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Aliya laughed and made room for Feng to sit down. "Donovan's a grandfather, he can't help it," she grinned. "I know from experience. When I was just a mother, I made sure the kids didn't have anything extravagant. As soon as I became a grandmother ... well, all the rules went out the window, so to speak."

Jasmine, who was also nearby, turned to her grandmother. "Is that why Mother always gives you that look when you give us candy?" she asked, curious and surprised.

"Was that what he was doing?" Celebor's voice cut in as he joined them, having just lost to Ulani in the archery contest. "Goddesses, that makes sense now that I'm looking back on it ..."

He laughed. "Well, there we go then."

Aliya giggled at Celebor, then grinned at Feng. "Exasperated. Though she has nothing to complain about, Mum spoiled her when she was young, too. I never had that. To this day, I still haven't met any of my grandparents."

For that matter, she had only met her only aunt and uncle two weeks ago.

Several round later, the only two archers left were Ulani and River. The targets were already quite far away, so in lieu of moving them even further, they went straight to the moving targets. A board was set up with two apples tied to strings - one on the left, and one on the right. As Celeborn set the apples to swinging, Aliya leaned forward in her seat.

"You know," she mused, "I have absolutely no idea how this is going to end. They've never gone against each other in a real contest before."

"This is a shot I've never made in my life," Aliya murmured, leaning forward eagerly. "It's nigh on impossible ..."

But even as she spoke, Ulani let her first arrow fly, hitting the apple and pinning it to the board behind it. However, she'd hit it on the ever so slightest angle, which meant that it wasn't pinned straight to the board, but rather on an angle.

Aliya let out her breath. "That's going to be hard to beat."

Aliya's eyes were transfixed on her granddaughter. "And it's even more intense now because it's only one arrow per target," she explained quietly. "Basically, the first one to make any mistake at all will lose."

River lifted her bow and pulled back on the string, her eyes filled only with concentration now. It wasn't a game anymore - this was the real thing. She was calm and collected as she took aim.

Thok!

As with Ulani's arrow, it pierced the apple on the slightest angle, pinning it slightly crookedly to the board.

Celeborn moved forward to inspect the apples, and when he turned to face the crowd, it went dead quiet with anticipation.

When he shook his head and held his arms out to the side, there was a collective gasp.

"I've never seen a contest go this far," Aliya murmured. "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what they'll have to do next ... there's only one prize, so they won't call a tie ..."

But it seemed Celeborn had been prepared for this possibility, because he set two more targets up and hung two more swinging apples. The challenge was clear: they would not only have to hit the apples - but they would also have to try to get a bulls-eye.

"I have no idea," Aliya murmured, her tone filled with awe. "I've never seen anything like it before ... though I know Celeborn's always practicing his archery, so maybe these are ways he's tested himself before. Or how he learned. I really have no idea."

Ulani once again was the person to go first, and her expression was one of intense concentration. Clearly this was new to her as well. It wasn't just hitting one target, she was good at that - she had to hit two.

She took a deep breath, then let it out and raised her bow. She took careful aim, the muscles of her back tensing as they helped her arms to hold the arrow in place. Her eyes moved back and forth with the apple, timing its movements, until at last she raised the arrow to her cheek and released it.

Whap! It struck the target dead center, but she missed the apple entirely, sending it spinning when it swung back and hit the protruding shaft.