Fruit for Lamia Scale

That's Lamia Scale!?

Enola was halted in her tracks, head cocked up and eyes sunk into her head. Her mouth almost hung ajar as she took in the sight of the Lamia Scale guild hall, the pinnacle of human architect. Despite taking residence in Hargeon Town for years, this was Enola’s first time seeing the monster of a building up close. It was a mesh of pillars and buildings, an entanglement of staircases. It was made purely of marble and shined with the utmost perfection. Its greatness only marginally reflected the valor of those inside – great wizards from every corner of Fiore. It was filled with both geniuses and brutes, mystics and healers, the gentle and the bold. Those grandiose stories of Lamia Scale’s mages only further mystified Enola’s perception of the guild hall. She had to take a step back as the intimidation of such greatness overtook her.

Once she’d taken in the guild hall, she closed her eyes and romanticized the possibility of joining Lamia Scale. She’d be able to dine in the fabulous guild hall, carry the great guild tattoo, and learn from some of the best wizards in Fiore!  She could engorge herself in the legendary guild library, attain masses of wealth from wizarding jobs, or just spend all day cleaning the guild hall to her heart’s content. Enola almost giggled from joy as her inner eight-year-old girl squealed in delight.

Her fantasy was cut short, though, as a salesman yelled out to her.

“Hey, lady! Why don’t you buy some fruit instead of just standing there like an idiot!?”

As if she were deaf to the man’s obnoxious remarks, Enola curiously wandered over the man’s cart of fruit and took a peek. The cart was littered with all manner of fruit – bananas, apples, grapes, etc. She bit her lip in excitement as the idea struck her: a fruit basket offering would surely increase her odds of getting into Lamia Scale.

“Sir, that is an excellent idea indeed! I think I’ll buy some of those oranges, a few of those kiwis, and… oh, just give me a little bit of everything!”

The salesman was a tad taken aback that his insult actually got him a customer, but he wasn’t about to complain. He rushed to pluck a basket out from under the cart and started filling it to the brim, stuffing the basket with all the fruit it could possibly hold. When he was finally satisfied, he handed the Enola the five pound basket of fruit.

“That’ll be one hundred fifty jewels, miss!”

“Of course.”

The salesman nearly drooled as she complied and dropped the money in his hand. He was definitely going to insult his customers more often.

Minutes later, Enola bashfully approached the marble staircase leading to the guild hall entrance, fruit basket in hand. She braced herself and started her journey upwards.

Each step she took was met with a “Clack!” as her porcelain shoes tattered against marble surface. Just as well, each step brought with it more doubts.

Clack!

Maybe I should just turn back.

Clack!

Being a maid isn’t so bad after all.

Clack!

They probably only accept prestigious mages anyway.

Clack!

And what if they require an entrance fee? I just spent all my money on this fruit basket!

Clack!

It’s settled, I’m going back home! Being a mage isn’t for me.

But it was too late – Enola was already in the gaze of the guild hall’s door, her face reflecting off its shined frame. With a reluctant sigh, she tugged at the door handle. It wouldn’t budge. She tugged harder. Still nothing. Enola pouted and started pulling with all her might like some demon-possessed woman.

Creeeaaaak! Success! The door was open, albeit slightly. Enola sheepishly trickled through the crack of the door.

“Hello? Is anyone here? I’d like to join the guild… I brought a fruit basket.”

“If you’d like to join the guild you’ll need to be a little patient,” Ean said as he once again, randomly and ‘stealthily’ appeared behind the woman in maid garb. “Our guild master will be around in a little while.” Ean also pointed over to the side. “We also have a regular sized door, since even most of our members can’t actually open this door,” Ean explained, pointing out the somewhat out of place wooden door a few feet away from the door and its massive structure.

Ean walked in through the door she had somehow found a way to open through sheer force, if only a little, which was impressive enough, and took a seat at one of the tables in the main hall, which also served as a meet up place and bar for everyone to drink at. Although Ean didn’t drink he usually spent his free time here, completely unnoticed by the throngs of members that came and went.

Ean pulled out a deck of cards and began shuffling them. “Would you like to play a game to pass the time? I’m willing to play any game you like. Go-fish, poker, blackjack, rummy, I don’t think there’s a card game I haven’t played at least once,” Ean explained as he looked at the maid with his usual, unchanging poker face. It made him really good at card games without having to resort to cheating or card counting, although he was perfectly capable of card counting if an emergency arose and he needed to thoroughly crush somebody. “I also have checkers and a chess set behind the bar if you prefer board games.” Ean finished with a friendly smile, although his eyes remained emotionless his smile was genuine and didn’t seem forced. He just wanted to play a game he wasn’t out to frighten anyone, although his lack of presence always seemed to do that.

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word count: 317

Before she could even register what she'd heard, Enola's chest heaved a gasp as a man behind her revealed his presence. She spun around with angst to meet the face of the mysterious speaker, her heels squeaking against the marble floor. For whatever reason, she was expecting some hooded figure with long eerie robes to be standing behind her; instead, she was greeted with a somewhat more welcoming figure.

The first thing her eyes darted to was the man’s short stature. It made for a rather non-threatening sight since, from a glance, he was even shorter than Enola. The next thing she noticed: his eyes. His eyes were absolutely cold – they didn’t give up a thing about the man. Neither fear nor happiness, neither anger nor gentleness. He was a blank slate. What stood out the most, though, was his cool, silvery-blue hair. It seemed to almost change in color, clearly denoting its natural flavor. It was messy too, albeit in a puckish rogue sense.

After mentioning the guild master, the man motioned to a normal door, one that would have been much easier to access than the large gate-size door. Enola retorted with a red faced, sheepish grin. Her prospects were looking less and less impressive.

As casually as could be, the man took a seat at a table in the guild hall. Enola, with no choice but to await the guild master, took the stranger's welcoming to heart and closed the large door behind her. Thankfully, it was must easier to pull from the inside than the outside, though no more quiet as the “Creeeaak!” proved. She found her seat – which was also marble strangely enough – next to her greeter and placed her fruit basket on the table. The man produced a deck of cards and started shuffling as masterfully as one could, even offering Enola to play a game. Although the man’s face hadn’t lit up, he did at least smile with recognizable sincerity. He clearly loved a good card game.

“Hmm…” Enola placed a finger on her chin as she pondered a card game to pick. In her “wild” days, Enola swooned at the chance to play poker. Granted, she had never won a game. Not once. She’d always chuckle when she got a good hand and the whole table would fold. Nonetheless, Enola naively felt she could win a game over the man, either overestimating herself or underestimating the man.

“A game of poker sounds lovely.” Enola juxtaposed the man’s cold eyes with warm eyes of her own and reached out to her basket to grab an apple for herself.

“My name’s Enola by the way. Enola Gay.”

Ean gave her a nod as he finished up shuffling the deck of cards and began distributing them one at a time till each of them had five before placing the deck in the middle. He assumed the maid knew how to play Hargeon Hold’em and picked up his cards, only to realize his shuffling wasn’t that great. He had a 2 of spades, a 5 of clubs, a 9 of diamonds, a ten of diamonds, and another 2 of clubs for a pair of twos. The only hand he could beat was a one hundred percent bust. Ean’s face didn’t show it as his poker face remained intact, but he was easily thinking he was screwed. Folding in a match of only two people didn’t make any sense so if she had a good hand or terrible hand was important.

“Ean. Ean Vanguard. It’s nice to meet you Miss Enola,” the ghostly boy replied. Ean wondered if there was anything he could do to see if she would tip her hand, or give him an idea of how much of an obstacle it would take to win this round. An idea came to him, although it was a dangerous one to do with someone he first met, this person seemed like she was good, and not going to turn this into something he would deeply regret. “Since it’s just the two of us, would you like to make a bet? I don’t have much in terms of money but there are plenty of other things we could put on the line. How about the loser has to do any one thing the winner asks of them?” Ean offered, figuring it would shake things up a little. He wanted to see if Enola would give herself away and take the dare. If she had a good hand she’d take the bet and Ean knew he would have to go all out to have any chance of winning. If she didn’t, at best she would have a mediocre hand like a two pair or single pair. Knowing that would make knowing which cards to swap in much easier.

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Word count: 357

note: Hargeon Hold'em is a play on Texas Hold'em.

Enola took to the taste of the apple pretty quickly, savoring the juices with each bite. Before long, five cards sat before her – a game of Hargeon Hold’em was about to ensue. With one hand occupied by an apple, she awkwardly plucked the five cards from the table with her free hand and shifted through them with her thumb. She began listing the cards off in her head.

Kings of hearts…

Three of diamonds…

Four of hearts…

Jack of clubs…

Jack of hearts…

By the time she’d finished going through her cards, the man introduced himself as Ean Vanguard. Despite her mouth being filled with an apple chunk, Enola managed to perch the corners of her mouth in response to his kind introduction.

When Ean offered the deal of the winner requesting a favor from the loser, she swallowed down the bit of apple in her mouth as quick as her small throat would allow.

“I’ll take that bet. I spent all my money on this fruit anyway.” She tried to hide her enthusiasm, but it proved to be futile as lights went off in her head – if she won she could force the young man to put in a good word to the guild master.

Enola studied his face, but found it difficult to conclude anything. Was he nervous? Was he Confident? Did he perch his nose? Good heavens, it seemed as if Ean had masterful control over his facial muscles. Nonetheless, Enola remained overly emboldened by her pair of jacks, her lively eyes and naive grin being a testament to the fact.

“I’ll warn you, though, I’ve been playing this game for years.” She neglected, of course, to mention her legendary losing streak.

Taraki was curled up on a sofa in one corner of the large social area. He couldn't sleep, there was too much hustle and bustle. He didn't want to go outside, the sun was still high in the sky. The wizard was bored out of his mind. Being of the nature and alignment as he was, he couldn't practice any magic and was really tired. Lifting his head from his fur-lined jacket, the lunar mage heard an interesting conversation from across the room.

Hunter's eyes peered through long brown hair as the lad surveyed the scene, it took him a second to realise it was coming from a pair of people starting to play a card game of some kind.

Intrigued, he lept in one swift motion from the couch and began making his way over. He yawned as he drew close to the source, it was the middle of the day - not the best time for a user of magic that is dependent on the moon. "Yo, what's going down here?" He asked, before his nose twitched. An unfamiliar girl with an unfamiliar scent was sat at the table, a new recruit?

So she’s got a good hand then, Ean thought as he took a look at his rather meager hand. He decided he’d keep his twos and discard the other three cards and he placed them face down next to the deck, before moving his hand to draw three cards. He glanced as the cards before putting them in his hand.
A 7 of hearts
A 2 of diamonds
And another 7 of spades.

What had turned into a losing situation had turned into Ean’s favor as he blinked. A pair of twos had fortunately turned into a full house. It was a rare and lucky day and Ean placed the cards in his hand and looked back at his opponent, waiting to see if his challenger would replace a card or two. Or even three total. Perhaps they would take a risk and give up their hand for something even better or perhaps they would play it safe and not exchange any cards. Hargeon Hold ‘em ad a way of creating unique strategy situations based on chance, although if you could count cards, it was more in your favor to win. Miss Enola didn’t seem like the card counting type though. Looks could be deceiving though, even if she had a terrible poker face her basic algebra could be perfect. Ean wasn’t a masterful card counter but his poker face was the best in the business. There was no point in worrying about possibilities or maybes though, he’d made his move and had nothing left to lose now. All he could do now was stay confident in his full house and the poker face nobody could see through.

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word count: 278