Card Of True Merriment
__________Walking down the brightly lighted stalls, I felt a rush of excitement, a feeling that today will be just great. I slowly step into a huge tent with a pointy top, it was filled with all sorts of assortments. A one wheeled bicycle, colorful flags, bags filled with toys, a rocking horse, painted eggs, and what stood out to me most was this deck of cards on top of one of the piles.The light in the tent illuminated on it, like it was calling to me. I reached over to touch it when someone swat my hand away and stood in between me and the deck of cards. "Now, now, hello there.... customer ," he said wile looking at me up and down.I wasn't particularly very festively dressed. I just wore a simple hoodie and buckled jeans, with the same 'ol farming shoes and a party hat I got for free while looking through the stalls. He seemed happy about the party hat. He grabbed the deck of cards, "So this is what you wanted, right? ," he said, sounding friendlier. I nodded still in awe of the deck. He said, "Alright, you can have it, but I don't want money, trinkets or premium currency. I only have one condition."He clapped his hands and started shuffling the deck in his hands. "You just have to play one game of cards with me. What do you say? ," he asked while grinning ear to ear. "But if you lose! You lose your chance of getting this deck of cards too ," he added and stopped shuffling.I tilted my head in thought and agreed. he leaded me to a table with two chairs opposing each other. "Then, the game's 41. You get to have four cards and if you get the cards Jack = 10 , Queen = 10, King = 10 and Ace = 11, you win! Every round, you get to take one card from the deck and have to throw out one, any random card but it's best if you throw out the ones you don't need. Easy, right? But the catch is that all your cards must have the same symbols. If they aren't by the end of the game... Oops, your cards are burnt and you lose. You don't necessarily have to get 41 to win though. If the deck of cards finish, you must reveal your cards in hand and the player with higher value cards win! You can always swap the card thrown out by the other player with one you have, but you can't take a card from the deck instead ," he explains. He looked at me and smiled, "My game, my item, my rules. Good luck, you'll need it ," he said as he started giving out my cards.I flipped over mine and I was met with a 2 hearts, 10 clover, 5 clover, and an odd looking card with cool illustrations and no specific symbol. He went first, throwing out a 4 spades. You took a card from the deck and got 8 clover, you decide to throw out the 2 hearts.The game went on without me really getting any good cards until he threw out a queen clover. I swapped it with your 5 clover instantly. "Ooh someone's collecting clovers! ," he noticed immediately. And in an instant I knew the game would be harder since he would be keeping all the high value clovers if he got his hands on it. But I didn't give up on it and snagged a King clover midway and a Jack diamond.My cards were now Queen clover, 10 clover, King clover, weird card, and the Jack heart I just picked up. I still kept the weird card for some reason. I couldn't bring myself to throw it out. Instead, I threw out the Jack diamond and he picked it up. swapping it with an Ace clover. I swapped the Ace clover again with my weird card, and slapped down my 41 cards onto the table proudly. He went wide eyed and muttered a few things to himself, seemingly really shocked.I looked at him questioningly and he said, " Looks like luck really was on your side... Not only you got a 41 before me, but also got my specialized custom card that was imbued with magic to make sure no one could get it unless they're really good ," he beamed happily, as if it were him who actually won. "Well fellow, you earned it. I'm Pitre, by the way, and you are? ," he asked. I answered Iann, he pronounced it as "a-ean" and ended up sticking to world-hopper when he found out I was a world-hopper.He also did a fun little explanation about his custom card. He said that the card represents thrill and happiness, but also level minded and calculative thinking. Although truly it didn't sound like me at all, I just nodded more. He was proud and declared that, "I will join you and keep you company all day today, so lets have an amazing time together ," and proceeded to go off to a mask making stall, touching and trying every mask he liked.
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