Odd Prompts: Slither
"Your turn to roll."
The alien who was holding out the cup to her was inscrutable. She really didn't know if that was a smile - was it even a face? The cup, at least, was a familiar item. Styrofoam, the sort used to hold a quick-heat soup long enough for consumption without burning one's fingers. She reached out and took it from the alien's... appendages.
He made the same expression, and she decided it was a smile. She'd complied with his request so it had pleased him. She was confident about the him. He'd been pointed out to her as such. 'Vaor Hashdim, be wary of him.'
She looked into the cup, which rattled when she took it. There were several oddly shaped, hard-edged, items in there. Her shipmate, Davy, looked over her shoulder into the cup.
"Ah, dice."
"Yes," the alien agreed. "She rolls, then he."
So it would be Davy's turn after hers.
"I don't know the rules." She protested. The things in the cup didn't look like dice to her. They had something on each flat surface, yes, but it wasn't a dot or multiples of dots. They were, she tilted the cup and made them tumble over inside it so she could get a better look. "Eyes?" Her voice came out in a squeak.
"Roll," Vaor urged, a different note in his voice. "No rules. No bad. Just dice."
Ok, then, she wasn't going to be in trouble. She shook the cup again, briskly, then tipped it out over the surface of the small table next to Vaor. The dice in the cup rattled, then rolled out on the table… They skittered across the shining surface, several of them falling off onto the threadbare flooring beneath it. Vaor ignored them, not even moving his support appendages when they fell onto him. He bent closer to the table, then raised two appendages high, clasping tips spread open.
"Snake eyes!" His voice was a crowing burble. "Very good luck, lucky space human!"
"Oh. Uh... ok?"
Vaor did something like a jig, and suddenly all the dice were on the table, propelled like a hackeysack ball by his many limbs. She put the cup down, and he scooped them into it, then held it up to Davy.
"Your turn to roll."
***
My prompt this week was "The dice in the cup rattled, then rolled out on the table… Snake-eyes!" and it came from 'Nother Mike.
I prompted AC Young with "It was out of season for figgy pudding."
You can read all of the prompt responses and join in on the prompt challenge over at More Odds than Ends.
