Garret the Lucky

You can feel yourself waking up from a deep, powerful dream. One of those dreams that feels so real, you can’t remember if it was a dream or if this is. You close your eyes for a moment, gathering your thoughts, and walking yourself through a mental exercise. You feel your thoughts clearing as you take a few deep breaths. With each one you let out your mind clears a little more. You are letting go of everything from before now, dream or not it’s unimportant right now.

What is important is who you are right now. You know you are Garret Tarth. You are a professional gambler at your local tavern. You can feel a smile growing on your face at that; paid to play games is what that is. Your luck is something of a wonder around the town, and while one would think that would keep people from playing, but you knew it kept people trying to beat you.

Lady luck can be a fickle mistress, needlessly cruel to a man mere moments after seeming to bless him. Some people have gone so far as to theorize that you had somehow seduced her. You are smarter than that though, you know the real secret to success. It’s a trick you had picked up long ago. You know that as long as you expect good things, good things come to you; and when you expect bad, when you fear, or when you are nervous you leave yourself vulnerable to misfortune.

You smiled a bit again, you were rambling to yourself at this point. You slide out of your bed to get ready to go. It was probably nearly noon by now; but nothing interesting ever happened in the morning anyway. Your room was fairly simple, a bed, an old wardrobe on one wall and simple wooden floors. You walk over to the wardrobe, opening the doors you can see your clothes hanging, you had several pairs of nearly the same outfit. A pair of brown leather trousers, a white linen shirt and brown leather vest. In a small box in the corner is where you stash your winnings,

You grab a pair of trousers and step into them one leg at a time. Pulling them up you buckle them then grab your shirt, tossing it over your head before you grab the vest and slide it on. Finally you grab your boots from the bottom and begin pulling the first one on, then the next. While you are leaning over you open the box and pull a small bag of coins from it, then close the box again, close the doors, and tie the bag to your side.

Turning away from the wardrobe you take a few steps towards the door, take hold of the handle and pull it open. Ahead of you is the hallway, and three doors. To the left is the kitchen, and the right is the den. At the end of the hall is the front door. You pull the door closed behind you as you walk down the hall to push open the front door.

Taking a couple steps out into the street you can tell by the softness of the dirt that it must have rained lightly last night. You were so deep in your dream you didn’t even notice. People were walking along the road in both directions, but you didn’t pay them any mind, nor did they pay you any. You began down the street to the left of your house, towards the Lucky Cup inn.

As you walk down the road you can feel your mind wander a little to pass the time while you walked. Today was a Saturday, so the tavern would probably be a little more crowded than normal. That usually gave you a better chance at finding someone to play with. It also meant Suzy would be working. She was a smart woman, very enjoyable to talk to between your games. Looks hadn’t passed her by either, her long slightly curly hair was an almost shining black. Her eyes were easy to get lost in as well, if you let yourself, they were a shade of green that was very unusual, but very alluring. She had fairly large breasts as well, not that you’d let her notice your looking.

You shake yourself from your daydream as you reach the door of the inn. It swings freely during it’s open hours so you only have to push lightly on it to enter. What you see though, is not what you were expecting. There were few patrons in the tavern right now, likely because of the brute making a scene.

“-when I say bring me my drink” he finished yelling at Suzy, she looked upset and stood firmly in front of him

“You haven’t paid for any of your drinks, we only serve up to five drinks before we need you to pay” she said to him, it looked like this argument may have been going on for a while by the strain in her voice. The man looked like he was about ready to get violent, and you knew you had to stop him since none of the other patrons seemed keen on the idea.

“You know I don’t like to waste time” you say as you walk up to the man. He turns sharply on you, his eyes narrow and every part of his face trying to tell you that he wasn’t someone to mess with. You pressed on “Now, I’m going to challenge you to a game, and like a fool you will accept, lose, and have to leave the bar. Why don’t we skip all that and you pay your tab and leave”

If anything could have gotten him angrier that would be it. You judged right that he would not take a swing yet, his own pride prevented him from being able to “And what makes you think I’d lose to you?” he said as boldly as he could. He cleared your height by a head and was more muscular to boot. You knew you had to play your cards right to keep him from deciding it would be easier to simply attack you than play along. Luckily, you always play your cards right.

“Well if you don’t think I can beat you in a drinking game you are welcome to try it.” You reply to him, keeping your cool. The way you worded the challenge you knew he would have no way to back down without admitting that you would beat him, and in his state he was not likely to admit something like that easily.

The man continued to glare at you, but after a few tense moments he spoke “There ain’t no way you can out-drink me. Why don’t you go sit in a corner somewhere boy.” he said in return.

You only really had one option left to convince him to play your game. Unfastening the bag of coins on your hip you hold it up to him “This bag of copper says I can. You beat me, I pay your drinks and you can keep what’s left. If not you pay, and get out of here”

That managed to get his interest. He grinned, obviously thinking that he was about to make some really easy money and some free drinks. He nodded towards a small table and sat in one of the chairs. You follow him to the table and pull the chair across from him back and sit on it. Then you produce a set of dice from your vest pocket.

“What’re those for, boy.” the man asked sternly.

“I said this was a drinking Game, Sir.” you reply “We each roll, whoever rolls less takes a drink, and we continue until one of us passes out.”

He grumbled a bit at the new development but seeing Suzy now approaching with a tray of drinks kept him from leaving. As she got closer she bent over to place the tray on the table, revealing a good bit of cleavage as she did. You take a brief glance as your eyes move up to her face, just as your eyes meet hers she winks. Unbeknownst to most patrons, a drinking game of any sort in this bar uses a special blend that Suzy mixed herself one time with your help.

Hangovers were no problem with this drink, but the down side is that it is much more potent than most drinks as well. She decided to call it Suzy’s knockout, because just a few of them would really knock you out. Taking your die, you wait for your opponent to do the same.

At the same time, the two of you roll your dice, yours landing on a 6 and his a 5. He didn’t seem to mind at all as he took his first drink. It was a free drink after all. You pick up your die, and roll again, you got a two.. But he got a one. Again the tossed the drink down. You tried your best not to grin as he began to sway, drinking so quickly only made it hit him harder. You two roll a third time, and you got a 4, and he got a one.

This time he seemed to be getting irritated. “Yer usin cheated dice” he declared in a half slur.

“I assure you, sir, that I do not play with loaded dice” you say calmly then quickly follow “If you don’t believe me, we can trade dice.”

The man narrowed his eyes and picked up your die. Had he any knowledge of dice he would have known that a loaded die tends towards a certain number, rather than simply winning each time. As the two of you rolled again, you smile as your new die lands on a 6 to his 3. The man takes a huff and downs his drink

“You didn’t take the drink from your last roll either” you remind him, he growled again but took another glass and practically shoved the liquid down his throat. By now he was swaying a bit more and his eyes were starting to glaze over. You could tell the drinks were having a powerful effect on him and briefly wondered how strong the drink was, as you hadn’t actually had one before.

The next roll answered your question, your dice fall on a 1 compared to his 4. Internally you scolded yourself for letting your focus slip. The man laughed out loud as though he hadn’t already lost several rolls in a row as you pick your glass up and slowly drink it down. As the cool liquid flows down your throat you could feel your thoughts growing slippery. The taste had a hint of raspberry mixed in to help soften the sharp taste of the alcohol. The drink overall was making you feel happy as it went down, but you were always a happy-drunk to begin with. As you finish your drink you pick up your die again, feeling so carefree and relaxed. When you let it go, it seemed like it was rolling in slow motion before coming to a stop on a 6, looking up you saw his die was also sitting at a 6.

Since it was a draw, you both picked up a glass and began to drink. The wonderful liquid flowed into your body so perfectly. Erasing all of your worries and cares. You made a mental note to remember to order this drink again sometime. Setting the glass down you smile, your opponent was laying on the table now sleeping. The bartender was already next to him, helping the man up to bring him to the back room until he sobers up. Once they were out of the way, Suzy snuck back over next to you. She looked so wonderful right now as you look up at her.

She smiled, giving you a soft kiss on the forehead for your help just before you drift off into a nice, relaxing sleep. Or maybe you are waking up. Sometimes when a dream is so deep, it’s hard to tell.