The Halls of the Academy

“Hope is the candle in the depths of the Winter Night but be warn the flame can still run wild.” -Father Timothy Bookroot the 2nd

Dear River,

 

                Hope is the key to a good life, or so I have been told. I have been told by many wise books that hope is a need in all to live a joyful life, but I do wonder what if all you have in your life is hope. Does the hope become painful like a thorn in the side if it is never seen to the end? What I mean, River, is if I hope for a sunny day, but all my life the storm clouds stay over here, then is not the hope of the sun a hellish dream?

                I guess this is a dark way to start my letter to you. And I’m sorry if you feel I am in a low mood; the truth be told, I am not. I am, in fact, in a great mood which has let to think about things like hope. I bring up the idea of hope and have it come true because I got to complete one of my hopes the other day.

                I have long to walk in the Knight’s Academy halls freely, but it had seemed to a hope I would never get to live out. Every time I could have gone up to the Academy, something else came up keeping me from getting to the school.

                However, Gulydin knew of this dream of mine, and on the Winter Break, I went up there to see everything.

                I’m sure you know the stories of the Academy, but I still feel I must write about them for a bit. I hope this does not board you too much.

                Gulydin came and got me four days before AllSon Day to take me to the Academy. We went to the hidden lift, the only way in which I know to get to the Academy. The lift can hold up to fifty-eight Knights in full armor along with their mounts and sixteen carts of supplies at a time. It takes about half an hour to reach the top. Once you are at the top of the lift, you stand in front of a massive door marked with lovely art about the Knights. When the doors open to the courtyard, you are faced with a statue of a legendary Knight. He is the reason all Knights, true Knights, wear a Dogwood Flower over their hearts. Maybe one day I will write to you about the myth of the Dogwood Flower Knight.

Around him are other Knights of equal legend, and all the statues look to be very life-like.

                The Academy can hold up to thousands of squirrels within its wall. The castle sits on the large branch of the Great Oak above the Palace itself. From almost any window in the castle, you can see over the city along with most of the forest around the city, but most of the young Knights here don’t have time to stare at the windows.

                I was shown around the building seeing everything they would allow me to see and be in awe of it the whole time.

                There are four Guilds of Knights in Academy: the Warring Stags, the Leaf Dragons, the Holy Shields, and the Hell Swords. These Guilds are not meant to be real Guilds as in the city but are meant to pull the young Knights together as a unit. They hold games against the other Guilds allowing the winner to gain extra off time or food. Sometimes, even allowing them to go below for a day to see the city. Many of the young Knights who come to the Academy had never seen a city like Whispering Oaks. Many don’t believe the size of the Great Oak until they see it.

                I guess it is hard to believe the tree is so big it towers far over all the other buildings around it. Only a few in our history have seen the top of the tree and, therefore, the top of the world.

                They took me to the library in the castle, but I could not read any of the books. Mostly from what I understand, the books are on military history and how the Knights rage war. I’m not sure why they wouldn’t allow me to read them, but I guess they knew I would not leave the library for hours.

                For dinner, Gulydin and I joined the Head Master of the Knights, Yelena Strongshield, the wife of the Emperor’s Sword, Gabriel Strongshield. We ate solely with them, laughing and enjoying each other along with the food. Although Gulydin is much older than Gabriel, they still seem to be close friends. I guess this comes from the fact they work so closely together. Gulydin is one of the Emperor’s most trusted friends. He works well in the court.

                I enjoyed my dinner greatly with the couple. Of course, I asked how the two met, and they explained how they met here at the school. Yelena had led the Warring Stags to victory many times, while Gabriel wasn’t too happy about the matter. When they both became Knights, they were sent on a quest, which they would not say too much about, but I got the feeling Gulydin had been with them.

                Yelena let me know she hated Gabriel at first, but they fell in love overtime on the quest. They did not marry right away when they got back. Yelena had been sent back to Thronewood, her home city, for her duty, but they keep writing back and forth over the years. Gabriel rose in the Rank, becoming the Emperor’s Sword, and then ordered Yelena back to Whispering Oaks. Six years to the day after their first quest ended, they were married. Yelena became the head of the school where they mostly live now.

                If you get here sometime this year, maybe during the summer, I’ll try to get you and the children up to the Academy. I can only hope, right? Give my love to the family; I’ll write soon.         

 

Your brother,

Brain Redtales

(1426)

Author's Note

Writer’s Note: I have been working on the history of the Realm for a while now and wanted to show you guys a little of how I do it. I like to write letters and have brought that love into my work. I hope you will enjoy it as well. I’m not sure how many letters I’m going to write but we shall great a good amount out of this book.

I’ll try to make this short for the both of us, but I feel, I need to add a little context to my stories on here. All the stories I post on this website are what I call “break stories.” They are either stories I go to when I get stuck in long from novel or stories, I write to explore a world. So, what does this mean? It means I enjoy these stories, but I don’t put everything into them. So, why am I posting them? A fair question and the reason I’m posting my stories on this website is to have fun, to show you my growth but most of all to give you a little taste of the worlds I work in. What does this mean for you? It means you can judge the work as you wish and by all means help me with plot, characters, and building the world, but I ask you to ignore grammar problems as best as you can and the style in which these stories are written. My page on here is my sketchbook and you guys get to see all the rough, nasty parts of my writing.