UNITY

The next day Chase woke up slowly and quickly realizing he was covered in a furious cold sweat, he must have had a terrible dream that night, because he was not at all in his right state of mind.

'I feel terrible, thank the gods that we get a day off before our final exams.'

Chase sat up in his bed with his back to the rustic wooden headboard. He sat there thinking for around thirty minutes or so until he accepted that he was not going to remember the nightmare anytime soon.

It was quite unusual for Chase to have nightmares, let alone dream. Chase nodded at the sad truth to his state and crawled out of bed. "No matter, it's probably for the best." Chase muttered to himself as he gathered some clothes to put on after a bath.

...

After Chase was dressed and as ready for the day as he could be, he heard something downstairs, and... Caught the scent of pancakes.

Chase walked down the stairs casually, as he looked around. He spotted his orange haired Father in the kitchen making breakfast. 

'Weird...' Chase thought to himself as he stepped into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. 

"What a lovely morning, is it not, son?" Chase's Father said enthusiastically, as he flipped a pancake in an overly dramatic matter. 

"Why are you so happy?" Chase asked, still weirded out by the fact that his dad was home and doing dad things...? 

 "Because! You are trying to get into Phoenix Academy, are you not?" Blaze said excitedly looking away from the stove and at Chase with a large grin on his face. 

Chase shrugged, "I guess, but how did you know?" 

A sad expression snuck onto his Father's face for a split second before he quickly replaced it with a smirk. 

"I am your Father, I know everything there is to know about you!" Blaze said with what sounded like a sinister laugh. 

At this point Chase was completely lost because of his Father's strange behavior, and just decided to give up on trying to understand it. 

Chase ignored his Father's antics and muttered silently, "Weird..." 

...

After eating Chase walked away from the table, and began to gather his things at the small closet underneath the stairs.

"You heading somewhere?" Chase's Father asked curiously while peaking his head around the corner of the large wooden pillar that separated the kitchen from the main hall. 

"To the library, I need to check out some books for exams." Chase responded not paying too much attention to the obnoxious orange haired man. 

A tear could be seen falling from Blaze's left eye on his sickly pale face.

"Are you crying?" Chase said now fully weirded out by his father. 

"NO! its just, you have grown into a fine young man Chase... Your mom would be so proud." The boy's father said while holding back sobs.

Chase flinched at the mention of his mother. After a quick pause, he unhooked his bag and slung it over his shoulders, eager to escape the moment. 

"It's just exams, I might not even pass." Chase said blankly while walking toward the front door. 

Blaze chuckled at the comment from his son and gave him a big thumbs up. 

"You will be fine, your my boy after all." Chase's Father said with a big grin. 

...

After Chase left, he began to walk his usual route to the school house. He kicked rocks as he walked along the Verdant, and rocky path. 

As Chase walked he noticed lots of things, such as children playing tag in the grassy fields, and mothers watering their gardens; However, Chase also noticed that it was quite quiet, even more so then the day before.

'Why is it so damn quiet if there so much is going on?' Chase wondered to himself, as he tried to recall his dream last night, resulting in a terrible burning sensation in the right side of his forehead that quickly faded only seconds later.

'Damnit, why does that keep happening.' Chase said rubbing his temple.

Chase continued to walk until he reached the schoolhouse. Instead of walking along the wide pathway; However, Chase stepped between two moss covered trees off to the left side of the pathway about thirty meters in front of rustic schoolhouse. 

Chase walked through the forested part of Willowmere, while wondering where and what his two best friends were doing at the moment. 

...

Finally after what felt like ages, Chase reached an old stone building in a small opening in the lush forest, the building was overgrown and old enough to have been around since the birth of the gods, (Probably). 

Chase walked toward the large building that stood tall in the middle of the clearing. 

After examining at the beautiful architecture of the stone brick library, Chase stepped inside, hearing the old wooden doors that were twice the size of Chase creak as he pushed them open. 

Stepping inside the large runic Archives, Chase felt a powerful and mystical force gently brush past him as if the air itself was finally let free from it's eternal prison. 

Chase quickly remembered the names of the books that Mr. Dane recommended to his student on their late night walk home, and began to quickly walk over to one of the many isles of shelving.

The sheer number of books could fill the town's homes three times over. 'Well that was slightly exaggerated.' Chase thought to himself.

'Well maybe just twice over' Chase corrected his outrageous statement.

The ancient library was colossal, dwarfing every building in town. Its towering thirty-meter height and sprawling expanse could easily fit four schoolhouses within its stone walls.

...

After hours of searching, with the sun already halfway across the sky, Chase finally found the last book that he was looking for...

Chase walked over to a small niche in the wall, that had a small wooden bench and a stone table in front of it, and sat down. 

Chase opened the first book of the seven that he picked out.

 The title read, 'The Art of Swordsmanship: For Beginners.' 

The book was around 700-800 pages and was nearly as big as Chase's entire torso, which was quite intimidating to someone who did not like to read, or even pay attention in class.

'This is going to be a really long day...' Chase sighed to himself, as he began to read the first passage.