This is my English Benchmark for Junior year in High School. The prompt was: Write an essay about a time when you bettered your situation. Yeah, I decided to go along a different route. I got a 100 on it 
Deep below the Earth’s surface, below the soft soil and the growing green grass lived a many number of creatures. These creatures were known to be vicious and evil beyond any human’s wildest dreams but the most-vile and infamous were the Drow or the Dark Elves. Skin as black as coal, eyes as red as the hottest embers and hair like snow, no one crossed a dark elf and lived to tell of it, at least that’s what the bards sang of.
But alas, our story does not focus on these dark elves but instead on one of their slaves, an odiferous orc by the name of One Ear. One Ear surprisingly had two working ears but in a manner similar to that of a hypochondriac he was sure he only had but one. One Ear was a stable hand in a lower class castle in Menzoberranzan, a city of dark elves, and had been since had had been taken captive. This is where our tale begins, in this castle.
One day as One Ear was cleaning a particularly putrid stall, he happened upon a small dagger, barely sharper than a butter knife but a dagger all the same. Slyly, One Ear slid the dull knife into his jerkin and then straightened quickly. This was what he had been waiting for, his chance to escape the tough and arduous life as a salve. Grunting happily, he went back to work with vigor.
For the next few days, One Ear planned his escape, his plans usually focusing on him having more skill with a weapon than was true, or the dagger being more like a sword. He finally decided upon a plan where the overseer was switching shifts with the next and he could easily slip out, and into the nearby Underdark. He grinned a jagged smile but was quickly called back to attention with the lash of a whip.
“Get back to work, you smelly orc!,” cried the overseer, and One Ear hastily obliged and began toiling again.
As the shift was nearing the end, One Ear was going through the plan in his mind again and again. As he heard the whistle, he dropped his cleaning brushes and rushed to the exit with the other slaves and surprisingly managed to sneak into the Underdark in the confusion.
The dagger hadn’t even been needed! But, it had given him the push to escape nonetheless. He was finally free! Thank the gods for this lucky dagger! One Ear slowly lumbered off into the Underdark, too ecstatic to watch where he was going. He strode into a cavern where an illithid, or mindflayer had waited to bring mindslaves back to his colony.
Within a few hours, One Ear was in the mindflayer community, a slave again but now due to the mindflayer’s psionic gift he worked happily to please his masters. Thank the gods for the lucky dagger, indeed.
Deep below the Earth’s surface, below the soft soil and the growing green grass lived a many number of creatures. These creatures were known to be vicious and evil beyond any human’s wildest dreams but the most-vile and infamous were the Drow or the Dark Elves. Skin as black as coal, eyes as red as the hottest embers and hair like snow, no one crossed a dark elf and lived to tell of it, at least that’s what the bards sang of.
But alas, our story does not focus on these dark elves but instead on one of their slaves, an odiferous orc by the name of One Ear. One Ear surprisingly had two working ears but in a manner similar to that of a hypochondriac he was sure he only had but one. One Ear was a stable hand in a lower class castle in Menzoberranzan, a city of dark elves, and had been since had had been taken captive. This is where our tale begins, in this castle.
One day as One Ear was cleaning a particularly putrid stall, he happened upon a small dagger, barely sharper than a butter knife but a dagger all the same. Slyly, One Ear slid the dull knife into his jerkin and then straightened quickly. This was what he had been waiting for, his chance to escape the tough and arduous life as a salve. Grunting happily, he went back to work with vigor.
For the next few days, One Ear planned his escape, his plans usually focusing on him having more skill with a weapon than was true, or the dagger being more like a sword. He finally decided upon a plan where the overseer was switching shifts with the next and he could easily slip out, and into the nearby Underdark. He grinned a jagged smile but was quickly called back to attention with the lash of a whip.
“Get back to work, you smelly orc!,” cried the overseer, and One Ear hastily obliged and began toiling again.
As the shift was nearing the end, One Ear was going through the plan in his mind again and again. As he heard the whistle, he dropped his cleaning brushes and rushed to the exit with the other slaves and surprisingly managed to sneak into the Underdark in the confusion.
The dagger hadn’t even been needed! But, it had given him the push to escape nonetheless. He was finally free! Thank the gods for this lucky dagger! One Ear slowly lumbered off into the Underdark, too ecstatic to watch where he was going. He strode into a cavern where an illithid, or mindflayer had waited to bring mindslaves back to his colony.
Within a few hours, One Ear was in the mindflayer community, a slave again but now due to the mindflayer’s psionic gift he worked happily to please his masters. Thank the gods for the lucky dagger, indeed.
