II: Strategy
Finally! I had reached the gate after many hours of walking. It wasn't as close as I thought.
"Whoah!" said the guard at the gate. "You're back. Did you succeed?" "Yeah." I said. I showed him the emerald. "You are one sweat!" said the guard. The guard let me through.
I went in the castle to immediately be surrounded by my 3 best friends: Ocean, Newt and Pyre. "OMG!" Said Newt. "You did it!" I was still kinda mad at Newt and Pyre for storming down that pyramid like some idiots but I didn't want to ruin the celebration.
"How did you do that?" asked Ocean. "How in the world did you beat them in a 1v4?" "Not storming down the pyramid." I half-joked. They laughed. Newt and Pyre began talking through each other, but they were pretty much saying the same thing: "Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, I was-"
They were interrupted by a loud voice: "You gonna hand in that emerald or what!" "Sorry!" I said to my friends before I rushed to the man.
The man was Scrooge Blue. If I asked him why our quartermaster was named after one of the greediest people ever, he said he was the Scrooge that turned good. I doubt that. Quartermaster Scrooge spoke to me: "Next time, giving me the loot will be the first thing you do when you enter the castle. Otherwise you will be demoted to guard." I nodded. No thank you or congratulations. Just a straight up threat. This was Quartermaster Scrooge. An old hot-head with a white beard in a blue military suit.
"There is a Gathering in 2 hours in the grand room" A Gathering? There hasn't been a Gathering in ages! Is there an emergency? "No emergency" he said like he was reading my mind. "Just an… announcement." An… announcement? I had a feeling something big was happening. And boy was I correct.
There we stood, outside in the courtyard. Aqua, the Blue Leader was standing on a big balcony looking over the courtyard.
Everyone was whispering to each other, including my friends. "Dude, what do you think he's gonna say" Pyre whispered to Newt. "I don't know, but i'm so excited" Newt answered. "If you are so excited, how about you shut up so the leader can talk" Ocean whispered angrily. Newt and Pyre were silent. Eventually, the Leader screamed: "Alright, everybody shut up. This is important" The whispering stopped.
"Years ago, we decided our strategy. We would gather materials, train fighters, increase our defence and so on. We would do that for a couple of years until we would launch an all-out attack on Red. That attack will be launched in 2 weeks." Everybody cheered. We were all dead bored of collecting iron and training. We wanted to fight.
"General Lazuli will now give you all more info about the attack" Then General Lazuli came on the balcony and began to give a 2 hour long presentation. It was dead boring. I will give a shorter version of it, we kick their asses from 4 directions with. Except the unlucky ones who stay at the castle to defend. That defender list of people would come in a few days.
After the Gathering I saw Quartermaster Scrooge walk in a small hallway. Then at the end of the hallway he turned left. Left? I don't remember a corner being there. I followed him. My curiosity beat the rules. So I went into the hallway. At the end of it, it lept dead. Left of me was just a wall. But out of the wall, I heard a voice. "An attack! They are launching an attack in 2 weeks!"
Hearing those words would end up changing my life.