A soldier fighting in the First World War gets caught in a gas attack, and is transported to a fantasy realm.

1. Out of the Green Mist
By
Isaac Hart
Here There Be Dragons: Episode 1
ihart1@stu.chi.ac.uk

2. 1. YPRES TRENCHES (DAY)
The trenches of Ypres, 1915. Tangled wire and bodies scatter
the muddy wasteland. Clouds of smoke drift limit visibility.
Inside a trench, a gaggle of soldiers wait nervously.
Among them is TOM TREVASKIS, 21, tall and freckly, a look of
perpetual fear on his face.
He writes in a scruffy black notebook, his hands shaking. A
soldier next but one to him gestures to the book.
SOLDIER
Home?
TOM
(Jumps, startled)
In a way.
SOLDIER
I get it. Anything from home’s like
manna from heaven out here. Smoke?
TOM
Huh? Um, no thank you, not for me.
SOLDIER
Suit yourself. Where you hail from?
TOM
Uh, Cornwall. Port Isaac, little
place. Mostly just fishing and...
well, actually that’s about the
long and the short of it.
SOLDIER
Sounds nice, Cornish. Me, I’m from
up Nottingham way, little village
outside Sherwood Forest. You know,
Robin Hood and all that?
TOM
Barnsdale.
SOLDIER
Huh?
TOM
Robin Hood actually lived in
Barnsdale Forest, up near
Yorkshire. There’s actually an old
legal saying from the Middle Ages,
’Robin Hood in Barnsdale Stood’,
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)

3. CONTINUED: 2.
TOM (cont’d)
means an absolute certainty. I
mean, if Robin Hood was real, of
course, I mean it’s more likely
he’s actually an amalgam of
several-
The soldier is staring at Tom non-plussed. Tom slowly stops
rambling, and clears his throat.
TOM
You got a girl?
SOLDIER
Yeah, nurse back at Gravenstafel.
Gotta photo and everything. Wanna
see?
TOM
Oh, um, sure.
The soldier awkwardly hands Tom the photo across the man in
between them, who looks like he’s struggling not to throw
up.
Tom handles the crumpled photo in his shaking, gloved hands.
TOM
She looks real nice.
SOLDIER
Yeah, real tough lady, but ’spose
that’s to be expected, she lost her
last man during the Race of the
Sea, last year? But she cares.
Cared enough to come all the way
out here. Looks after a kid and
everything. What about you,
Cornish, bet all the girls go for
the quiet country boy thing?
TOM
(Doesn’t argue)
Ha... no, made about as much
progress as Sisyphus in that
department. Did know a girl in a
library once, though. Seemed nice
enough. Never did talk to her
though.
(Snaps back, gesturing with
photo)
What’s her name?
(CONTINUED)

4. CONTINUED: 3.
SOLDIER
S-
OFFICER
Private!
The two are interrupted by the arrival of a young officer.
They both snap to attention, fumbling their respective
treasures.
TOM
Sir.
OFFICER
Hate to break up the chit-chat, but
first wave is about to go over the
top. Should be a routine excursion
but HQ’s saying Jerry might be
trying something nasty tonight.
TOM
(Looking around)
Pardon, sir, but it’s not already
nasty?
OFFICER
Look, my watch got buggered up at
Langemark, do you have the time?
Tom fumbles for a pocket watch in his belt, pulling it out.
TOM
Three minutes to 17-hundred hours,
sir.
OFFICER
(Turning pale)
Three minutes. God’s boots. Chin
chin, Private. Everything’s going
to turn out hey-ho pip and dandy.
The officer makes his way awkwardly away along the trench.
TOM
Oh, giss. This is actually it.
SOLDIER
Just how many battles you been at,
Cornish?
TOM
Well, one does tend to lose track,
after a while, I mean, they do tend
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)

5. CONTINUED: 4.
TOM (cont’d)
to blend together, after a while,
but if I had to put a number on it,
counting this one... uh, one.
SOLDIER
Hell’s bells. Quite the
introduction.
TOM
How do you deal with it?
SOLDIER
What?
TOM
The feeling.
SOLDIER
What feeling?
TOM
That feeling in your stomach, like
it’s about to drop out your arse
and float down into hell?
SOLDIER
Oh, the ’bones are about to crack
and your saliva turning to acid,
feeling’?
TOM
That too. What’s the key?
SOLDIER
The key? The key... the key is,
is... is sticking with your
buddies.
TOM
Really? That’s it.
SOLDIER
In my experience, and I was at the
Battle of the Frontiers, saw the
guy next to me evaporate like a
pheasant on the King’s Shoot. If
you want to live, and you also
don’t want to loose your marbles,
put it all out of your mind.
(CONTINUED)

6. CONTINUED: 5.
TOM
What?
SOLDIER
Everything your pretending to be
fighting for. Forget the King, or
the Empire, or some vague moral
high ground. Forget your family,
too, because if either side winds,
chances are today’s not going to be
happy for them. Forget home,
because that can be anywhere, just
a place in your head. What you’re
fighting for, what you’ve got to
fight for out here, is the guy next
to you. Because you’re sure as hell
not fighting next to the King.
TOM
(Gesturing to the man in
between him)
Are you sure, you never know.
They both laugh, the hollow laughs of doomed men.
OFFICER
(Shouting across the trench)
Alright, fall in!
The smiles slowly fall from Tom and the soldier’s faces, and
they huddle around the ladders out of the trench with the
others.
SOLDIER
Cornish?
TOM
Yeah?
SOLDIER
More than likely one of us isn’t
coming back.
TOM
Well, we can only live in hope?
SOLDIER
But if I don’t make it... find her.
TOM
Your nurse? I don’t know her name.
(CONTINUED)

7. CONTINUED: 6.
SOLDIER
Not her. That librarian friend of
yours. When you get back to Port
Isaac, you go find that girl and
you talk to her for five minutes.
Tell her a story. Lie about how
much you like the book she’s
reading. Ask her about the weather.
Just make sure she knew you
existed. Do that for me, Cornish.
TOM
I will... I’ll try.
The whistle blows.
OFFICER
Company, advance!
Tom swallows, shuts his eyes, and goes over the top with the
rest.
2. NO MAN’S LAND (DAY)
The soldiers run out onto no man’s land, and it’s just as
terrible as we’ve always been told. Half of them are gunned
down almost instantly, dropping like rag-dolls in the mud.
Gunfire flies at the advancing line of soldiers.
Tom stumbles into a shell hole, tripping and dropping his
book. He scrabbles around in the mud for it.
The soldier looks back and, seeing Tom in trouble, breaks
rank and goes back for him.
OFFICER
Hold the line! Hold the blasted
line!
The soldier gets to the hole, using his rifle to help Tom
up. He shouts over the cacophony of explosions and gunfire.
SOLDIER
Overall, this day’s turning out to
be a bit of a bummer, I’d say,
Cornish?
TOM
Just give me a moment, I need to
get my book!
(CONTINUED)

8. CONTINUED: 7.
SOLDIER
Bloody hell, you cracked Jerry’s
cipher in their or something? It’s
only a book!
TOM
It’s home!
3. YPRES TRENCHES (DAY)
Shells are landing close by, causing great rivets of mud to
fly into the air.
With the advancing front line, the Officer is squinting
through the fog. Out of the German trench, smalls metal
cannisters are flung, which erupt into streams of yellow
gas. The Officer’s eyes go wide.
OFFICER
Gas! Gas! Cover faces, pull back!
The line breaks into chaos as the cloud envelops them,
everyone running and coughing.
4. NO MAN’S LAND (DAY)
Tom finds his book, and scrabbles to his knees.
TOM
Got it!
SOLDIER
Sensational. But I think we might
have just missed the train.
Soldiers are fleeing away from the German line back to the
trench, shouting in panic. Tom and the Soldier both eye the
advancing cloud.
TOM
I don’t know what trains you get,
Sherwood, but I’m not in the mood
to catch that one!
They both clamber out of the shell hole, but they are
overtaken by the gas cloud. Tom holds his breath, covering
his mouth with his uniform. He and the Soldier get separated
in the chaos.
Tom looks around desperately for the Soldier, his eyes wide
with fear and watering. He scrabbles away from the trench
toward an area with less gas. The officer, delirious and
with red eyes, sees him running and raises his revolver.
(CONTINUED)

9. CONTINUED: 8.
OFFICER
Everyone back to the trench! No
dissertations, in the name of the
King!
Tom doesn’t respond, so the Officer starts taking pot shots
at his legs.
Tom stumbles and falls out of the cloud, unsure if he’s just
been shot. Eyes still burning, he notices another cloud
barrelling toward him, this one green and shimmering. Unable
to get away in time, Tom takes one desperate look around,
and then curls up into a ball in the mud, still clutching
his notebook. The green mist washes over him
5. SERPY CASTLE - LIBRARY (DAY)
AEFRE WISMER opens her eyes with a jolt. She’s a girl, about
19, with bangs and a sad face. She looks like she’s just
seen something she expected to see for a long time all of a
sudden.
ARGON (O.S.)
Are they here?
Aefre looks toward the voice. Standing by the crooked
bookshelf is ARGON, the most stereotypical wizard you could
imagine- a pointed wide brim hat, starry cloak, staff and
long white beard. He looks at Aefre expectedly.
AEFRE
S-strange... so many strange
images. Noise and mud and b-bone. A
land like our own being shredded by
metallic t-teeth. It was
h-horrible.
ARGON
But are they here?
AEFRE
Yes, master. They’re c-coming.
ARGON
At long last, like the Prophecy
foretold. The hero with a thousand
faces. The warrior from another
land. The one who return harmony to
the kingdom once again.
AEFRE
A-are we sure it’ll be the o-one?
I, I, I mean, correct me if I’m
(MORE)
(CONTINUED)

10. CONTINUED: 9.
AEFRE (cont’d)
w-wrong, but the prophecy doesn’t
mention a-anything about exploding
metal sticks.
ARGON
Haha. Ah, Aefre Wismer, my
apprentice. You put much store in
dry old books. But books only state
what is and what is not. They can
only take a wizard so far. Now this
visitor, regardless of what weapon
he wields, can do something no book
can do. They have the strength, the
will, the moral courage to go
beyond facts. To truly be a legend.
6. FOREST (DAY)
Tom lands face first into grass.
He scrambles around, like a great overturned spider, gets to
his feet, and promptly walks into a tree. He sinks down the
trunk, grasping his nose, his eyes still stinging. He looks
around, his eyes slowly adjusting to the light.
Tom is sitting in the clearing of a lush green forest. The
sky is a cloudless blue, and the ground is peppered with
red-and-white toadstools. Tom looks dumbfounded. Is he
hallucinating?
TOM
Okay... not Belgium then.
GNOME
No, it’s my house. Your sitting on
it.
TOM
Oh, dreadfully sorry.
Tom gets up from the tree trunk. Then he realises that he’s
just spoken to a gnome.
TOM
(Jumping back from the gnome)
AAAAH!
GNOME
(Seeing how tall Tom is)
AAAAH!
(CONTINUED)

11. CONTINUED: 10.
TOM
(Pulling out his rifle in
terror)
AAAAH!
GNOME
AAAAH!
TOM
(Pulls the trigger, gun hits
him the chest and knocks him
back)
AAAH!
GNOME
(Just explodes)
AAAH!
TOM
(Realising he just blew up a
gnome)
AAAH!
Tom scoots back across the grass, before running into a pair
of legs in green tights. He looks up.
SHEVICK
Nice wand you’ve got their
stranger. We just might borrow it.
SHEVNICK looks like the Soldier from the trench! Longer hair
clipped back, and medieval outfit, but identical. He pulls
out a sword and puts it at Tom’s kneck.
Tom’s eyes cross to look at the sword. He faints, still
covered in gnome gore.
CUE OPENING CREDITS