"Greetings Cato Payne, Welcome to the Kingdom of Vraven."
I stood in the middle of a field, the tall grass blowing across my legs. A young woman stood before me. Her silver hair flowed with the long grass. She wore a large green cloak. In the distance, there were what looked to be stone walls standing as high as buildings. "Where are we?" I asked.
"We are on the outer boundaries of the kingdom of Vraven." She spoke with a soft elegance, her every word sticking to my mind. "You are the first to arrive," she says.
"The first of who?"
"All in good time," she says.
"How did it get here?"
"You are here because your life has been troubling; you could say that you brought yourself here. We all live our lives. Are you living yours?" She slowly walked towards me.
"What does that mean?"
She stood arms reach in front of me, "It means that you are not utilizing your full potential," she placed her hand on my chest, "Is there something holding you back?"
I grabbed her arm with lightning speed and pulled it away from me, "Do NOT touch me."
"Listen to me, Mr. Payne, I am in need of your assistance. You have been assigned the role of 'assassin' due to your physical and mental capacity. It just so happens that those skills would help me a great deal at the moment," she pulled her arm away from my grip, "Now I shall explain to you in detail exactly what you will be doing here."
"Hold on a second, why would I want to help you?" I ask.
"I know you will help me Cato; I know what kind of person you are and I know what you are capable of," she glanced down at my chest.
"How would you know anything about me? I've never met you in my life." I place my hand over my scars reassuringly.
She grinned, "Four... four people. Shall I remind you what that number represents?"
"I-... I have no idea what you're talking about," How could she have known? There were only a few people in the world who knew; did they tell her? But why would they?
"Please follow me, Cato," She walked past me and I turned to see a small cottage on the edge of a vast forest.
I followed her into the cottage cautiously. I Stepped through the door and watched her sit down next to an old wood table. Sprawled out on the table were a variety of weaponry and clothing. The clothes and weapons we're jet black.
"What is this?" I ask.
"This is for you to use during your... missions," she answered.
I reached down and picked up a dagger that had a long black blade. Its blade was straight with both sides sharpened. There were also dual shortswords. I picked them up and notices that the hilt of the swords had engravings that read 'L.W.'.
"I'm not well trained in swords you know," I say.
"That isn't a problem. The basic skills that you need come with the assassin class. So there is no need for you to train unless you want to further improve those skills."
"What do you want me to do?" I ask.
"I want you to kill the King of Vraven and his sons," she says with a steady face.
"That is quite the task. I'm going to need compensation."
"Of course. After the King is dead I will have access to his vast riches; so you will be rewarded." she replies. "Everything you need is here," she reaches down and picks up a bow, "This bow is able to fatally hit someone from 200 hundred yards and just in case there are poison-tipped arrows as well. Those two swords were crafted by the greatest blacksmith that this kingdom has ever seen. In fact, many of the weapons here were created by him. I have also included maps of the kingdom as well as a map of the royal palace. These were not easy to get so, please do not misplace them."
"I understand. But you still have not explained exactly how I got here," I implore.
"If you must know," she begins, "This world has been connected to yours through dreams. When you close your eyes and sleep. You will find yourself here every night from now on. Also-"
I was suddenly back in the library.
"Excuse me, no sleeping during detention, please," said an old lady peering through her glasses.
"Oh, sorry."
I tried to make out what I had experienced earlier. Was it real? Was it just a dream? Well... I guess I'll know tonight.