The next morning, Jane is well prepared to be a knight. She looked rather regal herself, wearing her suit of armor that Jester gave to her when she first tried to rescue the prince before. She herself looked clean and ready. And as she was about to complete her "knight look", her mother and father, Milton and Adeline, came in to give her congratulations. Her mother is a little worried about her being a knight and will worry if it will affect her. But as she truly cares for her daughter's desire, she is happy as well and will support her for whatever she will become in the future. The family hugged and as soon as the hugging ended, a knock on the door is heard.

"Jane? Are you done? We need to hurry! Gunther's already heading out to the castle grounds. You need to hurry!" That voice turned out to be Dragon's voice.

"I'm coming!" Jane then waved her parents goodbye before she is taken to the castle ground floor with Dragon.

Dragon, with his big claws, carried Jane to the ground and tried to catch up with Gunther. (Comedically, they manage to accidentally trip on each other and stared at each other accidentally.)

"Ack! Jane!" Gunther screamed at Jane with quite power.

"Sorry!" Jane rapidly answered.

"Sorry does not cut it that much..seriously, we are about to become knights and you can't keep your hyperactivities to yourselves, do you?" Gunther told Jane.

"Right, and I suppose you have such nice tone of voice there. Don't you think you're just over exaggerating?" Jane answered..which came out rather wrong.

"Whatever, let's just head to the king already. We probably waste his time if we chat like this." Gunther said. The two then put that accident aside and left for the King's chambers. Dragon, who saw all of that, looked rather jealous of the incident. And he almost look like he was about to scream to Gunther and Jane. But it might make Jane feel sad instead if he does so.

In the King's chambers, at dawn morning, 1-2 hours before the incident above.

Jester is trying to talk to the king about the tournament incident and the test. His name, King Caradoc Cedric Bartok Kippernook, had been influentially described as a long name. So everyone just calls them King.

"So, Your Highness, is it true that if we lose in the tournament, your life will be taken away?" Jester asked.

"..I'm afraid so. My life is indeed a-at stake here. We were fortunate 20 years ago we manage to avoid it, but now that we are c-caught, we might as well just hope for the best and e-e-ensure our victory." King Caradoc tried to keep himself as optimistic as possible, but Jester can clearly see that he's shaking in fear.

"Anyways, I have heard that Jane and Gunther passed their exams to be knights, is that r-right?" King Caradoc asked Jester who seems to be very nervous.

"Yes, your highness. I had assisted them in helping to get the letter that was mentioned by Sir Theodore and fought Sir Ivon's contraption." Jester answered as he looked at King Caradoc's nervous arms.

"I-I see...Thank you Jester, you may leave the premises." King Caradoc ordered his "fool" to head out of his chambers.

"Hmm.." Jester seems to be thinking of a lot of things, but he seemed to try and get all of that away as he brought out a set of scrolls he had and read the History of the Castle. But he couldn't find any but one information regarding the tournament at all. Which is odd, since the only "tournament" he could find is the year 792. And it didn't actually give specific information regarding what the tournament was since it was different to the one that they're having trouble with right now. (Consult the Castle History timeline for details.)

But still, he manage to find a few scrolls that are hidden in the Royal Library and found something about the tournament after all. It is listed as "Alexandra Royal Tournament" in bold letters. Jester reads the scroll quickly.

Alexandra Royal Tournament

"This tournament has been made far before this castle was being made. It is a tournament that will consist of knights from respective castles to travel to the capital of Alexandra and fight for their king's lives in the tournament. It will consist of 2 rounds. Should you win twice and the other loses, the winning knights will have their king's heads spared. But the losing knights will have their king's head tortured to his lives' end and the knights will betray each other as they will ruthlessly slay each other in battle viewed by thousands. Kippernia has never participated in this tournament due to the peacefulness and lack of skills. But after hearing of news that a green dragon has been spotted near the castle and news of a first female squire-in-training, the Decree decided to enforce the rules so that they must participate in the year 813. It is a sad story since they will only fight for a battle they can't win. If you read this letter, mark my words, your king's life is certainly going to end. You only hope is to find a warrior cloaked in armor and donned a beautiful helmet beyond all knights' helmet ever made by blacksmiths. His name is Draugat..otherwise known as the Savior of all Knights. As to where he is right now, even I don't know."

Year 804

Wizard...

"The page ripped before the wizard's name is mentioned." Jester thought. He shoved this scroll into a pocket, hoping it might be of use later. And fearing that the King's worries may come true, Jester can only hope that Jane and Dragon can find all the answers for this problem. But before he left the Royal Library, he sees the Wizard wandering about in desperation.

"NO..NOO! Ohh..." The wizard is worried like some ghost is after him.

"Something the matter?" Jester asked the wizard.

"This is bad. T-The castle! Its under a spell! That spell will destroy everything in sight within the next 2 hours and 25 minutes! Poppycock! What am I to do!" The wizard is nervous beyond imagination which is somewhat interesting to see, but the castle being destroyed is something that cannot be overlooked. So Jester tried to convince the wizard to find out what is going on.

"Calm down young sire. We should report this to-" Jester is stopped by the wizard and said "No! The spell will only trigger much faster that way! Don't you understand! We have a very evil and clever magician in our midst and I cannot even sense the presence of his/her magic! We are all doomed!" The wizard spoke nervously, even more nervous than King Caradoc does.

"Then what shall we do? We cannot just give up like this!" Jester tries to calm down the wizard and tried to think of a solution.

The wizard thinks for awhile before he finally got an idea. "Ah! I know! You know of the dragon that wanders around the castle frequently, right?" the wizard asked.

"Yes..as a matter of fact, I know of him and his friend Jane." Jester told the Wizard.

The wizard rubbed his long beard and then finally tell to Jester his plan.

"This spell will come into contact to anyone who's in the castle for too long once activated. The effects for some people varies from being burned to being completely obliterated. That dragon is one of the few residents here resistant to the magician's spell. You need to get him to carry two people with you to safety. Especially knights so that they can survive and fight alongside the dragon. You must come along with them and tell them to find the magician that caused this and stop it. Only then will the spell be reversed and all the residents here will return to normal. Now hurry! Find a knight and that dragon! They're our last hope!" The wizard told Jester and then he runs off to Jane and Dragon, hoping to find them before its too late.

2 hours 20 minutes after this and a few minutes after the first segment

(Be careful, this may get ugly, very ugly.)

Jane and Gunther arrived at the king's chambers and they are ready to be knighted.

"Are you ready? Jane? Gunther?" The king asked.

Both said in unison "Yes."

But before they even step up to be knighted, the King fainted and somehow got burned afterwards!

"W-What!" Gunther is surprised by the latter. Jane screamed in terror as she sees the king being burned to ashes. After awhile, Gunther and Jane heard screams from many corners of the castle. They see the whole residents in Kippernia Castle burned in purple fire that is beyond anything they have encountered before. They immediately went to the garden as quick as they could. They see Pepper melting, Rake being completely ashed and Smithy and all the barn animals being completely obliterated by the purple fire. Jane cannot bear to watch this monstrosity. And even worse, she heard their parents screaming as well.

"Mother! Father!" Jane quickly head towards her mother and father. Who had completely disappeared after she came in, signifying that they are also have been caught by the fire. Jane tried to fight back her tears and head back to the garden, where she found Dragon, Gunther and Jester, who manage to find them, together.

"What in the world's going on? The short-lives are all melting like iron!" Dragon asked.

"Its a spell that turns anyone to dust if came into contact with the castle. At this rate, we'll be next! We have to hurry!" Jester explained to them briefly.

"Lets just get out of here first!" Gunther said. But then, fire start to circle around Jane who is about to get ashed like her parents does. She tries to get the fire off, but its no good.

"AAAHHH! The fire! It reached me!" Jane screamed as she said so. The flame of the dark arts reached her..the true dark that influences pure evil and malice. She tries to fight the power that surrounds her, but it was no use. Dragon notices this and suddenly goes in a frenzy panic.

"JANE!" Dragon desperately tried to pick her up, but it was no good. But then, Gunther knocked her over the ground and he is burned in the process, taking Jane's place.

"GUNTHER!" Jane screamed at him.

"Eheh...Jane..I guess I'm the one who's gonna die here. Find the guy who's behind this..I know you could. I..I l-" Gunther is completely burned before he could say the word.

Seeing her own rival being burned into ashes crushed her heart like a broken glass. Such black magic that affects the residents harms her pride and duty into complete oblivion. Tragedy befalls the one who almost become a knight and thoughts of only sadness envisioned inside her. The flames of hell that was supposed to reach her, reached his friend and rival altogether. As she silently staring at his ashes with full depression and grief, Jester and Dragon worry for her even more, thinking about how to escape from the catastrophe.

"Come on! Let us leave this place! We need to find some place for shelter!" Dragon said.

Jane just looked blankly shocked as she just saw her rival burned in ashes. Jester helped Jane to climb onto Dragon's back and the green Dragon then flies away from the purple fire of destruction. Jane saw a shadow of a female in the dark with an evil smile on her face as Dragon flew past the castle with Jane and Jester on board, looking grim. Jane then cried so hard that she can't imagine the cruelty that just happened to her, right in front of her eyes.

Comments: Wow..this is by far the longest fanfiction chapter I've made right now. Here's to chapter 5! Its longer than all the other pieces and bits of chapters I've been making! I just want to show you a lot including the JaneXGunther relationship and Jester being the informant. This indeed is a truly scary scene that is unusual in the Jane and the Dragon story and I'm sorry about writing this. But its for the storyline to flow through with what I imagine for the story's fanfiction. Tenses still needs work..fixing..editing..everything.

I've also solved your Q's and A's about how Gunther doesn't survive this incident. Some of them are crude, but this is well made. So I assure you that this is a fantastic "birthmark chapter".

Also, I want to tell you that I've been enjoying your company! I just want to get this story done as soon as possible so that I can create a secret sequel project, with a little help from Haelwyn. That's gonna be when this story's over so the sequel isn't that hard to digest.