Day Two Competition - Ring Joust

[Matalina]

The object of this race is to capture as many rings as you can on your lance. This race is being judged by four of your own on your creativity and orginality and entertainment value. There is also an acomplishment point value so even if your writting is judged poorly you will still get some points depending on how many of the items you completed in your post.

 

There are 20 rings all together in this course.

 

Mat

[Wretched Chaos]

Rodrik hefted his lance. It felt a little heavy but nothing uncontrollable. Thunder danced around, awaiting his turn to go. Rodrik was excited. Here was a competiton that he was really good at. Those years working on the plains with the horses, had helped him gain very good horsemanship skills. The staff he had been provided to help in that job, had made his hand-eye coordination just as good. He could only hope that the pressure wouldn't get to him. He wanted to go back to the Yards with at least one win under his belt. He prayed silently.

Finally, it was his turn to go. He nudged Thunder forward towards the starting line. He scouted out the first ring. It was 20 paces away, and about 5 feet above Thunder's head. The starting signal was given and Rodrik booted Thunder into a quick gallop. The ring approached quickly, and Rodrik lined his lance up with the opening. He kept the lance stiff so that the ring would just slide onto the shaft. He raced past the first ring, and watched it slide onto his lance. He let out a deep breath.

He approached the second ring, but this time it was on his left. He would have to thrust to get this ring. As Thunder raced towards it, Rodrik lined up the lance again. He thrusted hard and felt a slight tug. He looked at the lance and felt growing pride that he had nailed the second ring. If he could just keep it up.

The third ring zoomed into his sights quickly. He steadied his hand and readied for the thrust again, The ring loomed up in his eyes. He made the thrust, and missed. He felt panic, and scrambled in his saddle to try and make another thrust to capture that ring that would bring him glory. But Thunder was moving too quickly, the stallion quickly outdistanced the ring and Rodrik turned back forwards in his saddle to attept to capture the fourth. Unfortunately, he had wasted too much time in trying to get the third ring, that he couldn't aim his lance into the hole of the fourth ring. He quickly thrusted, and heard the distinct, tink of metal on metal. He winced and looked up, no ring.

He rode on, slowing Thunder down so he had more time to line up his runs. The fifth ring hung unmoving 15 paces from Thunder.A slight premonition of success came to him and he knew that he woa going to get this one. The ring approached and Rodrik held the lance tight to his side, tip angled towards the ring. Thunder rode past and Rodrik watched the ring slide down the shaft. He now had 3 rings. Not bad, he thought to himself.

Rodik continued the course. He counted each and every one that slid down his lance. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... all the way to sixteen. The final two rings were coming nearer and his brain began to tense up. He ahdn't missed one since the fourth ring and he hoped to keep it up. The ring drifted across his eyesight, a slight breeze had begun blowing, and it was screwing up his aiming. He attempted a thrust in the middle of the arc, and missed. The ring was up and to the side only starting to fall back after he had rode past. Horror filled his body. "How could I have missed that? " He screamed in outrage.

He calmed down as he saw the last ring approaching quickly. This ring was arcing as well. He would have to time it perfectly. He watched the ring swing up, and began its descent down. He aimed in the middle again, only this time, the ring was dead center. The ring slid down his lance and he stood up in his saddle, pumping the lance up and down victoriously. He halted Thunder, and jumped from the saddle. He screamed in joy and ran over to the judges' table.

He counted out loud as he pulled the rings off his lance. Seventeen! He had missed three, but he had gotten an awesome amount. He just had to wait for everyone else to finish, and their scores tallied up before the winner would be announced. He went for a quick beer, and returned to the course to watch the rest of the competitors. " Come on, and let me win. Come on!" He muttered over and over again, waiting until it was finished. He prayed again silently.

[Asfaloth]

Shawn was nervous, very nervous. He had never done anything like a ring joust before and was scared to death that he would embarrass himself. He'd signed up for every event in the competition hoping to gain valuable experience but until he showed up and watched some of the others he hadn't even known what a ring joust was.

 

He watched one after another of the competititors make their way through the course while he sat atop Blaize trying to get used to the strangely balanced weight of the lance they'd provided him. In the time since Kynwric taught him to ride he had learned much and he knew he had enough skill by this point to do alright with the horse but until this morning he'd never even held a lance so he was disctinctly worried about that part of the trial.

 

Finally it was his turn. He set off at a slow trot. They had told him during the explanation of rules that he could not walk the horse through the course but that otherwise speed didn't matter. He knew that the faster he went the more likely he was to impress the judges, but he also knew that going slow and scoring higher would impress them more than going fast and missing all the rings.

 

He came to the first ring and the lance tip drooped right before he would have scored the ring. The lance was heavier than he'd thought. On the second he over-compensated and went right above the ring, slicing through the small string that held it to the tree above. Having aimed both high and low he had established his paramters and snagged the third one easily.

 

Having scored once he gained confidence and got the fourth ring without much more trouble. With each successful thrust his confidence and speed grew. This wasn't so hard after all. Then he came to the sixteenth ring in the circuit. This one was placed low, almost on the ground. Shawn knew he should slow Blaize down but took a more reckless route and tried to snag the ring at a gallop.

 

He aimed low, thinking to pierce the ring and quickly bring the lance back up. This was an utter failure as he was going too fast. He did indeed pierce the ring but then, instead of scooping it up and continuing on the course his lance stuck into the ground. His momentum carried him forward and up into the air. He hung suspended in midair for a few seconds and then fell to the ground. Blaize continued on without him until he was caught by someone else.

 

Shawn held his head high as he walked from the field, shutting out the laughs from the crowd. He was proud of himself, surprised he;d done as well as he had. He'd scored fourteen rings before his little stunt and that was good enough for his first try.

[tismeb4u]

At first the whole idea of needing to be in a wooden tower near the middle of the field to judge a ring joust seemed odd to Corin. He had never seen a ring joust let alone judged one; he knew the basics of it so he was sure it should be no problem. The tower to him seemed out of place; that was before the competition actually began. It did not take very long for him to realize two very important things. One; he would never have seen the whole course and the riders ability had he not been up there unless he had ridden along the course after the rider. The second was that there was no way he wanted to be anywhere near some of those riders with sharp pointed laces in their hands.

 

His mentee was just such an example. The boy was, if nothing else, a determined individual to experience everything he could about the competitions offered. Whether he had a chance or not; heck whether he had any idea what he was doing or not. The fact that he was able to get the fourteen rings he did before ending up in the air like a goose on a pike was amazing in it's own right. But under that look, as he was lead off the field to uproarious laughter, had to be some pain from the sudden stop. Corin did admit the boy took it in good stride. As did several others, though some of them were far less gracious to their predicament.

 

Other riders showed past skill and training that spoke of years in the saddle with a lance. They held pose and steady skill that only could come from a comfortable familiarity with the process. One rider that impressed Corin in that regard was Rodrik. The boy missed three rings in total but showed a great deal of skill both in his guidance of the mount he rode as well as the steady control he displayed with the lance. The ride had been one of the most fluent in the competition and was warranted of the applause it earned. That boy would go far in a mounted Calvary if he so chose it. Corin made a few more notes on the score sheets before handing them into the head judge and climbing back down out of the observation tower.

 

OOC: Good work you two. :D

 

 

Corin Danveer

Tower guard