"So," Arion said, as he ate the last of his rabbit. Admittedly, the rodent hadn't been that bad, although I had been a little squeamish at the thought of eating it at first. I licked my lips and stared apprehensively at his from across the fire. What was it now?

"How shall we go about training you? I imagine we should also work in some hand-to-hand combat, since it's unlikely that you know that either," he continued, wiping his fingers on his pants in a motion that I found amusingly un-princelike. It was refreshing to know that the high and mighty Arion had bad mannerisms like the rest of us.

"How about… we don't go about it. At. All." I replied quickly, putting up my defenses. I was ready to duke this out with him, whether it came to words or blows. I wasn't eager to fight with him, but it might show him that I know more than he certainly thought.

The blond man grimaced, and looked at me, face serious. "You can't just ignore training. It doesn't work. The magic is too unruly for that."

I cocked an eyebrow, and crossed my arms. "Uhuh. So please explain how I've been fine for the past eighteen years of my life? I had no training, and nothing funny ever happened when I took ballet or some such."

I'd stumped him. I could tell by the way he frowned and swallowed before glaring at me. A smirk appeared on my face, as the most pleasurable sensation of victory took me. Even if he did come up with something clever to say in response, the moment was still mine.

"Perhaps it had something to do with the combined discovery of your past and your entry into Merriwind," he said, shrugging. Apparently he was going to try and play it down. He leaned back on the wood pile and tried to look relaxed. I could see that he was tense – he hadn't replaced his vest or anything since he had taken them off and his shoulders were taught with the annoyance he felt.

Now, I'd like to take a moment to say that he looked so sexy that it was a sin. And I was sitting here hating his guts and he had to be in a shirt which seemed to reveal all that was pretty about him. Fantastic arms, fantastic face, fantastic chest… I might be angry but I'm not dead.

'Woah girl,' I thought, blinking mentally. 'Less ogling and more being angry. Pretty man baaaaad.' My expression became tight, and I glared at him. "Whatever. I don't care. I've taught myself enough, and I can teach myself more."

Arion's eyes narrowed, and then his face smoothed out. "How about we play a game of cards for it?" I looked at him quizzically. Well, that sure hadn't been what I'd been expecting. "I win, you train and you stay. You win, I let you go."

I thought about it. Well, honestly, it was extremely tempting. Even if I did lose (a thought that didn't appeal to me at all) how would it be any worse than where I was right now? Naturally, my mind thought up a whole list of reasons, most of which involved having to sleep in the same tent as Arion.

I was about to say no, so I could go back to my original 'Oh, I have to pee' plan and then running off then, but he continued to say, "I promise you we won't pick a game that you don't know how to play."

That certainly would limit the game choices down to two or three games… all of which were childish and mostly based on luck. I snorted. "Are you really willing to do that?" I paused for a moment, laughing. "You do know that my knowledge of card games is limited to war, go fish and slap jack, right?"

I watched him as a smile seemed to tug at the corners of his mouth. "Really?"

"Really." I replied, feeling a little ashamed by the sad number of card games I knew. He sniggered, and I frowned. 'Laugh all you want, pretty boy. I don't remember the last time I lost an unskilled card game.'

"Sorry, but the idea of playing go fish to determine your fate amuses me to no end." I would have laughed at that, because when he put it that way, it was really funny.

But I growled at him instead. "Yeah, yeah. So are we going to start the go fish game of Grace's destiny? Because Grace really wants to get it over with so she can leave."

"Never count your chickens before they hatch," he said, still repressing a grin. He pulled a stack of cards out of midair, and handed them to me. "Why don't you deal?" Sullenly, I took the cards, and then paused.

"What version of go fish do you play?"

"The right version. Seven cards to start, the goal is to make sets of four. If you get what you ask for you go again. When someone runs out of cards, the game ends. The one with the most sets wins." I grimaced. I'd played that version once before and had barely won. But, I had still won, so, whatever.

"Okay. We'll go with that." I pulled the cards out of the pack and shuffled them solemnly with a small prayer that I would win this game. I scooted around the fire so I could face Arion, and then dealt the cards. I put down the deck and picked up my hand.

Two sets of two and one set of three. Ah. Luck was on my side. But I put on my best poker face. I looked across the short distance to Arion, who stared levelly back at me. Okay. Now I had to admit that the only way this whole situation could seem dumber would be if we were playing 52 pickup for my freedom. But I wasn't about to laugh off this game.

"Do you have any… twos?" he asked. I glanced at my hand, and shook my head. Aww. That was too bad.

"Go fish," I said with a smirk. He reached into the pile and grimaced.

"Do you have any…" I looked at my set of three fours. "Fours?" He shook his head, and I drew.

Unfortunately for me, it was a short game. It started with him asking for a four, and so I lost that whole set of three. I got a few sets, but the end result was my running out cards, and feeling triumphant until he won. By one set.

I grumbled as he counted the last set, tapping it down on his pile of cards with a wide grin on his face. "Lucky," I muttered darkly, childishly sore – not because I hadn't gotten free of Arion, but because I had lost.

"So back to my original question. How shall we go about your training?" I stared at him from where I sat, and sighed deeply.

"We should start with nap time. I always enjoyed nap time." I said it blandly. I really was tired. I had put a lot of energy into hoping that I would win, and the day had been long anyway. By now it was well into the night. He didn't seem to take the hint, and raised an eyebrow.

"Grace, smart ass comments will get you nowhere." His obtuseness to my statement made me furious. I stood and moved away from him, anger boiling. "You agreed to the game. Even half-Fae must be bound by their word."

"Oh yeah?" I said, spinning around to face him, tears of anger and fatigue pricking at my eyes. "Well if smart ass comments won't get me anywhere, how about an angry rant? Arion, I'm really freaking exhausted! Newsflash: I can't keep going like this! Not only have you forced me to ride all day, but I'm now once again trapped in you faeries' shit!"

He looked truly stymied for a moment. His face went blank as if he wasn't at all sure how to handle what was going on. The looks was not there for long, though, and his face slid into a stony mask that was totally unreadable.

"What, no smarmy comments? No comeback about my human frailty?" My face was getting hotter, and I could hear my voice rising in volume and pitch. "So, as a pathetic half-human, you expect me to also train with you? After the hell that I have been through today?" I looked away from him, and just let the tears run down my face. I could feel the other problems with my life seeping in, even if they had little to do with why I was angry now. My dad's death, the loss of my mom… the memories stung and I was reduced to tears of sadness.

My shoulders shook with the force of them, and I tried to take deep breaths to calm myself. I could only imagine what Arion looked like right now. Bitterly I thought he must still look impassive and uncaring. Mentally, I lashed out in my ire, but I still could not bring myself to look at him. But this picture of him looking at me like I was pathetic gave me the anger to wipe the tears off my face and get some level of control over myself.

"Grace…" I heard Arion say gently as he touched my shoulder. I could guess that he was right behind me, and for a moment I was willing to just lean back on him, even if he was the cause of my issues. It would have been nice to be the weak little girl for a few seconds.

But I was still angry. "Don't touch me," I said fiercely, tugging my shoulder out of his reach and taking a few steps away while glaring at him. He actually looked as though he pitied me. It was like a final piece of conformation in my mind.

However, I was tired, and that last burst of emotion had drained any last bit of energy that I had been clinging to. My shoulders drooped, and my angry expression sagged. I looked away from Arion, not having the energy to expend on the emotions he made me feel. "I'm tired. We can train in the morning. I had better have pants to sleep in and train in."

With that, I dragged myself into the tent, pleased to see a sleeping bag and a pillow which seemed to call my name. If I had been paying much attention, I would have noticed that a perfect pair of black sweats had appeared on me, but I was too eager to sleep to notice.

I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, which was as fluffy as a dream.

WAAAAAAH. Angry Grace is ANNNNNGRRRRRRY.

So I got more kkbook fanart. Just replace the (dot) with an actual . take away the surrounding spaces and go look!

kkbook (dot) deviantart (dot) com/art/Go-Fish-Game-of-Graces-Destiny-253021254