Not Gonna Die (A Skybrine Fanfic)

|Chapter 22| Hard request

          Thankfully, the damage caused by Adam was minimal and so when a messenger arrived at the base barely two days later, most of the damage had been repaired. The messenger wore a tunic emblazoned with a deep blue stone surrounded by a pearl ring, with a sword at his waist and riding a tall brown horse. A day after that, the main group he had been ahead of arrived; a large number of warriors circled around a central group riding on war horses, swords at their backs. Each warrior had the same pattern on their tunics as the messenger. The central group had no markings but instead had a steely gaze and a confident aura that suggested they were used to being obeyed.

          "That's the delegation," Jason muttered unnecessarily to his fellow Generals as they walked in a formal line towards the group of warriors waiting calmly just inside the base. "They're in an    alliance with each other but although we've communicated, they've never actually met us before."

          "So don't be embarrassing, be polite and for goodness sakes, Mitch and Jerome, don't challenge any of them to a sword fight," Mitch quoted perfectly. "Relax Jason, we're not going to stuff this up."

          Adam was not as positive. If anyone was going to stuff this up, it was him. Seto was still recovering from their battle; he winced every time he went up stairs and he had often gone to bed early, still recovering his energy. He hadn't said anything, but that didn't make Adam feel any less guilty.

          The group dismounted at Jason's request and they moved forward to shake each of the Generals' hands. The first man who shook hands had long hair which hung close to his face and reached his shoulders. The fact that he was slightly taller than average meant that it didn't look too bad on him, and he wore a grey jumper and shoes and black pants. He introduced himself as Gizzy and his smile came and went quickly. Obviously, he was a very serious man. The second looked ready for a fight. He wore small plates of armour over his black long-sleeved shirt and pants that probably gave him the ability to move with ease. He had a full-face helmet with some sort of blue plastic over the eye holes hung on a hook on his horse's saddle. Without the helmet, his short black hair and brown eyes could be seen and he introduced himself as Patrick.

          The final two men confirmed the idea that no one in this alliance looked anything like the others. David was blue: blue pants, blue shirt, blue socks, blue shoes, even his jumper was blue but the edges of the hood were strangely red. Despite this, he had windswept blond hair, a constant cocky smile and spoke with a funny accent that none of them could quite place. Thankfully, his skin was a normal pale colour.

          The last man, Dan, looked as if he had come the wrong way of a blowtorch on more than one occasion. His brown hair was randomly scorched and of uneven lengths and his hands were rough and callous. He looked like the kind of guy who was normally covered in grease and dirt but had made an effort to clean himself up for the meeting. His black jumper and blue pants had yellow patches on the elbows and knees from where they had been repaired.

          All in all, they seemed like mostly down-to-earth people. Their guard consisted of 100 warriors which wasn't as much of an overkill as you realise, as there was still the danger of being attacked by thieves, angry lords or wild animals. It didn't take very long to get them settled and the lords were led to the castle for lunch and a general chat before the actual discussions took place the next day.

          "Man, this is what I needed," Patrick groaned, leaning back in his chair with a steaming mug of coffee in his hand.

          "Patrick, it's rude to swing," Gizzy reprimanded and Patrick instantly put all four feet of his chair on the ground.

          "Oh don't worry, this guy does it all the time," Jason said, jerking a thumb in Mitch's direction.

          "I'm putting all of my effort into not doing it right now," Mitch agreed. "You have no idea how hard I'm concentrating."