#asdf fun fact this is why i got my hair chopped so much for the summer

[aurore-parle-de-ses-idees]

77, winning!!!! for Est!

winning :D calm night with mini fellowship <3

Nona pushes her hair back out of her face again. “This one should do it, then.” Horn leans over her shoulder and points at a different card.

“No, try this one.”

“No, that’s how they beat us last time- they have the counter.”

“They might not have it this time.”

“You don’t know that, and if they do, we lose.”

“I don’t think they-” Horn pushes his hair back, too. “I don’t think they do. Your card won’t be enough whether they have the counter or not.”

“And if they do have it, we lose outright.”

“It’s a chance we should take.”

“They’ve had it the last three rounds, Horn.”

Esterín and Corudan trade looks. Esterín’s cards are held carelessly in one hand while Corudan’s are held very properly before his chest. Nona squints at them.

“They have the counter,” she says, and plays her first choice.

“You should listen to Nona, Horn,” Corudan says solemnly. “She is wise.” He plays a card from his own hand. Horn throws down a counter to it with a wide smile- and so has nothing to play against Esterín’s card when she reverses the turn order and plays an offensive card of her own. “Not that it would save you,” Corudan adds serenely as Horn and Nona both groan, dropping their cards in yet another defeat.

“They must be cheating,” Horn says as Nona combs her hair out of her face yet again. “There’s no way they’re just this lucky.”

“We simply have an abundance of experience with the game that you lack,” Corudan says. Esterín barely keeps herself from snorting. She had learned this from Cúcheron while they waited in the Haunted Inn for Raddir’s word to start the journey through the Drownholt less than two months before.

“An abundance of experience cheating perhaps,” Horn mutters. Nona rolls her eyes.

“You wound me, Horn,” Corudan says, a hand to his chest. “Would any warrior of Lothlórien stoop so low as to cheat at a game of cards among friends?”

“If they could do so without being caught, I daresay they would,” Nona says, watching Esterín collect and reshuffle the cards. “I expected better of you, though, Esterín.”

Esterín laughs. “You think too highly of both me and my card-skill. I wouldn’t recommend playing any sort of gambling game with Saeradan,” she adds after a moment. “His luck is even more suspicious than Corudan’s.”

“Surely you don’t believe I am cheating too, Esterín,” Corudan demands. Esterín grins impishly.

“I believe I have not seen you cheating.”

Horn blows hair out of his eyes. “One more game.” Nona groans. “We’ll beat them this time.”

“I admire your persistence, Horse-lord.”

“See, I do have at least one redeeming quality.”

“I wouldn’t go that far…”

Esterín laughs to herself and begins the next round. They’re partway through the second round after that when Horn straightens abruptly, hair flying into his eyes again. “This is ridiculous.” He hands Nona his cards and digs in his pack. “Do you want one?” He holds up a tie and Nona glances over distractedly from both hands of cards.

“Yes, gladly.” Horn holds one tie between his teeth while he gently pulls Nona’s hair back. “I think this one first,” she says while he ties her hair, trying to indicate a card with both of her hands full of other cards. “Then this from my hand.”

“Counters?” Horn follows her gaze, tying his own hair.

“This one.”

Horn takes his cards back. “Alright. Let’s try it.”

They don’t win that hand, or the next.

“That may be enough for tonight,” Esterín laughs as the night draws on. 

“One last hand.” It’s Nona suggesting it this time, glaring intently at the deck. “The last one, I swear.”

Esterín sighs. “Fine, if we all agree.”

It’s worth the two additional hands they play just to see the look on Corudan’s face when Horn and Nona finally do pull off a victory, cheering loud enough to startle the birds from a nearby tree and embracing each other as if they just won some great battle. Esterín grins and elbows Corudan.

“What now, my friend?’

“I will simply have to pay more attention next time,” he says, as dignified as if he stood before the Lady Galadriel. “But for now, I believe it is my watch.” And he takes up a position beyond the light of the fire to definitely not pout about losing at cards despite cheating outrageously.