There was scattered applause and the sound of coins clinking into a guitar case. As the brightly colored musician gathered up his things, he suddenly looked up and slapped his forehead.
"I totally forgot! And now I need to be off!" he exclaimed, as he approached a man in the yellow and black uniform of Thord who had been standing in the corner. "I had this gift, sort of a silly thing, but you know Lord Telemant had made this funny joke the last time he was at one of my performances, and I made this little thing to kind of extend it. I know it doesn't look like much, but could you make sure he gets it? I promise you he'll know what it means."
The officer looked at the childlike creation of tangled string and paper, circling the letters "INTK, LZ" written in stylized red ink. He chuckled, but not unkindly. "That's not up to your usual standards, Loopi, but I'll make sure he gets it. It's funny just to look at, though, and I know who to give it to to make sure he gets it, so sure."
The bard winked at him. "Thanks a bundle, Johannes. I'll write you into one of my epics one of these days as a hero."
Johannes growled at him, but grinned. "Get out of here, you liar, before I have ta teach you not to tease an officer of Thord."
- - -
Another time, another place -- in a restaurant, specifically, a man in dark clothing was sitting in the back toying idly with some noodles when the door opened and a cloaked and hooded figure stepped in, looked around, and made a beeline for that same table. He sat down, and dropped a coin with a scratched face onto the table. The other man put down his fork and pulled out a bit of yarn, that he suddenly wrapped up in his fingers in a cat's cradle, which he held up until the newcomer nodded. As soon as that had occurred, the man with the noodles put away the string and pulled out a deck of cards and a folded piece of paper, and pushed them across the table. The newcomer picked them up, along with the coin, slipped them into a pocket and left.
An hour later, the table was empty, save of an empty bowl and enough coins to cover the price of a meal and a good sized tip.
- - -
"Hey, you vagabond, come here a moment!" called out a waitress.
The colorfully dressed elf who had just entered the building looked at her disconsolately. "I have a name, Giselle, it wouldn't kill you to use it."
Giselle grinned at him unrepentantly. "It'd just encourage you, minstrel, and you've got enough women in your life. But be good to me, because I'm doing you a favor. One of your friends said you'd left a deck of cards with him at a party the other day and wanted me to give it back to the next time I saw you."
The elf brightened. "My cards! So, that's where I left them. Ah, bless you, Giselle."
"Yeah, yeah, save it. Here you go," she retorted as she handed them over. "You going to go gambling immediately, or you going to stop to convince the custom to stay long enough for another beer?"
The bard chuckled. "Oh, I'm always happy to play, and I can always gamble another day. I suppose a romantic song is out of the question?" At her look he hurridly continued, "No, I didn't suppose so. How about light comedy, then," and started up a song.
- - -
It was sunset, and a man in dark clothing and hood had stopped up against a large rock in the woods to pull out a deck of cards. With obvious skill he shuffled them, stopping halfway through with his finger touching one card, which he pulled out. It was twice as thick as a normal card, and examining it carefully in the fading light the figure eventually took out a knife and peeled apart the two cards that had been stuck together. Between them was a small folded piece of paper, which he unfolded to reveal a block of what looked like random letters, spaced five at a time, across several columns and lines.
Taking a deep breath, the figure carefully resorted the deck, rearranged some cards after looking at the paper for a moment, then began to play a curious game of solitaire, concentrating furiously, every once in a while noting a number on the side of the paper.
Eventually, he stopped, and stared into the darkening sky, then looked back and added up all the numbers he had sketched.
"Valid!" he exclaimed in a sudden relieved exhalation. Then he started laughing.
"Who would have ever thought that a humble Romani game would ever lead me to such people," he eventually murmured to himself as his laughter ceased.
Copyright © 2004-2005 by Zed Pobre. All rights reserved. This text is NOT available under a Creative Commons license.
