text: [Themes: fantasy, fantasy]
  
  You hesitate while you think, but you answer before long.
  
  "I'll stay here." Your father smiles, and it's obvious that he's very relieved at your choice. You imagine that a heavy burden must've been taken off of his shoulders. Here you would be safe. Here you wouldn't have to worry.
  
  Your father nods before turning to the heavy set man on his left. "This is the Headmaster here at the academy. Headmaster Rallas. He's taught at this academy for years now," a slight smile breaks across your father's face, "and despite his looks, he used to quite capable."
  
  Headmaster Rallas scoffed at that. "I'm still more than capable," he remarks before your father continues speaking.
  
  "I'll be leaving in the morning, so it may be some time before i see you again, son. When I next see you, I expect to see a man grown and ready for anything. The Creator has blessed you as his champion, so you must prepare yourself to fulfill that demanding role. I'll see you again in the morning, but for now Headmaster Rallas will give you a tour." Your father embraces you, then walks out of the room leaving you alone in the room with Headmaster Rallas.
  
  He regards you for a silent moment. "You carry a great burden. If you're well enough I'll show you around."
  
  Despite the sleepy haze you've retained since you awoke, you nod and get up from your bed. You look around the room, and wonder why you're the only one here. This was obviously the Academy's infirmary and this was a fighting school, so surely there must be more people injured. You express these thoughts aloud to the Headmaster, and he smiles then throws an arm around you.
  
  "You've got a good head on you. The academy is on break for another week, so until then, it'll be you, me, the staff, and a rare few other students."
  
  You nod and the Headmaster leads you out of the room. The halls remind you of the Castle back in Valium except that these were newer and more obviously centered around academics. The Headmaster leads you around, and before long you find yourself increasingly impressed with the facility. It's every bit as big as the castle, and the rumors you've heard about it do not nearly do it justice.
  
  The Headmaster explains that aside from basic academics, everyone in the academy is taught how to wield a sword. Once a student finishes their schooling here, they begin their long noble service to the Grand Priest wherever it may take them. If even to death. You feel a sense of foreboding and briefly wonder how many knights died to help you escape Valium.
  
  The Grand Priest finishes his explanation by telling you that at age sixteen every student is sorted into two more facilities depending on their aptitude for fighting. One is simply called Advanced Combat where the inhabitants focus solely on honing their skills in combat, tactics, and other such needs for war. The other school is called Support, which is more or less self explanatory. This school includes those training in the healing arts, organizational matters, but everyone one of them still is constantly trained in fighting. If the need ever arises, then those in both schools can form a force of a couple thousand, that is when all of the knights on missions are gathered in. Aside from the knights at the school, there are bases scattered around the continent each with a minimum number of five thousand strong. that is where the majority of your numbers reside. Apparently your father had been prepared for this, for you cannot imagine that the King would have allowed such an amassing of numbers to occur under his nose.
  
  Once the introductions are over, the Headmaster leaves you to explore the facility whilst he claims that his work needs his utmost attention. You shrug and simply head off of in the direction of the armory. You didn't have much time to grab your sword when you left, so hopefully they could supply you with one.
  
  On your way there you run into another student. You don't quite feel the want (or need) to converse with him, so you barely give him a glance. Despite your wishes, he moves in front of you effectively stopping you in your tracks. This was most inconvenient, because a staircase was not the best place to meet someone new. If it was someone younger, or even smaller than you then you may have pushed passed him. However, he was neither.
  
  He was taller than you by a couple inches, making him around six foot, but that wasn't what stopped you. For someone who can't have been more than two years older than you, his frame filled his clothing and his muscles stretched the grey and black leather. He reminded you of Morden. He stood on the stair step right above you making his presence just that more imposing.
  
  Although you originally didn't want to meet him, you found yourself mildly interested. What did this oversized adolescent want with you?
  
  "Are you Erron?" his face was expressionless, but when you answer "Yes," his face changes to that of contempt.
  
  "You're the person that the teachers keep going on about? You barely have any muscle on you, and you look like you haven't ever seen a battle. The Creator should've chosen me, but instead he chose a scrawny piece of trash like you. I bet you didn't even have the guts to screw the princess while you were in that castle."
  
  His voice is filled with mocking arrogance, and his insults, quite frankly annoy you. He had just barely met you, yet he acted as if he knew your whole story. His insults weren't even that good, but his attitude was certainly more abrasive than you could otherwise stand. You normally wouldn't even consider physical retaliation as a viable option, but his mention of Alessa tipped your judgment. She might be the daughter of a treacherous King, but she wasn't some cheap prostitute.
  
  > stay and retaliate
  While on the inside you're starting to seethe, on the outside you manage to keep you're cool. You step to the side and start walking up the stairs past him, as if you're making a move ot ignore him. In reality you just want to have to high ground when you punch him.
  
  As you place your foot on the step above this oversized boy, he grips your forearm saying, "Hey, Don't walk away from m- Hey!"
  
  He interrupts his own sentence with "Hey" when instead of yanking your arm away from him, you use his grip and push him forward and hopefully, down the stairs.
  
  But this guy is smarter than he looks.
  
  Instead of being surprised like you hoped, it appears he was more or less ready for it. he uses the momentum from your push to pull himself up and pull you past him down the stairs. Unlike him, you are completely surprised. You figured he was like a dog. Lots of barking, but no bite. You were wrong.
  
  You attempt to twist your head away from the floor, but you were propelled at too fast of a rate. With a sickening crack, your head splits open on the white granite stairs. You pass out, and never wake up. Your last thought is that maybe the guy was right. The creator chose the wrong person.