Attack of the Dragons

If the Viking raids from the north and the Briton raids from the south weren’t bad enough, now we have a new challenge to our castle walls: dragons.

Here in Northumberland, summers are full of war. We are used to fighting in the summer. That’s when the lands to our north thaw enough for the Vikings to venture south to our lands hoping to steal our livestock and crops. Our walls, however, protect our farms. As the Norsemen try to come ashore, we fight them back with ease. Our arrows, bolts, and rock are more than enough to fend them off as they attempt to land on our beaches. They may not have what is ours, and soon they turn toward other coasts and other forts as ours are too strong for them.

Then come the Britons from the south. The Britons‘ claim to this land is admittedly greater than ours. They were here before the Romans and will probably outlast our Saxon rule, but that does not matter today. Today this land belongs to Ida the Saxon king, and we will hold it for him and his heirs. Their numbers cannot stand against our fortifications. Our steel is superior to theirs, as our swords and spears cut through their armor with ease. We have the higher ground, for Bamburg stands on a dolerite outcrop. Not only do we use the rock as our foundation, we have cut into the earth and used it to build our walls, and we launch our rocks toward our enemy as they attempt to storm the hill. With these rocks and our arrows and bolts, we cut half their army down before they even reach our battlements. Their spirit weakens as their forces are cut down, as we easily strike down those foolish enough not to break ranks and run. No man can defeat us once we lock ourselves behind these walls. We have plenty of land and cattle here. We can outlast any siege. Thanks to Lord Ida of Bernecia, we are protected.

Lord Ida had us build this stronghold high above the shore, and we are invincible from attacks by land and sea, but now we must deal with airborne enemies as well.

The dragons have come out of the East somewhere and bring with them fire. They attack when the sun is high. They know our bows and crossbows are worthless against them, as our arrows and bolts bounce off their thick hide. They swoop down and take our sheep in their claws and maws, returning to whereever they came from before dusk with a fifth of our provisions. The fire drives our bravest men inside as we cower with the women and children, hoping to avoid the death that the dragons bring.

Aston, the ironsmith, and his fisherman brother, Aethel, claim to have a solution. They have combined their tools and designed a contraption that might bring the winged monsters out of the sky. Fishing nets with iron barbs launched from paired ballistae. The ballista is a giant crossbow left from the Roman invasions. The contraptions take three men to crank, and aiming the ballistae pairs has proven difficult, but we hope to fight when they return tomorrow.

Nets are weighted down with iron spikes. As we launch the projectiles at the dragons, we hope to drop them into the sea, or at least pin them to the ground where our swords and spears can do harm. Aethel believes that dragons falling into the water will surely drown, and Aston believes that we should attack the wings of the grounded dragons so that they cannot escape our mighty warriors. But that lesson is for tomorrow when the dragons return at high noon. Tonight we plan our attack and hope our weapons prove their design.

How is the theme of hope against a terrible foe developed in "Attack of the Dragons"?

Use at least two details from the passage to support your answer