Stew night turned into a mini-celebration, but thankfully it didn't drag on for very long. Which was a good thing, since Amelia was starting to get anxious about leaving her brother all alone.

So, the next morning, we got up at first light and were on the road again by dawn. I didn't remember until we were already at the gates that I wanted to talk to Captain Leonard about that Dorothy at the enchanters guild. But, Amelia said she talked to him about it when they were running around yesterday.

"Knowing Roddy, he's taking his sweet time walking." Amelia sighs once we're on the open road. "So, we should be able to catch him up in just two, maybe three days. Though, we might have to give Storm a day's rest afterward."

"Relax Amelia." Apricot put her arms around the worried merchant from behind. "Your brother is fine, and Stormie will be fine too. If he gets tired, we can just have Sorrel haul us around."

"She's right. -not about me hauling you around- Rodrick is fine." I squeeze Amelia on the knee. "There's no need to stress, about him or Stormie. I'll keep a magical eye on the big guy, and top him up with some healing sap if he needs it."

"Thank you, I know I should just enjoy the time we have alone." She places one hand over mine, and the other over Apricot's. "But it's hard not to be worried."

"You just need something to keep you distracted. -not that, you perverted pixie.-" I pry Apricot's hands away from Amelia's chest. "I was thinking more like a game. -not that kind of game, either.-"

"You're no fun." She's got the cutest little moue on her face right now.

"My sister and I had a bunch of board games growing up."

"What's a board game?" Apricot interrupts me, and the look on Amelia's face tells me she hasn't heard of them either.

"It's a game played on a board." I have to fight not to add a big 'Duh!' to the end of that sentence. "The basic ones have you moving your piece or pieces according to a simple set of rules, but some of them can get pretty complex. What kind of games do people play around here?"

"Dice, mostly." Amelia answers while looking at me like she heard the unspoken word. "The rich might play cards, or have a shove board in their homes." The name and her sliding gesture makes me think it must be some type of shuffleboard. "Other than that, people might gamble on sports or animal races."

"That's it?" I have trouble keeping the shock out of my voice. "Okay. Well, as I was saying, we had a bunch of games of all different sorts. And my sister's favorite when we were growing up was called Sorry!" Well, it was once we switched to homebrew rules after I used the backwards four to win one too many games, and she tore up all the cards.

Taking some firewood from storage I mold it into a triangular version of the Sorry! board, using different colors of wood to 'paint' the playfield. I then make four pawns and two dice for each of us.

"There's a lot of different variations of this game, but they're mostly the same. Just get all four pieces, called pawns, from 'start' to 'home'. There are a few gimmicks though, like how you need to roll the exact number of spaces to get it into home."

"Seems simple enough, but what are the colored spaces." Amelia asks while examining the board closely.

"Those are the slides, if you land on the triangle at the beginning of one that's a different color from you, you slide to the end, knocking any pawns in the way back to their start. The same happens if you land on another's piece."

"And the gimmicks?" She's nodding along to my description like it's the most fascinating thing ever.

"You need to roll doubles to move a pawn from the start onto the board." I demonstrate. "But, double sixes will let you take one from start and move it to another's piece, knocking it back to start, unless it's on the path home. Double ones will let you move, two, or eleven spaces, or swap with an opponent’s pawn. And, if you roll a seven, you can split the dice between two pieces if you want." We kept the basic feel of the game, just simplified things a bit.

I used my vines to hold the game-board steady while we play. Apricot delights in shouting Sorry! every time she knocks one of our pawns back to start. I would say she reminds me of my little sister in that regard, but I am physically unable to compare my sister to anyone I've put my penis inside of.

Amelia won the first match, but Apricot wasn't far behind her. I, on the other hand, kept getting a bunch of crappy rolls and knocked backed to start. I did better in the second round, but Amelia still won.

And, most importantly, my plan to distract her worked perfectly. She lost that worried look and was focused on the game. I, on the other hand, was kinda bored. It may be new to them, but I don't even know how many games of Sorry! I've played before.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

So, while we were playing, I decided to try my hand at 'painting' with wood again. I was never much of an artist before, but it's so much easier now that I can just will the image straight from my brain onto the 'canvas'.

"Ooh, pretty." Apricot coos at my latest painting.

It is mid-morning, and we've stopped for a moment to let Stormie get a drink from a nearby creek. I just tried using the mushroom dyes as my pigments, and the effect was rather more than I was expecting.

I was able to almost perfectly capture the scene; if anything, it's just a little yellow because of the wood. So, I infuse the wood behind the pigment with some cotton to brighten it up.

"I was never this good of an artist." I laugh nervously at the photographic quality picture of the babbling brook. "But, I never tried using magic to 'paint' either. I came up with the idea when I made the board game."

"Well, as much as I would have preferred my way of distracting her." The pixie smirks at me. "I'm glad we did things your way, especially if you're willing to make a couple of pictures for me later."

"Yeah, I need to grow some more mushrooms, but yeah." I'm too focused on the painting to care that she wants me to be her porn supplier.

"So, what other games do you have locked in that pretty little head of yours?" She runs her hand over my soft, flower petal 'hair'.

"Oh, a bunch of two-player games, but most of the board games for three or more people have rules that are a bit complicated. So, I'll need to sit down and make sure I've got them remembered correctly." I glance down at the painting again. "But, if I can paint this, I can paint some cards. And, most of the card games I know are pretty simple." I'd like to make a Jenga tower for us, but that's not going to go too well on a moving wagon.

"You made that? It's beautiful." Amelia says after coming out of the woods, her needing a potty break was the real reason we stopped here. She just used Stormie getting a drink as an excuse.

"I was able to draw a bit before, but not very well." I explain again while helping her and Apricot onto the wagon. "Then again, I never used magic to do so. This turning out so well was more than a bit of a surprise. I'll definitely have to play around some more with this later, but Apricot wants a new game. So, I was going to make some cards for us."

"Ah, I thought I'd heard you say cards." Her eyes light up. "Daddy has a set, but I was never allowed to play with them."

"Well, chances are the ones you use here are a bit different from the cards I grew up with." I start making some stiff paperboard out of cotton. "Ours have four suits with thirteen cards each, numbered one through ten, though the one, or ace card, can sometimes be worth eleven depending on the game. And, the three face cards which are all worth ten, the Jack, Queen, and King, in that order. Plus some games use special Joker cards, but there's only two of those in a deck."

"Ours are nothing like that." Amelia says with a laugh. "Well, they do share Queen and King cards, but since Larendath is always ruled by a Queen the King is more of a consort and worth less. I don't even know what a Jack is."

"Oh, it used to be a knave." I explain while 'painting' a simple deck. "But, the word started with the same letter as king, so they changed it to Jack which was sort of an everyman name back when they started adding the initial letter to the corners to avoid confusion." It's amazing what you learn when you browse through random Wikipedia pages in your spare time.

"I was expecting something... fancier." Amelia seems a bit disappointed that each one isn't a fanciful painting.

"I'll make something nice looking later." I smile at the chagrined look that pops onto her face. "These are modeled after the basic deck that almost anybody would have."

"Okay..." Apricot draws the word out. "But, why is there a naked pixie on the back, and what is wrong with his dick?"

"Hahahah! He's riding a bicycle." I'm so used to playing with these cards that I copied the rider back without even thinking about it. "The company that made these goes by the same name."

"Uh-huh." She nods in understanding. "So, what's a bicycle?"

"You don't have bicycles?" I give them each a joker card. "This is a bicycle or bike for short. You push down on the pedals, they move the chain which then moves the rear wheel..." I pause for a moment before muttering to myself as a crazy idea hits. "Actually, I wonder if I could make one. I don't have any rubber for the tires, and a wooden chain would have to be really thick and need constant maintenance. But, I think I can make it work with what I have."

"Sorrel? Baby? You still in there?" Amelia laughs as I finally snap out of it. "Heheh, I thought we lost you to the land of bicycles."

"Sorry." Now, I'm the one with the embarrassed look on my face. "I tend to get like that when an idea hits. I'll build a bike later, I was about to teach you how to play Rummy. It's perfect for three people, our mom used to play it with us all the time." I tell them the rules, and flip over the Sorry! board to use as a table.

"What if I can use all my cards in one go?" Apricot asks and proceeds to do just that.

"That's called going Rummy." I stare at her cards in disbelief. "You get double points from us for that... which means you just won the game in the first hand." We were only playing to one-hundred this time, and Amelia and I had a bunch of face cards.

"Remind me to never gamble against her for real." Amelia says while giving the pixie a stink eye.

"Yeah." I nod along whole-heartedly. "I'm glad I knew I could win that first bet against her."

"Yeah, you are." Apricot smirks, making Amelia blush. "How about we make this game a little more interesting?"

"What are you thinking?" I ask intrigued.

"We're playing for points, yeah? So, let's assign point values to different 'favors'."

"That could work." I nod trying to work out. "And, we can keep playing games to one-hundred. The winner keeps all their points, second gets half, and third a third. You can use them then, or save them up for later."

"Do I get a say in any of this?" Amelia asks with an amused smile.

"Of course." I smile back. "You're the merchant. We need you to set the prices and limits for all the different 'favors'."

"Please Amelia." Apricot begs. "Sorrel's even worse with money than I am, and I'm a pixie. We won't be able to do this without you."

"Hah!" The blonde barks out a laugh. "Well, I suppose if you need me."

We spent the next hour or so coming up with a list of 'favors' and their associated prices. And then, we threw it all out to just have fun.

***