The captain looked adric up and down, and was uimpressed. He made a comical figure, wrapped from head to toe in thich furs. Underneath all the furs, the captain could tell the the stranger was shiverring from the cold. He noted unnatural red hair peeking out from his fur cap. The captain noticed that under the strangely coloured hair, were odd eyes, red iris' with yellow pupils. The man had no visible weapons, and did not have the build of a warrior. This weak warmlander did not look like a champion at all.
"Since i have made the challenge, your . . . <i>Champion</i> . . . has the right to chose the nature of the challenge." The captain's tone was stiff, his expression affronted.
Adric looked around the sixty or so guards that surrounded them, then to clay's expressionless face, then to the irritated captain. He stood a few inches shorter than adric, at about 5'7", and was well built without being overly muscled. He worea short sword on his left hip, and a pistol on his right.
Adric pulled the furs from around his mouth and grinned at the captain. "It takes skill, strength, and courage to be a good fighter, yes?" The man blinked, and then nodded as adric leant down and picked up a rock the sized of his palm from the ground. "It also takes something else that's less quantifiable, but can be just as influential, particularly when foes are evenly matched. Luck."
one of the other guards spoke out angrily at Adric's words; "What makes you think that you match our king's champion in anything, let alone skill or streng-" He stopped mid-sentance at a loud <i>CRACK!</i> that echoed around the square, and every guard stared at the dust and pebbles falling from adric's fist, held out in front of him. There wasn't a man or woman in the 60 soldiers that didn't suddenly have a very dry mouth.
"I propose a challenge of Luck." Adric said, and his voice was very low and dangerous, as though it dripped with a black acidic venom, and he opened his hand, allowing the remainder of the crushed rock to fall to the ground. Then, his voice lightened into a conversational, even warm tone. "Does your country use coins for currancy, captain?" The white-faced captain of the guard nodded, and pulled out a large coin and handed it to adric. On one side was the image of some mythical beast and lettering adric could not read, and on the other was the profile of a face.
Adric tossed the coin back to the man, who deftly caught it. "The rules are simple. first you will toss the coin in the air and i will call how it shall land. Then, we will reverse. If we are both wrong, it is a tie and we try again. If we are both right, it is a tie and we do it again. If one is right and the other is wrong, then we have a winner." The captain looked about to protest when adric interrupted again. "Or, if you prefer, we could climb to the top of your mountain, jump off, and see who learns to fly first. I've done it once already today, so i'm not too worried about the outcome." The man just scowled at adric for a few moments, first in shock, then in consternation as he saw the stranger was completely serious. Then he flipped the coin.
"Heads." Adric called.
The coin landed in the dirt, the head facing up. Adric leant down and picked it up. He tossed it in the air and the guard called out "Gryphon" The coin landed with the gryphon facing up.
This continued for an agonizing 20 minutes, the tension in the guards building each time adric missed the call, only for the captain to also get the call wrong. Soon, there werew murmurs and bets being passed around as to whom would win, and the wagers grew bigger with each round, until the men were calling out in excitement or dismay at every throw.
Aside from being a little bored, and irritated with having to wait out in the cold, Clay was impressed with how quickly mad had turned what would have been violence and bad feeling into a friendly coin toss, joking and laughing with the men who 20 minutes earlier would have happily skewered the both of them for insolent outlanders.
Kim, the girl, was still in shock from the events of the day, and very much in awe of her two captors come rescuers, and was only baffled and terrified by the red-haired one all the more, after seeing the terrible energies at his disposal and the way he seemingly effortlessly disarmed a volatile situation.
"This is terrible!" adric joked aftaer another tied round, where both he and Menan, the captain had miss-called the toss. "At this rate both you and i will still be here in fifty years' time, old men, tossing a tiny copper coin in the dirt, our backs," he hunched over, imitating the opsture of an old, decrepit man perfectly "curled up and hunched like a gorrillas, and shaggy beards like my close, personal friend, Billy the Yak!" The men all laughed openly and without reserve as adric stood up from collecting the now dusty coin again from the dirt.
"Menan, you are by far the luckiest, and most profoundly canny champion i have ever had the challenge of facing!" He paused, rolling the coin between his knuckles and went on a little more quietly, a good-natured seriousness in his voice. "Menan, i know it is despicably bad manners of me to do this halfway through a challenge, but how would you feel about an amendman to the rules, that we may be about our business, and perhaps after hours meet each other in the warmth of one of oyur local establishments, all expenses paid by the winner of our challenge, of course!" there was another round of laughter, and the now somewhat relaxed captain smiled, his earlier pique forgotten. "What are these new terms, warmlander Adric?"
"I propose that we have the honoured Holy lady my 'king' escorts to you honoured kingdom throw our coin, that it's landing can be called divine wisdom, to which we take in turns calling. The first man to call it's wisdom correctly is delared the winner, and his King entertains us at a place of your recommending." He leans in conspiratorily, his voice set to a stage whisper so that all those nearby could hear clearly. "after your shifts, of course!" Once the laughter had settled again, Menan agreed, and Kim Han Wu was coaxed to come to the center of the circle and take the coin. "please, my worthy adversary." adric said, bowing formally to Menan. The crowd held it's breath as Kim tossed the coin, and Menan called "Heads!"
The coin landed Gryphon up, and the crowd moan despairngly. Adric picked up the coin and handed it back to the girl. "my lady" She had trouble looking at his unsettling eyes, images of the terrifying metal dragon taking flight flashing through her mind. She feard the thing would give her nightmares for months.
She tossed it again, and adric called "Gryphon.", and the crowd again waited breathlessly.
The coin landed heads up. After the groaning subsided and Menan had reclaimed the coin for Kim Han Wu, she tossed it three more times, each time the challengers guessed wrong until it was once again Adric's turn. The crowd went still, and the girl again threw the coin high into the air. Adric didn't take his eyes of Menan as he called "Edge."
And the coin landed, bounced, and rolled, stopping on it's edge at Menan's feet.
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