A Thing Found or Stolen

The cards in Grovoton's hands felt smooth. The images moved about them so clearly he thought for sure he could touch the people, though it was only flat like a normal one. He put them down on the table, placing them in the same order as everyone else. The game was easy, just match objects, people, places, poses, of the people on the cards with those that are laid out in front of the dealer. For his first time playing he was doing well, though his mind moved faster than the others it seemed.

Before now he had been sucked into a portal of some kind. Only a ball of flesh and human nastiness turned into an amalgam of two astronauts walking in the celestial realm. Though, at the moment he only speculated as to the place where he was. It was strange, but he didn't have any proof this place wasn't on earth, and didn't care. He just wanted the money on the table and to bring his long lost civilization back to life again. Whatever it takes, the Vectian race will rule the galaxy once more.

Grovoton slid the card across the table. "Five chairs, three globs, and two knives." He said through a twisted grin, holding back hysterical laughter.

"Why..." A man next to Grovoton said in a strange accent. "That is the best hand of the night. You have the luck of the mighty you know fella?"
"Nothing really lucky about it. They're just cards."
"You know the name of this game don't aya? It's call Fate." He said through a grin, though his was twisted in a different way.
"I didn't know that. Maybe fate does have a hand in it." Grovoton finished and collected the winnings off the table.

"So he wins..." the magical spirit said loud just loud enough to pierce through the awe and grunts of losers. While her tone was not interested in the child looking game. The spirit's violet eyes stayed glued to the table. The pictures were vivid sure, but her trained couldn't help but find them  uncanny at best. It was something she would never be able to produce with even years of practice on her own without this experience. Still, they would not sell much to her usual clientele. So she fought the urge to copy it, if only to save the attention her father might give her if he were to glimpse it.

Then a man broke the alluring trance of art with a cliché phrase. "Fate... I suppose people can still find something to pull when nothing is there to push them. Or maybe give importance's to a normal order of events." The girl spoke while her eyes shifted to the man who reminds her of home, even though he felt ever slightly so off. All the attention he was getting was cutting into her supply of doting eyes. Maybe this so called fate would less useless as her father led her to believe.

As the man pulled in his winnings of glittering coin, the spirit quietly slid down off the counter.
"Hey Mister, you remind me of something. Or maybe, you just lack something everyone else in this room has." the spirit's eyes crawled away as her words paused to inspect the growing audience. She stepped up onto an ice box that grew out of the ground so her face could reach the man's ear. "You are human, arn't you Mister," she whispered. Despite her mischievousness, her face remain cold as if frozen by the very power she controls. The Ice under her melted her feet as to return the man's space that the spirit took away for her little act. "Maybe fate does exist... Since I met you."

Looking down at the peculiar lady Grovoton simply harrumphed. The the corner of his eye he could see one of the people pulling a coin from the table, a wining that wasn't his own. With a quick glare the man slid it back where he found it and Grovoton looked at the young one again.

"Aren't we all human here?" He lied. He knew what he was, sure human was his flesh, but on the inside sat something much more mysterious. "You don't come here often? With your flurry of snow and with all of the eyes on you, I'd think you were some kind of celebrity." He flipped the flat silver coin to the lady. "A silver pearl for your highness." He said mockingly and nodded his head in a manner that would indicate respect under any other situation.

"Aye. I haven't seen her kind in a long time." The man with a wide brimmed hat said. Thumbing tobacco into a pipe his lavish cuffs gleamed with gold trim. "But I think I could use a man with your... luck and a lady of such... high esteem... aye. I think I could." bringing the pipe to his mouth his thumb light it with a sudden flame.

Where had he gotten himself?

"And why would I wanna do that?" Grovoton said pushing the coins into his pockets.

The man's grin showed all of his teeth. "Because I know how to get you more pearl than you can imagine." The man's eyes seemed to burn a hole through Grovo's skull.

The man's assumption was vastly wrong. Even though her senses were completely overloaded with with the magic energies that flooded this world. No normal human would find a home among these creatures. That is why he was special. Somehow he found a way into this world.
"Less then I could count on my hand I think..."
The spirit turned to her hand wondering if she should count herself. Was she human? Surely she was more human then anyone else here, aside from the man. Still, she felt less normal compared to her family, especially in her Snow Pluto alter ego. She decided to exclude herself for now. She didn't know anything about this man, so maybe it was better to wait a little longer. After all, she couldn't understand how he ended up here. She did not even know how she got here, despite everyone else being able to pick up the remanence of her past life.

"It is my first time here too. I don't enjoy the attention." The spirit sighed before looking around. The small break in the game only allowed eyes to further gather around her. This event was becoming unpleasant. Only when the man flipped her a coin did she managed to ignore the spectators. "Thank your sir... but I rather not play games. Adults can act very... unpleasant when losing." She placed the pearl back on the table next to the man. "If you knew my purpose, you wouldn't equate me to a princess."

Another stranger appeared seeking assistance. The spirit hesitated to respond. She knew better than to just blindly trust strangers in a strange place. However, this man was just diving into this strange setting unknowing of everything.
"I think money shouldn't be your aim in this world," the spirit whispered to the human, "It may hold no value where you come from."

"Another realm. You are not from here, sir. Humans don't come here," The spirit said quietly. The magic powder around them thicken. "We both are not from here. Shouldn't you try to go home, were you belong and will get less attention?" By now, the spirit was projecting her own desires onto the man. This world was unknown, strange, and potentially dangerous. Sure the people here think of her as something great, but she was not a true spirit. She was more of a champion, one that was supposed to bring the into the mortal realm. What would happen to here if they discover the truth?  

"Then again... I only assume." The spirit give a small bow, "I'm sorry sir. I shouldn't assume the intention of strangers."

"I understand sir..." The spirit raised her head appearing unphased. The magic powder in the air dissipated as the spirit became less resistant to the man's will. After all, he was an adult. Her father always said, adults know best and she found a new interest to look at. The man put on a smile. It reminded her of her father's associates mostly. The best she could describe the smile was not warm. It was something outside of her capabilities. The man looked happy but it was something, in her experience, that she did not want to be the focus of. Still, to see this expression, she wish she had time to record it without the scorn of her father. Lucky for her, the strange being was the more interesting being for the human.

The being never answered the human's question, instead asking him to just follow. The spirit wished the man would question the stranger more, but at last, he had his own motivations. Her eyes shifted to the stranger who led the man out the establishment. The powder in the air grew dense despite her face never changing. The spirit did not intend to further dissuade the man but she also had her on goals and would not let him leave her alone so easily. So she followed the man out of the establishment.

The ship was a large wooden structure, planks held together by iron rivets and thick oils. The stranger had led them into the distance, up a spinning tower, large enough to house many people should they have the need. It's use was strange, it seemed to be a city in of itself; port for ships, housing, Inns, Taverns, storage, and practically any other thing were its uses, people even farmed in the hollowed center, where streams of light flooded in.

"Kuthia." The stranger said, "That's her name." He pointed at the ship. It was floating in midair, sitting on it like it would water, gently swaying back and forth as small gusts of wind hit it's side. Once could hear the wood moaning lightly at the subtle strain. "I'll tell ya what." The man threw his arm around Grovoton's shoulders, pulling him close and to the side. "If you help me retrieve something... from someone that owes me of course, I'll give you.. say..." The man trailed off. "How does a thousand pearl sound?" His grin broke his face in half.

Grovoton took in the man's offer and thought for a moment. He assumed the mission would be dangerous, and in need of the luck he demonstrated earlier. If all went south he could simply take the ship for himself, though that would take knowledge of how to fly such a contraption. What about this girl? Would she take a liking to this, or would she simply get in the way?

"I'll help you. But only if you promise to send this young lady back where she came when we are through. She talks so much about going back and all.." Before Grovoton was done speaking the man was nodding in agreement and dry washing his hands, he took off onto the ship. Yells filled the distance with him telling the men to prepare for disembarking. Grovoton looked at the young lady and simply boarded the ship.