We enjoyed our lunch and our drinks while watching the bonfire and enjoying the music as well as the spirit of the people surrounding us. Even though daylight had already driven away the darkness, there was still a certain charm to the fire.

Gray was mesmerized by it as well. The normally ever so active wolf pup just stood at my side and watched the flames dance. It made me wonder if he wanted to have a closer look, but I didn’t think it’d be a good idea as he didn’t seem to fathom certain dangers yet. Fortunately, Elly still had him on a leash, so he’d be safe.

I petted him and let out a giggle as his focus wasn’t ever broken.

“Even he feels the magic,” Velariah suggested.

“Sure looks like it,” I replied with a smile.

The music continued, and as more people removed themselves from the main square to sit down, the treemenders under the leadership of Kantasia started to open up the area by blocking it off and asking people to leave it. At the same time, men coming from the warehouse moved to the center, carrying painted wooden panels which they put up and connected to one another.

I could already see what was going on.

“Interesting,” I let out. “Wonder what they’ll play.”

“Play?” Seralyn asked.

“A play, yes,” I said. “Theater. Look, they are setting a stage.”

I pointed to the panels which started to form a grassland with clouds in the sky. They worked swiftly and while they were assembling the background, others carried additional props that were going to be used. Among them were painted trees cut from wooden boards, and miniature huts, like the goblin ones we’d seen, either glued or nailed together which were brought behind the stage.

Then, the actors showed up. Members from the guild in costumes which was, in fact, actual armor walked onto the set, causing the crowd to go quiet and Valtheril to stand up. All eyes were on him as he took position and addressed the onlookers.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” He said loudly so everyone could hear. “As you all know, today is a day of celebration, and I wanted this year to be in the theme of our major victories this year. Some of you may never see combat with your own eyes, so I talked with the guild and we decided to bring the fight here, to the middle of the village, to show what being an adventurer can be about. Let us remember the actions of our heroes, and let’s thank them for making the future of Dawnleaf look brighter than it has ever been. We will show today, one party, but there are, of course, many, too many to show. We honor them all today.”

He paused for a moment as he looked at the actors before he continued.

“And with that in mind, enjoy the show!”

He took his seat among the audience once more and the play started.

I could tell it was simple in concept as what was shown had become a fairly average life to me. Nonetheless, as he’d said, it was interesting for anyone that wasn’t interested in putting their life on the line.

The party started in the village, where they took on a quest to slay goblins in the forest. The depictions were eerily similar to our meetings in the guild hall, where they talked, drank, and planned before heading out.

Then, in the forest, the group of adventurers made up camp where they were suddenly ambushed by the green-skinned menaces, which, Valtheril had said from behind me, were children from the village’s orphanage. They wore simple costumes and small wooden swords.

Their large numbers were no match for the party, but then suddenly, a troll showed up. One of the burly men who worked in the warehouse presented a big obstacle for the heroes of this story. The exposed parts of his skin were painted in the same blueish-grey, and he had a proper pair of boar tusks strapped to his face, which had me, and several others giggling at the sight. Of course, he also possessed the mandatory troll mace, although this too, was made of wood.

A hard fight followed in which the party had to work together and cover for each other’s weaknesses. Wooden weapons clashed and arrows with corks for arrowheads were shot by the party’s archer. The mage took a cup of water and splashed it on the ‘troll’ screaming ‘water blast’, which left many people in the audience laughing.

A bit of humor was sprinkled in the play which made it lighthearted and not nearly as gruesome as some of the fights were in reality. Another example was when one of the fighters received a corked arrow to the back of the head which led to the female ranger screaming at him for getting in the way.

Honestly, she reminded me of Seralyn.

I grinned. Perhaps she had been the inspiration behind the character?

After a tough battle with the troll, they finally managed to bring it down. I was impressed that even in a play, with the necessary drama, they still managed to depict a battle like this quite well. Trolls were powerful foes, and not to be underestimated. I imagined that was one of Valtheril’s goals - letting people know what we were up against.

The adventurers then cut off the troll’s ears - cloth patches - before they returned to the village where they celebrated the good end of their quest with food and alcohol. That’s where the play ended, a reason to celebrate.

Everyone who participated, including the children took a deep bow as everyone else applauded their performance, and Valtheril walked back to the stage.

He thanked everyone that made this possible and wholeheartedly wished everyone would enjoy this day to the fullest.

Though, I knew him and I had no trouble seeing that there was a deeper meaning to all this, even if it hadn’t been made obvious. We had a fun and interesting play played out before us where all went well, sure, but there were occasions where things didn’t end well. That was a given.

The fact that Valtheril had the orphans that arose as a result of conflicts and misadventures join in made it all the more clear. I got the notion that the general had set all this up, in part, to try to raise awareness, maybe even get them adopted. It suited him to not mention anything about this on a day of celebration, but people would be able to figure it out themselves if they wanted to.

“Hope you enjoyed it,” Valtheril said as he passed us on his way back to the two treemenders, before coming to a halt.

We nodded in agreement while the general put on a mischievous smile.

“I took some inspiration from your party,” He said.

“I knew it!” Velariah called out. “I knew I was looking at Seralyn.”

“I was thinking the exact same thing,” I added.

Draco merely smiled while Seralyn seemed to be looking for an answer. In the end, she was left shaking her head, but it seemed she could take the joke when a small smile appeared on her lips.

“Hopefully it serves as a lesson for people not to go into melee recklessly. Especially when someone is taking aim,” She said.

I grinned at her typical answer, as did the general when he continued his stroll.

The stage was being dismantled and the musicians took their place again. They didn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

“So,” I said. “You guys wanna do something or are you content just sitting here?”

“Was wondering when you’d ask that,” Seralyn spoke. “I could go for some booze right about now.”

“Me too,” Velariah added.

I chuckled. “Will you be able to contain yourself?”

“Yeah, yeah,” She replied, slightly irritated. “Don’t worry about me. I’m more worried about you.”

“That’s fair,” I replied with a chuckle.

We made our way back to the stalls to get some drinks. In the meantime, I noticed that there was some activity at the guild hall. A few heavily-armored adventurers walked out and made their way to the center of the village where the play had previously been held.

After we got our liquids, we saw the musicians move to the edge while peoples’ attention was drawn to what was going on in the center now. It looked like they were going to have some show duels.

“This looks like it’s going to get good,” Velariah said as she hopped over to where we were previously seated, her drink still in hand. I was surprised and impressed she didn’t spill any.

I looked at Draco who shrugged, clearly unimpressed. I shook my head with a smile as I joined her. I had to give it to her though, these spars and guild trials sure were a pleasure to watch.

The first duel was about to start, and even the performers started watching, playing their instruments in tune with what was going on. I felt like I was watching old cartoons where characters’ movements were narrated by music. Seeing it in that light put a smile on my face.

We were looking at a sword versus spear fight. Up until not too long ago, I would have believed that the sword would win in a one-on-one fight, but I was forced to change my mind on that. It became clear once more in this fight that the spear’s superior reach, nimbleness, and ease to use outmatched the sword.

Hell, this guy seemed to be an expert with the weapon, parrying sword blows to then turn it around and punch the swordsman with the butt end of the pole. Perhaps I should ask him to teach me.

A dance followed and weapons kept clashing, but ultimately it was the spear that was victorious as he managed to land a hit on the opponent’s armor, which apparently was the win condition. The two shook hands and the audience clapped excitedly.

“This looks fun,” Velariah said as the next two adventurers took the stage. “You should go and grab your weapons, El.”

“You’re not seriously expecting me to hold a show here, right?”

“Why not?” The white-haired elf said with a sly smile. “If we really want to have a show, we’ll have you take on me and Draco at the same time. I’m sure many people would want to see that.”

“You gotta be joking.”

Seralyn grinned at the suggestion.

“I’d be up for that if you’re interested, Miss Elania,” Draco said politely.

I sighed. “Fine. It’s not like I have anything better to do. Let’s grab our weapons.”

Seralyn and Nira stayed with Elly as Velariah, Draco and I went to pick up our armaments. I chose to use the spear over my polearm as I imagined it would do better in this setting. After putting on our helmets, we headed to the town square again where the next fight was already taking place.

“You’re up next,” Seralyn said with a grin. “Already arranged it.”

“Thank you so much,” I replied, sarcasm dripping from my words.

“You’re welcome,” The brunette replied with glee, pretending to ignore my tone.

I sighed and unsheathed my blades, putting the scabbards down on the bench next to the harpy who put a hand on them to keep them safe. We then watched as an adventurer using a sword and shield easily dispatched his foe who used an axe.

Now that was what I would expect to be the expected outcome based on weapon choice. The sword was still an extremely versatile weapon, after all, much more so than the axe.

“Well, let’s go,” Velariah said as the audience applauded once more.

I looked at the lizardman who smiled widely before he followed the elf into the open area. I followed shortly after and heard some gasps escape from the onlookers’ lips. Velariah was right when she said people would want to see this. Their eyes were large and fixated on the three of us.

Two versus one. I wondered how this would go.

I readied my shields and spear while Draco and Velariah prepared their axes and sword.

“Ready?” Velariah asked to which I nodded.

She then charged at me, faster than I’d expected, but I was ready for her nonetheless. I easily parried her sword with my spear from a distance, but Draco advanced on me at the same time, forcing me to switch my attention to him with my other arms.

I absorbed the blows of his axes with my shields while kicking Velariah back with one of my legs to give me some more time to deal with the lizardman who was already raising his weapons again. I parried them this time and took a few steps back while pushing him away with two legs because the elf was charging at me again.

I thrust my spear in her direction, but she dodged the stab and was now swinging her sword at my armor. Not wanting to lose so quickly, I pulled back one of my other arms and caught her strike with one of my blades. Draco ran towards me again, and since I was one sword down, I had to use my spear to parry one while blocking with my free shield.

“Damnit Elania,” Velariah let out as she backed off. “That’s far too many limbs to fight.”

“You wanted this,” I reminded her how she was the one to suggest this spar.

“Not just me. Hear!”

She referred to the audience, some of whom cheered.

She readied her sword again to thrust forward as she started another charge. She nimbly dodged two of my legs, forcing me to use my spear to face her. I pushed Draco back with two legs to free up my weapon and barely managed to parry her blow.

I was finally able to perform a strike of my own, but it was easily blocked by the lizardman’s shield. I followed up with another from my second weapon, but that one was blocked too.

I got the feeling that I would be better off trying to counter-attack when in a two-on-one fight.

I switched my attention to Velariah, and tried to keep Draco busy now that I’d put him on the defensive. I struck out with my legs, and forced him to block, just as I parried the elf’s sword. I was then finally able to use a window of opportunity and brought my second blade to her, hitting her armor in her stomach region.

“Damnit,” She let out as she recognized her loss. She let go of her weapon and slowly backed off, allowing me to give the lizardman my undivided attention.

From here, it was easy. Four arms and four legs that I could easily utilize for combat purposes against just two limbs were too much of an overwhelming natural advantage. I could keep lashing out, and although Draco blocked every attack, there wasn’t anything he could do against what I was about to do, even if he wanted to.

Just like before, I made him trip and pinned him down to the floor, my spear next to his helmet as loud applause broke out from the crowd. Draco smiled behind his armor as he accepted an arm to help him up.

“Guess I better get used to getting beaten in a duel,” He said with a lighthearted voice.

“Duels perhaps, but I feel like you’d be able to still win if this was a real fight.”

“Perhaps. Perhaps not.”

Velariah retrieved her sword and grinned, already over her loss.

“Told you they’d like this.”

I looked around to see the onlookers cheer and clap, filled with excitement, more than I’d seen from them in the other duels.

“I guess you were right. Now, I just hope I won’t be asked to join every single guild trial because of this.”

The elf grinned. “Who knows?”

We walked back to our friends who had gotten us something to drink after all that. When we sat down again, the next adventurers seemed to be more hesitant to show their skills, possibly knowing it would be hard to achieve the same kind of animation from the villagers.

I had to admit, watching these other adventurers was a lot less interesting than watching an eight-legged, four-armed arachne fight two others in a melee.

I thanked Nira and Seralyn for the drinks and turned my attention to Velariah.

“Do you know if there is anything else planned for the day?”

“Activities?” She replied with a question. “I don’t think so. Why, are you getting bored?”

I chuckled. “While I don’t mind watching, I do think I prefer to do something with my friends. What about you?”

“That sounds fair to me. We could play some games, and since today is a rare day where my father is not working, I can ask him to join us.”

“That sounds like it could be fun,” I said. “In fact, I may know of a game that he’d like very much,‘

“Oh?” Velariah exclaimed with a curious look in her eyes. “Do tell?”

“You didn’t think I’d tell you that easily, did you?” I said, teasing her. “Let’s ask him first. Then, let me think how I can create said game.”

“Will do!” She said as she darted off to her father a few benches down.

I was left chuckling and Draco politely asked if he may know the name of the game I had in my mind.

“Chess.”