IT WAS MORNING IN WARDLAND.

The city itself couldn’t be any more different at night. At the outskirts of the city—but still behind the city walls—farmers, with their farmhouses close by, planted their crops and used their hoes to till the ground or redirect water into pits for irrigation. Already, golden stalks of wheat were growing taller and taller almost as high as individual players. Potatoes, carrots, and watermelons were also growing in their own fields, closed in by attractive cobblestone walls. Pumpkins grew in their vines to be later used for delicious pumpkin pies.

Closer in, people woke up in their townhouses to begin their day, and in the downtown area of Wardland, tradesmen and merchants were already at their posts in their various shops to await customers. Tall and grand structures dotted the center of the city, including the Wardland Apartments, an old castle converted into housing, the Wardland Cathedral—with prominent crosses atop its Gothic spires—and, in the very center of Wardland, the Wardland Nether Temple. Made of smooth sandstone, it was a pyramid-like ziggurat and the most famous landmark in all of Wardland, used mainly for the Nether portal.

And in another corner of Wardland, there stood Castle Wardland, the headquarters and home of the Knights of Wardland. Knights entered and exited the structure while other knights manned the walls and ramparts as part of their duties to defend the castle.

In the keep, however, in one of the rooms, Knight Steve slept in his bed.

He was late.

The chirps of morning birds awoke him, and his eyes slowly opened. “Uhhhhh,” he groaned, as he began to wake up from a deep sleep. His room was nicely sized, not too big and not too small, mainly consisting of his bed, a crafting table in the corner, and two combined chests for storage in both corners by the walls. The castle windows held an almost panoramic of view of Wardland and the Nether Temple, which was almost as tall as Castle Wardland.

As he raised himself up from his bed accompanied by groggy blinking, something felt off. Was he forgetting something? Let’s see, what time was it anyway . . .

The Arrival Ceremony!

Quickly, he jumped out of bed and the chest opened with a thwunk. Today was the Arrival Ceremony when knights like him would head to the town hall and welcome the new arrivals to Wardland. Hurrying, he put on his iron breastplate, helm, leggings, and boots, and bolted out of the room.

Through the halls of the castle, lit up by torches and lanterns, he ran. Some of the knights, already ready for the day, turned to look at him as he bolted past.

I’m late. I’m late.

He went down the spiral staircase and landed on the main floor. Still, there were yet more halls and corridors, and finally, he reached the stables.

Horses stood restively in their stalls with hay close by in bales and on the ground for eating and rest. It was smellier in the stables than the rest of the castle with the air smelling faintly of horse poop.

Knight Steve went up to his stall where his horse, Durandal, was at. It neighed, and its hooves clattered upon seeing him.

“Hi, boy,” he said. He patted the horse’s head gently. “Don’t have time to play. I’m late!”

He took the horse out and quickly hopped on, and with a kick, they rode fast. Durandal, encouraged by Knight Steve, sped through the last corridor until they made it outside to the city itself.

The sun shone down and he had to squint a bit, the castle being darker than the outside, but they hurried once more through the city’s cobblestone streets. “Let’s go, let’s go,” he urged.

Durandal heeded his command and sped some more. They had to be careful not to run over anybody, but most got out of the way, albeit with some mild annoyance from the pedestrians.

One wasn’t so lucky—he dropped the bread he was holding to get out of the way of the thundering horse, and he gave Knight Steve a mean look.

“Sorry!” he said back as he sped away.

With the Nether Temple rising up into the sky and framing the skyline, he went until he thankfully came nearer and nearer to the town hall, a handsome quartz and marble structure with a central capitol dome as its most telling feature.

Knight Steve hopped off his horse and hitched it to the side of the town hall. Once he did so, he ran up the steps, as fast as he could, until he finally made it to the auditorium.

Once the double doors opened, his heart sank.

The auditorium, with its smooth flooring of stone slabs and quartz walls, was already filled with people. The newly arrived players occupied several stations in what looked like a triage system. The most injured, the ones needing the most heart regeneration, lay in beds while the less injured stood together in several spots getting checked on by various knights. Knight Dr. Dirkson, the head doctor, checked on a particularly precocious girl.

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“Hold still,” Knight Dr. Dirkson said. Unlike the other knights in the auditorium, he wore a white lab coat over his iron armor.

“I’m fine,” the girl, with sandy hair and wearing a green top with brown pants, said, batting away the bandages. She had a gash on her head.

“Just hold still . . . .”

Knight Steve turned his attention away from them once he noticed Knight Master Ward checking on a report. He was by a group of newly arrived players, a normal family wearing jeans and shirts with a baby in tow. An attendant knight stood by Knight Master Ward as he read the report.

With a sigh, Knight Steve went towards the knight master to report for duty.

“You’re late,” Knight Master Ward said as he came towards him. He didn’t bother to look up from the report he was reading in his hand.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Knight Steve said sheepishly.

Knight Master Ward gave back the report to the attendant knight and focused back on Knight Steve. “You’re on food duty,” he said. Sure enough, atop a makeshift table lay several boxes that said RATIONS. A mod was most likely used to create it, as it wasn’t in the normal set of craftable items made in a crafting table.

“All for one and one for all,” Knight Steve grumbled, and with lowered shoulders, he went towards the rations table. He didn’t like disappointing people, and looking around, Knight Duper and Knight Aiden were already helping out the older knights hand out leaflets to the newly arrived players. He’d read the leaflets before. It detailed the various job opportunities the newly arrived players could do and the housing options in Wardland they could live in to better acclimate themselves in the city.

Knight Steve reached the table and grabbed a handful of the ration boxes. Well, at least this part he didn’t screw up. One by one, he opened the ration boxes and gave out their contents to the thankful new players.

“You’re welcome,” Knight Steve said, after hearing a thank you and next, he handed out a loaf of bread to a newly arrived player who wore the hood and cowl from the game Assassin’s Creed. The other contents inside the ration box included a porkchop, a baked potato, and delicious mushroom stew in a wooden bowl.

He made his way to the next person who, with a second look, was the same girl who had argued with the knight doctor. She had her arms folded as she sat on a wooden table.

“Here you go,” he said. He was already looking to the next player he had to give food to when he handed a bowl of mushroom stew to the girl.

“I’m not hungry,” she replied.

Knight Steve turned back at the unexpected refusal. He didn’t know what the protocol was when someone refused food.

“Just take it,” Knight Steve said back, eager to move on.

“I said I’m not hungry.”

Knight Steve stopped for a moment and tried to think of what to do. The bowl of mushroom stew was still in his hand. “You don’t have to eat it, just take it,” he finally said and offered the bowl once more.

“And I don’t want it,” the girl shot back, giving him a duh look.

Knight Steve sighed. Well, he guessed he’ll just place the ration down on the table, that way it’ll still be dispensed and accounted for. “Suit yourself,” he said.

“Say,” the girl said while he put the bowl of mushroom stew on the wooden table. “You’re one of those knights.”

“Um, yeah,” Knight Steve said. He began to place the other rations, the bread and porkchop, on the table.

“I want to be one of those,” the girl said, seemingly more interested than before. “I’m Alex. I want to be Knight Alex.”

Knight Steve gave a sideways glance at her pronouncement. “You don’t become a knight,” he said. “You’re chosen.” He himself was chosen from school to be taught as a knight.

“Well, how do you get chosen?”

He was ready to go. Besides, as far as he knew, girls weren’t allowed to become knights. “I don’t really know.”

“Well, if you have any tips, just tell me,” Alex said with an eager look on her face.

“Uh, ok,” Knight Steve said as he turned away from the weird girl. He didn’t think he would give her any tips, but he was just trying to be nice.

Ration box in hand, he moved on to the next person in need. In a dark corner of the auditorium, an old woman sat alone on a chair. Old and decrepit, the old woman wore rags and had a triangular hat on her head. Wrinkles creased her face, and there was an ugly wart on her nose. Her gaze turned to him as he approached. Her eyes were yellow.

Knight Steve stopped for a moment upon seeing the old woman. To be honest, she kind of scared him. “H-here you go,” he said, a loaf of bread in his hand.

A gnarled bony hand reached out and took the bread. “Thank you, sonny,” the old woman said with what looked like a sneer on her face. “Always appreciate it when a strong young lad like you helps out a feeble old woman like me.” She gave him a smile with plenty of missing and rotten teeth inside.

Knight Steve looked away and proceeded to give the rest of the rations. Actually, he decided to just place the whole box on the floor. He can always get another box. The old woman creeped him out!

“You’re welcome,” he said and turned around to try to make a quick exit but a bony hand suddenly grabbed his wrist. The grip was surprisingly strong.

“Wait,” the old woman said. “I have a present for you . . . .”

“That’s really not necess—”

The old woman didn’t listen to him. She retrieved something from her side: an old dusty leatherbound book.

The gnarled bony hand reached out and the dusty tome came nearer and nearer. Weird symbols were scratched on the cover along with a language he didn’t know. “I insist . . . .”

Knight Steve grew very uncomfortable. They weren’t allowed to accept gifts from people. But maybe if he took it, he could get away, and that’d be the end of it. It was an old book anyways.

His hand reached out and took the book in his hand, but upon touching it, what seemed like voices sounded in his head.

Hashafahshafasha. Hashafashafasha.

Knight Steve shook his head and the voices vanished as mysteriously as it appeared. Did that just happen?

The old woman had the widest malicious grin on her face as he put the book in his inventory.

“I—I have to go now,” he said.

She didn’t reply. She only watched him with those yellowed eyes. He left her there, his mind muddled, and suddenly feeling very uncomfortable in his own skin.

***

Knight Master Ward watched Knight Steve leave the old woman. He had seen her hand something to him, and for some reason, something felt off about it. “Hmmmm,” he said to himself, eyeing the old woman and the whole situation suspiciously.