The bringer of light and destruction

poker

//Nyxs pov//
We had travelled for many more hours, Max having spent the last hour and a half talking about how amazing he is at playing cards. I decided to stop for camp earlier than I intended just for some restbite from Max's voice. Gods love him but he does go on and on about fuck all.

I found a mostly flat area surrounded by woodland. The floor is covered in a blanket of moss, which should luckily make the ground softer to sleep on. I still have a sore neck from the last place we slept.

I leave Theia to tend to the horses and Max to do... well, whatever Max does, he likes to decide himself. I've tried to tell him to do things before, and it only ends up in him going off in a grump and doing nothing but saying, "You aren't the boss. We are EQUALS."
Sure enough, the entire time i was building the fire, Max and Theia were chatting. Well, mostly Max was talking, and Theia was trying to listen.

"Okay, so let me get this right if you were an animal. ANY animal, you would be a bird?"
Max is pointing a stick at Theia, talking mid-chew of some bread i didn't know he had.
"Well, yeah." Theia messes with her hands as she replies. A nervous habit I've noticed of hers.

"I think being a bird would be cool." I interrupt and sit myself on a log next to Theia.
Max looks at me in annoyance.
"Well, they can fly." Seems like a no-brainer to me. Flying would be fun.
"They can go wherever they want." Theia adds on.

Max nudges her, "You could go wherever you want."
"Well, not really. Im expected to do things."
"Expected, not forced to. Its your life, you can choose to tell the fae to go fuck themselves if thats what you really want. I mean, i would prefer you not to, but... It's still your life."
She looks down at her hands and intertwines and separates her fingers a few times.
"I dont really have anywhere else to go...so."
Sensing Theia needs some space I clear my throat. "Max, why dont you go catch us some dinner?"
He looks up at me, erasing his previously worried look with his usual mischevious grin.
"And leave you two love birds alone? Yeah, I know my place."

Do you, Max? Do you? Because you've been chatting with her up the past few hours.
Not that I care, of course.
She can be with whoever she wants.

I turn to Theia, not expecting her to reply with anything beyond a one-word answer. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, Its just wierd. For the first time in my life, im free of Atel. But I've somehow become more trapped."

Become more trapped? Surely nothing can be worse than Atel?

"Im on the run from a powerful assassin with someone that apparently has been looking for me for years. Ive just learnt im not only a Fae, with powers, but the heir to the throne with 'complex' powers. I need to learn how to use said powers (which scare the shit out of me) to overthrow the king. So then i can become queen and rule over a bunch of Fae, whom i didn't even know existed until a few days ago."

She takes in a deep breath and looks at the floor, as if it perhaps had an easier way to deal with everything.

She lowers her voice, and when it catches, i know she had been crying.
"At least back at Atel's, i had friends. Now I've lost them and my home. Well, I suppose they were my home."

I dont know what to say to this, I could tell her about how she has become a friend to me, how i enjoy her company more than i would like to confess. I could tell her that I cared about her.
"Theia, I-"
"No, it's okay. Im fine. it's just a lot."
"Yeah, it is."
She uses her dirty sleeve to wipe the tears from her face.
I was about to offer her some advice about how I thought my life was too much after my mum and dad died, how i contemplated many things. But that needing to find her gave me purpose, and hopefully, learning to control her powers will give her purpose too, or at least make them less scary. And that if she doesn't want to become queen or kill the king, then I promise she doesn't have to. I'd rather the Fae stay in hiding than her have to suffer. I was about to say all that, albeit terrifying things that are not in my control to promise, but Max re-appeared.

"I brought squirrel!"
Theia and I laugh, and Max looks to me, confused.
"Squirrel on a stick." I reply, as if it wouldn't make us sound even more insane.
"Right... Well, I vote we put these on the fire, and then we play cards!"
I hear a whispered curse from Theia, along the lines of 'oh for fucks sake.'
Im glad Max hasnt been as successful in his woo-ing as he probably thinks.

Max has shuffled the cards 14 times. He shuffled them 8 times and then claimed to only work in groups of 7, so he had to go to 14. I had skinned, prepped, and placed our food on the fire in the meantime.
"Okay, so the game is called poker. We dont have anything to bet, so we can use twigs, and I say whoever loses first has to do a forefeit."
Cue the next hour of Max explaining the rules in painful detail. We had to stop halfway through to eat our food, Theia again laughing at the squirrel being on a stick. It's not that funny, but i find her amusing.

Max then deals the cards.
At first, he plays it safe, but after a couple of rounds, he betted all his money/twigs. Theia smiles and bets all of hers to stay in the game, i bow out, keeping my 5 twigs to myself. Max deals another card, and i see a flash of concern on his face, Theia notices and decides to fold. Strange.

Max throws his cards onto our makeshift log table and dances circles around us both "THREE OF A KIND. THREE KINGS!!! I win, you looooossseeee."
Theia is smiling, laughing at Max's display. Not what i wouldve expected her reaction to loosing would be.

"Congrats, Max, what's my forefiet?"
Max stops dancing, bracing his hands on his knees to regain his breath. He looks around him, and i know exactly what he is thinking when his eyes stop at the river.
"No, Max.. It's freezing."
His smile only grows.
"What? A forefeit is a forefeit."
"She will freeze."
"Not if she has nice warm clothes to get back into."

"What are you two going on about?"

I make a pointed stare at Max,
"Max wants you to jump in the river."
"Naked." He is far too quick to add.

"Naked? Is that part negotiable?"

"Well, yeah, but you would be freezing without dry clothes." Max winks to Theia and avoids eyecontact with me.
"You dont have to if you dont want to, Theia. It's just a game."

"No, Max is right. A forefeit is a forefeit. It's just a bit of fun. Besides, I need a wash anyway. Could you look away, or do that shadowy thing or something?"
She's asking me to hide her with my shadows, hide her from Max. Which i would GLADLY do. I am yet to determine whether he is just plain flirting with her or if he is trying to make me admit to some feelings. Which i dont have.

"Yeah, I can do that."
"This is one of the few instances where i wish i had better night magic. Mine sucks. The best i can do is dim a light bulb. Ill keep the fire going." Max walks off in a huff, obviously annoyed he isn't going to see anything. Not that i would've let him, even if she had wanted him to see anything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Me again,

The next chapter is a good'n.
I'm writing the end of it now.

Will publish later tonight :)

Anyways,
Scroll on.
Love, Onya xx