Rannon watched her leave with Gideon, and then blinked when he caught himself staring. He sighed, and clenched his teeth within his closed mouth. He groaned lightly, like a dissatisfied hound. He realized he enjoyed her smiling at him a bit too much, which in turn had him thinking that he was starting to fancy her. The thought had him shaking his head, and he scolded himself to focus. This wasn't the time for that. [i]Nothing would come of it anyway, you're going to bring Loghain to justice, then you're going to... [/i]

Rannon couldn't help but sigh a second time. He didn't plan on living long after that mission was complete. Why complicate things? And why hurt a perfectly nice...sweet girl. He'd have to keep a rein on his budding desires, and focus on the task at hand. Fortunately, the thought of Loghain brought a bit of fierce anger to him. Rannon never showed too much outward emotion, but even the subtle fire in his eyes would have been noticable to someone who cared to look. 

A stout man with wide shoulders strode into the tourney tent, a resplendent tabard upon his breastplate and a full helm was in his hands. He sported an impressive, drooping mustache. "Alright, you lads are here to sign up for the tourney I take it?" He asked, rhetorically. "Right, well too bad for all of you. We can't make the Grand Melee a full scale, battle. So some of you lot won't make it to the field tomorrow. You'll do what we call preliminaries. You'll draw slots, and fight in single combat just once. Every winner makes it to tomorrow's fight. All losers get the hell off the field, or you'll get hurt. Is that understood?" 

'Yes's and 'Aye's were heard all around. "Well come on then. We'll get this going," he said, placing down the full helm on the center table. Inside were small pieces of parchment, each with numbers on them. Rannon found himself near the middle of the line, and once he made it to the fore, he reached in to find he was number 19. It didn't take him long to find out who he was facing today. His eyes fell upon his opponent, who just happened to be the loud mouth from earlier. 

The red haired Knight snorted at the twist of fate, boasting about how he could teach Rannon a lesson. Rannon hadn't been listening. He just stared at the man hard, and then strode out into the tourney field, where all the fighters began filtering out of the tent towards. The sky was blue and bright, and the tourney grounds was well tilled, with good, flat soil. Rannon took a position at the right, nearer the town. 

It took less than five minutes for the competitors to get ready, and it was at the yell of the Master-of-Arms that the swords were drawn. Rannon held his large two handed blade at the ready, point toward his opponent. The Knight before him had a low guard, and when the 'ring' sounded, their blades met with a clash of steel at the center. The Knight leaped to the side, hoping to feint with a stab before sweeping his blade upwards. 

Rannon half turned to send his hilt to knock aside the stab, but he saw the feint for what it was a fraction before it was revealed, using his blade to knock the man's sword down and into the dirt. Rannon's hilt slammed into the Knight's face, sending him staggering. He whipped his sword around faster than Rannon anticipated, leaving a cut along Rannon's cheek, but it didn't stop the young soldier from banging him atop the head with the flat of his blade, ending the fight with a resounding 'clang.' 

The other fights did not last much longer, and when the preliminaries were done, Rannon simply sheathed his sword and left the field, giving a nod to the Master-At-Arms, who smiled to him and asked him and the other winners to stay so he could lay down tomorrow's ground rules. 

[hr]

That night, Rannon strode into the Inn's common room just as Feri was giving up hope of him showing up. He had a very fresh cut on his cheek, but other than that he looked fine. He gave her and Gideon a smile as he strode over to them and grunted when he sat down. "I'm starving," he said bluntly, giving Gideon a scratch behind the ears. "You two get stuff done?" He looked to Gideon as he asked, but then his eyes met Feri's, hinting he was asking what had happened while he'd been fighting.