WORDS WITH MR. KAUMANS- KEVIN KAUMANS
Fallar stood in the middle of the mountain-filled grassland, his sword glistening in the setting sunlight.
Dusk breaker was the sword’s name, a six-foot long, wide-girthed sword of a mystical black material that could cut through the strongest of metals in an instant. The sword glows red with the blood of those who wielded it before Fallar.
Death Bringer, the last dragon of the Legion, landed on the ground with a heavy thump that made the whole ground shake. His scales were black as obsidian, his eyes were glowing purple like amethysts.
Instead of fire, purple energy shot out of his maw that could evaporate any living thing into ash.
Fallar and his party have been hunting down the thousand-year-old dragon for months after the beast had killed his father. The young half-elf had sacrificed everything in order to find Death Bringer; he had to leave his home behind, his lover left him, and half of everyone he ever knew died on this adventure.
Raising Dusk Breaker above his head, he shouted. “Zien Tou! Death to the dragon!”
And with that, he and his party began rushing at the dragon, dodging his beams of death by jumping onto the floating platforms in the sky. They got this. They had been training for this moment for months now, they knew all of the dragon’s moves. Some of them might die today, they’ve made their peace with that, maybe all of them would die. But no matter the outcome, the party knew one thing for certain:
Death Bringer would be slain today.
Well? What do you think? Did you get enough of the little short story? In today’s article, I decided to talk about why fantasy is my favorite genre. So, I figured: “What would be a better way to get my point across than to show you, fellow reader?”
Fantasy is a genre that promotes creativity beyond the laws of reality. In most books, the protagonists have to obey the rules of the real world, which is why you never see Atticus Finch flying or shooting lasers out of his eyes in “To Kill A Mockingbird,” or Clarice Starling using super strength to defeat Buffalo Bill in “The Silence of The Lambs.”
But fantasy doesn’t need to follow those rules. If the author wants their protagonist to solve all their problems through magic and sword fighting with flaming spears that also fire cats out of their tips, they can very well do that. Which is why I encourage the people reading this to find the time to read more fantasy books. We shouldn’t let our creativity be limited by what people tell us is “realistic”. Instead, we should push our imagination to the limits and see what we can come up with.
My name is Kevin A. Kaumans. Thank you for tuning into this week’s column. Make sure to pick up a new newspaper from Northwestern News every week, and until next time friends:
Stay Educated
