Blood And Thunder

chapter 1

         My heart is pounding in my chest. My legs ache and my lungs feel dry after running for so long. The uneven sidewalk caused me to trip a few times, giving me bruises on my knees. I lean against a light pole for a small break.

"Late for class again, Areku?" Asked my neighbor doing his morning jog. My lungs are still in immense pain, so I give him a thumbs up and go back to catching my breath.

"Well, I hope you do well. See you after your time at the academy."

I nod as a thankful gesture.

This is officially the worst day ever, I think to myself. I start to jog again after the rest.

     After what felt like hours of jogging, I finally made it to the front gates of the academy. I try to push the gates open, but they don't budge. I push against them, still they don't budge. I shove, kick, charge. The gates still do not open.

Shit, I start to panic, shit shit SHIT. This is bad, real bad.

I start to brainstorm ideas in my panicked state.

Okay, okay, stay calm. Going through the gate won't work, so…

I look around to try to find a way in. Maybe a gate that someone left open. Maybe an opening in the wall. Or maybe….

I look at the wall to see that it is about the same height as the gate.

Maybe I can climb it, I think to myself. I take a few steps back and charge towards the wall. Just before I collide with it, I leap off the ground. I grab the top of the wall and hoist myself over, landing on the grass the academy planted.

"They sure do like to spend money on pointless things" I say, staring at the grass. It felt fake, like plastic, and had an artificial "natural" smell to it. The academy liked to waste money on things that didn't involve education. Whether that be grass, more land, or a helipad on the roof of the school. I still don't know why they installed that, no one uses it. It doesn't really affect me, so I don't really care. I quickly run to the front doors, hoping that they're still open.

Hopefully I'm not too late

Whether the doors were locked or not, it didn't matter. I ran into the door so hard that it quickly swung open with a loud crash as it slammed into the wall. I fell to the floor, gripping my arm. It feels like its broken. As I stood up I saw that the door wasn't moving back, it was stuck. The door handle was firmly lodged into the concrete wall and it wouldn't budge.

Shiiiiiiiit, I panicked again, whatever, just get to the assignments

I quickly ran down the hallways, passing by classes both full and empty. The academy wasn't really big since the village is on the smaller side.

As I approached the end of the hallway, I could hear the overseer speaking, though I can't hear what he's talking about. I ran to where I heard the voice and came across a door left open a little. I look down to see what's keeping it open, it's a little note. How it was keeping the door open is beyond me. I quickly squeezed past the door, picking up the note on my way through, and sat in a vacant seat. The room was filled with people, almost every seat was filled.

I hope he didn't notice. I thought to myself.

"Where were you? You missed the beginning of the assignments." Asked an attendee sitting in front of me.

"Slept through an alarm. what did I miss?" I asked in response.

"He did an overview of all the different assignments."

"Shit, did he start listing people off yet?"

"Not yet"

"Good, thanks for keeping a seat open for me" I patted their shoulder and started paying attention to the overseer.

"-and with that, I end the overview and will now proceed into assignment."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I made it to the assignment without any trouble. Well, some trouble.

"As you may know, this academy is here to train new soldiers for the protection of our home. For watch guard the following people will speak to commander Z for further instruction, Areku…" the overseer continued, though I didn't care to listen to the rest. I had gotten the one assignment I wanted. I was excited to proceed with my assignment, so much in fact that the remainder of the overseer's lectures on things seemed like a blur.

As everyone left the large room we were held in, I was tapped on the shoulder. I turned around to see the overseer.

"Oh, hello overseer. Lovely day today, is it not?" I asked, still happy about my assignment

"Listen, Areku, you need to keep track of things, like time." He sternly spoke

"Listen, I know I was a little late, but i-"

"A little late?" He raised his voice, "You're two hours late! And not only that, security tapes caught you climbing the wall and breaking down the door!"

"Oh, uhm, the gate was locked."

"I know the gate was locked, I locked it! If you can't keep track of time, then you can't keep your assignment." He spoke sternly as he started to walk away, "if you can't get to your assignment on time, then you'll be removed from this village. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, overseer, sir" I responded.

"Good, now have a good rest of your day."

As he walked away, I took the note that I had stuffed in my pocket out and started to read it

Hey, I know that you're still asleep right now, so I put this note here to keep it propped open. I also may have used a little something to actually keep the door open. Check the back.

On the back of the note was a small gold and silver medallion. The gold and silver swirled around each other with a small dot of the opposite material in the center of the gold and silver. It was an old world symbol, I don't know what it means though. The note wasn't signed, but whoever put it there must know about me. Well, whoever put it there doesn't concern me right now. I started to run out of the academy and towards the border of the village where I knew I'd find commander Z, And then I will finally start living a new life protecting my village.