Ganesh B.

Uppalapu
Fiction Piece D2
1/3/09

My name is Irikandji Balthazar. I am also known

as Irk by my friends. I’m 12 years old. I come from a
kingdom called Bondarg in a different universe than
yours. In my world fighting is inevitable. Since we are
always at war, we train sword fighting at somewhere
around my age. It mostly depends on how mature
and strong we are. I fought my first battle and that’s
when everything I knew changed.
 Part 1: Banish of Irikandji!
I was bleeding in a million places. I was sword fighting with a
veteran soldier. My father thought I was so good they called the King
of Bondarg to come and bring one of his best fighters. What was
worse? We were fighting with real swords, not the wooden ones we
normally practice with.

“Aaaaaghhhh!” The blade of my enemy sliced my side a little.

The pain was unbelievable. I couldn’t take it. The scarlet liquid was
gushing out.

I was at the brink of fainting. This guy was good, really good. I
was doing pretty well myself but not well enough. I could quit right
now and I would still be praised for lasting that long, but I won’t stop.

I saw my chance. My opponent was getting overconfident. His

grip on his sword loosened just a little. That was all I needed. I started
to act like I was getting even more tired. Then, with a sudden burst of
all the energy I got left, I charged into him. I got my hilt under his and
wrenched his sword away. Before he could rise I had my sword at his
throat.

“Irikandji! Irikandji! Irikandji! Irikandji!” There were shouts

everywhere. I had won. I had proven myself.

“Mr. Balthazar!”

“Yes sire?”

“Your son has done a magnificent job. I am willing to make him a

soldier within a week of hard training.”

“Thank you! Thank you my lord!”

 Man, my father was so happy that all our neighbors were praising
us and that the king himself was proud. I thought he was going to start
crying. My father was so proud of me. He said he was going to buy me
a pie (a rare treat in Bondarg). Even my older brother, Gandorf, who I
always fought with, gave me his first sword to keep. I didn’t have my
own and he had a lot so I gladly accepted it.

A week later, I was a soldier. Gandorf was about 3 ranks ahead of

me. I was ranked Minotaur. Our ranks are based on our enemies.
Minotaurs were our least threatening enemies and only the soldiers
ranked minotaur fought them. So the soldiers fought the creatures that
their own rank was. So if you were ranked Dragon, you fought dragons.
It was pretty organized.

King Borgon presented me with my own armor and sword so I

gave Gandorf his sword back. I named my sword Basilisk. Now that I
named it, it was an official combat weapon. What I never knew was
that Basilisk would be the most famous weapon of my time.

In five minutes would be the monthly parade which I have

always longed to be in. Now I get my chance.

The trumpets blared and all the soldiers in their gleaming armor
started to walk slowly making elegant patterns with their swords. I was
doing the Balthazar twirl which my family was famous for. It included
a series of complicated moves full of turns, twists, and mostly, twirls.

We were right at the finish line and as the first line of soldiers
reached the line, as if out of nowhere minotaurs (creatures with the
body of a man and a head of a bull, dark red eyes and covered in dark
brown fur) jumped out. There were about a dozen of them. They
charged toward us. The soldiers got into defense position and a few
others charged at the minotaurs. I was one of the soldiers in defense.
Truthfully I was freaking out. This was the first and possibly last time I
fight for my life. Our offensive soldiers were taking care of most of
them but sometimes one or two got through and we took care of them.
 The last minotaur went down and we took a look at the
casualties. There were three down on our side and all down on their
side. Other than that about twenty of our soldiers were severely
wounded and about fifteen others had minor wounds.

It was over but I had a feeling the battle was an easy win. It was a
bit too easy if you ask me. As if to support my thoughts, a minotaur
charged out of an alley and would have struck the king had I not
shoved him out of the way. I quickly shoved my sword into the side of
the monster and wiped my brow.

I was bursting with pride for saving the king. But my pride only
lasted about five minutes. King Borgon was giving a speech.

“That was an unexpected attack” the king sighed “we are sorry
for those who have lost loved ones. Our soldiers have fought
magnificently and fiercely. They shall be honored whether they are
dead or alive.”

I was waiting for him to get to the part where he would praise me
for saving his life but I was deeply disappointed.

“Our newest soldier, Irikandji, of the Minotaur rank has fought

well. He was even ready when the thirteenth minotaur popped out. It
was as if he knew where it was. Also, he shoved me to the wall causing
an injury to my head. I do not like it. I do not like it at all!”

“What! I saved your unworthy life from danger and you don’t
like it? It’s not my fault I thought the battle was over too easily!”

“That’s it! Irikandji you have lost your rank and are now
banished from my kingdom! You have until tomorrow to get your face
out of here.”

“You know what? I don’t care. I’d rather be banished than serve a
selfish king anyway” I said. I gave him a cool steady stare full of anger
and a small hint of regret.
 “I will now appoint two new trainees their soldier ranks.
Uneccier Blazeheat and Kerron Pipegrip please come here.” The king
took two swords and two sets of armor.

“Uneccier Blazeheat, you now have the rank of Minotaur.”

“Thank you my lord. I will name my sword Cloudedge.”

“Kerron Flametongue, you too now have the rank of Minotaur.”

“Thank you my lord. I will name my sword Flamesteel.”

They put on their armor and started walking toward me.

“Young soldiers, do not talk to the outcast.”

Then, in unison, they said “I’m sorry my lord, but we go where

our friend goes. We only accepted the soldier ceremony because we
need weapons out there in the wilderness.”

I was on the floor laughing so hard I almost barfed. When they

were becoming soldiers I was mad at them because we were best
friends since we were little. Now I was so happy they were turning into
outcasts for me.

“Get out now all of you! Now!” the king screamed.

Uneccier, Kerron, and I went to the kingdom bakery and got

emergency provisions. The chef was a kind man with a weird accent.
His brown eyes are always twinkling. He has olive dark skin, blond
hair, and was pretty chubby. He came lumbering in and spoke with a
weird accent.

“What kind of tr’ble harve ya guys gortten into ter get banished?”
 “I saved his majesty’s life” I said with mock respect to the king.

“I always did tink about der majesty like dart” he huffed “he
always had a selfish arttitude.”

He gave us three huge backpacks full of food, gave us kisses on

the heads and cried like a mother.

“Go on you young whippersnappers.”

Then we went to the general store and bought flashlights,

binoculars, some daggers, a few bows and six quivers full of arrows, a
book on how to make arrows (we’re going to need a lot of arrows to
hunt for meat), some tents, a lot of batteries for the flashlights, and a
tinderbox. Ironic isn’t it? We have the same sort of technology as yours
but for a world full of fighting we never upgraded our weapons.

We said good bye to our parents and our kingdom, Bondarg, and
set off toward our destiny.
 Part 2: The Outcasts!
We were walking down a trail known as The Path of Despair. We
walked for about 3 hours and Uneccier spotted a bird. We made a deal
to not consume the provisions unless we’re starving and we can find no
other alternative food.

It was a wood pigeon. Uneccier was an excellent shot at bows.

He calculated its approximate location with his binoculars and took
aim. The arrow touched his cheek and he let it loose. The arrow struck
true.

My share in the work was to skin and gut the bird. It’s dirty work.
You couldn’t bare the disgusting smell. I never really paid much
attention at school so I touched the heart many times. Each time I was
squirted with disgusting smell.

Kerron took the cooking. He sprinkled some salt and pepper on

the tenderized meat. Along with some wild herbs, he cooked the bird on
the fire. It actually tasted pretty good, which wasn’t surprising because
his father was a chef.

We pitched our tents, made a fire, and settled down for the night.
Uneccier started burping so we had a burping contest. I came last. We
made the place all stinky so we went on a short stroll of our
surroundings.

We were walking through the peaceful forest and then Uneccier

heard a sound.

“It’s probably just a deer man. It’s a forest there are supposed to
be sounds. It would scary if there weren’t any” I said.
 “Dude, I was trained as a tracker. I would know what kind of
sounds there are supposed to be in a forest. What I hear is not a normal
animal. It sounds kind of like a minotaur.”

“Man I’m tired of these minotaurs. Cursed ugly beasts. They are
the whole reason we’re banished.”

We heard Kerron squeak.

“Kerron? What ‘appened? Kerron? Kerron? What’s wrong with

him Uneccier?”

“He’s in shock. He saw something.”

Then, something charged at us. It was a minotaur. I took out

Basilisk and stood ready. I struck but Basilisk bounced off of its horns.
It turned and charged at full speed. I read in a book that if they charge
at full speed, you can jump out of its way and it can’t stop. I tried it and
it worked. We did the same routine about five more times and the
minotaur caught on. I saw that it caught on too because it started to eye
our legs to see our movement. So I decided to fake it. This time I would
act like I’m jumping to the side but I won’t. I tried it and it fell for it. I
quickly sliced its leg. It fell down screaming and started to cry.

“This is creepy” I said to Uneccier.

“Yeah, who ever heard a minotaur cry?”

“Don’t hurt my son!” the minotaur said to us.

“Son? Which son?”

The minotaur pointed at the forest. As we watched, a minotaur at

about our age walked out.

“My name is Tauron” it said.

 The mother told us that she was running away from the rest of
their minotaur clan. She told us that she was going to die and to take
care of her son.

“We can’t promise that. We are going to dangerous lands.”

“He can fight. I’m not saying he is worth less. Let him join your
group. Not all minotaurs are bad you know.”

“All right” Uneccier and I said in unison.

The mother passed away and we buried her. We went to Kerron

and splashed water at his face. He woke up and saw Tauron. Kerron
was about to kill Tauron had we not stopped him and told him the
situation.

“There is a stream over there shall we take a bath?” Tauron

pointed to the west. We stared at him dumbfounded.

“What? Minotaurs take baths too.”

“Okay, but lets put some of the water in our water bottles before
we muck it all up.”

We packed up our gear and folded up the tents. The stream was
about two miles from our temporary camp. We filled our bottles and
waded into the water.

“We should have a name for our group” Tauron said.

“Umm, Shadows?”

“No Kerron” Uneccier sighed.

“How ‘bout Blades?”

“No too emo”

 “I got it!”

“What Irikandji?”
“The Outcasts because that’s what we are, outcasts”

“Me likey” Kerron smiled.

“Yeah me too, and Kerron? Don’t say ‘me likey’ anymore” said
Tauron.

“Yeah, I know, no wonder he doesn’t get any of the girls back at

home” Uneccier said.

We all fell laughing. Even Kerron joined in after he was done

staring at us with angry eyes.

“Shut up! I got some girls” Kerron said, still laughing.

“Oh yeah? Girls who are so ugly that they are desperate enough
to go out with you don’t count man.”

“Nice one Irk.”

Tauron’s head jerked up. He stood and started sniffing.

“What up man? What are you smellin’?”

“I don’t know Kerron, but I think it might be an animal of reptile

origins.”

I scratched my head. I was freaking out. Reptiles in my world

range from calm turtles to crazy, violent monsters. One specific
monster is a dragon as I mentioned earlier. I was choking. Sweat was
running like cataracts down my back. I managed a small squeak.

“Guys get dressed. We’re moving out.”

 “Irikandji are you scared?”

“Scared isn’t in my blood man.”

“Then why do you want to move out?”

“Shut up and do as I say! I’m the leader of the Outcasts so you do

what I say!”

“Who made you leader?”

“I did. The Outcasts wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t banished. So

stop asking questions Uneccier.”

For the rest of the day the relationship between Uneccier and I
has been pretty bad. It was mostly my fault. I let my fear get the better
of me. I haven’t told anybody what to do since that argument. Guilt was
eating out my insides. I had to apologize or I would never be the same
again. I slowly walked up to Uneccier.

“I’m really sorry dude. You were right. I was scared. I thought it
might have been a dragon. You know the bad relationship between me
and my family.”

About five years ago, my mother was taken away by a dragon.

My father was so mad that he was about to go to the dragon’s cave to
get her back. My uncle and my father’s closest friend convinced him to
stay back. Ever since then, I wanted to kill any dragon I saw but I was
also really scared of them.

“It’s all right man. I understand. I was just going to come

apologize to you too. Now, let us make you a real leader. All in favor of
Irikandji being the leader of the Outcasts say ‘I’”

“I” all of them said in unison.

“All righty then. Let’s move out.”

 The next day we moved out toward a plateau known as Dragon
Land. I was reluctant but a leader had to face his fears. This area was
known for its vast population of dragons. Somewhere around thirty to
seventy dragons lived here. You may not think that is not vast but it is
pretty vast under my book. Dragons were really powerful beings but
they were really rare to encounter.

I took Basilisk out held onto it. I wasn’t going to take my

chances. The others felt just like me. Uneccier took out Cloudedge,
Kerron took out Flamesteel, and Tauron said a spell and a sickle shaped
sword he called Dirbenlard popped up in his hand. I’ve seen Tauron do
this like ten times already but it still creeps me out. Magic is an art
performed only by minotaurs.

“Uneccier? I have a feeling we should turn back” Kerron

squeaked.

“Calm down. We need more recruits if we want to bring down the

king. Dragons are perfect for the job. They are strong and silent if need
be.”

Don’t be confused. That night we planned that we were going to

take down the king because we heard some scouts from the castle
talking as they walked by us with no clue we were there. They said that
the king was planning a full scale assault on the minotaurs and another
human kingdom known as Algerdorn. This was totally against the
treaty made by the founders of all the kingdoms thousands of years ago.
All kingdoms were allowed to fight each other over little arguments but
not take over each others kingdoms.

“Yeah, Kerron I’m scared too but we have to do this. Not for our
sakes, but for the thousands of families who are going to lose loved
ones for nothing but a mad king’s greed.
 “If we do this we might even be accepted back into the kingdom
and live in the full glories of a soldier, a high ranked soldier to be
exact.”

“You’re right Irk. I’ve got to stop thinking of myself.”

“Oh my gosh! Run!” Uneccier started to run for cover. I looked

up and saw a red dot in the sky. It looked like the sky was bleeding a
single drop of blood.

“Uneccier stop running. There is no where to hide anyway. This

is a barren, rocky plateau. You will just look like prey to the dragon if
you run like that. You have to show it that you are brave. Believe me
I’m more scared than you.”

“Yeah Uneccier. Listen to Tauron.”

“All right guys.”

I was really scared. I swear any guy in the right mind would start
running. But Tauron was right too. We waited for about three minutes
and the blood-red dragon got closer. It blew a jet of fire into the sky and
looked at us with something like a hint of amusement in its eyes.

“Puny creatures. I take it you are young ones? Three humans and
a furry little minotaur. Good dinner if you ask me.”

It made a gurgle type of sound deep in its throat. It was laughing.

I stepped forward, kneeled, and took a bow.

“Greetings, dragon. What is your name if I may ask?”

“I am known as Toshiro. Proceed.”

“Mighty Toshiro. My small gang and I are known as the Outcasts.

We have come to ask a few dragons to join us and help us bring the
greedy king’s reign to an end.”
 “Dragons do not work together young human.”

“Please call me Irikandji.”

“As I was saying, Irikandji, dragons do not work together. We

used to, but things have changed.”

“Trust me Toshiro. The Outcasts have made many things happen.

Making dragons work together is child play. The hard part is recruiting
them.”

“I will happily help you if you are so determined. I will also help
you recruit. Dragons are itching for battle these days.”

“Thank you mister Toshiro. You are now an official member of

the Outcasts.”