“Sit down,” the portly teacher said as she scanned our faces, pausing for a moment on mine.

Settling ourselves down as directed, we waited as the world teacher held out her hand and an enormous scroll appeared in it.

We watched as the teacher flung the scroll toward the wall while her hands became a blur, and a moment later, the scroll was unfurled and pinned to the wall by delicate looking daggers.

Smiling genially at us while we gulped and straightened our backs, the portly teacher said, “As you know, I will be teaching you history and geography. Now out of these, which one do you think I should be teaching you first?”

Mutely, we looked at the teacher who exasperatedly said, “Children, I’m not going to bite your head off for answering.”

“Though I will consider doing that if you decide not to pay attention,” she added, and our backs, which were relaxing, again stiffened up.

Raising a tentative hand, I said as the teacher nodded encouragingly, “History?”

“Oh?” She raised her eyebrows as she looked at me and asked, “Why did you select History, child?”

“Because before geography comes history.” I said, and as the teacher’s eyebrows slowly scrunched up, I hastily added, “I mean, if we didn’t know history, then we wouldn’t know what all those names and things in geography meant, right?”

Apprehensively, I looked at the teacher, who let out a long-suffering sigh as she said, “In a way, you are right. But you are also wrong, child.”

Walking over to the scroll, which I now realized was a gigantic map, she tapped on the bottom right corner of it and said, “Yamal.”

Then, tapping a larger area around Yamal, she said, “Merchari Empire.”

Then gesturing to the whole of the map, she said with her smile falling off her face, “Protos.”

Curiously, we looked at the map depicting the world we lived in and the teacher herself stared at the map along with us as though she was seeing it for the first time.

Breaking free from her trance, she turned to us with a wry smile and said, “Protos is the reason why I said you are right. If you don’t know the history of Protos, then you will fail to understand why we live in Protos and why these countries exist.”

Pausing, she glanced at the map before she continued, “As for why you were wrong, well... In other cases, it would be essential to learn Geography first and then study history to identify the roots of where the geographical locations came from.”

Puzzled, I nonetheless kept my questions to myself as the teacher fell silent before she asked while looking at her hands, “Who are we?”

Tentatively, a girl said, “Proteans?”

“What are we?” the teacher asked as she still stared at her hands.

Thinking, the girl said, “Humans?”

Looking up, the teacher held out her hands toward us as golden warforce congealed around them and she asked with a hint of hope, “Then who were we before?”

Repeating her words in confusion, we asked, “Who were we before? What do you mean, teacher?”

Shaking her head with a wry expression, the teacher said, “I do not know myself.”

Seeing our expressions, she said, “Long ago, I found a tome. The tome asked these very three questions.”

Answering our questions before we could ask them, she said, “There were no answers to them.”

With a faraway look, the portly teacher said, “Those questions sparked my desire to know more about the world that we live in. The circumstances behind our existence. And the foremost question on my mind was.... Why are we trapped in Protos?”

Stunned, we looked at the teacher, who chuckled as she looked back at us.

“We are indeed trapped, Children.” she said as she walked back to the map.

Tracing her hand over the edges of the landmass, she spoke. “The world we live in is called Protos. Nobody knows who gave it that name. Protos was initially one incredibly big and whole landmass.”

Looking back at us and then pointing to the massive middle sea that was in the center of the map, she said, “But, as you can see. That is no longer the case.”

Turning back to the map, she traced the waters surrounding Protos and stood there silently for a long moment before she said, “As for the reason that we are trapped in Protos? Do you see the water surrounding us?”

Nodding, we focused on the blue part of the map that completely surrounded Protos as the teacher said quietly, “That water is the reason that we are trapped on Protos.”

Turning to face us, the world teacher said, “The water that is 50 kms away from our coasts is safe to travel in, with the exception of the Hagarian coastline. The water that is further than 50 kms away? Impossible to cross.”

Raising his hand, a student asked simply, “Why?”

With frustration in her voice, the teacher said, “No one knows. Our ship’s hulls rot away at a speed that is visible to our eyes when the water touches them. No matter how thick you make the ships, or what material you use… the result is always the same.”

“Has there been no person who has ever passed by this… this boundary?” I asked.

Shaking her head, the world teacher sadly replied, “None.”

Another student raised his hand and asked, “Teacher, you said that the water is safe to travel for up to 50 kms, yes? How does that work?”

Scowling now, the teacher threw up her hands as she said, “No one knows. Some say it’s based on the last piece of land that the boundary of 50 kms extends from. Others say that the 50kms is nought but a flight of fantasy and that to test it, is to brave the wyrm sea.”

“Wyrm sea?” we asked.

“The wyrm sea, or the sea of death as it was called,” the teacher said as she slowly shook her head.

She was about to speak when another student, who was thinking hard, blurted out, “Wait, teacher… You said that the coastline is unsafe for the Hagarians?”

Pausing, the teacher nodded as she said, “The Hagarians were unlucky…. for their part of Protos is surrounded by tall mountains that prevent access to the coast in the northern part. And to the east is the Wyrm whorl into which every ship that strays beyond a certain unknown point is pulled into.”

Mentally noting the name as it sounded quite ominous, I turned my attention back to the teacher, who grimly said, “Never. Ever. Get. Close. To. The. Wyrm. Whorl.”

As we nodded fervently, the world teacher clapped her hands as she said, “Now that you have a basic idea of the Geography of Protos, let us start with the true beginning of Protos. Or the beginning that we know of.”

Still smiling, she said, “And so the real lesson begins!”