I wake with a start.

That long moment of confusion when one abruptly wakes passes, and I realize with dread... “All-seeing Oracle! I am late!?”

I scramble from the bed and glance at the sand clock. The top chamber is empty, and the clock hasn’t been flipped. Of course...

“Gods damn you, Clytus!”

I quickly pour some water into the basin and splash my face as I curse my useless bunkmate. He was supposed to wake me two hours before my watch. I quickly dress and grab my spear, chewing quickly on a bite of apple.

Running out of the dormitory, I look up ... in vain. Of course I can’t see the sun. The gigantic, looming walls of Therass block out the sun for the barracks and dormitories, which reside just next to it. All I can tell is that it’s past noon, and my watch was supposed to start two hours after the sun passes its highest point in the sky...

“The Old Man is gonna have my balls...” I mutter as I dash towards the stairs that lead to the wall. I see no one I could ask about time. I just hope I am not catastrophically late. The Old Man, as we call the Watch Commander, is fair, but stern. He can’t afford not to be, considering the looming danger.

Sweat pours out of me, and my lungs burn, as I finally reach the top of the wall. I am in excellent physical form, but the wall is impossibly high. Anything less and Therass, the great city, would cease to exist, burned to the ground by the creatures from the demon plane.

Completely out of breath, I finally spot the sun, and I freeze, anger and relief flooding me.

“Gods damn you, Clytus!”

I am not late to my watch. I am at least half an hour early, maybe more, judging by the sun. Taking several moments to catch my breath, I decide not to go back down. I would hate to make this climb again today. Instead, I walk to my designated post, my eyes scanning the horizon. No matter how many times I have kept watch here, the view always takes my breath away. The world truly feels like it belongs to me, looking from this high up.

As I reach my post, I see a guard rise from the chair to challenge me. He has been using the farsee, it seems. Ah ... she, not he.

“You are early...” she says, recognizing my guard uniform.

I take a moment to assess her before replying. She could be a dozen years older than my twenty, but she is lean and fit, and by the All-seeing Oracle, she has curves in all the right places ... She smirks as she notices my eyes lingering on her form.