Eagle Boy

• Marlee Bourke, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2010

The Eagle Boy
They were closing in on him and he was running out of space to run. He was nearing the top of the volcano now, he had been running for what seemed like hours but it had only been a few short, agonising minutes. His legs ached and his head was spinning, the fumes of the flaming volcano were filling his head and making him dizzy, It was the end and he knew it. He was the top of the volcano now, he looks back to see the big men in dark cloaks only a few metres away from where he is standing. He trembles as a shiver of fear runs down his sweat covered neck. He collapses as the men call his name “Aaron!” they call something else but he isn't listening. He is afraid of the big men closing in on him like depression slowly filling you up until it sucks all the happiness out of you. Aaron shakes the thought out of his mind, this was no time to for thinking gloomy, depressing thoughts it was time to run like he had most of his life. Slowly but steadily, he heaves himself up to stare into the eyes of doom. He turns but there is nowhere to go. The are closing in on him like lions closing on their prey. The only way is to jump over the mouth of the volcano, but the flames would lick your feet and besides you would need kangaroos legs to make it. He had to try at least if he didn't make it he wouldn't have to run any more. Aaron had always dreaded this day either getting caught or dying. Without considering the thought a moment longer he leaps through flying to the midway point of the mouth of the volcano and then as soon as he had jumped he began to plummet into the volcano, the flames singeing him as he fell.

Aaron trembled, not because was cold but at the thought of dying. He was prepared for it now though, after all the years of running he knew it would come down to this, dying or going back to fight for his mother. His mother is the immortal queen, and had demanded that her sons would fight to protect her but, Aaron had refused and ran away. His mother demanded her royal high commanding bodyguard Sargent Edmund, find Aaron and bring him back. So know Aaron was facing death in a strange place he never knew existed. It was a depressing place full of death and gloominess and now, he was going to die in a place where not even crows visited.

He could hear the bubbling of the lava beneath him now, he knew what awaited him now and fell with bravery and courage but a strong heaviness in his heart pulled him down quicker. He was six feet from the lava now, panic ripped at him like the talons of an eagle ripping their prey apart. He screamed as the panic overwhelmed him, suddenly he heard the call of the giant eagle. He screamed with joy as he realised it was the eagle he had saved from starvation last winter. The eagle flew towards Aaron and Aaron landed in the comfort of the eagles feathers. The eagle glided out of the volcanoes mouth and Aaron waved to the men in black. They yelled and swore, they kicked and punched the air as Aaron flew in the safety of the eagles feathers.

As the eagle glided through the air Aaron,feel asleep in its warm feathers. Aaron awoke to the cry of the eagle the next morning. Aaron thought back to yesterday when he escaped the clutches of the men in black, the rush of jumping into the volcano and the panic ripping through him like a bushfire. He was safe now though, with the eagle he knew he would be protected, he knew that unless the eagle died he would be safe and no harm could touch him.
He was the eagle boy.