Royal vs Dragon

Chapter 16

Devon:

The day of the contest finally came and I was going through all the motions of my duties.  I had to oversee the whole process and make sure that all went well.  As I was watching the whole procession go by, I ended up letting my mind drift off back to that day I entered Kaylee's room and kissed her.  Sure, she slapped me on my face and left in a rage, but it was well worth it to get that kiss in when I did.  I smiled despite the bitter memory of the burn her slap left behind.  I could have punished her, but decided against it.  I didn't want to hurt her in the end.

I focused once again on the procession at hand.  We were currently at the part when we were testing to see how much magic power each person had.  I hoped that she would take part in it, too.  When I saw her come up, I was ecstatic.  I jumped in my seat, finding it hard to wait for her results.  This was going to be awesome!  I waved wildly at her with my arm in hopes she would see me.  She did but lifted her head in a snobby-like motion in response, even giving a little hmph! sound. 

I'd get her back.  I'd get her to fall in love with me.  I just had to hope that that would happen.  With time, hopefully.

My attention snapped back to the present when it was announced that the woman who was taking her turn showed a magical score of four hundred-thirty seven.  This would make her a viscountess.  I hurried and jotted it down.  I had to ask someone next to me what her name was since I missed it during my daydreaming.  They answered that her name was Melissa.  We said our thank you's to her and told her that she may proceed on to the next event.  I picked up the piece of paper that had a list of everyone who wanted to try out and looked over it.  So far we have had several people try their luck at this.  Twenty-two men and forty-three women.  Most of the men scored in the three hundreds, with two below the two-hundreds but still with some magical power, and the exception of five others.  Three of those five scored in the six hundreds while the other two scored in the seven hundreds.  Twenty-two women scored below two hundred while fifteen scored in the three hundreds, three more women scored in the four hundreds including the woman Melissa, and two more scored in the five hundreds and the last two scored in the seven hundreds.  Altogether we had sixty-five people who have currently tried out.  We currently have in the order of the hierarchy from the bottom up, we have fifteen baronesses and fifteen barons, five viscountesses, five earls and five countesses.  The twenty-four others scored below any of the royalty positions but still had the option-along with all the others who tried out and passed for royalty positions-to be on the fighting forces.  My guess was, however, that they would accept this option, or at least some of them would.  They would, after all, get paid a rather generous amount of money for helping defend their kingdom.

I was so busy studying the piece of paper that I was startled so badly that I was worried that I would be scared to death, when I heard someone scream.  I looked up after half-jumping out of my chair in fright.  I saw a woman in a position that could only describe how terrified she was.  Others looked to where the sound had come from.  When they found who it was, they turned to gaze in the direction that the woman was looking, up.  She slowly pointed her finger in the direction pointing to what everyone else saw when following her gaze.  I followed her gaze, too.  What I saw was a horrendous sight.  There was the dragon, plain as day, and he was carrying another woman in his talons.  This was not good.  I stood up and narrowed my gaze at it.  I had to do something, but what?  Nothing I could do would hurt it.  I didn't like this.  Not one bit!

I looked around, trying to look for anything that could help me out with this dilemma.  Nothing!  Well, there were the poles that helped connect and hold the string of colorful, triangular flags.  I tried to dig a pole out, hoping that it could do something at least.  I used all my strength and ground my feet to the dirt floor, squatting down and trying to lift up using my legs and not back, and managed to only lift it up about an inch before having to stop and take a break and start back up again.  I continued this process over and over again trying to pull these out of the ground as quick as possible.  I didn't have much luck in speed.  While working, I could hear how everything had erupted into chaos around me.  I grunted and worked as quickly as I could, hoping for the best.