Chance Of A Lifetime

Wait, What!?

May, 2022:

      "Damn, that was hilarious!" Kyra giggled. "I don't think anybody saw that coming, I know I didn't. I'm pretty sure Gus just about pissed himself, as hard as he was laughing."

      "Yeah, I almost had to excuse myself there for a minute," Danny added. "I mean, seriously! Who woulda thought that anyone would seriously consider turning a fucking faerie dragon into a dracolich!? But I guess we should've known to expect things to be a bit left of center when Doug told us that he didn't feel like DM-ing tonight, and that he'd asked you to take a turn."

      "Because y'all didn't take into account that the dragon cultists were actually too stupid to realize that the faerie dragon was playing them like violins," Aidan replied, as she dropped her dice back into the old silver-plated censer that she used in place of a dice bag. "He was pissed off because they killed his ranger friend, and decided that was his best chance to get revenge."

      As she dropped the censer into the Aerosmith tote bag that already contained her gaming books, Aidan glanced around the game shop, which had quieted considerably since everyone had wound up their games so the shop's owner, Paul, could prepare for closing. Both groups of Magic players had wrapped up nearly an hour earlier, and of the eleven members of their Forgotten Realms group, only four still remained; Aidan, Kyra, Danny, and Aidan's ex-boyfriend, Travis, who she had remained friends with after the split. She had even developed a cordial relationship with his subsequent girlfriend, Michelle; readily agreeing when he had asked that she be allowed to join the group, and even attending their recent wedding. Travis, in turn, had gone out of his way to be pleasant to Ashley on the occasions that Aidan had brought him to the shop during one of his visits, and had even told her that he thought that she and Ash were much better suited to each other than the two of them had been.

      "Kinda makes you wonder what sort of 'revenge' a two-foot intelligent lizard with butterfly wings thinks it might be able to accomplish," Travis chuckled, as he fastened the straps of his battered leather bookbag. "I mean, its breath weapon is basically just jumped-up laughing gas, not fire or poison, or anything else lethal."

      "True, but if the target actually fails their save against the breath, they're pretty much useless for awhile," Danny pointed out. "So while the cultists are stoned out of their faces, he could always do something like lock them in and set the place on fire, or bite chunks out of them and let them bleed out. He might not be that big, but he is a dragon, and they have some wicked teeth and claws, y'know."

      Travis nodded in acknowledgement of Danny's argument, then turned his attention to the next table, which was still loaded with the remnants of several varieties of carry-out food. "Does anybody care if I snag the rest of the curry?" he inquired. "I can take that to work for lunch tomorrow."

      "Knock yourself out, dude," Kyra responded. "You know that Aidan and I both hate the stuff, and I'm pretty sure Danny has his eye on the leftover riblets, so I think you're..." Her face took on a startled expression as she allowed the sentence to trail off. Then she practically shrieked, "Criminy on a cupcake, woman! What in the name of Elminster are you doing!?"

      The three men turned to follow Kyra's gaze, and saw that Aidan had picked up a styrofoam bowl from a stack on the snack table, filled it with several breaded rings from one of the containers, and slathered them with a rather excessive amount of dip. She was in the process of dropping one into her mouth when Kyra spoke, and glanced around the room with a puzzled expression before chewing the drippy mess and then swallowing before responding.

      "Whaddya mean, what am I doing? I'm eating, which is about half of what we've been doing all evening. How is that suddenly weird?"

      "Hon, it's not the fact that you're eating that's just a tad bit freaky," Travis stated. "It's what you're eating."