Negotiations

Just another day of travel with the princesses of war. Gabriel tapped the flat part of his spear against his forehead so he could feel the cool touch of metal. It helped him think more clearly whenever Sophia and Alexis decided to go into another one of their little fights.

Little in comparison to two neighbors. When the princesses of Konnikos and Zafieri fought, it took a great deal of strength to get the two at least 50 miles away from any form of civilization. Alexis could carve up a road of houses with one good swing of her sword, and Sophia could roast a town’s square within a second. Several deep craters from past fights could be found all over the floating continent. Regardless of which side of the island they were on, Gabriel still heard complaints from the many citizens that he should be better at his job by this point. Of course, compared to the two princesses armed with great mystical weapons and with many more years of training than the guy armed with what Alexis referred as to as a ‘blade on a stick.’

Gabriel had honestly run out of ideas to calm them down. Offering them food, a comfortable hotel, a mission with a good fight, a easy mission with a great reward…those things were too easy to come back these days and thus didn’t offer much incentive to the princesses who could easily get those and more themselves and continue their bickering. And words weren’t enough to coax them. Even Sophia, the more patient one of the two, wouldn’t listen.

“For crying out loud!” Sophia shouted. “You missed! Your arrow zipped past the monster’s head and nearly took off the arm of that poor man!”

“You knocked away my sword!” Alexis protested, putting a hand into Sophia’s face. “If you want to talk about accuracy, let’s talk about how you completely missed by a country!”

“You told me to fire in that direction!”

“Yeah, but I didn’t say to hit me!”

As the two continued to petty fight amongst themselves, Gabriel decided to better focus his time by cleaning his spear of all the slivers of fur and metal and the dried blood off it. He couldn’t talk them down when they got this angry. Gabriel would only be able to interfere when the two drew their weapons. But by that point it would be too late and he have to really push it to stop the two from destroying the island. But his village-blacksmith weapon wouldn’t stand a chance against the legendary blade Sebastian and the wand cuffs…

“Look here nerd.” Alexis tapped one finger on Sophia’s forehead while resting one hand on the handle of her blade. “Everyone, even your own people, know I’m stronger than you. Sure, I don’t use magic nor do I really use any sort of ranged weapon…but it wouldn’t take long for me to deal with you in a fair fight.”

“You do not fight fair at all.” Sophia shook her head as she massaged her wrists. “You throw mud and dirt, you play childish tricks…I still can’t believe the ‘look over there’ trick actually worked.”

“Is that supposed to be a insult?” Alexis shook her head.

“For a great fighter, you sure fight like a child!” Sophia raised her voice. “In fact, I have seen Konnikos child fight with swords…they can actually fight with it instead of swinging their sword like a asylum inmate!”

“That’s a insult!” Alexis drew her sword and held it a inch away from Sophia’s neck. Sophia immediately held up her glowing hands straight at Alexi’s torso. Gabriel jumped up and pushed the two apart. “Stay out of this!” Alexis grunted.

“No, there’s a village nearby!” Gabriel shouted.  “You will deprive over three hundred people of their homes…maybe their lives!”

“Of what flag do they serve under?” Sophia asked, not turning towards Gabriel. “I won’t mind earning my homeland some extra land…”

“No, that’s terrible!” Gabriel pleaded. “Regardless of their differences, we all are the citizens of the floating heaven Ouranos!”

“Hey now!” Alexis held up a finger. ”Some people here don’t like sharing and would rather make our homeland united under one flag! I have the same idea myself…”

As if the two weren’t crazy enough. Gabriel needed to find a way to disarm this potential growing war. If one princess killed the other, then nothing that Gabriel could do would stop the entire island from going up in flames. A little bit of his evil side spoke to him and told him that such war would finally the answer the question that long since plagued the island…which race is stronger? But Gabriel didn’t care for such the answer, he just wanted to keep people alive and well.

“What do you hope to accomplish with this fight?” Gabriel asked with a sigh. He looked down to ground with eyes closed to wait for the eventual sound of metal clashing against magic…but instead of carnage, he heard silence. Eyes open, he looked up to see the two princesses staring at him with confused eyes. “Uhh…” Gabriel ended up with his mouth agape and droning out a long low moan.

“I think it’s very obvious.” Sophia stated.

“We have been doing this for quite a while.” Alexis sighed. “This whole thing had started WAY before we were born.”

“But what do you hope to accomplish with this one fight?” Gabriel got out with a nervous tremble in his voice. He took a deep breath to steel himself and think about his next few words. “I mean, just this fight. You’re going to fight it out, destroy the surrounding land, and then you’ll drop it once you get tired and hungry and go on with your usual crusade of destroying all the monsters. What’s the point of these squabbles?”

“To prove out points.” Alexis pointed her sword forward in a terrible, silent pun. “I refuse to let her insult my great nation.”

“You do the same to my people.” Sophia shook her head.

“These fights begin the same way.” Gabriel’s voice went up a notch in volume. “Following a encounter with monsters, the two of you bicker about the other’s mistakes, you draw your weapons and then fight it out. Repeat at least twice a week!”

“Uh…” Alexis raised a finger up to ask a question.

“For god’s sake!” Gabriel shouted, making both princesses jump. “You two cause more damage than the monsters themselves! The dragons?” Gabriel let out a pathetic laugh. “The king od the monsters! Capable of ripping the strongest steel like a piece of paper! And you guys make them scared!”

“But that’s the point of our crusade!” Sophia shouted. “We’re supposed to be keeping the monsters at bay and make sure they’re scared enough to not attack others!”

“YOU SCARE EVERYONE!” Gabriel yelled at the top of his lungs. The battle-hardened princesses fell to the ground in shock. “That includes people of your own nation! They don’t want to be scared, they want to go home at night and NOT fear that tomorrow is the last day they’re alive!” It was a rather relaxing sight to see both strong warriors scurry away like scared rats. Gabriel let out a calming breath of fresh air as she could feel that headache fade away. “Get it?” He groaned under his breath.

Now he felt hungry. Gabriel suddenly understood while the two would stop fighting when their stomachs rumble. Turning around, he started to consider his options when a finger poked his back. Sighing once more, he turned around to see the two princesses standing up with deadly glares. But their weapons weren’t drawn…

“Thanks for the advice.” Sophia coughed.

“Yeah, put a perspective on our lives.” Alexis grumbled out.

“Good.” Gabriel turned around once more, but this time he yanked around by Alexis.

“But those were mean words, mystery boy.” Alexis licked her lips. “You don’t serve neither countries…are you saying we would be better off without our families?”

“Err…”

“He stuttered.” Sophia smiled demonically. “He’s lying.”

Well, at least the land itself wouldn’t suffer any mortal blows from the two. And hey, Gabriel could use the exercise. Running around half the flying island would definitely improve his overall fitness and actually give him a chance to catch up to a fight when he lagged behind both Alexis and Sophia. Plus, the two would take their frustrations on him instead of the land.

At least they were starting to get along.