Henry started to awake. The dry consciousness of his mind started up like a slow engine, finally coming to ignition with a halted spark. First to feel alive was his sense of smell, and the distinct odor of disinfectant immediately assaulted him. He cringed at this distasteful discovery, and haphazardly flailed within the cot until he could hide his face in his pillow.
After his sense of smell came his sense of touch. The pillow he stuffed his face in was soft, to the point where he felt like he was sinking into it. The low, squishy noises that resulted from the initial contact made Henry somewhat uneasy. He found it hard to breathe after realizing that the pillow's plush surface was more suffocating than anything, and he turned around in bed once more to free his breath.
The other senses came back simultaneously, and when Henry opened his eyes to test this, he was shocked to see another pair of irises shining down on him. They were a rather endearing set of eyes, too: wide in shape, framed with lashes that were not long but thick instead, and kind of perky! The color of the irises themselves was a pleasant, delicate shade of blue-gray. On any other day he might not have been so frightened, but it didn't register in his mind that someone else could be there, so immediate fear took hold of him and didn't let go.
He screamed.
The other person was just as surprised as he was, and screeched loudly in tandem. They stumbled backward and nearly fell on their backside, whilst Henry rose from his cot and threw his arms around him wildly. The screams stopped after several seconds or so, before either of them realized what had actually happened.
Oh Grima, Henry thought to himself afterward. What was that?
"Henry!" The voice protested. There was a familiar high pitched lilt to it, together with an airy insistence that—despite being caught off guard—implied that the owner of said voice was not delicate. Yes, Princess Lissa of Ylisse remained before Henry of Plegia as plain as the day, and her doe-like eyes which were once overturned with fear now shone with annoyance.
He had been treated in her tent far too many times before this. He really ought to stop showing up in such unfortunate places, for his own health if no one else's. But that was as far as he would go to reprimand himself in the moment, and he quickly replaced his shocked expression with an empty smile, instead. "Lissa! Glad you still remember me."
"You dolt!" She reached forward and mock-slapped him, the force in her hand evident but restrained as she realized he was still recovering from his injuries. He was thankful for that because otherwise she might have actually managed to hurt him. "Why did you scream like that? I really had a fright 'cause of you!"
"I screamed because you were, um, three inches away from my face? Creepy much?" He joked with her, knowing that the not-delicate princess was not actually creepy in the least. She knew this, too, and breathed out indignantly because of it.
"I was making sure you were okay. You looked, I don't know, like you were in pain, or something. Which was weird since you were just fine on my shift last night, but whatever! What's done is done," Lissa insisted, straightening out her clothes and standing tall. Finding everything in order, she gave a very distinct look of disapproval towards Henry.
"And hey, I was in charge of fixing you up, so you have no right to criticize me! Sheesh, I stayed up late because of you."
"Sorry! It was totally my fault that I nearly died, but I had no idea it would inconvenience you in the least." There wasn't a single shred of sarcasm detected in his voice, and rather, he appeared to be quite sincere with this apology. Lissa didn't find it appropriate to say something in response, though, so she quickly changed subjects.
"Like I said, what's done is done. You must have recovered well enough to scream like that, anyway. So get up, already!"
The order was direct, and Henry felt no reason to disobey. He swung his legs over the side of his cot, and stretched his arms upward. He rotated his wrists, and giggled at the satisfying cracks he heard from stretching them out like that. Lissa flinched at the noise, but said nothing as Henry proceeded to crack his knuckles, knees, and even his neck. Her face moved in unsavory expressions all the while.
"Are you done yet? Or do you plan on cracking your own spine while you're at it?"
"Hey, gimme a break! I just woke up~" Despite saying this, Henry was quick to stand on his feet, and was pleasantly surprised in finding that he had no trouble in doing so. He smiled widely at her, and said: "I feel as good as Risen, haha!"
"That's a bad analogy," Lissa groaned. "But whatever. As long as you feel better, then I don't care how you describe it. Let's get some lunch from the mess hall to celebrate, okay?" Her countenance lifted itself, revealing the brightness of her youth in the corners of her eyes and the rounds of her cheeks. It was as if the cranky monster (Henry laughed at imagining her in this way) from before had disappeared, replaced by the sprightly girl that was there all along. He really wanted to say something that would bother her again, but Henry controlled himself and resisted from making anymore wisecracks.
"Sure, why not? Wait, it's lunch already? Jeez, I was out for a while!"
"I'll say so! Come on, Henry! We don't have any time to waste." She dragged him by the hand, and pushed the flaps of the tent open with her free arm. "Don't be so slow, now! Early bird gets the worm and whatnot."
"It's just mess hall food," he pointed out. "What's the rush in getting there first?"
"Because!" Lissa said. "Cordelia is on cooking duty this morning."
Wordlessly, Henry picked up his pace, and promptly laughed at Lissa who was yelling at him to slow down. "Slow down?" he repeated her words teasingly, as if the very thought of it was unheard of. "If Cordelia's cooking, then I'm gonna eat myself into a coma!"
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.
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The mess hall was as it always had been: loud, rowdy, yet welcoming. The noise of laughter, eating, and talking filled the air with a certain warmth that chased away the chills settling in Henry's spine. There were several long, wooden tables which were now full of different people. Soldiers, healers, and others enlisted in the army all got the same treatment as they ate the same food in uniformed rows and seats. It all tasted gray and tasteless depending on who was cooking it, but the pegasus knight Cordelia was on duty today, and anyone that was anyone knew what she was capable of.
Perhaps that's why things seemed more cheerful to Henry. No one was glaring at each other or complaining about the breakfast. Everyone seemed in high spirits, even the resident grumps or assholes, and the atmosphere was much brighter and happier—and that was a vast improvement to life in the Shepherds Camp, in and of itself.
When Henry first joined the Shepherds, he received more than his fair share of hardships. Many shot him dirty looks while others resorted to physical harm, and others still settled for verbal attacks on his Plegian heritage or dark magic roots. They called him a traitor despite his treachery being toward his home country and not Ylisse. They ostracized him, and on more than one occasion, some soldier complained to Chrom, Robin, or Frederick that they were better off ditching Henry someplace else. Those were rather unpleasant days, to say the least, but Henry let the pain of it all reflect off his back and slough off his shoulders. It made him all the better for it, and it was relieving once the negativity stopped and people saw him for what he truly was.
They treated him like one of their own nowadays, so what might have seemed like a daunting task (finding somewhere to sit, that is) in the past was now something mind numbingly simple and easy. Lissa, his current compatriot and recent healer, offered him a seat with her and Maribelle. He declined the offer politely, and walked down the aisles in search of something more. Some friendly voices and faces cajoled him to join on the way, but he refused them, too. Even Ricken, who seemed preoccupied in telling an animated story to the mercenary Gregor, eyed Henry in a way that signaled his desire for the other to sit with him.
But Henry simply gave a dismissive wave of hand and kept walking. He had a specific goal in mind, and that goal was situated at the far end of the mess hall. The dark mage narrowly escaped being decked in the face by an overzealous Vaike (who was telling some dramatic, untruthful, and wild story) and barely dodged the scornful eye (and curse) of his fellow Plegian, Tharja.
By the time he got to his destination, the person seated there was more surprised and breathless than he was. Dark, earthen eyes looked up incredulously, and their owner spoke with a matching tone.
"Junior? What in sweets' name do you want?"
"I'm gonna sit here!" He insisted, and made a dramatic, swooping motion as he plopped himself down right next to Gaius. "And you can't stop me."
"I wasn't going to," Gaius rebuked. "But that's awfully gutsy of you considering what we've been through."
"Maybe. I quite like guts, myself." It wasn't the clearest of answers, but somehow Gaius understood what he meant. In fact, he was almost impressed with Henry's gall, such that the expected hostility in his visage disappeared. Instead, he breathed audibly, and gestured to the plain fellows sitting next to and across from him.
"Well, like what you like, but unless you plan on joinin' us I suggest you get up to let another square take your spot. This is a bit of gambling, y'see. I plan on making bank to cover my losses from the other day." As if to accentuate his point, Gaius started expertly shuffling the cards in his hand. They moved at an impressive pace, disappearing behind each other as he practically threw them from one hand to the next. In those seconds, Henry could notice their appearance: black in color, worn out all over, slightly torn edges but still somehow elegant.
He never took Gaius for a gambling sorts, but then again he didn't know him that well apart from his love of sweets and his ruggedly amusing personality. To know that there was something more interesting to him such as this was rather satisfying, actually. Henry smiled, and took some gold coin from within his sleeves. He placed it on the table carefully, and drummed his bony fingers along the edge of its surface. "Are you kidding? Of course I'm playing!"
There was an awkward shift in demeanor across the table, but Gaius was unchanged in both his movements and expressions. He shook his head slightly, and smiled softly. "Fine, it's your loss more than anything. Lemme deal the cards." He pushed a mostly-eaten bowl of soup aside, and started passing out the cards to each person. His hands were deft and unwavering, and Henry admired the sheer dexterity that Gaius possessed.
He waited for someone else to make a move, and seeing the others grab their cards hungrily and pressing them close to their chests made him follow suit. He gathered his pile and examined each one. The numbers repeated themselves in his mind, in a certain order, and like a mantra they followed their way out of Henry's mind and further out through his mouth. Small, muttered breaths recited the card values he had and he was quite thankful that no one else heard him.
Gaius himself was pleased with his work, and after glancing at his cards, he elbowed Henry rather harshly in the side. "Listen here, Junior, if there's any rules around here it's that you can't use magic. No curses, spells, hexes, or whatever. It ain't fair for the rest of us."
"It's not my fault if you dullards can't tell magic apart from your mud pies, heh heh!" A nasty glare from Gaius made him change directions quickly. "But fine, no gimmicks. I don't need those to win, anyway."
"We'll see about that. 'Sides, we were gonna play poker at first but now we're one too many. Instead, how does some good old fashioned bullshit sound to you fellas?" The riff raff responded in kind, with raucous cheers and loud thumps of the table with their fists and mugs. Henry felt some measure of nervousness, but realized it was mostly mystery in regard to the kind of game they would be playing. The most knowledge he had with these sort of festivities were to trivial games like Go Fish (and Vasto's mother teaching him how to play Old Maid, back in the day). The other cards that he sometimes dealt with were of the tarot variety, and not playing cards such as these.
Quite frankly, he was at the mercy of the players, which was something rather unfortunate from what he gleaned at the table. He nearly got a tall glass of wine spilled on him from the vibrations of their banter. He pushed the glass further inside, easily distracting himself from the rest of the events happening around him.
Gaius' low voice resonated beside him, and it brought him back to the matter at hand. "You know how to play this game, Junior?"
"Just as much as you know how to cast a spell, Honeybuns." The retort felt swift and clean as it flew off of Henry's tongue with deadly accuracy, and one of the other players couldn't help but choke back a genuine laugh.
"It's so easy that any half-brain could get it on the first try," Gaius reassured while smiling in spite of himself. "Why don't you go last? I'll start things up and by the time it gets around to you, you'll already get the hang of it."
"If you say so," Henry complied, but a notch of anxiety turned up within him. "Then go ahead, half brain. Show me how it's done."
"We're supposed to bet first, of course. It's a little different from poker or anything you might be used to, so I'll be quick on the rundown. Bet a small amount to begin with, and it doubles each turn that you're still a part of. Every time someone loses or gets out the round will sweeten things up for you, y'see? Of course that makes it risky because the longer you're in, the more money you'll owe. In the end there's only one winner, too." A wry smile appeared on the thief's face. "Look no further 'cause that'll be me. They don't call me 'Gaius the Nimble' for nothing."
"I'm sure they do, actually." Henry quickly rebutted. "But I already placed some down. How's twenty of these babies to start off with? That's small."
"Small it is, you're right about that." Gaius quickly dropped his own amount into the pot. His movements incited action from the other soldiers, who coughed in their change in a chaotic but orderly fashion. By the end of it, the center of the table was lightly decorated with the money, and Henry felt his heart weakly race in anticipation for the small riches.
No matter who you were in this day and age, money benefited anyone. Henry could buy quite a pretty spell book with those winnings, or even a new cloak or medium to help facilitate rituals and spell casting. The thought of it made him giddy, and he barely paid attention to the game when it his turn finally rolled around.
"You're on five, Junior."
"Two fives," he said, placing down two unknown cards on top of the stack. He had a good idea what this all was—a game of bluffs and nothing more—and smiled in knowing that the game was much more easier than Gaius made it seem. The latter noticed this, and was quiet as he let his turn pass by uneventfully. Everyone eyed Henry closely, as if the scrutiny would help them see through some unknown magical force. But the dark mage had kept his promise and he did not cast anything supernatural at the moment. No curse or hex was in place, although it was quite pleasing for him to see the paranoia set in early.
The game continued and some of the others lost their way into the round already. Gaius was cruel and merciless when it came to seeing through them, and every time someone would lose they garnered all the cards that had accumulated up to that point (something bad considering the object of the game was to lose all the cards in one's hand), and their winnings lessened accordingly. If they were truly unfortunate, then they would actually start owing money, and Henry just desperately hoped that he wouldn't fall to that, himself.
Gaius was the last person on the planet that he wanted to be indebted to.
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Several rounds of the game passed by. It was like a lull in the sea, for they started out rather wildly but became utterly tame after the halfway point. The quiet was so intense that Henry wondered if he was breathing too loudly. Then the game picked up again as shouts of frustration and happy cheers filled the air. They ate through dishes and dishes of food, and at some point, Cordelia herself made an appearance to scold their laziness. She warned them that they would have to clean up the mess hall if they stayed any longer than was necessary.
"Really, Cordi?" One of the guys gawked at her. "Vaike and his stupid ass has been telling fake stories and arm wrestling any dimwit for ages now. And Anna is one hundred percent swindling the green horns outta their hard-earned bullions. Why're you coming down on us like this?"
"Because frankly, I expect more out of you lot than I do out of Vaike or Anna. They're quite set in their ways but seeing as most of you are thieves, you'd think you would actually be rather fluid in comparison." She craned a brow when her discerning eye came across Henry. "And you too, Henry? I didn't take you for a gambling sort."
"Not usually, but I wanted to make a change. Besides, it's more entertaining when you have more people to add to your list of curses." His tongue hissed dramatically on the 's' in the last word he spoke, which involuntarily sent shivers up the others' spines. Gaius seemed unaffected, but coughed awkwardly into his elbow, at last.
"Seriously, we'll be done as soon as we can. Why don't you watch? It's no fun being sidelined," Gaius offered her, but she quickly declined him with a careful hand.
'That's considerate of you, but the sooner you can finish up your games, the quicker the cleaning duty can come and fix things. Just hurry it up, alright?" She walked away from them, knowing that her wise words would be enough to inspire them to be hasty. And it did, in some manner, as Gaius gave eye signals to some of the other soldiers to quicken the pace. More rounds finished in a shorter amount of time, and Henry monotonously played his part in all of them.
It was not that he lost interest in the game (rather, he was quite literally invested in the outcome), but he realized that despite Lissa's earlier evaluation of him, he still felt rather sluggish and off-kilter. The energy which he brought the princess to the mess hall with had long since disappeared, and a languid feeling settled itself in his stomach and mind.
He almost lost focus entirely when he realized the game was on him, now. They all looked to him with bated breaths, and he would have lost track of the rounds completely if Gaius didn't so gratuitously state that they left off on number seven.
Henry swiftly glanced at his own hand. He had two sixes, an ace, and a king left. No true sevens were to be seen, and this was the first situation in which something like this has happened. Up to this point he had somehow been playing truthfully, and he relished in the defeated looks of those that called him out on his bullshit, only to find that he spoke the truth and caused those poor souls to lose their money.
Now he was in the opposite situation, and he knew he had to be clever about it all in order to get away. Without further hesitation, he took a six from his hand and gently placed it on the pile. He smiled softly and glanced around at his competitors. He allowed the smallest slivers of his blue-obsidian eyes to be seen, with a dark gleam inside that denoted the mischief his mind was currently thinking of. He practically sung in delight.
"One seven, just as I said." A cool edge in his tone convinced everyone that he was telling the truth. The only person that had to work hard to believe him was Gaius, who just needed to take his own turn so as to speed the process along. But rather than speed things up, Gaius decided to take a risk and slow things down, as he stared Henry right in the eye as he called out "Bullshit!"
It was silent once more. No one expected Sticky-Fingers Gaius to be so straightforward suddenly, especially since he was on the verge of winning and shouldn't be trying his luck at this late in the game. But that was exactly what did just now, and his voice remained steady and clear. In the time it took for everyone to realize what happened, Henry had a moment to himself where he pondered his options.
He could always cheat. He knew how to cast a simple hex that allowed him to change the appearance of an object to make it different than its original form. No one would have been able to keep perfect track of the numbers thus far, so they wouldn't suspect that it was out of place. If Henry wanted to, he could silently will the card to be a seven, rather than the six it actually was.
The only way he would win was through cheating. But at the same time, he could lose graciously and fairly, and everyone would only think better of him. Gaius might go easier on him, or be lost in the ecstasy of his wins that would surely ensue once Henry was out of the picture. Past him, the rest of the players were small fries that would sooner give up than have to face Gaius on his own. So really, there was nothing to lose by admitting defeat, except for a half-baked sense of pride that stirred dully throughout his being.
Henry only had seconds left to decide what to do. Would he cheat with a seven, or proceed with a six? Win by means unearthly, or lose as the natural order would have it? He was a youth, after all, one that really shouldn't partake in these risky games to begin with. But so was Gaius and he never thought less or more of Henry for playing thus far. So in Henry's mind, it was only fair to acknowledge such impartiality.
He flipped the card over, and nearly dropped it among the ear-splitting din that erupted instantly afterwards.
It was a six.
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"Have you ever gambled before, Ricken?" Henry suddenly asked him. The two of them were enjoying each other's company in their precious free time. They chose to spend it idling about, strolling through the campgrounds that they've grown so accustomed to.
They watched with ease and wonder as several tents packed up, and new units moved in and out to gather resources, go on missions, and other things that they knew not the full extent of. He vaguely thought that Ricken's sense of awareness had fled with the outgoing convoys, and was lucky to see the boy bring himself back to reality in time to answer the question he posed for him.
"Gambled? O-Of course I have," he lied, the ends of his ears turning scarlet. "Oh, who am I kidding?"
"That's what I'd like to know."
He gave a friendly shove before laughing it off. "Yeah, yeah. So there's your answer, Henry. I've never gambled before. All the money I get, I usually send to my parents back at home. So I've never even thought about playing poker or other stuff like that."
"What a good kid you are," he commented, as if Ricken was decades his junior and not a simple three or four years behind him. They both laughed.
"Still, why do you ask? Does this have to do with the huge beating you got from Gaius?" Ricken perked up, the sound of gossip playing itself fluidly on his lips. There was an ardent look of curiosity in his eyes, one that Henry couldn't deny.
So he didn't.
"How'd you know? Did Cordelia tell you?"
"No, I heard it from Vaike. He heard it from some other guy that was sitting at the table you guys were sitting at. I heard you lost all your earnings to Gaius in the final rounds." The brunet looked around, and then whispered quietly as if to be indiscriminate. "I know a spell that will cast simple illusions. I know that you know it, too. So why didn't you cheat, Henry? You could have made a fortune off of those guys!"
Coincidentally, the two of them passed by the merchants' tents as they spoke. They were like exotic markets hidden in the folds of beige and white tents. Some were financiers of the Shepherds cause, while others were Shepherds themselves trying to make a living. A loud, discordant harmony of sales pitches and singing erupted into the air, and through it all Henry found himself focusing on one thing.
He focused on Anna's tent. The trickster was as her name suggested, and even trickier than that when it came to marketing. Her tent looked far more lavish than the ones before it, and while she usually had a large crowd of financially dull saps around, only one person was present at her counter right now.
It was Gaius, of course. He seemed extremely happy—exuberant, almost—as he chatted away to his fellow comrade and thief about his haul. He mentioned what a pain it was to lose his belongings in the first place, but it couldn't be avoided since he had to save Henry at the time, and that because of the winnings from a recent gamble, he was able to pay most of it back. There was genuine happiness plastered on his face, an expression that Henry seldomly saw of Gaius. The spattering of his freckles seemed lighter in the sun, and Gauis' dark and stormy eyes were at a blissful calm as he stared ahead of him.
He was really, truly, actually happy. And it was all because of a simple game that Henry decided the outcome of. He chose something that worked in someone else's favor, an action he hardly took nowadays. But he would take it again, and again, and again if it meant seeing Gaius react like that. He distantly thought that this was much better than the face Gaius made when angry, which was the expression that Henry was more used to seeing nowadays.
While he was still annoyed by Gaius' general existence, the feelings were subsiding every second he thought about it. He didn't know why, and didn't even have the slightest idea what this new emotion could be called. But all he knew was that things were changing, and soon enough he would be viewing Gaius in a different light. Either that, or Gaius would start viewing him in a different light. Reconciliation wasn't impossible between them, if their little game was proof of it. Maybe—and just maybe—things were looking up for the both of them.
"I could have made a fortune," he finally answered Ricken. "But I decided not to."
"Why?"
"Because I made a promise, silly."
"And you actually kept it?" Ricken was in disbelief.
Henry laughed pleasantly, not at all offended by the sheer truth in Ricken's words.
"I know what you mean," he said. "It's all new to me, too."