the ceiling. The chamber was lit up a small lamp on the wall, and the chamber was definitely not made in our
century. We could tell by the atmosphere.
“
Father, what do we do?” I questioned.
“
Take it. We shall leave this place immediately afterwards.” He considered.
“
Temüjin!” Börte shouted. “We shouldn’t touch it! Who knows what could happen, brother?”
Everyone nodded. Suddenly, the lights disappeared. The room was pitch black, and was impossible for
anyone to see in. All we could hear was breathing from our group.
“
I’m sorry.” Tolui, the youngest person of the group, and my smaller brother, apologized and gave a little
chuckle. “I might have pushed the lamp.”
“
You little fool! How can we escape now?” Chagatai, my older and impatient brother, scolded.
“
Keep talking.” My father advised. I thought he was sarcastic, but then he told us it would give us more
courage. “Shout out your names, men, so I know you all are here.”
“
Ögedei!”
“
Would you stop bothering me?” Chagatai complained. Tolui giggled.
“
Tolui and Chagatai are here. Hasar here.”
There was silence for a while, until I questioned for Börte.
“
Börte! Where are you?” My father questioned.
There was no response. My heart started pounding quicker and quicker by the second.
All of a sudden, there was a scream, then we heard a heavy object fall to the ground.
“
BÖRTE!” My father screamed.
Suddenly, there were red lights that appeared on the corners of the room, and started coming forward. The
footsteps were so loud, as if they were made out of stone. Then I realized that the red lights were eyes.
“
The soldiers have come to life!” I warned.
We took out our weapons, and braced ourselves for the worse. It was so dark, and we couldn’t see
anything at all. We started swinging our swords in random directions. We heard crumbling of stones, and few of
the red lights disappeared, which was a good sign. Until something so foul happened. We heard Chagatai
scream in pain. A sword had pierced through his tough armor, and through his body.
He cried in agonizing pain, and his body fell into mine. I felt his blood splat out into my skin.
I had killed him. Or I think I did, because I didn’t know where I was targeting. My skin was dirty. I have
killed an innocent person, and not just an innocent person. My brother. I screamed so loud, and started swinging
my sword with so much force and anger. But there were still too many soldiers. I could’ve sworn that there were
fewer soldiers than the number of the soldiers we are fighting before. But we kept fighting. We fought for our
lives. There were sounds of clashing between swords, groans from our men, and I knew we couldn’t hold up for
long. Not so long after, we were welcomed by the most feared creature ever known to mankind. The statue in
the ceiling came to life, and gave a huge scream and intimidated us. All the stone rock soldiers perished into
dust. The dragon spitted out fire, and lit up the whole chamber. Our eyes could finally work, and I saw the dead
bodies of Börte and Chagatai.
The dragon definitely didn’t look very happy, because I bet we have woken him up from his long sleep.
He started screaming everywhere, and broke the ceiling, revealing the dark and clear sky. We found the stairs
leading out of the chamber, and ran towards it. We knew that we hadn’t got a chance against the dragon, so we
didn’t bother looking back, and ran for our lives. We were running in full tilt, the fastest I have ever run in my
whole life. However, we couldn’t match up with his speed. The dragon spat out fire directly into us, and it
melted a part of my flesh in my leg. I screamed, and started limping. When it felt like we hadn’t got a chance,
my father did the boldest move. Something a true leader would do to protect his people. My uncle must have
realized what he was doing, and went with him.
“
Run! Never look back, not even for a second!” My father ordered. Those were his last words to me.
They stopped to set a diversion to stop the dragon from chasing us. My father threw his sword into the
dragon’s throat, and the dragon immediately targeted my father and uncle. I felt guilty for them risking their
lives for me and Tolui, but then I realized if I didn’t leave, my father and uncle have risked their lives for
nothing. Tolui grabbed me, and we ran as fast as we could. Fortunately, we escaped to the village, and we
grabbed our horses that were left in the village before entering into the Great Wall of China. We left the other 9
horses there, and rode until Mongolia, where the rest of our empire lay.
After spreading the news to the whole empire, the people were shocked. At first, they didn’t believe Tolui
and me, and didn’t want to accept the fact. But after a while, they accepted the truth, and decided to find a new
leader and start moving on. Tolui was then decided to become the successor over my father, and to rule the
Mongolian Empire. However, for me, I am dying slowly. The dragon’s fire was incurable, and there was
nothing for me to do, but to wait until my body couldn’t take the pain anymore. In the end, we got nothing, but