Tranquil Waters

Entrance

The Transforming City, known for its constant changes to its structure every year. The city is constantly evolving, adapting new transport and defense systems, thermatical species of animals, and most importantly, the competition between buildings of education, known as "school."

I was enlisted to join the worst out of 10 schools - 10D. 10 was the school's ranking being 10th out of the 10 classes, while D is the assessment rank of the entire school, which is the lowest of the grades. Since I come from the countryside in a small village, I wouldn't have the level of education nor money to be accepted into the more prestigious schools.

To get to the city, I would have to arrive at the main road, said to be made of Endstone, a type of clear, shiny metal that was the source of the city's power. The Endstone covered the main road half a mile in width, and thousands of miles in length. The main road was said to have wrapped around from all over the continent to the capital.

To get to the main road, I would have to pass through the Swodin Mountain Ridge, past the Great Forest, and over the Dark Plateau. The journey would last about a month and three weeks, leaving me with two weeks to get to the city.

Since the city is very high tech, it should be able to send over means of transportation, but transportation other than goods and military personnel is forbidden outside of the city, because it is so secluded.

I made my way down the dirt road to the Sledgemont river, which was where I had to enter the Swodin Mountain Ridge from. It would probably take around a few days to arrive at the town there, and I would replenish my food and energy fully there. On the nights I'm traveling, I would sleep in a tent on the side of the road.

The road I walked on turned slightly every couple meters, surrounded by a empty terrain that seemed to stretch on for eternity. The only visible structures protruding from the ground was a collection of insanely tall mountains - my destination.

After 8 hours of nonstop walking, I felt I made good progress. It was dark, so I decided to set up camp here for tonight. The only downside of sleeping in the open is bandits that will come and rob you of all your belongings.

I gazed up at the stars to notice how bland they were compared to the ones I saw on The Hill that Touched Heaven. The sky was masked in a brown dust, while the stars shone meekly.

I decided there was no need to start a fire, because the temperature wasn't going to plummet until I reached the mountains.

I relaxed myself, putting my hands behind my head, overcome with a strong dose of drowsiness. My eyes became heavy as I fell asleep.

After having a dreamless night, I woke up to the sound of wind. I could taste the faint traces of electricity in the air, drying my throat. The signs of a storm were everywhere - I needed to find shelter fast. Though there really wasn't any shelter in this open terrain. I miraculously spotted a cave as I neared the Swodin Mountain Ridge, after having followed the river here. There was a wood gate covering the area, which was enclosed by a surrounding mountain. The wood gate covered the entrance which was about 50 meters wide.

A man covered in furs stood at the gate, pike in one hand, papers in the other. A lined was formed in front of him around six people long, talked to a scrawny man with glasses, eyes darting around. He seemed to be having trouble speaking to one of the people in line.

I went up to him, and asked,"What's going on?"

It looked like he was trying to communicate with the person but didn't seem to understand what he was saying. I'm pretty sure it was Pandalin.

Having lived in a village on friendly terms with Pandalia, I happened to know quite a bit of the language. Pandalia was further down south from my village, closer to the Alk Mountain Range.

(In Pandalin) "What's wrong, sir?" I asked hesitantly, trying to remember the language as a I spoke. I was adept at learning and remembering new languages, so it would probably come back to me as a spoke.

"Well, my Transcript Scroll seems to be a fraud, although I purchased it from an official dealer on the way here."

A Transcript was needed to enter everything ranging from villages, towns, trade centers. It was free to get, but you first had to apply for a White Slate, which was a small stone tablet that contained your information and legibility for travel. This system was implemented to prevent any sort of terrorist attack or spies in other countries, because of a past incident known as the Shattered Glass Incident.

I gestured for the guard to hand the documents over as a looked over them.

"I worked with immigration regulation back in my village, and these documents seem tampered with."

I noticed that the manufacturer was one that was recently shut down after having qualms with the adventurer's guild, and dealt in shady business.

"The seal is legitimate, except the maker of these documents seems to have cheated you. Your personal information may be in danger."

The traveler's face lightened but he sighed.

"I'm not too worried about that, I just want my family and I to escape the goblin raids that have been occurring near our village."

"Hey guard-sir, might you be able to send a search party to find this vendor? He's bound to cause trouble with future immigrants."

I put up a suggestion.

With a rough voice, the guard replied.

"I'll do something about it." Nodding at the family, he said,"You may pass. And you too stranger. Thanks for the help."

"I just happened to find an irregularity in the documents, that's all. Have a good day and watch out for the storm."

After managing my way through that trouble, I sighed exhausted, having dealt with enough for today.

The family seemed to be grateful, and the man invited me to walk with them to the village up ahead. Three children walked up to me nervously. All with brown hair, the largest and seemingly the oldest of the three spoke, long hair dancing in the wind.

"Umm... Thank you for your help. It was very much appreciated."

The second largest child, with an energetic, defined face mimicked the eldest sister.

"Yeah, thanks,"

The smallest child, barely reaching my waist, held up his hands holding a candy. Without a word, I took it and he returned to the two siblings.

We walked together until the man showed me to a tavern lit by countless candles and torches. Boisterous shouts could be heard for miles, as men and women were screaming all the like. As I got a better view of the tavern, I noticed a large group of people whose attention was focused on something, and they made a circle around it.

I said my farewells to the family, and approached the circle.