All of us were pretty confident in our skills. Betan and I were both riding high from our duels with the Bronze Hooves Order. News spread far and wide about our victory. I also made sure to kill a few bandits along the way. We had to keep the legends alive or people would start to forget. When we got to the capitol, it was easy to get included in the qualifiers. Defeating the hopefuls was almost easier. Betan was almost disappointed at how easy it was to get in a tournament as prestigious as this. "The king is sickly, but he loves this. All of this is for his amusement. The quality spikes in the tournament itself." I assured him. During the tournament, Betan and I met in the third round. I gave it my all, but Betan truly was a martial idiot. He lived for fighting and he knew all of my tricks by now. He beat me. I was fine with that though. He truly was my friend. He got luck that he fought Lennox in the round of 16. Lennox was a tank, but he could get too overconfident. Betan got him in a chokehold and knocked him out. He was beaten by Cody in the quarterfinals. Leonardo beat Lenard in the finals.
Betan and Alane were exploring the capitol with Cody and Brody. Molly's husband tagged along. That left me and my children alone to have fun. We were hanging out a tavern near the tournament grounds when we heard someone loudly mocking us. When we turned to see who it was, se saw it was a young noble with 2 young ladies with him he was clearly trying to impress. Leonardo looked furious. I did not need him on the loose. A rampage in here would be hard to clean up after. I looked at Lenard and Lennox. "Go over and introduce yourselves. Be polite. If he attacks you guys in anyway, punch him in the mouth." I instructed them. They did so. They suffered some more insults on the way to them. Lenard went first with his introduction. Then Lennox went. He took one of the young ladies by the hand and kissed the back of it. She slapped him in the face. "Don't presume to touch me, you demon!" she shouted. He just blushed and giggled to himself, still holding her hand. The young noble shoved him back. Lenard followed that up with a nasty sucker punch to the jaw. He went down.
Casually, Lenard looked at the other young lady. "How about you come with us until he wakes up? We can get you some food and drinks. You'll learn not to insult people stronger than you." he said as he took her hand. Lenard was not giving her an option to refuse. That was how they came to sit with us. Lenard and Lennox were intensely focused on them. We learned that the girls were cousins. The nobleman was the older girl's younger brother. All of them were from the Aales Family. Nota was the one that slapped Lennox. Lenard forced Mott to the table. Eudon was still unconscious on the floor. Molly was able to calm them down with talk among young women. "I think a win in the archery competition will be a good challenge for you." I said patting her on the shoulder. The ladies were shocked that she was going to be competing. "Are you serious!? What about all the men that are going to be there!?" Mott asked in total shock. Nota added "You don't think you're going to win, do you!?" I jumped in. "My daughter is a great archer. I don't know if she will win, but she will hit every single target."
