Young Writers Society

*Spacing fixed!

Long ago, when the Earth was still green and monsters roamed the wilderness, a hero by the name of Ikor lived in a castle near Dark Forest of Bavaria.

Our hero Ikor was good at fighting but bad at finance. He had a very unsuccessful economic history, which made him go bankrupt and he had to sell his castle.

He straddled up his horse, "Come on, Geeno. We'll be leaving Bavaria for adventure! Don't you want adventure!"

The oblivious horse snorted and bobbed his head.

He had a small bag that was straddled to Geeno that held his provisions and food, and another bag for Geeno's grain and water.

Ikor rested his hand into his pack where he carried his more valuable belongings: His Helio-Sword, his Luna-Shield, and his helmet.

His Helio-Sword and Luna-Shield were artifacts passed down from his father. Ikor's father received the sword because it was passed down from his father's father and his father's father received it from his father's father's father, but before long, Ikor couldn't keep track of the interminable amount of fathers and grandfathers. (It seemed like at that time, the term grandfather was not known.)

His battle-scarred warrior mind could only comprehend that there were approximately eight to nine generations passed down. But even so, Ikor didn't really dwell on that kind of "Scholar" thing. He did dwell on the reason why these powerful relics were in his noble family in the first place. The reason? His great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather was one of the powerful warriors that sealed up the ancient demon, Talyx.

After recollecting all of his thoughts, Ikor jumped up onto Geeno, his armor scraping against the spurs. Then, he travelled the roads to . . . well, he doesn't care. The warrior just wanted to get on the road, fighting monsters and becoming a legend!

Ikor traveled all the way to a village by the lake of Messiva.

When he arrived, the villagers seemed to be frantically preparing for some event.

Ikor jumped down and asked a middle-aged chef-looking man with round features, "What is going on here?"

The man glanced up at Ikor and slowed down, "A traveller, are you? We're drawing sticks for who's child is given to D'kyok." After seeing Ikor's confused expression, the man explained further.

"We villagers here are threatened by a monster by the name of D’kyok which has two heads and the tail of a snake. One head of D’kyok can shoot ice and another can shoot fire. In the early years of D’kyok, the brute ate every living thing near the lake. However, after D’kyok ate all the things around the lake, he had nothing to eat. D’kyok then devised a cruel solution. He barged to the village and told all the villagers that once a month, they send one boy and one girl for D’kyok to eat, or he would destroy the village," said the man heatedly, and more quietly he added, "My firstborn was devoured by that brute."

After Hearing this horrible suffering of villagers, our hero, Ikor, decided that he needed to do something, "I will help your village. No matter the cost. You have suffered many winters, and I will personally assure that you will not suffer any more!"

Of course, in Ikor's mind, he was scared out of his wits. He had never faced a sea-serpent before, much less a giant sea serpent with two heads and can shoot fire AND ice. That was overkill in Ikor's opinion.

The man huzzahed and jumped around from one leg to the other, "Of course! You must be a talented warrior! I'm sure you can best D'kyok! I will help convince the villagers to offer you some supplies if you defeat that brute!"

Ikor took a humble approach, "I may not be a talented warrior, but I will do what I can to shake that beast into its' senses."

This was partly a lie. Ikor may have been by far the most talented warrior in the entire Bavaria. Maybe even the entire region! Ikor bested every opponent he fought in jousts and mock duels. He would cut them down with the sweep of his blade and have them begging for mercy. Even though he was humble, he was still a Lord, a Knight, a Warrior, and a Nobleman, so he still had some pride with him.

"I'm sure you'll do well!" said the man exitedly.

"I'm positive I can beat D'kyok up until it's begging for mercy," said Ikor enigmatically. At least he thought he was looking enigmatic.

"D'kyok's lake is directly east of our fair village. With a strong horse like yours, it'll take a few hours," said the man. He then ran away howling with joy.

An hour after the encounter with the excitable man, Ikor rode to the lake. Geeno was very fast and Ikor reached the lake in almost two hours. As Geeno rested, Ikor sat at the shore of the lake and waited for the monster to come. He waited for hours and hours, until it was already noon. He was very unhappy, but then, he had an idea. He ran all the way to the nearest tree. (Which is actually very far!) and got out his Helio-sword. He unsheathed the blade of the Helio-sword and sliced right through the tree trunk and the huge tree fell to the side.

Ikor painstakingly carved a boat and paddles out of the tree while Geeno snored soundly.

He dragged the boat back to the shore and rowed into the middle of the lake. Then, he waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And the monster never came. The sweltering summer sun baked the armor he was wearing. He decided he was going to row his way back.

But when he came back to feast on his delicious supper and plan on what to do next, he was shocked. All of his belongings were ambushed! He was going to get his horse, but Geeno was ambushed too! OH NO! Now he was left on the shore of a lake where a monster resideded, while only having a sword, a shield, and an extremely hot suit of armor. He sighed. For hours upon hours, he trekked on back to the village, and dropped right down to sleep on the floor of some random house that he laid eyes on.

. . .

The next morning, he went into the tavern groggily, while his mind was still foggy. He walked in and suddenly he knew what he had to do. “I will pretend to be the boy, the next time there needs to be a s-s-s-sacrifice!” Proclaimed Ikor. The villagers just stared at the tall, muscular man who looked like he would collapse at any moment wearing armor who just staggered in and suggested that he could pretend to be a young boy.

“Um, you are kind of large to be like a boy,” said the maid. Ikor slumped, realizing the flaw of his plan.

“That doesn’t matter,” said a man in the crowd, “The monster probably doesn’t know.” Ikor brightened and shifted his armor.

"That was my plan," said Ikor, "Monsters are not known to be smart."

“Yes, let's do it!” exclaimed the crazy man from before.

This was how Ikor ended up tied up on the shore of the lake next to a young girl also tied up on the shore. A few hours passed, and the monster finally came. It had slimy scales and glittering yellow eyes. It had two blue forked tongues popping out of its' two heads. Even though Ikor already knew what to expect, seeing was different from believing.

“Yes,” hissed the left head viciously, “Our meal is finally here.”

“Delicious,” agreed the right, equally malignant, “But the boy seems a bit large.”

“Maybe the villagers ran out of little boys and they had to send an adult?” said the left, suddenly sounding like an imaginative child.

“Or maybe they suddenly have very good nutrition to grow larger?” said the right, sounding almost equally, if not more stupid than his lefty companion.

“You stupid! Then why is the girl not big then, huh?” The left head argued.

“Oh, right,” righted the right.

“Okay, I will get the boy and you will get the girl,” suggested the left eagerly.

“No, I got the girl last time, so this time, I get the boy!” said the right, equally eagerly.

“Let’s rock, paper scissors!” said the left head, nodding at his impossibly creative intuition.

“You stupid! We don’t have hands,” cried the right angrily.

"We can use our heads," suggested the left.

"Then we can only do rocks," said the right, rolling his eyes.

“Then what will we do?” the left head pouted, dropped, and hanged there, beneath the right head.

“I know now!" said the right head after an unimaginable leap of ingenuity, "I can eat half of the boy and half of the girl, and you eat the other half of each.”

“Yes!” said the left head, swinging it's neck around in joy.

Unable to listen to the stupid conversation between the two utterly dumb heads, Ikor reached behind his back for his knife to cut his hands free from the rope until he gaped his mouth in surprise. The knife was gone! Ikor looked at the girl with wide eyes and whispered, “I don’t have the knife.”

The girl gave an exasperated glare, “Here, I have one.”

“Now let’s feast! I get the boy first and you get the girl first!” said the right, already grinning at his meal, showing his gleaming white teeth.

“Wait,” blurted Ikor, “Um, uh, don’t you want to do, like, uh, a stir fry or something on us?” Ikor tried to stall the best he could as he slowly cut the rope that tied his hands.

“Oh,” said the left, “That sounds like a very good idea. A deliciously good idea, as a matter of fact.”

“Why not a deep-fry while you’re at it?” Ikor knew he was stalling horribly, but it seemed that the two heads did not catch on.

“Maybe," the right head tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, "Although I have type two Diabetes, so I can’t have any oily foods."

“Then I’ll have the deep-fried part,” yelled the left head excitedly.

"But we share the same body, so you also have diabetes!" said the right.

Finally, Ikor was free from the rope, now he was going to use his. . . he gawked in surprise. Where were his weapons?

“I don’t have my weapons,” whispered Ikor sadly to the girl.

“You stupid! You told me that you buried them in front of you when we first got here!” said the girl.

“Oooh,” realized Ikor. The girl snorted. Ikor then really fast began to dig in the ground while smiling and talking to D’kyok.

“So, do you think you can use beef seasoning on us because I think that would be tasty!” said Ikor.

“Oh, yes,” said the left.

“Maybe with a touch of salt,” said the right.

“And garlic powder.”

“And ginger.”

“And black pepper.”

“And-”

“DIE YOU STUPID SEA SERPENT, YOU WILL BE SLAYED BY THE ULTIMATE HELIO-SWORD!” cried Ikor, “YOU WILL MEET YOUR END TODAY, D’KYOK.”

Ikor charged straight at the sea serpent. Ikor may not be a smart hero, but he was really good with that sword. He had the upper hand with the battle.

“We need to RETREAT!” said the left.

“YES, RETREAT!” said the right. They tried to retreat, but . . . The left went to the left and the right went to the right. They went in opposite directions!

Finally, D’kyok realized how it could win the battle.

“We haven’t even used our ultimate move yet!” said the right.

“ARGH, we are so stupid,” said the left.

“Now! The Ultimate Technique of D’kyok! ICE FIRE BLAST!" cried the two heads in unison. The left head shot out Ice at Ikor, and the right head shot out Fire at Ikor.

However, Ikor was in between the left and the right heads, so he just jumped up and the ice and fire neutralized each other. Then, as the left and right heads were still baffled on how Ikor escaped, Ikor gripped his Helio-sword and sliced off the head of the left head and spun around and sliced off the head of the right head. Ikor won the battle against D’kyok!

The girl thanked him, got on a horse, and rode back to her parents. There was only one problem. It seems to be that Ikor is again stranded in the woods, miles away from the village, with no horse, no provisions, none of his belongings, yet still, burning in his oven-cooked armor under the sweltering summer sun.