"A chef!" Farothel set a card down on the pile.
Aldawë looked up at Farothel from his cards, his brows knit. "Why a chef?"
Farothel glanced up at Aldawë. "Someone has to make the food taste good when we're out in the middle of nowhere." He spoke as if he expected it to be self-evident.
Aldawë looked back down at his hand. "True. I'm going to be a bard. Someone has to keep us entertained when we're out in the middle of nowhere."
Dinmir looked up long enough to smirk at her brother. "You're already easy to laugh at, so entertaining people ought to come naturally to you."
Aldawë made a face at Dinmir as he tossed down a card. "What about you, Auros?"
Auros didn't look up from his cards. "What about me? Shouldn't it be obvious?"
Dinmir gave Auros an amused glance as she nudged him with her elbow. "Even you need something to do when you're not busy knighting, Sir Knight."
Auros pushed his cards together and set them on the ground in front of him. His brow furrowed and he leaned forward against his hands, his elbows on his knees, an intense stare focused on the pile in the middle of the circle the four of them had made.
Overcome with disbelief, Dinmir fought the urge to cover her face with her hands. He'd never even considered it!
"Come on sis. It's your turn. We'd like to finish this game before you and I have to leave for Lindon."
Dinmir looked up from her cards and smirked again. "So I have at least two nights to make a move. Good to know."
Auros sat up again, having paid no heed to anything said since he started thinking. "I'll be a blacksmith. I've been having thoughts of forging my own sword anyway." Auros nodded. "Yes, I'll be a blacksmith. It'll keep my arm strong."
Dinmir shook her head as she put down a card and straightened the pile. "Even when you find something else to do, all you can think about is fighting." As the words escaped she knew she shouldn't have said them. The scowl from Auros was just extra confirmation.
"I think about protecting the people I care about if that's what you mean. Perhaps you'd be happier if I were content to make fancy little trinkets and pretty jewelry for lovely maidens, but someone has to stand guard. Someone has to be willing to put themselves in harm's way to keep others safe." A crack appeared in Auros' stern visage as the side of his mouth made a slight upturn. "I am a knight, after all."
Dinmir tried to put on a reassuring smile. "I know. Just be safe."
Auros shook his head and picked up his cards so he could focus his scowl on them. "What about you?" He placed a card down, careful not to scatter the pile again.
Dinmir looked at the other three, holding in a grin. Farothel wasn't as careful with his grin as he put down another card, leading her to believe he expected to win soon. Aldawë was tapping his cards against his nose, angled just enough for Auros to see them. He wasn't even trying to win this round. Auros was making it a point not to look at Aldawë's cards, but she couldn't tell how close he thought he was to winning.
"Me? Well, I can't decide. I want to be a tailor because I enjoy making people look good and it lets me put my own little flourishes on my work, but I also want to do something that lets me know about things. Important things."
Aldawë slid a card onto the pile. "I don't recall you ever taking history seriously."
Dinmir shook her head. "Not things that happened long ago, though that is important. I mean things that just happened. Things going on right now."
Auros nodded. "So you want to be a scout."
Dinmir shook her head again. "Not a scout. I want information to come to me so I can sift through it."
"You want to hear gossip?"
Dinmir's brow knit as she thought about it. "I suppose I'll end up with some of that too, but I'd be sifting through information from multiple sources to find the truth. Maybe I'll find out something no one else has. Something useful. Something the Enemy doesn't want us to know. Something the king needs to know."
Auros' brow furrowed. "You... want to be a spy?"
Aldawë arched an eyebrow at his sister. "What was that about Auros needing to be safe?"
Auros shook his head. "It's too dangerous. It's not like you could infiltrate an orc encampment, gain their trust, and report back. You couldn't possibly be mistaken for an orc."
Dinmir grinned. "Why, thank you, Auros! Nonetheless, I wasn't planning to build a home in an orc-cave, if that's of any comfort to either of you. I realize I'm not going to fit in amongst orcs, and even in cities of the Atani I would probably not go unnoticed, but that doesn't mean I can't know people who can give me news of events far off, does it? Information has to get places somehow, and sometimes it goes by less obvious routes of travel, does it not?"
Farothel nodded. "Why not be both? It seems to me being a tailor is a good way to make contacts. Everyone needs clothes."
Dinmir tapped the flat of her cards against her chin. "Hmm. Perhaps. In the meantime..." Dinmir slammed a card down, almost scattering the pile again. "I win!"