A Turn of Fate: Day 27

[S] Again (27,548 / 1,000,000)

Tav drew a card off the top of the deck, and set it face-down to the side. He drew three more, and presented them side by side, face-up on the table – two red eights, and the three of clubs.

Meera still lounged back in her old armchair, chin tucked, face concealed by the shadow of her lowered hat brim. She lifted her head ever so slightly - just enough to glance at the three cards laid out on the table. Meera groaned in her mind, she knew that this was exactly the kind of flop that would play into Tav’s strategy. Meera kept a nonchalant demeanor, but in her mind she shouted, Shitshitshit!

She lifted her gaze to assess her opponent. Tav’s ever-present smile was twisted with mischief, his beady eyes glinted alongside the coins in the dim lantern light. She rolled her eyes. She knew that it was extremely unlikely for Tav to have an eight, but he was extremely lucky, damn him. Her Queens plus the eights made two-pair for her. She decided she would have to keep going, but she would take it slow. She rapped her knuckles twice on the tabletop, signaling a check.

“Hohoho, just a check?” Tav asked. “Raise pre-flop, but then a check after seeing a low pair like that…” He tilted his head to stare off into nothingness while he stroked his chin. He sported a thin goatee, wispy red hairs streaked with grey. “I’d have to put ye on a higher pair - Kings maybe? Queens?” His head stayed pointing to the corner of the room, but his eyes darted back to meet hers. Meera didn’t flinch. She had a helluva poker face, if she did say so herself - and she did. She was used to games going this way against Tav; he practically invented this game, the old bastard. Tav knocked on the table in a similar fashion, and then flipped two cards over. The first one was another burn, it stayed face-down. The second he flipped face-up and placed it next to the other three – another eight.

Meera’s eyes shot up to meet Tav’s again. His mischievous grin was so crooked now that he looked positively maniacal. She rolled her eyes again. She didn’t know why she even looked, he always pretended that every new card improved his hand somehow. “Well, I think I ought to-” Meera said, before she cut off suddenly. The quick beat of footsteps sounded outside the door to Meera’s right. Before Tav was even out of his chair, Meera shot across the room. In the space of an eyeblink she had her back pressed against the wall just beside the door, a crooked dagger clutched in each hand.

Tav hauled his massive frame out of his chair. If you sat around playing cards with Tav long enough, you might delude yourself into seeing him as nothing more than a jolly old fellow. That delusion faded the moment he stood. Tav’s impossibly thick limbs made sense – they supported a gargantuan body. He hunched, his head craned forward to avoid hitting the ceiling, and the volume of the room seemed half-filled with him standing in it. No, Meera thought, Tav was not simply a jolly old fellow.

The footsteps reached the threshold, and the door burst open. A gangly youth barged in, breathing hard. “Cap’n we’ve spott-” the youth started, before his words caught in his throat with a frightened gurgle. The moment he had crossed the threshold, a humungous hand had clapped down onto his shoulder and gripped it hard. In the same instant, a pair of daggers had poked into his peripheral vision from behind, the blade of each hovered only a hair’s breadth from the skin of his neck. The daggers withdrew almost immediately, and the grip on his shoulder softened.

“Lad, ye can’t come runnin’ in here like yer off yer head. The Cap’n here almost poked you two new breathin’ holes!” He gave the young crewman a kindly smile, and patted his shoulder. “Now, what did ye need to tell us?”

The kid recovered quickly, Meera noted, impressed. He paused only to take an audible gulp, before he rattled off his quick report.

“Cap’n, we’ve spotted a ship” he said.

Meera grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. “Good work uh….”

“Beld, Cap’n” the scrawny young man replied. He stood up a little straighter.

Meera gestured towards the door, and followed behind him. “Good work Beld, that’s the best news I’ve heard in months”. She turned back to Tav. “I assume you’re gonna hold down the fort here, as usual?” she asked the hulking man. He gave her a nod, smiling as always, and began a series of warmup exercises.

“Aye, I’ve got your treasury, lass – I mean Cap’n,” he said with a wink.

Meera beamed back at him and punched the air in his direction, while she backed out into the hallway.

“Don’t have too much fun out there!” she heard his voice bellow from behind, as she ran through the corridors towards the deck. She intended to have way too much fun out there. She sprinted through the corridors, the swaying of the ship doing nothing to impede her movement. As she ascended from the deeper areas of the ship, she began to hear the familiar sounds of the ship and crew. She heard shouts, laughs, raucous revelry, and more than a few fights while she whipped by rooms and intersecting corridors. She leaped up the final stairway four steps at a time, and burst through a hatch onto the deck.

Meera was temporarily blinded by the sudden brightness above deck. Her eyes adjusted after a moment, and she saw the sun was high in the sky, beating down upon the deck. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky to oppose it. The waves were mild; the ship, masts down, had only a gentle sway as it bobbed along with the current.

“Ho, Cap’n” a chorus of gruff voices greeted her from many directions. She gave a winning smile, and saluted. Her crew was a ragtag bunch, but they were as loyal as pirates could be. They were her family.

“Up here, Cap’n!” a familiar voice sounded from above her.

Meera shaded her eyes with a hand and squinted up at the crow’s nest.