It was the second day and the audience tent was quite packed. To be honest it was bursting at the seams. It turned out that yesterday’s shenanigans had been heard all round and those who had not bothered to come – due to their belief that Draco would have wiped the floor with Ventris – were now out in full force. Many people were greeting mother and father but forgot about little ole’ me, but that was just fine with me. I wanted to stay relatively low key since I wasn’t ready yet to take on those five bastards who had stabbed me in the back. I was deep in thought on how I would deal with them individually when I felt a thump next to me and then someone tugged at my sleeves.

“Hi Hiro!” chirped a bubbly Lyra as her hair bounced up and down. I hadn’t really noticed yesterday but she had almost platinum hair, just like the lady sitting next to her.

Wait, the lady sitting next to her. I frowned a bit, there were only six chairs to a row yesterday, so how was she there? Then I realized it, she had pulled a chair from somewhere else and had decided to extend the row. Then I looked up and was immediately floored. Holy shit!!! Milf alert! I looked up at her and then looked down at Lyra. Yup definitely related and very closely at that too. So, I ventured forth.

“Hullo Lyra, Good morning Lady Goodard,” I said with a smile. Her return smile was devastating to say the least. Countries have been decimated for less.

“Hello young Master Ventris. Has Lyra been behaving?” she asked as she continued beaming that deadly smile that way.

“Mama! I’m not a baby!” retorted Lyra, “Hiro is my friend!”

“She’s been very good.” I replied with a smile as I patted Lyra’s head.

“Any more sweets Hiro?” asked Lyra as she wrapped her arms around mine.

“Just one piece, Lyra, we don’t want a belly ache now, do we?” I replied as I handed off a piece of candy to her.

“Okay.” Lyra hummed as she took the candy and started sucking on it while still holding my hand.

Lady Goodard just sat there watching us with a slight smile on her face. After a bit she sort of nodded and got up to leave. “Lyra stay here with your friend Hiro and Mommy will get you when it’s all over.”

“Yes Moma!” chortled Lyra with a grin.

Lady Goodard left in a flurry and soon we were once again waiting for the overseer to begin the next game.

“Esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen, we present the war games between House Ventris and House Restav. The first match will be an archery test between the two sides. It will be held on the grassy field between fifty guards from each side. The winning side is the one with the most men left at the end of an hour. Are both houses ready?”

Fifty men from each house stepped forward and then met at the center of the field in front of the overseer.

“We’re going to take down you upstarts here and now!” yelled the leader of House Restav’s guards. “You’ve never bested us at archery and what’s with that mismatch of green splotches you call a uniform?”

“It’s green isn’t it? Doesn’t say anywhere in the rules that it has to all be the same shade of green. Besides it’s better than looking like a brown pile of shit. Or is it that you wear that color so that no one will notice when you’ve shit yourself in fear. Let me let you in on a little secret, shit smells to high heaven so we won’t need to see you. We’d smell you long before you reached anywhere close.” Replied Christof with a smirk.

My mother immediately looked my way when he said that and I shook my head. “I told him to tone it down already.” I said feigning innocence.

The two sides then went off to their sides of the field while the overseer sighed again. Yup he could see the slaughter coming already. Ten minutes later he sounded the horn to start the game. The Restav side spread out and took positions among the tall grass. On the other hand the Ventris side had 4 men form a pyramid with three on the bottom and one on top at the very back of their side of the field; just out of range of any arrows. Then the rest started spreading out. Soon they were all spread out and then the men in the back started calling out.

“J3, sixty by 25 degrees, fire!”

One of the Ventris’ men popped up quickly while facing a direction and without even taking aim fired and then dropped back down again out of sight.

“Out! Stay down and don’t move!” shouted one of the assistant overseers to the Restav archer who had been hit.

“G6, seventy by 300 degrees, fire!”

Another of the Ventris’ men popped up in a different direction and fired without aiming before dropping back down out of sight.

“Out, Stay down and don’t move!” shouted another assistant overseer to the unlucky Restav archer.

This continued on until it was just the leader of the archers left.

“Son of a bitch you worthless dog! Come out and fight me like a man!” he yelled as his anger boiled over.

“Sure thing. After all I need to be certain that that’s not a shit stain that I’m looking at or if it’s a cow turd!”

That was the insult that broke the camel’s back. The Restav archer didn’t even wait for Christof to fully step out before he fired an arrow at him. Christof merely leaned to the side and grabbed at the arrow that was whizzing past him and in one motion, turned and fired it right back at the Restav archer. Right. Between. The. Eyes. The archer went flying back when the blunted arrow hit him causing him to land sprawled in the dusty field.

Christof laughed, “What do you say lads, that position looks like the mother lode of a cow turd!”

“Ha ha ha, didn’t anyone ever tell them that you’re supposed to keep the cow and throw out the turds, not the other way around!!!”

They continued bullying the Restav guards until they finally cleared the field and the overseer declared House Ventris the winner. Try as he may, Hiro could feel his mother’s eyes boring a hole at the back of his head almost demanding an explanation for the behavior of the guards. Luckily for him, Lyra was sitting next to him so he began to play with her in an effort to ignore his staring mother. Little did he know that this would only seal his fate, now his mother was looking on with an inquisitive look on her face before tugging at her husband’s sleeve to get his attention.

“Caden, who is this adorable girl playing with Hiro?” she asked as she pointed over with her chin.

Caden leaned back a bit to take a gander before turning back, “It’s the Goodard girl. I believe her name is Lyra. Why?”

“A Goodard girl? Lord Goodard’s daughter?”

“Yes, I don’t think that they have another,” nodded Caden as he answered absentmindedly.

“Has Eleanor seen the two of them as yet?”

“Sure, she saw them yesterday and brought over Lyra earlier this morning so that they could play some more.”

Alicia simply sighed, “Your brain is as dense as a lead stone. You’ve essentially married off your son and you don’t even realize it yet.”

“Sure, sure. I’ve married him off…wait what? I haven’t married off anyone what are you talking about?”

Alicia grabbed Caden’s head and turned it face Hiro and Lyra as they played. “Do you think that after Eleanor saw those two playing so nicely that that was all she saw?”

“Umm yes?” shrugged Caden.

Alicia shook her head as she pinched her nose. Her husband was daft. Dense, daft and with fluff for brains.

“Caden, did Eleanor smile at the two of them before she left Lyra here with Hiro?”

“Uh huh,” nodded Caden enthusiastically as he replied.

“Now my daft dummy for a husband. What happened the last time you saw that smile?”

“Oh that’s easy, she managed to trick the Emperor into giving her the husband that she wanted rather than the one that was supposed to be chosen for her,” he replied with a smile which began to fade as finally the gears in his head started moving. “Oh!”

“Yes oh indeed.”

Caden’s smile faded as he looked over at the two children playing. Silently he sighed to himself, ‘Sorry Hiro, Father’s an idiot.”