My usual message at the bottom of this chapter…decided not to keep you fantastic people in suspense…this time that is….
Alanna was on her way to the marshalling area when she noticed that everybody had stopped speaking and were facing the podium where their Majesties and important nobles were situated. It was tradition that the King of the Tortallan Kingdom made a speech before the event. King Roald stood up and greeted his people.
"Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, welcome! I hope you've enjoyed yourselves but as you know the cause of this festivity is the annual archery competition. This event has been held each and every year and has been become a tradition. Squires compete against each other, as the aim is to show whom the best Tortallan knight-in-training archer is. Whoever wins this year's competition," he paused for effect "shall be rewarded with 100 gold nobles."
The crowd murmured among themselves excitedly. The king clapped his hands. "So let us not wait any more longer…the best archer shall be revealed today!"
Alanna was waiting when she felt someone push her roughly from behind.
"Decided to show up dwarf?" drawled a voice, which dripped with sarcasm. "You surprise me Thom. Thought you'd be stealing money off one of your friends."
Alanna whirled around furiously. Her attacker was a few inches taller than she was, with blond hair and evil green eyes. His body was well muscled, for a teenager. Without a doubt, this had to be Jeris of Nylord. Several of his cronies accompanied him.
"And why would I do that?" she questioned with mock curiously.
"Because you don't have that kind of money, " he replied sneeringly. "Why Thom, don't you remember? We made a bet that you'd have to pay me 30 gold nobles if I won the competition. You better start stealing you piece of dung, this is a good time. Everybody's out here instead of in their chambers and they don't lock their doors at all."
"Hmm, you seem to know a lot about this," observed Alanna thoughtfully "perhaps this is what you've been doing in your spare time?"
Jeris raised his fist to punch Alanna, but one of his cronies stopped him. "Don't do it now Jeris. If we start a fight now, then it'd be foolish of us. Everybody'll think –"
Jeris waved his hand impatiently at him. "All right, all right." He faced Alanna. "Don't think that you'll get away with this. Everybody knows that I'm the best at archery and that you're the worst at it. I'll be waiting for my money " he warned threateningly. With this he walked off with his cronies.
A herald stepped into the middle of the yard and blared his horn 3 times, capturing everybody's attention. "Contestants will compete in groups of 8. Those who's arrows strike the center shall stay afterwards, while the others will be dismissed. Targets will be moved back 5 paces each time, until the winner is determined. First up, Dorm of Kanad, Geoffrey of Longhurst, Jeris of Nylord…" the herald went on to mention other names. Jeris walked forward, a cocky confident expression on his face.
The herald shouted "Fiiiirrrreeeeee!!!"
Arrows flew in the air, quite a few struck the center including Jeris's. The crowd cheered for them. Group went after group, some people happy & some disappointed and each time the crowd cheered and the horns blared, but a little quieter each time. Alanna suddenly realized that they had saved all the poor archers till the last group. Her determined spirit faltered but only a bit. She scanned the crowds, searching for Thom and Raoul.
"Raoul, this cloak's making me itchy! And it smells like the stables!" hissed Thom.
"Sssh, be quiet! Otherwise people will find out!"
"But it sme - ah…point taken." Thom became silent.
A few minutes passed and Thom couldn't keep it in any longer. " Raoul, what's she doing now?"
"Be quiet! Do you want -"
"Raoul, this crowd's too interested in the archery competition to be eavesdropping on us! Now tell me what is she doing? Can you see if she's nervous? Scared?"
Raoul sighed. Why did his squire have to be so persuasive? "She's just sitting on the bench, watching the competition."
He pulled the cloak tight around him. "Can you see her face?"
"Why can't you go and see for yourself?"
"Cause if I do then, somebody's going to notice my eyes!" Thom whispered fiercely
"Okay, okay. She looks calm, at peace."
"What? Are you sure?"
"Yes I'm sure my one true itchy friend " said Raoul wryly.
"Shut up Raoul. You think that I'm happy with this plan?"
"You seem to be content with it."
"Didn't anybody tell you the expression, 'looks can be deceiving?' I wish I could have some kind of spell to turn back time. Boy, could I fix all the mistakes I've made." He sighed. "Alanna shouldn't be involved with this plan. I should be the one out there, but no I'm here, hiding. After so many years of training, I still can't defend myself. Jeris was right. I am a pathetic coward " Thom whispered hoarsely, a dead look in his eyes.
Raoul shifted uncomfortably on the wooden bench. This was a side of Thom he had never seen in the past before and he didn't like it. "That's not true. You are brave," dry laughter came from Thom. Raoul went on "to stand all these years of training. You could've run away from the palace, but you didn't. You stayed here and faced it. I admit, you don't do well in the fighting arts, but you do extremely well in sorcery. Your greatest dream was to become a sorcerer and you're achieving it. You don't bully people. You treat people with respect. You're not like Jeris who's a jerk. I'm honored to know you and have you as a friend Thom of Trebond." Raoul coughed, suddenly embarrassed. "Point is, you're not a coward. Everything is going to work out." He tried to sound gruff.
Thom looked up at his knight master slowly. "Thank you," he said softly " thank you for saying that. It means a lot to me."
The crowd cheered, disrupting the warm connection between them. This time Thom cheered as well, standing on his feet. Raoul hid a smile. Thom was once more his old self again.
Meanwhile, Jonathon wasn't having a grand time with Lady Delia. His mother had forced him to invite Lady Delia to sit with them during the archery competition and being the, well, obedient son he was, he had obeyed. Lady Delia was ecstatic that he had invited her but thinking an entirely different reason as to why he had invited her. Jonathon had tried several topics with the brunette, hoping that they could really talk about something. But so far, no luck. The woman just wasn't interesting. Queen Lianne gave her son a meaningful look. Jonathon rolled his eyes and cleared his throat.
"Are you enjoying the competition Lady Delia?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. Thank you for asking." She seemed distracted.
"Something the matter?" he inquired.
"Oh, nothing really. It's just that, that boy with the red hair sitting on the bench seems familiar."
Jonathon looked where she pointed. "Ah, do you know Thom of Trebond?" Maybe someone they both knew?
"Is that his name? How fascinating! There use to be a girl at the convent where I attended called Lady Alanna of Trebond. "
"Really? Did you know her?" asked Jonathon.
"Oh no, I just knew that she attended the same convent as I. But throughout the years, I heard quite a lot of things about her."
"Such as? If I may ask, Lady Delia." He added hastily.
"Of course Your Majesty. Well one of them was that she was making up the fact that she was sick, which was most of the time, because she had a lover in the city. Another one was that she wanted to be a knight when she grew up." Delia sniggered. "A rather silly idea, wouldn't you agree Your Majesty?"
"Well not really." He didn't what it was, but he felt a strange urge to defend Alanna. " I mean, maybe she would've made an excellent knight?"
Delia just looked at him, not believing him, until she suddenly burst into laughter. "Oh Your Majesty, you perform a jest so convincingly! For a moment there, I thought you were serious!" She patted his arm, still laughing.
Jonathon frowned. " Pardon me Lady Delia, but it was not a – "
The herald blew his trumpet (a/n: or was it a horn?), drowning Jonathon's words. "And the last group," the herald proclaimed " Jonan of Fareway, Naluf of Shrek (A/N: I ran out of names!), Thom of Trebond…" Jonathon didn't hear the rest. His eyes were riveted on the violet-eyed figure, which so reminded him of a certain person. (a/n: yeah I know that was crap…I was trying to create a hmm-maybe-jon-is-falling-for-alanna kind of feel….Guess I totally failed that!)
Thom was trying to get part of his cloak out from under the fat lady sitting next to him when he suddenly heard his name called out loud. Whipping his head around, he saw his twin emerge from the benches set aside. His throat suddenly went dry. It was time.
Alanna stood up at the sound of her brother's name being mentioned, a small knot forming in her stomach. "Good luck Thom" Jeris called out from his seat. "Make sure that you fire the arrow forward. We wouldn't want a repeat of last time in practice would we?" His cronies laughed outright at this. The crowd was definitely amused when they saw the last group of archers. Thom of Trebond was competing in an archery competition? Thom of Trebond who couldn't even control his own horse or barely defend himself in swordplay? What folly! Still, everybody gradually became quiet, eager to witness Thom's foolishness.
Alanna's heart rate sped up as she made her way to the target assigned to her. She tried to take deep breaths, tried to calm herself down but it didn't work. She was scared. What's this? Okay don't panic! She thought frantically Don't panic! Just focus on the target. Everything is just going to be fine! She loaded her arrow and pulled it back to her ear, focusing on the target. It was now her and the target.
The herald gave the signal. "Fiiiirrrreeee!"
Arrows flew in the air. Some hit the target while others made the ground. But not one of them was Alanna's.
Heads turned to find out the reason why there were no cries of "Oww, my buttocks!"
Alanna just stood there, frozen like a statue. Her feet were parted slightly, the arrow pulled back to her ear, her stance correct. What was the problem? Someone yelled out "What's the matter Thom? Afraid of the big bad bow?" The crowd tried to hide their laughter with little success.
The herald was annoyed. There were a lot of groups to get through today and this boy was stopping him from letting the competition proceed. "Thom of Trebond, if you intend to shoot that arrow, then I suggest you do so now otherwise I shall have no choice but to disqualify you from the archery competition. Do you hear me?" The crowd waited for Thom's decision. Would he have the guts to do so?
Alanna's whole body was trembling with fear and nervousness. She fought to keep the bow posed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the herald coming towards her, ready to take her away. She sent a silent prayer to the Great Mother Goddess to protect her and with her eyes shut close, she let the arrow loose.
A/N: THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH x one 1000000 FOR THE PEOPLE WHO REVIEWED MY STORY AND THE LAST CHAPTER…it was great reading your reviews and your suggestions…yes I'll try to have the courtesy of writing who's speaking what and no…this is not gonna be an Alanna/Raoul fanfic…SORRY!! I intend to make this an alanna/jonathon fanfic 100%…but that doesn't mean that I won't try an alanna/raoul fanfic in the future…or an alanna/coram fanfic…lolz…joking…so anyways thanks once again for your reviews…they were gratefully appreciated…*vision: author dancing to "I'M A BELIEVER", shouting "WOO HOO….I GOT 26 REVIEWS!! WOO HOOO…YEAAHHH BABY!!!"*…guess I was kind of hyper that day…so one more time…(audience sighs)…THANK YOU TO YOU MEGA MEGA FANTASTIC PEOPLE!…oh, and don't forget to read and review this chapter…all reviews are gratefully appreciated…including flames…and I will definitely try to upload more often! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!! Okay…guess I better shut up now and let you review it ^_^…you will review it right?
.
