pun_king | The Kingdom of Daventry; Tuesday [05/07] - Day TWO of the Tournament of Knights!

Good morning! It's another beautiful day in Daventry, a day where the brilliant color of the sunrise across the sky is as rich and colorful as the trees that spread across the valley. Hopefully, no one else had their beds mysteriously stolen in the middle of the night! It's a big day for our small cadre of Hopeful Knights--the bold and braggadocios ~Whisper~, the small and scheming Manny, big and brash Acorn, mysterious and menacing Achaka, and, of course, Graham, who was honestly just happy to be there--as they seek out their true test of worth to be considered for the Daventry Guard: the eye of a hideous beast! Will they be able to obtain such a prize by the deadline? Only time will tell, and they'll likely be hard at work accomplishing their goal!

As for everyone else? Well, you've got a day of either helping, hindering, or just enjoying Daventry at this time of year! Be cautious, though! With the bridges out, there's plenty of wetzel wolves in a frenzy around the woods, unable to migrate to Serenia as they would like to, and, with the bridges out, travel around the realm is a bit restricted, too. It doesn't help that even the Fantastical Floating Island, one of Daventry's top billed tourist attractions, is closed for the day in preparation for one of the events tomorrow! But there's still good friends, beautiful vistas, and fun to be had in the Kingdom of Daventry.

Adventure is, after all, where you find it!

[[ and, of course, for all those in Daventry with him, NFB for distance, and with the usual OCD! ]]

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Where not too long ago five Knight Hopefuls once stood, there now were only four, gathered before the stage by the deadline, as one of the members of the Daventry Guard stood before them and cleared his throat.

"For those brave souls that are still with us," he announced, "welcome back. Now....you may have heard some squawking from a few naysayers in our kingdom concerned with the ethics of the tournament. Ha! Proclamations and addendums aside, this is the way we have always done it in Daventry, and this is the way will will continue to do it! Now...Knight Hopefuls! If you would be so kind as to present your eyes!"

First to present was Acorn, who pulled from behind his back, by its back leg, a squirming grey wetzel wolf. "Hold still!" he complained at the beast, while the beast let out a protesting snarl and tried to bite at Acorn's leg, to little avail, what with the armor and all.

Manny was next, producing from...somewhere...a large jar of eyes, looking like something purchased for the shelves of the Hobblepot's shop....which it actually very much had been.

And then Whisper, who very boldly lifted up not one but two eyes, big as beach balls and bright purple, clearly previously having belonged to the legendary snarling snarlax of the deep dark woods.

Finally, it was Graham's turn. Quiet and uncharacteristically taciturn Graham, who just reached sullenly into one of his pockets and somberly held out the yellowish-red eye of the dragon from beneath the well. He took a moment, looking down at it with a stern, determined frown, fighting against the urge for more tears, and instead, he channeled some of that into a baleful look of ire, lifted and sent toward the Guard on the stage. He then glanced over to his fellow Knight Hopefuls, feeling Achaka's absense like a dagger to his gut; he looked to Manny, who gave him an encouraging gesture forward. Graham looked back to the stage and, unblinking, wordlessly, just held the large eye in his hand aloft.

"I'd look happier," one of the Guards said, leaning closer to a fellow guard and lifting a hand, though he clearly made no attempt to keep his voice to a whisper, "if that were my eye."

"I'd look less happy if that was my face," the other Guard deadpanned back.

"Look who's talking," the first guard volleyed back.

"Yes," the second one drawled, "look who is talking..."

But the person talking was the announcer Guard again. "Congratulations, everybody," he said, "we officially accept all the eyes presented. We'll see you tomorrow, in the Duels."

And, with that, the second day of the Glorious Tournament of Knights had concluded. Yay and huzzah.

"Weren't there five knights before?" Arden murmured, holding onto Triumph. And looking at Graham. Graham didn't look good at all. She waited until the crowd had dispersed a little before trying to make her way over to him. "Graham? I've got somebody here who wants to talk to you."

That not so good look only seemed to get worse as Graham looked at Arden, with a deep wince that made his practically want to curl up into himself. "Achaka," he started, but then Triumph, who he didn't even notice at first, if there needed to be any more indications of his current mental and emotional state, let out a few of those cheery chirruping squeaks of his and Graham blinked at him for a moment.

Blinked again.

Shook his head and gawked.

"Triumph!" he called out excitedly and immediately, dropping to his knees, went to cling to him and buried his face in his fur. Hopefully, it just seemed like a normal hug, and one he was going to hold for a while until the next bout of tears passed enough that he could lift his face. "Where were you? I'm so sorry I didn't come find you sooner, I've been so busy..."

Sniffing, running a hand over his damp cheek, he then looked up at Arden. "Thanks for bringing him to find me instead, Arden."

Carefully, he pulled himself to his feet, although his jand remained dutifully in Triumpj's fur.

"I'd have been in real trouble if I didn't have a mount for the Duel of Speed tomorrow."

And then everything Achaka had sacrificed for him would have been wasted...Graham sucked in a breath, filling his chest and squaring his shoulders with resolve, and slowly let it put.

"Where was he?"

"In a tree? Held up by yarn and strings?" It had been very weird, but at least Arden had found some starberries ~~I decided~~. "It was kind of a comedy of errors, but I got him down at the end."

And if nobody wanted to talk about the grass stains and dirt smears on Arden's dress, that'd just be peachy.

"You wanna bring Triumph to his stall, get him comfortable and situated?" she asked softly. "We could go together. Somewhere quiet, you can brush all the foliage out of him because I didn't have a chance to do that, and just...talk. Catch up." Because clearly something had happened. "Or, if you don't want me, I could grab Belle, or Charlie, or Libby...?"

Passing by on his own way out of the theater, Acorn seemed to stop a moment and tilt his head toward the conversation at the mention of yarn and string and then just started humming and moseying along as if it was none of his business.

And Graham smiled softly at Arden again before shaking his head, fingers still brushing through Triumph's fur. "No, it's alright," he said. "You go on ahead, me and Triumph should probably catch up a bit. Talk strategy, tomorrow's the big one, after all, we've got some work to do."

And, as much as he loved his Fandom friends, Triumph was his best friend, and he really needed his best friend right now above all else.

Arden nodded. "Hug before I go?"

On the one hand, hugging Arden right now risked sparking the need to cry again. On the other hand...

No, there was no question about it. Graham could not throw his arms around Arden and hug her tightly fast enough, actually.

And, sorry, Arden, there would be clinging.

"Thank you," he said, "for being here. For believing in me. I won't let you down. "

He was...mostly talking to Arden when he said it.

Mostly.

Arden held him tightly, giving him the okay to cling to her as long as he needed to. To cry even. Look, she had a really pretty cloak thing she could kinda drape over him and then nobody even had to know.

"Graham," she murmured, "my whole life I've spent trying to be the perfect girl, the perfect daughter, first, hoping to get adopted and then hoping to make my legal guardian love me. And...it never worked." She let out a shaky laugh and swiped at her own eyes. "Nobody ever did. The only reason Callista came and got me was because...well, it doesn't matter, but it didn't have anything to do with me, Arden. Not who I was. Just what I was. So, over and over, I threw my heart against a brick wall and all I got out of it was pain. And maybe if I had been better, different--" She stopped, inhaled, tried again. "I believe in you, yeah. I do. But you can't let me down. It's impossible. Because no matter how you do in the Tournament, you're still gonna be Graham. And I'm still gonna believe in you. You having the heart of a knight and the belief of a knight doesn't change because Daventry has a stupid rule about numbers. I think they're making the competition about the wrong thing. Strength doesn't make the best knight, or speed, or wit, cause you can be all these things and still be an awful person. I think it's compassion, and care, and a willingness to help that makes a real knight."

She shook her head. "This tournament is important to me because it's important to you. But it's never gonna change my opinion of who you are and whether or not you're worthy of knighthood. So do your best and don't worry about letting me down. Cause you can't."

The Kingdom of Daventry; Tuesday [05/07] - Day TWO of the Tournament of Knights!

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