Three days…
Three days living off of wild berries.
The once fit Aaron has started to lose weight. He is starting to look malnourished, and the dark circles under his eyes don't help the hobo’s looks. No one has been willing to give Aaron work or even food, they all give around the same excuses.
“It’s too early to tell if I really need a worker, I seem to be fine on my own.” or “What kind of job do you have in which I should hire you?”
When Aaron tells them that he is a hobo, they all look at him funny. Afterwards he is quickly shooed out of their shop. Though they are certainly logical reasons, Aaron has written them off as dumb excuses since he isn’t too happy about the situation.
At least on earth, people would take pity on you and give you some spare cash or food.
He became so infamous in this small village that people walking down the street notice him and look at him like he is the scum of society. Everyone seems to have a pretty solid job and have been working hard these past three days to develop and learn about this new society and world.
Aaron on the other hand has been sleeping behind the inn within the horse stable without the owner’s permission. Though he has a tent, nothing is like a solid roof over your head on a rainy day.
On top of that, everyone has a small orb of light that follows them around and gives them knowledge of the world around them. Aaron has none and has been left to figure things out on his own.
Sure, I’ve basically been screwed over and left to rot alone, but at least I have these.
Aaron pulls out the Mysterious Playing Card Deck, and fiddles around with his most prized possession. Aaron knows many card tricks and is very adept when it comes to performing these tricks.
Cards pop out of the deck and into the air before landing perfectly back into the deck again as Aaron passes by the time.
It isn’t long before Aaron hears the sound of footsteps shuffling and kids whispering to each other. Through his now dirt-caked hair that slightly covers his eyes, Aaron can see two kids peeking into the barn with eyes full of amazement and wonder.
Being noticed, the kids freeze up under Aaron’s gaze. Aaron gives them a toothy grin and once again performs the trick without even looking at the cards. The children become mesmerized at the flying cards and insane sleight of hand skills.
Aaron takes note of their amazement and thinks of a plan.
“Hey kids, wanna see some more tricks?” Aaron asks with a small, friendly grin on his face. Aaron is able to control his facial expressions well as he has been a poker player his whole life. Poker requires one to use their facial expressions and social cues to trick their opponents. The children feel a nice warmness from Aaron’s smile and are drawn in.
One of the kids is a boy around the age of 10, and the other is a girl around the age of 8. They both nod their heads and Aaron waves them close. The two are reluctant at first, but once they take their first step, they are drawn to Aaron like moths to a fire.
Aaron spreads out the deck within his hands, all of the playing cards facing down towards the ground.
“Take a card, any card.”
The boy steps forward and takes a card.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Now, look at it without showing me. Make sure to memorize it’s number and the shapes on it.”
Aaron is being as transparent as possible with these kids, using the assumption that they don’t know what playing cards are or even what this trick is.
The boy flips the card and his face is full of concentration as he tries to memorize every inch of the card. Finally accepting that he has the card burned into his head, the kid puts the card back into the deck upside down.
The boy then watches closely as Aaron then shuffles the deck at high speeds with the dexterity of a pro. After 5 quick shuffles, a card shoots out of the deck and into the air. It spins rapidly and the kids watch as it falls back down in front of Aaron, who catches it deftly with his mouth.
Aaron flips the card with his lips and shows it to the boy. The boy seems disappointed at the result though. Aaron laughs at this and realizes that the trick is a guaranteed success.
“I know that this isn’t your card, however, how about that one over there.”
Even with the card at the corner of his mouth, Aaron is able to get out what he wants and points behind the kids. The two turn around excitedly and see that there is a card stuck in one of the wooden columns holding up the horse stable. The two run over and the boy pulls out the card from the column and his eyes light up with pure amazement.
Aaron chuckles at this and smiles at the two once again after putting the card that was in his mouth back into the deck. The children run back over and start rapid firing questions at Aaron. Things like “How did you do it?” or “Can you do it again?” are the most asked questions.
Aaron puts up his hands to signify that the two should calm down and he takes back the card the little boy had.
“Kids, I’ll give you three life lessons here. A true magician never does the same trick twice to the same people. A true magician never tells his secrets. Finally, If you try hard enough you can be a true magician one day like myself.”
The two kids accept this answer, but then rapidly fire even more questions at him. They now range from “Do you have any more tricks.” to “Can you teach me how to become a magician.”.
Aaron is overwhelmed at first, but two lights quickly form behind the two kids and tell them that their mother is looking for them. The two go pale and quickly explain that they have to leave. Aaron tells them one last thing before they leave.
“If you even want me to teach you some tricks, just make me one promise. Don’t tell anyone I am here, okay?”
The two kids nod intensely, accepting this promise and then run off. Seeing the two kids happily run away, Aaron lets out a long sigh. He remembers how pushy kids can get about magic and how stressful it can be to contain sometimes.
But hey, at least I now know I still have my old card throwing skills.
Aaron hasn’t done that trick in years and is surprised it went so smoothly. What happened was that once the kid put the card back into the deck, Aaron managed to keep track of the card after the first shuffle and before the second shuffle began, he hid the card in the palm of his hand.
After a few more shuffles, he distracted the kids by popping a card into the air, and when he saw that their attention was on the card high above them, he threw the card he had palmed. The card sunk straight into the wooden column and stuck with ease, all before the card had come back down. All Aaron had to do was to catch the card he popped up and see the look in their faces.
If they looked amazed, he knew that the two didn’t remember the card and was most likely not very bright. If the two looked disappointed, then he knew that they remembered their card but did not notice him throwing the card. Finally, if they looked smug or not surprised, Aaron knew he was dealing with prodigy children who were not to be messed with, since that means they somehow knew he threw the card.
All of this was done for Aaron to discover if the kids could be manipulated in the slightest or trusted at all.
With this information, Aaron hatches a new plan that will keep him fed for a while.
This plan was to have the kids take some food from the storage of the inn, and trade it to him in exchange for him to teach them some very simple card tricks. The next day in fact, the kids come back once again to see Aaron at around the same time.He gives the two children this offer and they readily accept it, stealing some bread and soup in exchange for a lesson that day. The lesson lasts about 30 minutes before the kids are called back home through their spirits.
Aaron enjoys his first real meal since coming to the seemingly unforgiving place in peace.
After finishing his meal, Aaron decides to check his tarot. He has checked it everyday since he arrived, yet it always comes out as the Reversed Tower. This time is different however, as when Aaron flips the tarot card, he sees ‘I The Magician’, meaning willpower, desire, being resourceful, and skill. Aaron chuckles at the irony.