Strings attached

1. the overnight alliance.

Being a guard isn't always bad. What's bad is being lectured at the beginning of the morning." Tie your boots, what kind of person can't tie his boots?!" or "stop being impatient, impatient people end out dead". Being constantly yelled at by generals isn't always because they want to be assholes.Most of the time they are trying to look out for you or just want you to stop being an idiot.
So before the general came into our dormitories telling us to wake up, we got up and got ready for the day. By the time we made it to the training room, you could tell something was wrong.there was no lecture about us being 3 minutes late. Our general was standing in his usual spot, but instead of his normal confident grin, his face looked dull.
We have been standing, all ready for morning warm-ups. So why wasn't he even giving us the sign to start? At last, finally, a nearby guard grew some guts and called out to the General.
"Sir, we are prepared for our warms-ups." The guard said, his voice loud and clear. At last our general looked up and spoke, his voice sounds normal, loud, clear, and confident. Wait- no there was no confidence in his voice.
"Gentlemen, I have interesting news for all of you today." We all stood there waiting for him to continue. "Today, I have been informed that the sun kingdom and our kingdom have allied." As soon as the words slipped out of the general mouth, the room went completely quiet.
An alliance? Why haven't we been told about this earlier?
How could this alliance happen without any of us knowing, it was only a few days ago that we got an attack by sun soldiers.
How could an alliance be formed overnight?
We all looked at each other, waiting for further explanation if there was any.
"I think I'll take it from here," a new voice said. We all looked toward the back of the area.
We stiffen at the sight of the sun kingdom ruler and his advisers. some of us take a step back only to nearly fall over someone else. I wasn't the only one who grabbed on to where my sword would normally be.
Guards started to run towards the weapon room, looking for a sword or something to attack with. Everyone was at shambles, trying to find some sort of weapon. Even I grabbed onto a sword I found.

Only when a purple dressed skeleton raised his hand to request silence did everyone freeze.

The Moon king was here.

Nightmare himself. someone who didn't often show himself in public unless it was absolutely needed. I haven't ever seen him walking in the hallways of his own castle in all the years I worked here.

Was this alliance actually a real deal?

"Please remember to be as polite as possible with our guests." He said, almost in whisper, but It was somehow heard loud and clear throughout the room.
"Well, I would prefer that they lose the weapons rather than them being polite."
The person who spoke was a somewhat short skeleton wearing a blue scarf. If you were lucky, you would never have to face him on the battlefield.
He made an effort to walk in front of the room but the guards in front of him didn't budge. The skeleton gave a look to the general, expecting him to say something.
Our general gave a cold look, filled with both hatred and unsureness. "It's alright. There is nothing to worry about '' the sound of Nightmare voice seems to relax the guards and the general. It was odd to hear so much of him. I don't think I ever heard his voice before this.
"Men, move, give this man some space to walk through." He said.
The general gave one last glare before leaving his spot and going to the sideline. It was a place covered by shadow, making it hard to see what expression he was wearing.
We made way for the blue scarf Skelton, making sure that there was enough space between him and us. Fearing that somehow he would somehow touch us.. When he reached the spot that our general was on not so long ago he began to talk.
" Good morning, I am hoping we haven't ruined it. Am sure that the news of this alliance probably shocked many of you. Some of you are probably wondering why you haven't heard of it Until now. And the reason why is that we were trying to ease the tension. The alliance has been in work for almost a month. And we have been breaking the news to small groups of guards for the last couple of weeks."
"What?", "why?" Were a few questions that were flowing in Whispers within the crowd. "Shut up, as I was saying, we were telling small groups of soldiers about this alliance as a way to ease the tension. You are the last group that we had to break the news to. Of Course, we did not drag you all the way here to just say that.'' The blue scarf Skelton took a pause, either to give a dramatic effect or to look scarier. Either way, it worked.
" This alliance is something that we hope will last. We understand that tension between our kingdom and our people is high. In order to make you more comfortable with us, we have decided to randomly select soldiers who will be transferred to the opposite kingdom. Don't worry it won't only be the guards but also chefs, scribes, servants"
As if we cared about the chefs or scribes or servants.
You could feel the tension. Some of us were to be transferred to the sun kingdom On such short notice. No this wasn't, couldn't be true.
The blue scarf skeleton smiled, but it didn't reassure any of us. "We start picking people from the crowd if you don't mind. ''A skeleton from the back said, his face having what seemed to be an ink mark.
We all moved instinctively away from him. Some people grabbed on to their swords tighter, ready to stab him if dared come close to them.
But something kept them from attacking him.
The gaze of someone who had become guards' worst nightmare in battle. He wasn't in a battle position. But that didn't matter, not when his swords were on his hips, waiting patiently to cut flesh.
The sun ruler was a strategist, a killer, a man who you don't want to face when you're in war.