Waiting for a White Knightby Teresa Bateman

Samantha looked down the dirt road. The road, as always, was empty. Few came along it. Those who did, and survived, quickly told others of its dangers. This made travelers even more infrequent.

Samantha sighed. Then she turned back into the cave. Her stomach rumbled, and she realized that it was time for lunch.

Living in a cave wasn’t bad, she thought. In fact, it was very comfortable. Her family had been living there for years. A housing shortage in the kingdom had forced many to give up castles and resort to rock walls and roofs.

Each generation in Samantha’s family had added touches and treasures that turned the cave into a lovely home. Visitors, however, were rare, and Samantha was lonely. More than that she was disappointed

All her young life she had been told that someday a white knight would come up that winding dirt road to her doorstep. He would be riding a noble steed and wielding a silver sword that glittered in the sunlight.

She had been promised this white knight by her mother, who had been promised the same by her mother before her. Samantha’s mother had assured her that a white knight was worth waiting for. Her mother’s eyes had grown dreamy as she’d recalled her own white knight so many years past.

Samantha had heard the tale a thousand times-how her mother’s white knight had ridden boldly up the dirt road, calling her by name (doubtless acquired through a local wizard). His voice had echoed through the caverns like a bell, and her mother always somewhat shy, had advanced hesitantly. The knight had rushed forward to meet her…Just thinking about it made Samantha long for her own white knight. She glanced out the window again. A small dust cloud had appeared at the base of the mountain. Someone was coming up the road.

She shivered in anticipation and leaned forward, straining to get a closer look at the traveler. As he drew nearer, she noticed the white steed with the shield handing from its saddle, catching the light like a mirror.

“Could it be?” she asked herself eagerly, afraid to hope. She could hear the jingling of the harness now, the clinking of the mail. He rounded the nearest bend, sword sparkling in the sunlight.

At that moment Samantha knew. This was her white knight. He drew nearer and swung down off his horse and advancing toward the cave entrance.

“Samantha!” he shouted. “I’ve come for you.”“I knew it!” Samantha said, pausing for a moment to check her teeth and puff on a bit of perfume. “He’s everything Mother said he’d be, and more.”

She hurried along the tunnel and sprang from the cave door-surprising the knight who fell backward. She crisped him with one burst of flame and munched him down. Then she sighed.

“Mother was right,” she muttered, using her talons to pick her teeth, then settling back on her haunches, wings curled neatly behind her. “Delicious! He was worth waiting for.

She sighed and gazed anxiously down the road. A pity that travelers are so infrequent,” she muttered, taking wing and circling the mountain. “Now, where that white horse?”

Afterward

1. Word identification2. Vocabulary3. Looking for evidence4. Visualization5. Writer’s Craft6. Analogies7. Metacognitive8. Moral/Ethical9. Intertextual