Chapter 10 Part 3

"Fuck! Ow! Ok!" Heddwyn swipes his leg under Heather's feet, knocking her to the ground.

As Heather tries to get up, Heddwyn gets onto her back and puts her in a choke hold, wrapping his legs round so she can't escape.

"C'mon Heather, give up before you pass out." Heddwyn pleads.

Heather digs her thumb into his eye, trying to get him to let go, but he holds firm.

"I'll quit when I don't have air in my lungs! I'm not losing 10 platinum! Do you have any idea how much that is? We could pay our entire tuition for college ten times over! I will not let my brothers down!" Heather says, tears welling up in her eyes. "We need to win this. For our future."

Heddwyn finds his daughter's words touching but keeps her locked in his grip. "Just go to sleep before I lose my grip." he says through sniffles.

Heather frantically claws at Heddwyn's face, desperately needing air. The longer she resists, the more she tries to break free, digging her nails into his arm, shoving her thumb as far as she can into his eye. But Heddwyn shakes it off.

"No! Please. I can't lose here. Let me go!" Heather cries out, her tears running down her face.

Heddwyn turns his head to the side, suffering in silence as he chokes his daughter out, all the way until she stops fighting and falls unconscious. He lets go as he feels all the tension leave her body.

"I'm sorry, Heather. I understand how you feel. But you need to know how much farther you need to go. Keep working hard. I love you honey." Heddwyn whispers, placing a gentle kiss on his cubs forehead.

"Heddwyn wins by KO! Ladies and gentlemen! Give it up for the 49th Dragon Festival winner! But don't go anywhere yet folks! Soon, King Shavik and Queen Viridiana will hand out the prize money and medals for the top 3!"

(Narrator) Huh, I was expecting explosions, confetti, music, something in the least. I guess the crowd's cheers are deafening enough.

Heddwyn splashes some water on Heather's face to wake her up and she shoots up, gasping from the cold water gliding across her face.

"God fucking damn it! I lost!" Heather exclaims, smacking her first into her dress.

"But look at it this way. At least you'll never need to pay for repairs on your outfits. Afterall, it has the same enchantment as my armour. I'm sure that dress could fetch 70 gold on its own. And you made it yourself!" Heddwyn says, attempting to raise her spirits.

"Are you seriously trying to cheer me up right now? Well you can stop it. We really needed that prize money, dad." Heather pouts.

"How much gold do you guys have left?" Heddwyn asks.

"I have 89 silvers. We decided to use Christopher as a kind of allowance bank. So we need to make a request for when we want to take money out. We could've splurged with even a single platinum. Essentially getting rid of our allowances." Heather mopes.

"That's rather responsible of you." Heddwyn shuffles so he's sitting next to her. "You do realise that not just 1st place receives a cash prize right?"

"What? What do you mean?" Heather asks.

"I won the 38th Dragon festival. A few years before I settled in Dungannon. They gave out prizes to the second and the two 3rd place winners too." Heddwyn says.

"So that's how you got this much money. Congrats on winning it again. How much do I get?" Heather asks.

"If I remember correctly, 3 platinum." Heddwyn says.

"Shut the fuck up! You're lying!" Heather exclaims.

"No, I swear! The money gained from tickets as well as projection crystals everyone buys every year pays for it all. It goes to the King's office and then they distribute it between the top 4 fighters of the tournament." Heddwyn reassures.

"Haider was one of the 3rd place winners. How much does he win?" Heather asks again.

Heddwyn holds up five fingers and says, "Fifty gold. Unless they've received more viewers than expected then I would see that number go up slightly."

A Lizardman earth mage sets up a podium in the middle of the arena and King Shavik along with Queen Viridiana appears in front of it with King Shavik holding four medals and Queen Viridiana handling the coin.

Haider gets dragged out into the arena with no sign of Kiana. The person who dragged Haider out places him behind the third place spot at the podium and tells him to wait there. They then walk over to Heather and Heddwyn and reach for them.

"If you touch me, I'll turn to you to ash. I'll walk there myself thanks." Heather threatens, getting up and walking over to the ceremonial area.

When he stands behind the first place Heddwyn looks over at Haider and asks, "Where's that Kiana lady? Isn't she supposed to be with you?"

"I don't have a clue, apparently she disappeared from her infirmary bed and hasn't come back." Haider whispers.

"I guess all the third place prize money is yours kiddo!" Heddwyn encourages, giving his cub a thumbs up.

...

"In 3rd place is Haider Longstaff and Kiana Essery. However, since Kiana is nowhere to be found, Haider receives both 3rd place cash prizes along with his bronze medal." The MC says. The same man that pulled him here tells Haider to walk up onto the podium.

"Well done young man, you've exhibited great power and potential during the week. Keep practising and I'm sure you'll make a great hero one day." King Shavik says, placing the bronze medal round the boy's neck, then moving onto Heather.

"Well done lad, here, 150 gold since the other 3rd place winner didn't come to receive it." Queen Viridiana says, Handing Haider two heavy large bags filled with gold coins.

"If you even graze my dress I'll break your fingers." Heather says to the Orc behind her. "I know when I'm supposed to go."

...

"Iiin 2nd place we have Heather Longstaff, receiving 3 pieces of platinum and a silver medal!" the MC says.

Heather walks up onto the podium and King Shavik adorns the medal around her neck. "Congratulations lil miss, all of your fights were a wonder to watch, especially the finals. That was definitely something this kingdom won't be forgetting anytime soon. You deserve this. Keep working on your close combat and I'm convinced you'll be a force to rival the most powerful of dragons one day."

Queen Viridiana walks up to her and places the small bag of platinum coins in her hands. "Congratulations Heather. I'll be sure to be cheering you on in your future endeavours. Also, love the dress, green frilly dresses suit you quite well."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. I made it myself, it's even equipped with an enchantment that repairs it using mana." Heather says.

"You'll have to make me one someday! I love these expensive outfits but they always lack in imagination." Queen Viridiana says.

"I would love that! It would be an honour." Heather replies.

"Alright, love you and leave you. We gotta finish the rest of the ceremony." Queen Viridiana says. Heather starts to bow but catches herself.

...

"And in 1st place, winning it for the second time! Heddwyn Longstaff! He receives his second gold medal and another ten platinum coins. Now if some of you don't really remember him, don't fret he won it over a decade ago and moved to Stocaea to settle down and live in peace. In that time, he adopted three amazing human cubs, raised them into these amazing individuals and sent them off to explore the world!" The MC says.

Heddwyn pulls out his previous gold medal as King Shavik approaches him. "Hay Shavik, how've you been? You're father still with us?"

"Hello Heddwyn, unfortunately not, he passed the year after your last visit to Maranus. Hence my rise as King. It's good to talk to you again, friend. Formalities stopped me from...You get it. Anyway, congrats on winning another festival my friend." King Shavik says, placing the gold medal round his neck.

Queen Viridiana approaches Heddwyn and hands him the grand prize. "Shavik has been talking about you a bunch, Heddwyn. He tells me you tried curing the late King's sickness. Thank you for sending the letters too, he was worried to hear about Christopher's condition. Not that he'll admit that."

"It's nice to finally meet you, Your Majesty. You look as fabulous as Shavik described in his letters. He's completely smitten about you." Heddwyn says.

Queen Viridiana giggles. "We'll talk later." she says, backing away from the podium slowly.

...

"There we have it folks! That concludes the 49th Dragon Festival. Thank you to everyone that bought tickets to witness the action in person. And of course a special thanks to all those who are watching at home! Without your continued support of this event, this nation wouldn't be as entertaining as it is today! I'm sure we are all excited to see what new talent shows themselves in next year's event! It's goodbye from me, take care everyone. And please don't forget to dispose of your broken broadcasting crystal's into the recycler as we can repurpose those as valuable lantern lights. Bye!"