Footprints

xix. la letizia

"Hey," said Chloe, "let's play a game."

It was dark and cold. A fire flickered submissively in the gloom. Where its glow was greatest, Chloe placed a piece of parchment and tore it into three long strips. She gave one to Ichimi, one to Home and kept the last one for herself.

"Ichi, scribbler." Ichimi dug around in her bag and handed her the scribbler. "Okay. So this is how it works. We're going to draw two lines going down and two lines going across. Like this."

 The scribbler made its way around the three, all sketching grids onto their parchment.   

"We're going to play three games: Ichi against Home, me against Home, and me against Ichi. Whoever wins the most wins... an extra berry. Ichi and Home, you go first. Ichi, you're a pink berry. Home, you're a purple. You're going to scribble your berry in a square, turn by turn. When you have a line of three berries, you win. This means—

"But Chloe," said Ichimi, "how do we tell if the berry is pink or purple?"

"Hm. That's a good point. Pick a shape, then."

Ichimi drew a fox. Home drew some strange, blocky structure with a triangular top.

"Alright, ready? Home, you understand how to play, right?"

"Home!" This was confirmation.

"Alright, alright. Begin!"

Home went first, drawing his blocky thing in the middle square.

Ichimi drew in the top-right corner.

Home drew in the bottom-left.

Ichimi in the top-centre.

Home in the top-right, blocking her advance.

Ichimi in the left-centre.

And Home struck in the bottom-left, thwarting her attack and winning the game for himself!

Ichimi was awestruck. Home smiled widely, possibly wider than he had ever smiled before.

"Home wins!" cried Chloe. "Good job, Home! You're up against me next. And I won't go easy, yeah?"

They played the night away, concluding with the bonus berry in the gloved hands of Home, and smiles on all three of their faces. The night was dark, cold, but remarkably warm.