The next day Alqa started the day by looking for somebody who could adjust war-regalia. She walked around the War-Yisra, asking people if they knew anybody who could adjust war-regalia, but nobody did. It took her a while but talking to one of the young girls she was pointed to an Ärchgekui who was adjusting war-regalia. She went to his yurt and asked to come in but nobody responded, so she wandered around trying to find him until a warrior dressed in a bronze scale cuirass that extended to his knees, split in the middle and wearing a tall conical helmet with a blood-red horsehair crest appeared. He wore traditional upturned boots and his tsud under his armor was patterned, he had no protection on his arms. He also wore a faded yellow cloak, patterned in the same way as his tsud. He had fair skin, blue eyes and a dark brown mustache. Alqa could not see his hair under his helmet. “Hello, are you looking for somebody?” he asked. Alqa nodded.
“I need somebody to adjust Nergui’s war regalia,” Alqa said.
“Ah, I see. Bring Nergui and her war-regalia over and I will see what I can do,” the Ärchgekui responded.
“Thanks,” Alqa replied and returned to her yurt, walking through what felt like half the War-Yisra before finally getting there. She put the saddle on Nergui first, then the mane-comb and last the chanfron. She smiled as it extended comically in front of Nergui’s nose. She swung herself onto Nergui and they set off to the Ärchgekui’s yurt. Once they arrived they found the Ärchgekui waiting with a wicker basket of tools and pieces of leather waiting, he had taken off his armor and she could now see his hair. “Welcome back, I assume this is Nergui,” the Ärchgekui said.
“Yes, this is Nergui,” Alqa replied, scratching Nergui’s neck. The Ärchgekui looked at the war-regalia.
“Should be simple, just need to shorten the chanfron. Hold her still for me,” He told her. He picked up a small knife and with it traced a thin line on the chanfron, right above the tip of Nergui’s face while Alqa held Nergui’s head as still as possible. When he was done he took the chanfron off Nergui and brought it into his yurt. Alqa waited for a little bit before he came back out with the chanfron and put it on Nergui. “If you could climb down and check that,” the Ärchgekui requested. Alqa climbed down and walked over to the chanfron. He had cut the chanfron down so it now perfectly followed Nergui’s nose.
“Thank you, …” Alqa said, pausing at the end of the sentence because she didn’t actually know his name.
“Burim. And you are welcome, what’s your name?” Burim responded.
“I’m Alqa. Nice to meet you, Burim,” Alqa said.
“You too Alqa, are you going to the games later today?” Burim asked.
“I guess, I suppose I have nothing else to do,” Alqa responded. She said goodbye and went back to her yurt, where she took the war-regalia and saddle off Nergui and stowed it back into her yurt.
She went to go find the games a little after midday, they weren’t all that difficult to find as they were being fairly loud but it took a bit to actually walk all the way over. When she got there, a bunch of warriors were standing in a circle and cheering loudly. She approached the circle, and when she looked into the middle there were two warriors, wrestling over a bone in the middle. The warriors threw, hit, bit, kicked and stomped on each other, each trying to pull the bone out of the other’s hands. One warrior was pinned on the ground and the other stomped on his shoulder until he released the bone and the victor held the bone above his head and howled for victory. An Ärchgekui approached the contestants and the victor knelt before him and presented the bone. The Ärchgekui took the bone and then scanned the crowd as the victor helped his defeated foe up and they hugged before returning to the crowd. Finally the Ärchgekui pointed at a female warrior. “You,” he said, coldly. He scanned the crown again and pointed at another female of similar size. “You,” he said again.
The warriors approached each other and the Ärchgekui whispered in each of their ears. Then he stepped back and pointed at the first female, “Orbai!” he announced and pointed to the other one, “Doqu!” he then held the bone in the middle, and said something that Alqa couldn’t hear to the contestants. Both contestants took hold of the bone with both hands and the Ärchgekui released the bone and quickly retreated into the crowd. Both contestants began by body slamming each other and Doqu knocked Orbai to the ground and stood over her, pumping her arms so as to slam Orbai against the ground. Orbai kicked Doqu between the legs and forced her off. Orbai released the bone with one hand and wrestled Doqu to the ground and began punching her in the chest. Doqu released one hand from the bone and grabbed Orbai’s ear and twisted it, pulling her down next to her and sat on Orbai’s stomach. Then she rolled over, twisting Doqu’s arm until she had to release the bone. Orbai stood up and howled for victory, then the Ärchgekui approached and Orbai knelt, presenting the bone.
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More and more rounds went by and slowly the games wound down for the day and Alqa returned back to her yurt. She was sitting outside her yurt when she saw Baatar approaching. Her stomach seized, she looked down, trying to avoid him. “Alqa? Are you alright?” he asked, he sounded so genuine and Alqa smiled but hid it.
She looked up at him, “I’m fine,” Alqa curtly replied, she avoided his gaze.
“I saw you earlier,” He said.
“So?” Alqa replied.
“Where did Nergui get war-regalia?” He asked.
“It was a gift,” Alqa told him.
“From who?” Baatar asked.
“Just a friend,” She said.
“Do you not want to talk to me?” he asked.
“I’m just tired, ok?” Alqa told him. Baatar walked away and Alqa watched him leave and realized that she had made him upset. She quickly stood up and went inside her yurt and stayed there for a while before finally managing to fall asleep.
The next day she ran into Togntomar while eating a piece of flatbread with some dried meat. “Hey Alqa, you coming to the horse games today, on the north side, bring your bow and Nergui’s war-regalia. She does have some right?” Togntomar asked. Alqa nodded and Togntomar continued on. After she finished eating, Alqa took a brush and a comb from her yurt and began to brush and comb Nergui, that took a while and when she was done she oiled her sword and cleaned her bow. Alqa set the quiver on her belt, loaded it with twenty arrows and set the bow in the bow case. She sheathed the sword and made sure her dagger was still secure.
Only once her weapons were secure did she finally pick up the saddle and take it to Nergui. She put the saddle on, attaching all the straps in the correct spots and then went back for the mane-comb. She threaded the mane through that and tightened its leather straps around Nergui’s neck, being careful to not choke her. Finally she put on the chanfron and tighted the strap. She swung herself onto Nergui and rode north to go find the horse games.
She arrived early-ish and saw some people helping to set up. They put wooden and dry grass targets in the shape of animals and a few in the shape of people. There were dry grass targets for melee competitions and wooden poles and fences for mobility. Alqa and Nergui waited to the side for a while as warriors and their horses slowly arrived. A few courses for horse archy were made, a few for melee weapons, a few open fields were prepared for racing and a few obstacle courses were made to compete with mobility.
She was watching the final preparation of the courses when she saw a white horse in beautiful war-regalia approach on her right side. She looked over and Qotoiyan smiled at her. “Hello,” he said.
“Hi,” she replied. Alqa looked at Tagdur’s war-regalia. His chanfron had antlers, the antlers had beads of precious metals dangling from them. The mane-comb had six straps, thinner than the three on Nergui’s and completely covered in pearls, alongside beads of silver and gold. The strap on Tagdur’s chest was covered in ornate designs in silver and gold. It also held up a quilted felt peytral, Alqa could see the outlines of metal plates that had been sewn in between the layers of felt. The back strap didn’t have any protection but was covered in the same designs of silver and gold, but also had strings of pearls dangling down it.
It wasn’t much longer before the games started. Alqa first volunteered for shooting. The warriors participating in the competition all took turns riding down the path shooting the targets, both in the shape of humans and prey animals. Each warrior had to gallop through as fast as possible and hit as many targets as possible. Once a warrior was through, some Ärchgekui collected and counted all the spent arrows, each successful hit was worth a point and each miss was a loss of a point. A broken arrow lost the warrior two points, unused arrows were not counted.
When it was Alqa’s turn she approached the starting line and upon the call to start she kicked Nergui into a gallop and stared at the first target. She raised her bow, nocking an arrow to the string and pulled back to the corner of her mouth, then she released and the arrow flew through the air and landed in the ground right next to the target. The next target was approaching and Alqa raised her bow again, this time aiming farther forward and loosed another arrow. This one hit the target’s shoulder. The next target the arrow flew over and the one after that she managed to hit. She hit the next two and missed the three after. Alqa scored a total of 11 points, 11 hits and 9 misses but no arrows broke.
A warrior named Muunktetseg won with 19 points, only missing one target. Alqa participated in a few races, a few sword contests and a couple more of archery, but she didn’t win any. At the end of the day, Alqa went back to her yurt and took the war-regalia and saddle off Nergui before grabbing some food. When she finished eating she went inside her yurt and went to sleep.