Highfield Academy - Revenge of The Crows

Queen Shellback awoke one morning to see a tiny spider on her bed, her first reaction was one of bewilderment as her bed chambers were spell bound and protected, yet there before her quietly sat the small spider like creature.

As she gained her thoughts, the queen realised it was not a spider but a Dryad, and her eyes widened as in her mind it started communicating with her. Gently extending a hand forward the baby Dryad crawled onto it and merged itself into her skin until it was completely invisible.

As the Queen got up and prepared herself for the upcoming day, quietly the Dryad communed with her and explained why it was there.

Kelton was up, dressed, and ready for his morning training, he had already had breakfast and was so focused on reaching his goals, that he was driven with a desire to become the best warrior magician ever, and to one day bring to justice those who had betrayed his trust and brought pain to his queen.

Lord Belliteron had sought many times to re-enter Queen Shellbacks kingdom and capture the boy, only he found the powers united against him prevented this, and he raged in anger in having his efforts thwarted.

It was only a short time later that Lord Belliteron received intelligence that there were other students at Highfield Academy who would possibly be a suitable candidate for such an apprenticeship.

And on reviewing the intelligence before him his eyes widened to learn that there were a group of second-year student’s, nine in total, and who held great promise as wizards, and if captured could become potential student apprentices in his kingdom.

Immediately Lord Belliteron called his advisors and between them they set into play a series of events to draw out the students and remove them from the protection of Highfield Academy.

Word reached Merlin of the communication with Queen Shellback and he in turn set into place actions to bring peace and rescue Kelton and bring him safely home.

It was a cold rainy April morning when the second-year Rang team were to play a match with a rival school’s team. Months of training had gone into preparing for this match as great honours were at stake, and the opposing team was from Romania, and one of only five other magical schools.

Only the Romanian team was formidable, and in every final for the last thousand plus years their school had never once lost a single match from second-year to fifth-year students, all excelled in Rang and were undefeated.

Lord Belliteron knew this was his only opportunity of ever reaching the students, as they left the protection of Highfield Academy and went to Romania. However, even then, security was extremely high and Lord Belliteron knew it was not going to be easy.

However, he had planned for such an occasion, and had his agents set across the world who could help him bring his plans into play. Realising that agents needed to be in place long before the security was set up and that it was vital that all was in place to bring this about.

Vlad Academy of Magical Arts was as old as Highfield Academy, and King Thalaba was the patron of the school, also king Thalaba had Thelmaric, and Tess-Arman, his two Witch advisors, oversee the school’s security and who also both taught defence of magical arts to the students.

Such was the quality of their teaching skills; it was in part the reason the school remained undefeated in Rang. Also, Romania held a particularly high percentage of highly gifted Fay students. And this only went to reinforce the school’s standing.

Joshua and his team were very aware of this reputation and even with all the angelic training they were uncertain if they held the skill in defeating such a formidable team.

Their team captain Sandu, stood at only 4ft 9inches yet she was a formidable warrior as her name signifies, she was a defender of mankind. At such a young age, Sandu held within her the bloodline of hundreds of generations as did almost all the students in Vlad Academy, and it was a strange anomaly of the Romanian Fay.

Been somewhat of a rebel, Sandu ignored convention and dressed in heavy Goth clothing, her hair was purple and spiked, and she only could get away with this because she aced every lesson A+ across the board. As such her extrinsic behaviour was overlooked or tolerated.

Incredibly this relaxing of protocol, allowed students to draw upon memories from relatives hundreds of years past, and enabled them to adapt and learn quickly, refining reflex skills and in knowing spells and Rang defence and attack methods for students at level-five and above. It was no wonder they remained undefeated and the advantage it gave them was thought by many to be unfair.

However, their argument was simple, as it was well known that all Fay held the ability to draw on ancestral memories, it was more a lost art and one which had become ignored, especially by the mixing of Fay and Human bloodlines.

In large over 98% of the Romanian students were from a pure unadulterated blood line and they maintained it was wrong to penalise them because of factors outside their control and that also, it was known selected students at Highfield Academy drew on and used such memories.

As such it was universally agreed by the governing body of Rang that it was therefore wrong to penalise Vlad Academy simply because they could openly draw on blood memories when such was open to another Fay, and if they chose not to develop such skills, Vlad students could not be held accountable for the failings of another.

King Thalaba also encouraged his students to use whatever advantage available to them, and his teaching staff held the same mind set, as a result, for many generations the school was simply undefeatable, and its reputation proceeded them, instilling fear and doubt into any opposing team.

Miss Catherine and Miss Tianna were aware of the uphill battle before them and encouraged their students, telling them that with their skill set and angelic training, they had additional skills above that which was open and available to Vlad Academy students. Incredibly it was young master Tim who came up with a plan.

Each student had been gifted with a minimum of two Dryads, and these tiny spiders merged into their host and formed a mental as well as physical joining of minds. Tim explained that he held the blood memories of his father king Thalaba, and as such he could draw on thousands of years of a warrior king’s skills.

The realisation dawned on the team of second-year students and collectively they smiled as their confidence grew, knowing that the Dryads within them could relay such reflex mussel memories to one another quicker than a lightning strike. This realisation boosted their confidence and that combined with their angelic training, hopefully gave them an edge over their opponents

Admitting it was slim at best, yet it was better than moments earlier and something in which they could build upon. There were to be thousands of Fay present and the occasion was eagerly look upon as a festival of fun, prestige and great honour to who-so-ever won. As such security was a priority, and Lord Belliteron knew he needed to be ready to cause utter pandemonium and use this to his advantage.

And he had the dominions of all the Demoni to draw upon to bring his plans into play, knowing that many would lose their lives, yet to his mind set, if it obtained him his goal of obtaining two or more apprentices then it was worth the cost of a few hundred Demoni lives.

He also wanted to enforce his will upon the Fay and show them that with all their security and Fay wizard warriors, that he was better, and that he feared none of them.

As he sat back and quietly discussed his plans, he still regretted having come so close to winning the trust of master Kelton, only to lose him at the last few seconds and then to have been discovered by Queen Shellback in been responsible for the death of Captain Willham.

He had become over confident, and it had cost him, something he intended to never allow to happen a second time. Even if it cost the Demoni hundreds or thousands of lives, he wanted and intended to obtain his desired goal, and nothing was to stand in his way.

As the students at Highfield Academy gathered, they and their entourage of staff were transported to the Royal Courts, and from their they received a blessing from Queen La-Fay and additional Royal magicians to add to the security. It was simply a matter of opening a portal to exit and step into the grounds of the Romanian Vlad Academy.

As they did this a bubble of dimensional time enwrapped itself around the collective party and encased them less than one second in the future. Enabling the likes of Merlin and the Royal Wizards to see any danger awaiting them and to give them a momentarily advantage should a trap be awaiting their arrival.

As it was, all was in order and the group arrived safely with a delegation of Romanian dignitaries awaiting their arrival, and to take responsibility for their care and security while present in their land. Vlad Academy was huge and the exact opposite to Highfield Academy. Its history dated to before Vlad the Impaler, who became known as Dracula or Dracu for short.

The building was magnificent and build of stone with walls in places over seventeen feet thick and battlements towering some seventy feet in height and watch towers twice as high. The grounds inside the castle were some five hundred acres and hosting an array of additional buildings. All were set atop a mountain giving the castle an immense advantage against intruders and assisted in boasting their overall security.

Additionally, each stone block was spell bound and held in place by magical forces, creating a force field of energy against Elementals who could otherwise simply talk to the stone telling it to separate or fall apart and render the castles defences useless. Thousands of years of spells build upon each other created layers so thick that it was almost impossible to undo that of which had been created.

This went to reassure those responsible for the security of the school and those within. However, even then they were aware they must never become complacent as such a breach if it ever happened could destroy not only their reputation but endanger those within and that was unacceptable.

As such Romania had its highest wizards overseeing the security and ensuring nothing was overlooked.