As I reached the front lines of the battle, I looked out at the trenches, the grey weather in correlation to the emotions of young soldiers hiding deep below as they cry out for their parents, rifles and artillery pointing out of the channels covered in mud, firing repetitively through the fields of short beige grass and throwing explosives that rattle your head. My feet were sinking into the wet dirt that was tinted red from the blood of dead and injured soldiers as. I ran for my life to reach the point of safety within the trenches. There were shells laying here and there, explosives still in the dead soldiers' pockets as the medics dragged their lifeless bodies through the puddles of bloody mirky water. Soldiers are crawling up on boxes and planks, covered in debris, built into the wall of the trenches in order to peak over towards the enemy who are advancing towards us promptly through the fields. Soldiers are covered in dirt, it looked as though they were thrown into a pile of wet ashes, and most have shrapnel stuck in their skin from the explosives, screaming and crying out for help as they are mutilated. No soldier has a resemblance of happiness, everyone is terrified and in shock, many thought it would be fun being here, but no it is like living through a bottomless pit of agony.
As I experience this abyss of suffering, I feel as though writing about my experience through a fantasy-style story would give me a way to escape the reality I'm enduring. As I write the novel, Lord of the Rings, I am prompted to metaphorically compare the two sides of the battle. Power would be one of the main themes that the enemy is destined to seek, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria (Sauron) and all types of beings to represent how nations come together to fight for freedom, United States, France, Britain, Italy, Russia, and Serbia (Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Wizards). Most if not all of my ideas for the story are stemmed from my current ongoing experience of the moments and things I’ve encountered so far. As I sit in the trenches during this loud ground shaking night and think about what has happened in the past day of battle, I saw two soldiers who were so loyal to help and save one another it gave me influence for the two characters Sam and Frodo. They would not give up on eachother and would risk their lives running out of the slippery muddy trenches to drag one another through the short grass with splats of blood when they were struck in the leg with a bullet and injured from the massive explosions of a tank shooting as we roll into trenches swiftly. The power that Germany was fiening for was destined into the Ring that Sauron was desiring. I was taking the minute moments and relating them into my own fanstistacal way of story-telling.
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