Tales of Death´s Daughter

“Say … are you a dog or a cat person?” I inquired while mixing the cards carefully.

“Dog.” I grinned even more as I handed him a nine and a five and gave me a ten. And yet, our conversation wasn’t interrupted in the slightest due to that.

“They are the best, aren’t they? They always do what I want them to! They are nearly perfect, but sometimes they love their master a bit too much, don’t they?” I mused and gave him a lucky seven. I didn’t even need to draw cards to know that I lost this round. Just as expected, I drew a nine and he won. At least I knew one more location of a card inside the deck now. Both of us mixed badly. We were cheating, but neither of us said anything yet.

“There isn’t too much love from a dog.” Just like expected we rather conversed about dogs than the game as we both tried to break the concentration of the opponent.

“Oh … there is.” I remembered a burning house because a dog went too far as he gave me a four and a seven. He naturally drew a nine I remembered out of a previous round for himself. “Give me two.”

He smiled innocently as he gave me a three and then an eight. I shrugged as he gave himself an eight, completely unnecessarily because I already lost. “Banana or Apple?”

“Apple.” He answered while I gave him two tens. I drew an ace for me and then continued to give me an eight, a nine and a three in one go. Blackjack!

“Eww.” It was a draw so far and he would win this game if I let him mix the cards alone. “Hey, do you mind if I mix the cards first? Shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Reluctantly, he handed me the cards and I began to mix happily while humming. After several seconds, I gave him the cards back and he repeated the mixing process.

“Oh, before you start. Can I give you your cards and you give me mine? I honestly think you are cheating …” He raised an eyebrow as I broke our unspoken agreement not to talk about how we mixed the cards. “You are drawing your own cards in a rather peculiar way.”  I pointed out.

“Alright, if it is just drawing …” And so, the last round began. For obvious reasons, he gave me two tens which made me chuckle a bit. He could have at least made it a little bit more discreet.

“Oh, you got a four. And a nine! These cards seem very familiar though. Are you sure that you mixed correctly?” I asked while looking at the blood-smeared cards.

“But you mixed before that, didn’t you?”

“I guess you are right about that. Going on …” I carefully picked up the next card and revealed a rather unexpected card, at least for him. A four spelt his doom and while he was still trying to comprehend how I smuggled a four in there, my hand was already at the dagger. “Oh … too bad. I guess you are going to die now...”

“I … I … I lost?” He couldn’t quite take his loss yet as the fear of death enveloped him, but that was to be expected. After I mixed the cards, he placed every card he needed in the perfect spot and yet he, or rather I, drew an unexpected card. “You cheated!” He claimed as I placed the four face-first on the table.

“Boohoo … and you aren’t a great loser. Can´t even admit your loss. It was still a nice game though and as a bonus, I´ll give you one advice. Closing the eyes before death makes it slightly better.” I already leant forward and held the dagger high into the air and looked into his sweet closing eyes. The dagger raced downwards, pierced through the card I placed on the table and a few centimetres into the table. The bandit in front of me already opened his eyes again as I lifted the cards with the dagger in front of his eyes. I had to snip against the card a few times until the blood between the two cards let loose and revealed another card behind the four.

“Blackjack!” I didn’t draw one card. I had no intention of losing this game and as such, I rather made it seem like I draw a four while in reality, I drew an eight and a four. Luckily for me, he didn’t notice how I blatantly cheated as he probably didn’t expect it and I put a lot of pressure on him.

“I … I won?” He said hopefully.

“Nah. You already admitted your loss.” I claimed while throwing the dagger away. “The rules are the rules and you lost …”

“You don’t seem like a person who likes to follow rules.” I raised an eyebrow as he pleaded for his life in a rather interesting way.

“You may be right … how about we play a different game? Do you have a coin?” He swiftly picked a silver coin out of his pocket and presented it to me.

“Am I really going to bet my life on a coinflip?” He asked incredibly nervous. He was sweating even more so than previously which made me incredibly happy. Bullying this person did have its perks.

“Yes, you will. I´ll take head. Go on.” He looked towards me, searching for any indication that this was a joke while I just stared him down. Reluctantly, he threw the coin in the air and always kept it in sight. Meanwhile, I simply shrugged and turned to walk away from him, not even bothering to look at the spectacle. The coin soon fell onto the dirt, but I wasn’t even slightly interested in the result.

“What? You aren’t even looking?” Only then did I turn around, slightly giggling.

“Hmm? Oh, I just wanted to see if you would do it you absolute madman.” And he did it. Not that I gave him any choice, but he seriously bet his life on a coinflip. I didn’t know his personality completely, but what he showed me so far was unique. I have never seen anyone like him before.

“You let me live?” asked he in astonishment. Yes, he was going to live, for now at least.

“Sure. Come with me, we have a few elves to kill.”