Tales of Khanos

Awakening

Wake up…

He saw the end of the battle, the castle in ruins.

Wake up…

A masked warrior with two large swords, completely dressed in black.

Wake up…

An old man, apparently staring at nothing. His lips forming the words: ‘as everything, you first have to know the beginning, before you can know the end.’

Wake up…

Khanos woke up and saw his mother standing next to him. He felt completely disorientated. The dream seemed so real, and it was the third time he had it.

“You’re going to be late for school, honey” said his mother. “Today is the big day! Your first lessons in magic!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming. Professor Morund will probably kill me if I’m late again for his history lessons.”

Khanos was not the average student at the College of Fighters and Wizards. It was probably the best school in the city. All the children with rich parents went to it. Khanos’ parents weren’t rich, but had saved their whole life so their son could go to the College. But he didn’t like it there. Of course, he wanted to know everything about Magic, Physics and the History of the World, but he didn’t like the mentality of the people there. They were always bragging about how rich they were. Always picking a fight to show their strength.

Magic… I guess it’s another thing they can and I can’t. I can almost hear them laughing at me…

He walked towards the living room and began eating the breakfast his mother made for him. The house wasn’t really big, but it was not as bad as the houses in the slum. There were 4 rooms, a bathroom, a bedroom, a living room and a kitchen. His father had built the home himself. It was not made of stone, as the houses of the rich people, but made of wood. They didn’t have a lot of furniture, just the necessary things. A shelf, some chairs, a table, some chandeliers.

“Momma! Momma!” screamed his sister. “Susie said she saw a demon! He was dressed in black and had large horns and wings!”

“Yeah sure” responded Khanos “Demons haven’t been seen since they killed all the Machine People. That was hundreds of years ago. We had to make a paper about it few weeks ago.”
Of course that didn’t convince her that it was impossible that Susie saw a demon. It didn’t prevent her from talking about vampires and imps until someone knocked on the door.

“I guess that’s Lynnore. You really have to go now, Khanos”

Lynnore was one of the only friends Khanos had. She was just above average in nearly everything. She was pretty, but not dazzling beautiful. She was keen, but no genius. She was not poor, but not rich either. She had long blonde hair, and bright green eyes. She always seemed to smile with every word she said. The thing Khanos liked about her was that he could always talk to her. He loved her. Not the romantic love lovers share, but rather like the love for a sister or brother.

Khanos caught his reflection in the mirror. He was just like Lynnore, not really handsome, but not ugly either. Short, black hair which always seemed to just follow its own will. Brown eyes, a bit large nose and a mouth usually looking grumpy. He opened the door and Lynnore ran in, yelled ‘goodbye’ to Khanos’ mum, grabbed Khanos by his hand and pulled him out of the house.

“Where were you? We have to run otherwise we’ll get late.”

“Yeah I know, I had that strange nightmare again. I wonder what it means; I’ve never had dreams that looked so real before”

“We’ve got enough time to talk about that after school. You don’t want to spend the whole afternoon cleaning classrooms and listening to Morunds speeches I suppose?”

“No, you’re right. Let’s hurry!”

I don’t want to hear why only the nobility should be allowed to go to school all day long.

It was quite a walk to the College. Khanos lived in the outer part of the city, near its walls. That weren’t the only walls of course. To reach the College they had to pass the inner walls. It was near the castle which was in the very center of the city. It was one of the only cities with a castle within a week’s march, and thus it attracted many travelers. Humans from the surrounding villages, Elves from the woods in the west, even some Dragonfolk from the eastern mountains. They all gathered within the inner walls on the market square. Some searched for exotic goods from various places, others wanted to hear what was happening in the world.

Khanos saw what Susie meant. It was a jester dressed as a demon, performing a play to entertain the children. He wanted to watch, but they were already late. They ran through the long hallways of the College and got into class just before the morning bell announced the start of a new day full of learning.