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And I’m not certain about this Not at all I know my skills are on par with his I know that I’m in the best physical shape ofhim in perfect circuular yellow flag mounted on a short, striped pole as he calls for the first bout to begin Our squires begin handing us our equipment, and then Ada at rill of my helmet, he says solee his words with a thu With narrowed eyes, he says, "This tioner, Drake, you hearYou’ve already lost the girl, and now you’re going to lose the duel"

His face flushes a deep red and then he sla to hist his rant, but he can’t say the could be penalized for unchivalrous language

I don’t want hih He’s done so much to hurt Jenna that I really want to hurt hi to do it under the watchful eyes of the tourna on technicalities…not today

Our first bout is long swords only, which we both wield two-handed As is custoh, two hands gripping at the hilt in order to chop doard We e of the blade--the side closest to the opponent--in order to score a hit Each bout is played until one contestant gets three hits

In our previous duel, I won this particular bout But this ti atht

The crowd is loud and distracting, and I can’t help but look over at the in the back ofstyle well enough to know that he’s long on aggressive tactics in small bursts, but short on sta his onslaughts and letting hiot winded My plan was to do the sas for long

I continue glancing at the crowd, trying to catch a glihtly gripping the railing in front of her And that’s when Doug charges and clips e of his blade

The flag co for hits raises his hand and points to Doug, indicating that the first touch has gone to hi--hard--thecan react, I clip him on the top of his bracer, just below his elbow He shouts the f-word and the whistle blows My hit is registered, and Doug is warned about his language

Meanwhile, I’ that I hit him on his left ar a weapon with each of our hands, it’s not an issue But I wonder if I clipped hih to cause some pain for the next bout He swore, so that tellsotherwise--not even in anger So it likely cae

But while I’in his offense Soon he’s scored another hit, this tih I note that he’s left a slight dent, thoughlifts again, Doug starts with a low feint, pointing the tip of his sword directly at my codpiece, like he wants to chopit, fortunately

I swing low to push his sword away fro loudly behind his hel around in a wide arc to land on his favored ar’s style Due to s down in ood handle on his strengths and weaknesses His advantages are speed and short bursts of energy, while mine are stamina and consistency Also, th departainstfeint, only to quickly shift and swing up, landing a hit squarely in the middle of my chest piece That’s his third, and now this first bout is over

Doug has won For now

I inhale and closesword for my buckler and one-handed sword I don’t want to look at Jenna right now I knohat her worried face looks like, and I don’t want to see it She’s thinking she ht lose her tiara--that she shouldn’t have put her trust in ain under the pretense of grabbing a drink from his water bottle, just like last tie the situation

I wish that I could erase the crowd--I don’t even want to look at the the people as a rushing river of water I iined people in the lunchroo popcorn like those zebras or gazelles rass

It occurs to me that I do have the power to erase this crowd I can tune the else in their place So instead of a roaring crowd, they suddenly becoon An evil beast that threatens to destroy the countryside Doug is the dragon’s defender--a dark knight And I have to get through Doug in order to defeat the dragon and save everyone It’s actually a lot like playing D&D, except I have a sword in my hand instead of dice and a character sheet

With every bit of concentration and i frohty wind that threatens to blow ht of the land

Pretend isn’t just a game for kids I can do this, too And I have to Because she believes in me, and I will not let her down