Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters or places.
Kel was sitting at the table, thoroughly bored. Dom was sitting beside her equally bored. "I hate balls" she whispered to him.
"Well my dear, we shall make the ball more interesting" he told her.
Their table partner was a young court lady and a newly made knight. The lady was more interested in Dom then her dinner party, even if Dom made it clear he wasn't single. Still she flirted.
Kel, getting annoyed with the lady, bent her head toward Dom and whispered "She's bothering me"
"She's bothering me too" he whispered back
"Dom, my dear, what are you whispering about?" asked the lady in question.
Dom smiled at her "My lovely wife and I were talking about some things that are unsuitable to be shared at dinner table"
"Such as?" she asked.
"What was going to happen tonight" he told her.
The lady frowned. "But..." she said, clearly upset that Dom wasn't planning on cheating on his wife.
Kel smiled at the lady's pout and said "I love it when he... well, I shouldn't really say"
The lady shot daggers at Kel and promptly ignored both Dom and Kel who were laughing hysterically.
After the dinner and the artful desert had been served, Neal joined them. "What were you guys laughing about earlier?" he asked.
They explained the story to him and he laughed heartily. "So Kel" said Neal "will you enter the tournament in two days?"
"I don't know, I haven't jousted in a while" she said.
"I'm sure you'll do beautifully!" said Dom, with his heart melting grin.
"Just show them conservative! Show them what you can do!" said Merric who had joined him.
Raoul, who had also joined them said "I love when you joust! All the conservative bet against you and I make so much money!"
"Wait till she beats you my lord!" said Dom.
"Not happening anytime soon!" he shot back.
"I'm surprised you are not hiding behind a curtain" said Kel, to change the conversation.
"It's what marriage does to you!" he informed her "and if you weren't with Dom, you yourself would have joined me behind the curtains"
"True" she said.
"Well at least there would have been two matching bumps" said Neal "Might even pass for part of the decor"
Everyone laughed at that. Sir Ansil of Groten walked up to their group. In his hand he held his glove. He was raising his hand to slap Kel with his glove. Kel yelled to him before he could even bring his arm down "You didn't even challenge me!"
The knight look dumbfounded.
"Fine, slut, will you joust?"
"Sure" she said, knowing she was going to get slapped by a glove if she answered otherwise.
As he left she turned to her friend "Well I guess I am jousting now" she whispered.
Two morning later, Kel woke up when Dom kissed her neck. "Mmmhm" she moaned softly.
Dom flipped her on her back and smiled that smile again. "Not now" she said.
He was shocked. She laughed softly "Never before a joust!" she told him.
He laughed. 'That makes sense, I guess. But after the joust" he bent his head toward her stomach and kissed her navel "you are mine"
They ate a large breakfast, as Raoul told her years before. They spent the morning with their friends looking and betting on the matches. After a small lunch Dom helped her arm up. After he put her breast plate on, he took out a piece of cloth. He wrapped that around her neck and finished up but putting her helmet on. When she looked in the mirror she could see a bit of the cloth coming out from under her armour. On it she saw the Masbolle insignia.
He squeezed her shoulder and whispered "good luck" They walked outside where Tobe was waiting with Peachblossom. Dom and Tobe helped Kel mount up and then left for the stands together. She saw them settle in the first row side by side, between Neal and Lord Raoul.
They waved at her. She waved back. She then looked at the stands and realized it was full. Amazed by the amount of Mindelan and Masbolle flag around she blushed under her helmet.
The herald came over to her side of the field. He looked at her "do you still remember the rules or do you still need me to repeat them?"
"I still know thanks!" she whispered back.
"Good Luck, Lady knight"
She smiled. She looked at Ansil on the other side of the field. He hadn't changed at all since their last challenge. He was still surrounded by his friends, and his horse was still getting nervous by all the activity around him. She shook her head.
The herald nodded. Kel and Ansil took their places. The trumpet sounded. "Charge" she whispered to her wonderful warhorse.
She had missed this. The feel of a hundred horse running with her. The rush that came from the speed. She lowered her lance and aimed at his shield. She knew she was in her space and she was going to hit him dead on. She saw his small moment of hesitation before striking and struck his shield.
She popped him out of the saddle right away. Her shield arm wasn't even numb from his lance. It hadn't even been a challenge to her. It was routine and it was so simple.
She heard a mix cheers of "Mindelan" and "Masbolle". Clearly people weren't so sure by what to call her. She took her helmet off and grinned at the crowd, but most especially her husband and son, who were cheering. She dismounted and went over to Ansil.
"Do you yield?" she asked.
He spat in the dirt "Do we have sword?" he asked.
"As I said last time, do you seriously think I do not know how to yield a sword?"
He spat again and slumped away.
She went into her tent where Dom jumped on her. "you were magnificent!" he said as he kissed her. "Seriously, you were glorious! You were amazing! You were beautiful, all confident and powerful!" he punctuated each word with a kiss.
She laughed. "Thanks" she said. He smiled as he captured her mouth in a heart melting kiss. "I love you" he whispered softly.
"I love you too"
"WOOO" yelled Neal as she and Dom walked into the eating tent. "Go Mindelan!"
She smiled as she sat next to him. "It was so easy!" she said.
"Well, you are amazingly good, and you can stay in the saddle against Lord Raoul, so I'd say... you'll find most challenges fairly easy" he told her.
"But I like a challenge" she whined.
They laughed at the sad expression on her face.
Neal, it turned out, was right. She won all her challenges. And most of them on the first try. When she competed with the sword she won most of her challenges, approximately 3 out of 4 matches.
It was in Pearlmouth that her first big challenge came.
Kel and the Lioness were sitting quietly together. "I see you've worked on your sword skills" said the Lioness.
"It's Dom's weapon of choice" said Kel "so he always wants to practice with it! It's the only weapon where he has a small chance of winning"
"Let's join the list tomorrow" she told the younger Lady Knight. "We'll see how you have improved"
"Of course, Lady Alanna"
"You're having a sword fight with the Lioness?" asked Dom, as they were getting ready to go to bed.
"Well yes" she said.
"Pfft, want me to become a widow?" he asked, grinning.
"Is that my husband doubting my sword fighting ability?" she asked, pretending to be offended.
Dom saw through the pretence "Of course not" he told her. She laughed at that.
He then looked at her. "What?" she asked, suddenly aware he was staring.
"It's just, I've noticed that lately you don't use your Yamani mask anymore, you don't hide your emotions"
She blushed. "Well, when I married you, I realize I was so happy, and I wanted everyone to know that. So why hide behind a mask? Really the mask was mainly to hide my discomfort or my anger, and ltely there is nothing to anger me" she looked him up and down. He wasn't wearing anything "and plenty to make me very happy"
He smiled "I'm glad we broke through your mask" he whispered.
"Actually, that's only you" she informed him "no one else can read through it, and I only really drop it around you"
"Thank you for thrusting me with your emotions" he said. He was actually flattered that she thrusted him so much.
She bent down and kissed him squarely on the mouth. "Thank you for taking care of them"
The crowds had heard of the match and were there en masse. It was Lady Knight against Lady Knight. Two amazing hero. Who was going to win the sword fight? The bet was slightly in Alanna's favour.
Wearing her practice clothes Kel waited patiently to start her duel. The match before hers ended and the lioness and her walked toward the center of the ring and saluted each other. The assumed guard position. The king nodded and shouted for everyone to hear "Lioness, ready?" Alanna nodded. "Protector of the Small, ready?" Kel nodded. "Fight"
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