Rising to Fall

Chapter 2-7

The journey from the Nicene River to the Benjas' capital only takes the group a little over a day to complete, as they crossed the River with a few hours of daylight left. The mountains of the Great Dividing Range are visible as soon as they leave the forest and are out on the plains of the Benja territory. They seem to keep the mountains on their right as they travel, which slowly grow larger as the day wears on.

About two hours before sunset the day after they crossed the river, something large and flat appears on the horizon and grows steadily over the next hour until it is a large city with a tall and fortified wall around it. Adam can see the occasional flicker as a guard's helmet or spear point catches the light of the slowly setting sun. But what is around the city was what makes Adam more alert. Large masses of people and tents are set up in sections all around the plain, each colour coordinated with a large tent in the middle that has flags on the tops and a tall banner set out front presumably displaying a crest. From this distance, Adam can only see the colours of the banners but he is sure of one thing. Multiple armies are peacefully camping around the city of the Benjas.

A group of men on horseback canter towards the group of Sky Army recruits with several spare horses on leads behind them. Leading the group is, of course, General Mitchell of the Benjas on his tall Kehilan Arabian horse. Adam can't help but admire and be slightly envious of the horse. It stands about 15 hands high, with a broader forehead than other breeds of Arabian horses and has a white streak running down the face. The mane and tail are a light brown while the rest of the horse is a dark chestnut colour that shines in the sun. Adam knows that it will have lots of endurance and be fast, despite the deceptively delicate legs that the horse picks up high as he canters towards them, his small, curved ears pricked forward and his eyes intelligent.

"Looks like a group of wanderers have stumbled upon our city," Mitchell says cheerfully as he nears them. "Guess we'd better give them a ride home. Good thing we brought enough horses."

The men behind him bring the horses forward for the weary travellers to mount. As Adam easily swings up onto the horse that is given to him (another Arabian: all the horses were), Mitchell nudges his own mount up to him and says quietly, "We'll go on ahead if you don't mind, I've got some people I need you to meet." Adam nods and the two canter back to the city.

As they near the city, Adam crans his head to get a look at the other banners and the armies that camp behind them. He thinks that he recognises two of them as belonging to other armies that board the Sky Army's territory. Well, the Squid's territory now. There certainly wouldn't be this many armies gathering just to see the Benjas take in the Sky Army. If Adam didn't know any better, he would guess that Mitchell is preparing for an invasion. Although he's not entirely sure that that isn't the case.

Mitchell notices Adam looking around and he grins to himself. "Welcome to Nad'ij, General Adam," he says formally as the two ride through the gates of the open-plan city. "Main city of my territory and my base of operations."

"It's pretty good," Adam replies as he looks around. "Fairly large but not too big to be unmaintainable. Why are there several other armies here? What's going on?" The second question is more of a statement.

"I may have called in one or two allies to help with your little problem with the Squids," Mitchell says innocently. A little too innocently, Adam thinks.

"There must be seven or eight whole armies here," he says. "Enough for an invasion, I would think."

"I have an alliance with them," Mitchell says, smoothly letting the second half of Adam's statement slide. "It's called the Protection Act of Cortian's Kingdom, but we just called it 'The Pack'. There's five of us who are a part of it, although we do have another honourary member because he's helped us out a lot and his territory is in the middle of five of ours."