Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, there lived a girl named Jade, everybody said she was good luck. Her family was known for being great blacksmiths or powerful mages or a fearsome warrior or all. Her family is always in favor of the king. But Jade was different from all of her family and cousins. Her power came from her will and she was only an elemental mage, her elements, fire and wind. She was also not a skilled blacksmith and instead of being able to handle all of the weapons in the world, she could only handle daggers and swords and throwing stars. She was best at the broadswords and the short and long daggers. She was good at all throwing stars. Jade was very pretty, her prettiness unique, unlike her sisters and cousins. She had jet-black tinted brown and a dark red hair. Her eyes were a brown sprinkled with red. She was slim, but strong with a fighter’s grace. Her hair was always in a ponytail, which is one of the characteristics that people recognized her as herself. Jade was a tomboy and friends with many boys, which was one of the reasons why most of the girls her age hated her. Another way for people to recognize is how she dressed, she always wore trousers and a tunic over a soft cotton shirt with knee-high boots, across her back lay her ruby studded broadsword, on that belt that held up her broadsword was a small pouch that held healing herbs and bandages, around her waist on a belt was a long emerald studded dagger and her pouch of never ending throwing stars, and inside of both boots was a short emerald studded dagger tucked safety in.

One day, when Jade was walking along, the prince rode by on his royal mount. Suddenly the prince stopped on the middle of the road. The royal herald, who had been riding beside him, addressed the crowd in the marketplace, “All hail to the royal prince.” Everybody stopped what they were doing to look expectantly at the herald for only after that statement the herald usually talked about an important event coming up. And that was exactly what he did. “This weekend,” announced the herald, ”will be the Festival of Talent. It will be held in the palace’s courtyards. The winner in each event shall get a gold trophy and a trunk full of food!” The crowded murmured with excitement. But fell silent again as the herald continued on, “Anybody may enter the contest. The events shall be in this order: archery, fencing, throwing stars (the event of aiming), kendo, gymnastics match, martial arts, combat gymnastics, ice skating, drawing, cooking, wrestling, boxing, sewing, and the beauty contest, which every girl shall enter. After that we shall have fun and games, but every winner shall from all of the events shall come with me to see his majesties, the king, the queen, and the prince. And then the night after the festivities end, we shall be holding a ball in the palace! The Festival of talents shall begin tomorrow.” Everybody started to talk again once the prince and the herald rode away.

After the prince left with the herald, Jade was left standing on the busy street with a thoughtful look on her face. Then, Jade turned around and walked back home to tell her family about the Festival of Talents.

The next day Jade woke up early and did her morning stretches. Then she dressed. That day, she chose to wear a white shirt with black trousers and a black tunic. Then she put on her comfortable pair of black boots. She pulled on her weapons and walked out the door after shouting out to her parents to let them know that she was going to be out. She walked out in to the fresh morning air. She breathed in deeply and sighed with contentment. Just then the church bells rang signaling the beginning of the day. Jade strolled up and down the streets, many people that knew her personally yelled out a good morning, She nodded her head to acknowledge their greeting. Normally Jade would be loud and rowdy like boys her age, but today she was in a particularly quiet mood. Up and down the streets, Jade strolled. It was nearly dark by the time she stopped and went home. The next morning, Jade woke up to the pounding of her bedroom door. She woke with a start and nearly fell out of her bed. Getting up, she yelled out, “Hey! Whoever you are banging on my door, I better not find you there when I get out there!”

Her cousin, the one banging on her door quietly walked away hearing the threat in her voice. Yelling back though, “You better wake up Jade! Today is the Festival of Talent! It starts in one hour!”

Jade hearing the last part bolted straight up. Right away she was washing her face, brushing her teeth, and pulling on her clothes and weapons and ran out the front door. Finally reaching the palace gates, she stopped to dust herself off and straighten herself up, and walked through the gates.

Jade walked inside enjoying the sound of people’s voices and the sounds from animals they had brought with them. In courtyard, people had set up stands and were selling all kinds of things all around her. In all, the courtyard now looked like the supermarket except it was cleaner, much more crowded, and with tons of guards walking around the place. What was shocking to her, was that there were even nobles in the walking around!!

TBC