It was strange; I usually don’t dream about such things. Yet there I was in some sort of cave, dimly lit by some outside source. My eyes wandered for a moment to take in my surroundings, which somehow included a frozen stream of water. Two things about that seemed bizarre to me; the fact that the stream wasn’t flowing and flooding into the rest of the cave, and the fact that where the stream was supposed to be touching the ground was instead touching what seemed to be a small box.

My first instinct was to run, of course, or to at least pinch myself until I wake up, but there were waves of power radiating from the small box and I took slow steps that I could hardly feel myself making, until I stood just before the box and took a better look at the scene.

The stream looked as if it was going to flow over the box and onto the rest of the cave, but it instead stilled and barely pressed itself against the surface of the small box, yet it wasn’t frozen like an icicle. When I looked down at the box, I realized that it was actually a velvet box that usually would hold expensive jewelry and I couldn’t help but furrow my eyebrows in confusion.

I came from a wealthy family, so I knew that water could destroy a velvet box that size. Also, it wasn’t cold and I couldn’t believe that the water froze on its own power. To confirm this, I stepped closer to the stream and I tried to push my fingers through the water like what was supposed to happen. I did just that, but when I pulled my hand back, the water still looked frozen and there were no drops of water on the fingers that should have been covered by it.

What was most puzzling to me, of course, was the velvet box and why it was still in what seemed to be perfect condition. It was radiating in power now that I was closer to it, that much was clear. There was something holding me back from reaching out to it, though, possibly because it was a dream and none of the contents were supposed to be real. The strangest urge to run away filled me again, but my eyes and my heart were focused on the velvet box, and I crouched down to look at it better.

There were intricate patterns lacing the surfaces of the velvet box, and what seemed to be the imprint of letters that I still couldn’t see too properly without being able to touch the actual object; but I wasn’t going to touch it. No, I refused to let myself touch it knowing it was still just a dream and that none of this was worth getting worked up over. That thing, however, was still pulsing with energy; almost as if pleading for me to grasp it in my hands, and I unknowingly did so.

…

Only to hit the snooze button on my alarm clock. I groaned as I was awakened and looked around the room to remember where I was. The dream wasn’t too vivid anymore, and I almost had to wonder if I were just making things up after all.

I must’ve, I realized, as I got up and readied myself for school. I was a high school senior and the stress from college preparations was just getting to my head, I told myself. Still, my gaze was out the window as if to search for that cave. My eyebrows furrowed again at my behavior, since I didn’t know why I was reacting in such a way- it was only a dream, after all.

Yet I made no move to stop looking for that cave as my gaze wandered over the town and past the forests to just where the gates stood, tall and intimidatingly white.

My parents were wealthy, and thus, we had a home in the middle of town; one that was actually several meters tall to support the watchtower several meters higher. It was a castle of sorts that I lived in, though I wasn’t the only one who lived in a home like this. There were four “castles” that were spread out among the city, castles that were our first and greatest warning in case they broke our walls down. Not like that was going to happen, though; as our walls had been enchanted by magic and were constantly being expanded and improved on.

Several decades ago, aliens had started arriving on our planet and taking over, doing whatever they wished to the people living on the planet before them; from them, to killing them, to torturing them, and also to eating them. To save themselves, the humans of that time had rallied up warlocks and witches, as well as the strongest giants and ogres they could find and had them come up with the idea for the walls surrounding our every side, as well as an enchanted glass screen covering our town; enchanted so that rain and sunlight could still pass through but nothing that can harm the lives of whoever was living in the town.

Everyone had been grateful for that back then; heck, everyone was still so grateful for all of it even after decades passed, but it didn’t change the fact that the aliens were out there and adapting in ways that startled us daily. Through psychic connections with other towns, we learned that the aliens were somehow able to now put on human attires and would walk into their towns, destroying it stealthily and in a way that made it impossible to stop.

Though we all feared that we would be the next town to become victim to the aliens’ harsh attacks, we hadn’t let the fear consumed us and schools were set up to teach us how to combat against those terrible creatures- not that we’d ever win should we go against them. Still, we were humans, and humans were both prideful and naïve.

My parents also had me enrolled in one of these special combat schools; should I ever find myself being attacked by an alien. I’d been enrolled since the age of five, when I started going to kindergarten, and my skills have been getting better as the years rolled by. My weapons of choice to fight those blasted things were dual pistols, and I was good enough to shoot from quite a distance away from the simulation aliens before they could attack me.

For some reason, though, I was always the last ranked out of the entire town and was constantly sneered at by it. No matter how good I became, it always felt like something important was missing and that was exactly why I had yet to reach my full potential. My classmates tended to glare at me as if to say that if an alien were to come around, I would be the bait.

I was used to this treatment, though it never made going through the day any better as I walked down into the kitchen. My parents were part of the team of guards protecting the town from the inside, so they were usually away from home to think of new ways to protect us; leaving me and the rest of the castle under the care of the care staff.

There were at least a couple of dozen people taking care of my home under my parents’ orders; including a guard that stayed in the watchtower almost always to make sure we weren’t ever under the threat of attack. I didn’t mind being with them too much- they were kind, caring, and actually spent time with me.

Of the entire staff, my favorite was Cook Park, who had also been my nanny since I was a toddler. She had been the one who scolded me when I got into a fight as a child, the one to give me advice when I was too shy to approach senior Lee Jinki in middle school, and the one who encouraged me of my accomplishments when my own parents just demanded more.

“Good morning!” I called to her, running my fingers through my long and curly black hair as I quickly sat at the island counter for breakfast.

“Heavens, child!” the elder lady scolded, her wrinkles pulling together as her hands rested on her hips in utter annoyance, “Fix yourself before you come into the kitchen, not when you have food in front of you! What a lack of manners!”

Despite her saying all of that, though, I knew she meant well and that I didn’t have to take her angry words to heart. With a sheepish grin, I started to shovel the mass of eggs and bacon presented before me into my mouth.

Cook Park wasn’t impressed with my eating habits, I knew, but she’d been used to it after watching me eat this way for the past eighteen years.

“Are mother and father home?” My words came in a jumble as I tried to speak around the food in my mouth.

“They had gone out to town hall half an hour ago.” Cook Park spoke as if it didn’t concern her, though I knew better, “You would have seen them had you woken up earlier like you were supposed to.

As I ate, I thought about the strange dream and what it could possibly have been telling me. I was raised with the knowledge that most dreams were given to us for reasons that we had to decipher on our own, but I didn't exactly understand the need for me to have such a strange dream like the one I had today. No one went out to the forests unless they were highly trained officers, so there was a high possibility that I could never even go near the caves because of my low ranking. Of course, ranking was decided by weapon performance during fighting simulations, and like I said; for some reason, my shots were never good enough for me to get any farther in training than I already was- but that's another explanation in itself.

I could hear Cook Park scolding me as I ate, but I was in a rush to get to the Academy and if I didn't eat quickly, it would just make me even later. However, when I checked the time, it showed that I was already nearing time for school to start; and with a hiss, I stood up.

"Don't behave so badly! You are a woman of stature!" Cook Park was nagging at me again, but I just leaned up and kissed her cheek before running out the front door.

"Sorry! I'll listen to your scolding later, promise!" I called to her as I ran out, and I knew that she wouldn't forget to bring it up later when I had no choice but to listen to her scolding.

The Academy sat in the middle of the town, surrounded by homes and then guarded by the castles, and then you know the rest. I debating on taking a warpboard* to the Academy, or even the Skyrail*, but I was probably too late for those as well, and eventually just sprinted the entire way to the Academy.

I had made it just before the bell rang, and as I threw my fists in the air with a relieved shout of, "YES!” I could just feel the judgmental looks I was receiving from the people around me. I wasn't bullied or anything, so get that out of your head; but everyone knew me as 'the one who couldn't excel', and most of them wondered why I still went to the Academy. I continued going to the Academy simply because I knew I could be the best combat specialist someday; I was just missing something, and I wanted to find out what it was.

Some of the upperclassmen gave sighed and shook their heads as I walked past them into my classroom, but the teacher in the room had also given me a disappointed glance that made me smile sheepishly right back to her. Our classroom was set up as a combat training room, with targets lined up on the walls and various chests of weapons scattered around the space. There were desks in the classrooms as well, for our normal lessons like History, Science, Math, and Writing- it wasn't all about destroying aliens... just mostly.

I wasn't only lagging behind in combat training, unfortunately. I had the odd habit of zoning out in all of my classes and then not studying for them, and always ended up with terrible grades for the rest of my classes. I knew today would be no exception and I sat down by the window to wait for our classes to go by.

Suddenly, as I was watching the window, I glanced over at my castle and could have sworn to see the guard tower flickering in movement. I didn’t think much of it at first and turned back to the teacher, but then, our biggest fears were realized.

The bells of the four castles were ringing.

Our barriers have been breached.

They were coming for us.

Warpboard- I think of them as floating skateboards that actually have like a gravitational pull that brought riders where they wanted to go.

Skyrail- I imagined this as like a train that is also pulled along and powered by gravity.

This is purely fictional and takes place in an alternate universe