We sat in misery trying to plan our escape. The giant yeti had been gone for some time. The cave reeked of half eaten corpses and my men were in a state of mental paralysis. The yeti had already eaten 6 of my men and only 4 of us remained. I had to figure a way out, and my options were limited. The only thing at our disposal was a giant ice shard that had fallen from the cave ceiling and almost taken out my leg in the process. I ordered my men to distract the yeti as he came back from his afternoon hunt. We dug, to the best of out abilities, a small hole in the ice to trip the yeti upon his return. My job was to plow the ice shard through his head with all of my strength. The hope was that it would mortally wound the yeti, or give us enough time to escape as he recovered. After the trap had been set and everyone was in position, we waited. The time went by agonizingly slow. We had no water, no food, and our bodies had been pushed to the limit. We had not slept in two days. We feared for our lives every waking moment that we were stuck inside the cave. My legs were dead weight, and I could barely muster the strength to walk. We heard the yeti approach the cave, and I muttered a prayer as a last attempt to save myself. As the yeti pushed back the stone to his entrance and stammered into the cave, we all braced ourselves. He stumbled upon the hole and fell to the ground. My men jumped on his back to try and hold him into place. I leaped into the air and rammed the shard into the back of his head. Success! Or so I had thought. The ice shard deflected off his rock hard skull and I fell to the ground. I watched as the yeti began to rip my men into shreds. He was in an enraged trance and my men were on the receiving end of his wrath. My men were gone. I seized the moment and ran towards the entrance of the cave. I made it a few steps outside of the cave and raced towards freedom. However, the yeti was too quick and took hold of my leg. He smashed me against the side of the cave and my body splattered against the rock. Now, here I sit inside the realm of Hades for eternity.
(A photo of Odysseus driving his stake into the eye of the cyclops. Source: Wikipedia Commons)
Author's Note: The story that I told was based on "The Cyclops Defeated" section of Homer's Odyssey. Homer's Odyssey is a story based on Greek mythology. It follows the adventure of Odysseus and his men as they make their way back home after the Trojan War. In "The Cyclops Defeated", Odysseus and some of his men are trapped inside the cave of the cyclops Polyphemus. Odysseus had let his curiosity get the best of him as he wanted to explore and take the riches of the cyclops in the cave. Once the cyclops had found them out, he ate some of the men each day and trapped the rest like pigs for slaughter. Odysseus had devised a plan to escape. He got the cyclops drunk on his wine and struck the cyclops in they eye with a hot stake. He blinded the cyclops and was able to plot his escape within the coming days. Each day Polyphemus led his sheep to the fields and Odysseus saw this is an opportunity. Odysseus and his men tied themselves to the cyclops's sheep and escaped as Polyphemus could not see what they were doing. In my rendition of the story, I created a different scenario where the men do not escape. I thought it would be funny to change the ending and have the hero and his men unexpectedly perish inside the cave. I also changed the cyclops to a yeti because I wanted to create a different scenario with new characters.
Bibliography: Homer's Odyssey translated by Tony Kline. Source: UnTextbook
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