Meetin' da Standards [Quest]

[Gravity]

What a beautiful day, it was. The sun was shining, the clouds were puffy and white, and the wind had a hint of comfort to it. Not a speck of heat, nor cold, was in the air. It was perfect. This glorious day just so happened to be a time in the week where a contest was taking place around the castle. It happened annually, and lasted for a full five days.

A squire stood in the courtyard, surrounded by a large number of citizens. "Attention, attention! Would anyone like to participate in the Guard Practice Combat Match? Up to two may enter!"

The rules of this were quite simple, really. You were given a weapon of your choosing, almost a toy, and you fought against the trained Disney Castle guards in the courtyard who were using the same weapons. The two winners each day relieved up to five-hundred munny, depending on how well they did. But it was all in good fun.

The only catch was that in order to get the prize munny, you had to last through three rounds. You first fought against the new recruits, who weren't very tough. Next were the regular guards, intermediate difficulty. And finally, the veterans. Now those guys have been in the service for a long time, so any contestant had best be prepared for some real fun.

[Cap'n Ryu!]

One would think that, after going through all Bella had gone through the day before, any normal person would be asleep. After all, helping to quell a full-blown riot in the Town with the help of but a few of the rookie guards wasn't exactly an easy task, but one that she had accomplished almost without breaking a sweat. But the fact of the matter was, Bella wasn't a normal person. Not counting the fact that she wasn't technically a human anyway, of course. No, the moment that the sun had come up, she had awoken with it, making her way outside to train, as she did every morning. The fact of the matter was, she was up when the sun was up, and asleep the moment her body began to tire, which actually didn't happen nearly as quickly as it did for other people. She was perfectly suited to be a Knight - strong, fierce, ruthless, unstoppable. And yet, she'd been forced to make do with being an ally to the Royal Knights, much as she despised the notion.

Whatever the case, this day in particular would find Bella on her way to the Castle, to see if the Knights needed any assistance - something that she did pretty much every day, more out of habit than anything else. However, the moment she entered the courtyard, she could tell that something was going wrong. Certainly, there wasn't usually this many people standing in the Courtyard, blocking her way into the Castle. With a frustrated grunt, the tigress waded her way through the crowd, carelessly elbowing any who refused to move as she made her way to the front of the crowd. There, she saw a squire, who proceeded to announce that it was time for the annual Guard Practice Combat Match. Eyebrow raised, Bella mentally scolded herself for forgetting about the event. It was one that she did her best to participate in every year, if for nothing else but to draw the Knights' attention to her. The money was just icing on the cake.

"I'll compete." She spoke, making her way out of the crowd and into the Squire's line of sight, she cracked her knuckles, mind mentally reminding her that she was expected to use a weapon of some kind. A pity, really - it's not as though she actually needed one. "I'd prefer to fight unarmed, if that's alright with you. If not, I suppose I'll take a sword, though the first choice is preferable." Her tone certainly insinuated that it would be in the Squire's best interest to give her what she wanted. If he didn't, it wasn't like she was going to hurt him or anything. She just wouldn't be very happy. And when Bella was unhappy, people knew.

People always knew.

[Raptor!]

Scotty thought he might be getting the hang of this 'being in crowds' thing. Maybe.

It didn't help, though, that every time he thought this, something came along and scared him half to death. It certainly wasn't fair. How was it his fault that being in extremely crowded places made him a little bit skittish? There was just so many people, with so many different personalities, most of whom were probably more than capable of stepping on the little guy. But he knew he'd probably just have to suck it up one of these days. After all, his job pretty much made it a necessity for him to be okay with people gathering around him, and he'd already had quite a few warnings about not being enough of a 'people-person.' And it was because of one such complaint that he was here, in the crowded courtyard of the castle; a place he surely would have avoided as much as possible, if only because of the vast number of Knights and Wizards running around, swords waving precariously around in the air.

But no, he'd been informed that attending this so-called 'Practice Combat Match' would be good for him. Help him get used to the audiences and whatnot. And so, he had arrived, staying as far away from the crowd as possible while still ensuring that he was able to hear everything that was said. Though he certainly wasn't able to focus for too long. For suddenly, a vendor strolled along behind him, selling all kinds of delicious food that was having the little squirrel's mouth salivating in seconds. But there was a complication, unfortunately; how was he supposed to buy food if he'd left his munny at home? And he wasn't exactly going to run all the way back to his house just to get it. By the time he got back, the man probably would be sold out. And that just wouldn't do. Though he wouldn't have to attempt to find a solution for long, as a squire spoke up, searching for contestants for the battle.

Arguing with himself for a few seconds, the squirrel nodded resolutely. He'd participate. After all, he knew magic, and he could defend himself. That, and it really couldn't be all that hard to defeat a few guards. Especially considering how dumb of them seemed to be. And so, the little squirrel weaved his way through the crowd to the front, jumping up and down to catch the squire's attention. "I'll join! I'll compete too-" He suddenly stopped talking as he caught sight of the person he would be teamed up with. A tiger, with an obvious attitude, dressed in a strange fashion... it couldn't be. But there was no one else who could fit the description more. This woman had to be Bella, the lady his father had taught him to fear for as long as he could remember. Shaking his head, the squirrel turned to the Squire again. "I'll take a staff, if you have it."

Suddenly, this whole idea seemed a lot more dangerous.

[Gravity]

Well, that was odd. The squire, having been doing this for a few years now, had known that nobody liked to enter the competition unless they were in dire need of some munny or had been training to enter for awhile. One contestant in the entire week was unusual, but two of them? Well, he wasn't quite sure what to do... There had never been two contestants entering at the same time...

The squire motioned for the two competitors to wait for one moment, and proceeded to open up the rulebook he had handy. Skimming through it, the colorful bird found a bout of text he found rather convenient...

In the case of two competitors, the number of opponents must be increased by the factor of how many enter.

...

Great, he thought. Now instead of abusing three recruits, as they would in a usual fight, the two contestants would be fighting together and against six guards! Why, if they won, it would be a disgrace to the guards...

Oh well, rules are rules.

The squire motioned for them to come to the designated area of the courtyard, which had been painted in a white circle. "And your names, brave competitors?" He begin to make a motion for the weapon's man to find a foam staff for the squirrel.