The group of three stood there staring at the mountains in front of them, they were not normal mountains as they had a grey color that couldn't possibly be natural. The group would have to cross these mountains, something no one ever did, if they wanted to reach the academy, otherwise they will have to avoid them and enter through one of the three passages the academy had made, something that would take at least a week.

 Ivan looked at the mountains in front of him and addressed his two companions "We will try to find a way through the mountains; if we can't then we shall try to find one of the entrances of the academy and enter through there."

 The group started walking towards the grey mountains in the distance and as they did Jeyvan asked the old man "Why are the mountains grey?" The old man smiled at Jeyvan and explained slowly

 "The mountains were made by one of the paragons I told you about, he is a necromancer who has lived for a long time, longer than the academy itself, his mana is a grey color like all necromancer's is so the mountains he made with his magic are grey too." Jeyvan listened with awe, not believing there is someone who can make whole mountains rise from the ground with his magic.

 "When he dies" Continued the old man "The Grey peaks will die with him, like all magic dies with its sorcerer."

 They were finally in front of the mountains and the group looked at them, there was nothing on the mountains, only solid rock, and surrounding the Grey peaks in a distance of a few meters was dirt which contained no vegetation.

 The group walked upon the dirt as they looked at the solid mountains, trying to find a crevice or anything at all that would allow them passage through them.

  They searched but there was nothing of the sort, not a single dent could be seen on the mountains.

 They were about to give up when the old man, who was away from them suddenly yelled at them with a gleeful voice “I found a passage!”

 They walked towards the old man and came to a stop when they sighted a large tunnel leading into the depths of the mountains. Jeyvan looked at the old man who had a silly grin on his face; Jeyvan had passed through here before but seen nothing of the sort, no tunnel or at the very least a hole. He let it go and decided he probably overlooked it.

 Ivan looked at the dark tunnel in front of him and poised his bag on the ground, riffling through it until he pulled out a transparent ball, hardly bigger than jeyvan’s fist. He once more put the bag to his shoulder.

 “Let’s go” Ivan walked into the darkness and for a moment Jeyvan and the old man lost sight of him before there was a sudden light from the tunnel, lighting up Ivan’s figure.

 In front of Ivan was a floating ball, the one they had seen him take out from the bag, the difference was this time it was letting out light, enough to see in the dark tunnel.

 Jeyvan looked at the object with surprise and quickly followed after Ivan who was walking further into the tunnel, the old man trailing behind him.

 “What’s that?” Asked Jeyvan as he examined the orb, it was floating as though magic and it always lighted the path in front of Ivan as though he knew what to do.

 “That’s an Orb, alchemist’s Invention. You will get one when you become a knight, every Knight gets one when they join the academy.” Jeyvan started noticing that the alchemists had many inventions, things he couldn’t have possibly known about in the outside world.

 The group walked onwards in silence until they saw a light ahead of them. They walked towards it and exited the tunnel, coming to stand in a great clearing.

  In the clearing light came from a large opening in the ceiling, revealing the blue sky above. The clearing had a small lake that disappeared beneath a wall to the right side. It was a beautiful scene but Jeyvan felt Ivan stiffening in front of him and he found out why.

  The left side of the clearing was littered with bones and some rotten corpses that formed a small mountain, from medium sized bones to a femur that was as big as Ivan was tall, various species’ skeletons lay mixed into a small mountain, and on top of it was a dragon.

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  Jeyvan felt his eyes widen as he took in the very large sleeping animal and he almost screamed but felt a hand close his mouth shut, muffling the scream, his now panicked eyes came to rest on Ivan who had a hand clamped shut above Jeyvan’s mouth and an anxious face.

 “Take a deep breath and don’t make too much noise” Ivan whispered as he took his hand off of Jeyvan’s mouth. Jeyvan took a deep breath and once more observed the dragon.

 The dragon was big, Jeyvan estimated that it had a length of 20m without counting its tail; its folded wings when completely extended had to be at the very least 35m. It was a Red color, not very bright but a deep red like blood, its head had two horns coming out of its temples, going straight and then they suddenly curled inwards ending in a sharp tip, pointing the same direction it’s maws did. Its scales reflected the light coming from outside and Jeyvan could have been entranced by them if they were not part of a beast that could kill him in moments should it wake.

 Ivan scanned the room and saw on the opposite side of the room another tunnel, likely leading into the academy, but to get there they had to pass the sleeping dragon.

 “Jeyvan, look at me” Ivan said and Jeyan looked at his face “We will try to cross the room, if the dragon wakes up run towards there” Ivan pointed towards the opening on the other side “And don’t look back, if you see someone say that you were sent by me, Ivan Hiland, and that you are a new student, that should get you into the academy but hopefully we won’t need you to go alone”

Jeyvan gulped and nodded towards Ivan “Good, then let’s try not to wake the sleeping beast”

They started slowly moving into the room, one step at a time. The dragon breathed through its nostrils air that was then expelled as a cloud of hot vapor. They slowly moved and were one quarter of the way when they saw the dragon move.

 They all stood there, tense, as the dragon moved its mouth as it yawned. Jeyvan looked into the open mouth of the beast and saw teeth bigger than his hand, all extremely sharp looking. After yawning the dragon once more calmly breathed and the group collectively released a sigh of relief.

 They started silently moving towards the tunnel and were now with their backs towards the dragon when they heard a loud, clear sound. They looked down and beneath Jeyvan’s foott was a small bone, smaller than a finger that was now broken in two. The group looked back at the dragon that was now blinking its eyes open and Ivan yelled “Run!”

 The dragon’s head swiftly came up and its eyes focused on the group of three who were running towards the tunnel.  The dragon inhaled breath through its nose, its chest puffing up and let out an ear-piercing roar that shook the whole cave, dust falling from the ceiling.

 The group grew unsteady on their feet as they felt the cavern shaking. As the dragon’s roar still echoed around the cave its body got up, coming to stand on its four muscular members, striking an imposing sight that would strike fear into any man’s heart.

 The group was now on their feet and ran towards the tunnel, they were barely inside when they heard the dragon suck in air, and they ran further into the tunnel, into the darkness, until it was dark no more. As the dragon breathed, a giant cloud of flames came from its mouth straight into the tunnel.

 Ivan saw the fire coming and jumped into jeyvan’s direction, throwing him to the ground and covering his body with his. Jeyvan saw nothing but darkness as he was held beneath Ivan’s body; he only heard the sound of burning flesh and a sudden scream from Ivan’s mouth.

 Jeyvan quickly scrambled out of Ivan’s body and saw as he lay on the ground, his back completely burned, charcoal at the edges and raw red inside.

 Jeyvan stared horrified at Ivan until he heard him wheeze and he broke out of his trance to come closer so he could listen

“…The… Bag… box… cream…” He managed to croak out of his throat before he passed out because of the pain.

 Jeyvan quickly realized what he meant and he looked towards the side and saw the bag being held in Ivan’s hand, unburt.

 He pulled it out of his grip and dumped it onto the ground, many items exiting but the only one Jeyvan noticed was an iron box. He opened it and inside were six tubes.

 He grabbed one of them, uncorked the cap and squeezed whatever was inside into Ivan’s back.

 A strange pinkish cream slipped out of the tube and onto Ivan’s back. When he was done with the tube he threw it to one side and carefully started spreading the cream allover Ivan’s back. The cream was cold and Jeyvan started to shiver but he persisted, spreading the cream until not a single of the burned parts could be seen.

  Jeyvan leaned back against the tunnel wall, shivering from the cold of the cream and saw as the cream in Ivan’s back was visibly absorbed. Once he finally stopped shivering Ivan’s back was a pinkish color, no signs of the burns could be seen.

 Jeyvan breathed warm air into his hands and looked around, no signs of the old man could be seen anywhere he looked.

 Jeyvan rubbed his hands together and got up. He slowly places all the items on the ground back into the bag and swung it over his shoulder. On his other shoulder, he slipped the unconscious body of Ivan, his legs dragging through the tunnel floor.

…

Jeyvan slowly saw a light in front of him, he almost couldn’t feel his legs and felt a pain on his back that made him want to cry but he carried on, persistently, with Ivan on his shoulder. He got closer and closer to the light and finally came out of the tunnel.

 The light of the sun washed over Jeyvan’s face and he creased his brow, sweat dripping down his face. He was in a large open area and towers were visible in the distance but he was too focused on carrying Ivan to notice. He kept walking, his feet raw and hurt until he heard shouts on the distance.

 Jeyvan didn’t care who they were, relief washed over him and he simply let his body drift into unconsciousness as he saw figures heading towards him.