A loud bustle started from beyond the thin slit-like windows. The sounds of a largish group of men shouting to each other as they departed for their place of work, some to the stables, others to the smithy, and others to the fields that the order farmed itself.

But today the bustle lasted longer than normal, from odd snatches of conversation which came up into the room I could hear them talking about what happened in the temple this morning.

The strange feeling of the wave of mana washed over me in reverse.

That formidable giant mountain of a man was gasping for breath, resting one of his clenched fists on his knee. His ruddy face seemed redder than normal. Beneath him, the chair he was sitting on, despite being a standard adult sized one seemed much too small for his immense frame. The chair creaked as if it was begging for him to get off it.

'Self taught, I am. No good, really.' He forced out between gasps of breath. 'Find you, better teacher, I will.'

There was not much I could do so I continued to just stand there, with Alis still clinging to my side. I felt slightly ill at ease beliving what I knew about her. A short while ago she had looked up at me with her pretty freckled face and whispered something.

I might not have known how to lip read but the tender and love struck face looking up at me reminded me of first crushes.

Not that I had any back on Earth, nor here, but I had seen how my sister and her friends looked at, and talked about, boys and boy bands.

Still I felt bad that such a giant of a man, in really in stature, but in hireachy of the order had to come all this way to just get me out of trouble. If I was better then I would be able to have solved the issues by my self.

'Knock that off lad,' Hallvard said, 'its a bad habit, and one which will get you dead.'

'Sir?' I said, only half coming to attention as Alis was still clinging to me.

'Companions are important, and so are the bonds which tie us together.' Hallvard leant back, causing the chair to creak alarming under his immense weight. All of which looked like to be muscle and armour. 'We will be departing here soon and heading to the Isles of Dunkeltal.'

This was the second time he mentioned the place, but none of the training I recieved, nor did any of the limited books in the library mention the place. The only places talked about in the books were to do with the heart land of the faith of Aggard and where she rose to fame in these lands.

'Klarric,' Alis said softly by my side, 'the Isles of Dunkeltal are lands which were once full of life and home to a great empire. However there was an invasion of beings from beyond the horizon. By the time the conflict had ended the large land mass which had housed the empire had been smashed from the heartland of an empire to a fragmented sea of isles, reefs, and the shattered remains of cities beyond anything we have here.'

There was a slight eagerness in the way Alis talked about the Isles. What was so special about them that even Alis was enthralled with them.

'The tales of adventure and of heroes fighting against the dark monsters and corrupted humans certainly do their job well.' The mountain of a man grumbled, his voice rumbling somewhat like I expected a landslide would.

'Every year too many guilliable fools come to the Isles to make a name for themselves, to strike it rich in the ruins, or by hunting monsters. Most never even make it to the Isles proper. Those who do make it, most of those either die or get corrupted soon after.

'Even after six hundred years not all of the Isles are mapped out. Only a thin outer shell have been mapped to any degree of accuracy. The problem is that after the empire had been destroyed the beings did not depart, instead they settled the fractured remains of the land.'

It sounded so much like the background plot from a fantasy game that I was surprised I ended up in such a world. But these past six years of living in this land had truly happened and I had made some friends, chief amongst them was Alis. And I had also formed a somewhat strange relationship with the goddess Aggard.

'Why are you stationed there then, Hallvard?' I asked.

'I was sent out there because I made enemies of the fools in the Central Temple,' he said fixing me with a stare. As he moved the chair creaked even more alarmingly than before. 'But they failed to take note that I was born amongst those isles and that what was meant to be a sentance of death gave me my own unusailable power base.' He chuckled. 'Now most of those fools are dead and I'm still around, stronger and more powerful than they ever were.'

Thinking back to his story, what happened to me and Alis earlier, and the way I was constantly ignored during my lectures when I wanted to ask questions and go further I started to see the truth in his words that I needed companions and that I could not go it alone.

Hallvard tugged on his wild and scraggly black beard. 'Come on, we'll depart here now. We'll travel to a sister fort for supplies and then start with the long journey to the Isles. It should take us about two months.'

'Two months?' I said in surprise, 'but it took you only two weeks to get here.'

'Aye it did, lad, and it nigh on killed me. Beyond that there is also the fact that I need to teach you the basic skills to survive on the isles,' seeing that I was about to argue with him he shot me another glance. 'And the skills you need are not what you've been taught at this fort. That is why, until now, I have refused to take any squires.'

He gave the two of us a fierce look with a half smile, 'I wonder how long it will be until I have to bury you two in a shallow grave?'

Alis clutched at my arm, burying her face into it once more.

I could not tear myself away from his ice cold stoney grey eyes and the promise of danger they held.