//------------------------------//
// Chapter the Fourteenth: Blowing Away the Dust 
// Story: Failure, Eternally Retold, Part Two: Nature's Blessings 
// by Kiernan 
//------------------------------//

"B eight!" 

Kai scratched his scalp and looked at the six boards in front of him. "Is that for bingo, Battleship or checkers?"

Prize thought for a moment before shouting "All of them!"

Fluttershy shook her head. "You don't have any pieces that can move to that space in checkers, and you already called that number in Bingo. As for Battleship, you sank our heavy cruiser." Kai wasn't very good at board games, a result of his growing up completely alone. Without Fluttershy teaming up and looking over his shoulder, it was unlikely he would have made it this far. 

Prize had opted to play six games at once, adding to Kai's stress as they went on. This was supposed to make things faster, but all it had done was muddy the waters and make it more difficult to make good decisions. Aside from the three games that had a space named B8, they were also playing Clue, Risk and Candy Land. Fluttershy actually was involved in Risk and Clue, as they required three players, but otherwise, she was helping Kai as best she could.

It was Kai's turn to make a move, so he picked up three red dice and nudged two white ones to Prize. "Prepare yourself," he said, "for soon, I shall take back the lands stolen from me." He scooted his pieces on the Risk board into the southern section of Belicos and tossed his dice forward. By the end of his turn, he'd claimed nearly a third of the world map.

Now it was Fluttershy's turn. With a flick of the dice, she moved Missus Peacock eight spaces into the conservatory. "I'd like to make a suggestion. Was it perhaps Missus White with the candlestick?"

Prize pulled a single card out of her personal collection and showed it to Fluttershy. "Afraid not. Guess you wasted your suggestion." As she put her cards away, she drew from the Candy Land deck and moved to the nearest yellow space. 

While Kai was doing particularly well at Risk, Fluttershy has been asking the correct questions in Clue, and with a little bit of deduction, he was now almost certain he knew the answer. "I know who killed the master of the house," he said, moving his figure into one of the rooms and reaching for the envelope on the stairs. "It was Colonel Mustard, in the kitchen, with a knife." 

"Are you sure?" warned Fluttershy, grabbing his wrist. "If you're wrong, you lose the game."

Kai took a deep breath. "I know." Opening the envelope, he sifted through the cards. First to come up was the knife. That was correct. Next, he saw the kitchen. However, when it came to the character, it was the eight of clubs. "I'm pretty sure this doesn't belong here," he grumbled, furrowing his brow.

Gal looked over at them for the first time since the games had begun. "Hold that thought." He stood up, pulled out a deck of common playing cards, and rifled through them. "You said Colonel Mustard, right?"

Kai nodded and exchanged the cards. He had been correct. "My accusation was spot-on," he smiled. "That's a game won for us."

Prize furrowed her brow. "Is it really winning if you admit that your character was the murderer? You're going to jail, so I hardly think you should be happy about this."

"The goal was to find the killer, location and weapon," smiled Kai, "and I did just that."

"If finding out that he was the killer would bar him from winning, then there would be no way for him to win," added Fluttershy. "Unless, of course, both you and I wasted our accusations. He played by the rules and won. There's no need to be sore about it."

Prize folded her hooves. "Fine. It's your move." 

Fluttershy rolled the bingo cage until a little white ball came out. "G fifty-four."

Prize let out a loud squeak of excitement as she slammed down her marker. "Double Bingo!! Yes! That's two wins for me, and two losses for you!"

"Not so fast," said Kai, holding up his card. "You see, I have a diagonal, here. One of mine cancels out one of yours. It's only one win for you."

Gal was about to interject, and say that a double bingo only counts as a single win, but by Kai's logic, it was still a fair game. It was one win for Prize, and a loss for their guests. 

The games continued much the same way as they had. Kai swept the board on Risk, then Prize won checkers and Candy Land, and the final win came when Kai sank Prize's airship carrier. 

"Six games down, and it's a tie," said Gal, shaking his head. "How did I see this coming?"

"So, how do we solve this?" asked Kai. "If it's a tie, then shouldn't we claim to be evenly matched, and you call us fine challengers?"

Prize shook her head. "One more game, and it's a tricky one." She slammed a box on the table, pulling it away to reveal a tower of small wooden blocks. "The name of the game is Jenga."

After explaining the rules, Kai went first. He took a piece from the bottom row and placed it on top. It was quite the first move, but he was at least willing to try. Seven sets of turns followed, with Kai taking end pieces from the bottom and Prize taking center pieces from the top. All in all, it was a very unstable tower.

Kai placed his piece on top, and slowly drew his hoof away. "This isn't going to last much longer," he smiled, folding his hooves. "Only a few safe moves left. Can you guess what they are?"

"Of course," chuckled Prize. She actually had the winning strategy at this point. If they kept going the way they were, she had more moves remaining than Kai did. She began to push the block of her choice out of the tower, when suddenly, the wind outside shifted directions. This sort of thing happened all the time, and it just meant a slight bump as everything adjusted to its new trajectory. Unfortunately, this meant that Prize was touching the tower as it crumbled into Kai's lap.

"That's the game," smiled Gal, holding up the orb they'd come for. "Take it and go, you've been keeping me from my dinner, and I would very much like to eat." Standing up, he put down his shamisen before slipping through the floor.

Kai picked up the wooden blocks and placed them on the table, next to a pouting Prize. "I can't really say that this was fun, but I did enjoy some of it."

Without a word, Prize pushed the rest of the blocks to the floor and folded her arms in a huff. Kai and Fluttershy took that to mean that they were no longer welcome, and they left the way they'd come in.