Summary: Thad takes Neal's place in Kel's tilting practice.
The sun scorched down on the land of Tortall as two nobles were assisted into jousting gear, and friends sat by in the stands with growing smirks on their faces.
In sharp contrast to the confident woman, the man seemed entirely unused to the weight of the padded outfit.
A silence engulfed the training court.
Grabbing her padded lance, Kel mounted her strawberry roan, watching amusement as Thaddeus dragged his borrowed lance across the ground, leaving a thick line in the packed down dirt.
Keladry of Mindelan did not usually judge people on first sight. For example, if a handsome man walked by, she did not automatically assume that he was nice, kind, or thoughtful, she knew better than that. Always had.
But Thad…well, she guessed that this must be a special case.
As Peachblossom snorted at the ground of the jousting lane, his owner mounted the testy horse and looked over at the person at the other end of the lane. He was handsome, sure, she agreed.
But really, something about him just didn't seem right about him.
Ordering her horse into a canter, Kel lifted her lance to point at the shield in front of her.
Harold (Thad's stallion) suddenly reared, as his owner dropped a heavy lance right on top of his head, causing it to clang to the ground. Thad hollered something that sounded like a court lady curse - although Kel couldn't make out exactly what he had said – and gripped onto his horses reins for dear life.
Thud.
Guess he doesn't like his life enough, Kel thought, thoroughly amused by the scene, lowering her lance and halting Peachblossom.
Thad was scowling once again.
"Are you sure that you want to joust Lord Thaddeus? It looks like you took quite a tumble." Kel looked down at the fallen man, who was looking for all the world that he had just had a limb had been cut off.
He flashed her one of his false smiles, which she was beginning to think was his talent. "If women can joust then I can too, eh?" he replied, rubbing his rear and getting back onto his horse. He was asking for it. A round of death glares came from the jousting stands. Kel ignored the comment and nodded serenely to Owen, signaling that he should again wave the white starting flag.
The flag descended to the earth, prompting two horses to canter over the dirt packed earth.
Kel raised her lance and watched Thad struggle to do the same.
Kel's lance hit its mark perfectly, popping Thad clean out of his borrowed tilting saddle before he could even attempt to hit Kel's shield.
He landed on the ground with a painful sounding thump. Kel's friends cheered her win, not really bothering to see if Thad was okay.
Kel dismounted neatly, before walking over to look down at Thaddeus, who emitted a small groan.
Kel offered him a hand to help him up, but he seemed reluctant to move at all, instead lying face first in the dirt moaning that he was dieing. Kel rolled her eyes at his very babyish behavior and checked to make sure he hadn't broken anything (which, as she had thought, he most certainly had not) before standing back up and walking over to the group of her friends on the other side of the training ground, where she watched with amusement his manservant rushing over to him shrieking and fussing over his master. They, she decided, made a very pathetic pair.