Gambling to Leave

“Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to be able to grant your players cards.” Andy-Ka-Dabra spoke, as we all stood on the rubble of the card coliseum.

“What do you mean you can’t!? I thought you have to grant my demands if I win a Gamble Showdown.” I snapped at him, confused.

“I can't grant them to you because…” He reached his hand over to the side of my face. “... they're already behind your ear.” In his hand he held out two red plastic cards.

I didn't so much as smirk at his bad joke. “Great, but there were other terms.”

“Of course I didn't forget. All your crimes have been pardoned and all the dice's belongings will be returned to him, but about the pants…” He reached up toward the side of my face again. “...They're also behind your ear.” In his hand was a folded up pair of brown denim pants.

I took them and immediately put them on. Unlike the lime green floods from earlier, these actually fit me. Now that I was safe from public indecency, the next thing I needed to focus on next was getting a pair of shoes… and some kind of under shirt since my hoodie was starting to chafe my nipples.

“Well, I believe that's everything I owe you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a castle to rebuild…oh and if you're ever looking for a magic show, you know where to find me.” With that, Andy-Ka-Dabra marched off with his card guards to begin their construction preparations.

Now that he was gone, there was one final matter Rollnaldo and I had to attend to…

I turned toward our wannabe domestic terrorist. “Well, since we beat you as well, it looks like this is where we part-.”

Eight immediately began laughing over me as I spoke. “That's a good one, Recruit Number Four, but that's not happening.”

“What do you mean!? According to the law, if I challenge you to a Gamble Showdown, you have to agree to my demands.”

She smirked at me as she dug around in her pockets, until she pulled out a small black handbook “Yes that is true, but according to subsection 4 of the Kasino King's decree, there is a twenty-four hour rematch cooldown. Meaning the terms of that last match are null and void.”

“Let me see that. There's no way that can be true.” Rollnaldo snatched the black book from her hands and paged through. After a few moments he paused and let out a sigh. “Ah pip, she's right.”

“And I believe one of those belongs to me.” she snatched one of the player cards out of my hands. “Unfortunately I have some business I need to attend to, since I couldn't win my bombs back. You two are going to have to go on without me for a bit.”

Rollnaldo snapped his fingers and began to speak in a sarcastic tone. “Darn that's such a shame. I guess it can't be helped though.” It was obvious that he was happy to be rid of her.

“Don't be upset, Recruit Number One/future husband. I'll eventually catch back up with you.” She was completely oblivious to Rollnaldo's fake disappointment.

“Well, we better not hold you up any longer, oh great leader.” I attempted to get her out of our hair sooner.

“Oh and one more thing, Recruit Number Four...” Out of nowhere, she proceeded to knee me in the crotch.

I grabbed my man parts and fell forward onto my knees, gasping for air. “What the heck was that for, you psycho!?” My voice was slightly higher pitched.

“That’s for betraying me!” Turning away from us and beginning to walk away, she continued on. “Just so both of you know, I have big plans for my super secret domestic terrorist organization. I'll be needing your help again very soon.”

As she departed from us, Rollnaldo turned to me and muttered, “Pip, that chick really us just like my ex-wife. Let's make sure we cover our tracks after we cross the bridge, so she doesn't manage to track us down.”

I nodded my head. “I couldn't agree more.”

♦️♦️♦️

Finally, now able to continue our journey, Rollnaldo and I approached the bridge leading out of Blackjack Crossing. The entire thing was made from giant playing cards and spanned over a vast deep canyon that stretched across the Dicey Desert for miles.

Immediately, before we could step foot onto it, we were halted by a slotomaton. It let out some clicks, as it stared at us.

“It wants you to present your player's card.” Rollnaldo nudged me with his elbow.

I walked over to the robot and handed it my card. Taking it from my hand, it held it in front of its face with its clawed hand. Unexpectedly, a holographic image was suddenly projected from the card.

“What the heck is that?” I wondered.

“A player’s card is sort of like a gamblord ID. It tracks your Gamble Showdown stats.”

The seemingly magical hologram that manifest in front of us, displayed an image of my face, along with the following info:

Name: Lucky Diamond

Gamble Rank: Rookie

Record: Wins - 2 Losses - 2 Draws - 0

Reward Points: 100

The hologram turned off and the slotomaton began to spin its reels. One by one, they stopped on 7, 7, 7. The robot handed my card back with a nod and ushered us onward.

“That was easier than I thought it was going to be.” Part of me still had my guard up. With my bad luck, there was no telling when something crazy would happen.

“As a player card holding gamblord, you're granted much more freedom of movement around the kingdom.” Rollnaldo took an eager step forward onto the bridge, dragging his bootleg merch cart behind him. “Thanks to you, I can finally leave this piphole.”

After being imprisoned twice and having to gamble against a bunch of weirdos, I was finally making some progress in my quest to find the Kasino King. Now that the Dicey Desert was behind us, the Wager Woods province laid ahead…