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HDMGF Book 2- Part 2
🕑 Added 2022-04-19 02:43:10 +0000 UTCJake’s POV
The main office was huge, as large at the Royal Citadel or the Grand Sanctum back in Suma’s city, Zach-Ahshem. It was shaped different, but it has similar features, like the holes that Neame would fly through, large spires, and guards surrounding it. It’s differences however, were what told the real story of this place’s purpose. It was surrounded by walls, patrolled by Neame and their familiars, on top of the spires were carvings and runes. I didn’t know what they did, but probably something bad. Just like when we tried to enter the citadel, we were stopped and questioned, but this time they also demanded to see our tablets. I showed them, and we were let through.
“Suma, do all of your world’s cities have citadels like this?” I wondered as we walk in.
“Only the largest ones. Most make do with Lesser Sanctums or Royal Embassies. Small towns and villages however are lucky to even have Temples.” From the names, I figured those were just smaller versions of what I had already seen, so I didn’t ask anymore about it. Instead, I wondered about something more relevant.
“Do you know what we are supposed to do exactly? I can’t read the tablet thing, so…”
“All it said was that we were to present ourselves for inspection and assignment. Beyond that, I do not know.”
“I hope it’s not anything weird.. or too formal. I don’t even own a suit.” I joked.
“A suit?” Suma asked.
“It’s like a… uh.. actually, never mind. Don’t worry about it; it’s not important.” We finally arrived at was effectively the main desk, and asked for directions. The Neame showed us some markings on our tablet, and told us that the room we were to go to would have those same markings, then the Neame pointed us in the right direction.
“I’ll fly ahead and try to find it Jake.” Suma said and spread her wings.
“Um, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I said stopping her and remembering what happened last time she left me alone in a place like this.
“Why not?” She asked.
“Let’s just say I don’t want a repeat of last time.”
“Last time?”
“I’ll tell you about it later, let’s just stay together for now okay.”
“Well, alright.” She said settling back onto my shoulder. It took a while, but eventually we did find the room with matching numbers. Like all the rooms here, it was made of stone and wood, with sculpted vines acting as a door. The markings were engraved into the stone part in the hallway. We entered in and saw an empty room. “I suppose we are the first ones to arrive.” Suma said and made herself a perch, then softly landed on it.
I guess so.” I looked around, the floor was stone, and so were two of the four walls; the two on the east and west halves of the room. The north and south halves of the walls were made of wood, and so was the ceiling. The room itself was basically just a large square with vines strewn along the floor randomly. I took a cue from Suma and molded some of them into a seat and sat down.
A while passed before another Neame finally showed up and made himself a perch. “Hello,” Suma said.
“Greetings, is this the correct room for meeting the Drake Brigade?” He asked.
“Yes, at least I believe it is.” Suma said.
“Are we supposed to have our familiars summoned? I wasn’t made aware of any such rule.”
“No, this is Jake, he is a friend.”
“Hey, nice to meet you.” I said. He seemed surprised, his feathers raised for a moment and his body pulled back.
“I did not-“ He started.
“You didn’t know I could speak, yeah I get that a lot.” I laughed, it was actually starting to get kinda funny.
Over the next hour, two more Neame showed up. Of the three others, two of them had names when they arrived, the other was designated nine on his official summons; apparently that meant there were already eight other nameless Neame on our team. The two others were called Odens and Rou. Odens was the tallest Neame in the room, standing about four inches higher than Suma, and his feathers were a very light blue with hints of darker reds and browns and the tips of his wings. He had no gold or jewels, but that might have been because of some kind of military rule. Rou was almost the same height as Suma, but she seemed leaner. Her beak was less rounded, and her wings came to a sharper point at the ends. There were touches of white around her head feathers, and she sparkled less brightly than the others; with the sole exception of Nine. Nine was darker in color than the others by a lot. His color was more of a royal blue, and he lacked the sparkle that every other Neame I had seen so far possessed. Nine was also the shortest in the room by about an inch and had rounder wingtips.
We made introduction, they got shocked that I could talk, and then finally… our handler arrived, Lieutenant Datahu. She was completely different from the others, for starters, she was white, not blue. And unlike the nuns I had met in the temple, she didn’t even have a tinge of blue in her feathers. Instead, she was white with light gray tipped feathers on her wings, and dark gray tips on her head. She was about two inches taller than Suma, but something about her exaggerated that. She had two golden squares on her chest, which I think meant she was a Lieutenant… maybe; I’m still not a hundred percent sure on how their military symbols reflect their ranks. With her, she carried several gold objects suspended with mana wrapping.
“Hello everyone,” she announced as she landed. “I am Second-Lieutenant Datahu. You may refer to me as ma’am or Lieutenant. I trust that you have all had time to get acquainted, so I will skip introductions for now.” Lieutenant Datahu looked over at me. “You must be Sentinel. I will speak to you in a moment, but first… this.” She manipulated the golden pins so that they floated in front of each of the Neame. “Privates, these are your rank emblems. While you are on base or operating within our kingdom’s territory, you will wear them. They are your life, they are your family, do not lose your family! If you are caught without them, you will be punished. You may wear them wherever you want, but they must be placed in the correct orientation, and they must be visible from the front.” She carefully attached each of the pins to the Neame. “Now that my introduction speech is over, follow me.”
