Venerable Knight

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. There is no relation to any real persons, groups, events etc. They are all fictional.

School Life - The First Day

“ADY!” Mom swung open the door shouting. 

“Still sleeping? It's time for school, get up.” Said Mom with her sweet and warm voice. Her voice wrapped around me like a warm blanket.

“Ugh Mom, just 5 more minutes,” I complained sleepily, clutching my pillow.

“It's your first day attending high school, Ady, you don’t want to be late do you.” Mom countered while drawing back the curtain which paved a way for the light to shine upon the room.  

I angrily pulled up the forest green bedsheet to cover my head from the light. The illumination revealed a fantasy book on the top of the shelf next to the bed with a poster of an illustration, plastering the wall. The poster showed an enormous library with a gold coloured wooden table circling the center where few elves were seated, reading books, to the right side of the illustration was an old man with nearly grey coloured hair with glasses standing from the reception.  

“So you were reading a book late at night huh.”

Angrily, Mom pulled the sheet away from my face, causing rays of bright lights to blind me, bringing me back from the dreamworld.

“Mom let me sleep!” I yelled out. 

“Ady! It’s time for school!” She reached out for the clock that was resting on the table near the bed, and shoved it in my face. 

“Look, it’s already past 8 am”. 

It was hard to see the clock at first because of the sudden blindness by the blinding light. After a few seconds of rubbing my eyes, the blurred vision cleared. All I needed to see was that one of the hands, the long one, was pointing towards 8. Then the realization struck.

“The vacation ended?!” I yelled. I jumped out of the bed, taking the towel from the door and hurried off to the bathroom to get ready for school.

“Breakfast is ready, get ready quickly.” Told Mom before I heard the door being closed.

After brushing my teeth with speeds that caused a bit of bleeding from the gums, then I went on to hit the showers. After showering, I wrapped my lower body with my towel only then I remembered I had to iron my uniform, but when I went to my room, I found my uniform already neatly ironed on my desk with a note. 

“Ironed your uniform for now, you should do that first thing in the morning from tomorrow onwards. We are waiting for you at the table, come fast — Mom” It wrote. 

I was surprised. Not a common sighting of a mother ironing her child’s clothing who is of my age in this reality. But still, I was thankful.

The uniform was a mellow yellow coat worn over a white shirt with a red tie around the neck paired with pants with the same colour as the coat.

I held the uniform in my hands and stared at it for a few minutes. 

So a new chapter of my life starts today huh, 

A sudden indescribable warmth resonated throughout my body.

I put on my uniform and walked down stairs to the dining room, and Dad was already there sitting in one of the white steel chairs surrounding the pale white table in the center of the room. The floor was covered with a blue and white checkered rug. He was in his usual uniform and reading today's newspaper.

“There was a forest fire recently and it took some time to put out the fire!” Dad yelled in anger, clutching the newspaper in his hand, crumpling it and creating minor tears. “The source of the fire is currently unknown, but it is definitely manmade.”

“Honey, don't be angry, I'm sure it might be accidental.” Consoled Mom while she set my food on the table. “Instead, be happy our son is in high school today!” She smiled, lighting up the whole room.

Mom has long black hair which is frequently bunned, almond eyes with round eyebrows and has a gentle figure, shaped by years of lifting children and bending over endless chores. In her prime, she could’ve been a model, but she instead chose to be a regular housewife. It’s still a surprise that she married Dad, though calling Dad “normal” wouldn’t be right either.

Dad is the captain of the central fire force team. He has a first-rate firefighter body. Broad shoulders, toned muscles, along with rough and tanned skin from the heat that highlighted his experience in his expertise. Diamond shaped face with rough edged eyebrow. He also likes to have his hair kept short, unlike me. 

“What my father said was right, time doesn't wait for anyone ,” Dad remarked, smiling while eating his fruit salad.

Kudos to Mom for changing Dad’s mood so quickly.

The recent forest fire that happened on the hill on the east outskirts resulted in an estimate of 700 or more animal homes being destroyed, and many of them lost their lives as well. My dad likes animals a lot, in fact, they even have 2 to 3 dalmations in the fire station.

“Time for you guys to head out, it’s already 8:45 a.m.!” Mom announced

Suddenly my body shivered, I looked towards Dad who had the same expression of astonishment. We were going to be late.

We hurriedly ate and prepared to depart. As we walked across the porch, I spotted our cat Neco sleeping near the gates. “Good Morning Neco,” I greeted as he woke up and started to scratch his grey fur. He looked at me with his black eyes in annoyance.

When dad walked out, he noticed something. “We have new neighbours settling in today.” Commented Dad while looking at a truck in front of the house next to us. 

I rushed past the gates to see a group of men moving large amounts of boxes and some furniture. They had blue T-shirts and a black pants which seemed to be made of nylon. In the back of the shirt the word “Swift” on a white truck was printed.   

“That's great to hear, I will talk with them later, anyways, safe journey!” Mom called out waving towards us.

Meow! Neco sat with his back 2 legs crouched as we walked away. 

Dad was walking to the central part of the city we are living in, while I went to school near the city's outskirts, which was the opposite way dad was going.

On the way, there is a small antique shop which is run by an old woman in her 70s or 80s, the shop had some display materials in front with glasses protecting it from the dust. There were large items inside such as old wooden tables with hand made designs, large vases from old age etc. We usually exchanged greetings whenever we crossed paths. Then there is a police station a few meters away. A police man stands in front with a huge dog leashed to his hands, every day without breaking the streak. Near my new school was a park inside a small natural specially reserved forest… Well, it is small, so I don’t really call it a forest. 

I have finally reached my new school. The entrance to the school had a small road that continues after the gates for the school bus to park on the space left side of the campus. The road is surrounded by trees with yellow flowers that shine under the sun. The flower falls on the path by wind. The whole campus was filled with unfamiliar faces chatting with each other. Seniors who were recruiting for their clubs filled the ground with their recruitment advertisements, each had stands with posters waiting to be taken. 

As I was passing the road, a female senior with black hair styled in a ponytail tied with black and red ribbons came to me with a stack of posters in her hand. 

“Hey, are you interested in joining our StoryTellers club?” She asked as she showed me a poster, which I took.

“I will consider,” I replied. 

“We are always accepting, just give us a notice whenever you're ready. Bye!"

She went as fast as she came.

After that, I walked towards the school auditorium, which was on the right side of the school campus. I went past the heavy crowd in front of the hall, Then I slowly opened the double door and suddenly I was blinded by a beam of light.  

It was a large hall illuminated by artificial lighting beaming from the roof of the hall. At the far end of the hall was a large stage with dark brown to light brown cloths all over it and a podium to the right side of the stage. The crowd was divided into two, girls sat on the left side and boys sat on the right side. So I went over to the front right corner.

As I sat down, the principal came onto the podium and started a speech about the school and future of our life. Well, it was pretty boring. The person beside me had fallen asleep for half of the speech, while some were chatting amongst themselves instead of listening.

After the speech, the hall was filled with the noise of scratching the legs of the chair, It was a little crowded near the double door, it took me some time to go through it, then I finally entered the main door to the campus, I felt the same warm sensation from the morning   

I walked through the white corridor to get into the notice board. The notice board was hung on the wall near the students council room. I skimmed through the papers on the board to find which floor was my class. It took me a few minutes to find it. 

2nd Floor Grade 11th.

I rushed through the stairs and finally reached the class before anyone else did. The class was normal as usual, everyone had their own desk and chair, the teacher's table and chair was raised a little from the ground and the board was freshly cleaned.

After looking around the class, one thing I realized was that I can choose any desk we liked. Most of my classmates settled near the middle, while I sat far back near the window, my favourite spot in any classroom. Whenever I was bored I could just look at the nature outside or play with birds at the window and, during breaks, the natural light through the window makes reading even better. 

The teachers didn't teach anything today as they held icebreakers so as to associate ourselves with our classmates. After a while I was bored. 

I seriously forgot to bring my story book… 

Once another break started, the room was filled with chatter for a few minutes, before dissipating as students started to leave the classroom.

While I was looking outside the window, I admired the view of the nice trees. Suddenly I saw a white silhouette blitz by. Was it an owl? Or was it a crow? 

But an owl in the morning?

It was something new to me. A bird so white in coloured with ocean blue eyes stood on the branch end and stared at me. 

What are you?

Then I heard the sound of a falling pencil. I thought it was mine, but as I was trying to reach for the pencil down the floor, a female hand the same colour as mine touched mine. And the white feathers of the bird I saw floated in through the window, but that wasn’t my focus. 

My eyes were glued to her.. .The eyes are the same as mom’s staring into my soul… the same warm sensation came again, but this time it coursed as fast as lightning. Her hair flowed down to the lower parts of the chair like a stream of water flowing through the mountain. Legs crossed on top of each other.  As I elevated my head upwards, I noticed the blank paper on her desk waiting to be spread with colours. My heart was wavering with an unusual rhythm along with the warmth…

“Thank you!” she gave a small but heartfelt smile. 

Author = Ryujin 

Editor/Proofreader= Tricky :p

Art = Sara

Instagram = ryujin._.200