They join their bloody hands together. He becomes the third member of their small pack. He looks at the two of them with surprise in his eyes. Now that he knows how small the pack truly is he wonders at this. Know that in time they will tell him the why and how. He lets it go for now. As they are releasing their hands a set of horns blow letting everyone in the area know the ceremony will begin shortly. Sunny and Annoce join them to see what has happened. Seeing Jess’s hand bloodied, Sunny pulls out a small cloth and hands it to her. Jess smiles and nods her hand in thanks before cleaning her hand and does the same for Raken.
The group walks to where everyone has gathered. Seeing the King of the humans on the platform makes David flinch. He knows if there is an attempt on his life it has been made easier with that platform. Sunny sees this and tilts her head asking without asking what is wrong. He nods to where the king is and she understands what he means. Annoce takes note and with Sunny they look around for something out of place. The horns blow once more to quiet those gathered. “Welcome all who have come out to this Tournament. We have gathered to let those who won have the prizes and ask them to join us in a few months time for another tournament. We are planning a grand one.” King Thomas booms so all can hear him. Smiling, he nods to his daughter. She is the one whom will announce the wins.
She nods to her father before standing and taking the list from the judges. Smiles she says, “The winner of Hand to Hand combat goes to Zane of Silverville. The winner of weapon combat goes to Whoopes of Rivervalley. The winner of the bow competition goes to Sunny of Silverville. The winner of the hunting challenge goes to Annoce of Silverville.” She continues until all of the winners have been named. Once the naming has finished the King steps up asking for those whoms names had been called out to come to the grand tent for their prizes. He offers his daughter his arm and they walk off together.
Once they are safely inside the tent the people whom won lineup in front of it. Sunny, Annoce, and Zane line up with the other winners. Whoopes is in front of them with a mage. They are talking softly. It seems to Sunny the mage is trying to keep Whoopes calm as they wait.The line moved slowly forward till their group was the last to enter the tent. They walk in together which seems to surprise the King. “Welcome I was not aware that you are a group since you all entered different contests. Please have a seat and we will spend a moment or two talking while the rewards are gathered.” He waves his hand to the seating area near him as he says this. He starts to stand as they move there.
His daughter smiles at the group and bows. Looking at her father she speaks softly to him once he has stood up letting him know she was tired and was going to lay down for a while. He nods to her before walking to the group and waving a hand for them to be seated. Once all of them have taken a seat. He nods to the servants to bring drinks to them. Sunny smiles to the young girl whom brings wine over. “How did you find the tournament to be? Please speak your names as you answer so I may know whom I am speaking to.” King Thomas asks the group.
Annoce smiles at Sunny before looking to the king and saying, “The hunting was wonderful. I was surprised by the amount of game in the area, my name is Annoce your majesty” Zane chuckles, “You should know they round up game in order to do this. Though the hand to hand was a bit of a bore. The last round is where I had the most fun. My name is Zane, your highness.” Sunny shakes her head at Zanes comment. “You are one to find fault everywhere you look. The bow rows could use some more challenges for the next time. They were a breeze for myself. I am Sunny, your majesty.”
The king looked from one to the next as they spoke. He chuckled softly as he listened. “Zane is right that we do round up game for the hunting challenge. Though the hand to hand will stand as it is. As for the bow I will have my master bowman look into changing a few of the challenges for the grand tournament.” Sunny nods her head before taking a sip of her wine. She looks at the cup with a question in her eyes. Annoce seeing this sniffs his cup and notes it is a very sweet blood red wine. “What wine is this? I am able to smell oranges and peaches besides the grapes.” Annoce asks. The king smiles, “This is from my private stock. One of my boats found an island with oranges that are blood red when opened. The peaches are also from that island. They are sweeter than any I have tasted. I call this Blood Moon wine.” He takes a large sip of his wine after having looked into his cup.
His lips start to turn a light white blue colour. His breathing starts to change. “Your highness?” Annoce says upon hearing the breathing change. Sunny looks at the king noticing the lip colouring she opens her bag grabbing out St. John’s Wort and Broadleaf. She grinds them together before mixing them into clear water. Annoce has laid the king on the floor making sure he has nothing in his mouth. The guards come into the tent due to the noises the servants are making. They try to remove Annoce from the king's side. Zane holds them off. “Sunny if you are going to help him do so now. I can not hold them off for long.” Sunny nods and kneels down beside the king. She opens his mouth and pours the mixture in. She then closes his mouth and holds his nose closed while rubbing his throat so he will swallow.
After he swallows the mixture he sits up gasping. Once his breath is back he yells, “Enough, they saved my life. Remove all of the wine and drinks from this tent. Have them all checked to see where the poison came from.” He coughs for a bit before standing. He goes to his chair and sits down shaking his head softly. “I do not know from where it came however I do know that is an unusual one.” “What do you mean by saying this King?” Sunny asks. He looks to her with a sad smile on his face. “I know this due to the cup from which I drank. I had a wizard make the cup. This item can show proof of poison by changing the colour of the drink. Though this time the colour was normal. Meaning the person whom tried to poison me knew of this fact.”
Sunny nods and sighs. “Well I am happy I was able to be of service to you in your need. Though this is troubling news. If they knew of the cup then they must be close to you. I hate to suggest the use of a taster however I do not see a way around. You should have someone taste all of your food and drink until the person behind the attack has been dealt with.” The king sighed and nodded. “I agree though I had hoped to never need one.”
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One of the guards standing on either side of him says, “My king. How can you allow this knife ear to speak to you like this?” Zane growls at the guard and goes to jump him but Sunny raises one hand signalling him to stay put. “How dare you. Since you are human you think you are better than I. Well I will let you in on a secret I am only half elf. However, had I not been here you would not have a king. So please keep your nasty thoughts to yourself or I will deal with you myself. Trust me when I say I am worse than the wolf standing near me.” The king glares at the guard whom has spoken out of turn. “My dear you do not need to soil your hands on the malcontent. He will be on stable chores for the next three years for that comment. Send in Sir Brian on your way out.”
The guard pales and bows before leaving the tent. In a few moments the tent flip opens and in walks Sir Brian. He bows to the king and then the group. He is an older knight. He walks and stands beside the king and looks over the group whom had saved his king. His eyes rest on Sunny. Feeling as if she is family to the king. She looks so much like his great grandmother. He says, “My king you called for me?” “Yes, you will be by my side until we know for sure whom has tried to take my life. If not for the three in front of us they would have succeeded in their attempt.” “Of course my king. Though may I ask one question of the lady here?”
King Thomas looks at him and nods. “Thank you my king. My lady I must ask if you know whom your parents are? You see you look so much like the kings great grandmother.” Sunny looks at him with surprise. “I do not whom my birth parents are. They left me for dead when I was but a newborn babe. I was taken in by my father whom is a dwarf.” The king looks at Sir Brian for a moment thinking. He knows how to test if she is truly a family member. At that moment the servant sent for the rewards comes bearing them. He nods to the group he walks over and presents the pouches to them.
“I would ask to have a moment or two more of your time. With what Sir Brian said I would like to see if it is true or not. That is of course if you wish to know my lady.” Sunny looks at Annoce and wishes to know his thoughts on this matter. “I know you have wished to know the why you were left my love. This may be a step to finding out. I will be by your side if you want to do this step. David will never stop loving you.” She smiles at him and leans into his side. “Thank you, love. Zane please inform the others what has happened. As well as we will meet up at the inn when we are done here.” Zane nods his head and leaves taking Jess with him.
“I would like to know if what Sir Brian said is true. If it is then I can understand the why half of them did not want me.” She says to the king. He nods and stands before looking at those left in the room. “Sir Brian, myself, Sunny and Annoce will stay. The rest must leave this room now.” Once the others had left the king goes to his travel throne and pulls a small box from under. He walks to the table and waves for the others to join him. “I will need a bit of your blood to see if this is true. I will also have to give blood. I will show you how it is done on myself. Then we shall do you.” Sunny nods and watches as he takes a gold cup, a golden handled knife and a silvery white powder in a vial out of the box.
He takes the knife and cuts a shallow line in his palm over the cup. He lets some drip into the cup before bandaging his hand. He then nods to her. She offers her left hand to him. Once she is bandaged he takes the vial and adds a small amount of the powder to the blood. They watch as the blood changes colour. Once it has stopped the colour is blue and gold. “So it would seem you are of my family, however this side is not the only royal blood you carry.” Sunny looks at the king with puzzlement. “Whatever do you mean? How is it that I am royal from both sides and that you can tell by just my blood?”
The king smiles sadly. “The golden colour that is showing is for the elven royals only. The blue is for the human royals. Seeing as how they are both there one would know that you are from both houses. This is why you were left. They did not wish for anyone to know of their affair. Yet here you are in front of me many years later. If you were not my family it would have turned gold and black.” Sunny leans into Annoce having learned this. She was shocked about whom her parents were. She looks up to Annoce “Take me back to our room please.” Annoce nods softly before looking to the king.“I will take her to our room in the inn of the Dancing Wolf. If you wish to speak with her on the morrow that is where we shall be. We will take our leave now.” The kings and bids them farewell. He looks to Sir Brian after they have left, “I know you have had a fancy for my grandmother. I did not know you had looked at the old paintings.” Sir Brian chuckles softly, “You know as well as I that I may not take a wife. If I were to do so they would die within the year. I have lived so long I know your great grandmother in person. I am happy to know you have family left.” They smile at one another before heading to another room.
Once Annoce and Sunny return to the inn it is well after dark. They are met with David and the others about to go looking for them. “There you are. I was starting to worry something had happened to you. I am happy to see that you are both in one piece.” David says. He looks over them and sees that Sunny is not herself. He looks to Annoce who shakes his head.
Jess walks slowly up to them and opens her arms to Sunny. Seeing this she hugs Jess and sighs softly. “We will talk about what we have found out on the morrow tonight I just wish to lay in Annoce’s arms. I need to think on what has been told to us.” Jess nods, “We will wait until morning, go get some rest.” Zane is watching Jess closely to make sure she does not over do anything. Raken is not acting as he first did. They both are acting overprotective of Jess. Sunny sees this and whispers to Jess “Are you with child?” Jess looks at Sunny and nods. Then she glares at the two wolves whom do not know how not to let her be.
“The three of us will talk later in our room. Right this moment Sunny needs to lay down and relax.” Jess says, eyeing them with a frown on her face. Both Zane and Raken flinch at her tone looking at one another. “ We will head up and wait for you in the room. On the morrow we will need to head for the pack of Whitesnow.” Zane says softly before nodding to Raken. They leave the group and head for their room.
Once Sunny and Annoce have left the group David turns to Jess, “Do not be too hard on those boys. They want to ensure you are safe. You are to birth the next Alpha of your pack.” Jess just sighs. “My scent has changed but not long ago. I will be fine. I am an Alpha. Zane knows what I am able to do. I am wanting to help the dragons before I am too far along.” David nods and pats her arm. “Go talk with them and see if you can come to an understanding of sorts.”
The rest of the group heads for their rooms. Jess opens the door to their room and walks in. The two do not notice her at first because they are mind linking one another. She clears her throat and waits for them to look at her. They both freeze and look over to her. If they had been in wolf form she would have seen their ears go down and their tails tuck under.
“We need to speak. Yes, I understand I am with child. That however does not mean I will be stopped from doing what is needed until I can not do more.” Jess growls softly. “I wish to help the dragons and finish this before I am forced to stop. We three need to help with our friends whom I think of as a pack. This is the right thing to do. Think how you would feel if my pup was taken.” Zane walks up to her and pulls her close. “I know my love. We will try to do better however I will be overprotective. This is a part of a male wolf to want to ensure our mate and pups are never hurt.” He then kisses her forehead. “Let us all lay down and sleep. We will be leaving first thing on the morrow.”