Panther Claw Tournament Reminder!

[DUEL Des]

The cowgirl Queen rushed out of The Oracle offices after making sure Amal was not looking in her direction. She kept low to the floor with a hammer, nails, and a rolled up piece of parchment in her hand that she had been carefully working on since the day before. Des had been very lucky to have not been caught doing what she had been doing with this parchment at her Oracle desk as had she been no doubt she would have been forced to stand on the corner with the nasty newspaper boys as punishment.

This parchment had nothing to do with the articles that were overdue and still sitting in scribbled down note form on her desk at The Oracle office building and the deadline was past but here she was running down the street helter skelter through traffic and those that were out for a spring time stroll yelling at people.

"Get out of the way! Move it! Ain't ya got nothin' better to do then lolly gag around like a bunch of Sunday drivers when it ain't even Sunday and ya ain't even drivin'! You is blocking the sidewalk! Take yourselves on over to the park or somethin' but get out of my way people! Can't ya see I am in a hurry here! Ya wanna get a house dropped on me or worse!"

Des rounded a corner with her goal finally in sight and breathed a sigh of relief as she glanced at the clock tower. So far she had only been gone about twenty minutes. She was out of breath something fierce and had a stitch in her side but there was the bulletin board pretty as you please at last. Her boots rang out on the cobblestones as she ran even those last few yards to her destination, unrolled the parchment and hammered in the nails to keep it there.

She stepped back a couple of paces to get a good look at her handy work that she had been doing instead of writing her articles and smiled as at least somebody should be happy that she had got something done that needed to be done.

Her smile fell as that brought a reminder that Matt wasn't here to be happy that she had remembered to make the poster like she had promised she would and it was with a bit of sadness that she turned to make the return trip to The Oracle offices. That thought was followed by one of Koy and how hard this must all be for her and that she hadn't talked to her about Matt being missing and all but what could she really say.

It looked to Des like Koy was putting on a brave front much like she herself always did no matter what and to have someone bring it up well wouldn't that be rubbing salt in an open wound and maybe cause that front to crack when Koy didn't want it to just like she never wanted her own to. "Moonglow" always knew where to find her should she want or need to talk or just hang out so for now she would simply wait and see what happened next.

HERE if image isn't showing.

[DUEL Des]

I had the honor of officiating for anyone that was interested in coming to fight with fists and feet that were below the rank of Emerald in this Quarterly Tournament for the right to hold the Panther’s Claw. Named in honor of Panther, the founder of the Duel of Fists.

Nine hopefuls decided to try their skills in the rings this night ranging in rank from Sapphire to Glass. The seeding was random according to the order in which they raised their hands. Since we had this number I decided on a single elimination format this go around.

Sadly we had two that had signed up that couldn’t make it Hochi Banto and Val Demure so I am hoping to see them next Quarter! But we had 4 that came last minute to join in the fun. Those that stepped into the rings were Felix Pride (who got the first bye) Captain Sam Wells (who got the second bye) Bran Bale (who got the third bye) Andi Scott, Gabrereil Ashlock, Corlanthis Wystansayr, Wyheree Ravenlock-Black, Tetronus, and Myria Graziano.

The first round match ups were Sam vs. Myria with Sam winning 5 - 3 in 7 rounds to advance. Bran vs. Tetronus with Tet sitting down for the night at a score of 5 - 3 after 9 rounds in Bran’s favor. Wyheree came out on top against Andi 5 - 3 in 8 rounds and Gabe defeated Cor 5 - 3 in 9.

The second round Felix got in the mix and Sam sat out. Felix faced Wyheree and took the win 5 - 4 in 8 rounds but not before Wyh had battled back from quite the deficit in points. Bran and Gabe, just like Wyh, hadn’t got to rest from the first round and they were slugging it out but in the end it was Bran that brought this one home and sat Gabe down for the evening with a score of 5 - 2 in 9 rounds.

The third round Bran had the bye as well as a guaranteed spot in the top three. Sam and Felix faced off for what would turn out to be a back and forth, inside out, fight that ended up in our first SUDDEN DEATH match of the tournament! But it was Sam that would advance to the finals and Felix that would take third place and the cash prize of 1,000 silver tonight!

Then it was on to the final match which I had to put in the PIT! Can’t miss the opportunity to use it at least once a night as anyone who knows me will tell you. I am not sure what happened except perhaps lizard folk really love the muck, mire, and weevils because Bran took off and Sam scored one point during this match giving her second place in the tournament as the final score was 5 - 1 in favor of Bran. Sam gained herself 1,500 silver for her efforts tonight! Bran Bale is the new Panther’s Claw for the next quarter!!!

Everyone fought honorably and well! I want to personally thank all the fans that came out and cheered or just watched this tournament as even though I was in a calling trance most all evening I did notice that there was a huge crowd gathered and that does mean a lot that y’all came out to cheer and watch!!!