Who Gets What?

It was a nice sunny day in Africa, and it mostly is. The five kids had gathered here today to draw lots. Each to decide what animal they would be taking on.

Cyrus had taken a long hard look at the box and saw the way John was holding it, how he carried it, and the way his hands moved around it. He was 90% sure that whatever John had planned for today he had purposefully rigged the box against them.

'But why?' he wondered.

John caught the sight of Cyrus staring at the box in a serious expression. John was more than aware of how Cyrus felt toward him after their little confrontation. It made sense after all, as he was working closely with Ariel at the time, the broker between life and death.

She was famous for her cruelty long before she went inactive.

"Cyrus, would you like to go first?" he prompted as he lifted the box and shook it in front of everyone.

Cyrus had a face of distrust but he believed that John wouldn't try to sabotage them if he truly worked under Alex. He believed in Alex and wanted to believe in John, but the way he assisted Ariel made him feel like they had been well accustomed to one another. Like they had more than business together, perhaps a bond of some sort.

And he knew from the stories just how heartless the broker between life and death was. What he was worried about was why John and her were so close in the first place or if he was just overthinking things.

Trust issues come frequently to overthinkers so maybe there was a more reasonable explanation. 'Perhaps Alex asked him to watch over her? Perhaps they've just known each other for a long time or went to school together? just why were they so close? and is he someone to be truly trusted? or was he playing nice?'

Cyrus wasn't going to say or do anything out of character but he was going to watch John closely, no matter how nice he may have seemed.

"If you're not going Cyrus then I'll go first," Terra said as he smiled excitedly to see what he would get.

"No Terra, we will be going in alphabetical order, so Cyrus will need to go first, won't you Cyrus?" he smiled as he turned his head sideways.

"I'll do it, we have to get over this mission somehow right?" Cyrus walked up and placed his hand inside to feel what felt like several different pieces of paper inside the box. The box also felt big with hollow spaces within the wall. 

'Are these compartments?" he wondered. After feeling his arm around a little longer than one would usually take, he let out a soft sigh and smiled.

'I see, the makeup of this box is similar to that of a Chinese assassin teapot, each one of the four walls has different spaces in them, compartments to be specific, and each compartment has a set of paper in it. He shakes the box in a certain order to change which pieces of paper fall into the box and which fall back into the compartment, this way he ensures that we get what he wants us to get out of it.'

'It was never up to luck to begin with. This would explain why the top lid doesn't come off normally at all but instead slides semi-open.'

Cyrus pulled it out, the piece of paper he grabbed from the box and his glasses fell down his eyes a bit as he saw what he got. His hand shook a little seeing this and then he pulled his glasses back up and walked back to his spot.

John could tell from the way Cyrus was acting that he figured something out. 'Does he know that it's rigged? I wondered,' he smiled at the kid with trust issues that run deep.

When Cyrus reached his spot, Terra who was nearby turned to him and said, "Hey hey, Cyrus, You took your time didn't you? Someone is indecisive about his decision," he teased.

"Hey, tell me what did you get? pretty please!?" he asked cheerfully with his bottom lip out and puppy eyes. He was surprisingly excited about this activity.

Cyrus couldn't help but chuckle, he was tired from suspecting John so much, it had been going on for days now. A part of himself felt like John might not actually be a bad person and that the name John was obviously an Alias for who he truly was, and he might have been dangerous.

'If he truly is loyal to Ariel and not Alex then he might have picked this one to test my capabilities to surpass Terra as the representative but if he truly is innocent then this bastard is just trying to kill me.'

He turned his head towards Terra and showed him his paper, "I got the tiger, unfortunately."

"Hahaha," Vito laughed from his side, "Good luck with that one, she is quite the hunter."

"I know, I reckon I know more than you since you came back with your shirt ripped and torn," Cyrus taunted.

"Hey! Stuff happened!" Vito commented as he turned away to not have to retell that story.

As the two bickered a little bit, Terra was more excited about seeing what he would get, he loved situations like this where he had to get lucky to win something. To him, this was like playing a game where your luck contributes to the amount of enemies that will spawn around you.

Next up was Dawn.

He was unenthusiastic about this, honestly, anything would have been good for him, just not one of the big cats, they were more terrifying than the hippos.

He reached in, grabbed a paper, pulled out, and walked back all in a swift motion and when he finally got back he looked down and there was a small warmth in his heart. "I got the zebra," he whispered loud enough for the others to hear but too low for a normal conversation.

Edith seeing this didn't have much hope left, she wanted the zebra because she was already used to it and even brushed its fur once before. Seeing Dawn take it from her made her not even want to go and draw.

Plus she couldn't image moving being surrounded by all those lions. She would be stunned out of fear.

"Alright Terra, you are next," John said.

Edith snapped her neck at John and her eyes opened up wide. 'Did I mishear?' she wondered.

"Excuse me! But I thought you said that this was in alphabetical order. T does not come before E John!!" she said as she clutched her fist.

John was well aware of the report that came in about what she did to the other servant that messed with her, plus the added speed and strength from her being a representative did not help his case. He needed to calm her down now.

"Edith, are you not the most precious one in this group?" he asked.

"I-, I am," she said.

Cyrus gave a side eye to this immediately. He could not believe what he was hearing. If they were talking precious then he should have been Terra because he was the one chosen out of all of them.

"Then you should be well aware that we should always leave the most precious things for last, shouldn't we? So that we can appreciate its value more than the rest. As the only girl in this group that makes you the princess, so that means that you should have the dignity of going last as you hold the most power."

"I guess you are right," she said in a softer less harsh tone as she unclenched her hand.

"It's not like I wanted to go now anyways, I am precious after all," she said as she had her hands on her face and was turning side to side.

Cyrus, Dawn, Vito, and even Terra all turned to look at her and asked themselves, "Has no guy ever complimented her before? That was way too easy Edith."

Edith didn't mind going last now, she didn't care because her zebra had already been taken, she would simply take the last thing remaining because she was precious.

Terra went up to pick his animal and Vito had one hope in his mind, "No matter what, I do not want the hippo. I saw what that thing did to Dawn, the way it dominated him, I'd rather not have that happen to me. So please Terra, please oh please get the hippo.

And as Terra pulled out his paper, the words Hippo was read loud and clear.

Vito silently celebrated in his mind about that and hoped nobody noticed. Nobody did, except for Cyrus of course.

"Alright, then I guess that leave the giraffe for me and the lions for Edith since that is all that's left," Vito said as he put his hands up. "Edith I wish you luck on your endeavor," he winked.

Edith frowned, she no longer felt like a princess at the thought of getting the lions and Vito talking to her reminded her that she had a reason to be upset with him after what happened in the morning but before she could say much John spoke up first.

"Who said she is getting the lions? You still haven't drawn from the box Vito," John said lifting the box in his hands much higher.

"We can't have the same animals as we did before, the whole point of the mission is to train with different ones, so it makes sense that I get the giraffe. Right?" Vito asked confused at the point that John was trying to make.

"True, but I also said that you would have to draw to see what animal you would get. If you were to draw the giraffe then it happened but if you were to draw the lions..." John cut off without finishing his sentence.

"Haaa! Then Edith would get her giraffe," Terra gasped.

Edith had her ears completely opened when she heard this, there was still a chance of her getting something good after all and if Vito got the lions then she would take that as his punishment for what happened in the morning.

Now all that was left was for him to draw.

Vito saw that everyone was on board with this especially Edith and he couldn't fight against all of them on this point. It looked like he was going to have to draw no matter what. He approached the box and gulped as he stared into it.

John had made up his mind, he truly wanted to leave this result up to chance, he wasn't going to shake the box and pull out a gimmick of his own and this action was noticed even by Cyrus.

'He is not shaking it this time? I guess he really will leave this one to a 50/50 chance.'

Vito's hand felt sweaty as he placed it inside and Edith bit her lip watching, "Come on Vito, pull it out already," she thought.

Vito closed his eyes and grabbed the first one he felt when he placed his hands inside, as he lifted it up he stopped midway and let go of it to grab the other one. "This one, it has to be this one," he said as he pulled it out.

Everyone was waiting in anticipation as he pulled it out, including John, for once he didn't know what was taken and only Vito would be able to tell everyone what he got.

"Well, what is it?" Cyrus asked from behind.

Vito was smiling, his heart racing, it was a gamble and a simple one at that yet he took it as if it was life or death, he was sweating a little bit as he turned to give them the result.

"It says..."