Year: 3045 AGD

Month: New Year

Second Firstday

Serenity Valley

Shawnrik felt as if he were starting to get used to the incredibly precise time schedule of the Institute as the now familiar hum coursed through his body. The morning routine had taken on its own set pattern as well, broken up only by the amount of time Verrian stared blankly at the floor before gathering his things for the morning shower.

The last Eightday had been rather rough on Verrian. His body was not yet used to the amount of physical activity that he had been subjecting it to, and it was complaining accordingly. Taking Eighthday off seemed to have helped him recover some of his fire, but Shawnrik was worried that his new friend would burn out within a few Eightdays.

They had the morning to do whatever they wanted, since neither of them had anything on their schedule, so by silent agreement they ended up spending their time before lunch in the main library. Shawnrik had only first seen the inside of the multi-storied building a few days before, and he couldn’t help but stop and marvel as they walked through the front doors.

The main room contained shelves as far as the eye could see, and each one was filled with books on various subjects; this room probably held more knowledge than every other library on the face of Terrazil combined, and there were two more floors just like it! Approaching the front desk to sign in, Shawnrik couldn’t help but be in awe of the little gray-haired old man who sat behind the desk. A small plaque sat in front of the man that read Travis Augustus – Head Librarian.

“Any new development in the world of books?” Verrian said as he picked up the pen-like instrument and signed the slightly inclined screen that faced toward the boys.

“I doubt there has been any true development for the last thousand years, young Mr. Smith. I’m sure one could say much the same about accounting, heh?” the old Librarian replied.

Shawnrik had the feeling that these two had said much the same thing to each other every day for years now, and they both viewed it as some sort of ritual or tradition. Shawnrik thought it was a little silly, but the pair seemed to enjoy it so he kept his mouth shut.

“And how are you this fine Firstday, Mr. Larston? How are you finding our humble little center of learning?”

“It is amazing, Mr. Augustus, I’ve never even heard of the like.”

“That’s good—it means we’ve been doing our job right, and our students have been keeping their mouths shut,” the Librarian replied, a slight wheezing laugh escaping from the man.

“I still don’t understand all of that yet, but I sure am glad for the opportunity. I’ve only been here an Eightday and I’ve already learned so many things. The world became much more complex when I stepped through that hole that appeared in the obelisk in Tranquility Mist.”

“We call that hole an aperture, and the world is just as complex as it ever was, the only thing that has changed is your view of it, as it has continued to shift and change for me for the last eighty-six years. If something doesn’t happen that makes you change your view of the world every few months, that probably means you aren’t living it right. At least, that’s what my granddad always used to tell me. I’ll save you boys from the thwack on the head that used to come with it, though.” Another wheezing laugh escaped the old Librarian’s lips and his gaze wandered for a moment, before regaining its razor focus. “Now, what are you boys up to today?”

“We have the morning free, and since this is the most interesting place around, we thought we’d come expand our horizons,” Verrian said as he started moving around the large desk.

“Most interesting place, huh? If I were a young man, I’m sure I could think of quite a few more interesting places that I’d rather be.”

“Yes, well, last I heard the girls’ dorm is still off limits, so we’ll just have to settle for expanding our horizons this morning,” Verrian quipped, which sent the old Librarian off again, his wheezing laugh following them down the aisle.

Verrian found a book on the various practical applications of engineering and began skimming through its pages. They had begun Basic Engineering the previous week, and the little man seemed to be taking to it like a Griffon to a Shaper. Shawnrik found the subject interesting, but he didn’t feel like he needed to go out of his way to learn more about it than they were going to in class. He was, however, very interested in both Mythology and History.

Going over to the terminal, Shawnrik typed in Mythology, and a list of hundreds of books appeared on the screen. He sorted the books by those most checked out and found a few titles that sounded interesting to start with and headed off to see if he could find one of them. He felt like he had only been looking through the books for a few minutes when Verrian poked him and said it was almost time for lunch. As he once again realized the amount of information he had yet to learn, Shawnrik sighed, picking out a book to take with him and putting the others on a shelf for the library staff to put back in their proper places.

The book that he left the library with was called A Time Before. From the little that he had been able to read, it seemed that the author believed that the majority of the races that lived on Terrazil were not native to this world but had instead come from some other place. After all of the new things that Shawnrik had discovered over the last Eightday, it wasn’t as crazy of an idea to him as it might have been a year before. If nothing else, it would make for an interesting read.

Shawnrik and Verrian finished lunch quickly and went back to their room to drop off their books before heading towards the far western edge of the campus for their afternoon class. Today was the day that they would start the only class of the term that only happened once an Eightday. It was, however, scheduled for the entire afternoon, so it took up the same amount of time per week as most of their other classes. Neither of them were quite sure what to expect from Martial Arts; Shawnrik understood the basic concept behind the idea, but he didn’t think he had ever met anyone who thought of it as more than a hobby.

A steady stream of students were heading in the same general direction, and it soon became apparent that they all had the same destination in mind. Stepping onto the field that took up a large portion of the western end of the Institute's campus, Shawnrik was amazed at the amount of people present; milling about the field were several hundred students. Among them, he noticed several older individuals—a couple of which he recognized as Instructors at the Institute—but there were some that he had never seen before.

The group of boys that he and Verrian ended up next to was talking about how great of a place to meet girls this was. Apparently, the instructions were not divided by gender so there was the potential for close contact. Shawnrik was just thinking about how stupid they all sounded and how he wouldn’t let a girl distract him from something that might be important to know, when something gently touched his elbow, sending a pulse through his body.

“Hey Shawn,” a familiar voice said.

Turning around slowly, Shawnrik found himself looking down into a pair of lovely brown eyes. “Hey Olivia,” he managed to reply after a short pause.

“I was hoping to catch you after the ceremony on the first day, but you disappeared.”

“Yeah, it was kind of a crazy night. We decided to head back to the room as soon as we were dismissed.” Shawnrik found that he was suddenly unsure what to do with any part of his body, but instead of fidgeting like his body seemed to want to do, he held himself rigid.

“We?” Olivia replied, her right hand moving several stray hairs the color of chestnuts back behind her ear.

“Oh! Right,” Shawnrik said, suddenly remembering that his roommate was indeed standing right beside him. He also noticed in that moment that there were several other girls with Olivia. He moved aside a little and motioned to Verrian. “This is Verrian Smith, my new roommate. Verrian, this is Olivia Little.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Little,” Verrian said, with enough formality that Shawnrik almost laughed and Olivia arched an eyebrow.

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“Please, call me Olivia. Mrs. Little is my grandmother.” Several of the girls tittered at that. Motioning towards her companions, Olivia began her introductions. “This is Rebecca, Vivianne, Sara, and Syranna.”

Rebecca was the shortest of the group and was just shy of five feet, but her blue eyes and blonde hair made her stand out. Vivianne was of an equal height to Olivia, standing a good five inches taller than Rebecca. She smiled shyly as she was introduced, hiding behind her long brown hair with her hazel eyes still managing to shine through. Sara was the largest of the group at just short of six feet. Not only was she much taller than the other girls, she seemed to be in much better shape. Shawnrik was sure that Sara would be highly intimidating to most men, with her short cropped black hair and amber eyes only adding to that image. Syranna stood somewhere between Sara and Olivia in height, and her most distinguishing feature was the points of her ears; Shawnrik was fairly certain that she was a member of the Guardian Elves. Her light brown hair framed her thin face well, and her green eyes seemed to glow of their own accord from between her long brown locks.

Verrian looked from one girl to the next like a rabbit ready to take flight at any moment. Shawnrik realized that all of the girls were attractive, and his friend might indeed bolt at any moment. He placed his hand on his roommate's shoulder to give him some support, and he felt Verrian relax slightly under the pressure.

“Sara is the only one of us that has any real kind of martial arts training, though Syranna is an amazing shot with a bow. I figured after what happened the summer before last that it might be a good idea to know how to protect myself, and they thought it sounded like a good idea, too, so here we are!” Olivia said. She spoke quickly and had to catch her breath when she finished.

If Shawnrik didn’t know any better, he might think she was nervous. He was just about to ask if she was okay when someone struck some type of handheld cymbal at the other end of the lawn. He noticed several of the boys in the next group over giving him and Verrian dirty looks as they made their way over to the main group. When he caught them doing it, however, they all seemed to find more interesting places to look. Shawnrik didn’t know what their problem was with him and his roommate, but he wasn’t going to let it bother him.

Once everyone settled into place, a woman who looked like she might bend bars as an afternoon activity stepped in front of the assembled students and faculty. From the slope of her brow and the pink not-quite-red tint to her eyes, Shawnrik thought that she might have some Orc blood in her. He couldn’t see any hair on her body at all, and her light brown skin looked slick, like some sort of oil had been rubbed on it. When she spoke, her voice had an edge to it that told him that she wouldn’t be repeating anything she said again anytime soon.

“Welcome to Martial Arts. Those of you that have been here before will know the drill, but we seem to have more interest in the course this year than usual, so there are many of you that do not.” She stood rigidly in front of the group, like a general addressing their troops. “There are many different disciplines in the martial arts, and once you understand the basics you will be able to choose a specific style, should you decide to continue your training. I don’t care what other kinds of fighting training you have, everyone starts out with the basics here. Very few things you will have learned in other disciplines will be relevant to the basics of the training that you will receive here.”

At this point, several of the older members of the crowd moved forward, taking up positions fifty feet apart from each other in a line. In total, there were twelve Instructors lined up in front of the assembled students and Instructors of the Institute. Shawnrik wondered if there were really that many ways to fight unarmed, but assumed that he would find the answer during his training.

“Those of you, who have trained with us before, please join your Pathfinder now.” Three fourths of the milling crowd began moving at this, settling into smaller groups in front of each Instructor. “The rest of you will follow me.”

Doing a quick count as they walked towards the other end of the field, Shawnrik estimated that there were over seventy people in the beginner group. He found himself getting excited at the prospect of learning with so many other people his age. Up until he came to the Institute, his training had always been one on one, and he was interested to see how such a large group could all learn how to fight at the same time.

As the neared the base of the inner wall of the volcano that Serenity Valley was nestled in, Shawnrik began to appreciate the enormity of the mountain that sheltered them. Craning his head back, he watched the rock wall slowly disappear into darkness thousands of feet above his head. Standing near the side of such a massive wonder of nature made him feel very small and fragile.

This volcano had been dormant for thousands of years, according to what little information he had been able to gather about it, and these walls had stood strong for countless millennia before that, withstanding pressures that he couldn’t even begin to fathom. Beside that kind of fortitude, how could he feel anything other than insignificant? Even a tiny portion of the massive structure breaking away would end his existence in the blink of an eye.

He thought that the idea should probably scare him, but instead he found the whole thing awe inspiring. The same universe that had created something so massive and strong had also created him. Was this old volcano created to shelter this hidden valley and the city that would come to inhabit it, or was it all just a series of completely random happenstance? Did the universe have a plan for him as well, or was his life simply a small thread being blown about randomly by the cosmic winds?

“First, I would like to congratulate you all for finding the wisdom to train your bodies and minds, whatever your reasons for doing so,” the dangerous looking Instructor said, pulling Shawnrik out of his train of thought. “My name is Irelia Orsoe. You may call me Instructor Orsoe, Master Orsoe, or simply Master. If you call me anything else, it will be ignored, or if it is something disrespectful, dealt with swiftly. I am not here to be your friend, but if you pay attention, do as you are instructed, and give me at least 90%, we’ll get along fine.”

Moving to her right, Master Orsoe walked to the furthest member of the group on the left. “We will start the first line here. I want eight people in a line, we will have ten lines. If you are at the back of your line, you need to count the people in front of you. If you are the ninth person in line, you need to move to a line that is not yet full. If you are the seventh person in your line, don’t worry about anything, just stay where you are.” She took three large steps and pointed to the next person who would be in front of line number two and continued that process until she had ten people designated as line heads.

It took a few minutes for the assembled mass to come together in ten organized rows, and once that was done they had to spread out backwards so that everyone had room to move about without hitting anyone near them. Standing in place and waiting for everyone to find their spot, Shawnrik saw that all of the other groups had already taken positions and were working through different routines. Looking at all of the other groups, it was hard for him not to be impressed with the level of discipline being displayed by the more experienced students and faculty. He wondered if this is what the training grounds at the Academy in Safeharbor looked like during the day.

Once the new students were arranged in a manner that pleased the brusque instructor, she began to lead them through a slow demonstration of the routine that they would soon come to know by heart. By the third hour, Shawnrik was sweating along with everyone else, and he felt like he would be moving from pose to pose in his sleep tonight. Another half hour went by before Master Orsoe let them rest. Most of the students simply collapsed where they stood, but Shawnrik noticed at least a dozen who found a relaxing position to stand. Compared to running through the mountains outside Tranquility Mist, these exercises were not all that taxing for his body. However, he knew that many of his fellow students were not anywhere near his level of fitness, and he felt sorry for the ones that he saw who were clearly in a lot of discomfort.

Shawnrik turned around and moved over to Verrian, helping his small friend to his feet. He was proud of his roommate, and he wasn’t going to let his friend’s body get too rested or he would never make it to Strength Training later that night. After a ten-minute break, the group made a large circle and began to learn practical applications for the movements they had just been taught. Watching his fellow students fumble through the motions, Shawnrik wondered what they might look like towards the end of the term and couldn’t help but grin at the potential that they all were about to unlock.

Second Thirdday

Continent of Terroval

Mine

It had taken three days for the guards to move enough rocks for the three of them to escape the tunnel. He knew this because the guards had been complaining about it ever since. His imagination had run wild in the moments before they broke through the last of the cave-in, expecting that he and his companions would receive harsh care, at the very least. Imagine his surprise, however, when after finding them alive the only thing that the guards seemed to express was relief. It didn’t quite make sense to his young mind, but it was definitely preferable to the alternatives that his mind had cooked up in the interim.

The two Drog’atol Goblins were now working to clear the rest of the tunnel and dispose of the bodies of their kindred. He had volunteered to join them when it became apparent that the guards were going to leave him in the cell, but the guards told him to shut up and sit tight. As time went by, he began to see his fellow slaves hauling pieces of bodies along with the rubble, and he decided that he was glad that they weren’t letting him help.

The smell of it all was quite a bit less pungent from his cell, and it gave him time alone to think about everything that had happened in the previous days. Moving through the rubble on his way out of the collapsed tunnel, he noticed that pieces of skin were flaking off from underneath his manacles. He did his best to hide this fact from anyone else, and he was fairly sure that no one had noticed. If they had, they hadn’t said anything to anyone else about it, because he would have been inspected much more thoroughly if they had.

Sliding the manacle slightly forward and backwards, he was able to free several more large pieces of flakey flesh from underneath the cuffs. It was his third attempt to get the dried pieces out that he realized that something was very wrong. Pushing the manacle as far forward along his forearm as he could, he noticed that the skin on his forearm that had been beneath the blood red pieces of metal when they had become burning hot had been replaced by small silver scales. He couldn’t remember who he was or where he came from, but he knew enough to know that regular people didn’t have scales. Scooting back into the darkest part of his cell, he slid the manacles back into place.

Going forward, he knew that it would be difficult to keep this a secret, but he would try his hardest. It was only a matter of time until more slaves showed up to replace those that had died in the cave-in. He thought that he might be able to rely on the two Goblins that had lived through the cave-in keep his secret, but he hoped that he would never have to find out.