Oh Worlds (Book 1: The World of Ardonia)

Ch 3: Tournament (Pt. 1)

Dia watched her uncle use the stone grey paint to cover some of his markings, mismatched eyes following the brush. Patches of sunlight illuminated the small hidden clearing around them. The grey dullness of the paint covering the diamond like blue like a cloudy day in the sky.

"So," she drawled out, swinging her legs over head as she leaned forward on the branch she was perched on. "You'll go into the tournament, return the Primes, and then wait until the battle, you appear as a dead person walking, steal the Primes and run?"

"Yes." Zafor muttered through his teeth, which was holding the second brush of deep glowing navy paint made from a fine grounded lapis powder and glowsquid ink.

"And all of this is based off a dream you had nearly 30-ish years ago?"

"Also yes."

"...What do I get to do?"

"Hopefully, nothing." he said as he switched the brushes. Painting on new patterns of swirls that took the form of a storm with ease. He looked up to see her pouting down at him. 

"But I wanna come with you!" She whined, swing upside down now from her branch.

"No."

"But why not?"

"Because I said so."

"Just because you said so, that doesn't mean I have to listen to you."

"..."

She just gave him a feral smile.

"You're going to follow me in there, aren't you?" He groaned, pinching the ridge of his nose. 

"Yup!"

"And there's nothing I can say or do to stop you?"

"Nope!" She chirped happily.

________________________)(______________________

And now here he was, a few minuets after from giving the Prime Songs to the Ardoni Masters.

"That wasn't so bad." Dia observed, one had clinging onto his right horn, the other at her chin as she was perched on his shoulders. A thoughtful expression on her face.

Zafor just raised an eyebrow at her, feeling even more exhausted than usual ever since she ruined his sleep schedule.

"Ok, maybe it was a little uh..." she trailed off to find the right word to exactly describe what had happened.

"Disastrous?" He offered. "Plain out terrible?"

"Ok, so it was bad." she admitted, "At least they didn't suspect anything."

Zafor didn't know if he wanted to strangle her or kill himself just to escape the impending chaos that will happen in the next few hours.

"Can I get down?" She asked, snapping him back into reality. She was tapping her fingers along his head, which were unconsciously starting to braid some stands of his hair. He sighed as he carefully offered her a hand, and she climbed down into his arms, tentatively gripping onto his horns. Making sure she didn't smudge the glowing paint on them.

What he didn't realize was that she saw some extremely familiar markings in the crowds of Ardoni who belong to their respective Clan's militia. One pattern representing a puzzle that was missing the final piece in her opinion. The other's was like lightning falling. Both a Nestoris gold and yellow.

But she saw past the magic.

And saw red.

So she did what any other child would do when they saw their distant family or family friends.