Small Landen Village in Glacia, Late Summer (Thursday Fandom Time)

[glacial_queen]

A little more than a week ago, Karla had sent the vast majority of her Court away from Haven. One could hardly have a proper processional through one's home Territory without people smoothing the way. There were perspective soldiers to assemble, food to purchase, lodgings to prepare, Province Queens to quietly contact...And so Karla had sent her Court to prepare her way, possibly cackling, "Fly, my pretties, fly!" to herself because a girl has to make her own fun sometimes.

A few days later, a 'gift' from Khary and Morghann had come in the shape of a dozen beautiful Scelt-bred horses, led by four kindred Warlord horses. Those four stopped before Karla, Warren, Raven, and Dinah and bowed, giving each a respectful greeting from Lord Khardeen--though from Warren's rueful burst of laughter, it was likely that Khary had included a special message just for him.

The next morning at long-enough-after-dawn-for-coffee-because-we're-not-barbarians-Mother-Night-though-it's-still-a-ridiculous-time-to-leave o'clock, they headed out of Haven and made for Glacia. Though mountain traveling was never comfortable or easy, they made good time; they were too late for shockingly-fast summer storms and too early for the ferocious autumn ones. Though it snowed several times during their crossing, the snow itself was light and did not impede them much. With kindred horses leading the way, they didn't even need to worry about the horses finding proper footing or running the risk of broken ankles.

For a trip through mountains heading to war, it was surprisingly good natured. There was singing and story-telling, conversation and contemplation, bickering and bonding. They made good time and Karla was almost sorry to leave the mountains behind. Because the easy part of the summer was over. Now it was time to get down to work.

The first village they rode into had a surprise for them. There was Julian greeting them on the outskirts of the village wearing an insouciant grin. "My lady," he said with an exaggerated bow. "May I have the honor of giving you a present to celebrate the formation of your Court?"

Karla raised an eyebrow. "I do like presents," she agreed, confused but willing to play along. "Is it my uncle's head on a platter?"

Smirking, Julian shook his head. "No, but possibly better." He led her horse through the village to the open green at the center of it. Though very little of the green could be seen through the mass of men and women standing at strict attention, lined up in orderly, if somewhat ragged lines. "Lady," Julian said, with a bow, "may I present the beginnings of your army."

[For the Glacian contingent! NFB]

Comments

[furnaceface]

So, the trip here had been fairly uneventful. It had taken a bit of coaxing (read: arguing) to get Jono to actually mount one of the horses, and he had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the one that he'd been stuck with for the trip, but he was actually in fairly good spirits by the time they got to where they were going.

He was taking up the rear of the little procession, having another one of his little disagreements with Lord Blaze, the horse that he'd been paired with for the trip, so he didn't see the lines at first. And, by the time he'd dismounted, led the kindred horse to the front to join the others, and actually got a look at the men and women assembled...

"Bloody hell..."

Okay, so now he was okay with leaning against the horse. He kind of needed to, since his knees were a little weaker than they ought to be.

"Where are all these people from?!"

[glacial-court.livejournal.com]

"Glacia," Julian responded, because he was incredibly helpful like that.

It helped that he'd had almost a week to get used to the crowd himself. You should have seen his face then, Jono.

[furnaceface]

"Fantastic," Jono replied, looking... perhaps a little more gry-faced than usual as he looked at the crowd. "And... how many did you say there were?"

Far more than he'd been expecting, that was for certain.

[glacial-court.livejournal.com]

"About a hundred," Julian said, clapping Jono on the shoulder with the cheerful grin of a male who is ever so happy to foist off his responsibility to someone else. "There would be more--this was everyone who could arrive here on short notice. At our next stop, the crowd'll be bigger, I think. Landen and Blood alike."

Julian was having way too much fun with this.

[furnaceface]

Well, Julian was an ass.

"And Blood?" Jono opened his mouth to protest that for a half-second, promptly shut it again, and then paced a little. Blood... he could deal with, actually. Training people with powers was something he had experience with, as well. But the numbers...

"How much bigger do you think it'll be?"

[glacial-court.livejournal.com]

"There are roughly a million people in Glacia," Julian said, growing serious. "And for every two of us, there are three of them, so...almost six hundred thousand landens and four hundred thousand Blood. If, say, a tenth of the landens show up and a twentieth of the Blood do..."

He let Jono do the math in his head.

[furnaceface]

Sorry, Blaze. Jono was going to have to lean against you again.

"Bloody hell. How'm I supposed to train that many in the time we have?"

A beat.

"Where'll we keep them all?"

[glacial-court.livejournal.com]

"That is indeed a question you'll have to figure out, sirrah," Julian said, back to grinning. "Lucky you, volunteering to head up this mission."

[glacial_queen]

"Ahh, there you are, my dear Master of the Guard," Karla said, her expression serene and giving no hint of whether she'd heard that last dig or not. "I'm impressed with these numbers."

[glacial-court.livejournal.com]

"I wish I could take the credit for it, Lady," Julian said, giving her a nod. "By the time I got here, there were already thirty people waiting. All I did was take names and figure out where to bunk them while they waited."

The number of landens waiting for them probably more than equaled the number of villagers in town.

[glacial_queen]

"I think it's safe to say that the number of people we'll attract will continue to grow steadily, at least in the north," Karla mused. "Add in the possibility of Blood, I think he's going to need some help. Jono, what do you think?"

[furnaceface]

"I think that much is a given," Jono sighed, glancing Karla's way. "I suppose I'm going to have to find somebody who knows what he's doing around here, and then delegate."

A beat.

"Hm. I wonder where I'll find somebody competent enough to handle a squadron of untrained civilians around here."

Where might they find one among this lot? It was a mystery to Jon!

[glacial-court.livejournal.com]

It took Julian a second more to figure out who they meant. "Oh, no--" he started. "Don't think that--"

[glacial_queen]

"Someone like my Master of the Guard!" Karla spoke right over Julian with an obviously fake eureka moment. She turned to give Julian a dazzling smile. "The exact male who is supposed to oversee the training of my guards anyway!"

[furnaceface]

"Lucky you," Jono added, smirking just slightly, "accepting a position as Master of the Guard."

Turnabout was fair play, Julian.

[glacial-court.livejournal.com]

"The most important of my duties is keeping you safe!" Julian snapped. "Not staying behind and teaching a bunch of reindeer herders to fight!"

[glacial_queen]

"These reindeer herders might be what wins us this war, jackass!" Karla snapped back. "The best way for you to keep me safe is by helping Jono make sure the army we're fielding is as well-trained at possible!"

[furnaceface]

"Besides," Jono said, simply, "you said yourself that there would be Blood gathering as well. And, while I'm perfectly comfortable working with people who have powers, my knowledge of Protocol is... lacking. Until right this moment, I didn't need any."

Yes, Julian. That was Jono actually saying that he needed help. Savour that.

"We're about to step into a war, and you're preening because you think your position means you get to pass off th'difficult job on somebody else? Impressive, mate. Good show."

[glacial-court.livejournal.com]

That look right there? Julian was calling you a dick, Jono. In his mind. You are a dick.

"Dammit, I--"

[glacial_queen]

"--Recognize your duty and are going to accede to this assignment with grace," Karla interrupted smoothly. "Why, thank you, Lord Hagen. I'm glad you're willing to be an exemplar of the kind of male I wish to have serve in my Court."

She gave him a cheerful smile and then skipped off without a backwards glance.

You had your marching orders, sir.

[furnaceface]

Jono wasn't smirking. Honest. That was a trick of the light playing on his stupid lips.

"So. We had best get to work figuring out how many people here actually know how to swing a weapon, hm?"