Dragon Knights Fan Fiction ❯ Lock ❯ Games ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: Quack! But I've never even been to Belize. (read: even the chapter title isn't mine!)

 

AN: (grin) What do people do when they're bored? Play games, of course! Until they loose all semblance of sanity, of course. Useless filler chapter, I'm afraid but it should get more plot-ish after this, and hopefully you'll at least be mildly entertained until then.

 

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Chapter Two: Games

 

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Dinner sat uneasily in Thatz's stomach that evening. Literally. Rath was too busy glancing nervously around at all the other castle members who were glancing nervously around to be of much comfort, however.

 

“They're wondering where those two are,” he whispered. “They'll start looking after dinner... and someone is bound to know where they went...” Thatz burped his sympathies, and Rath sighed irritably. “Seriously, are we gonna have to take you to the infirmary?”

 

Thatz scoffed. “Aw, come on, you know I can eat anything!” It appeared to be a matter of pride.

 

Rath shook his head. “Just don't throw it up, whatever you do. Hopefully he will have cooled down by the time...” He gestured vaguely; Thatz paled.

 

“You don't mean...?”

 

Rath rolled his eyes. “Honestly, what did you think was gonna happen?”

 

Thatz moaned miserably, and vowed to never eat non-food objects again.

 

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(One hour)

 

“What are you doing?”

 

Ruwalk froze. After a moment, he thrust his hand towards Alfeegi; in it he held an origami crane. “For you.” He grinned nervously.

 

Alfeegi took it after a moment, and examined it with an arched eyebrow. “...You tore a page out of a book,” he said dully. “And there seem to be stick figures drawn all over it, too.”

 

Ruwalk sighed, and sunk lower in his chair. “I was feeling artistic?” he suggested meekly.

 

The teal-haired man carefully set the crane down on the desk. “You know, in situations like this, people are sometimes forced to resort to cannibalism.” He smiled cheerfully. Ruwalk suddenly seemed to be very interested indeed in his book.

 

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“You know what? This sucks.”

 

Thatz glanced up at Rath, who was pacing back and forth at the other end of the room. “What does? The barricade? It'll hold.”

 

Rath glowered at said barricade as if it were the source of all his problems. At the moment they were holed up in Thatz's room with the bed and dresser both shoved in front of the door, in, as it were, anticipation. “No! I mean, we did that so we wouldn't be bored anymore, and now look at us!” He threw up his arms in disgust. “We're playing Scrabble!”

 

“There's nothing wrong with Scrabble,” Thatz said mildly.

 

Rath boggled at him. “I mean, why do you even have a Scrabble set? I didn't even know you were literate!”

 

Thatz glowered. “Oh, gee, very nice, thanks. Take your turn.”

 

“What did you do?”

 

“Added `xylo' to your `phone'...”

 

Rath buried his face in his hands.

 

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(Two hours)

 

At this point, an ominous silence had taken hold of the storeroom, to be broken only by the occasional swish of Alfeegi turning a page. Ruwalk had not been cannibalized (yet), but nor could he be persuaded to look through any more books with any amount of cajoling or threatening. At present he was leaning dangerously back in his chair with his feet propped up on the desk, and one of the dread books rested on his face.

 

Alfeegi had long since been convinced that he was sleeping, and was busy wondering if he'd ever actually had to deal with any formal schooling in his life, so he was quite surprised when the aforementioned book suddenly seemed to speak. “When we get out... we should have a party.”

 

Alfeegi quirked an eyebrow at the talking book. “We might not get out for days, though, at this rate,” he hinted blandly.

 

“...and we could have a feast...”

 

The eyebrow went up higher, and Alfeegi sighed. “Except we can't, if no one else has found a new head chef.”

 

“...and decorations...”

 

“...Which might or might not get cleaned up, depending on whether or not the maids have gone on strike yet.”

 

“...and booze...”

 

Alfeegi scowled. “Have you actually ever seen Rath drunk?”

 

The part of Ruwalk's face that could be seen was grinning widely. “Yeah, isn't it fun?”

 

Alfeegi stared at him for a moment, and then simply turned back to his book. A small grin of his own graced his features as he secretly vowed that, if the next spell wasn't for making food, he was going to take this lovely book and brain that bastard with it and eat him. He held his breath as he turned the page... and let it all out in a whoosh.

 

“Hey, I found it,” he said, sounding bitterly disappointed.

 

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(Three hours)

 

Ruwalk smirked. “Full house!”

 

Alfeegi frowned incredulously at the table. “The Sun... the World... the Wheel... the Star, and the Moon? That's not full house!”

 

Ruwalk assumed a lofty expression. “Yes it is. The Sun and the Star make the pair, and the World, the Wheel and the Moon are three of a kind.”

 

“They are not. You make a full house with the Minor Arcana.”

 

“The Minor whatsits?”

 

Alfeegi threw up his hands in disgust. “Forget it! I told you that you can't play poker with tarot cards!”

 

Ruwalk rolled his eyes. “Well, we're in a magical supplies storeroom. I don't think there are going to be any regular cards in here; what are we supposed to do?”

 

Alfeegi glared icily. “Not play poker? Find a spell to get us out of here, maybe?”

 

Ruwalk shook his head. “Oh, please. You're just trying to get out of it because I won! Pay up!”

 

Alfeegi narrowed his eyes. “You did not win.”

 

“...stingy.... sore loser... muttergrumble...”

 

“Oh, fine,” he snapped, and tossed a bag of carp bones at Ruwalk's head.

 

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“I spy, with my little eye... something black.”

 

Rath exhaled deeply. “My hair.”

 

Thatz's eyes widened. “How did you do that?”

 

“You used my hair three times already!”

 

Thatz grinned sheepishly. “Oh... sorry.”

 

Rath rolled on to his back on Thatz's bed, and looked around superfluously. “I spy... something green.”

 

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(Four hours)

 

Ruwalk frowned thoughtfully at his piece of paper. Well, pieces, technically - many pieces. Hundreds, possibly. For the past fifteen minutes or so, he'd been meticulously ripping a piece of paper in half, and then ripping one of the pieces in half, and then ripping one of those pieces in half, and so on. His current piece had finally reached the point where it was officially too small to tear anymore, and he was considering starting over again with the second original half...

 

“They're really not going to find us tonight, are they?” he asked miserably.

 

After a few moments of marked unresponsiveness, he glanced up from his vital task... and gawked. It just wasn't possible, couldn't be. It was probably one of the first signs of the coming Apocalypse or something. Alfeegi, for all appearances, was sleeping.

 

Ruwalk simply stared at him from across the room for a moment or two, taking in his slightly parted lips and softened expression, and the precise way his hair fell across his face... Yup, that definitely looked like sleep. Shaking his head in wonder, he ambled over to where Alfeegi lay on the floor, half propped up by a shelf, and removed the book from his unresisting fingers. As an afterthought, he draped his jacket over the other man, and then stepped back with an odd little half-smile. He'd briefly considered moving him into a more comfortable-looking position, but, well... All things considered, it would probably be better if he just went to sleep. Not that sleep would come easy tonight, but oh well.

 

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AN: (beam) Oh, yeah, the tarot cards were totally a cheap shot. Hey, at least I didn't use the Lovers card! Cheeeeese. Review to help save the whales!!