Hoofs beat against the worn dirt of a path in sharp contrast to the silence of the night, stopping at the thatched house at the end. Two riders depart from their horses and, scuttling quickly like crabs, pound on the wooden door. The inhabitants, blissfully asleep, wake in fright, fearfully looking towards the door. The eldest man, the father, grabs his sword and hesitantly opens the door, expecting to fight off a barbarian. However, the two riders, illuminated by a moonbeam, become recognizable.

“Leofwine, Cyneheard, what are you doing here?” the man asks, noticing their families on the horses behind them.

“Ælfweard, grab your family! We must leave now! A dragon has invaded our land!” one of them says seriously, the essence of urgent.

“Even as knights, we cannot fight it. We must go to the king! He is the only one who is able to help!” the other says just as earnestly.

Ælfweard nods in agreement. The riders both immediately get back on their horses and keep watch for fire, their armor glinting in the moonlight as they keep one hand on the reins and the other on their swords.

Ælfweard and his family grab the few belongings they can and scramble onto their horses. Joining the others, the three families ride off as fast as they are able, feeling hungry eyes on them as they go into the night.

For this assignment, I had to get 10 random words, choose an animal, and make a short story.

My ten words were:

belongings contrast watch hungry hoofs blissfully barbarian crabs essence moonbeam

I decided to choose a mythological animal, in keeping with our class theme of legend, myth, and folklore. The first animal that came to mind was dragon, so I went with that. To choose the names, I used https://www.behindthename.com/random/, and selected Anglo-Saxon names, the go with it being medieval-themed. I will admit-I did randomize names and check their meanings until I found names I liked.

Leofwine means “dear friend”, which I think is appropriate, as he is a good friend to Ælfweard, going to warn him of the dragon.

https://www.behindthename.com/name/leofwine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leofwine

Cyneheard means “royal” and “brave, hardy”, which I think fits, as he is brave to go and warn his friend and willing to fight the dragon for his family if he needs to.

https://www.behindthename.com/name/cyneheard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyneheard

Ælfweard means “elf” and “guardian”. While he doesn’t guard elves, or is a guardians who is an elf, he does guard his family, and elf is also of legend and mythology, tying into the theme.

https://www.behindthename.com/name/ae32lfweard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%86lfweard

Ultimately, this wasn’t too hard to do. The hardest parts were finding the names and trying to tie the word “essence” in!

The assignment I made this for:

http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/short-story-with-random-words-and-animals/

My Featured image is from here:

https://pixabay.com/en/wooden-door-nailed-old-wood-2852020/