Gambling in the Sand

“Alright, Recruit Number Six, hold onto your undies because we got one hour til the drawing.” Eight felt the need to slap my shoulder as hard as she could as she spoke to me.

“Ow, stop that.” I leaned the upper half of my body away from her.

She turned her attention to a nearby red and white striped canvas tent that was staked into the sand. “That’s our next objective.”

“What’s in there?” I wondered.

“Do you not know how to read?” She retorted, as she pointed to the large and obvious banner that was strung across the top of the tent that read, LOTTERY DRAWING HERE’, in big bold letters.

“Oh…” I felt like a moron for even bothering to ask.

“Hmm…” She inspected the area for a moment then pointed to a tiki totem next to the tent. “Maybe you can hide inside the-... Nevermind I think he’s going to be a problem.”

I looked at her confused. “Who’s going to be a-...”

My question answered itself. Ducking out from inside the tent entrance, was a beefy eight foot tall figure covered in white hair. If I wasn’t mistaken, this was the cryptid known back in my world as the yeti. The ape-like creature had on a pair of blacked out shades and a ridiculously small black tie tied around its neck.

Eight clicked her tongue in disappointment. “Well that plan’s out the window.”

“What’s that thing even doing here?” I whispered to her since we were only about ten feet away from the yeti.

“He guards the lottery from cheaters trying to use gambling sorcery.” She explained.

The yeti began to aggressively sniff the air as it stood in place guarding the front of the tent.

I glanced nervously at it from the corner of my eye. “What happens if he catches me?”

“Best case he tears all your limbs off. The worst is he crushes you into a bloody pancake and eats you.” She did even try to sugar coat it.

My stomach suddenly developed a nauseous feeling. “M-maybe this isn’t a good idea.”

“Nonsense, we just need to take a different approach.” She waved me on to follow her. Making our way just out of the yeti’s sight, she turned back towards me. “Okay, this should be far enough. Now we just need the right tools for the job. Let’s see…” After scanning the area, she shuffled over to a couple of kids that were playing in the sand and inconspicuously snatched their plastic shovel and pail without them knowing. “Here, get digging.” She shoved them into my chest.

“Dig for what?” I stared at her blankly.

“A tunnel from here under to where the drawing is." She pulled a black permanent marker from her pocket and drew on my arm. “These are our winning numbers.”

On my arm was written, ‘95-19-46-09’.

“Yep. I’ll be above to claim the prize, while you’ll rig the drawing from under the ground. When I give you the signal, that's when you’ll hit ‘em with your ability.” She impatiently pointed back toward the ground. “Now quit yapping and start digging. We don’t have much time.”

“But what’s the signal?”

“I’ll shout something around the lines of needing to use the bathroom.” She pointed at back at

the ground even more aggressively now. “Now less talkie and more diggie!”

Still feeling anxious at the fact that if anything went wrong, I would get literally torn in half by a giant snow gorilla, I let out a reluctant sigh, as I began scooping sand into my pail.

If it wasn’t for the stupid Gamble Showdown rules in this world, I would have just ditched this chick there and then, but unfortunately I still had until tomorrow until I could rechallenge her to be free from her make believe terrorist group.

Let’s get this over with…

♦️♦️♦️

The obnoxious sound of an airhorn rang out. “Aloha, dudes and dudettes, the monthly drawing is about to start in fifteen minutes!” A voice, which most likely belonged to one of those snowmen, shouted through a megaphone.

Muffled chatter reverberated through the layer of sand above me, as a crowd gathered around for the lottery drawing. Currently, I was knee deep in about two feet of water in the narrow crevice that I had dug. To make things even more claustrophobic, I was completely sealed down here since Eight filled in the entrance of the tunnel to prevent anyone from accidentally discovering it.

I really hope this holds up.

I already didn’t take into consideration that sand gets wetter the deeper you dig and with the weight above me increasing by the second from more and more people gathering, I was getting nervous that things may go very wrong.

A loud sniffing noise suddenly cut through the air.

“What’s wrong, Yeti-dude?” The snowman asked.

“Monkey smell cheater.” A deep menacing voice spoke.

Suddenly I tensed up, not moving a muscle. Being underground, I could only rely on sound, since I couldn’t see what was happening on the surface. From what I hear though, it appeared like that yeti might me onto me.

There was a rumble above, while a set of heavy feet stomped forward. As they seemed to be getting closer to my hiding spot, I sank down lower, preparing to be ragdolled around by this giant ape.

After several moments of extreme tension had passed, the footsteps passed over me. There was a pause as the crowd of people above went silent followed by the sound of a wood board being smashed.

“Chill out, dude. There’s nobody in that tiki totem.” The snowman tried to calm the yeti.

The yeti took in a few more sniffs. “Monkey swear monkey smell cheater, but maybe monkey mistaken. Monkey still not let guard down though.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Eight made a good call earlier. If I had hidden in that tiki totem, I probably would have been splattered on the ground like a fly right now.

Just as I let my guard down, a rustling noise suddenly caught my attention. Rather than coming from the surface though, it appeared to be coming from below…

Out of nowhere, the water beneath me drained and hardened damp sand began to crack. A moment later, I was met with a skull smacking into my forehead.

“Ow! What the-?” I stopped mid-sentence, as the bright light from a head lamp glared into my eyes.

“Owy, that hurt.” The most whiney and nasally voice I had ever heard spoke.

Rubbing his head in front of me, was a little man with a set of giant buck teeth, who was wearing a miners helmet and a pair of round thick rimmed glasses. Strapped on his back was a horse shoe sized magnet that was the same size as him.

“Who the heck are you?” I confronted him.

He looked around in all directions with his eyes squeezed shut. “I’m Mole Pat…I’m sorry, but is someone there? My eyesight isn’t too good.”

I shushed him. “Quiet down. You’re going to get us caught.”

“Oh, I must be in the wrong place. I’m looking for the lottery drawing.”

“That’s above us.”

“Thanks mister, I-.... wait a second.” As he was talking, he was facing away from me in the wrong direction. “What are you doing, digging under the lottery drawing?”

“N-nothing. I just like digging in the sand.” I responded, throwing out the first lame excuse that popped into my head.

He pointed at the sand accusingly, still facing the wrong direction. “That’s a lie. I was raised by mole rats and I can tell by looking at you that you’re not the kind of person who digs regularly…You’re trying to rig the lottery, aren’t you!?”

I pointed back at him. “How can you tell? You just told me you have bad eye sight.”

“Well if I could see, you’d probably look like that.” He annoyingly retorted.

This guy was going to jeopardize my mission if I didn’t get rid of him soon.

“Judging from that magnet on your back, I’d say it's actually you who’s trying to rig the lottery!” I accused him of doing exactly what I was.

“Wh-what? N-no, I’m just… erm… looking for the b-bathroom.” He nervously stuttered, which pretty much confirmed my suspicion.

“Come on, you couldn’t make it any more obvious.” I continued to press him. “Besides, I was here first. Go barge into someone else's tunnel.”

Above ground the blow horn went off again.

“Five minutes until the drawing, dudes and dudettes!” The snowman announced.

“Oh, no. I’m running out of time… Fine, I guess I have no choice.” The mole rat guy suddenly looked frantic. “I challenge you to a Gamble Showdown… preferably a quick one. The winner has to leave.”

Grabbing him by the shoulder, I turned him toward me. “If you want quick, we’ll do one round of thumb wrestling.” I held out my hand ready to go. Taking a play from Eight’s book, I intentionally chose something I could easily win.

“Alright, before we start though, I’m going to activate my gambling sorcery.” His entire body began to glow in a subtle orange aura for three seconds then subsided.

I was a bit worried what his ability may be, but as of now it didn’t seem like it did much of anything.

He locked his hand with mine and the two of us chanted, “One, two, three, four I declare a thumb war.”

“Alright, time to-.” I paused, as the match was over within less than a second…

His thumb was pinned under mine in absolute defeat.

“What happened?” He asked, confused.

“You lost… Were you even trying? What did your gambling sorcery even do anyway?”

“Aw Darn it.” He hung his head in defeat. “My gambling sorcery heightens my sense of smell. I thought I would be able to smell the location of your thumb.”

“Great, but you lost, so go on and get out of here. Shoo.” I waved him off.

“Shoot, I’m gonna be in big trouble for messing this one up.” He tumbled back into the hole he came from.

That was even weirder than usual.

“Man, I really gotta take a dump!” Eight suddenly signaled me through the sand in the least lady-like way possible.

Holding out my hand, I glowed blue, as I quickly activated my ability. Above, there was a tumbling sound coming from what I assumed was the mixing drum for the drawing balls.

The snowman came onto his megaphone. “Alright, the winning numbers are…”

I held my breath. It wasn’t so much I was concerned about winning, it was more so what Eight would do to me if we lost.

“95-19-46-09.”

“Yes!” I could hear Eight cheer.

Not really sure what I was supposed to do now, I crawled back to the beginning of the tunnel, hoping that Eight would come and un-bury me at some point…