“I am bored. Very bored.” said aloud a young man sitting atop a castle wall tower made of white stone. Trake was his name, and he did seem to be very distracted. Trake looked like a reasonably ordinary man. He had long, stringy brown hair tied up in a bun in the center of his head. Across Trake’s forehead was sitting a large binocular-shaped goggle with a band around his head. He wore blue robes with a crest of two flying eels with a sword through the center across his chest. Trake was tossing a small glowing ball up into the air repeatedly. He had spent the first half of the morning trying to summon the small ball of energy. Trake through the ball again, but before he could catch it, he heard a shout to his left.

 “Trake knock it off, do your job, and watch for any trouble,” yelled Flan, a young man of similar age to Trake wearing the same blue robe. 

The ball in the air faded into little sparks as Trake lost concentration, and Trake cursed under his breath. 

He yelled over. “ I was, Flan! How about you worry about yourself!”

 Trake turned away from Flan and moved his stool towards the tower's edge. He looked at a massive valley with long green grass and a red clay road stretching out in the distance. As Trake looked, a flock of flying eels raced past; they had pushed down his goggles a bit lower on his face. Trake pushed them back up and looked over the right side of the tower. He could now see the giant floating island lord Mick’s kingdom was famous for. A small waterfall from the creek on the island slipped off the side, turning to mist, causing a perpetual rainbow. The sights would have made an ordinary man stare for hours, but Trake being a wall guard, has been many thousands of hours over it.

Trake continued sitting atop the tower until the sun moved below the horizon. He soon heard a shuffling noise from below and knew it was time for him the pack up. He grabbed a little wooden box that held scraps of dried jerky and bread from a few hours ago. Trake then took the resting soldier's stance and awaited the arrival of his replacement. A few moments later, a trap door that is barely visible opens, and a young woman wearing the same blue robes as the other man. 

¨Stella, nice to see you,” Trake said sincerely. 

¨Good evening to you, Trake,¨ she said with a smile. 

Trake, not knowing what else to say, said, “ Well… I hope your shift goes…¨ his checks began growing hot.  ¨well.¨ 

Trake then started for the trap door and slipped onto the ladder, pulling down the trap door by a golden handle. 

Sitting atop the ladder, he said to his self ¨Why did I say that?¨  Remembering that you could hear sounds from below from the top of the tour, Trake Blushed again and descended the tower as fast as possible. Once out, Trake was a little glad to be out of that blank canvas of a tower. He walked onto a crowed grey cobblestone road, approaching tall colorful buildings made of all kinds of stone in wild shapes along the path. Lord Mick's citadel sat gleaming red high above the city at the end of the road. Trake shuffled through the crowd when he reached a wall with a sign over it, “ The Lavender Lockheed." Trake reached for a pocket in his robes and pulled out a circular-shaped medallion with Mick’s crest. He reached out and taped it onto the wall. The walls' bricks instantly started to shift; from where Trake tapped, the bricks fell backward into a magical void. Once finished, the void dispersed, and on the other side of the wall were Trake’s barracks. It was a long room with six small beds on each side of the room. The Light in the room came from a few small light orbs that hovered in the air that looked very similar to the sphere Trake had used earlier. He walked into the new doorway and over the second bed on the left and lay down. As he was lying in his bed, he thought about the day. He was so sick of sitting up in that tower daydreaming about what else he could be doing in his life. He could be out fighting in battles, side by side with fellow soldiers. He could be out on the survey division, exploring new lands and discovering weird creatures. Yet, he is a wall guard sitting up there, watching for threats that will never come. Trake stayed in this grumpy mood until he fell asleep in his bed.

Trake woke up as the sun was starting to shine through the windows. He got dressed in his uniform and headed for the tower. He said hello to Stella this time, not embarrassing himself in the process. Trake took his job a lot more seriously early in the day when the total boredom of his career had not fully set in. Trake would put the goggles on his forehead every few minutes and scan the horizon. What he saw didn’t pique his interest, winged eels, golden deer, massive rodents, and a few unicorns. 

A few hours passed, and Trake contemplated if he should summon another energy ball to pass the time. The feeling of being useless was sinking into his body at the toes. Not wanting to get yelled at again, Trake decided to check the horizon once again before creating it. He pulled down his goggles from the top of his forehead. When making his bun this morning, he missed a few of his bangs, which slid down with the glasses. He pulled the glasses away from his face to brush the hair out. Finally, he was ready to look out at the plains in front of the castle, and what he saw made him jump to his feet. A large dust cloud had formed about two miles out down the road. As Trake twisted the dials, he could see the distinct crude banners that only meant one thing.  The cause of the dust was  Goblins!! For a few moments, trake just stood slack-jawed. Then he used a particular hand movement that caused his hand to glow. He continued doing hand movements, symbols appearing in the air near him. Finally, he was casting the two spells he was taught in training. The first caused a red flare-like smoke to rise high above him in the air. The second enhanced his vocal cords allowing his voice to be carried for over a mile. 

Trake then shouted with all his might, “ Threat Two G alert. A goblin army is approaching the citadel from the east. All available soldiers meet at the front gate!” He repeated it many times before the spell wore off.

Once Trake could catch his breath from the shouting, he slipped open the trap door in the tower. At the bottom of the building, he was glad the people had received his warning. Many soldiers were running through the streets toward the armory. Trake sprinted over to grab some thick hide armor that he slipped over his guard outfit and grabbed a sword for his waist. Once fully armed, he heads toward the front gate of the castle. Commander Stark was there getting the soldiers who had arrived into formations. When Trake was placed in line, he could think for the first time after spotting the goblins. “Is this happening,” Trake thought, “I am actually about to go into battle. I waited my whole life to do this. I can finally prove myself!” Trake left hand started to shake a little. “ Am I ready for this?” 

The door opened, and Stark commanded the soldiers to charge. Trake's feet began to move, and he raised his sword. Charging he could see the “group” of goblins ahead of them. Trake couldn’t have called them by an army because the soldiers outnumbered the goblins two to one, even with the soldier's lower numbers. After all, the main army was out fighting another battle. Trake’s slight fear of the goblins shifted to sorrow for what would become of them. The front lines then met with each other, and the battle began. The skill between the two sides was vastly different; the soldiers performed fluid motions.

In contrast, the goblins were having trouble even lifting their swords. Trake started to feel a bit sick to the stomach, but he stayed in position. The first goblin that came close enough to Trake for him to engage was a goblin that was disarmed and fighting with just his claws. Trake approached with his sword ahead of him as he learned in training. Even with the training, Trake had never attacked anything living before; He wasn’t sure if he could do it.  The goblin saw him waiver in his approach, eyes narrowing; it pushed its feet into the ground to fling itself toward Trake. Taking one step to the left, Trake swang his sword right into the goblin, his hours of training taking over. Green blood was sprayed across the ground, slowly seeping into the grass, never to be seen again. Both bodies then fell to the ground. One had their eyes closed, and the other was vomiting for what he had just done. A few moments passed, with Trake sitting on the ground stunned. He then wiped the sides of his mouth away with the sleeve of his robe. 

Standing up from the ground, Trake looked around. The battle was over, half of the goblins had started a retreat back, and the rest were on the ground dead. A few soldiers had also fallen in battle, their blue robes stained red. Not knowing how to handle his emotions, he raised his head high and went to find a superior.

A few hours later, Trake found that he was feeling more like himself. He got released to return to his barracks an hour ago, and now he was sitting in his bed, trying to remove the memories from the day. Realizing that being here alone was not helping, he decided to go to the local tavern. Getting dressed into his civilian clothes, he stepped towards the entrance tapping the wall again to go outside. Once the bricks were fully removed he stepped out. The streets were empty except for another person leaving a building across the street. It was Stella who also was dressed in a civilian dress. Taking a deep breath, Trake said, “Hey Stella, funny seeing you here.”

She said with a soft chuckle, “ Hello, Trake, yeah.”

“Where are you off to?”  Trake asked, “I was about to head to the ‘Golden Dew’ to distract myself from the day's events.”

“I wasn’t really sure. I just wanted to get out,” Stella  said with a shrug, “ May I join you?”

With head quickly rising to his face Trake said a little too fast, “I would love it if you joined me.”

The two of them stayed out late that night. They talked about their lives and got to know each other better. Just getting to talk to someone who was on the battlefield today made Trake feel a lot better. Late into the night, the Tavern closed, so Trake and Stella walked home together. Saying goodnight Trake watched as Stella taped her wall with the medallion. Trake walked over, opened his wall, and entered a barrack full of other soldiers in their beds. The room's light orbs were now set to their dimmest setting. Not wanting to hit something in the dark, Trake slowly walked through the room to his bed. Once there, he noticed a white letter with a blue seal. He recognized the seal; it was Lord Mick’s special seal!  He snatched it off his bed and ripped it open. Inside was a letter written directly from Lord Mick himself.

Dear Trake,

I am pleased to hear that you were the brave guard who spotted the goblin army approaching earlier today. If it was not for your quick action to jump into protocol today, I fear the battle could have turned out much differently. That’s why I am pleased to inform you that you have been allowed to join any branch of my army you would like. Please Reply with haste.

Your king, Lord Mick.

Trake was stunned. “ What should he choose?” he thought.

 He could join one of the many large armies or the survey division. This is the opportunity he had been waiting for! But then Trake thought about the battle earlier today. He hated the sight of blood flying through the air. Friend and foe, sitting at his feet, dead after each fight. If he joined the survey division, he would be gone for months. He would have no opportunity to make friends or have any other type of relationship. Just when I was starting to get closer to Stella, Trake thought. That’s when the decision became firm in his head. Trake then whispered aloud, “I better get ready for bed because I am going to have guard duty tomorrow.”