Kingdom Contest ~ Sanders Sides AU

The First Day Of The Contest

Patton beamed up at the contestants for the archery. A red-skinned Ged was aiming to hit the target with a longbow and he didn't seem too comfortable. That was understandable, Geds favoured a crossbow over the classic kind, making this contestant easily won by Bose. The human soldiers were passing all tests with flying colours compared to the Ged guests and Patton knew exactly who had won.

The fairy watched the arrow land awkwardly a few centimetres away from the bullseye. The Ged looked resentful when the human beside her easily fired his bow and his arrow thunked dead into the bullseye.

Bored, Patton sighed loudly but quickly straightened up when a fellow fae gave him an encouraging smile. Patton smiled back and forced himself to focus on the repetitive pattern before him. God, it was so predictable. The contest dragged on until finally the judges swiftly announced that the archery between Gedagte and Bose was won by the humans. No Geds threw a fit, remarkably, instead, they took it in their stride and reluctantly smiled at the victors.

"Patton, be a dear, and collect up the bows, will you?" Requested an older fairy.

Patton nodded brightly, grateful for something to do. "Yes, sir! Right away, sir!" And he quickly scampered down, collecting the up the first two bows. It was only when he picked up the third bow, which had been used by the first Ged contestant did he hesitate. There was too much string on this bow. Then, the next Ged bow had been made from the wrong sort of wood. He hesitated and picked up te two human longbows that followed.

They were perfectly made.

Now, either this was a crazy coincidence or something was going on. Patton buried untrusting thoughts down, gathering up the next two Ged bows. The first one had the leather straps around the hold overlapping and awkward. The second was untampered with but the arrows were subtly bent at the tail, or the feathers weren't on point. This was all very concerning. Patton bit his lip and continued to collect up the bows. Six army-grade bows, used by Bose, six sabotaged bows used by the Geds. Not good.

Patton hurriedly tucked them away, beaming to cover his suspicion and he fluttered his wings and flew away, looking for a new friend he hoped he could trust. He found him.

"Logan!" Yelped Patton, landing next to the tall Ged with a small pant.

"Patton? What is it?" Logan turned to the fae with concern in his eyes. "Are you alright? You seem quite out of breath.

Patton shook his head, refilling his lungs with deep breaths. "I'm okay, I'm good. What exactly did you see before you came here?"

Logan hesitated. "You mean in my psychic dreams?"

"Yeah."

The Ged hesitated. "I saw the gathering of species, I saw the arrival of the Vers, I saw one or two shots of the competitions currently hosted and-"

"No, not like that!" Patton interrupted, waving his hand dismissively. "Did you see the winner of the competition?"

"No..." Logan's' blue gaze turned suspicious. "Why?"

The fairy swallowed. "The Geds in the archery contest was sabotaged..."

~('^')~

Virgil stood, blindfolded, barely moving a muscle. He could feel Koue stationary and tangled up in his horns, her tail curling playfully along the top. It was boiling but she had cooled herself down to help him, so he managed to be outside of the forest, listening to the golems from Gedagte setting up the agility course. He knew that a few competitions were going to start soon between Bose and Gedagte but he wasn't too bothered. Maybe they had already started.