In Defense of Queenhaven Part 1
It's an unseasonably hot night in late summer when the dragon sirens go off in Queenhaven.
With autumn already peeking its nose around the corner and only two weeks left until the beginning of term at the Queen Ahnarr University, it's likely the last stretch of nice weather for the season and people had been taking full advantage of it until well into the night. But even the rowdiest of revellers have long since stumbled their way home by the time the shrill warning sirens pierce the air.
Rowan jerks awake with a start, his heart jackhammering in his chest as he waits to see what level of threat they're looking at. He's had a long, exhausting few days and right now he'd give anything for it to be a level 1 or 2 alert so that he can turn over and go back to sleep, secure in the knowledge that the griffin riders will have the incident under control before long.
A few seconds later though, all thoughts of sleep vanish as the tone of the sirens change, and he hears a sound he's only ever heard once before in his life. He'd been 5 years old then, sitting in a schoolroom with a gaggle of other boys his age as their teacher played the different warning sirens for them and explained what each of them meant.
Level 10, she had explained, meant that one of the Ancients had been provoked - those millenia old behemoths were, as a general rule, extremely reclusive and slow to anger. There were so few of them remaining these days, and they preferred to spend their time sleeping in their caves deep underground, waking only once every few decades to hunt. When something did manage to anger them though, the end result was almost always a bloodbath.
Now, as Rowan's worst childhood nightmares come to fruition, he stubbornly swallows down his fear and leaps out of bed, already reaching for his work robes.
What is Rowan's job?
A barrier warden - responsible for the magical barriers that protect the city
RA at the Queen Ahnarr University - in charge of the newly moved-in 1st years
An adventurer - in town with his party between quests
