Imperial

Chapter I

No!” I yelled frantically. I sat up quickly. In a cold sweat, I sat there staring at my wall. Suddenly I was back in my room. “Just a dream,” I panted, under my breath, “just a dream.”

I sat there for a moment, reminiscing about what happened to that girl. Suddenly I felt my face soften as I plowed my hand through my hair and fell backwards onto the mattress, giving a sigh of relief as the surreal atmosphere of the nightmare materialized into reality. Slowly, I calmed down.

I swung around to the side of my small bed and hunched over, my hands covering my face, my elbows resting on my knees. I rubbed the tired out of my eyes. I stood up and trudged to my bureau; my wooden floor creaked beneath my feet. I stopped short in my tracks as I passed my body length mirror. I combed my hand through my long auburn hair. My eyes were squinty and had dark circles rimming them. Another bad night.

The terrible repeating nightmares caused my nights to be restless; I couldn’t remember the last time sleeping was actually a time to rest.

“Adelé!” My mother chimed from the kitchen.

 “Was that you? Are you alright?”

“Yea!” I replied, my voice still thick from sleep. “I’ll be out in a moment!”

 I opened my drawers. I was going to Ravenskye today. A half hours walk from here. I slipped into my white warrior's tunic. I strapped on my silver metal bracers, slipped on my belt, and pulled on my black leather boots. Finally I picked up the only piece of armor I owned off the floor next to my door and raised it over my head then lowered it on to my shoulders. It was silver with intricate lines and covered both my shoulders, covered my collar bone, and joined together at a point on my chest, and wasn’t as heavy as it looked. The few battle scars that were wiped across it were only the result of mere training hits, since I never actually saw any real action. I yanked down my right sleeve, exposing my bicep upon which my symbol of protection, my mark of battle was displayed; it was the brand of Ravenskye; the emblem of a Sentai. It was a tiger and a wolf tattoo interlocking, the symbol of Amethy’s tiger and Safiria’s wolf coming together in peace in Sanctum. One of the most respected, feared, and in, most cases, one of the most hated symbols when it came to the war.

I grew up living during the war, but I’m one of the small few who never had to face the effects of it. My home is safely within the walls of the anarchical city of Sanctum. A city made by what are now the Sentais for the soul purpose of keeping people safely away from the war. They say it’s the safest place on earth these days. The city lies in the middle of a black lake, which is centered in the depths of a warm, but dormant volcano north of the Phoenix.

The Phoenix were a vast, green, rocky mountain range that wrap around the world in the middle, creating a band that separated the world into two separate sections. The southern hemisphere is the city side, the side which the two strongholds of Safiria and Amethy reside. The two empires are constantly having battle after battle with each other, making life difficult for people who are living there. Villages and cities constantly get destroyed and innocent lives were lost day after day. The northern section is the less war-effected side, but still struggles regardless. And the city of Sanctum is hidden up high in the north. Many war-torn families coming from their homelands seek refuge here, to rectify their lives. If they can find it, which is second to impossible, and the Sentais have worked hard to keep it that way to keep our secret city safe. Both Amethy and Safiria have a lot against us Sentais. If the location of Sanctum was disclosed to either ruler of those nations, they would destroy us. They’d round up each and every one of us and individually deliver a painful execution.

 Well that’s what they say. We interfere with the war in attempts to end it, by killing armies and stealing their weaponry, and things like that. But I was always involved with the more simple jobs, like helping guard the outer walls or accompanying civilians who had business leaving Sanctum and making sure they came back. But I knew I could do more than that.