Sweet Waters Throne

194 Chapter 19Lord Balrus and Lord Leoric weren’t enemies, in fact they weren’t even friends but they somehow found common humor in their situation.

“How many whores did you fuck last night?” asked Lord Balrus with a soft tone, as if he was whispering for fear Artemis might hear what they were saying.

Leoric widened his smile and leaned on to Lord Balrus, “Why do you ask Balrus, do you have a cock now? We have bigger things to worry, such as the war in Prophis”

“Oh yes so I’ve heard, thirty thousand Killers offered to the wrong Prince”

“And I’ve heard you’ve been having discreet meetings on ships with the King’s bastard, Lord Aprophil of Free Hall”

Lord Balrus was stunned when Leoric said this, he didn’t expect anyone to know of his altercations with Aprophil. Their conversation ended there when the tourney started and the crowd cheered for the champions.

The tourney consisted of ten knights fully armored including a steel helmet. They were divided into five groups, and each group had two knights. The two knights were supposed to fight their way towards the final, but there was no killing to take place. If you lose, you yield and that’s it. Bloodshed was prevented in front of the King; it had been that way for centuries and the tradition was set to continue today. You may hurt your opponent to the point he yields, but taking their life was prohibited.

The fights were entertaining, mesmerizing and they had everyone gasp from time to time. The knights fought so well for a once in a lifetime prize, Artemis promised to let the champion on a dragon back and fly him across the Silent Sea.

Now everyone during that time wanted to fly on a dragon. They were envy of Artemis and Aurora when they saw them taking the skies of Blackmount, when an opportunity as rare as this shows up, everyone wanted it.

.....

The ten knights were reduced to four ─ meaning two teams. One team had two tall and masculine men, their faces showed cruelty and throughout the challenge, they have been demolishing their opponents and left them bleeding or crippled. The other team had two petite men but very well experienced and quick.

It was their quickness which saw them through the final round. Because of their size difference, a debate erupted in the main stage, and also amongst the good folks sitting in the arena. They argued who will win the tournament and who will lose, many of these suggestions were based on the size of these men.

In the high stage, Artemis kept on saying the two tall men will win the tourney against the small team. He said size always mattered during fighting and that’s why they will win, Lord Jon Grimwald agreed with Artemis and so did Lord Balrus and Lord Akirbus.

However, Aurora refused to accept that. She thought the small men will win because they are quick and skilled. They knew how to avoid their enemies and when to attack, compared to the tall ones who think just because they are huge, then they’ve won the tourney. “Tourneys aren’t won by sizes, my vote is on the petite ones” she said and recruited Lord Angun to her side.

Lord Spider, the imp was also on Aurora’s side simply because he was petite himself, other than that he had no reason to say as to why he preferred the petite ones compared to the tall ones. Some people say inside Lord Spider’s heart, he was rooting for the tall men. All his life he’s been bullied, beaten and laughed at because of his size. The tall ones always win, that’s what he used to say.

Just like what Aurora predicted, the tall men used their height and mass to their advantage. They laughed at the petite men as if they were the easiest challenge. “Short men like you will just fall off a dragon and die, yield now and spare yourselves” one of them said to the petite men. But the petite men neither yielded, nor did they even talk back to these tall men, they started fighting.

The fight was captivating, at first it seemed the petite men were overwhelmed by the tall men. Their tricks weren’t working against the much bigger size, and hence they struggled to keep themselves from being crippled. Artemis used this moment to tell his companions that he told them so, and size always mattered.

As the fight intensified, one of the tall man’s leg was crashed by a hammer and he fell down heavy while screaming loudly. He couldn’t continue anymore and he yield the very moment he fell down, and that shocked Artemis, and everyone who rooted for the tall men.

The one remaining tall man was supposed to fight the two petite men. He was the strongest and he fought harder, one blow of his sword to one of the petite men saw one of them yielding at that same time when the sword was on his throat.

Now only two men remained, one tall and the other petite. They were to fight till the end so one can emerge victorious. The chronicles written about this tournament explain how it might be the best tournament in Maldonian history. Many people placed their bets between the two knights, some won and some lost their bets.

While many favored the tall and masculine man to win the tourney, they were shocked when the fight ended and it was the petite man who made the huge man yield after he knocked down his scrotums hard. The agony of being knocked down in scrotums was unexplainable, and the petite man knew that was the only way because he couldn’t fight head to head with the huge man.

The crowd erupted in cheers when the huge man on the ground yielded while holding his manhood, the petite man placed a sword on his throat and there was no way he was surviving that fight. Aurora and others who were on the petite man’s side cheered for this crucial win, and once again proved size doesn’t matter, it’s the skills which do.

This petite man, the champion of Maldonia was called Robert. He went from being just a normal knight in the army of the King, to being risen up as a member of Kingsguard.

Artemis climbed down the stairs of the arena and joined the champion of the realm. Robert knelt down before Artemis with a great show of respect, he was awarded a red cloak. “Welcome to my Kingsguard, Sir Robert” said Artemis with a smile, then he raised Robert’s hand to show it to everyone that he was the real victor of the tournament.

The celebrations in the arena continued but without Artemis’s presence, he rode to Aurora’s Hill to pick up his dragon. After five minutes he returned on dragon’s back, and Artodo landed right at the center of the arena, and the crowd erupted in cheers. Some of the foreigners had never seen a dragon before, the reason why they travelled this far was to see one and their eyes widened with amazement at the size of Artodo.

“What a humongous beast!” they said when Artodo landed. No one was calm after seeing the dragon, it’s like everyone wanted a closer look at the beast.

Artemis raised his hand for Robert to climb, “Come on, he won’t bite” he said to him. Robert was pulled up the dragon by Artemis and he somehow managed to sit at the back of the saddle while holding on tight to Artemis.

‘What should I hold on to?” asked Robert, scared as he sat on the saddle.

“Me” replied Artemis with a smile, and the he said the word “Valar” and from there Artodo beat out his huge black wings and took the skies of Blackmount while the good folks cheered for him. Robert’s first flight on a dragon was smoother than he thought it would be, the air was cool and there were no strong winds, so thanks to that too.

Lord Leoric was not pleased by the whole charade, he didn’t like it how Artemis showed off his dragon and his silver hairs, he felt as if he was doing it intentionally to brag his power to him. “It should have been me” these words never left out his lips, although he desperately wanted to say them out.

“What’s wrong my Lord, don’t dragons excite you?” He heard Lord Balrus voice from the back, Leoric turned to see him while still holding his son.

“They are not my spirit animals”

“Then you are going to have to get used to them. Vizoro will soon layout eggs, possibly three eggs and that means three more dragons”

“Mhh-mmh, is that so?”

“We all know what you said on your feast, calling your son the future King of Maldonia” Now the fun times were over and Lord Balrus declared where he really stood in all this. “It’s treason!”

A very arrogant Leoric replied, “Is it? Then why do I still have my head?”

“Because our King is smarter than you and all your plans, and sooner or later he will show you smart he is” Lord Balrus said and walked away. The celebrations were due and all the Lords moved out from the arena to go prepare for the final feast.