Chapter 7 – Fun at the Festival

AN: Hello! Time for a new chapter, this one is not as short nor as peaceful as I initially thought it would be, but here it is anyways, I hope you guys like it, without further ado, here it is

It's been almost a month since the battle against Tom. Marco's wounds have been recovering without problems with a little help of magic. Right now Marco was in the middle of one of the villages near the castle, he was helping with the reconstruction of the houses that were destroyed during the attacks, while Marco didn't knew too much about building houses, he helped carrying materials around and lifting heavy rubble, Marco didn't noticed it, but thanks to his helpful attitude and the nice way he treated the people he was getting pretty popular among the townsfolk. Marco was in the middle of lifting a half burned log when he heard loud footsteps approaching, trying to be careful and not hit the person accidentally with the log, he placed it down and turned around, he saw King River approaching, dressed in a pair of brown pants and a brown shirt. He could pass as an average villager if it wasn't for the fact that he was still wearing his crown and for his signature long beard.

"Marco! How are you feeling my boy?" -greeted the King loudly and Marco smiled at him

"Still a little sore, but nothing to keep me down sir" -Marco answered and River laughed loudly and patted/slapped Marco in the back. Marco grunted in pain and the King apologized. After a couple of minutes River helped Marco carry debris and materials around to help the villagers in the reconstruction. Marco hoisted 3 large beams of wood easily, River saw this and took it as a personal challenge, the King managed to lift 5 beams with some difficulty.

"So, Marco" -said the King with a little effort in his voice, Marco noticed this but said nothing- "are you excited for the upcoming festival?" -asked River and Marco put a thoughtful face. Star had mentioned the festival to him and had been very busy with it, but Marco didn't knew too much about the event.

"Star told me about the festival, and I have definitively seen everyone busy setting up everything, but to be honest I don't know too much about this kind of festival, I'm sure they aren't like the ones we had on Earth, I kind of wanted to know more about it, I may be able to take Star on a dat..." -Marco stopped talking to himself once he remembered he was speaking with the King, Star's father. Marco blushed deeply once he realized what he was saying and got very nervous. River saw the expressions playing into Marco's face and once he stopped talking he gave a loud laugh and pulled Marco into a one armed hug.

"Don't worry Marco, I'm sure that there can be some time for you and Star to "hang out" for a while" -River said this wiggling his eyebrows, Marco never thought he could get to this level of embarrassment - "But to be honest I wanted to talk to you about one of the events that will be on the festival" -River sounded casual but a little serious, Marco placed down the beams of wood near one of the houses that were being built, the king following suit. Marco raised an eyebrow at the King and he continued - "This festival is meant to lift the spirits of everyone, I wanted to throw a giant party, but you know, Moon can be a party pooper as you kids say" -Marco rolled his eyes at the King -"anyways, one of the main events of the festival is going to be a little tournament between some of the young men of the nearby allied kingdoms that are invited to the event. This event haven't been held in a couple of years, and it's traditionally believed that the winner of the tournament has a better chance of becoming the next King" -Marco looked surprised at this, River gave a little smirk to Marco -"but I wouldn't worry too much about that, since everyone in the kingdom knows that you're pretty much crowned at this point, you know, after Ruberiot's song" -Marco wanted to die of embarrassment at that, most of the people in the kingdom thought that he and Star were together? He haven't' even asked her for a date! The King saw Marco's expression and was internally dying of laughter but acted as if he didn't noticed and kept talking -"Anyway, since the popular belief is strong, people could ask questions if you aren't participating, also if you didn't knew you're getting very popular amongst the people, and some of them would be disappointed if you didn't participate you know" -Marco still felt embarrassed but he was interested in the tournament.

"So if I participate, what I'm supposed to do?" -Marco asked and the King smiled.

"Sorry my boy, but I'm not allowed to ruin the surprise, Moon was very clear about giving hints, I only can tell you that it's going to be a tournament with multiple events, but don't worry, I've seen your competition and the only one you have to worry about is little Jonathan" -said River animatedly since Marco sounded interested

"Jonathan you said? The same Jonathan who was on the ball?"

"So you've met Jonathan before?"

"Yeah I did met him, and it wasn't a pleasant to meet him..." -Marco said and the King sighed

"So, he still has the bad attitude I guess?"

"Bad attitude it's not the term I would use, but yes he wasn't very nice to me or Star, I hope he isn't too mad that I burnt his glove" -said Marco and River raised an eyebrow but didn't question him.

"While Jonathan has the strength and will of a Johansen, sadly he got his mother's attitude. His mother comes from the Butterfly family, she got a low nobility rank, but she thinks she's important. To this date we still don't know how she managed to marry the duke, but she did and since she raised Jonathan he got all of her ideas, I still remember when Star broke that kid's nose" -River chuckled to himself remembering old times -"in any case, he will be in the competition too, he's a strong challenger, but someone might be able to knock him down a peg or two" -River winked at Marco and he smirked at him.

A week later the first day of the festival started and the tournament would be held. With a little help from King River they managed to keep Star from knowing that Marco would be the last participant of the tournament. Star woke up early and went to wake up Marco. They went together to the festival that was already bustling with activity in the morning. Marco and Star attracted some attention since Star was dressed in her blue "princess dress" and Antorcha was perched on her shoulders and Marco was wearing his usual red hoodie, he had told Star that he wasn't going to wear his armor pieces for the festival. Marco and Star walked around the festival, they ate some corn-based snacks, watched a puppet show and listened to some bards who were singing. After sharing a laugh with Marco about a funny song that they heard Star looked up and saw that it was almost noon.

"I have to be at the tournament opening soon, so I have to go, are you sure you don't want to come? I can get us good seats"

"Don't worry Star, I have some things to do, but don't worry, I'll catch up later and we can continue with our da... day! We can continue with our day of fun here!" -Marco caught himself before letting that slip, Star smiled and giggled at Marco and started walking away. Marco breathed deeply, happy that he didn't embarrassed himself (too much) again. Once he couldn't see Star anymore Marco went to where the King had showed him that the participants were going to gather. Marco arrived at the familiar building, that looked like a stable in his opinion, he knocked the door once and since it was open he stuck his head in and looked around, as soon as he did, someone took him by the arm and pulled him in.

"Mr FireBringer, thank the heavens you're here, we thought you were going to be late, thankfully you're just in time. No time to explain, hurry you must get into the arena, I'll go give the signal for them to announce you, stay here" -Marco was pushed around into a room and the man who was pushing him left in a hurry, Marco had no time to ask him any questions, he sighed and waited to hear his name. He could hear the roars of the crowd as one of the competitors was announced. Marco looked around the room and saw that his armor was where he left it the last day. He took off his hoodie, and put his armor over his white shirt, he then put on his gauntlets and moved his hands around making sure that everything was in the right place. After a minute a door was opened and he hear the cheers of the crowd louder than before.

"And now, as our surprise last competitor, someone that you might know and love, he came from another dimension just to help us on our hour of need. Introducing the FireBringer himself, Marco Diaz!" -Marco thought that the introduction was a little bit too much, but he walked out as soon as he heard his name. Marco stepped out into a space that looked somewhat like a gladiator's arena. Marco was surprised that such a big area could be adapted into this arena in such a short time. The cheers of the crowd were deafening. Marco waved happily at the crowd, he looked around and saw that in a box above the crowd, the King, the Queen and Star were seated. Marco saw that Star was wide-eyed with her mouth open looking at him, Marco sent a wink in her direction that snapped her out of her stupor and he saw her screaming at her parents. Marco saw that the Queen remained calm while the King was trying to calm her down. Marco smiled to himself and looked at the other people in the arena. Marco saw that there were another seven participants on the arena. All of the other participants looked to be around his age or a little older. Marco noticed Jonathan looking at him, he looked at him with no expression on his face. Marco didn't knew if he was one of the ones that saw the fight against Tom, but at the very least he should have heard the rumors, Marco stepped in line with the other people in the arena, most of them took no notice of him except for one boy, he looked a little younger than him, definitively a head shorter than him, he had blonde hair and had a look of admiration when he approached Marco.

"Mr FireBringer? It's an honor to meet you, my name is Joshua!" -the boy greeted animatedly and Marco smiled awkwardly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Joshua, but please call me Marco, it's still a little odd for me when people call me like that"

"I'm sorry Mr Fir... I mean Marco, I have heard many things about you, I was hoping to win on this tournament but I didn't expected you to be here, now we're all guaranteed to lose against you" -Marco chuckled and patted the boy in the back.

"Don't worry man, I might have fire magic, but who knows what they are going to throw at us in this thing, maybe we have to do something that you're good at and I suck at doing" -Joshua was going to say something but a loud voice, that belonged to Queen Moon, interrupted him.

"Now that all the contestants are here, we shall begin with the first event. Star, if you may?" -the Queen motioned to Star who raised her wand and cast a spell over the arena. After a second bright rainbow colored railing appeared in the center of the arena creating a circle.

"A track?" -one of the other participants asked and cold sweat ran on Marco's back. His fear was confirmed as he saw men guiding Warnicorns into the track.

"The first event will be a Warnicorn race, as to not give any of the contestants any advantages they will all be mounting Warnicorns from our stables" -to say Marco was nervous will be an understatement. He had never mounted a horse, let alone a Warnicorn, when he was on Ragndell's place they tried to tame some of the creatures but it hadn't worked out, it was more like them holding onto the backs of the beasts to save their lives.

"Emm... Marco? Are you feeling okay?" -Marco snapped out from his trance as he heard Joshua's voice.

"I think I just cursed myself, I have no idea on how to mount a Warnicorn" -whispered Marco to the boy who placed a hand on his shoulder in pity.

After a couple of minutes all the participants were mounted and positioned at the starting line. Marco managed to keep a straight face but he was panicking internally. After a couple of minutes, Star used her wand to created a firework that signaled the start of the race. Marco used his heels to gently poke the Warnicorn on the ribs, the beast used to the signal shot ahead and Marco held as hard as he could. Marco's performance was a disaster to say the least, he came in 7th place, he didn't finished last just because one of the other boys got a really rowdy Warnicorn and couldn't get the beast the follow his directions. Once Marco finished the last lap he tried to dismount the beast just to fall off with his back on the dirt. He stood up and looked at Star's direction, he saw the she had tears on her eyes and both hands on her mouth, trying to contain her laughter. Marco sent her a glare which broke her restrain and she started laughing loudly while her mother scolded her. They gave him a couple of minutes to prepare the next event. In the meantime he managed to ask for the results of the race. Apparently someone called Edward won the race, followed closely by Joshua in second and Jonathan in third place.

A few minutes later the contestants were called again to the arena, once Marco reentered the stadium, he saw something that made him smile.

In the middle of the arena there were targets, archery targets, to his left a rack with several bows and quivers.

"The next event" -the Queen announced loudly -"will be an archery competition. Each contestant will have three shots, each one will be judged and given a score based on the three" -Marco already felt more confident. Most of the other boys were fidgeting with the bow they had chosen, it was obvious to Marco that most of them hadn't touched a bow on their lives. Marco looked at Joshua and saw that he was just looking nervously at the bow he had no idea what to do with it.

"Having problems there dude?" -asked Marco in a friendly tone and Joshua looked at him with a desperate look on him eyes.

"I've never shot a bow before Marco, I'm more of a sword guy" -Marco chuckled at him and took the bow and the quiver of arrows that the boy had, Marco examined the bow for a couple of seconds before scoffing and putting it back on the rack, Marco looked around the selection of bows, took two and handed one to Joshua, then he took an arrow from his quiver and handed it to him.

"Let me see how you draw the bow" -said Marco and Joshua sheepishly drew his bow with the arrow. Marco shook his head and motioned to him to lower his bow.

"First of all, don't hold your bow like that unless you want to torn the skin of your arm off" -Marco then gave Joshua a quick lesson of archery, correcting his posture and teaching him how to draw the arrow correctly.

"So, it should be like this?" -asked Joshua holding the bow in position, the arrow slipped from his fingers and it flew nailing a corn cob that one of the people who were carrying things into the arena was going to eat.

"Sorry!" -yelled Joshua to the man who looked terrified at the sudden flying arrow.

"Your posture was good, just remember to hold the arrow with a little more strength" -said Marco looking at were the arrow flew.

After a couple of minutes the contestants stood in a line while Edward was going to take the first shots, apparently they were going in the same order of the races, which meant that Marco's turn was going to be in second to last.

Each shot that Marco saw made him a little sad inside. Edward hadn't managed to land a single arrow in his target. Next was Joshua, the boy was obviously inexperienced but thanks to Marco's advise he managed to land his three arrows on the target. None of them were nowhere near the center, but it was already the best score. Jonathan was next, he wasn't sure if the boy was just copying Joshua's style or if he had used a bow before, but he used the same position, however Marco noticed that the bow he was using wasn't well balanced and the arrow was a bit crooked. It was obvious to Marco that the arrows that they were using were used before. Jonathan took his shoot but the arrow flew to the right of the target, missing completely. Jonathan took his other two shots and managed to land them in the outer rings of the target. The shots from the next contestants were as bad as Marco imagined. One of them hurt his face drawing the bow string next to his face and another hurt his arm with a string slap. Marco was getting sad but was laughing at the same time. Just before his turn one boy he didn't knew went to take his shots. Marco noticed the posture of the boy and watched interested. The boy took his first shot and it landed in one of the outer rings, the next two landed in bulls-eye, the crowd cheered at him. The boy bowed to the crowd and returned to his place in the line. Marco was next, he confidently walked to the line in front of the target and took three arrows out from his quiver, Marco got lucky and managed to get a quiver with new, straight arrows. Marco noticed that the crowd was silent, he smiled to himself and cracked his neck, it was time to show off a little bit. Marco took the bow in one hand and the three arrows on the other, then Marco threw the three arrows one by one in the air, then he stretched and held his bow in position with the other hand raised in the air. In a demonstration of speed and skill Marco caught the first arrow and shot it at an impressive speed, hitting the target dead in the center, he quickly caught the second one and shot it, splitting the first one in half. Catching the third one, he gave a little spin and shot the third arrow, splitting the last arrow in half, Marco lowered his bow and bowed to the crowd who was still silent, a second later the people erupted in cheers, Marco looked at Star's direction and saw her standing on her feet cheering along with the King, the Queen limited herself at clapping politely.

"Nice shooting" -Marco heard someone say to him, it was the boy that shot before him.

"Thanks, you had really nice shots too" -Marco said and the boy shook his head.

"Thank you, but it was nothing as impressive as what you just did, in my defense I'll say that these arrows are horrible" -both boys laughed at this

"Yeah, they are really bad, same as some of the bows, most of them had really bad balance" -the boy nodded in agreement at Marco.

"I hope we can shot again some other time, preferably with better equipment" -the boy extended his hand and Marco shook it.

Once all contestants had their turns, the points were counted and it wasn't a surprise that Marco had the first place, followed by the other boy, who he learned was called Sebastian, with Joshua coming in third.

Marco was declared winner of the archery competition without any objection. The following events of the tournament were somewhat... odd in Marco's opinion, they were things that Marco never expected in this kind of tournament, things like a Cornbread eating competition, an obstacle race, even a staring competition, each time the Queen announced one of the events Marco could hear the exasperation on her voice, which made him think that most of these were Star's ideas. After event number 16, which was a "rock-paper-scissors" competition, the Queen made an announcement.

"And now it's time for the last event, the scores are really close so this event could decide the winner of the tournament, for our last event, a dueling tournament!" -the Queen declared and the crowd cheered in excitement -"for this event, our contestants will be paired on single elimination matches. When a contestant manages to draw blood or incapacitate his rival, the judge will declare him winner and will pass to the next round, since we have eight contestant we will have 3 rounds. To give the contestants time to prepare, we will have a break, so please enjoy and wait for the announcement" -said Moon while some bards entered the arena to perform while the boys left to the waiting rooms.

Marco returned to the room where he waited before and sat on a couch that was on the room, he breathed deeply in relief, while the events after the archery competition were ridiculous to say the least, he felt exhausted, so a little breather was welcomed, he poured himself a glass of water from a jar that was nearby when he heard footsteps near his door.

"Having fun there?" -asked Star leaning against a wall of the room -"I was really surprised when they announced you, if I knew you were in the competition I would have added some Earth events" -said Star confirming Marco's suspicions about the odd competitions.

"We wanted to give you a surprise you know, also it wouldn't be fair if I got an advantage if you manipulated the events"

"Nah I would just added some others but no easy ones" -said Star winking at Marco who mentally sighed in relief, who knows what kind of crazy thing swould his friend make him do if she knew that he was in the competition beforehand.

"Anyways, the fights are about to start, you want me to move things around for you?" -asked Star twirling her wand and Marco shook his head at her

"No cheating for me Star, if I'm going to fight in this I want to win fairly" -Star shrugged and walked to the entrance of the room, she looked back at Marco

"Ok, do it your way then. Just be careful, I know that you're tough, but so they are, some of them are from my dad's kingdom so they know how to fight, the others have trained in fencing and that kind of things, so they are no pushovers when it comes to fighting" -Marco nodded acknowledging the information.

"I'll keep that in mind, but don't worry, I have a few tricks under my sleeve" -Star bounced in place, wished Marco good luck and left, a minute later the sound of a horn told the contestants that it was time to return to the arena. None of the contestants was allowed to use armor and since only Marco was wearing some kind of armor he had to remove his. Next they were shown a weapon's rack that was set so that they could choose a weapon. Marco noticed that most of his opponents grabbed some kind of sword, only one of the boys chose a big battle axe. Marco walked to the rack looking at the different weapons, none of them really fancied him.

Marco decided to take a war mallet with a metal head. Ragndell had showed him a couple of tricks with that kind of weapon, while it was going to be difficult to get "first blood" with it, the disabling part was going to be easier, he didn't want to hurt anyone too badly or scar someone by accident. Once everyone had a weapon, the first round of battles was chosen randomly. Marco looked at the chart that was displayed, he was going to fight in the third battle against a boy called Charles. Marco noted that the first battle was Joshua against Jonathan and the second battle was Edward against Sebastian, the fourth battle was the last two boys, Frederick against Henry. After the matches were announced they were told to leave the arena since only the ones who were going to fight were allowed in the arena along with the referee. Marco and the other contestants were given a separate place in the bleachers were they could see the fights. After a couple of minutes Joshua and Jonathan were ready to start the fight and the referee gave the signal. The fight looked really one sided in favor of Jonathan. Joshua was using a short sword along with a buckler which he was using very effectively to defend himself, but he couldn't get any opening against the heavy blows of Jonathan's long sword.

"It looks like Jonathan is still harsh against poor Joshua" -said Sebastian who was sitting next to Marco

"Do they know each other?" -asked Marco and Sebastian nodded

"Yes, they actually are cousins, I don't know them too well, but I have heard the rumors, apparently Jonathan likes to demonstrate just how strong he is to everyone he can, so Joshua had to take the brunt of the "demonstrations" -Marco said nothing but looked at the fight, now worried at the younger boy. The fight went in the same fashion for a couple of minutes, Joshua trying to defend himself while Jonathan swung his sword trying to open his defenses, Joshua was looking tired and was getting sloppier by the second, Jonathan took an opportunity and swung his sword nicking Joshua's leg, the cut was somewhat deep and was bleeding profusely, Joshua screamed in pain and dropped his shield, Jonathan too the chance and struck Joshua in the head with the hilt of his sword rendering him unconscious, which wasn't necessary since the referee had already proclaimed him the winner, Marco gritted his teeth but said nothing. Once Joshua was carried away from the arena the next fight began, Edward fought against Sebastian, Edward was using a regular longsword while Sebastian was using a rapier. Marco was very impressed by Sebastian's fencing style, he parried or deflected each blow that Edward delivered, after a minute Sebastian figured Edward's patterns and after deflecting a swing Sebastian took the chance and stabbed Edward's shoulder making him bleed quite a lot. The referee declared Sebastian winner and he advanced to the next round. Marco was up next and he walked to the center of the arena along with Charles, his opponent. Marco noticed that the boy was the one who had picked the battle axe, the referee gave the signal and the fight started. The fight went on pretty quickly, while Charles had a very good stance and it was obvious to Marco that he was used to handling an axe of that size, Marco was faster, so after Edward swung his axe Marco swung his hammer at his exposed side, his hit connected and the air left Edward's lungs. The boy was lying on the ground and as he was going to stand he felt pressure on his chest. Marco had his leg over his chest while his hammer was pinning down his right arm which was close to the axe. The referee declared Marco the winner and he passed to the next round. In the last fight Frederick made short work of Henry using a katana-like sword. The boy's movement were very fast and in no time he sliced Henry's chest, his shirt stained in blood.

The first fight of the semi-finals was about to start, Jonathan was in the arena alongside Sebastian, after the referee gave the signal and the fight started. Both fighters swung their weapons at each other testing their opponent's defenses and trying to find flaws in their patterns. After a couple of minutes of parrying and deflecting blows Marco cringed as Sebastian overextended his arm on an attempt to stab Jonathan who took advantage of his opponent's mistake and grabbed his wrist with one hand, with the other he struck Sebastian's arm with the hilt of his sword, a sickening crunch was heard through the arena and the people cringed at the sound, Jonathan then kicked Sebastian's chest and knocked him on the ground. Once the tip of his sword was on Sebastian's neck the referee declared him the winner. Marco didn't showed it on the outside, but inside he was angry, Sebastian was a fellow archer and if the injury was bad enough he wouldn't be able to shoot a bow again, Marco could only hope the best for him. Marco tried to calm down a little since it was time for his fight and he didn't wanted to place his anger on the wrong person. Once Marco and Henry were in the arena the referee gave the signal for the fight to start. The fight was somewhat anti-climatic, Marco's speed with his hammer was up to pair with Henry's katana, however Marco knew that he wouldn't be able to defend himself if he made a mistake so he stuck mostly to defense. After Henry slashed Marco took a chance and swung his hammer, however Henry reacted quickly and placed the katana in the path of the blunt weapon to defend himself, once the hammer made contact with the thin sword, it shattered in half, Marco and Henry both looked shocked at the blade-less hilt that Henry had in his hands, obviously none of them expected that to happen, seeing that he no longer had a weapon Henry surrendered and Marco advanced to the finals.

It was time for the final match, Marco and Jonathan stood in the middle of the arena facing each other. The referee gave the signal to start the fight and Jonathan held his longsword in position

"So let's see if you're as good in fighting as they say or if it's just rumors" -Marco narrowed his eyes at him

"You know, at first I was only going to beat you around a bit for being rude to Star last time, but now you have hurt my friends, you better hope that nothing happened to Sebastian's arm, because you'll be missing an arm yourself if something did" -said Marco in a low threatening tone. Jonathan smirked at him

"Those two are just weaklings, Sebastian is only good for political things and Joshua is just a poor excuse of a Johansen, he isn't strong enough to have our name" -Marco growled and then screamed at him

"The only one not worthy of the name Johansen is you, all of the Johansen I have met are not only proud warriors but also loving and kind people, you are just the opposite of that" -the words of Marco seemed to have an effect on him as Jonathan growled at Marco

"Enough chit-chat, come and fight me like a man!" -Jonathan said and Marco smirked

"I know a couple of girls that can fight better than you, but if that's what you want" -Marco took his mallet in one hand and threw it to a side of the arena, where it made a hole in one of the walls, then he got into his Karate position. Jonathan was confused at this but seeing that Marco was disarmed he charged and swung his sword, Marco expected this and caught the sword with the palms of his hands. Jonathan's eyes widened and with a movement of Marco's hands the blade broke in half. Before Jonathan had any chance to react Marco drove his fist into the boy's gut making him stumble backwards. Jonathan took a deep breathe and tried to recover himself. Once he regained his breath he look ahead of him and saw Marco staring at him, his eyes looked threatening but Jonathan didn't looked intimidated. Jonathan got into a sloppy brawler's position and prepared to fight once again, Marco huffed at the poor form of his opponent, it was obvious to him that he wasn't trained very well in hand to hand combat. Jonathan blinked once and Marco disappeared from his sight, before he even had the chance to question himself were his opponent went he felt a sharp pain on his side, looking downwards he saw Marco's fist on his side. What followed could only be described by the spectators as a total beatdown, Marco delivered punch after punch to his opponent's midsection, Jonathan tried to defend himself, but everytime he did Marco just took another opening and if he tried to punch back the attack was either blocked of deflected by Marco's arm. After a couple of minutes Marco stopped the attacks and Jonathan was barely able to remain on his feet.

"I have to tell, you're tough. Most people would have passed out by now. I would like to keep this for a while, but we all have better things to do. From now on I suggest you to be less rude to Star and my friends, because if I get angry at you again, what happened to the Demon Prince will look like a day in the spa" -before Jonathan had a chance to answer Marco punched him directly in the nose and sent the boy to the ground. Seeing that the boy was unconscious and that his face was bleeding from the broken nose the referee called the fight and Marco was declared the winner.

After Jonathan was taken away, Marco was called to the box were the Royal family were seated. A fanfare was played by trumpets and the Queen declared Marco officially the winner of the tournament. Star was bouncing on her feet, obviously happy that Marco had won. Star handed him a golden trophy and threw herself at him in a hug then she gave him a kiss on the cheek, Marco blushed profusely and he saw that Star was blushing too.

"Congratulations Marco!" -Star said smiling with a red face. Marco smiled at her and thanked her while River laughed loudly.

After a couple hours Marco and Star were wandering again at the festival, Marco was still getting congratulated by some of the townsfolk while they were walking around. Antorcha had gone somewhere so now it was only him and Star.

"That was very cool, seeing you back there, I just wish I could've participated too, but my Mom wouldn't have any of it" -Marco chuckled at her

"I know, you would have kicked their butts" -both of them laughed as they walked around the festival. It was getting late, but they went to get something to eat and they decided to get a corn cob on a stick. Marco looked at Star, she had changed again to her regular clothes, but he thought she looked beautiful under the orange glow of the sunset. Marco breathed deeply and looked at Star.

"So, did you knew about the legend that says that the winner of the tournament usually becomes the next king of Mewni?" -Marco asked and Star's face intermediately turned red and she started muttering

"T-that dumb legend, that's nothing, it's not like we're going to get married or something, I mean it's not like I don't want to, I didn't meant that, it's just that" -Marco grabbed Star's shoulders and interrupted her. He looked at her eyes and brought her close to him. After what Star felt like an eternity they got closer and shared a kiss. It lasted a couple of seconds but to them it felt like all of their lives. After they separated Star smiled brightly and latched to Marco hugging him tightly. Marco smiled and returned the hug.

"So... what was that about you wanting to marry me?" -Marco asked and Star buried her face into Marco's chest too embarrassed to look at him at the moment.

BONUS! Sleepover with a dragon.

Star and Antorcha were in the princess' bedroom, Star was sitting on her bed and Antorcha was lying on a pile of pillows at the feet of the bed.

"And then his pants got completely burned off, so he was there almost nude screaming his head off" - Star was laughing loudly as Antorcha finished telling her an embarrassing history from where Marco was training on her world.

"So tell me Antorcha, are there any cute dragon-boys that you like?" -asked Star since she was in the gossiping mood and the dragon gave a sigh

"There's this guy I like to hang out with, he's a metal dragon, but nothing serious you know, it's more like someone I like to hang out with, and what about you and Marco? Are you guys together now?" -asked Antorcha and Star blushed a deep red.

"M-me and Marco? W-why would we be together? It's not like he likes me like that..." -said Star and Antorcha snickered

"With how much he used to talk about you? Trust me, he likes you a LOT" -said the little dragon and Star buried her face in her pillow

"Are you sure?"

"I'll bet you my left wing that he does, he could rant about the things that he did with you and just how much he missed you for hours before I had to shut him up." -Star's face grew redder with each statement but also she got happier with each one, there was hope for him to like her.

"Anyways, I'm not here to make Marco look good, I should tell you about the time were he was still learning to control his powers and burned his eyebrows off" -the two of them stayed up until they were too tired to keep talking about embarrassing things that Marco did before.

AN: And that's the new chapter! I hope you guys liked it. I hope you guys liked the little kiss. Things aren't going to get easier for them, but at least now they know they have each other. Also there was that little extra bonus about the sleepover since I received a couple of messages about that. I honestly wasn't going to do anything extra with it, but I hope you guys liked that too. Any feedback is greatly appreciated so don't hesitate to let me know if there's anything you did or didn't liked. Hope to see you in the next one, Bye!