[b]Nin and Tristan[/b]

You make your way first along the roads. It's an easy walk, the sun is shining and perhaps a little too hot, but the fields are waves of golden wheat and it's a beautiful day. You pass a few late stragglers coming into town who wave and greet you warmly. This is a land and a people that ought to be prosperous and strong and you can feel that easily as you make your way down the road. 

The first big turning is what's left of an overturned cart. It's not exactly hard to find, more like you can't miss it, but there's a big furrow in the grain leading out from it, so you have to cut into the fields there and trek through the stalks. They're not so thick here, you cut through this field for perhaps 15 minutes and come out the other side, where Nin has to stop and examine some fallow ground where the movement of the beast is still present but less obvious. 

The second is when you realize that it cut back through another field and that it has been wending its way back and forth. Sometimes you come out into open space that might transition you into the forests if you were to hike for a few minutes, but every time it cuts back into the fields again.

After your third cutback, it's becoming increasingly obvious that this is going to take a while and the sun is already starting to dip towards the horizon. Gnats and little biting insects are beginning to come out as the sun moves towards twilight, and its as the horizon bathes the field in a grim red that you finally come upon the beast.

The beast seems to be a sort of giant...badger, more or less? You spot it just on the edge of a wheat field, chewing absent-minded on a few stalks almost as though it's cleaning its teeth. You're still in the field yourself and can hide easily, but it's visible from the crushed trail it has once again left. Its got to be ten times the size of a regular badger, with a body that isn't quite the same, broad hulking shoulders that make it look like it can stand on two legs and loom. But it's definitely got the right claws and there's a large fur strike along its back and the top of its head that, along with the shape of the snout puts you strongly in mind of a truly gigantic badger. 

Tristan, this is close enough that you may consider yourself as encountering something unnatural and let fate see what insight comes to you, should you wish.

[b]Constance[/b]

The ring of steel upon steel resounds through your ears! You lift your head from the cold stone, find yourself standing in the same narrow hallway, but before you at the corridor are a handful of knights arrayed in their armor and with shields held high. Before them, a vast number, a tide they cannot possibly stop though they will break and drown before they give an inch of ground. The defenders before you are arrayed in the forest green of Lostwithiel, the tabards over their mail emblazoned with white unicorns, the elite guard of the Duchess Marianne. The attackers are wearing black tabards with the silver dragon rampant upon them, the colors of King Uther Pendragon. 

You hear a sudden sound behind you. The sword that you bear as your birthright is no longer yours! Down the hallway races a flamboyant fae not unlike yourself, his shoulder-length hair loose and flying behind him, wearing a cloak in black and silver, Uther's colors. Merlin, you know somehow, carrying your sword away from you, but for what reason you cannot divine. 

You lean your head upon the stone in despair, and there is silence. When you lift it again, you are as you were, the hallway is empty, the distant sounds of the crowd barely reach you through these cool stones. 

You'll be arriving to the tournament late, tell us how you make your embarrassed entrance to the seat of honor that the Duchess reserved for you at her right hand.

[b]Robena[/b]

The tournament will take place on the green within the keep. Stands have been set up with great cloth banners above them. The Duchess Marianne sits at a place of honor. She is arrayed in a flowing dress of white linen with wide shoulders and a carefully embroidered set of delicate flowers all about the neckline. Her blond hair is styled high and she wears a small tiara studded with diamonds to mark her station. Her master of arms sits at her left, a dour young man with dark hair and a thick black beard that seems to be there to try and make him look older but instead makes him look to be drowning. Cerwen sits two seats down on her right and waives to you with a smile for all her oddness before. The seat for Constance at the Duchess' right hand is empty for the time being. 

The Azure knight lives up to her name. Her tabard is a color just a shade deeper than the sky, and so too her saddle and her horse's blanket. Beneath it, she wears polished mail. It's obvious that she has maintained it with great care after her arrival from the road. Yet, there is something wrong, something deeply off about her nature. Her helm is closed and the visor is down even in her preparations and you can see naught of her face or hair. And around her there is an air of darkness. You might wonder whether her tabard truly is a different color than the sky or if it is merely the presence of the woman bringing it down. Where she steps upon the grass of the tournament grounds, it looks as though it wilts and will not spring back. 

She ought to introduce herself as you begin the match, or at least to wait and hear your introduction. But whatever you do or say, it is as though she cannot hear you, so still is she as she sits upon her black destrier and awaits the signal for the first joust. You would think her frozen in time, save for the small white handkerchief at her waist with a golden cross upon it, fluttering in the breeze. 

[The Azure knight has denied you your right to be known by your reputation though she ought to have heard of you because her curse prevents her from truly hearing or seeing you. Tell us how Robena reacts and then prepare to engage in single combat.]