Chapter 10: Chapter 8 – Tic tac toe

After telling the cute lupo to wait there, Anortha ran back home. She was relieved that the lupo was fine, since she saw it pick a particularly poisonous mushroom and put it in the basket of edible food. Anortha assumed that its parents removed the offending mushroom, which is why it is still alive.

She threw the dirty bag that she honestly forgot the existence of into the laundry. The bag was an insignificant, generic bag that she obtained from the storehouse, so the reason she forgot was definitely not because she is scatterbrained, like her parents accuse of her often. Anyways, she grabbed a small ball and ran back out.

However, by the time she got back to where she left the lupo, it wasn’t there. She sighed and thought that they really need a communication method. Anortha did recall her parents telling her that lupoy are really smart for animals, so she was hoping that maybe she could teach it how to speak. And even if she couldn’t, at least she would be able to play simple games with it.

The next day, she brought a small ball with her and deliberately went and looked for the lupo, occasionally calling out for it. However, much she looked around during the morning though, there was no lupo to be found.

She tried again as the sun was setting.

“Come out lupo, I know you want to pl – eeeek!” Anortha ended up screaming in fright as something tapped her left shoulder. However, when she turned to her left, she didn’t see anything at all. A bit scared now, she turned to her right and still didn’t see anything, but then felt a tap on her left shoulder again. She quickly spun to her left again, lost balance, and fell on her rear, only to see the lupo laughing at her.

She felt her cheeks flush, and pouted, “Hmph! I was going to give you food today, but looks like I won’t!”

The lupo tilted its head and continued to look at her. With a sigh, Anortha decided to shelve the matter and brought out the ball.

“Now go fetch!” she yelled as she threw the ball.

However, the lupo looked at her, then at the ball on the floor, and then back at her. A bit frustrated, Anortha pointed at the ball, then to herself. The lupo rolled its eyes and walked over to fetch the ball. However, instead of returning it back to her, the lupo pointed at the ball then at her, and threw the ball.

“No, no, no. YOU are supposed to be fetching the ball. Not me!”

They had a brief staring contest, before Anortha gave in and went to pick it up.

“At least play catch with me!” Anortha yelled as she threw the ball at the lupo.

It simply dodged the ball, looked at her, and went off somewhere. Sighing yet again, Anortha walked over to pick up the ball. After stowing the ball in her bag, she noticed that the lupo was drawing something on the ground with a stick. Intrigued, she went over and saw a large “#” on the floor, with a “x” in the middle of the “#.” The lupo looked up at her and then handed over a stick.

Confused, Anortha accepted the stick and watched it draw three X’s in a row, and three O’s in a row.

“Ah, is this tic-tac-toe? Bring it on, I won’t lose!”

Anortha already learned the strategy of always putting it in the corner, so as expected, the game ended in a draw. However, it seemed that the lupo also knew about it, causing all of their games to be a draw. Anortha was about to call it quits when the lupo started off by putting it in the corner, rather than the center. She drew an “O” in the center. It drew an X on the opposite corner, and she decided to put her next move in a corner.

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When the lupo drew the “X” in the last corner, Anortha realized she made a mistake.

“No! Let me undo!”

She was flat out ignored and the lupo drew a final “X” and a line through the three “X”’s.

Anortha felt ashamed for losing, and vowed to defeat the cocky animal taking advantage of her blunder.

“Okay, I admit defeat,” Anortha cried after the fiftieth draw in a row. The lupo was clearly bored in the middle and tried to leave, but Anortha kept begging for a rematch. She stood up to leave while the lupo began to erase their games from the dirt. Before she got far away, the lupo emitted a few strange sounds while beckoning her over.

On the dirt was a fifteen by fifteen grid, and on the side, there was five O’s in a row and five X’s in a row. The lupo drew an X in the middle of the grid, and then handed over a stick to her.

“Is this another game, like tic-tac-toe, but five in a row?” Anortha asked.

All she got instead was a blank stare in return. Anortha sighed, and assumed that she was right. The game didn’t sound much more difficult, but quickly, Anortha realized it was much more challenging as she kept losing. By noticing the lupo’s strategy though, she found a few simple patterns that caused her to lose less quickly, such as blocking any three in a rows quickly, or else it becomes four in a row, which is a guaranteed win.

The sun had long set, but rather than give up and go home, Anortha casted a small light spell, illuminating the ground with a soft green light. The lupo gingerly patted the floating green orb, but after passing its hands through it a few times, the lupo resumed the game.

After who knows how long, Anortha finally managed to get five in a row, and rejoiced. Actually, she pulled off a six in a row, which even her opponent never did. However, the lupo shook its head and continued to play. When it looked at her face of confusion, it began to draw one circle, erased it, two circles, then erased it, all the way to four. For five circles, it was left alone. Then it drew six circles, started at Anortha, and then erased it, and continued on with seven circles.

“No one told me it had to be exactly five!” Anortha cried.

She lost the match and was on the brink of tears. The next game, however, the lupo made a blunder and she finally won.

Any trace of sadness vanished from her face as Anortha smiled at her first victory.

Moments later however, she looked around the pitch-dark forest, and then yelped, “Ah sorry, it’s late. Got to go!” and then sprinted back home.

Luckily, it wasn’t that late and she got back home in time for dinner. She spent the rest of time thinking about the various strategies and what other game she could play with the lupo.

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