Friday, January 2nd.

Out first real class is about to begin. It's a history lesson, shared between all three classes.

Sarah is sitting with some friends she met yesterday. I'm glad she seems to have cheered up a bit and talked to the people in her class. I'm sitting by myself, with quite a few empty chairs around me..

Sigh..

All of a sudden all of the students quiet down. At the front of the auditorium, Shawn steps through a door onto the stage.

``Greetings children. You may remember my face from yesterday's ceremony. You may even remember my name, and title. Regardless, I am to repeat them.'' [Shawn]

He says with a loud, clear voice, as he goes to stand behind the desk.

``I am your headmaster, Twinpeak Shawn. I am here to teach you the history of our world. Today we start with a quick overview of the entirety of history, and next week you will start going into depth with each era and epoch.'' [Shawn]

``Now, as some of your parents may have told you, our history starts at the hands of the Preceptors. Mighty Kin, clad in white robes. Theirs is a history long and proud, but unfortunately lost to us. All we know is that they came in mighty ships, and that they were exceptionally skilled in magic. As well as everything they attempted. They created us in their image, to be their faithful and beloved servants, and so greatly cared for our ancestors. And so begins our history, with the age of creation.'' [Shawn]

He paces back and forth in front of the blackboard. The students all seem to hang on his every word.

``Of the Preceptors, one in particular stands out among them. Their leader, a birdkin known to us only as The Shaper. He was known to walk among our ancestors, treating them as equals and teaching them many things. By his hands and command, we were taught language, arts, crafts and magic.'' [Shawn]

He takes a stance behind the desk.

``Then came the Firefall. In the death of night, giant stars fell from the heavens, raining down upon the lands, a sea of fire spreading across the world.'' [Shawn]

He pauses. Staring down into his desk.

``The Preceptors invoked a mighty spell, calling on the powers of the Mother of Water herself to protect us. The Shaper spoke in a great trembling voice to our forefathers, guaranteeing them that they were safe, and that no fire would reach them. For forty days and nights, fire continued to rain down from the heavens. On the forty first day, the spell was lifted, and the world was revealed to us. Most of the world was burned, but the large pastures kept safe by the Preceptors had survived, and through them life spread again to the world. And so we all wear our colored robes, in honor of the Preceptors that breathed life to us. Some say they still protect us, hidden by their powerful magic. But no Preceptor has been seen since, in the almost thousand years since the Firefall.'' [Shawn]

He pauses, again, looking out across the assembled children, each of them holding their breath.

``We had survived. But the Preceptors had not. In their final hour,they had protected us.

And so, with the Firefall, ends the age of creation, and we enter the age of Starfall. For centuries to come, fire would still fall from the skies, heralding the death of the Preceptors. This was a hard age, and many suffered greatly.'' [Shawn]

He pauses slightly.

``But through their sacrifice, and the divine protection of the three spirits, we persevered. And after two hundred years of starfall begins the Age of Restoration. In this age, we laid the foundation of the Nine Great Cities, including this very city. We build walls around the cities to keep out the monsters that roam the world, and so we made sanctuaries for ourselves.'' [Shawn]

He stares gently into the audience.

``And in our sanctuaries we lived, for three hundred years, before we ventured forth to reclaim the land given to us by the Preceptors. This was the age of expansion. It was in this age that the King of Bightkeep founded the Twin orders, The Sword and The Shield. At the height of his reign, he personally led a large force to fight a rogue Behemoth that was roaming the Blue Sea, attacking outposts and villages alike. His army was victorious, but he was felled during the fight.'' [Shawn]

He says bitterly, clenching his hand into a fist.

``The age of expansion ended a hundred and twenty years ago, when Kin and Kith settled the northern and southern tips of the world, stretching all the way across the eastern shore. Currently, we are in the Age of Peace, we have expanded as far as we need to, and occasionally we even spread further inland, towards the Great Peaks and the Dead Wastes beyond them.'' [Shawn]

He tells us before taking a deep breath.

``This is our story, my children. And it is your very first class because it must be. Because we must remember the Preceptors, our ancestors, and the many sacrifices that lead us to this Age of Peace. Next week, this class will be handled by another teacher, Grassfeather Meredith. You are excused children, now try to exit in an orderly fashion.'' [Shawn]

In an instant the rooms fills with noise as the students starts yapping and pushing past each other to get out, in a hurry to get back to the dorms to play with their new classmates. I already told Sarah that it's fine if she follows her friends back to the Earth dorms. I have a lot of work in front of me. I need to do the shopping because we are low on food, the house needs to be cleaned, I need to prepare dinner, and I need to get crystals so I can make some samples that I can show the different vendors around town.