And before I introduce the Count, a word: I can assure anyone who is concerned, that no-one was harmed during the making of this image....

"Yes My Children, it is I, Count Tyrannus, in younger days.

Before I developed my hideous rictus like grin and the terrible skin complaint that now consumes my once handsome face.

And a handsome fellow too, I grudgingly admit, was my old opponent, The Baron of the West Side.

Every year at midnight on Midsummers Eve, the Baron and I would meet outside the Castle walls, by the heap of bones piled there from battles past.

There we would field our Champions, the best warriors we could muster from our respective armies, and they would fight to the death.

"What a waste!"( I hear you cry?).
Well I agree, but the stakes were high.

For whosoever's Champion won the contest, their respective army and slaves would be fed extra rations for the rest of the year.

And so, the contest was eagerly anticipated by the hundreds of soldiers and warriors in both Castle Tyrannus and The Tower of Rocco, situated across the Royale Baye of Grouveille, where the masses watched the contest remotely on a huge crystal screen, supplied by the Witch Narynia.

Wagers were made on each warrior by the ordinary soldiers and slaves from each camp.

Their eager faces peered through the slits in the castle walls that night, I can tell you!

Who won? (I hear you ask). Well, all will be revealed in a forthcoming episode of 'The Castle', at my ever growing website Amazing Fantasies

(Excerpt from the Chronicles of Count Tryannus, Lord of Castle Tyrannus.)

All comments welcome! ( A very high res wide screen version of this will be available at Amazing Fantasies

"The Duel"