[GIDEON]
"You guys look like shit," king Cassius said and they all groaned like it wasn't obvious. However, even in their weird states, Cassius knew their minds were alert. So he would ignore their groans and grunts and give them the papers.
He wished he could capture the moment, but the locals weren't allowed here, not to mention that the midlands had only one photographer, whose qualities were terrible, but they had to survive until they learned to capture memories differently.
"No shit, sherlock," Zelina whined, as she leaned her head on the conference table, making herself comfortable in the uncomfortable state she was in.
"Delbert, Grant, give them copies of this accord," king Cassius said to his trusted warriors who were up for the task. They were efficient and that was also why they were here in this room, with the leaders of the midlands.
The amount of trust their king had in them was the kind that could either save Acrod or lead them into war. But it was clear that whatever decision the warriors made, their king would be there beside them.
"Yes, your highness."
"You guys read through the accords. The contents are as we discussed yesterday. Anyone with objections can raise them so we fix the accords here and now," Cassius said and the midlands rulers looked at the scrolls in front of them.
The rulers looked ridiculous as they squinted their eyes to see what had been written on the scrolls as if the scrolls weren't big enough. They were dramatic pieces of shit, but they were the hope of their lands.
Cassius sat back, waiting to see what they would say, even though he wanted to laugh at them. He wondered how the fuck they ruled kingdoms when it was mid-morning and they were still sleepy. this was crazy.
However, Cassius understood them. They had been out in the night with the beast for a while, so their lack of sleep made sense. They needed rest before they could get back to their duties, and judging by their faces, they wanted to go back to their homes.
The midlands couldn't afford to lose more soldiers. The lycan beast didn't care about anything other than the children. So maybe if they got the children out of the equation, they wouldn't have to deal with the crude beast again.
They would get the peace they so yearned for desperately.
"It looks good to me," Zelina said, having looked at the scroll in front of her. She was amazed at how well Cassius had captured everything they had discussed. He truly was a good leader, but they all were anyway.
"Me too, I see it covers all we talked about, unless we are to add anything," King Eddy of Udrad added.
"Yup, not a complain from me, now can I please go back to sleep?" Ulrike whined, and Gideon just laughed at him. Ulrike was tired, he needed all the sleep he could get, after fighting with the beast of the midlands last night.
He had healed, but that didn't mean he wasn't sore. His old friend had landed some rough punches on him, of course sparing the face. maybe that was something Ulrike would thank him for if they ever met again.
At least he could still get laid with that beautiful face of his.
"You look like you spent your whole lifetime without sleep, but you look worse than yesterday," Gideon said with a light laugh, almost like he and Ulrike had been doing something else last night or even during the day.
In response, Ulrike just pouted and went back to sleep, on the table in the conference room.
Thre was something about Gideon's tone that made literally everyone in the room curious. None of them could quite get their finger on what it was, but if Ulrike had kept the conversation going, their suspicions would be confirmed.
Maybe Ulrike knew that, which is why he was trying to feign sleep right now. Their over-friendly interaction was new and the focus suddenly turned to them, but Criselda noticed and quickly cut in.
"So all we have to do is sign with our blood, yeah?"
"Yeah," Cassius said as Delbert and Grant once again gave the rulers the small knives they would use for the treaty signing. The blood treaties were binding forever, and even in the years after their extinction, they would still be in place.
It was important that they all take part in this and all they could do was hope that their people listened. Henceforth if any of their soldiers did anything to piss off the beast of the midlands, they would be on their own.
No one would get an army to go after the beast, because the warning had already been drafted. The rules were clear and if they decided to disobey, then they would have the beast of the midlands to deal with.
"Do I also have to? I don't want to, besides, mother dearest is here already on behalf of Greroth," Gideon argued and since no one wanted to argue with, or challenge him, they just nodded.
He was a troublesome man and they didn't want him to be chaotic right now, not when he looked like the ghost of Acrod. And so they spent the next hour discussing the treaty and how it would take effect.
They talked of the different ways that they would remind their people.
Of course they agreed that the midlands were not safe for people especially in the forest, but they couldn't do anything about the beast. They just had to agree that he was an essential part of their territory, after all, they didn't even dare to tell him to back off.
By the time they were done, they knew things would be different.
Sitting there in the silence, King Eddy knew he was somehow going to be leading a hard life. He could feel that the tribulations would be befalling him.
He knew who Gideon was, or rather had an inkling of what he was. However, in Acrod, Eddison couldn't say shit. Something about Gideon screamed Lycan because only a lycan would be that courageous to attack a whole king in front of all the leaders.
Eddison had had his doubts and yet even then, as he thought of so many things, he had a feeling that Gideon of Greroth, was the beast of the midlands. He had no evidence of that, but the amount of power he had grabbed Eddison with, had been too much.
It was the power fueled by revenge, and if Gideon of Greroth was who Eddison thought he was, then Eddison needed to go home and prepare his armies. He needed to be ready, because if he wasn't ready, then he would be the end of his home.