Early in the morning of the last day at the fort, the Greil mercenaries had gathered in the meeting room of their fort to hear the official announcement of their departure. Everyone there already knew the portents of Ike's proposal, and all were set on going. The whole process was really just a formality.
Ike came out of his office, closely followed by Soren and stood in front of the small assembly of the the mercenaries and a few other friends from the Mad King's war and the more recent Goddess's war.
He glanced around the room at the people in it, seeing everyone; Titania, Mist, the three brothers, his sister Mist, Mia, Rhys, Gatrie and Shinon, all from the mercenaries; as well as a handful of friends who had decided to come along with the main group, Lethe, Marcia, Zihark, and Ilyana, who had been bored, missing old friends, seeking a new place, and hungry respectively. Or at least, those had been the reasons they specified.
Ike smiled at the new members of the mercenaries, and they (excluding Lethe) all smiled in return. Lethe simply nodded.
Ike stopped in front of his audience and took a deep breath. It was probably a good thing that everyone present knew him, and knew that he wasn't exactly a speechmaker.
"Hello everyone," Ike began, "Today, is the day we set out. Our goodbyes have been said, our equipment is packed, and are ship is ready to leave as soon as we get to Port Toha.
I know that you all know this already," he continued, "But to clarify, we are leaving for one reason, that being our decided lack of money. Any other reasons are your own.
For myself, I want to explore new lands and help more people with my skills. I will be going on this journey no matter what, but I would like any of you who are not one hundred percent committed to this mission to leave now," he paused for a moment and looked around the room. No one moved, or showed any expression whatsoever of discontent. Mia was literally quivering with excitement.
"Very well, Greil mercenaries and auxiliaries, assemble in the courtyard in five minutes," he said, and their was a shuffle to grab bags and weapons. Mia had already bolted out of the door by the time he said, "assemble" and was currently jumping up and down in the courtyard just to let out excess energy. Titania, Oscar, and Mist left the room to see to their horses, and Marcia also exited to prepare her pegasus. Ike was especially heartened to see her come, because her pegasus would bring them many tactical advantages in any combat, but particularly any ship to ship combat that might occur between themselves and the world's inevitable pirates and corsairs.
The room emptied and Ike was left standing next to his friend Soren to look around the meeting room of the fort for probably the last time. Ike sighed, and Soren simply looked at him askance. Ike rolled his eyes at that, picked up his bag of provisions and strapped the twin swords Alondite and Ragnell to his back, and followed the rest of the mercenaries outside, where he saw most of them doing final checks on their equipment and supplies.
Within a few minutes, everyone was gathered into the courtyard. The day was a typical one for late spring in Crimea, the snow had long sense receded, the sun was shining merrily down on them, and the clouds were few and far between in the sky. Ike glanced quickly at the sky to check for rain clouds, but saw none. He then turned to the assembled mercenaries and drew in a breath to announce briefly.
"Greil mercenaries! Move out!"
Author's note:Sorry about the lateness of this update. I have been having trouble writing these primarily due to lack of time, and the fact that (this is going to sound insane) I just got Radiant Dawn last week, and I have been playing it more or less non stop ever since. I already knew everything that happened because I watched several walkthoughs on you tube out of sheer frustration about not being able to play the silly thing until just recently. Other than that, I have been having to study and practice for AP exams, and anyone who has taken one of those will know how fun that is.