with the tentacles that wanders around in the swamps and eats the people up who are dumb enough to try to find treasure there. That thing wanted to eat me up! I fought it for awhile. It was a good fight. I took out a lot of its little tentacles, but it wasn't easy. I had to jump to get some of them, and the pine needles were pretty slick. I fell on my butt once or twice and slid a little ways down the hill because the pine needles were like the slime on wet river rocks or something. Finally, I tried to finish that monster off by taking off one of the main tentacles that came out from the trunk. I thought it was dry enough to break but it wasn't. Grod cracked. A few needles fell from the branch but that was it. That monster still had some strength, after all. I decided to give up. I slid down the hill and when I got to the bottom, I broke the cracked blade on my knee and I turned it into a short sword. Before I got to my fort, I got a drink from the creek. Mom told me to never drink from the creek because the cows and other animals sometimes go to the bathroom in the water, but I usually do anyway. I knelt in the grass and my knees got pretty wet because they sunk into some mud or something. I was about to get a drink when a piece of wood floated past. It was a flat piece of wood. It didn't look like a branch or twig or anything. Then, some more pieces floated by. Some of them had nails in them. I picked one up and I looked at it for a bit then I threw it away. I put my face in the water and took a big drink. It was good. I waited for more wood to go by, then I took another drink. The brook water always tastes good but sometimes it hurts my teeth. It's pretty cold. After that, I ran off to my fort. When I got there, I realized that bad guys could easily climb up the walls. I started dragging some branches and stuff to the fort to make them higher. I found some good pieces of wood at that old fallen down tree. It was kind of rotten, so it was easy to get some nice big branches and some wet chunks of wood to fill in the spaces. I also got some big, straight sticks for a fence like the one that goes around the Thane's house on the hilltop. I was having so much fun fixing up my base that I completely forgot about the time. I stopped working when my tummy started rumbling. That's when I realized it was almost noon! I knew I was probably in big trouble. I started thinking of a story to tell Thad. Thad is my oldest brother. He's in charge of the farm when Mom and Dad are away. He's nice, but he gets really mad when I don't do my job. Once, he even beat me up! Mom got mad at him when she saw my shiners, but Dad said I deserved it for slacking off. After that, Mom agreed with Dad. Anyway, I started walking back home. I walked pretty slowly because I was pretty nervous and I was thinking really hard. I had to think of something to tell Thad. When I walked around the little hill with the big rock on top, I noticed there was some smoke ahead of me. It was coming up from behind that bunch of old cotton wood trees that grow in front of our house. I imagined that it was the smoke from some great battle where the good guys were fighting against the bad guys for the fate of the kingdom! I swung my sword and it made swooshing sounds. Even though it was just a short sword, it could do some real damage. Then, I started running toward the fight. I chopped down thistles and hacked down mulleins and killed other evil, lurking plants as I went. I was ready to join the fight at the thane's house.
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