The Flames of Achilles

Achilles; Waking to another day in this faraway land which always feels strange to me, I spend it how else, but with my cousin and best friend for life. Pat and I ride our horses swim in the ocean, play board games on rainy days and make up songs on my harp. What we don't do is take part in the fighting, further up the beach. Not after what Agamemnon has already put me through. I wanted no part in this sad enterprise. Were it not for the dishonour I'd go home to Pithia and my father's house. But things are escalating up the beach and soon I find myself embroiled in the bloodiest revenge in the name of everything I stand for. Without Patroclus beside me what do I have left in this terrible place? Polyxena; I live like a prisoner under my odious mother's hawkish eyes. She controls my life and she is my worst enemy. I have the comfort of my sister Cassandra, my father and of my best brother...but not even my sister's encouragement can stop the fire of white hot anger threatening to erupt from within. If I don't find a way out soon it will consume me entirely... These are the last days of Achilles, seen through his own eyes. Far from his homeland and loved ones, prince Achilles has nothing left but his best friend and memories of brighter days. Doomed to have a god sized capacity for feeling as well as strength, the heart of this hero proves too large and burning for human spheres. His story, as often foretold by his goddess mother, ends with the final sacrifice of Pollyxena, a princess of Troy who with the hero is consumed in the flames at the mound of Patroclus.