Disclaimer: I do not own Guild Wars, NCsoft, Arena-net, or any worlds and characters belonging to them, except this story and original characters.
Enjoy the Story! Thoughts are in italics.
It was night at the Ascalon academy dorms, and all the recruits were asleep, except one. Nathaniel Hawke, an 18 year old warrior hailing from Rin, the capital of the Kingdom of Ascalon laid awake, thinking about the final exams and training the following day would bring. Nathaniel had trained for the last four years at the academy, away from his family. So that one day, he could become a famous soldier and defender of his country. "A legendary defender of ascalon…" He looked over to the other recruits, all of them sound asleep in their bunks. There was Will Essoms, an 18 year old monk with a habit of playing pranks, as well as a talent for smiting prayers. Nathaniel had known Will for as long as he could remember, since they were next door neighbors back at Rin. There were several other recruits that Nathaniel had trained with, but nobody else in the boys dorm was as close as Will. Nathaniel closed his eyes, and started counting sheep…
Nathaniel woke up groggily to the sound of a horn blowing a tune he had become familiar with in the years he had been at the academy. Drill Sergeant Mahoney strode in and bellowed "Wake up recruits, you don't want to miss the final day of your training here!". Nathaniel shook himself awake, and stood at attention. Each recruit in the room did the same, and Nathaniel glanced at Will through his peripheral vision to see Will do an over exaggerated yawn. Mahoney glanced at the messy blonde haired monk and sighed. "But since it IS your final day here, your training will be more relaxed, instead of the typical morning calisthenics, you all will have the morning off, feel free to do whatever it is you feel like doing, but make sure to be present at test location right outside Ascalon City by noon. That is all" With that, Mahoney marched out of the dorm room.
Will grinned at Nathaniel and started getting dressed in his roughspun monk robes, while Nathaniel put on his recruit's ringmail armor.
"So we have the morning off, no push-ups for a change." Will said, as he stepped out of the dorm building right behind Nathaniel. Nathaniel took in the familiar view of the Ascalonian River. The dorm building was at the south end of Ascalon City, beyond the entrance to the main Academy campus. Down the paved stone road was a Town Crier standing on duty, beyond him was the bridge leading to the Academy. "Yeah, so let's have a big breakfast, make sure we have plenty of energy for our tests later" Nathaniel headed to the market stands down in the front of town, with Will trailing close by. It was still very early in the morning, and few people were around. Nathaniel recognized Wilton Payce, a carpenter living in Ashford, a small community about 2 miles down the road out of town. Wilton saw Nathaniel and waved. "I'm just returning home to Ashford, I have to get back before seven so I can open my shop, so I can't talk now."
Nathaniel waved back and replied "See you later Mr. Payce!". He then proceeded to the merchant stand. Sanura was preparing several sandwiches when he saw the two recruits approach. "The usual?" Sanura asked the two, and selected a pair of ham and cheese buns for the duo. Nathaniel and Will paid, then went to find a place to eat. "It's been four years, and we're finally going to graduate." Will said as the two walked to the waterfront. They sat on the steps at the edge of the river, and slowly bit into their still steaming hot buns. "Yeah, I can hardly believe that we're finally going into the vanguard!" Nathaniel replied, he paused, then asked Will, "It's been quiet in the northlands though, I wonder what the Charr are up too." Will grabbed Nathaniel's shoulder and smiled. "And you want to find out and become a hero right? That seems to be the only thing you want, get the Legendary Defender of Ascalon award to show your parents back home that you became a famous warrior." Nathaniel smiled, "Well, it's not just about an award, my parents and ancestors were all craftsmen, and I'm going to be the first warrior in the family, I want to set an example for my future kids!"
"You're thinking ahead too far man, besides, your older sis is already in the vanguard, and she graduated a couple months ago right? That makes you the second soldier in the family!" Will replied. "But she's a ranger not a warrior, there's a difference!"
The two best friends continued to argue, and the sun moved high in the sky…
"…I know most of the other warrior recruits use hammers, but I prefer a good sword and shield, after all, you can't wield a hammer and a shield at the same time right?"
Will began to reply, but then realized they had wasted their entire morning off arguing by the river. He looked up in the sky and estimated the time; they had maybe half an hour before noon. "Let's get to the test area, or we're going to be late to our final test!"
Nathaniel bolted straight up to his feet and started walking, quickly breaking into a jog, and Will got up to follow him.
Instructor Van the warrior looked over the warrior recruits, while his fellow colleagues scanned their respective recruits. He looked over at Verata the necromancer, who had a look of disdain on his face. "That guy creeps me out" Van knew about Verata's skill, but thought surely another instructor could have been here, such as Necromancer Muune, someone Van got along a lot better with than he did with Verata. But Muune was inside the Catacombs, making votive candles for some ritual. Van brushed his thoughts aside and looked at the dozen or so warrior recruits. One was more prominent then most of the others, Nathaniel Hawke stood perfectly still at attention. About six foot four, the recruit was quite tall, and was very well muscled and fit. The brown raven haired lad had remarkable blue eyes, and in them shone great intelligence. Nathaniel had placed very high in all his exams, and displayed good leadership and use of sound tactics. Van believed Nathaniel would go far.
Howland the Elementalist noticed that one recruit was missing from his group, and speak of the devil, there she was now, running at full speed towards the testing area. It was Sera Adun, a member of the Adun family, known for its diversity. The Adun family had members in several kingdoms, not only Ascalon, but in Istan and Vabbi far south, beyond the Crystal Desert at the southern borders of the Kingdom of Ascalon. They even had members living in the land of Cantha, a continent far on the other side of the world that he'd only heard stories of. Apparently, much of the landmass was taken up by a huge city. Howland appraised the out of breath apprentice elementalist. Sera Adun was a prodigy, she would be the youngest spellcaster to ever graduate at the academy, at the age of 15. The light blue haired girl joined the group of recruit elementalists standing at attention. Not only had she mastered the Academy standards, Sera had gone beyond that, and started learning more advanced magic from a pile of scarlet tomes sent to her from her family elsewhere.
"We are ready to begin now that everyone is here…" Each instructor began to brief the recruits on their test…
Nathaniel looked over the recruits and besides Will, found several of his friends looking back. There was Rachel Westfield, a 19 year old healer monk standing behind Will. The three had met when they joined the academy four years ago. Rachel usually tried to keep Will's pranks in check as the responsible one of the three. And there was the late arrival, Sera Adun. Sera had joined the Academy only 2 years ago, and yet she would be graduating along with Nathaniel's class. Nathaniel had spoken and worked with Sera a few times, and had since, learned that she was an efficient worker, and is really, really smart. Nathaniel turned his head back to Instructor Van, who was explaining what the final test would be.
Van made sure to stress the fact to the recruits that this would be real combat instead of a drill. The skale down at the river had started getting out of control and had to be dealt with. To that end, the recruits would kill off some skales, and drive the skale threat back. "Now be careful, and teach those skale a lesson!"
Nathaniel stabbed, parried and slashed a skale tad down. The toad like creature died, and its dark green blood oozed out of many wounds. Around him, the other recruits finished off the remaining river skale. With the job done, they headed back. Despite having numbers, and a ranged attack, the river skale proved to be no challenge to the recruits, and were finished off quickly. Back at the starting area, each instructor nodded in satisfaction, and told the recruits that they did a good job. They would report to the academy tomorrow, but for now, they could do whatever they wanted. Will and Rachel headed into the city, holding hands. Nathaniel smiled, thinking of the two together, then he saw Lina, the monk manning the resurrection shrine near the city entrance beckon him over. Nathaniel jogged over to see what Lina wanted with him.
"Many people believe that maintaining a resurrection shrine and seeing to it that people get a second chance at life is supposed to be an inspirational and ennobling experience. I'm not one of those people." Lina stated.
"Um, ok, I guess I would feel bored and tired standing at this shrine all day" Nathaniel replied.
"We need another person…" Lina saw Sera walking nearby and called out to Sera.
"What's up?" Sera asked, she nodded in recognition to Nathaniel, and turned back to face Lina.
"Now pay close attention you two, while a resurrection shrine gives you another chance at life, it only works if there aren't any people left alive to resurrect you. However, lying dead on the ground during that time isn't good for your health, so to speak, and you'll get weaker temporarily with each death until you get some proper rest. Here is a resurrection signet; it lets you revive anyone killed without the use of a resurrection shrine, but it can only be used once. It can be recharged under certain conditions, but those conditions are usually rare to come by, or magical in nature. So just be careful not to go off and die or you'll make my job a lot harder, ok? Thanks." Lina finished and waved them off.
Nathaniel felt the magic of the signet flow in his body, and he would only need to think about it to be able to use it. He was about to head back to the city when Sera got his attention by waving him over.
"Someone's crying behind the shrine, I think it's a little girl" Sera whispered to Nathaniel.
Nathaniel frowned, and walked behind the shrine to the source of the sobbing. It turned out to be Gwen, a 10 year old girl living in Ashford. Gwen always hung out around the entrance to the city, but she always looked happy when he saw her, and she was usually skipping around and picking up red iris flowers.
"Hey, what's wrong? Don't cry Gwen, we're here." Nathaniel tried to calm Gwen down. He had talked to the girl several times during his training at the academy.
"Nathaniel…I left my flute by the river, but there are lots of scary monsters there now. I don't know what to do. Can you maybe go kill them and bring my flute back?" Gwen said, as she stopped crying.
"Sure, I can do that" Nathaniel looked over to Sera, "Can you stay with her until I get back?" When Sera nodded, Nathaniel said his thanks, and headed back in the direction of the river. The river current had since washed away the bodies of the skale the recruits had killed earlier, and Nathaniel could see the remains of a wooden flute on the other side. Nathaniel went over and picked it up, examining it. It looked like it had been stepped on by something or someone, either a skale, or possibly a recruit during the melee. Shrugging his shoulders, Nathaniel headed back to Gwen and Sera.
While handing the broken flute to Gwen, Nathaniel explained that it must have been stepped on by something earlier. Gwen still thanked him anyways, but looked sadly at the remains of her flute. Nathaniel suddenly got an idea, "Wait here Gwen", Nathaniel said, and ran in the city to where Sanura was standing. Nathaniel bought a new flute for a couple pieces of Ascalon minted gold, and hurried back to present the new flute to Gwen.
"Thanks for the flute! I think I'll follow you two, can I?" Gwen stared at the two recruits with pleading eyes. Nathaniel thought for a moment, then decided. "I guess you can, but be careful, and stop when we tell you to, it's for your own safety, alright?" Gwen nodded vigorously, "Don't worry, I understand, when I grow up, I want to be an adventurer just like you two!" Gwen exclaimed. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll become a great and famous adventurer in the future Gwen" Sera said, assuring Gwen.
"Well Sera, want to come with us while we go adventuring? I'm sure there are plenty of people who need help around here." Nathaniel asked, hoping to get to know Sera better. Sera nodded, and signaled Nathaniel to lead the way, and the two headed off to the south-west, where Ashford was.
Not bad for the first chapter right? This is the first story I'm writing, so don't forget to review and help me become a better writer!
Pre Searing is gonna take a while, I want to get some stuff going, and by the way, this isn't the last day of the Kingdom of Ascalon YET. Stay tuned for chapter 2.