Harold the Chosen One
by M.O. (7th grade)
There once was a man named Harold. He had a very normal life with a job, friends, family, and a good home in San Francisco’s Mission District, yet he didn’t know he was the chosen one.
One day he heard something. It sounded like thunder, but it was beautiful outside! Then it started to sound more like grumbling. He followed the low pitched noises to the yard behind his front elevated stairs. He noticed that the town was dead around him--no one was there. He got pretty scared. All of a sudden, the sky opened into blackness. A goddess dressed all in white floated down and took his hand. Then she flew back into the darkness with Harold. He struggled and yelled, “Let go of me please!!” but she wouldn’t answer.
San Francisco below him was getting smaller and smaller. When they entered the hole in the sky, the city below was gobbled up, until all that surrounded Harold and the goddess was pure blackness.
Soon, the darkness was all Harold could see, and the goddess began speaking. “You have been chosen,” she said.
“Chosen for what??” Harold asked, confused.
“You have been chosen to watch over the skies, for danger is near,” she explained, darkly.
Why me??? He thought. He wished he hadn’t followed the grumbling noises.
“You have had an uninteresting life so far, so Zeus has decided to choose you to be the one to watch over the sky.” She somehow knew what he was thinking.
“But… but… I should have a say in this!!!” His loud voice echoed through the dark.
“Haven’t you ever heard of Zeus?? He is the most powerful of them all!” She said dramatically.
“Fine… I’ll do it… just as long as I get something in return…” He said.
“Alright. I’ll grant you one wish,” she proposed.
“Yes!! Okay… I have it. I want one million dollars, please,” he begged.
“Are you sure you’d like that? Honestly, that is quite selfish,” she warned.
Harold shifted on his feet, thinking. He knew she was right, but he was too selfish to let it go. “I still want the money. You don’t know what I’m going to do with it; I could help the homeless…” he suggested, just to make her happy.
“Okay, I shall bring you back down to Earth, and you must watch over the skies, looking for an armored man on a dragon. When you see this, let out a large, high pitched scream, and Zeus will come to fight the warrior, who is also Gremati, the god of grim. You will be the savior of wonderful San Francisco. I will bring you back now,” she explained.
“Okay. Get me out of this weird black hole,” Harold ordered.
She nodded and they both descended back to the Mission district.
“Goodbye Harold, and make sure you watch the skies until Gremati comes. Thank you for helping Zeus. Good luck!” the goddess said.
She waved as she floated into the blackness. Then with a loud, slamming noise, the sky was back to blue, and people showed up from nowhere. Harold sighed and began his duty by lying down right where he was, and looked up at the sky. As people passed, they gave Harold weird looks and smirks. He knew what they were thinking. From their faces he saw that they thought he was a homeless person with some crazy things going on in his brain. He just rolled his eyes at them and continued searching the skies. He hoped that Gremati or whatever his name was would come soon, because Harold was getting antsy. He continued to look up, even though it was getting dark. He fell asleep, and then the next morning, he kept his eyes peeled.
Suddenly, he heard a roaring sound coming from up above. He quickly got to his feet and looked at the slightly cloudy skies. Sure enough, a bright red dragon was flying around the skies, a man in armor on its back. Harold began to shake from with being afraid of such a magnificently scary sight. Suddenly his mind went blank. What was he supposed to do when he saw Gremati? He continued to try to calm himself so he could remember. Just then, a voice seemed to whisper in his ear. It was the goddess. “Harold!!! Remember?? You have to scream high pitched!!! Hurry up!!!” She shouted in his ear.
“Oh yeah!!!” Harold remembered.
He screamed at the top of his lungs. He noticed again that everyone disappeared. A huge bolt of lightning came from the sky, and mighty Zeus jumped out of a storm cloud. Harold watched in disbelief as Zeus jumped onto Gremati’s dragon’s back. Gremati was taken by surprise and lost his grip on the dragon. In a matter of seconds, Gremati was hanging from the dragon’s tail, Zeus in control of the fiery red beast. Suddenly, with brute force, Gremati flipped back onto the dragon and threw a punch at Zeus. Yet, even though Zeus was “mighty,” Gremati punched him square in the face. The two were punching each other while Harold was watching below in disbelief.
Is this really happening? Harold thought as he was watching the two gods. Then, abruptly, Gremati came swooping down. Just as he got two inches from him, Harold’s mind blacked out.
When Harold woke up, he felt like he had been asleep for a year. His eyes were droopy and his body was stiff. He was under his stairs on 22nd street in the Mission district of San Francisco, back to normal, people walking around, minding their own business. He felt something in his pocket. He took it out and saw that it was a million dollars in cash. All of a sudden Harold felt dizzy. How could I have gotten all this money, if it was all a dream? He pondered. As he looked up, he saw a thundering storm cloud in the distance. He smiled and thought of what the goddess said- “Are you sure you’d like that? Honestly, that is quite selfish.”
Then he took a stroll through town, offering hundreds of dollars to homeless people. This he did happily.
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