Chapter 3
"Well, sorry for taking so long Grashan…got in a little fight at the bar." Lance said to his chocobo as he stroked its feathers on it's back.
"Wark!" replied Grashan, unable to say anything else.
"Ha, ha, ha…I had a feeling you'd say that. Well, let's go, we have to be out in front of the city in two minutes. That's a mile away; you'll have to work a little to get there in time…only a little. I hope we have a chance to give you a real workout sometime…this sounds like the kind of thing where that is nearly a given, considering how paranoid these guys are being all the sudden…Halcyon isn't known for being subtle." Lance said, now mounting the chocobo, as the chocobo warked back at him as it seemed to nod…
"Atkin!" Lance said, clearly and commandingly, and the chocobo immediately took off at an impressive speed, heading for the outskirts of the city. More than a few people turned and looked at surprise as he raced through the streets, moving with impressive control at a speed that many though was unreachable for chocobos. One man, however, wearing a long cloak, seemed to watch him with interest…but went unnoticed by Lance, who was concentrating more on avoiding a falling cart of fruit that just barely missed clipping him, which was an odd coincidence…As it was, he made it to the meeting point outside the eastern gate with only seconds to spare. There, is traveling companions were waiting for him.
"Took your sweet time getting here, nearly made us late," growled a knight, who Lance knew was from Igros but wore no emblem on him, the way bandits, disgraced, or mercenary knights did.
Looking around, one could not find anything to connect any of the people here with Igros. Lance, of course, was quite literally connected with nobody. Kain, the knight who was more then a little annoyed at Lance's cutting it close to the wire, as already mentioned, had no emblem as well. Neither did the other random guards, wielding swords and bows. Whatever this force was for, it was definitely NOT for something public.
"Well, I'm here, and I was here on time. We won't be late unless we don't leave in 5 seconds. Well, are we leaving?" Lance asked, not showing much love for Kain.
"Yes you damn bastard…why the chief insisted on you coming with us, I don't know…" Kain replied, spinning around on his chocobo.
Lance started going as well, noting that even though Kain might be anal-retentive, he definitely knew what he was doing, with referring indirectly to Halcyon as 'chief,' the way that many bandit groups in the areas referred to their leaders…shaking himself out of it, and preparing to concentrate himself on the road ahead, Lance said,
"Atkin!" again in the same clear, commanding voice, and his chocobo charged off with the nine ahead of them, traveling the road to Riovanes, which would take them about a week with the path, they were traveling.