"Show," he lifted his arm.
"Me," the crowd held their breath as he wound up.
"Seven!" The dark haired spaniard released the dice from his hand.
If I were to freeze this moment, just before the dice stopped rolling, I would laugh.
The dark haired one, name unknown to me, was a tall, lanky fellow, but at the moment he was kneeling and hunched over, face hidden in his hands. His fair haired partner had his face strained in anticipation, mandolin cradled to his chest.
The other gamblers, sailors who came to my bar last night, had nervous looks on their faces, I would to, if I bet every last coin to my name on some dice. At least it wasn't the loaded ones they were using earlier. Nobody else had noticed, but seriously, every single time on 5 and 2?! And they were never nervous! I smell a rat.
Anyway! The other women, all dressed much finer than me in my tattered bar maid's dress, all had the most idiotic looks of admiration on their faces. Stupid pigs, all they have on their minds is finding a man to dote on them.
Yeah, no way. The man I would want doesn't exist, not in this world or time. I want a guy who would respect me.
Oh well, onward.
One die had settled on four, but the other, more stubborn, kept spinning on a corner, finally making up its mind, and landing on three.
Seven, in case you can't do math.
The air was heavy with the feeling of disbelief. Until the fair haired man let out a short laugh. His partner uncovered his face, and smiled. Laughing gleefully, exclaiming a high-pitched "Seven!", he scooped up all the gold, and the fair haired one snatched the map from the head sailor, still in disbelief. Interesting. The fair haired one seems uninterested in things like money, instead going for the promise of adventure, meanwhile the dark haired one seems to be far more interested in money. Greed and adventure, I guess they do go together.
Still laughing, the men gave the sailors shit eating grins, the dark haired one saying "Pleasure doing business with you!" sarcastically, and then his dice fell out of his pocket, landing on 5 and 2. The head sailor kneeled down, looking suspiciously at the dice, and banged his fist on the ground. The dice lept an inch in the air, before landing back on 5 and 2. The action was repeated, same result.
"I knew it!" no he didn't. "Your dice are loaded," A group of gasps could be heard. Wow, you only just figured that out. Everyone paused for a second, before turning to look at me. Oh shit, I said that out loud. "YOU KNEW?" the sailor roared. "Rotten wench! I bet you're in cahoots with them!" I turned to look at the men.
"I'll pass, I'd rather not do illegal things," the sailor took out a knife, slowly approaching me, and I rolled my eyes. "I really did not want to do this today," I muttered, taking out my twin daggers from my skirt. The sailor smirked.
"Put those away, girl, before you hurt yourself," I scoffed at him, before twirling my daggers until the rested comfortably in my hands. The sailor couldn't get it through his thick skull that I knew what I was doing, and swung at me. I blocked, quickly going on the offensive. Swinging my left dagger as a distraction, I disarmed him with my right, the knife going flying, landing… in front of a soldier.
"Damn, this is not what I needed today," I groaned. The conmen looked at each other, seeming to communicate through looks and raising of their eyebrows. Finally the fair haired man, having approached me, whispered in my ear.
"Play along," I rose my eyebrow at him, but nodded. He rose his hand, very obviously, so the guard could see, and I realized he was going to pretend to knock me out. I raised my daggers in "defense", and he backed up, but his partner had come up from behind, again rather obviously, and "knocked me out". I slumped and fell to the ground.
Once this was done everyone was silent for a few moments, before everyone ignored me and focused back on the conmen. They started to argue about the loaded dice, apparently grabbing swords from soldiers. While everyone was watching them, I had stood up, grabbing a cloak off the back of a chair and wrapping it around myself, and pulled up the hood. When they threw the swords to the ground I made my move, deciding to follow them, I climbed up, quicker than anyone else there, seeing as no one caught me, I too jumped off the other side of the roof, landing on my feet. The two con men screamed, quite girly, and I took off my hood.
"Oh, it's you," the dark haired one said.
"Yeah, thanks for the help back there, but now I owe you, so you're stuck with me until I save your sorry asses," I smirked and winked at them, but then I realized something. My eyes widened, and I meekly muttered, "bull,". They seemed confused, before following my gaze, and seeing….
A bull.
"Oh." The fair haired one mumbled.
"Uh… How about, you… pet it, and I'll…." I rose my eyebrows at the dark haired one. "RUN!" he screamed, running off. I quickly helped the other one up off the ground, running after the dark haired man.
"Oh, well THANKS A LOT!" the partner next to me yelled up at the other one. We scrambled up a wall, that being a little awkward for me in a dress, but just as we made it to the top, the bull headbutted it, the wall going flying and us sliding down it, running away.
"There they are!" some sailors exclaimed, pointing at us, we made a quick turn, them seeing the bull and running away. But we weren't out of trouble yet, there was a group of soldiers blocking the road. I flipped over them, thanking whatever holy deity there is out there for my days in the circus, and the boys went around them through houses.
"Thank you!"
"Bye!" We kept running, the bull ramming into the soldiers behind us, but more took their place, shooting at us with their crossbows. We continued, dodging arrows and people, but eventually we came to a ledge, three barrels full of water were at the bottom and we glanced at each other.
"I'll bet we can make that," the fair haired one said, and I nodded.
The dark haired one turned to look behind us, where a dozen soldiers were running towards us. "Two pesetas, says we can't," We jumped, the fair haired one yelling "YOU'RE ON!" Before we landed in the barrels, a bunch of water spilling out.
"You lose," the one on my left, blondey, said, and two pesetas were flicked into my barrel.
"Pass that on, will you?" I heard.
"Nope, mine now!" I laughed.