Chapter 1: The Note

Listen to me read to you here: https://soundcloud.com/user-972573532/the-ravenwall-chapter-1

Today, I woke up like every other day with my fellow roommates to the sound of the morning bugle. I had three roommates. Grubby was the short and scrawny one. He had a case of constant rat-nest hair and talked in a high pitched whiney voice. Urf, the tall and skinny senior, was the best at archery in this room and had a long white beard which unfortunately always got tangled. He was the informative brain of our team. Imbeseel was the unrealistically buff one and, as his misspelled name suggests, he was an imbecile. He was born dumb, socially challenged but tough. To prove my point, he just rolled out of bed, forgetting he was on the top bunk, and began his day with a forty feet belly-flop.

Unlike Imbeseel, I gracefully slid off my bed and looked at the mirror in the bathroom to check my sculpted, tailored, and naturally awesome moustache. I was the best of the best! Gifted by the Shadowlords. Feared by the Dark Shadowlords. The most talented knight in ADMI. My name was James, James Dolan. Some people called me a show-off but I took no notice of them; they were cursed with envy, envy of my perfection. United, my three roommates and I created the ultimate team, 'The Eagle Shield', although I, the tactical brains of my team, was the most-significant contributor to our astonishing team. 

I remembered that fateful day when I was training to be a special ops soldier at a military camp a hundred kilometres away from my hometown. Out of the blue in my private dorm, a glowing circle materialised before me. I remembered that I instinctively grabbed my MP5 assault gun for self-protection before realising that it was out of ammunition. A cleanly shaven man wearing a crisp white robe stepped out of the ring of energy. I thought for a moment that my deceased grandfather, who raised me after my parents both died in a car crash, came back to question my decision to be a marine rather than a garbage truck driver like him. Despite my protest, the man in the white robe grabbed me by the neck and forced me through the portal to Raventopia, the 5th dimension. It was a dimension where electricity and gunpowder was as useless as sand, throwing humanity back to the medieval ages. Magic stood in place of modern technology. As awesome and magical as Raventopia could be, there was a dark side to it, the Dark Realm. The infamous Dark Realm was a section of Raventopia where Dark Magic was created. 

That day was Raventopia’s lucky day. It chose the incredible me to be trained as a knight at the ADMI Academy. Raventopia mages carefully selected military soldiers with no family and little connections with the normal world to be the backbone of the ADMI. Although I did not care much for Light and Dark Magic as who needs enchantments and spells when you could whack someone with a very big sword?

My roommates and I got dressed in our respectable armors and headed to the Mess Hall to eat breakfast. Urf carried a pine bow and forty arrows in his leather quiver, as well as a backup sword. He wore chain mail armor. Grubby wore leather armor which was light but not as protective as heavier plated armor. He had ten throwing knives on his chest, two hatchets strapped on to his back, and one knife strapped on each boot. Imbeseel wore thick iron plated armor with a giant double edged axe on his back, together with a huge broadsword and a spiked mace on his side. As for the smartest and most fashionable person, I wore a thin steel glamorous armor with only a short sword and a circular shield that was modified with sharp spikes on the edge so that it could be sheathed and was fit for throwing.

The ADMI Academy building was like a doughnut and the Mess Hall sat right in the middle with a retractable glass ceiling operated by magic. It was the venue for meals and large meetings. From the inside, it looked like the grand ballroom of a prehistoric five star hotel that hasn’t had repairs and renovation since the day it was constructed. The once beautiful Mess Hall was polluted with rotting porridge and spilt beer on the floorboards and the reeking smell of men who did not use deodorant. The wallpaper on its walls were mouldy with the corners of each sheet of wallpaper curling up. Antique paintings, with chunks now eaten by moths, hung lopsided on the walls. The carpet was covered in a layer of grime and dried up bubble gum. I never looked forward to my visits to the Mess Hall. 

My roommates and I found an empty table in the middle of the Mess Hall and sat down. I detested the meal allocation system. Magic scanned our bodies for missing proteins and vitamins and then, based on the results, stuffed bits of food that we lack in our bodies into our breakfast porridge. In order for the Magic to scan us, we had to smash our faces onto the table, and occasionally someone would break their nose doing so. I sighed. Reluctantly, I lifted my head up high and smashed my forehead into the table. A pot of porridge quickly fell from the ceiling and landed in front of me. Unfortunately, the cold grey porridge sprayed out, splashing me and it leaked through the chinks of my armour onto my flesh. I groaned. Opposite me on our table, Urf grabbed a handful of the porridge and stuffed it into his mouth barbarically. Grubby was whining loudly about how his porridge needing a pinch of salt. I picked at my food. Beside me, Imbeseel smashed his face into the table to no avail. Probably a malfunction. Imbecile slammed his face down on the table again, this time a pot of porridge did drop down. Imbeseel did not see the pot and it slammed into his head which was still on the table. Surprised, Imbeseel jerked up causing the porridge to zoom away like a rock from a catapult. The pot smashed into the wall. Everyone looked our way.

“Oh there you are, I was looking all over for you Dolan!” Duke Dubois, who had medals pinned onto his golden armor, walked over from where he was sitting for breakfast and handed me a note. I opened the note. “Go to my office NOW - The Director”, the note barked. I showed the note to my roommates. Grubby and Urf cringed. Being sent to the director's office was usually bad news. Last time when the director summoned a trainee knight to his office, the poor trainee was ordered to stand in place of a sick knight to guard the Ravenwall for the entire frosty night without a guard change. The cold and stress almost pushed him to the point of shuffling off the mortal coil.

Unsteadily, I stood up from my chair, took a deep breath and willed my hands to stop shaking. Then walked out of the Mess Hall towards the Grand Tower. All the while, Imbeseel was still trying to read the note upside down without any success. 

Click here to continue to Chapter 2: The Squire