I felt dizzy. My eyesight blurred. I closed my eyes. I felt I was in outer space. What I only could see was purple mist. I couldn’t move an inch because I didn’t have the energy. After a few minutes, we felt normal. However, Teodacious told us we could sleep. In 8 hours, we would arrive there.

After 8 hours, I felt nothing. Suddenly, I could see a fort. It was huge, armed with defences, with watchtowers high enough to see as far as miles. There were people welcoming us. I would guess there were 40,000 soldiers on the towers.

“Welcome to Fort Dawn! Today we are celebrating the 469th anniversary. Here are the dormitories, and you can walk outside. However, you will need your card. Here it is. Put it on as a necklace. Enjoy.” Teodacious informed me.

Omark and I went to the dormitory. It was almost empty, except a few students left. So, I introduced myself, “Hey guys. My name is Marcus, and how are you doing?”

“Nice to meet you. My name is Oder. We just arrived an hour ago. I am setting up a board game. Want to join?” Oder said.

“Sure, let’s do it, Marcus. Also, my name is Omark.” Omark suggested.

We sat down. Oder explained the rules of the game. This game had three dice, and everyone took turns to throw it. There was a 2, which stood for 2 steps, a 3, which stood for 3 steps, and 4, which stood for 4 steps. There was a board that had a shape of a square, where it was consisted of 81 squares. We started at the edge of the board, and the objective was to retrieve the silver coins 10 times.

However, the coin was guarded by two goblins who had the health of 15 each. After you defeat the goblins, you would need to roll twice, either in one round, or in two rounds to retrieve the coin. You can only retrieve one coin once at a time. When you took a coin, the goblins would be reborn.

On the other three faces of the dice were some actions. One was called a normal strike, which can damage your enemy’s pieces by two hearts. Each player had 10 hearts. This strike had a radius of 8 squares. Remember, you can also damage your enemy if you had a 1 or 2 on your dice. The radius was also the steps you had.

Another was called a freezer. If you roll it two times, you can either keep the freezer, or you can use it. However, for one freezer in your three dice, you either use it on somebody, or if you can’t then you throw it. The second one was a gem. You earn one gem when you roll it one time, and those gems were used to buy action cards. The last one was called a heart. If you roll it, you can earn one heart. The maximum hearts available were 15.

There were other rules in the game. If you damage one enemy 4 times, or damage 4 enemies, or knock off an enemy, then you have access to cards. The gems for cards can sometimes vary, and an average card needed 4 gems. Sometimes you can use the card forever; however, sometimes you can only use it once.

Also, if you buy 3 cards, then you earn one more life. Each player has two lives, meaning each time they have no hearts they are reborn on the same place they started. If there are more than four players, then you will need to create teams.

When we were just going to play, a professor knocked on the door. I opened it, and I saw Teodacious. He informed us, “Here is the plan for every day’s schedule.” Teodacious placed two sheets of paper on the table, “Today is on weekends, and today is an anniversary, so each of you only have two classes. Today’s lunch is free because we are having an anniversary, and please remember next time you guys need to make your own food. Enjoy!”

Then, the door opened again. This time, we saw 9 students coming in. They introduced themselves, and Oder said, “I think we should make a clan. Everybody must listen to the leader, and every day the leader must aid students who do not understand things in class, or do not understand the homework assigned by the teachers. Does everyone agree?”

Everybody raised their hands. Oder then said, “Who shall be the leader?”

I suggested, “Let’s do this. Oder will try first, then you guys will all try. We need to vote who the leader is. There is also a co-leader, who we will find after everybody is tested. The co-leader helps the leader or becomes the leader when the leader is away. Also, everyone needs to share knowledge and share food if possible. Does everybody agree?”

Everybody nodded. So, Oder asked, “Well, does anyone want to play Coin Stealer?”

After everyone agreed and everyone knew the rules, we started playing. Each edge had three players, which were in the same team. I was with Oder and Omark, and we started playing the game.

After a while, our team had the most cards, Omark had lost a life, and I only had 3 hearts. Our team was not leading; in fact, another team, who had Gerferd, Estour, and Guagemala. They already had two coins, while we had one.

Our cards were one is when I roll use normal strike, the card turns it into a critical strike, which damages opponents by two hearts. Omark had another, which was a stunner. It could stun a goblin for one round. Oder had two. One was when fighting a goblin, the goblin would automatically have only 11 hearts. Another one of his was to step more. For instance, if Oder rolled a 3, it should be 4 steps; however, his card changed it into 5 steps.

After 2 hours of playing, I reminded everyone, “We should go to class now. It is already 9:56. The class, which is called, umm... food class. Let’s go.”

We walked in the hallways. I took the map which Teodacious placed on the table. We saw some students the same age as we were going straight to food class. We arrived there in some minutes, and the classroom was filled with about 30 students.

“Good morning, everyone. My name is Sedlerson, and please call me Professor Sedlerson. I will be your teacher for food class this year. Today we are learning the basics of food. Does anyone know how many kinds of soups in the world?”

“Ten.” A student replied.

“Sorry, but that is not the answer. There is a lot more things in the world that you don’t know. There are 42 kinds of soups. I can name all of them, but today we will learn some important ones. Those ones will be the most healthiest ones.”

Professor Sedlerson took out a chalk and wrote, “The most healthiest soups” and below that, he wrote about 11 kinds of different soups. All of them I have never heard before.

“There are quesco cheese soup, poinsettia fruit soup, large pinecone soup, Armadius cheese soup, bluejay feather soup, redjay feather soup, greenjay feather soup, blackjay feather soup, purplejay feather soup, rainbow bird feather soup, andiquer cheese soup. Most of the students would ask why is it always something jay. Those are birds. In each of your town, you do not learn much. So that is why you have this class.”

Then, he informed us, “Today we are going to make bluejay feather soup. Bluejay feather soup is consisted of 7 - 10 feathers from a bluejay, which are blue. Those feathers are mixed with milk, then you add pepper, salt, and sugar in order. You will need to mix it for a few minutes, and then you will need to dry it. Then, you pour water, add some carrots and steak, and put it over a campfire. Now, we will make one bluejay feather soup.”

He gave us the materials needed. Now, he demonstrated how to make it. We needed to pour half a teaspoon of sugar, a spoon of salt, 1 and a half spoons of pepper. Then the milk needed to be 5 spoons. This was the first time I tried to cook food for myself. So, I started mixing.

First, I mixed 4 feathers with milk. Professor Sedlerson warned us to do every step correctly, or else it would cause a lot of things if we do not. I added salt, pepper, and sugar one by one. As we were working, a student accidentally knocked off his bowl, and just as it almost reached the ground, I caught it. There were some drops of milk on the floor.

“Be careful, please. We will use wooden bowls in case we drop it. Estour, please clean it up.” Professor Sedlerson told us while he looked at Estour.

Estour thanked me, “Thanks. At least it did not fell over. I think I poured too much milk.”

“Also, remember that you cannot be slow. If you be slow, then it will dry too much, and the flavour would be bad.”

After the bluejay feather soup was made, Professor Sedlerson said, “Well done. I see that most of people made it quite well. Much better than last year. Oder, yours look not too bad. Marcus, yours need more milk. Egern, you dried your milk too long. Well, now I will explain some other things about food.”

“But, before we begin, do you know why we have this class? Because, sometimes when we send students out in the wilderness to find something, they will need survival skills which include retrieving food either from bushes, planting, or hunting.”

“Now, I will demonstrate how to plant crops. There are different kinds of seeds, including wheat seeds, carrot seeds, potato seeds, and many others. Remember, different seeds have different methods of planting.”

“When planting ferdinand seeds, do not plant them when there is sunlight. You will need 3 - 5 seeds for each ferdinand. If possible, use 5, but if not possible, use 3 and 4.” Then, Professor Sedlerson showed us how to plant different kinds of seeds.

“Now, I will tell you some important things when you pick berries. Firstly, in hot places, do not eat too much berries. People would think it is okay; however, you will need to eat a tremendous amount of berries in order to have lunch, breakfast, and dinner. There is not that much berries in the wilderness, I can assure you. So, better to eat other things.”

“Well,” Professor Sedlerson said, “the class has ended. Thank you very much for choosing to come to Fort Dawn. Bye everyone, and enjoy the feast!” Professor Sedlerson walked out of the classroom.

“We will go to the feast.” Omark reminded us.

I took out the map, “The room is 247. We need to be faster.”

After we arrived there, we started feasting. I had just found that there were at least 50 students the same age as us. The food there were delicious. I had heard of those food before, which were noodles, rice, broccoli, etc..

We arrived there. The professor introduced himself, “Good afternoon, students. You can call me Professor Fernandez. I will teach everyone combat, and as we all know, warriors must be good at combat.”

“Does anyone know how many things can be used for combat? Also, please name them.”

I answered, “Swords, bows, arrows, crossbows, spears, boomerangs, nets, and knives. I am not sure that those are all, professor, but I can only name them some of them since I haven’t learn much before.”

“Well, those are some. There are more, which include ropes, and hooks. There are also other kinds of rare weapons such as lightning spears. Sometimes when you stick the spear in the ground, the ground would rumble and cause enemies to fall. I will not mention some things such as stones, apples, and oranges. Those are not ideal for warriors.”

“Today we will learn some basics of sword fighting. Firstly, we need to master the stance. Remember, try staying on high ground if possible when fighting. Do not look back, fight your enemy mostly with eye contact. Do not stand too narrow, because it will cause you to fall down easily. Today, we will do some jumping practice.”

Professor Fernandez placed two sticks vertically, and put another stick between the two sticks horizontally. He instructed us to jump over them. In combat, as he said, we will need to jump over the enemy and strike at them quickly. Most warriors do this. The other is sometimes when the enemy is swiping his/her weapon, you will need to duck or jump.”

We took turns jumping. At first it was easy. Then, when it came to the last ones, it was not. I was okay in the class because I hunt animals, which include jumping onto high trees. Omark wobbled everytime he jumped. I knew how hard it was to jump that high.

Then, we climbed trees. We needed to climb trees because we can stand on higher ground when the opponent is on the floor. I was the best in the class because I have learned tree climbing before. My dad taught me many skills.

Professor Fernandez explained what branches should we step on and what branches we should not. He informed us that if possible, do not stand on branches that have fruits because the fruits will add weight to the branch. You must be careful because the higher you go, the thinner the branch is.

We practice to jump over each other. All of us couldn’t do it every time. We also competed who climbed trees faster. Obviously it was me. The teacher told us how to swing from branch to branch without using any gadgets. This was also hard, and every time everybody tried, almost after 2 or 3 branches we would fall.

“Well done everyone. Now we will practice how to jump very far, not like jumping high.” Professor Fernandez instructed.

I tried. I ran from far away, and when I was almost there I leaped and fell in the sand. The professor said, “You need to jump closer. But the other things are well. I liked your running start.”

We did different things. Then, the class bell rang, so we said goodbye and walked away. I looked at the map and told our clan, “We will need to go planting. Does anybody have seeds? I have a bunch of them in the dormitory.”

“I have a little. Can you lend me some?” Estour asked.

Gerold said, “I have enough.” Followed by many other people saying they do not have enough. Only Omark and I brought more than enough.

We gave them 10 seeds each, so now we were all equal. The planting field was massive. Afterwards, we planted brocoli, pumpkins, and carrots. It was okay for us, not as hot as my town. The birds sang and the wolves howled. I liked Fort Dawn.

“The seeds won’t grow that quick. I can prepare dinner because I brought a lot of food. Mostly meat. I can go and fetch some logs. I can take a torch and light it on the fire. See you later.”

I walked to campfire. There were torches that were not lit, so I placed it in the fire and took it out. Then, I took some logs and I quickly rushed back and lit the logs that were on top of the tower. We were eating on top of the tower, because if we ate in our room, then it could catch fire.

The homework Professor Sedlerson gave us was easy. None of us needed help, because it was the first class. I took my knife and made some sticks so we could practice jumping. We told each other jokes and laughed so hard we didn’t have breath to laugh that hard again tonight.

Finally, when I was hearing some jokes, I accidentally slept. There were only pillows, but all of us were out of energy. I was excited about tomorrow. I didn’t even say good night, but fell asleep.