Watler And The Missing Lance

• William Mcdonald, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2018

One morning, Walter awoke to the sound of the market. He sat up and looked across the room and smelled a divine smell of meat and bread. His mum cooked a lovely breakfast. He sat up, got dressed and walked over to his mum. “Where’s dad?” he asked.

“Gone out to the fields,” his mum replied. She handed him a wooden plate with meat and a leather cup filled with ale. She also gave him some dark bread (it was made with barley since they couldn’t afford wheat). After he ate it he got up and went outside because today was the day of the great joust. Sir Simon was the champion and he was going to be choosing who he would joust by tapping on their shield with a lance. Walter had begged his mum to let him go. “Please,” he had said. “I’ll be good.”
Eventually she had gave in. “Oh, alright. But be careful.”
As he walked along, he saw his friend Isabella. She was alone so Walter walked over and asked “Are you going to the joust?”
“No,” she replied “that’s much too scary. I’m going to the stalls to bus some cakes.”
“Why don’t we both go to the stalls and then to the joust?” Walter proposed. “Come on. It’ll be fun.”
Isabella sighed. “Well, maybe-“
“Great!” he cried. “Let’s go!” So they raced through the streets and stopped at a cake stall filled with delicious treats.
“Hello, young lady. How can I help you?” the merchant asked.
“I would like a-“she got cut out by a blast of trumpets.
“Come on!” Walter exclaimed. “The joust is starting! Let’s go!” Isabella quickly bought a cake and followed him to the joust. Sir Simon rode out on his big, silver horse wearing a caparison which was decorated with little lions, the symbol for their manor.
“My lance, it’s gone!” he cried. “We can’t go on without it!” The crowd gasped.
“Come on, we’ve got to go find it!” Walter said.
“Um, well, we-“Isabella was cut off when Walter dragged her along.
“Let’s go see the other contestants and see if they took it,” Walter suggested. But no, they hadn’t. “Let’s go and look around town for clues.”
They asked the blacksmith if he had seen anything unusual he cried, “I did it! I wanted Sir Simon to have to buy a new one from me. If I could keep doing that I would become rich!” Walter and Isabela called to the guards and the blacksmith was locked up.
When Sir Simon heard about this he said, “How would you like to be a knight?”
“I would love to!” Walter exclaimed.
“Well I can make you my squire and when you get older you can become a knight,” Sir Simon said. Walter couldn’t wait to start training and as the joust started, Walter was filled with happiness.