Chapter 24: Fun and Games

"Oh, yeah!" Matt yelled. "After all that, I could use a break. Come on, Marina!" Matt took Marina's arm and ran off to the games. We all laughed as we walked to the games, too. It acted like a carnival. Hamilton, Alice, and Lacey (now in her human form to not scare anyone) were trying ring toss; Helen and Kyra went to go apple-bobbing; Sobie and Stan went to the dunk tank with Stan being the ‘dunked'.

"Come on, Sobie! You can throw better than that!" Stan yelled. Sobie gave the ball a hard throw and hit the target, sending Stan into the tank.

"How was that, drippy?" Sobie asked.

"Not bad... for a dead girl," Stan laughed. Daniel tried his hand and water pistols and he almost pulled out his own blaster to fire at the targets. Matt and Marina went to a haunted house. Next thing I saw was Marina dragging out a fainted Matt. Chris tried his hand at skee-ball and Octavis did the Ring the Bell game. One swing and the bell went off. Madilynn was off running around trying out everything she could. Jennifer dragged me into a House of Mirrors. It was fun at first, but then it got a little creepy looking at distorted figures of me.

A number of hours passed and we did everything we could. I decided to go ask Yora for the Gem while I had the chance to.

"Oh, the Yora Gem?" Yora asked.

"You didn't lose it did you?" I asked.

"No, no. Instead, I'm presenting it to the winner of the Tournament to have a wish granted. It should be over by now."

"There was a tournament going on?" I wondered. "I didn't hear a thing about it."

"Well, come on, then! Let's go greet the winner!" Yora said as we walked out to the tournament ring. Then we heard the announcer.

"Ladies and gentlemen," I heard over a loud speaker. "The winner of this year's Yora Tournament is... The Gold Knight!" Everybody cheered as the winner stepped up to claim the trophy. Yora walked up to him.

"Congratulations, Gold Knight!" he said. "Now as the winner of the tournament, you are granted one wish from the Gem. What will it be?" The Gold Knight looked around and stopped when he saw me. Then he pointed to me.

"I wish to fight him," he said. Everyone turned to me as my eyes widened. I found myself coming up to the stand.

"Looks like we have an encore performance, folks!" the announcer said. Everyone cheered again as Yora led us both the tournament ring. We both stood on opposite ends of the arena.

"Well, Stephan, it's been a while," he said to me.

"Sorry, who are you?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm hurt! I thought you would remember the first person you fought,"

"Silver Knight?" I asked amazed.

"I go by Gold Knight now. I improved my rank." The bell rang and he drew his lance and shield and I drew my sword and shield. Gold Knight dashed at me and I blocked. "Tell me, where's your friend Andrew?" he asked as I threw him off.

"He's missing," I answered. "He's trapped in a different dimension." Gold Knight ran back to me and jabbed me right in my chest.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Stephan," he said. I swung out my sword and shot a few lightning bolts, which he blocked with his shield. "I see you've gotten stronger."

"So have you," I returned his jab with a jab of my own. It knocked him back, but my sword vibrated off his armor. "So I was told you came to Fora to start me and Andrew off on our quest. Is that true?" I asked constantly dodging his lance.

"Yep," he answered blocking my attacks. "I told you, you were my reason for being there."

"But I wasn't your goal," I finished while I shot some more bolts. "It's strange, though. The Mysterious Man said the same thing to me back in Hora."

"Who's the Mysterious Man?" he asked, rushing at me. Despite being in full-clad gold armor, he was incredibly fast, faster than the last time I fought him.

"I don't know," I answered dodging. "No one does." I heard plenty of cheering from my friends for me and a good majority of the rest of the crowd was chanting for Gold Knight. As he charged me one last time, I swung my sword out and cut his lance, knocked him down with my shield, and pointed my sword at him. "Game set." I said. The crowd went from chanting to a mixture of cheers and boos. I helped the Gold Knight up and shook his hand. "Did you just enter the tournament so you could fight me?" I asked him.

"Yeah, but you showed up a bit late," he answered. "It started without you." He handed me the Gem Yora gave him. "I believe this is what you came here for? Do you want it?"

"Depends," I answered with a smile. "Will you join us?"

"I will if I have the chance, but the fight with Exitilus is entirely your battle. Besides, look at your friends." We both looked at the crowd and saw my friends cheering loudly for the both of us. "I think the world is in good hands. Just make sure it stays that way." He shook my hand once more as we waved to the crowd.

"Gold Knight," I started. "What adventure are you...?" I turned to him, but he had disappeared. "Heh, good luck with whatever it is." I waved again.

"And the winner is the challenger!" the announcer yelled. I walked down to my friends and they started congratulating me. We continued enjoying the festival for the rest of the day then we went to the inn to rest.

"So that was the Silver Knight you told me about?" Jennifer asked walking into my room.

"Apparently, he's called Gold Knight now," I answered. Jennifer chuckled as she lay down next to me. She remained silent for a bit.

"So, tomorrow's the day," she said.

"The final battle is coming," I added.

"After the battle's over what do you want to do?" Jennifer asked me. I continued looking at the ceiling.

"I don't know, there are so many things to do," I paused for a second. "Maybe I'll search for my parents."

"But you told me they were dead," Jennifer said.

"Maybe, but I want to find out what happened. Right now all I know is they're missing; I don't know if they're dead. It's the same thing with Andrew and Nichole. If we're lucky, they'll all be in the same place."

"No one's that lucky," Jennifer said looking up as well. "But I'm gonna look for my sister when this is done. Besides, we have to win this; otherwise that vision of yours isn't going to come true."

"You really want to live in a castle, don't you?"

"Well... I at least want to live and have that son,"

"We'll find everyone. Everything we don't know, we'll find out." I heard a knock on the door. I told them to come in and in walked Helen. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, it's just..." she started muttering.

"What was that?" Jennifer asked.

"Well, we're all wondering if we can all sleep together. This is the last night before the final battle and we all want to be together," We all looked at each other.

"Is this want a parent would feel like when her child asks to come sleep with her?" Jennifer asked. She and I both laughed.

"Hey, this is serious!" Helen said. I looked at her.

"Heh heh, very well. We can do that," I answered.

"Okay," Helen walked to the door and opened it. "Hey, he said yes!" Everyone started piling into the room, saying hello, and started laying down. Me and Jennifer kind of just stared at them all.

"I'd say we have a pretty big family already," Jennifer said. I looked at them all; Hamilton and Alice were lying next to their mother with Helen in Hamilton's arms, Sobie laid on top of Stan who was holding her, and Marina, it seems, had taken a liking to Matt as she was lying under his arms. Kyra, Chris, Octavis, Madi, Erica, and Daniel were all lying on their own. Soon, however, they all started fighting for more room.

"Yeah, one big family," I said putting my arm behind Jennifer's head. She smiled and curled up next to me and we all soon fell asleep, hoping for a good day tomorrow.

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