Noblemen and their soldiers, rich merchants and their mercenaries, many many groups took part in the King's Trouney. All were highly trained in the arts of war, had strong arms and mighty weapons, except for one. There were five unarmed commoners, ready to die in the first round. Though Levent had a beautiful crossbow, he refused to use it since his companions had no weapons to fight with. They were thrown into the huge arena, where the first parts of the tourney took place. The public was laughing and shouting cruel jokes at the small, hopeless team. The opponent entered the field. Lord Vilbald had twenty-five soldiers in his party, they all were laughing at their young foes. They slowly encircled them, unsheathing their weapons. The five were in a small circle facing the enemy, and they were trembeling in the sight of death.
One of the soldiers had enough games, and wanted to end this round quickly. He stepped closer to Pellerin and lifted his sword to hit him with its grip, but he got a paw and sharp claws to the face in return. The soldiers were in shock as they saw that a great lion was standing in the stead of the young man. Eight of them were taking up positions to fight the animal, but the rest was approaching the remaining members. One man grabbed Johan's arm who cried out in fright. Flames appeared with every shout that came from his mouth. It scared the soldiers, but they did not back off. Johan was begging Fidelia to sing and put everyone to sleep, but her throat was full of fear and the song didn't seem to work. A warrior grabbed her arm and wanted to strike her, and in that moment Etele let out a rousing shout. The ground began to shake and everyone lost their balance in the arena. As the soldiers got on their feet again, they fled the field, because they had no desire to battle such powers. Only Lord Vilbald was shouting commands, ordering his men to attack, but they abandoned him. Levent stepped forward and started to imitate the sound of bees. It was a trick he mastered long ago, and as the noise became stronger bees appeared from nowhere and surrounded Lord Vilbald who ran out of the arena.
That is how Pellerin and his companions survived the first round of the tourney and raised fear in the hearts of everyone who saw their great power. The audience was displeased, they were yelling in their fear, calling the winning team a company of monsters and demons. It was likely that the king rules them out of the competition for using some kind of foul sorcery, but King Arvid wanted entertainment, and decided to let them continue the tourney. After they left the arena, a knight named Ser Tallak walked up to Pellerin and his company, and offered his help in the coming rounds. He could not join the group, and didn't wanted to either. He said he wanted to support them and show the nobles that the unusual doesn't mean weak or evil, but it is powerful in its own way. Our small army liked the way the knight was thinking and gladly accepted his help.
In the second round, they were alone in the arena, and instead of warriors, they had to defeat time, and complete a whole lot of tasks. First, the team had to send their riders, to throw spear at targets from horseback, then footsoldiers had to wound an army of straw dummies, and they also needed their archers to hit in the middle several targets. Finally, the team had to signal they were finished by seizing a flag, which could be reached only from a top of a shield wall. Pellerin and his friends had no horses, no bows and no shields, but they had a plan how to complete the round in a record time, although they risked exclusion with their not quite traditional method.
When the squire gave the sign to begin the game, every member started running to different sections. Pellerin turned into a bull, and started to hit the targets, instead of spears with his horns. Fidelia and Etele ran to the dummies and began to cut them with knives they got from Ser Tallak. Johan and Levent ran to the archery field, and shot the targets with the crossbow or shards of ice. Fidelia and Etele were the first to finish and they immeadiately went for the flag. Fidelia was supposed to stand under the flag, while Etele raised the ground under her feet until she could reach it. But as soon as the ground started moving, Johan who was still busy with his archery got distracted by the sound, and a shard of ice darted off only inches away from Levent's face. Johan kept apologizing while Levent shot the remaining targets, and waved to Fidelia to let her know she can take the flag. They did finish it in a very short time, but their curious ways of completing the round were not amusing enough to King Arvid, who gave them one last chance after all.
The third round was coming in which they had to face a company of mercenaries, and get hold of something they were guarding and protect another object from them at the same time. They had it all planned out and Fidelia was the essential piece of their tactic. She was supposed to put the mercanaries to slumber while the boys tried to take the target. But a few minutes before the game began they were still looking for her, and only when they entered the field they got informed that she was the one they needed to rescue. They also had a member of their foes they had to defend, but their plan couldn't work without Fidelia. They had to choose another tactic, and they only had time to decide who is going to attack or defend.
The game began and Pellerin and Johan started to approach the other group very slowly and were trying to avoid the ones that were coming to attack. The rest stayed with the bound warrior, but they needed to do something, so Levent created an illusion of a tall and massive wall around their prisoner, and Etele's voice immeadiately turned it into stone and with that into reality. Pellerin and Johan were almost at the defenders and Johan conjured a circle of flames around them while Pellerin changed his shape to a lion's. He charged, jumped through the flames which got stuck on his legs and in his hair and got under his skin. A lion with a body of fire he became and scattered the defense and fought the mercenaries who were fleeing from him in terror. Johan freed Fidelia and started running back with her to their own defenders and Pellerin joined them too, but Fidelia stopped in the middle of the arena, turned around and with a piercing cry she knocked out all their pursuers.
The third round was over in a remarkaby short time, and the public was watching in dead silence. At the end some of them even started to clap or cheer, because it was so amazing to see how easily the small team worked. Pellerin and his company experienced something very new that day. When they were together, being themselves everything went so easily, if they were not the ones who did it, they would have never believed it. They found a new voice in each other, heard a new side of themselves, and wanted to keep marching, because there was a secret power in them that made them want to go on and never to stop.