“Okay, everyone,” The eight year old Kaara said, “Thank you all for joining me today. I, in all of my wisdom, have invented a new game! I call it ‘Silver Reaper’.”
The pig started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, nothing.”
“What?”
“It just seems you’re not very grounded or humble after all.”
Kaara put her hands on her hips, she could tell that wasn’t the real reason he laughed, but she had to defend her younger self anyway, “It’s just false confidence. I get nervous when I’m presenting something, so I gotta compliment myself.”
The pig snorted at her, “I do something similar, I guess. Although I just say the craziest things I can think of to make people more nervous than I am.”
“Silver Reaper? Like The Story?” Rorik said.
“Yup!”
“Alright, how does the game work, oh wise one?” Arik said, arms crossed.
“I’m glad you asked!” The young Kaara said, pulling out a bell and placing atop a nearby tree stump, “One person is the reaper, and the rest are Malaki. The Silver reaper needs to avoid being tagged, but the Malaki are frozen in place like statues. The reaper will call out ‘never have I ever’ and follow it with something they’ve never done. If the Malaki have done it, they have to stay frozen. But if they haven’t, they get to move and try to tag the reaper. If the reaper is tagged, They become Malaki and the one who tagged them is the new reaper. However,” she pointed to the bell she’d placed on the tree stump, “if the reaper rings that bell before they get tagged, you gotta freeze again, and the rest of the game continues. Problem is, the ‘Malaki’ are always between the reaper and the bell.”
“I get it, so you’ll have to maneuver around the ‘Malaki’,” Rorik said, “How do you win?”
“We all get five lives. Every statement the reaper makes takes a life from the Malaki. Ringing the bell also takes a life from the Malaki that gets to move. Getting tagged as the reaper removes a life before becoming a Malaki. You can only win as the reaper. We’ll do a game of roshambo to decide who gets to be the reaper first. After that, whoever got out first in the other games gets to be the reaper first in the next game. ”
“Sounds like fun!” Arik said.
“Sounds embarrassing,” Rorik added, “besides, we could just lie and start to move anyways right? That, or just grab the bell and make it impossible for the reaper to use.”
“That’s why you can’t touch the bell or use magic on it or around it if you’re the Malaki. As for the other part, sure you could do that, but that’s why it’s important to make statements you know are true for you, but not for the Malaki. The reaper can’t reuse statements either, so being able to get to the bell is important too. Not to mention, if someone calls you out on your lie, you’ll lose four lives instead of one.”
“Don’t be such a downer about it, Rorik,” Arik said, “Why don’t we make it interesting and keep track of who wins the most games too?”
The young Kaara giggled, “I was gonna suggest the same thing. The first to win three rounds wins the whole thing, how about that?”
“Yeah, but what about the one who gets the least? Let’s add some stakes!”
“So you said this is a memory of you bullying him?” The Pig asked Kaara.
“Not bullying! But I mean- just wait for it…”
“Whoever’s in last place has to eat a raw lamb testicle!” the young Kaara said happily.
There was a pause between Kaara and the pig. Kaara locked eyes with the pig for a moment and looked away.
“Well at least it’s not a pig’s, or I’d be real concerned standing next to you right about now,”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“We castrated the pigs a couple months before this, so they wouldn’t have been fresh enough to use.”
“Hahaha! Ha…ha… ahhh, you’re not laughing.”
Kaara didn’t know she could sweat in a dream, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to mention that, but I guess we’ve been communicating with our thoughts this whole time, so I forgot you could hear that too.”
“Your war crimes against my people will be addressed at a later date.”
“You’re not even a real pig!”
Their conversation was cut short by the younger Kaara, “Alright, I’m the first one! Let’s see…” She put a finger on her cheek, “Never have I ever been a boy!”
“Hey! That’s not fair!” Arik said.
“Never have I ever peed standing up!”
“Wait, are you just going to list off things you never did as a girl?” Rorik said.
“Never have I ever…” The young Kaara got a smug face, “lost to Tadios.”
“You never challenged him!” the two said in unison.
Kaara stuck her tongue out and winked, “As long as it’s the truth it doesn’t matter the context, right?”
“You’re not wrong. We’re playing multiple games anyway, so just say the other two and be done with this round,” Rorik said.
“Never have I ever been punished by L’Maya.”
The two remained frozen with one life left now, “This game would be more fun if you didn’t know us so well,” Arik said.
“Never have I ever…” There was a mischievous smirk on her face, “Had a crush on someone.”
Arik launched off, and Kaara ducked out of the way, dashing for the bell, but Arik was too quick and caught up before she could make it.
“Gotcha! Now it’s my turn. And since Rorik’s out, that means I can win this.”
“Aw man, you’re just too quick. Go ahead then.”
“Alright, never have I ever had white skin.”
The young Kaara counted three lives
“Never have I ever had red hair.”
Two lives.
“Never have I ever had blue eyes.”
One life left.
“Never have I ever had a dad who could use metal magic.”
Zero lives, “Ah, well I guess you win this one. Rorik’s the new reaper! Oh, I should probably mention this, but you can’t repeat any statements between the games either. Just so we’re not being unfair and winning every round too easily.”
“Convenient you’d say that now,” Rorik said, “What happens if the ‘Malaki’ lose at the same time?”
“Roshambo!”
“I should’ve guessed. That’s fair, I suppose. Alright then, never have I ever worn girl’s clothing.”
“You know that’s a low blow.” Arik said.
“You looked really nice in that dress, though, Arik,” the young Kaara said.
“Shut it.”
“Arik lost a previous game and had to wear a dress for a day.” Kaara explained.
“Did you know they wanted to be a girl?”
“I guess I knew it might make them happy.”
“Wait, so does Rorik secretly want to eat a-”
Kaara giggled, “No, of course not! I just wanted to see him flustered and have some fun. Plus, if we ever played this game again, I could say ‘never have I ever eaten a raw lamb testicle’ to tease him.”
“You really did bully that poor Orphan, huh?”
“Teasing!” Kaara huffed, “And well, he confessed his feelings to me recently, so- Damn it!”
“Forgot I could hear your thoughts again huh?”
“How do I turn it off?”
“You don’t. So he ended up falling in love with you, huh?”
“Yeah, so he never hated me too much for these things in the end, I guess.”
“I wonder if those lambs ended up confessing to you too.”
“Very funny.”
Soon enough, Rorik had run out of statements which applied to both Kaara and Arik, but not to himself. With one life remaining for each of them, Rorik had a choice to make: Which one should he take out first, and which one should he allow to chase?
The answer was obvious, and Kaara remembered that was exactly what she had wanted. Arik had already won the first round, and had proven they were fast enough to prevent him from reaching the bell. Kaara was the slower of the two and had not won yet.
“Never have I ever had wind magic.” Rorik said as he turned to dash for the bell only to end up locked in place by a pair of ice brick shoes.
Kaara walked up to him and flicked him in the forehead, “Tag!”
“Hey! You said Malaki can’t use magic.”
“Nope, I said Malaki can’t use magic on or around the bell.”
“You’re a sneaky one, huh?” The pig said.
Kaara tilted her head trying not to smirk, “I don’t know what you mean.”