A Game of Kou-jong by fushigiyugichichrich
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First Mate Shumi fanned himself with his wings. Though the
soft puffs of air didn't supply that much coolness, it was a relief in this blazing
hot weather.
"I swear," he muttered, glaring at the sun. "It's
aiming directly at me no matter where I go."
The green Scorchio gazed wistfully around, wishing
he could get an ice-cold glass of water to parch his throat, which was about
as dry as the sand around the ship. But the Captain had put him on watch while
he took a nap, and certainly he wasn't about to let his Captain down.
"Hi, Shumi!"
A pink Kougra jumped up gracefully to where he
was standing and gave him a cheerful wave.
"That's First Mate Shumi to you!" he corrected
sternly.
Linae rolled her golden eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever,
Shumi."
He was about to make a sharp retort when she
said, "Hey, Shumi! Let's play Kou-jong!"
First Mate Shumi gazed at the grinning Kougra
doubtfully.
"Why?" he asked suspiciously.
"Oh come on, Shumi! Look around you! Everyone's
so boring and busy! I've got nothing to do!" she cried dramatically, throwing
her arms up in the air.
Glancing around, he saw that she was right. Everyone
else was all busy doing one thing or another, getting ready to set sail from
the Lost Desert.
Hopefully, he looked towards Bonju, who never
seemed to do anything, but it seemed that he too was busy, stirring up some
masterpiece in that cooking vessel.
"I don't know how."
"It's really easy! I'll teach you!"
"Well..." he began, starting to crack.
"Pretty please, Shumi? Please? Aren't you bored
as well?"
"Fine!" First Mate Shumi snapped, thinking that
the desert heat had finally gotten to him if he was agreeing to do this. "Just
wha-AGH!"
He broke off with a shout of pain, clutching
his burnt hand. He had been about to shift his metal helmet in sort of a dignified
way. But when he had touched it, he found it scorching hot, thanks to the never-ending
heat waves of the desert.
Linae laughed, and he flushed. Linae was obviously
going to tell the whole crew about this at dinner.
She led him to a nice shady spot behind some
crates, and he saw that she had already set up her tiles.
"You were planning this!" he accused, eyes narrowed.
Linae shrugged, and patted the spot across from
her with a wide, striped paw.
"Okay, the point of this game is to get rid of
all the tiles," she explained. "But the tiles have to match, and they have to
be free. And for the tiles to be free, there has to be no tile beside it on
either one side or none."
Her words tumbled out in a breeze as he strained
to understand. His head was jumbled up and confused, but he wasn't about to
let Linae know that.
"Isn't this a one-person game, though?" he asked.
"We can make it a competition. We'll both play
separately with the tiles arranged in the same way, and whomever gets through
the quickest wins!"
"Alright, you go first."
That way, he concluded, he could watch her, and
learn before his turn.
But to his horror, her paws moved so fast around
the tiles, all he saw was a pink blur. And in about ten seconds, all her tiles
had been neatly removed and put into pairs.
"Your turn!"
First Mate Shumi looked at the tiles blankly.
Maybe he should just match up all the pairs, but that would be too easy. And
besides, by the way the tiles were set up, a newbie could tell that you weren't
supposed to just do that.
He thought of thinking up a clever way to ask
for help without sounding like he actually needed it. But in the end, his witty
remark turned out to be, "Uh..."
"Hurry up, Shumi!" Linae said impatiently
Slowly, he reached out for two random tiles that
both illustrated a small picture of a blue fan, and took them out. Linae didn't
say anything, so he figured he was okay so far.
He reached for a tile with four black swirls,
shooting frequent looks up at Linae.
"Shumi, you can't take those out! That tile has
other tiles on either side of it!"
Blinking rapidly three times, he found that he
still couldn't figure out how this game worked, and that dealt a terrible blow
to his pride.
Trying desperately to gather what little information
that had stuck to his mind, he grabbed a pair of tiles randomly. To his relief,
she said nothing.
It was obvious that he had already lost, as Linae
had finished with incredible speed, but he wasn't too worried about that. All
he wanted was to get through one game.
He reached for a tile with a picture of the Brain
Tree.
"Shumi! There's nothing to match that up with!"
Taken by surprise, the tile fumbled from his
grip and slid down a good few feet from where they were sitting.
There was a moment of silence.
"You still don't get how to play, do you?"
"Nope."
She sighed heavily, and ordered, "Watch me again."
Linae set the tiles back up, but once again,
her paws moved so fast over it, he found himself still not knowing how to play.
But he tried anyway... and found again that he had a blank mind.
"Shumi, this is the easiest setup!" Linae hissed
her irritation. Her words didn't exactly boost his confidence.
"Show me again!" he ordered through gritted teeth.
He would learn this game if it were the last thing he ever did in his life.
He watched closely, but she still went super
fast, and he still didn't get it.
"You can do this, and this, and this, and this,
and this, and this, and this, and this, and this!" she explained helpfully.
"Could you... go a little bit slower this time?"
"Shumi!" she groaned rather exasperatedly.
She set up the tiles again, but this time, she
moved her paws with exaggerated slowness as if expressing her annoyance.
"See? This... tile... matches... up... with...
this... one... 'cause... they... are... both... free," Linae showed him with
long pauses in-between each word.
"Okay! Okay! I get it! You can stop that already!"
he snapped crossly.
To his great surprise, she bowed her head. "Sorry,
Shumi. I should be more patient with you, huh?"
"Well, that would be nice," he said hesitantly,
never having heard Linae apologize before.
"I'll be a better teacher!" she promised fiercely.
"I'll start from the very beginning."
First Mate Shumi smiled a little. Linae wasn't
as bad as he had thought.
As the two sat there on the deck, he made his
own promise. He would be a better student and listen to everything she said
closely from now on.
She picked up a single tile and held it up to
the sunlight, gazing at it with apparent fondness.
"This here is my favorite tile, the "Lost Desert
Sunset". It was handcrafted in Mystery Island by their natives, and painted
from the natural pigments from their wild jungles they have up there. Most tiles
for this game are made out of wood, but mine aren't. In my opinion, wood wears
off more quickly than the material I have here. I remember my first set when
they..."
Actually, on second thought, he wouldn't quite
listen to everything she said.
The End
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