The Melee

After the boring breakfast, in which Doran was forced to listen to Prince Aerys endlessly talk about himself, they finally went to the Tourney fields. This time they sat in the royal family box, luckily House Arryn and Velaryon were also invited to sit with the royal family so Doran didn't have to worry about entertaining Prince Aerys all day.

Doran noted the admiration the young prince has for ser Lucerys, hopefully the newly knighted will have his undivided attention for the day.

Doran looks for his sworn shield among the sea of ​​combatants who are preparing for the competition.

The Melee consists of a pitched battle between a hundred knights, squires who want to make a name for themselves, and brave warriors.

At the beginning of the battle, alliances are formed between combatants, alliances that will change throughout the battle; breaking up and forming new ones until only a couple of combatants remain.

All the participants are mounted on their horses, waiting for the start of the combat; Lothar rides a yellowish almost golden sand steed.

The horse is marked by its long neck, narrow head and its slimness and swiftness. Sand steeds have narrow, beautiful heads, and their color varies greatly; from snow white to pitch black. They are smaller than normal warhorses and cannot bear the weight of the armor a warhorse usually wears, but they can run for two days and one night. They are perfect for the desert because they need little water.

Other Dornish participants ride Sand Steeds, Lord Tremont rides a black horse with a mane the color of fire, Lord Allyrion rides a milk white one,...

The horses of the other participants vary, some ride gigantic chargers (the most used warhorses in most of Westeros), some richer knights ride destriers (They are tall, strong, splendid animals, often high spirited. They give their knight a majestic air but these kind of horses being well bred and highly trained are quite expensive, not many knight can afford them), many ride on coursers (horses smaller than destriers but faster, they are mostly used in tourneys) , and the poorest participants ride in palfreys or rounseys.

To the sound of trumpets the combatants spurred their horses.

During the first two hours the fighting is chaotic and it is difficult to recognize who is who. But by the start of the third hour there are only about twenty contestants left and they are fighting on foot. The stable boys hurried to lead the horses out of the field as soon as the combatants began to dismount.

At first all the spectators cheered for their favorites but soon many got bored and started chatting amongst themselves, paying only half attention to the Melee. That was not the case with Doran, the prince did not take his eyes off the battlefield for a minute, even he almost forgot to go to the bathroom!

Luckily his parents were there with him, Trystanne took his son to the latrine after the first hour of the Melee. If they weren't there with him, Doran might have had an accident in front of the royalty.

`It's not my fault! The Melee is too awesome.`

Doran loved every minute of it, he paid special attention to Lothar and both Duncans but throughout the battles another contestant earned his admiration: Barristan Selmy. The fifteen-year-old is very talented with a sword, Doran watched as he took out skilled combatants like Lord Rodrik Stark and Ser Tommen Lannister, who is one of the finalists of the jousts.

Doran watched as Ser Duncan and Prince Duncan fought shoulder to shoulder, eliminating any opponent in their path. Lord Baratheon made an alliance with other participants to separate the seemingly invincible duo.

Lord Baratheon, with his huge war hammer launched against Ser Duncan, while two knights surrounded the prince. In the end the mighty stag was no match for the experienced knight, but Ser Duncan did not notice another knight approaching from behind and had to give up when he felt the edge of a sword against his neck.

Prince Duncan defeated his adversaries and came face to face with Lothar, who had just disarmed a knight of the Vale, a Redfort.

Both knights armed with a shield and a sword looked at each other carefully, analyzing their adversary.

"Are you Prince Doran's sworn shield?" Prince Duncan asks as he adjusts his grip on his shield.

"Yes, your grace." Lothar looks quite tense, holding his shield tight as if expecting a blow at any moment.

"Let's see what you're made of, Ser Lothar." Duncan's stance is more relaxed but his raised sword shows that he is ready to strike at any moment.

Lothar, rather more impatient than the prince, makes the first move.

He makes a vertical slash which is blocked by the prince's shield, Lothar has to raise his own shield to block the prince's blow.

Both knights stand still for a moment, applying pressure but seeing that their opponent is not backing down they step back and attack again.

Lothar is much younger than the prince and he is used to fighting against physically stronger opponents, he knows when to push and when to dodge. Prince Trystanne taught him well.

The fight between the two lasts half an hour and attracts the attention of the entire audience, who cheers on their favorite, most for prince Duncan with a few cheering for ser Lothar. Doran likes the prince but his sworn shield has his support in this battle.

In the end Lothar manages to disarm the Dragonfly prince who acknowledges his defeat and congratulates the winner.

"You better win the Melee, Ser Lothar." the prince jokes as he walks out of the arena.

Lothar nods, and turns to survey the remaining opponents.

There remains Barristan Selmy who is fighting Ser Gerold Hightower, Ser Gwayne Gaunt is fighting Lord Gargalen, Lord Royce is fighting two Reach knights, and Lord Tarly is looking at him with his greatsword in hands.

Lothar mourns the loss of his shield and has no time to pick one up from the ground because Lord Tarly is closing in on him fast. Although he realizes that the Reach lord's movements are somewhat unstable so his concern is lessened.

The fight is short, Ser Lothar dodges Lord Tarly's blows and quickly disarms him.

After finishing the match he waits until the remaining combatants finish their battles, he walks to the side and asks a Dornish squire to bring him a waterskin of water. Lothar prefers wine to water but drinking wine in the middle of a fight is a bad idea, Prince Trystanne beat it into his head.

Ser Gaunt approaches him after winning his battle and asks him to hand over the waterskin.

"Water?" he asks after taking a drink.

"Prince Trystanne taught me never to drink wine before or during battle."

"Aye, a good lesson." The knight nods.

"Shall we, Ser Gaunt?" Lothar asks, raising his sword.

"We shall, ser Lothar. Let's give our king a good spectacle." Ser Gaunt throws the waterskin to the ground and raises his sword.

The steel dance lasts almost 40 minutes, both skilled and tenacious knights but in the end Lothar manages to take advantage of a mistake by Ser Gaunt and points his sword at the unsuspecting knight`s neck.

"I yield. Well fought ser." Ser Gaunt acknowledges his defeat affably and leaves the arena.

"Only we remain ser Lothar." says Gerold Hightower, who after defeating the young Selmy defeated Lord Royce but not without consequences, Lothar notices that the Reach knight is limping a bit.

"I wish I could fight you, ser, but under these conditions I'm afraid it wouldn't be much of a fight." Ser Gerold recognizes looking at his leg.

The next phase of the jousting will not be for a few days, if Ser Gerold wants to participate he will have to be careful not to aggravate his leg, the Hightower knows that well.

"Another time it will be Ser Gerold." Lothar shakes hands with Ser Gerold and is recognized as the winner of the Melee.

The Melee ended after four hours and Doran cheered with all his might.