A middle-aged man stepped forward. Kaian knew that he was the leader of the village from his neatly trimmed beard and the fact that he was the one who organized the rituals. All the other men had rugged beards that clearly weren’t touched by anything else but dirt. Kaian didn’t know whether a beard was some symbol of prestige and he hoped it wasn’t for he didn’t have one.
“What do you want, stranger?” the leader shouted at him.
Kaian already thought about what he was going to say. His cover story was not the best but not bad either, he didn’t have any problems responding.
“I’m tired from my travels, I’ve been looking for the tomb of my family in the jungle and I would like to rest here for a while. With your permission of course.”
Kaian replied while bowing slightly, couldn’t hurt to be polite. After seeing this gesture, the villagers' expression eased so he took it as a good sign.
“Hm, alright, follow Cole over there, he’ll guide you to a *temporary* lodging.” The leader spoke after a while of thinking and pointed at Cole. A frown appeared on Cole’s face before quickly disappearing.
“Follow me.”
Kaian followed him, happy to actually meet Cole this time. He was in his family’s house the most so he knew a lot about him. Cole was a nice person, helping his people when they needed it and he worked as a hunter. If Kaian had to bet on who would be the next village leader, he’d choose Cole every time.
As they walked through the village, Kaian felt weird. He’s been here for a long time, yet this was the first time he was here. This resulted in a conflicted expression in his face which Cole noticed. He didn’t say anything about it and turned around, continuing to lead Kaian.
He passes many houses, many roads and many trees. Okay, it wasn’t nearly as much. The whole adventure took less than a minute.
Cole gestured at an empty shack. It was Berry’s. Kaian almost exclaimed in shock. He managed to stop himself in time, even Cole didn’t spot it. This would explain the frown. Nobody would be happy that some stranger took over their late parent’s house.
Kaian cringed and thanked Cole, moving inside. It was really nothing special. A bed with a piece of cloth on top, two chairs with a small table and a chest. It left much to be desired, but it was a house, a home. Kaian teared up a bit and went to lay down. Though he stood back up fast.
The dumb mistakes he made taught him a lesson, so he went outside and covertly took some pieces of wood. They’d come in handy.
Seeing that it was an evening, and he didn’t have much to do, he stepped towards the village tavern. It could barely be called one, really, as there was no ale being served there. It was more of a place where the townsmen gathered and entertained themselves.
Kaian opened the door and many eyes concentrated on him. After a few seconds they turned away and continued with their stuff. Kaian spotted Cole and went to him. He didn’t look the happiest. It was clear that he wanted nothing to do with Kaian because he left immediately after showing him his home. He seemed to be playing Azir. A game Kaian saw multiple times during his residence. It was quite simple. There were 6 wooden balls and you had to make some disappear under the eyes of other players. After a short breadth of time, they would try to guess how many were in your hand.
Kaian thought that it was a neat game to exercise your mind and hand dexterity.
“Hey, can I join?” he asked Cole.
Cole responded with a grumble and a “yeah”.
Kaian smiled and sat down on the chair. Despite seeing this game in action many times, he didn’t have any advantages. Though he did think of some strategies and he was ready to show them off.
Cole and the 3 people sitting, playing with him, explained the rules. Kaian was going first.
He took 5 balls and placed them inside his hands. The time to show them a true ball handler has come. He started shaking his hands left and right. Suddenly, one ball flew from a hole in his hand prison! It hit the table and everyone started laughing. Kaian blushed and tried to ignore it.
“I’m done,” he said, embarrassed.
One of Cole’s friends jokingly replied: “Yeah, and your skill in this game is *none*.”
All of them started laughing at it and it took Kaian a while to understand. “None” rhymed with “Done”. It wasn’t a very good joke, but Kaian chuckled so as to not appear impolite.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“You have 4 balls in your hand, now, let’s continue, this newbie is terrible. Cole, your turn.”
Kaian grinned and when they looked at him questionably, he revealed the 3 wooden balls in his palm.
“What!?”
The disdainful expression on Cole’s friend vanished and changed into pure shock. He stood up, almost tumbling the table over.
“Instead, my skill amount is a *tonne*.” Kaian said while smirking, however, nobody laughed at this. Such injustice. The players calmed down after a while and asked him how he did it. Kaian was intent on not revealing his secret.
They played a few more games that Kaian lost because they didn’t underestimate him anymore. Then he won some and lost again. He felt like they were intentionally letting him win sometimes so that he wouldn’t leave. While pondering on what their goal could be, he won again. This victory was different. Vexastone shone in his pocket. This was good news and also bad news. Kaian realized that this shine meant that he had gotten a VP. Very cool. On the other hand, everyone just saw his pocket shine.
Uh oh.
“What is that in your attire?” Cole asked, staring at vexastone, nearly burning a hole in his pants. Kaian realized that they didn’t say anything about his weird clothes until now. Were clothes like this normal? Or did they ignore it because they didn’t want to scare him away..?
Kaian’s expression darkened before relaxing.
“Oh, this? That’s just a stone that I found while traveling. It would be a great lamp if it didn’t light up randomly.”
“I see… Well if it’s not that important, how about you bet it in your next game? We’ll bet some coins ourselves so it wouldn’t be unfair. ” Cole said casually, clearly forcing Kaian’s hand.
Kaian looked around and unwillingly agreed after seeing all the people surrounding him. He was rapidly thinking in his mind. There had to be a way to win. He didn’t dare to play for real because of his suspicions about them letting him win.
Then it struck him, the plan was extremely simple and he smiled in his mind. All while appearing like he was doing it involuntarily. He took 6 balls, the highest amount. He started shaking his hand around, everyone’s eyes on him.
Suddenly, he slammed his hand down. Two balls leaving from two holes on the sides and one secretly falling into his lap from the bottom. Kaian could see that some people didn’t notice and some did, there was a speck of laughter in their eyes. They had no idea what was about to hit them. Kaian said [Storage] and beamed a ball in there. It was unfortunate that he had to part with his newly gained VexaPoint but there was nothing else he could do. Finally, he used a very simple trick where he rolled one ball into his sleeve.
“I’m done.” Kaian said while looking at Cole’s friend, the one who made fun of him. He replied with a snort.
The village leader abruptly spoke: “Do you mind if we hold a vote?”
Kaian didn’t think much of it and agreed, his hand still closed around the one ball left. It was time for the second part of his plan. He moved his hand, as if it was tired from being held up for too long, beamed up the ball back inside, let the two balls collide and beamed it back. He hoped that people would notice the sound of the balls colliding and think there’s at least two inside.
“I think there’s two.”
“You? Think? Hardly. There’s definitely three!”
“What did you say?!”
“Dumb AND deaf, great.”
“You!”
Some of the people nearly started fighting over what they thought was correct, while others discussed it civilly. It took a while to end up with the conclusion and Kaian even heard the correct amount a few times, which made him break into cold sweat.
“You have… two balls in your hand.” the leader said with Cole supporting him. Kaian almost burst out laughing at this but managed to hold it in. He opened his hand. The single ball revealed itself and people once again fell into shock.
“There is *one*.” Kaian stated, finishing his rhyming battle where he utterly destroyed his opponent. Even though this wasn’t very praise-worthy, vexastone shined yet again. As if mocking the people for losing the chance to get it. As if celebrating its owner’s victory. At last, Kaian realized the condition for getting VP - It was winning.
“I told you..” someone muttered. This broke the spell that made everyone quiet and they started talking loudly. Asking our winner about how he did it and where the ball went. Kaian simply beamed it into his hand while pulling out the one from his sleeve. He then excused himself and took his winnings, leaving for his home.
He knew that he shouldn’t be careless after he cheated and won money off their hands. That’s why he took some of the wood he gathered before and put it under the sheets, making it look like someone is sleeping under.
[Vexi, Snail.]
Kaian transformed and went to take a nap on the ceiling. He hoped that they wouldn’t burn the house down.
…
The night quickly passed and Kaian didn’t even notice the shadowy figures looking inside his room.
When he woke up he removed the wood and splinters left in the bed. He stepped outside and noticed the location of the sun. It was morning.
Kaian went into the social house, they served food there. When he arrived there were only a few people. It made sense, they worked from early on. Had to survive somehow. He sat down and got old bread with meat and some water. Kaian didn’t need to eat but he had to keep up appearances. He took a bite. It was bitter and metallic. Odd. Kaian thought that it was due to the age he was in. It looked medieval, probably didn’t have the best cooking methods.
He was wrong.
Kaian started feeling sleepy out of nowhere. He had already eaten the meal, it was drugged!
[Vex- Vexi-]
He fell down on the floor, not even managing to finish his transformation. His eyes closed and he drifted off into the dreamland.