This vocal subjugation went on for a few minutes before a horn was heard and the Ventris guards fell back to their temporary barracks. The overseer waved his hand and men streamed out to clear the field of the fallen guards. It took a while as they were all incapacitated in one form or another. As they moved them off the field the stench that wafted from them had some grimacing and holding their noses. Lord Draco could be seen almost crushing the arms of his chair in anger.

“The next game will commence in an hour. This will be a contest of arrows. Once again between house Draco and house Ventris. House Draco will have red tipped arrows and house Ventris will have black.” He then bowed to the audience and went over to the official’s tent.

“What the hell Caden, when did you get such brutal men?” Edward asked with wide eyes

“Yes, please do tell, I’ve never seen such sheer brutality and destruction.” Chirped in Alric.

“Oh we have a new instructor for the guards who seems to be working out quite nicely,” smiled Caden as he winked at Hiro. 

Hiro rolled his eyes and took a sip of his juice from his cup while he waited for the next game to start. Things were going as planned.

Soon it was time for the archery game to start. It was going to be a war of arrows. Essentially both sides had blunt tipped arrows with different colored powder on them. If you were hit you’d get coated with the powder and you were out. This battle would be held in the forest area so the audience was provided with crystals which would allow them to see through the dense foliage from above to see the fighting. Soon everyone could see Draco’s guards had taken positions by the white uniforms which they all wore. However not a single of the Ventris’ guards could be seen anywhere.

“Lord Ventris, are your men in place already?” asked the overseer.

“Yes they are, you may sound the horn to start the game if you wish.” Replied Caden.

The overseer simply shrugged his shoulders and sounded the horn for the game to start. The two sides faced off against each other; or rather it was one side looking around at the trees trying to spot their quarry. They lay in wait, looking for a sign of the opponent. Five minutes turned to ten, ten to fifteen and yet nothing moved.

“Nothing is happening.” Frowned Alric as he peered into his crystal. “I don’t see anything moving at all.”

“Patience is King. He who moves first, loses.” came a boy’s voice from besides Caden.

“Indeed young Master Hiro, you are correct,” nodded Edward as he looked over Hiro, seeming to see something that he didn’t see before.

“Hmm, it begins.” Replied Hiro as he peered into the crystal.

The Draco’s guards had begun to peek out of their hiding places to see where their opponents was when suddenly there was a flurry of arrows from places where there was nobody. In an instant more than half of Draco’s guards were out in a puff of black. Then from to the side of the remaining guards a flurry of arrows appeared, cutting down more than half the remaining archers. The remaining archers quickly fired back from their cover however they were firing blindly as they had no idea where the enemy was. Then from in front of them came some long distance shots which arced down towards them. They quickly moved out of the way only to realize their error as they were once again picked off by the enemy archers who had seen them dodge. Eventually only a handful was left and they were only able to put up a token fight before arrows from all directions sniped at them. When the last one of them was hit the overseer sounded the end of the game with his horn and the Draco guards began heading back out the forest. As for the Ventris guards, slowly they began to step forward from their hiding places. The Draco archers were dumbfounded by their attire, or rather their greenery. From where bushes and grasses grew men stood with all sorts of plants hanging off their spotted clothing. One of them was even a bush that just got up and walked forward. Soon both sets of guards were facing each other. One set clothed with vegetation the other in black with blue spots from where the arrows hit them. The leader of the Ventris archers stepped forward and grinned.

“What happened to you, you maggoty excuse for a cow? Oh we get it, you’re the maggots feeding those pussy bitches the titty milk they’ve been spewing up! You gotta stop feeding them like that, they’re going to get spots like you plus they smell like they just came off their momma’s milk. By the way who the hell milks you cows to feed them?” he asked as he looked southward at their crotches. “Well if you maggots swing that way who am I to complain about your vile tendencies.”

It was at this point the leader of the Draco archers collapsed and began frothing at the mouth.

Meanwhile in the audience tent several sets of eyes glared over at Caden as he hummed a ditty while ignoring Draco and Restav. By now Lord Draco’s armrests on his chair were starting to crumble under the crushing grip that he was exerting on them.

The overseer was beginning to feel the starting of a headache coming on now. Never in twenty years of officiating a war game had he come across such vile language coupled with such savage attacks which left their opponents reeling in fear and anger. “The winners of this game are the House Ventris. The next game will also be between Draco and Ventris and will conclude their matches against each other in one hour.” He said as he walked off to the official’s tent.

The audience tent was now in a flurry of activity and noise as everyone talked about the two previous games and what they meant. House Ventris had completely dominated both games and now it was the final match.

“Caden, who is your new instructor? Such brilliant tactics but he’s so vulgar!” exclaimed Alric.

“Hmm, yes quite vulgar,” grunted Caden as he looked at Hiro who pretended not to hear him.

Hiro looked over the previous field and nodded. Things had been going to plan but he had to keep an eye on things so that everything would remain in the palm of his hand. Just then he felt a slight thump as someone sat in the seat next to him. He frowned and turned to see a little girl, probably a year or two younger than him, sitting next to him. She was looking up at him with cornflower blue eyes and sucking on her thumb. He smiled at her and pulled her finger out of her mouth. She pouted a little and then tried to put her finger back in but he stopped her.

“Not clean. Try this instead,” he said as he handed over a hard candy. She immediately lit up her face in delight and grabbed at the candy. She got it halfway to her mouth when she stopped.

“Thwank yew,” she said, “I’m Lyra.”

“Hullo Lyra, I’m Hiro,” he smiled at her as she finally plopped the candy in her mouth and looked over at the field which the podium was turning to face. 

“Lyra, Lyra! Oh where has this girl gone to now?” came a voice from behind him.

Hiro turned to see Lord Goodard searching through the stands looking for Lyra. He managed to catch the eye of Lord Goodard and beckoned him over. The poor man was frustrated looking for Lyra and was ready to give young Hiro a tongue lashing when he noticed Lyra sitting docilely next to Hiro. He blinked, frowned and then blinked again before finally coming in front of Lyra.

“Lyra, what are you doing here?” he asked with a smile.

“I’m here with my new friend, Popa.” She replied with a smile.

He stupidly blinked for a bit before smiling again. “Ok, stay here and don’t go wandering off. I’ll be back in a bit.” He said as he moved off back to his section.

Hiro frowned at his weird behavior but then just shrugged it off as it really didn’t concern him. Little did he know that his father and his two friends were now looking at Lyra and Hiro who were sitting next to each other. 

Edward nudged Alric, “Eh, I think we just got upped one by a three year old.”

“Speak for yourself, I don’t have a daughter,” quipped Alric as he looked over Hiro to Lyra who now had her hand wrapped around his as she looked at the field as well. He leaned back to see Lord Goodard and his wife busy chatting up a storm while constantly looking over at Hiro and Lyra. “Well shit, I think that Lady Goodard is cementing that idea right now. Well old chap, if you had any ambitions you’d better give them up now.”

“Eh? Why?” Edward frowned as he looked at his friend.

Alric, nodded towards where the Goodards were located, “Lady Goodard’s mind is made up. Look at the smile on her face and tell me, when was the last time you saw that smile and she didn’t get what she wanted?”

Edward looked back to where Alric was pointing with his chin to see Lady Goodard’s smile, “Well fuck me sideways, I’ve lost already and I didn’t even know I was playing.”