Ephemeral Affairs [MXM]

A Game of Kingdom

"But he's the bad guy. We can't be nice to him," Arabret quickly retaliates.

Niowei nods her head along, "Yes. We can't be nice to him."

"Alright," Alosrin takes in a deep sigh. He wonders how he could teach them that being mean to a mean person is not the correct answer.

"So we can continue to be mean to him?" Arabret asks even though he doesn't want to be nice.

Alosrin rests his chin on the desk, "No. I'm going to be nice to him so I hope that you two will too."

"Mommy," Niowei wears a worried look.

"It'll be okay," Alosrin offers a gentle smile. "Why don't we read in the garden?"

"Yay! Let me get my favorite books," Arabret gets up and goes over to the bookshelves with Niowei.

And while they're picking their books, Alosrin turns to see that Jaufasi is wiping his hand on the floor.

"At least you're trying," Alosrin looks exhausted and motionless for a few moments.

"Yllathanise, let's play this game instead," Arabret pulls the little girl to his side. "It's super fun and I'm super good at it."

Niowei purses her lips together in hesitation, "Okay, but you'll have to go easy one me until I learn the rules."

"No way!" Arabret laughs, "I'll never go easy on you even if you're a girl and never played before. You're my rival."

"I'm your rival?" Niowei asks with flushed cheeks and a meek voice.

"Obviously! You're the number one person I never want to lose to," Arabret hugs the box with the game inside and hurries to Alosrin wiping down Jaufasi's face and hands.

Alosrin gets up and holds Jaufasi's hand, "No books?"

"No. We want to play a game instead," Niowei answers and tugs at her mother's leg to lean down. She whispers, "I'm Arabret's rival."

"Um. Really?"

"Yes. He said he doesn't ever want to lose to me," Niowei struggles to keep her voice quite from happiness.

Arabret feels shy and clears his throat, "Let's get going shall we?"

"Okay!" Niowei straightens herself up and goes to walk beside Arabret.

As they get closer to the garden, the sounds of bird chirping and the singing of Spring reach their ears.

The Crown Prince runs through the maze of roses and reaches its center with Niowei by his side, "How are you so fast?"

"I can't let you win, can I?" Niowei smiles widely while trying to catch her breath.

"You definitely can let me win," Arabret places the box onto the rose tiles beneath them and opens it. "The game is called Kingdom. The goal is to capture the King of your opponent by any means necessary."

"What are these colorful chips?" Niowei pulls out circles of black, white, red, blue, and green.

"Those are supplies you need to gain."

"Okay." Niowei nods and pulls out a dice from the box, "What's this?"

"Something to help us decide how much supplies we gain or lose—"

Jaufasi rushes to them and begins taking everything out of the box, "Blue. Red. Horsey. Sheepy..."

"No. Baby can't play yet," Arabret takes hold of Jaufasi's hands.

The little dragon boy narrows his brows, "Jau-Jau plays too."

"No. You're too little to play. Why don't you play with Yllathanise's mom?" Arabret picks Jaufasi up and drags the dragon boy to Alosrin who barely made it to the center of the rose maze.

Niowei pulls the box away from Jaufasi and tries to shield it.

"I play too!" Jaufasi bursts into tears after seeing what Niowei has done.

"What happened?" Alosrin breaks Jaufasi away from Arabret and embraces the little dragon boy, "I'm not angry. Tell me what happened?"

Arabret and Niowei glances at one another in guilt before answering, "We don't want to play with the baby."

Jaufasi cries louder after hearing the dreadful words from his brother's mouth.

Alosrin touches each of the older children's noses, "Let Jaufasi and I join you both, I'll sing all your favorite songs tonight."

"This can be serious," Arabret pulls Niowei aside. "Your mom hasn't sung anything in a while because he always falls asleep first."

"Agree. Let them play with us," Niowei nods her head.

Arabret and Niowei assemble the playing board and distribute the starting pieces.

Niowei sits across from her mother, knowing that if she is to win she must focus her attention solely on her mother.

"Yllathanise," Arabret tugs at Niowei's elbow. "Don't forget that I'm your rival. I might win if you only care about your mom."

"Sorry. I'll do my best to win," Niowei answers after relaxing her hands.

And as the game goes on, the littlest one grows bored, relaxing his head on his fish and drawing shapes with the clouds when it's the others' turn.

"That one looks like daddy and that one is mommy. The baby cloud is me. There's Arabret."

"Baby," Arabret sighs. "Come on. It's your turn."

Jaufasi sits up and moves his supply line two steps to the East, "Trade with me, Yllathanise."

"Okay. What would you like to trade?" Niowei turns to face the little boy.

"My sheepy for your horsey," Jaufasi smiles and offers his sheep.

Niowei shakes her head, "No can do, baby. But I'll trade my blue chips for your red ones."

Jaufasi looks down at his sheeps with a pouty face, so Alosrin taps his shoulder, "I'll trade all my horses for your sheep."

"Okay!" His energy springs right up and he trades his sheep for all Alosrin's horses.

Then the youngest places his horses on the West side, "I'm going to attack Arabret."

"No so easily, baby." Arabret points to the land of sandstorms, "Horsey can't go through that."

"Says who?" Jaufasi narrows his brows.

"Um, it's logic?" Arabret shrugs his shoulders. "You can ask Yllathanise's mom if you don't believe me."

"It's okay. My horseys are magical. They can fly across that—"

"Horses can't fly," Arabret takes the horses from Jaufasi's hands and places them back on the board.

Salty water begins to form on the tear ducts of the youngest with his brows arching high and sitting still with his palms empty.

"Don't cry, Jau-Jau," Niowei pats the silky ebony hair. "Here, have my horsey too. You can attack me instead."

"No. I don't want to play anymore," the little dragon boy gets up and cries as he runs away.

"Stay here, okay?" Alosrin directs the other two as he runs after Artemis's son.

Niowei and Arabret stares at each other guiltily, "We can restart the game with just us."