The King regretted offering the chance to walk, it wouldn't do his back any good but he wasn't about to do away with some of the traditions of the monarch walking among his people. "I think you may misunderstand East Moreland's swordsmanship, you see Kendo is a rather defined martial art, East Moreland Swordsmanship takes pieces from any sword based martial art and moulds it into one simple system, you fight to win. If you see Morelanders practicing you can expect to see a fair few dirty tricks. We kind of keep alive the idea that if your in a fair fight you didn't plan properly." The King was thinking proudly of the fact his nation had got their national past-time of the Medeival MMA into the Mundas Games, taking both Gold Medals, "Perhaps if you wish we can find a Medieval MMA show where you can see our swordsmanship in action?" David asked enthusiastically.
They reached a line of white brick fronted buildings, all almost identical. Three stories and with fancy porch type verandas, each had a small fenced driveway which was guarded by their national guards but it was also highly visible that the East Moreland Army had a visible prescence. "This is EMbassy Row, just behind them is the People's Park, one of the largest in East Moreland." he explained, "We've three or four empty buildings like this empty, so should we come to some kind of agreement over embassies then I'd hope you'd take one over." He took a turn and headed across the road towards the Lodjain embassy. He spoke in very slow disjoined Lodjain to the guards who smiled, saluted and opened the gate allowing the King and his party inside. The Lodjain ambassador was out of the embassy and David merely wanted to take a little short cut through to the park behind. It did however give his host an idea of what the embassies looked like. "I figured the Lodjains are a good group to ask to let us come through" the King said, "Plus they have an almost religious obsession with beauty and are always changing the artworks and decorations so I rather enjoy passing through." David noted a new large statue of Queen Klara and as he'd learnt from the staff here gave it a small bow as he passed. Out into the garden a rear gate gave access to the Park which was full of people strolling, playing games or just taking shortcuts like the King.
"We have two big events here every year, The Festival of Greenflowers on the 23rd of May, its the birthday in effect of our nation and we celebrate our victory and freedom from oppression. Its also my birthday" he chuckled, "perhaps a good luck omen. The second is Honeybadger Day, one of my ancestors in his wisdom discovered the creatures and believed they embody the perfect Morelander, intelligent, fierce to its enemies, protective and brave. He had several hundred released into the wild and.....well now I suspect their descendents will be greatly more numerous and wandering the countryside. We celebrate their introduction with a giant party here." The King could feel his back aching and so quietly made his way towards one of the kiosks in the park. "How about a spot of coffee, piece of cake even?" the King asked his guest as he watched the kiosk owner scurry about inside determined to make a good impression. "My daughter says this place has the best ice cream in the Park, I think she's addicted to the stuff." The King reassured the owner they didn't need to do anything, ordered a black coffee and a piece of Lemon Drizzle cake before waiting for Mayama. "So how does Northfort stack up to your capital?" David asked keen to start understanding his guest. "What celebration should I pop along and see?"
