This was written as an on-the-spot challenge for iamfiction over on LJ in a thread I posted on my own journal. She asked for a Suzy-fic, and I delivered because I love writing Suzy so much. However, it is un-edited and un-betaed, so there are probably a few mistakes. Feel free to point them out liberally. Please review if you read, I love hearing from people!
The Newniths were playing some sort of game, the likes of which neither Suzy nor Fred had ever seen before. One would shake a handful of odd, misshapen stones, bets would be called, and then the lot would be cast.
Suzy strolled over to the group ever-so-casually, her hands clasped behind her back and a poorly-tuned whistle playing from her lips. She stopped behind Ugham and peered over his shoulder as he scooped up the stones in one extra-extra-large hand. "What'cha doin', Uggie?"
The Piper's soldier continued shaking his hands together as the bets were called, and a second Newnith marked them down in some odd code they used to make up for their illiteracy. "It is a game, a sport of chance and fate. A man takes up the pieces, they are bones from an animal the Master created whose name we do not know, carved and painted by skilled craftsmen for our use. They are shaken so as to increase the odds of chance, bets are placed by all men present and involved, and the pieces are cast onto the floor, whereupon the victors claim some small trophy from the defeated."
"Oh," said Suzy. "Can I play?"
"Certainly you may, Suzy," Ugham said, moving over to make room for the much smaller Piper's child. "The pieces are either notched or drilled through, and there are three of either. The colors are deep red, midnight blue, firewash smoke green, twilight purple, and sandstone yellow. Your venture must take those into account, and you must guess which will land in the circle drawn on the floor."
From behind his friend, Fred said, "You shouldn't gamble, Suzy."
Suzy snorted. "Oh, come off it, Fred. Don't be such a chicken. I thought you was a soldier?"
"I am!" Fred protested, hurt by this slight on his pride.
"Then you shut your mouth." To the Newnith keeping track of the bets, she said, "Two notched red, one drilled yellow, one notched yellow, no blue, three drilled green, and one notched purple."
"What do you wager, Miss?" the Newnitch asked.
Suzy thought for a moment, her hand at her mouth and her brow furrowed. Then she drew from the deep pocket of her Piper-issued uniform a large, grease-stained napkin. "I wager my stash of tea biscuits. Nicked from Dame Primus's stores, and made by the best baker in the Lower House."
"Should've wagered your service," Fred muttered.
"Shhhh," Suzy hissed as Ugham suddenly opened his hands and sent the bone-pieces rolling across the floor. Suzy's eyes brightened greedily and she leaned forward as she began to count the ones that fell in the circle. There... Three drilled green... Two notched red... Not a single blue! And there, two yellow, one notched and one drilled. Lucky, lucky, lucky!
...Except for the three green pieces just on the edge of the ring.
"Too bad, Miss Suzy," Ugham said, picking up the bundle of biscuits and passing them off to the fourth Newnith around the circle of soldiers, who set them beside himself in favor of examining a trowel he'd won from another in the group.
"What?!" Suzy cried. "No! I almost got 'em! Almost!"
Fred sighed. "I told you not to gamble."