Week 7 Story: Abdoe's Last Stand

Abdoe looked around, wondering how his life had come to this. It seemed like only yesterday he had been a child. Now, at only 15 years of age, he had been dragged into the war of his father and uncles. Abdoe’s father, Jaruna, was one of the most powerful warriors in the world. Abdoe had always wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and be a mighty warrior. Though he wasn’t as capable with a bow as his father, Abdoe had considerable skill in battle of his own. It helped that he had been born with magical abilities. Abdoe had mostly spectated the war from the outskirts of battles, jumping in here and there where he could. It wasn’t until recently that his family had been confident enough in his abilities to allow him to take a more central role.


Abdoe snapped back to reality. He gazed at the fifty plus enemy warriors that had surrounded him. They had isolated him from his comrades, cornering him into a obscure clearing of the forest in which the battle had been taking place. Though he had done well in his fights up to this point, this was a task far from anything Abdoe had faced thus far. Abdoe took a deep breath as the first round of enemies charged him. Crouching to the ground, Abdoe thrust himself high in the air and threw ten daggers seemingly out of nowhere. While every dagger found its mark, the fallen foes were already being replaced by the next wave of enemy soldiers. Abdoe quickly landed and deflected the spear that had been lunged at him. He spun around, kicking through a warrior’s head like it was silly putty. Abdoe reacted with cat-like reflexes to the onslaught of warriors that approached him from every direction, jumping up and spinning with a kick that knocked through ten more soldiers. The young warrior continued resisting the assault, spewing fire and ice out of both of his hands in an attempt to subdue the warriors that remained. Finally there remained only one more warrior--but this was a famed soldier from the enemy camp. He had never been defeated. Both men eyed each other down, until at last the youth’s impatience got the best of him. He sprung into the air, coming down with a sword aimed right at his foe’s head. The enemy blocked it with his shield, shattering the sword. A shard of the sword flew into the forehead of Abdoe. While the injury wasn’t life threatening, the shard had gashed Abdoe’s head, causing blood to stream into his eyes and blind him. Abdoe scrambled around, trying to gather his bearings in his blinded state. The infamous foe began swinging his mace around for a finishing blow as he approached the bumbling young warrior...Abdoe would need a miracle.

The dark forest where Abdoe makes his last stand. 

Source: Commons

Author's Note: I was inspired to write this story after reading Abhimanyu and Jayadratha from the PDE of the Mahabharata. In the original story, Abhimanyu, Arjuna's son, is trapped behind enemy lines. He is surrounded by enemies, and puts up a valiant effort in defending himself before finally taking a fatal blow. This story was fascinating to me, and I wish there would have been more details about the combat that occurred. I decided to write a story with different characters, but the same premise of a protagonist surrounded by enemy soldiers. I added a lot more enemies to make the fight more epic, and I also gave my character Abdoe magical abilities so I could be more creative as a writer. While Abhimanyu died in the original story, I made it ambiguous as to whether Abdoe survived or not. I didn't want to kill him off, so even though the odds were looking grim I left it up to the reader to decide whether Abdoe miraculously survived.


Bibliography: Abhimanyu and Jayadratha from the Public Domain Edition of the Mahabharata by Donald A. Mackenzie