Demesne 80 - Competitions (Patreon)

Rian left after finishing his food. He was followed, of course, but they'd finished their food as well, so that was fine.

Lori ate her fill, then stopped so she wouldn't get a headache from all the fat. After washing her plate, ignoring people looking at her strangely as she did so, she decided to go up to her room for something sweet to chase all the meat with.

She came back down with the bag she usually used to carry lengths of firewood tied over her shoulder instead of at her hip, filled with some of her loot fruit. She'd found it sort of pushed around the edge of the stone she used to obstruct the way to her rooms. Rian's work, probably, or something he'd had done. Her hat had been there too, as well as the map. She was relieved she hadn't lost anything in that debacle. Lori had been afraid her things had just been left there where they had fallen.

A rather cold pink lady in hand, she came down to the dungeon's main level to find the game competitions had been whittled down to the last matches. She'd honestly expected the ones playing pincer to finish first, but apparently the players were taking as much time as the others in considering their moves.

Pincer was a simple game, in essence. A board divided into a hundred square spaces, enough flat pieces to occupy every space on the board with each piece painted or decorated an opposing mark or color on either side—in this case, each piece had a line carved on one side and a circle on the other, since they were made of wood chips cut from a branch—and two players. The goal was to have as many pieces on the board in your colors—or in this case, mark—by the end of the game. Players moved by putting down their pieces on unoccupied spaces on the board and bracketing or pincering your opponents pieces between your own, either horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Any number of opposing pieces caught in that was flipped over and considered yours, and every move must flip over at least one opposing piece to be considered a legal move. The game continued until there were no more legal moves for either player, at which point the winner was the one who had claimed the most pieces on the board.

It was a stupid game, and Lori didn't think that because she had too many memories of staring at boards with maybe five or six pieces in her colors by midgame.

Two children were the finalists. She did not know if they had managed to defeat every adult they had encountered—which seemed highly unlikely, as adults who played pincer were cheating cheaters who cheated, in Lori's opinion, and the years since she had formed that opinion had given her no cause to change it—or, more likely, only children had been part of the pincer contest. Certainly it was mainly children who surrounded the two, giving unsolicited advice or playing their own games. Most of the adult spectators were gathered around those playing chatrang and lima, of which two games each were still being played. Likely the winner of their respective game would challenge each other.

Whichever was the case, the children looked much closer to finishing their game than the ones playing chatrang and lima. All the corners had been occupied, as had the edges. They were now working on taking over the few remaining empty spots in the centers of the four quadrants. At a casual glance, circle had a clear majority, though it seemed line did not wish to concede and was fighting to absolute occupation, a stance Lori was very familiar with. Some of her most memorable—only—victories in pincer had been finding that last space that allowed her to pincer large numbers of her opponents pieces at the last moment.

Three of the bowls Lori had given Rian had been placed on a table that faced where the games were being played, each rotated so that the inlaid 'Winner' was pointed at the ongoing games. While the chatrang and lima players—Lori was surprised to recognize one of the lima players as medic Daising—kept their concentration on their game, the two playing pincer occasionally glanced at the bowl oriented towards them, their desire clear.

Lori approached the bowls, looked inside and nodded. Each bowl contained exactly three fruits. Rian had clearly placed one of his fruits in each bowl, and Umu and Mikon had followed in his example. It was ungrateful of them, to not appreciate the gift they had been given, but it WAS their property, and they could do with it as they wished. Though at this rate, they wouldn't have anything left for to enjoy for themselves.

Shaking her head, Lori took a bite from the pink lady in her hand, which was still pleasantly cool. The insides were a far more vivid pink compared to the outside, almost fleshy in appearance. Its texture had changed slightly due to cold storage, but it was sweet and fibrous and wonderfully chewy. While not quite as sweet or soft as she was used to eating, since it hadn’t been preserved in syrup, it was still delicious. A worthy prize to have negotiated in reparations, indeed.

A pity about the lack of syrup. If she had syrup, it would have tasted better. Also, she'd have been able to store her fruits for a much longer period of time.

Realistically, even she wouldn't be able to consume that many fruits in the time frame that they would last even with cold storage.

Not that she'd admit that to Rian. Or anyone else for that matter. That would be showing weakness and complying with the expectations, setting future precedent.

Case in point, it was entirely for her own reasons, in this case to prevent waste by spoilage, that she placed a pink lady, a golden bud and a mican into each bowl from the bag over her shoulder. Not for any other reason. Certainly not because Rian had been asking her earlier. Quite the opposite.

It was still not enough to fill the bowl. She had made the bowl large, the way she had seen certain kinds of trophies be large. She hadn't had time to put in a base or handles, since she was mass producing, so it was just a large, wide bowl. Always useful, containers. Whoever won this would probably find a use for it.

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Not that long afterwards, the pincer game ended, to various cheers from the children spectating.

To her amusement, various small fruits, coils of crudely made line, and what looked like rocks were exchanged among the spectators. Apparently the children had bet on who would win. Predictably, a few tried to run off rather than pay their debt, which led to very loud running around as the winning party gave chase.

The players, for their part, seemed to have ended their game amicably. One, a boy she vaguely recognized, was cheering at having won, while his opponent had wilted almost dramatically once the final tally of the game had become clear.

Rian seemed to just suddenly appear as he loudly declared the boy the winner of the last match and officially the demesne's Pincer Champion, raising up the boy's for some strange reason. Riz and Umu came up, carrying one of the bowls between them, which was presented to the boy. He was unable to lift it and had to place it on the table next to the pincer board as Rian loudly congratulated him.

This was because the bowl was full, and nearing overflowing. Just on the side Lori could see, in addition to being piled high with happyfruit and hairy blueballs, there was a fist-sized candle, a dark ceramic cup that shone with glaze, a wooden plate, and various other things. Rian was surprised when he saw the bowl, and stepped aside for Mikon, who was carrying an armful of things that had apparently fallen off when the two had been carrying it to where the newly dubbed Pincer Champion was. More fruit, a hat woven from reeds, what looked like carved pieces of wood…

Even as Lori watched, one of the nearby children put a coil of crudely made line in the bowl, then patted the winner on the shoulder.

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"Huh," Rian said as the two of them stared down at the two remaining bowls for the winners of the chatrang and lima competitions. The last pair of players from each were facing off against one another now, surrounded by a rotating crowd who kept going from one game to the other to watch the progress. "I'll admit, this is unexpected. Very welcome and affirms my belief in the basic good to be found in people, but unexpected."

The bowls contained several of the things Lori had seen in the bowl for the winner of the pincer competition—a candle each, a wooden plate, a glazed cup, a folded sheet of plain undyed cloth, what looked like a whetstone. The fruit had been pushed to the side so they wouldn't be bruised by the heavier things. Left to stand, the contents just barely managed to not fall off. She fingered the undyed cloth. Was this what the weavers had managed to make using the ropeweed fibers?

"This wasn't your doing?" Lori said mildly. "You didn't pester everyone else in the demesne to contribute?"

"No! What do you take me for?" Rian said.

"You pestered me," she pointed out.

"Er… that doesn't count?"

She gave him a flat look.

"Sorry…" Rian said weakly. "I guess people found it in themselves to be generous."

"Yes," a voice behind them said brightly. "Especially after I asked them to, Lord Rian."

Both Lori and Rian turned around to find Riz looking very self-satisfied.

"Riz?" Rian said.

"I talked to my friends about how you needed help finding prizes for the winners of today's competitions," the woman said proudly. "Asked them to spread the word and maybe find something small that would be worth winning for someone. And it looks like they did!"

She looked triumphantly at the bowls like she had personally provided each and every thing there.

Behind her, Umu and Mikon glared at her murderously. Umu was making thrusting motions, as if fantasizing about stabbing her in the back with a knife.

"This is probably a good time for you to check the bowls for the winners of the other competitions," Lori told her lord.

"Yeah, the fruits might be getting bruised," Rian agreed.

"Also, the longer you leave them unwatched, the more likely some idiot decides to add shit to it," Lori said.

Rian, Umu, Mikon and Riz stared at her, Umu still making thrusting movements.

"We had people putting shit on the latrine seats, clearly there are people who think it's amusing," Lori reminded her lord.

"I want to say you're wrong, but I've seen proof you're not," Rian sighed.

"What happened to your belief in the basic good to be found in people?" Lori said.

"As is depressingly common, it was overridden in my belief that people will do stupid things, like ride on moving rocks."

"Or try to go hunting while sleep deprived?"

"Have to go check the prizes, excuse me!"

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Fortunately, no one had put shit in the prize bowls. Given they were standing out in the open on a table next to the square that had been marked off earlier, this was perhaps reasonable, since any twisted person trying to add it would be in full view of many people, including some who would probably be competing and would not want their prize befouled in such a way.

Outside, the air was still full of cooking smells, but not a lot of cooking was going on. It seemed everyone was still satisfied by breakfast, and Lori really couldn't blame them. She might have to put off catching more seels for later.

For some reason, Rian looked around and sighed. "I have to go check that someone is cleaning the latrines," he said. "All this eating, they're probably filled up, and people who usually clean them are probably taking their holiday too." He turned to Lori, wringing his hands. "Can I beg for help? We need those things functional, or else we might have a small epidemic from the unsanitary latrines, and that's NOT how I want to start using the promise of healing you managed to negotiate."

Lori frowned, but supposed her lord was right. At the least, she could desiccate the contents of the latrines, compacting them so the latrines could last longer. She had nothing better to do anyway, and with her full of food, she couldn't even eat to occupy her time. She might as well do something productive for her demesne's infrastructure. "I'm not doing all of it," she told him flatly.

"We could wait until after the chatrang and lima competitions are over so I can help you," Rian said. "I'd help you right now, but it seems wrong to award their prizes while smelling like cleaning latrines. Might turn them off the fruits in it."

"We can help her, Lord Rian!" Umu said.

Mikon nodded, patting the blonde woman on the shoulder. "That's right, I'm sure Umu will be glad to help her Bindership with this, Lord Rian. Unfortunately, I, uh, have something to do, or else I'd be there myself. I'm so sorry."

"Huh?" Umu said, blinking in surprise.

"It's a shit job, but good on you for volunteering," Riz said, nodding.

"W-wait…" Umu said as she began to realize what she'd done.

Lori gave Umu a flat look. "Rian, where are the equipment for cleaning the latrines kept?"