It was noon the day before the wedding between Yasham and Prince Edward. Tents were set up all over the park, the games were set to start, and the fair had begun. The crown had called in extra reinforcements for the event, they picked up trash in their armor, or served refreshments to the horses.

All the most important princes and princesses had gathered on their finest rides on the racetrack that ran along the whole outside, and even a bit into the wood. Prince Edward was on his horse that was dull gray, all skin and bones and said to be undead brought back to life to race. Princess Clepotra was riding a camel from the desert biome while beside her, the sleek brown coat of Sasha, princess of Upot, her steed said to breathe fire. They pointed and laughed behind them as the newly allowed class of riders gathered and one dropped their armor off a mount by clumsy accident.

The citizens with enough crystals to buy in, so-called nobles even while not possessing royal blood in their veins, had gathered to prove their worth. Nancy was on a horse she had stolen that morning disguised in armor she had taken from a noble she had knocked out back at the tavern with a sleeping potion. She had a dart blower and darts tipped with frogs' poison, at the ready to follow prince Edward into the forest obstacles where she planned on killing him and sneaking off to win the race.

Behind them the top performing rank and file military cavalry waited still and silent. Bishop the knight sat atop his enormous armor spiked war horse looking back while studying his competition. He was a fierce fighting veteran of many battles, and winner of many victories. The kingdom was in uncertain times, so it was time for the military to flex muscle, proving to the citizenry that the empire was still strong in power.

The stands at the start were packed full of crowds of people of all kinds in the audience. The guards had frisked everyone and arrested anyone trying to sneak in shlock, as some patrolled the stands cleaning up any spilled food that had been purchased with crystals and dumped by slobs onto the ground. Cold season was approaching, long months when the ground froze over and mammoths migrated to the area providing food, and fresh hides to tan for the empire.

The queen sat with her Bootlickers in the large box overlooking the entire racetrack. The big fish were fed food by the guards as she blew on her fingernails to finish drying them and then took up binoculars magic enchanneled. Snaggy wrote in his journal directly by her side as a personal assistant taking notes of the operation. Typical fool sat here writing things down nobody will read, when he has such a talent for juggling things she thought bored as nothing was going on.

Below everyone looking up onto the track from a slit in the sewer Humpy spied on where Edward sat atop his pony. With not long left to go, his target had left the racetrack, Humpy kept sight along the street from the sewer beneath. He then saw what looked like a large cat's paw open a side door letting the prince enter inside the shanty building. The crowd back at the stands grew in intensity as the beginning of the race drew near. Finally, the target slammed the door open, ran to his horse, and galloped back to the track.

“The race for a large trophy, statue of the winner, and vault full of crystals will begin soon” announced the announcer with an amplified voice.

The hay thwacked with an arrow as the archer aimed to hit a bullseye, his mission a success.

“Well played, Prince Albert” said the only other prince still in.

They were neck and neck competing in the shooting competition as prince Ricky came back in with his bow and arrow for his turn to shoot six arrows at the marked targets downrange.

“Thwack, Thwack, Thwack!” three arrows went out piercing the dummy target, the meat hung out in the heat attracting flies, and a bottle of potion on a wooden stand.

Just three arrows left to go, Ricky only had to hit the mark on two, to win.

“Thwonk” the bow string letting go and snapping back into place was all that could be heard as the arrow missed the target by a wide shot traveling out of range into the sky. Ricky drew his bow a second time.

“Thwack!”

“Thwack!”

The crowd erupted in massive cheers as Albert was eliminated from the competition. Prince Ricky was crowned best of all the archers and would at once be the one who took charge of the department in charge of maintaining and coordinating all the archers in battle. Soldiers ran out to him to slap him with badges and present him a massive trophy made of crystals.

“It's time to hit the track” yelled the announcer.

The crowd went wild in anticipation screaming as the horses and other ridden creatures lined up on the line to race.

“I hope you have all your bets in folks 3, 2 ,1 lets go” yelled the announcer waving his starting flag.

“BOOOM!” the cannon fired.

The race was on.

“I thought I told you all no more betting, I want you to run over there and tell that racetrack at once to knock that off,” cried the queen.

Snaggy got up from her big box in the stands, she shook her fist at him as he ran out the door to reprimand the announcer and have the guard crack down hard like a nutcracker to squeeze out any crime from the kingdom.

The racers were already around the first bend. The three in front of prince Edward kicked up dust directly into his face that he had tried to cover with a cloth, having forgotten his proper face armor at home. The horse that was rumored to blow fire let off a black ring of smoke from its thought in very front of them all as it entered the forest. Nancy was near the very rear as she readied the blow dart gun and dug her spurs into the horse forcing it forwards much faster.

Snaggy was dressed in his finest custom suit, it was the best outfit right before his tuxedo that would be worn tomorrow. He ran out of the stands as the first racers zipped past on the track. He was on the path to where he would pass the queen's orders to another. A man was eating a giant bird leg from a metal rod, while another was drinking something from a cask, he had just unhidden. It was smuggled shlock. The jester snatched it, the man got up to get it back, but a guard intervened. Snaggy took up the container in his mouth, before he took several gulps finishing it off.

“Buuurp yuup that's shlock alright lock him up boys,” said the jester.

The offender was hauled off to the dungeon never to be seen again. Snaggy kept along the path as the Bootlickers had joined him with bellies rumbling from hunger.

Back in the race, Prince Edward was gaining steam almost in the lead. Nancy had the dart blower clenched in her mouth ready to murder the prince who was now in second place as they entered the forest obstacles part of the race. The horses jumped the raging stream, as the camel stopped, unable to clear the rapids. Nancy and her horse closed in directly behind the prince and she blew him a kiss of death from her mouth.

“Thwack,” the dart shot out right into the gray horse ahead, hitting it in the butt with toxic poison.

He toppled over his horse, as it fell to the ground Edward rolled before he readied his sword, drawing it and stabbing her horse. Nancy fell to the ground and the poison dart blower fell far off somewhere unknown.

“Ha, ha, ha now is the perfect time for this showdown duel as the cats attack Capital City with a secret heist, you will die very quickly my dear then I will find a horse and still come in first place” said the prince as he drew his sword and attacked.

Nancy blocked with her dagger as they danced.

“Ha, ha” he said.

“It's over, I've won” she said, pressing down the dagger over him, getting close to his chest as his sword fell to the ground over brown leaves.

Bishop the knight was riding in the rear on his slow bulky war horse. He saw Prince Edward under attack and got down to help. Nancy looked back distracted from the sound of the knight drawing his sword, Edward smiled taking out his tiny sword from his underwear and stabbed her again and again. The sword wasn’t capable of stabbing very deep. Nancy head-butted him, picked up her sword and chopped off the prince's hand.

“AAAAA” cried the prince running for the stands as he cried like a baby.

Nancy was bleeding as she ran in the opposite direction into the safety of the woods.

Meanwhile the cats were back deep in the empty city heisting the bank vaults, having already broken into the queen's main stash they bagged up her crystals to take with them to where they scratched.

“Another successful job” said the head cat laughing.

The dynamite blew opening up an entrance into the sewer where Humpy had been hiding all along. He pressed the pager device over and over again as it began to call in soldiers on high alert sounding the alarms. The guards swarmed in arresting the cats, as the informant had saved the day earning himself promise of a medal sometime in the future.