Submission (#2903) Approved

Jasper glared at the board in frustration.

“Are you sure you’re not cheating?”

Echo let out a sigh.

“Jasper. It’s Checkers. You can only move the piece forward one diagonal space at a time.”

“BULLSHIT. Why the hell is this one moving backwards?”

“Because it’s a king!!”

“Why, just because you stacked another piece on top??”

“No, that’s to indicate that it’s a king.”

“Are you sure you’re not just making these rules up?”

“Jasper oh my god.”

Echo pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a sigh as Jasper furrowed his brows, frown growing deeper as he glared at his dwindling pieces. She thought she finally picked a game simple enough for him to understand. The pieces could only stay on the black squares, could only move forward one space diagonally (except if you were capturing the opponent’s piece) and if you reached the end of the board, your piece would become a king and could move diagonally forward and backwards.

While Jasper was still fussing over which piece to move, she turned her gaze towards the window. Warm amber sunbeams filtered through the window, indicating the setting sun. She could see the leaves falling outside, shades of red and yellow against the dark brown trunks of the trees. She closed her eyes, wishing she could be outside right now. What she wouldn’t give to be in town instead, greeting the locals and sampling fresh pastries from the local bakery. She missed the feel of cobblestone under her feet, or running her hand against the brick exterior of the buildings and rubbing the velvety vine leaves on the ones less kept. She missed chatting up the shop vendors in order to procure a good price on quality fruit, and she also missed just being able to take long walks through the forest, surrounded by nothing but nature around her. The chirping of birds, the soft bubbling of the stream, squirrels chattering about as they dashed around her feet, trying to pick up all the fallen acorns in preparation for the colder weather.

Most of all… she missed not having to be cooped up inside with a temperamental nin who had no healthy outlet to expend all their pent up energy, evident as she was soon greeted with a growl, ducking as Jasper flipped the board in anger, sending pieces scattering about. Oh gods please let the miasma season end quickly this year.

“Jasper. This is the third board game you’ve flipped in exasperation. I should be thankful this wasn’t my good set.”

She shuddered, thinking back to the time they attempted chess with her fancy glass and ceramic pieces. Even if he did pay her back, the set was limited edition and she wasn’t sure when she’d be able to come across that vendor again. It was a rare collector’s edition too with dyed sea glass pieces imported from Palu’au… which shouldn’t be hard to come by if they were IN Palu’au, but considering they were in Il'durahn at the time… 

“It’s not my fault you pick the worst games to play.”

“I only picked these games because you said you were bored!”

“Well, pick something better!”

Echo groaned, placing her paws over her face. First it was Pomuopoly, where he refused to invest in pomus on the squares he landed on, blamed the dice for being loaded when Echo got good rolls, and then accused her of cheating when she bought out all the pomus on a street and he kept landing on her squares. Then it was Pomutrap, where he just had… terrible aim. He accused the pieces for being faulty and that the pomus were secretly moving the pieces, but his pomu was nowhere in sight and hers was sitting quietly beside her. Even when she clarified that the pomu playing pieces weren’t sentient and that if either of their pomus tried to cheat by moving the pieces from the shadow, they would see. And she didn’t even want to TALK about Elnins and Eyre. Poor Fuwa was traumatized from the time he tried to DM for them and Jasper had somehow inexplicably rolled the worst stats possible, and when Fuwa tried to explain them, Jasper would only get so exasperated to the point he ended up hurling a piece at the poor boy. She did console him after and made Jasper apologize, but she didn’t want to put him through that again. EITHER of them.

“Ok. How about YOU pick something you want to do, and in the meanwhile I’ll get us some snacks and drinks.”

Despite still grimacing, she noticed his ears perk up a little, but still maintained his frown. 

“Fine, only because you have poor taste in games.”

Echo rolled her eyes and got up, making her way into the kitchen. Honestly, if he wasn’t her childhood friend, she would have given up on him by now. He had a terrible temper and foul mouth, quick to get agitated over the dumbest things while lashing out at others who didn’t deserve it. Still, she supposed there were SOME redeeming qualities…

Digging through the shelves, she pulled out two plates and cups and made her way to the stove. She stuck in the apple pie she had bought to warm it up, and she cut out a slice for them both. While she heated up the apple cider and grabbed the jar of cinnamon sticks from the shelf, she couldn’t help reminiscing about their last trip into town. While Il'durahn wasn’t known to be a shady city, there were still some unscrupulous individuals. Right when she was pulling out money to pay a vendor, an elnin swooped in and grabbed her wallet, running off. She barely had time to register it, let alone call out to the thief when a flash of blue whipped by her. Her eyes widened when she saw Jasper tackling the thief, snatching the wallet out of their hand as he growled at them. It seemed the thief was more of an opportunist and wanted to avoid confrontation, so they skittered off, not wanting to earn the ire of the shark nin further. 

He had some scuffs and was covered in dust from the ground, but after dropping the wallet back in her hand, he just told her to keep a better eye before wandering off to look at other things. Even the vendor seemed speechless, as the few occasions they were in town, Jasper was often picking a fight with anyone he laid eyes on. 

Echo shook her head, unable to hide a smile as she took the plates and cups out of the kitchen. Maybe he had finally gotten used to this place. While it wasn’t Palu’au, she did notice he found a bit of solace in the forest where there wasn’t anyone to agitate him. Surrounded by the fiery hues of the scenery, he stood out like a sore thumb among the leaves and dirt, and she often found him gazing at the brooks, perhaps lost in thought as he reminisced about the oceans from Palu’au.

She hadn’t registered how quiet it had gotten until she noticed Jasper was fast asleep, both their pomus huddled up around him. It seemed his temper tantrum from before had tuckered him out, and she couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Setting his portion on the table, she sipped at her cup of hot cider, closing her eyes as she soaked in the last of the rays, the memories of orange and red on her mind as she slowly dozed off.