It was the time of the Icing, and the snow and razor-winds blew across the lands and before and behind them came the war and the war went across the lands worse than the ice, like a plague, and there were those who took in the plague and died by it, or were wounded deeply by it, and I was one of the wounded, and at first I wished I was one of the dead. ... The job with the children. ... In the bed beside me in the crumbling, bomb-shook hospital, was an old man with his arm blown off at the elbow and his face splotched with the familiar frost-bite of a front-line man. ... Now I am a useless ...

• Word Count: 1820
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

As the chilly autumn wind swept us along the path towards her house, lightly kicking through the heaps of orange and brown fallen leaves, Sarah and I were conversing about the Morals and Ethics seminar that we had just had at school. ... Edwards," I calmly saluted, shaking his right hand with a firm grasp. ... Sarah questioned me with her child-like voice. ... Do you see that girl over there, the one with the red dress on? ... She keeps asking me to hook her up with you. ...

• Word Count: 2465
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School