Episode X Dark Hunter

Rook Na

"How'd ya get in here?" Videsse asked dryly. She crossed her arms.

"Your wrist console," Cam replied. "When I went for the drinks, I made sure to hit the ramp button."

Videsse tilted her head at the ingenuity. Her face softened for a moment as she thought of herself when she was his age. It was something she would have done.

Cam removed himself completely, half stumbled when his lagging foot was caught on the edge of the cabinet. He then stood before her, his hands by his side, and his head up. He held the pegboard game in his right hand.

Videsse thought for a moment. No threats of dropping him off on another planet would keep him away, or get rid of him. For the time being, she could not lose this kid. No questioning would produce the reason he kept following her; he would not tell the truth of that, though she could guess. Videsse concluded that perhaps for a short time, their lines would run parallel. To tell how that idea frustrated her would be a detour too long to invest and costly to detail. How she hated the idea that this may appear as if she was associated with someone; how the boy frustrated her, and yet paradoxically amused her, and how even that frustrated her more; how she hated that the witch-woman's words were proven true for the moment; how she believed this child would ruin her plans to find her ship; and most importantly, how she simply wanted to be alone. As always, I will not waste your time listing all those reasons.

Videsse noticed what Cam was holding. "What's that?"

Cam almost lurched, not expecting the question. "Uh, a game." He held it up. "Rook Na. Ever play it?"

"No," Videsse answered. "I've never played any games."

Cam squinted his eyes in disbelief. "What? Not ever one?"

"You stole that from Takodana," Videsse said, uncrossed her arms, and leaned forward, her elbows on her knees. "You're gonna have to stop that. Only steal when we need it." She huffed in frustration that she had to say this. It was an admission that they were going to be together for a while. "Or one of these times, you'll get yourself in a fix. You'll get me in a fix, I mean."

"Sure, only steal when needed," Cam assented so quickly, not thinking of his ability to keep the promise.

Videsse cupped her face in her hands and took a heavy breath. "Well, we're going through the core of the galaxy, so hyperspace traffic is gonna slow things down. We've got a full day of hyperspace travel. What'll we do with it?" It was meant to be a forlorn and rhetorical question.

"I can teach you Rook Na," Cam said and dropped to the floor, crossing his feet.

"For a day?" Videsse shook her head.

"At least for an hour of it."

There was an uncomfortable silence for more than a minute before Videsse assented. "Fine." She removed herself from the seat, which sprang back into the wall with a snap and a click. She then sat opposite Cam and crossed her legs as well, mirroring him unintentionally.

"So, how does this go?" Videsse meant more than one thing with this question.

"Okay," Cam straightened up as if he was about to give a lecture for a class. "The goal is to move as many of your pegs from one side to the other as fast as you can. Get all of them there first you get two points, and each peg that survives is a point. You're the red ones. . . Here . . . Yup, like that, they all go in the holes on your side. And these white ones are mine. And this black one is the Rook Na."

"Rook Na?" Videsse asked.

"Yeah, don't you know what that is? It's a creature of the wild space. No one has ever seen it or lived to tell of it. It has eight eyes, and hundreds of teeth, and six legs, and fur, and scales, and smells blood, 'cause that's what it eats, and no one knows if it really exists, 'cause anyone that sees it, dies. People just, disappear in the jungles."