Immortals: Awakening

4 Orientation

The inside of the castle looked more welcoming than the outside, with crystal chandeliers and red rug literally carpeted the floor. The walls looked like they were made from solid gold. Somehow, the castle was bigger on the inside. "Whoa," whispered Matthew. Matthew was broken from his trance by Calista, "hurry up now!", she hissed. "Sorry," he stuttered and ran to the huge crowd gathering in the auditorium.

He could hear nervous chatter everywhere, but the room fell silent as a bulky tiefling wearing red robes walked on the stage, "welcome, welcome all of you! As you all know my name is Isiah, and I will be the headmaster of Eaglefort Academy," he said in a heavy British accent. "Welcome again to Eaglefort Academy," He continued, "as you all know tomorrow is tryouts day, you will be divided into teams of five, each team will face a number of challenges. The goal is for you and your team to work together in order to overcome the challenges and remember, Anyone can use magic, but only a select few will make it this term. Now I will call your groups up to the stage.". Calista leaned closer to Matthew, "I hope we're in the same group," she whispered then giggled. Matthew gave her a weak smile. "group number one," Isiah read from a sheet of parchment paper on his desk, "Charlie, Carter, Thomas, Brian, and Lauren, your chaperone will be Logan Harper.". A halfling ushered the group away. Isiah went through 12 more groups until he got to Matthew's group. "Group 14," he called in his British accent, "Calista, Ryan, Jenny, Aaron, and Matthias.". Calista smiled, obviously pleased with being in the same group as Matthew. "Your chaperone will be Jeffrey Madison," a frowning dwarf who had to be Jeffrey motioned for them to come up to the stage. Among his group, Matthew recognized a dwarven male, a tiefling male, and a wood elf female. "I'll lead you to your dorms," Jeffrey stated and walked away motioning for them to follow him. "Um, thank you," said Matthew.

Jeffrey ignored him. Jeffrey led them to a hall filled with paintings. They have mostly filled the same theme of great mages slaying legendary monsters such as dragons, krakens, and beholders, but none of them were boring. There was one painting that seemed to stand out though. It showed a lich facing off against a figure in black-clad armor. The same armor that the moon elf that was riding the nightmare was wearing! "What is that?", asked Matthew. "A painting," replied Jeffrey. "No," Matthew frowned, "I mean who is that?", Matthew pointed to the knight in the painting. "A titan," Jeffrey answered. "Right, like that's supposed to mean anything," Matthew rolled his eyes. "To elaborate on what he said," said a tall, but thin tiefling, "It's the shadow titan facing off against the lich that used to own this place.". The tiefling smiled "by the way I'm Aaron, What's your name?". "Matthias, but my friends call me Matthew." Matthew returned the smile. "Matthias," Aaron echoed, "nice to meet you.". "You can call me Matthew," Matthew repeated. "Oh, I thought only your friends got to call you that," Aaron raised an eyebrow. "You can call me Matthew," Matthew repeated once more. "Oh, friends then?" Aaron offered his hand. Matthew took it, "friends.". "So as I was saying, titans are immortals that each rule over a certain element, and there are 20 titans, two for each major element, the major elements include fire, water, earth, air, lightning, thunder, light, force, poison, and shadow.", Aaron beamed at his own knowledge. "Looks like someone paid attention in history," Jeffrey mumbled. "Why haven't I heard of these titans?", Matthew wondered. "They disappeared 5,000 years ago, no one has seen them since.".

"And because they're just a load of humbug, about as real as the tooth fairy." Jeffrey interrupted, "now let's talk about something remotely important, the school is forcing me to ask all of you about your past, so let's get it over with," Jeffrey looked at Aaron "let's start with you demon, what's your history, like which of the nine hells are you from," Jeffrey sneered. Aaron ignored the racist term typically used against tieflings, "well," Aaron pondered, "my mother was a tiefling that had an affair with my dad, a human in a city near dragon's coast. After I was born, my dad left us, and I was raised by my mother ever since," A tear went down Aaron's cheek, and before he could continue, Jeffrey interrupted. "Touching sob story, now your turn Ryan," He turned to see A mountain dwarf. "Um," Ryan muttered, "My father is a blacksmith, and my mother was a cleric for the military in Baldur's Gate. I am proficient in blacksmithing and gunsmithing, but my mother wants me to be a cleric like her, so that is why I'm here.". Jeffrey sighed and turned to a wood elf to his right. "Jenny," he started, but Jenny cut him off. Jenny mumbled in a soft, but sweet voice, "both of my parents are naturalists and druids, so they want me to learn how to become a better druid.". Jeffrey grimaced, "I always hated nature.". Jenny stared at him in disbelief, then turned away. "Calista, your time to shine, but that may be a hard thing to do considering how dull you are," Jeffrey sneered. Calista looked hurt, "well, um," she started. "Great so interesting," Jeffrey rolled his eyes. Calista glared at him and continued, "My father is human, and my mother was a sun elf, I was born in the sun elf realm of Solaris, and as soon as the other sun elves learned about me, and that I was half human, they set out to kill me, but my mother sent me away to my father right before..." Calista choked on the tears that were now steadily streaming from her face, "right before they killed her right in front of me.". Jeffrey looked at her in mock confusement "How can you be even half sun elf if you're not even half bright, or even half hot?". Calista sniffed, "Why are you so mean?". Jeffrey gave her a sadistic smile and said nothing. "Matthias, your turn, tell us something interesting about yourself, If there even is any," Jeffrey cackled. "Actually, I have a question for you," said Matthew. "And what may that be," said Jeffrey, clearly interested. "What's your problem," Matthew demanded. "Excuse me?", Jeffrey raised an eyebrow. " You seem to enjoy making others feel bad, so you must have a problem, care to tell us what it is?". Right now probably wasn't the best time to alienate his chaperone, especially since he will be in charge of their room service, but right now, Matthew just didn't care. Jeffrey grinned, clearly enjoying the attention even more, "right now, my only problem is having to deal with you lot, for a school that doesn't pay me enough," Jeffrey sighed, "but you still need to tell us where you came from, human," he spat as if the word human left a bitter taste in his mouth. Matthew sighed, defeated. "I didn't know my parents very well, but I heard a lot about them. They were both a part of Eaglefort's military. They...," a lump formed in his throat, "They both died in a goblin ambush.". Even though Matthew barely knew them, it still hurt to think about them. His mother's loving, caring eyes. His father's strong arms that lifted him up when he was four. "I was five at the time they died, so legally I needed a guardian. That's why they sent me to live with Ben.". "Ben?", Aaron asked. "My older brother," Matthew sighed. Aaron opened his mouth but was interrupted by Jeffrey. "Here are your dorms," Jeffrey pointed to an open hallway with two doors on either side and a door at the end. "There are a few rules that the school has told me to tell you, so you better listen," Jeffrey glared at everyone before continuing. "No being loud, I love my beauty sleep and don't want it disturbed," Jeffrey nodded at everyone "and second no going into the opposite gender's room," as Matthew looked around he could see the smirks and grins on everyone's faces except for Calista who he noticed, was frowning. "Actually, I don't care if you break rule number two, just remember rule number one," with that Jeffrey walked back the way they came. Matthew sighed and looked at each of the doors. Each of them had one of their names on it. He found his room to the right, right next to Calista's room. He took a deep breath and opened his door.