At that my head snapped up. "Woodies?" I echoed in surprise. Weren't those of the Wood clan our sworn enemies? Surely it couldn't be?
My surprise must have shown on my face, for Sakaba grinned. "Yep, you heard me right," he said in the self-satisfied fashion of know-it-alls. "Woodies." His tone was carefully neutral, and had I not been quite as acquainted with him, I would have been deceived into believing that the conversation was over. Having grown up with him, however, I knew better. If anything, the slight hitch in his breath suggested that Sakaba was just dying for me to pump him for more information.
Two can play at a game.
Shrugging, I forced my attention back to the map that I had been poring over. "Oh," I said feigning disinterest. "What time will they be here?"
"Two hours after sunrise."
"Oh."
There was a momentary silence, and I carefully kept my eyes on the map. Minutes ticked by, then Sakaba spoke again.
"I'm going to pick them up."
"Good for you."
"I heard that this bunch is younger than the other recruits."
"Is that so?"
There was a low growl. "Fujiwara!"
It took all of my self-control not to let the smirk show on my face. "What?"
He threw me a sour look. "Stop that!"
"Stop what?" An actor I am not, but even I can pull off the straight, blank look. Clearly I did not succeed in deceiving my long-time friend, though, for he glared at me.
"You want to hear it or not?" He grumped.
Curiosity got the better of me, and I abandoned all pretense. "I'm all ears," I told him.
That pacified him somewhat. Preening a little, he lowered his voice into a conspiratorial whisper. "I heard the Wateries hit them real bad."
Now that I most certainly wasn't expecting.
"Say what?"
Huffing, he said, "Weren't you listening? The Woodies! Got attacked. By the Wateries."
"That I got. What I don't get is why. Weren't they supposed to be allies?"
Sakaba shrugged. "Who knows? I did hear that it had something got to do with a change in leadership, though..."
Even to me that sounded implausible. One really didn't go round attacking allies even with change in leadership. There had to be a trigger. "You sure about this?"
"Che. Fine, you go figure it out then."
He rolled over onto his side, grumbling loudly under his breath about ingrates who didn't appreciate information. I grinned; really, Sakaba was a good and staunch friend, but he had the maturity of a five-year-old.
"Oi, Sakaba."
"I'm asleep."
I poked him in the back. "Oi."
"Not talking to you."
This was starting to get ridiculous. "Oi." I poked him again, and sighed when he feigned a snore. "All right, all right," I said in resignation as I went round the other side of the bed to look at him in the face, "I'm sorry, all right?"
He cracked an eye open.
"Sorry enough to go meet them on my behalf?"
I shrugged. It really didn't matter to me either way.
And so my meeting with my new allies was thus determined.