And they were even
Long ago there lived a young girl with blond hair tied back with ribbons, the same color as her soft blue eyes and she was the most beautiful girl in the kingdom. Blessed with a rich and noble family yet cursed with greedy and wicked parents; her parents had agreed to marry her to an old ugly foreign count with soulless black eyes and a red completion in exchange for treasures beyond their wildest dreams. She was to be wed on her fourteenth birthday. The girl hated this man. He was cruel and hateful, with a taste for drink and gambling. The girl had only one true friend in the world. He was a young man of sixteen years. He had blond hair and midnight blue eyes that shone like stars. He swore on his life that he would save her from this terrible fate. He loved this girl but he was poor and it was not his place to marry her, so he did whatever he could to make her life better. The girl said, "'The only way you can save me is to kill the count.'" So the boy challenged the old man to a duel to the death. They fought in an empty study a fortnight before the girl's fourteenth birthday. The man was armed with a sword: the boy with a pen that wrote in the bloody ink of lost love and new death.
There was no fear in his heart when he faced this old evil man. The girl stood in the window watching. She feared for her friend's life, how could he possibly win with only a pen at his aid. He had turned down the sword she had offered. He said, "'My weapon is mightier than any sword.'" As they fought, the boy stabbed and cut the man many times but each cut would cost him, a cut here a stab there was not doing much damage it seemed. While the count was cutting the boy practily open, simply toying with the boy before he delivered the final blow. The boy had many cuts and was covered in blood. He was ready to die of blood loss and exustgion for the fight had been going on for at least two hours. The evil man pushed the boy to the ground and put his boot on the boy's stomach. Then he positioned the sword over his heart. "You will die of blood loss soon. Or you can concede and die quickly without much pain"
"You mean you will stab me in the heart and kill me." The boy said
"Don't think of it like that, it's more of a coup de grace. I'm killing you so you don't die slowly." The evil count said
"What makes you so sure that you have won?" the boy said
"You have hardly done any damage to me but I have nearly sent you to meet your maker without even breaking a sweat" The vicious old count retorted
"Ha! Look at the cuts I have made on you" The boy said
The count looked down at his arm where there were about six small cuts. Every cut had turned a horrid shade of black and was oozing some horrible green liquid. "What witchery is this?" the count asked in fear.
"Not witch craft but it is poison ink. Did you really think that I would come into a duel with an ordinary pen as my only weapon? Foolish man, now you will die." The boy said. The man's face contorted with rage and he let out a scream, and raised the sword only to die before he could kill the boy. However the man did drop his sword into the boy's stomach. The man fell and the boys eyes shot wide open as the blade cut through his entrails. The girl screamed and ran over to her friend in tears. She fell to her knees at his side. "Shhh Shhh there's no need for tears. This looks much worse than it actually is. I'll be fine soon enough" the boy said as he brushed tears from her face. "Go to your parents and tell them you will marry any one that you choose, and promise that you will only marry a man who loves you as much as I have loved you."
At his words she began to cry even more "Now didn't I tell you not to cry? Stay bubbly even when you're sad. Never cry when things are bad. Oh, look I made a rhyme! Now you go talk to your parents. Talk to them and take this pen," He said as he placed it into her hands "Take care of it because it's a good pen, promise me you will." Even though what he was saying did not make much sense she nodded and stood. After giving him a worried glance she ran off to find a doctor and her parents. But it was in vain because after she left he closed his eyes and died. Before the entered his eternity he sighed the pen wasn't mightier than the sword, they were even.