Wild cards
Chapter 07
…
Pig from hell, type undead. The remnant of an ancient swine, now extinct, revived by foul magic to terrorize the world once again.
A 2000 D 2000
"So, Harry, what do you think of my little piggy?"
"Little nothing!" Harry exclaimed.
Isolda laughed at his reaction, "Poor choice of words I guess. Pig from hell, attack Soldiers Apprentice."
It was a terrifying sight, the behemoth hog charging at him. His soldier stood bravely to defend but neither his attack or defense were sufficient to survive such an onslaught. He may not have lost any life points in the attack, but he felt like he might have lost a few years.
"I guess I'll end my turn there" she said sweetly.
Harry glared at her grinning face and drew. A chance, his spellcaster at last. He had only one hope and it was a gamble to say the least. But he had to do it. Even if he lost he refused to give her the satisfaction of making him quit.
"I summon Junior Cherub in attack mode."
Harp music played and a tiny child with little white wings descended from on high. Then the music cut out and the cherub dropped the last three feet, landing on its butt.
A 600 D 400
"Ew!" Isolda squealed, "what is that disgustingly adorable creature?"
The Junior Cherub looked at Isolda, then Harry, then pointed to itself. Harry nodded and the little angel turned back to Isolda and stuck out its tongue.
"Sass all you want now, in a few seconds your pig slop" Isolda told the little angel.
The angel looked at the pig tank which gave a derisive snort strong enough to topple the tiny seraph. The winged spellcaster looked up at its summoner dazed.
"I play Magical Star Rod, increasing Junior Cherub's attack by 300."
The pretty magical wand revived the angel who did a cute little dance with her new toy.
"Ugh, you cannot die soon enough" Isolda groaned.
"Here's your chance then, I end my turn" said Harry.
"Finally!" Isolda exclaimed, drawing her card without even looking at it, "Pig from hell, destroy that thing."
The pig charged and the little angel quaked at its rampaging approach.
"I activate my trap, Hat trick, with a twist!"
Three top hats appeared out of nowhere. One swallowed up the 'Junior Cherub' while the others were stuffed with bombs before flipping over.
"What's going on?" asked a shocked and bemused Isolda.
"It's a magic act" said Harry as the hats shuffled too fast to see, "you get to pick twice, if you pick the hat with my angel you can attack it."
"And if I don't?"
"First wrong guess you lose 300 life points. Second wrong guess you lose your monster."
The girl looked ready to scream, "That's… you can't… arrrrrrgh!"
Harry didn't know what she was getting so bent out of shape for. She had two shots and there were only three hats. The chances of Harry pulling through were infinitesimally small. Either way this play would decide the game.
Staring petulantly, she pointed at the left hat, "that one."
The pig reared up and brought its hoof down on the hat. An explosion followed that knocked the pig onto its back and lowered Isolda's life points by 300.
"Son of a bitch!" she screamed then immediately flinched, casting a look over to her uncle at the bar.
He gave her a very hard look but chose not to say anything.
"See what you did?" she accused in a whisper.
"I didn't make you swear" Harry countered, also in a whisper.
"Still your fault" she grumbled and Harry just rolled his eyes.
She stared at her last two choices for a long while. Harry, after their near miss, had lost all his anxiety and just waited patiently. Or as patiently as an 11 year old boy can wait.
"Stop tapping your foot" Isolda growled, "I'll pick the middle one."
Once again, the pig reared up and once again it crashed down. The explosion this time was bigger and included the dying squeals of a giant pig.
"No!"
"Fraid so" said Harry as the last hat shrunk down till it was sitting on the head of his happily smiling angel.
"This can't be happening" she babbled unbelieving.
"Unless you've got something in your hand, it totally is."
She desperately looked through her hand very nearly panicking, "Nothing, I've got nothing."
"Then I guess that makes it my turn" said Harry, "and I attack with 'Junior Cherub'."
The little angel tossed its new hat away and raced forward with its magic wand. It fired off a barrage of cute little stars that had Isolda flinching back as her life points fell to zero."
"And that's game" said Harry.
"I lost?" the words seemed wrong to her.
"Yep."
Harry was unsurprisingly happy with his win, but it quickly lessened as Isolda just stared at him blankly. It was unnerving in a way, it was like someone had unplugged her.
"Sooooo, rematch?"
And like the flip of a switch, "Damn right!"
"Isolda!"
*flinch*
"Sorry."
…
It was early evening when Harry left the bar, 'trounced' 2 out of three matches but satisfied regardless. It had been fun but more than that he'd gotten the distinct impression, behind all the bluster, Isolda was just lonely. She'd deny it of course.
Lost in thought, he wasn't looking where he was going and bumped into someone else suffering the same malady.
"Gah!"
Underweight as Harry was he was still more solid than this girl. Her hands flew up as she fell back, pitching the large beaker into the air.
"Oh no!"
Still on his feet and easily within reach Harry's hands shot out and snatched the beaker from the air. It almost caused him to lose his balance because it was heavier than it looked.
"Careful, careful" the girl chanted as he slowly righted himself, "Oh thank goodness."
"You okay?" Harry asked.
"Fine, fine, thanks to you."
"What is this?" Harry asked.
"Erumpent fluid" she answered.
"Uh huh…"
"It's a powerful explosive" she clarified, "If that had hit the ground we'd both have been blown to kingdom come."
Hearing this Harry almost lost his grip on the dangerous flask, "Why do you have something like this."
"It's for a potion I'm working on."
"Potion, oh right, one of my Hogwarts books was about potions I think."
"You're going to Hogwarts?" the girl seemed gleeful.
Harry nodded, "you too?"
The girl nodded, "would you like to help me with my potion?"
"Um, yeah okay."
"Wonderful! I'm Kimberly by the way."
"Harry."
"Nice to meet you Harry."
It was nice to meet her as well, but he was too focused on not dropping the Erumpent fluid to say it. An hour later he was glad he hadn't because he was having second thoughts.
"Huh, well that was unexpected" she mused.
Harry wasn't sure which part was unexpected. He was hoping it was the giant geyser of flame. He had his doubts however after spending an hour with the girl. She was probably referring to the purple smoke.
"Note to self, concoction emits noxious fumes, potential hazard, invest in gas mask."
Yep, it was the smoke.
Harry decided it was time to leave Tintern Alley and made to do so calmly. Then there was a boom from the cauldron and he decided, to hell with calm, and started running. He'd had quite a day in Tintern Alley but he would probably wait a while before visiting again.
*Krackaboom*
Like till after they rebuilt it maybe.