In the dead of a cold, cloudy night an old man is working in the vast wheat fields. His clothes are tattered with the knife marks of the elves, their third attack that week. His hands cut and bruised from a life of hard labor. He collapses in the fields tired, alone, with no hope of survival, his only thoughts are to that of his family. After all, he hadn't met this month's grain quota, and someone was going to have to pay.
The morning came and the royal inspector for that month arrived to take count of the bodies in the fields, it is rare that he lasted the month so far as most people who grow up in the upper levels in the dome aren’t ever exposed to the brutality of the outside world. Many began to think that maybe he actually climbed the dome like they all dreamed of.
“16 dead, 12 captured, not a bad number today eh” he says jovially.
“These people had families, you shouldn’t take their lives so lightly” says an old, frail women
“17 dead isn't a bad number for one day though?”
Before another word could be uttered, she was shot in the head by a green bolt of magic through the man's finger tips. He never stopped smiling even as he eviscerated her body and chunks of her blood and flesh stained the fields red. After he was satisfied, he put her body in a cart with all the others
“Hey, do you think that we’ll get in trouble for just killing an old lady?” says one of the inspector's guards.
“She's a worker far past her prime, not even the sappiest of kings would care about that” says the other.
After going through the fields, the inspector and his crew get in a carriage and ride into the town. The inspector gets a hammer and nail and puts on the nearest local windmill the total numbers for today, in big bold letters it reads 10 bushels of grain, the town had to produce ten bushels of grain by the next month. In a small footnote at the bottom of the page reads how many died and who died, ironic considering the literacy rate of 50%.
“10 bushels behind, you are all ten bushels behind” said the inspector judgingly.
“Line up and get your scythes and get to work” he said, hiding a smile.
“Why do we even have to do this man, I gotta wake up in the morning just to give the farmers their tools, just let them keep em I say” said one of the guards
“Too many revolutions, too many dead workers” says the royal inspector.
“Now who wants to check in on the hopeless?” he says with a grin.
The wagon they are in rattles down the old dusty road, the harsh sun just beginning to arise on the horizon. The landscape is vast but only covered in wheat and the occasional arrows from elf attacks.
“If those workers like to revolt so much, then why aren't we collecting the elf arrows?” says one of the guards
“The knife eared has made some form of metal that melts when it hits the ground. All of the arrows have no heads on them whenever we check.” Says the royal inspector
“Guess even the elves get to have people with abilities then huh”
“I guess so, but metal that melts when it hits the ground? I wouldn't doubt if that is the strongest man in their entire kingdom”
The carriage erupts into laughter, even the horses seemed to chortle at what the inspector had said. With perfect timing too as they had just arrived at the academy.
The principal of the academy rushes outside to meet the carriage as soon as it arrives with the door almost falling off the hinges as he leaves the building. He is an older man who is spared the harsh work of the fields but his body is still as frail as any of the residents from fields.
“To what do we owe the pleasure sir” said The Principle, shivering out of fright.
“Just checking in on things, we wanted to see anybody who could maybe climb the dome” He says holding back laughter
“Yeah-yeah man we just want to see any uncut gems you have here” says one of the guards nearly doubled over in laughter.
“Actually, we may have someone that you might be interested in, if you'd just follow me,” says the principal.
“Alright impress me” says the royal inspector
This isn't their first time around here, they stop in and check out any potential threats rising up from the abilities of the workers, it never happens though. All children supposedly have the same chance to succeed in the kingdom “as long as they have a good ability and use it well”.
Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.
The principal walks in on a not too uncommon occurrence in classrooms such as these, a massive fight breaking out with kids using their unhoned abilities all in a brawl. Magic flying everywhere with no real semblance of aim. Except for one teen sitting there alone and asleep.
The principle shakes the teen awake.
“These men are here to test you to see if you can finally leave this place” says the principle cautiously
The teen wakes up and rubs his eyes, groggy and not fully awake. He looks around at the disheveled classroom and the frightened look on his principal's face and the two men in armor and man in a fancy coat.
“Sounds good to me” says the teen timidly
As he gets up his stature is revealed, a 6’7 easily 450 pounds of pure muscle, his shirt is the size of a full body coat but he is so large that the muscles can be seen in every movement he does, just beneath the surface. The teen and the men walk outside of the classroom and into the school yard the boards they are on barely supporting his weight.
“Okay so what we are going to do is have you stand ten feet away from me, if you can stop me before I can shoot your legs off, I win, but if you manage to hit my face, you win” says the royal inspector snickering
“Why would I ever need to fight you” says the teen
“If you win you will be able to get a better life.” says the principle
“Ready, begin” says the royal inspector firing three shots and the lumbering giant
Earth quickly rises out of the ground and covers his legs, but it isn't quite enough. The shots slip through the rock and dirt but only end up grazing his legs.
“So, your ability isn't even magical strength?” says the inspector, shocked.
“No, my mom just says there is a lot of me to love” says the teen
After raising a large collection of dirt from the ground the teen erects a wall in front of him and begins to advance. The Inspector begins to fire, and the shots go through but the lack of information about where he is leads to all of the shots hitting around him. Then suddenly the wall is thrust at him at max speed crashing into the inspector. The inspector crosses his arms and braces for impact as the teen rushes from behind the wall with his hands in a fist. The inspector drops to the ground and shoots the teens knees, incapacitating him fully.
“You're a scary kid, a little too scary for my tastes” says the inspector
He makes a finger gun and points it at the teens head. A small bolt of magic appears in hand .When then out of nowhere a teen of a more appropriate size comes in and tackles the inspector pounding his head.
“You okay Götz” says the newcomer
“Im fine Marcus, you should probably get off of him soon” says Götz
“We are gonna get executed for this” says one of the guards
“Well we better act now so its a quick death” says the other
Both of the guards pull Marcus off the inspector.
“Normally I would have both of you two killed” says the inspector, gesturing towards the teens.
“But it seems as if you are friends with someone that I cannot upset, plus you did manage to strike my face.”
“Let me guess we have to do some impossible task and if we dont we are killed?” says marcus mockingly
“You will have one month to climb the dome and get to the second level if you don't, you will be executed by my hands” says the inspector over marcus
“Corny” mutters Marcus and Götz.
“Do we at least get better education than this?” questions Götz.
“Sure, we will start you out on the first floor with everyone else, I don't expect it to matter much but the kingdom is founded on equality” says the inspector mockingly.
“We leave in two days at 5:00AM, be in the town square or spend the rest of your wretched lives here” shouts one of the guards
The inspector and his guards move into his carriage and begin to ride off back to their temporary home on the fields, the only one that seems to be even slightly maintained.
“This place sucks so I'm going, do what you want Marcus" says Götz
“I'll be there you ogre” says Marcus