Grey Peak Fort

"Hell... Hell.. Hello... Hello?!?" I heard...

"Are you awake?" A female voice spoke.

"I saw you move and your eyes open, do not try to deceive me young man." She said again. Shortly after I realized that she was talking to me.

"Hello there, I am sorry and quite lost, what is happening, where am I?" I was confused.

"You are at Fort Grey Peak! The headquarters of the Sand Knights! I am Saely, a nurse here. We are glad you survived, a lot of things had to be done to mend you to health." She explained.

As I gathered my thoughts, I started to remember what happened. The humongous worm monster attacked me. My side was completely destroyed, how did I not bleed out?

"I am still here." She said as she smiled at me.

"Oh yeah... I am just collecting my thoughts, I can't seem to remember what happened after I got hit. How did I not bleed out?" I proclaimed in confusion.

"You got hit by a Dune Dragon Worm. It's a rare species only found in the Yellow Valley, it's a mutated version of its smaller relative a Dune Worm. Feasting on the flesh of a dragon makes it mutate into a larger form, we are not sure where they find dragon remains in the desert." Explained an armoured person, who came through the door as he spoke.

"I am Coren, the Knight of Veracity. I am very curious about your condition, how did you find yourself in the north side of Yellow Valley alone, unharmed and with no provisions? Answer truthfully." He asked me.

Looking at this person, he had a very fine set of plate armor. But what made me uneasy was the fact that his helmet had no openings for eyes, nor his mouth. It's just a curved sheet of metal covering his face with coloured metal engravings. Having a better look I saw that his armor was not even made from metal.

"Sr. Cohen, I left my hometown of Sanit with another person called Sang. Then after a couple hours of roaming through the desert, we were ambushed by this worm." I explained calmly.

Knight Coren started lifting his palm to face me. With confusion, I just stayed silent, as he then started saying. "It seems like you are not lying, but there seems to be a predicament." He said as he leaned towards the shadowy part of the wall. "The other knights only saw you alone, and with my divine gift of Veracity, it seems like you are not lying either. But your part of the story does not make sense, we don't have any information of settlements north of Grey Ridge." After a small pause he started exiting the room. "Please do rest for today, I will have to interrogate you later when you're up and well."

"Gift of Veracity? Is that like magic? What was he on about" I asked Sael as I laid there in confusion.

"I don't know much about him, as he is from the Capital, but I have heard that he was born blind with the gift to distinguish the wrongs in a soul's words. Seems like your soul did not lie this time." Saely explained and followed up. "I will let you rest now, get up when you can, we can't unfortunately house you for too long. When you get up, there will be a person named Bradley looking over the dorm."

"Thank you for all the help Saely! I will try to get some rest now." I replied as she left the room.

Lying in the bed, I could only think about what the hell actually happened. They did not see Sang with me? Where did he disappear to? Did the worm eat him whole? It's so confusing... I think I should see to myself right now though, where exactly am I? It seems like I am in a fort of some kind as they explained. The walls seem to be made of stone near the window, and wooden walls. The room doesn't seem to be a cell, it seems to be exactly what she said in the dorm room. Maybe I am overthinking a bit, I will just sleep it out and see what they are gonna ask me tomorrow.

I wake up, sweaty in the middle of the night. After a successful attempt to stand up I approach the door and open it. From the location of my door it seems I am at the end of the corridor, I swipe my look at the other end and see a person with candlelight scribing something into a sheet of parchment. He looks into my direction. Hastily I close the door and hope he didn't notice me as I crawl back into the bed. As I hear footsteps closer and closer I set down on the bed ready to confront the person. After a silent knock he enters the room.

"Do you have a minute?" He said quietly. "We still don't know your name and the records are unfulfilled. Can you help me out here?"

I was dumbfound, I did not even provide my name to the lady before... "Yes of course... My name is Friddo Moon, I am a 21 year old youth from the town of Sanit north of Yellow Valley."

"Yes yes... I am Bradley, come with me please." He replied.

As I stood up and followed him through the corridor, he led me into an office of some sorts it seemed. There was a window with huge beautiful stained glass, a picture of a sandy dune with an armored knight holding another person with long hair also clad in armor.

"Take a look at this map Friddo." Bradley told me as he brought the candlelight he had closer to a wall with a huge map. "This is the known mapped area of Yellow Valley, can you please pinpoint to the location of your hometown?"

I took a hard look at the map and attempted to look for any forests, but as I looked harder and harder it just seemed as if there were so few and minor things on the map I didn't notice any mention or drawings of a forest. "There seems to be no forests on the northern sides of Yellow Valley?" I asked him.

"No, as to my information they found you here." He said as he pointed almost at the middle of the map. "There is literally nothing of interest hours if not days of horseback north of this point. I cannot comprehend how you just appeared there."

Puzzled I started to come up with something to say because I was completely clueless to everything of the world. As we stood there a man with a blindfold walked in wearing just simple cloth clothing. "Experts who mapped the desert are not present so we can't coordinate with them. But your story is true. Problem is it's not even a problem, more of a nuisance. You seem to be walking on your own strength now, I see no reason for you to stay anymore. I will permit you to have a meal tomorrow but after then our hospitality will come to an end." Explained the blindfolded person. I immediately realized it was the previous knight Coren. More and more I was interested in how he can just travel without vision.

Friddo: Can I ask you a question?

Coren: Go ahead.

Friddo: How can you see or walk or anything? Isn't your life hard as a blind person?

Coren: Not at all, with my high affinity for magic, I can see the silhouettes of all life. Humans, plants, beasts and all other sorts of life forms are visible to me. To an extent I can see through objects.

Friddo: That's amazing! You seem to be very adept at magic!

Coren: Oh no, I am just a novice at the craft of magic even if I can sense things.

Bradley: Let's end this chat, I have some matters to discuss with Sr. Coren. Can you please leave us Friddo.

I nod my head as I leave the office room. There seemed to be more people in the hallway exiting their dorms. I walked down the hallway and it took me to a big hall with a staircase leading down with a huge reinforced wooden door. As I exit I end up in the courtyard and see a person reading a book on a bench. With my curiosity of the art of reading I approach the person. "Hello." He looked back at me. "Hi, you're the wounded desert person? I was wondering when you would wake up!" He answered with an excited voice.

Friddo: Yeah, I am kinda lost honestly, they are telling me I need to leave today after a meal and I have no idea where to go or what to do.

Jakir: I am Jakir, I am just a recruit here, but I am setting on a trip to the capital today to take the squire examination, we can travel together if you want? I would love to know more of the desert if you have some information.

Friddo: Would you really take me with you? You wont feel like I am a nuisance, just a waste of time?

Jakir: No no no, company is always nice. And it's a little safer, bandits won't just attack you carelessly if they see bigger groups of people.

A smile came to my face as I bid Jakir farewell going to my room looking over what I actually had. It wasn't much but what I didn't notice before is that Sang left me his sword. Why? Was that a mistake? I took the sword and started taking a closer look at it. The craftsmanship seemed of the highest class, engravings of different animals including a human face at the pommel. "This sword seems to be very expensive!" I thought to myself before covering it in some sheets I took from the bed. I slid the sword through my belt onto my waist and went trying to look for the diner. My random roaming brought me to a person stopping me. "I watch you just go everywhere, what are you doing?" He asked me. "I am looking for the place where I can receive my meal." I replied. He looked so confused at me like who is this guy. "Exit the fort and walk to the side, there is a bonfire where we cook all our food. The food is probably already being prepared just go outside." I quickly thanked the person and went back outside. As I stepped behind the corner of the fort I saw the bonfire he spoke of, and of course Jakir was already sitting beside one of the wooden tables reading a book. I would approach him.

Friddo: All you do is read it seems?

Jakir: Yeah, I want to become a librarian, knowledge is so fascinating to me! You ran away so quickly last time, what is your name?

Friddo: Oh I am sorry! I am Friddo nice to meet you Jakir. *I would chuckle as I spoke*

Jakir: We can eat and leave immediately, do you happen to have any more or valuables?

Friddo: No, not really I am just a poor person it seems. *I hesitantly answered with a smile*

Jakir: We're gonna have to do some work on the way to the capital for some farms and what not to get some provisions. Come let's go get some of this soup.

Jakir would get up putting his book on his backpack laying beside the log benches. There were wooden bowls beside the bonfire with a guy stirring a huge pot. "Seems like its just vegetable stew again..." Jakir would say to the cook with the cook nodding back and pouring some for me and Jakir. We got back to our table. As we ate peacefully the sun started to reveal itself from behind the huge mountain the fort was built into. "Mm, it's gonna be sunny it seems." I would say looking at Jakir. "No I don't think so, it's sunny here only because the mountain range cuts the clouds and there is an opening for the sun to shine, and it's always hot on the other side, that's why it's a desert. Based on what I have read, during Majkl it's mostly rainy and foggy. The weather might change when we get closer to the region of Grechka." Trying to take in all the information I just nodded as he explained. As we were finishing the stew a person sat beside us on the table.

Charles: Hey Jakir, I heard your leaving with this guy today? *The guy would say as he extended his hand to shake mine.*

Jakir: Friddo, this is Charles, and yeah we are leaving for the capital, I am going to take my second squire examination.

Charles: Nice to meet you Friddo! And oh, can I come with?

Jakir: Why do you want to go to the capital?

Charles: I want to take the squire exam too! It will be my first time tho.

Jakir: Oh, ok. We are leaving after we eat, meet us at the main gate ok?

Charles would get up and jog away.

Friddo: Is it that easy to just leave here? I thought you were like soldiers?

Jakir: Yeah we are, but taking the squire examination is a good reason for an excuse to leave.

Friddo: Oh I see.

As we finished the stew, me and Jakir waited at the main gate for Charles to shortly arrive with a backpack no larger than Jakir's that seemed to be pretty big. "What do you have in that monstrosity?" I asked Jakir. He chuckled and opened the backpack a little revealing a stack of books on top before shortly closing it. "I want to, and I need to know things to become a librarian." I would scratch my head. "If you say so." I replied before we set off as a group of 3.