Soul of a Human

After the excitement of the last weeks finally went away, and the boredom of days of travel with the same conversation partners set in, Mor almost began to vibrate with suppressed annoyance and curiosity. He wanted to ask his parents why they had never told him and what else they had kept from him, but with his "orders" and the presence of his friends and the prince, he couldn't. Mor was stuck with the bad solution of glaring at his parents, but those either didn't notice or chose to ignore it for now.

°Calm down. You look like you want to kill your parents.° The human tried to calm down Mor.

°Maybe I do!? They hid all of this from me! If I had known earlier, I might not have had such problems with Ranbor!° Mor huffed.

°You would have. You would still have been the "commoner" and still went against his "orders".° The human sighed.

°And why didn't they tell the school? The teachers could have helped me!° Mor growled.

°No one is allowed to know this. Remember? This is the hand you got dealt, so work with it.° The human reminded Mor.

°What has this to do with a hand…° Mor sighed.

°Human proverb, based on a card game. You can only play with the cards you got, and those cards were called your "hand",° the human explained.

°I never heard of something like a card game. What is that?° Mor asked, his interest suddenly raised.

°No card games?!° The human asked, exasperated.°You need thick paper or a better carton.°

°I don't know anything about any carton, but would the paper from our school supplies do?° Mor asked, excitedly going through his hand luggage and getting interested looks from everyone else.

°No, it would be too flimsy…° The human stopped this enthusiasm.

°Come on, I'm bored!° Mor whined.

°Then just play some of your soul-kin games!° The human said.

°We can't. Any good games would distract the windmages flying this thing.° Mor continued whining.

°Are you shitting me? Let me guess, every game of yours needs some kind of magic...° The human complained.

°Yes. Also, the more interesting the game, the more magic is required.° Mor explained, and the human let out a deep sigh.

°Sometimes I'm really annoyed with your world.° They said.

°So, what other games do humans play? Maybe we could make one?° Mor asked, and the human thought for a second.

°Do we have some stones?°

°Yes, we gathered a few, just in case.° Mor said, interested.

°Good, meaning we have play pieces and writing utensils. Meaning, yeah, we can do that one!° The human said.

Everyone else watched this quiet argument, as it was the best source of entertainment while they were traveling. Mor's wild gesturing and mimics were funny to watch, and soon, everyone would try to guess what the human and Mor were discussing.

°Get a piece of paper and divide it into eighty-one squares, roughly the same size. Normally, we would make this out of wood, but paper would do it for a quick and dirty solution.° The human explained, and Mor followed the instructions.

"Mor, what are you doing?" Orth asked, interested.

"Making a human game," Mor answered, and then everyone's interest was truly caught.

"Can I help?" Orth asked, and Mor nodded but continued painting the lines of the "game board".

°Give him some of our stones. We need game pieces. There are forty in total, and they are formed like a square with an added roof like this.° The human explained and got Mor to sketch the size and form on another piece of paper.

Mor handed over a handful of stones to Orth and gave him the human's instructions, and Orth got to work. A few moments later, and with the bare minimum of earth magic, Orth returned the pieces. Which the human then checked.

°Yup, looks good.°

"Good work, Orth." Mor relayed the compliment.

°Now we need to label those pieces. Maybe Orth can carve them according to our writings. But just writing would be boring...° The human said, thinking.°I know! We use symbols!°

Mor listened and then drew a bunch of symbols on a third piece of paper, writing some words next to them. There was the symbol for illusion magic, with "knight" written next to it. The symbol for healing magic was designated as "bishop," continuing until Mor drew the symbol for the royal element and wrote "king" next to it. After that, he handed the pieces back to Orth, and with the human's instructions, every piece was carved carefully on both sides.

°Perfect! Now we're done!° The human exclaimed, and Mor looked in confusion at the tools.

"How do we play?" Mor asked aloud.

°Simple, first we need to go over how all those pieces can move...° The human began a long explanation while Mor continued to write down the rules so they wouldn't forget them. After the explanation had finished and the first board had been set up, Mor explained the rules again to everyone.

"The goal of this game is to beat the king?" The prince asked, and Mor nodded.

"Then I will play first!" Dinothom declared. "Morokhan want to try?"

Morokhan looked at his son, then shook his head.

"No, Mor made this, so he should play first."

But to his surprise, Mor interjected.

"I will watch the rules during this first game. Also, if the future king challenges you to a test of wits, you can't just run away."

This got a bunch of laughter from the travelers, and Morokhan accepted the challenge.

"Then show me what you can do. As prince, strategy is my forte." The prince taunted, but Morokhan just let out a sigh.

"Then, your Highness, please make your first move."

The first game was clumsy, filled with wrong moves and mistakes, but in the end, Morokhan took the princes and king, winning the first bout, much to the amusement of everyone else. With this new distraction, the travel time went by much faster and more pleasurable. The prince even asked Mor if he could keep the "game" for practice so he could beat his old friend next time. This got him a raised eyebrow and a provoking smile from said old friend.

After the "glider" reached diamond isle, the little group of travellers split up, everyone returning to their homes, even Orth, as he wanted to inform the house servants of his arangement. This suprised Mor, as this was the first time hearing about this. Questioning his parents, his father just shrugged and mumbled something about "forgot it".