Mancala & Merlot

“I suppose I’ll have to come out to the vineyard soon, if that’s the case.” Wolfsbane took another sip of his wine and leaned back in his chair. 

“Yeah? Just let me know when, I’ll make sure everything is set up.” Casque grinned at him, exposing his fangs. He took the last bite of the pasta the two dolls had shared for dinner and pushed his plate away just as the heavy wooden doors to Wolf’s chambers opened. 

A Lust doll with dark green hair came in, bowing his head to the two diners and coming over quietly to collect their plates. While still cleanly dressed and holding himself in a manner befitting a professional, the doll looked very much like the bunification of one of the new Gloomy variant imps that have been showing up around Burrowgatory lately. 

“Thank you, Vedant.” Wolfsbane smiled at him. “Your timing is perfect tonight.” 

Vedant kept his head bowed but looked up at Wolf with his one exposed red eye, his tiny smile almost immediately disappearing as he moved to take Casque’s dishes as well, especially as he noticed the Envy doll staring at him. 

“Isn’t this your friend’s butler?” Casque asked, tipping his head slightly as his brow furrowed. “What’s his name… The red one.” 

Wolfsbane chuckled. “Valon, yes.” He gestured at Vedant, giving the Lust the freedom to elaborate if he wanted to. 

“Lord Valon is… otherwise occupied today. He asked me to come spend some time with Lord Wolfsbane and his staff.” Vedant nodded to Wolf and Casque and took his leave. 

Casque still looked confused. “So instead of giving him the day off, Valon is just letting you borrow him for a bit?” He frowned towards the door. “You have plenty of staff already.” 

“A day off from Valon is a gift on it’s own, Casque.” Wolf wasn’t about to go into the details of Valon and Vedant’s relationship - which he knew way too much of, thanks to Valon - so he changed the subject smoothly. “I’ve got a new game recently and have been waiting for somebody to play with. Is that something you’d be interested in right now?” 

Casque stopped with his wine glass halfway to his mouth and set it back onto the dining table. “Yeah of course.” He raised an eyebrow, his tone teasing. “Did you get sick of chess finally?” 

Wolf scoffed playfully. “I’ve only asked you to play chess a few times!” 

“I think after ten it’s not ‘a few’ anymore, Wolf.” Casque chuckled. “Show me that new game.” 

Wolf stood up, picking up his wine glass. “It should still be set up in the library. The fireplace will be lit as well, because of the rain.” He gestured towards the closest window, which showed dreary grey skies and a steady downpour. “It’ll make for a cozy after-dinner atmosphere.” His tail curled, betraying a nervous excitement. “Of course, I know you love the rain… Would you rather be finished here and head home so you can enjoy it properly?” 

Casque had never said outright that he enjoyed being out in the rain, but it wasn’t hard to guess. His eyes strayed to the window as often as they could even as the Envy doll tried to be polite, and Wolf had heard some of the staff of Casque’s winery joke about how they regularly found their boss out in the vineyard when most sane buns would be curled up inside with a good book. 

Casque seemed to pick up on Wolf’s half-hearted suggestion, and smiled up at him. He stood, wine glass in hand, and grabbed the half-empty bottle of wine as well. “Gaming in the library sounds great to me Wolf, lead on.” 

There was a soft thud from Wolf’s sleeping room, shortly followed by Dusk padding through the doorway. It looked from Wolf to Casque to the door leading out of Wolf’s private quarters, and back again. Wolfsbane smiled at the Fellantern, nodding. “Yes, we’re going to the library. You’re welcome to come along, of course.” 

A low chuckle from Casque brought Wolf’s attention back to the Envy; Wolf’s Erose Merlot had attached herself to one of Casque’s pronged horns, holding on with a tight embrace. She seemed to really like Casque, often clinging to his horns or depositing herself in his arms whenever she was able to, especially when they were taking a walk through the gardens. 

Wolfsbane wasn’t quite sure why. 

It had nothing to do with Wolf’s slowly blossoming feelings for the other bun, did it?

He had no way of knowing. 

Turning away and abandoning the train of thought before it could bring a blush to his face, Wolfsbane proceeded to lead Casque and the two imps to the library; of course, all three of the aforementioned were already well aware of the room that held Wolfsbane’s collection of books, and so the ‘leader’ position had been given to him out of propriety, not necessity. 

Despite all of the staff having free-range to the library - given that they were careful, of course - there was only one in the large room right now. And Bleu wasn’t even reading, instead tending to the blaze roaring in the fireplace. They looked up as Wolfsbane and his entourage came in, standing and giving a polite bow. 

“Good evening Master Wolfsbane, Mister Brandy.” A short, to the point greeting, before crouching again and going about clearing some stray ash from the dark hearth beneath their shoes. 

“Hello Bleu.” Wolf led Casque over to the small table near the fireplace, placing his glass down. The game he had mentioned earlier had been neatened up, but was still sitting on the table where he’d left it. Wolfsbane sat and gestured at Casque to do the same. A soft sound of surprise came from Bleu as Dusk silently jumped over them and up onto the mantle of the fireplace, sitting on the warm marble and curling its tail primly over its front paws.

Once Casque was seated, Wolfsbane began with his explanation. “This game is called ‘mancala’.” The gameboard sitting on the table consisted of a rectangular wooden tray with two rows of six circular indents, as well as rectangular troughs on either end. Wolf positioned the tray between himself and Casque, so each doll had a trough directly in front of them. From a black velvet bag he pulled out forty-eight small opalescent stones. Mancala had very little set up; once Wolfsbane had placed four of the stones in each of the twelve smaller indents - leaving the two end troughs empty for now - the game was ready to be played. 

“This is my side of the board,” Wolfsbane pointed to the side of the tray on his right, “and the other side is yours. “The end goal is to have the most stones in our ‘stores’.” At the last word, he used a claw to tap the empty trough closer to him. He scooped up the four stones from one of the indents to show Casque what he meant as he continued. “On your turn, you take all the stones out of a single circle, and go around the board counter-clockwise, leaving one stone in each indent you pass.” Showing Casque his now-empty hand, Wolfsbane gestured at him to take his own turn. 

Casque looked a little bit confused, but he did his best to take his turn properly, looking up at Wolf when he was done. “Like that?” Merlot floated down from Casque’s horns to look closer at the board, tipping her head back and forth. 

“That’s perfect, darling.” Wolf took his next turn. He’d played this enough times already to have an idea of a strategy, and decided that it would be unfair to leave Casque in the dark about this particular rule for long. Picking up his handful of stones, Wolfsbane went around the board like normal. The last stone in his hand went into the trough closer to him, making it the first stone to reach one of the ‘stores’. “If the last stone of the turn lands in your own store, you get to take another turn.” He did so, ending up with another stone in his trough before yielding the board to Casque. 

Casque took his turn, then Wolf, then Casque again. Wolf took a moment to let his eyes flit over the board before making his move. The last stone in his hand ended up in an empty indent on his side of the board; Casque sputtered as Wolf scooped up the stones from the corresponding indent on Casque’s side of the board and deposited them where he’d just placed his last stone. Wolfsbane didn’t say anything in explanation, instead taking a sip of his wine to hide his smirk as Casque scowled down at the board. 

They went back and forth in silence for the next few minutes. Both dolls had several stones in their stores at this point, and there weren’t very many left in play. In fact… 

Checkmate ~ 

A few turns later, and Wolf sat up away from the board. “I win.” 

“What?” Casque looked up at him, brow furrowed in a way that Wolf could only describe as adorable. “Not all the stones are in the stores yet.”

“No, however you no longer have any stones on your side of the board.” Wolfsbane took all the stones left over on his side of the board and dumped them into his ‘store’; it was very visibly more full than Casque’s. 

“You didn’t say fuck all about that when you were explaining the rules!”

“Oh, didn’t I?” Wolfsbane couldn’t help the smug grin that spread over his face, exposing his fangs as he looked over at Casque coyly. “My mistake.” 

Casque opened his mouth, and closed it, and opened it again, tail lashing a little. Wolf could see the Envy doll’s violet eyes darkening as he acknowledged the challenge in Wolf’s expression. “You little shit -” 

“Bleu, dear, could you bring us some tea? Perhaps some nice chamomile?”

Bleu laughed softly from where they were dusting one of the bookshelves. “Of course sir, I’ll be right back with that.” Their tail spade flicked in amusement as they left the library.

Casque scowled at Wolf for a moment before - “Oh! I uh, didn’t mean to swear at you, I’m sorry.” 

Wolf just chuckled. “It’s alright Casque, I did withhold information from you…” He held his wine glass out towards Casque. “Would you mind, darling?” 

Casque snorted playfully, but refilled Wolf’s glass with more red wine. “I thought you wanted tea.” 

“Chamomile tea has a calming effect.” At Casque’s raised eyebrow, Wolf continued. “You seemed rather agitated, is all.” 

Casque seemed to slam his mouth shut to avoid cursing more. After a moment he sighed and said “I’ll win the next one, just you watch.” 

He didn’t.

Or the one after that.

Casque ended up drinking quite a bit of the chamomile tea, much to Wolf’s continued amusement.