A Fairy Tale :: creative writing

He knew that his first prey, the firebird, lived high up in the trees in the heart of the forest. Like lightening, they were hard to miss, and the piercing of its beak left a burn that could never be forgotten. Suddenly, the boy heard a shriek, and he whirled his head to see the blood-red bird swooping toward his face. Panicking, the boy lunged for the ground, and for the net that the wise man had given him. He hurled it at the bird - and missed. The bird, angry, made another giant swoop at the boy - and tore its flesh as it flew straight into the blade of the boy's sword. That was one creature taken care of. His next target, the freezing spider, could be either much harder, or much easier, the boy knew not which. The spider could not run, or jump, unlike some of its relatives, but it was harder to find, and its poison froze the human blood and made its victims helpless, lying on the ground shivering until the arachnid finally took pity on his prey and ate it. He tried not to think about it.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Instead the boy thought of ways to attract his prey; if he could get it to come to him, the killing would be easier - and definitely much safer. The freezing spider would eat any kind of flesh it could, but it was well known that the spider loved most to eat the flesh of humans. Well, what should he do? Obviously bait was safer than waiting for an attack, so the boy pulled out his dagger and held it to his upper arm. That was when he saw the grey bristles of the freezing spider. It was sitting quietly on a nearby shrub, its back toward the boy. Holding back a sigh of relief, he took one quiet step toward his prey, holding the dagger high, and stabbed it through the spider before it knew what hit it. A little less active a kill than the firebird, but just as exhilarating. Now the only victim left in this task of the boy's was the netherworld wolf, and what a creature. About the size of a pig, these dogs could tear up a man in two minutes flat, or so it wa s said. However, being the largest of the creatures made it the easiest target.