A Knight in Rusty Armor (and in love)

[7] Small Fry

"...How old are you, Nathaniel?"

I'm apparently not the only one with that concern. Elias squints at the boy's face as he asks that question, and Nathaniel blushes.

"I-I'm eighteen! Just barely, but I didn't want to wait until the next tournament."

Nathaniel won't meet Elias' eyes. Instead, he studies the grass below him and his horse, watching as it slowly passes by.

We made quite a bit of progress in the first hour or so of our journey. There's no doubt in our minds that we'll reach our destination in time, so for now, we're traveling at a leisurely pace and enjoying the scenery. The kingdom really is beautiful. It looks like something out of Lord of the Rings, with rolling green hills everywhere and a bright blue sky as far as the eye can see. We plan to take a short break in a little while to let the horses rest.

"Why didn't you want to wait? You don't strike me as an eager Knight," Bartholomew remarks. Nathaniel chuckles nervously.

"Well... there are some circumstances. It's for my family's sake."

"What do you mean?" I ask. "I mean, I don't wanna pry, but..."

"I-It's fine." Nathaniel commands his horse to slow down. "...See, my family used to be successful, but we've fallen on hard times. A relative cost us our honor. And my father never won a tournament when he was younger, and we really needed the money because my mom's pregnant, so he started getting ready to enter. But... he got sick. So he can't compete. I... I volunteered to go. I doubt I can win, but I at least want to make them proud. Maybe I can bring some business our way."

I'm pleasantly surprised by the answer. Nathaniel may be small, and he's very young and seems to be pretty timid, but he's got a lot of ambition and a respectable reason for being here.

"...I'm sure you'll do well," Lancelot says encouragingly. "Even if you don't have as much experience as some of the rest of us, your determination alone will carry you through many challenges."

"You've been in tournaments before, right?" Bartholomew realizes aloud, looking at Lancelot. Lancelot looks away.

"...Only two, and nothing on this grand a scale..."

"Did you win either of them?"

"...Both. ...B-But, again, it wasn't anything as challenging as this."

"How admirable! That modesty of yours is quite charming," Elias booms. "What sorts of challenges did you face?"

Lancelot looks like he doesn't want to talk about this, for whatever reason, but all eyes are on him and he seems to have little choice but to answer. Everyone's curious. I'm dying to know.

"...The first tournament was a simple arena sort of thing," Lancelot answers after a pause to collect his thoughts. "Knights were paired off and fought one another, then the victors faced off, until only one man was left standing."

"Just you?!" Nathaniel squawks. Lancelot nods, but doesn't add anything else. This guy really can fight, I realize.

"The other was a bit more well-rounded. A variety of physical challenges and puzzles were arranged over a large span of land, ending in a sort of 'boss fight' against a former tournament champion. The victor was the Knight that successfully made it through each challenge in the shortest amount of time. I won for beating the course in about thirty-six hours."

He makes it sound like it's not a big deal, since thirty-six hours is a long time, but context is everything. I won't let him get away with being this vague.