The girls opened the box and discovered that the game was far more simple in appearance the the old man had made it out to be. All they could find consisted of five crude wooden tokens ("Just enough," commented Sue), an assortment of oddly shaped dice, and an expansive wooden game board, which they accordingly placed onto the table they had set aside.
"So what are we doing again?" said Joy, faking a yawn.
"Joy, if you don't want to play, nobody's making you," said Diane, shaking out the contents of the box. "Aha! The rulebook! Let me see..." she flipped through the first few pages. "...here we go. The object of the game is to traverse the board from start to finish before your fellow players do so."
"That's not so special," muttered Jerri. "That's just like any other board game."
"I haven't finished yet," said Diane with a defensive edge to her voice. "During your turn, you roll the dice and move that many spaces along the board. Landing on different spaces causes different things to happen. These things may affect yourself and other players. Many spaces contain obstacles or bonuses which will also affect your progress in the game. Odd, it doesn't say how different spaces work... maybe the rulebook is missing a few pages? It looks rather old..."
"Ooh!" said Sue, pointing to a dark stone embedded in the center of the board. "Maybe this is supposed to tell us what do do each turn!"
"Perhaps," said Diane, still browsing through the pages. "Oh, well. Players agree on turn order before the game commences. So, would anyone like to go first?"
After a hesitant period of silence, Jerri shrugged. "I'll do that," she said.
They each placed small wooden tokens on the clearly marked "START" space. Suddenly, without prior warning, the wooden tokens changed markedly into far more humanoid figures.
"Sh--!" said Jerri. "What was that!?"
"The shop was called Spells'r'us," said Diane, stunned by what had just happened. "Maybe this game is magic."
"Don't be ridiculous," said Cyndi. "There's no such thing as magic!"
"How do you explain that, then?" said Diane.
"Hey!" said Joy. "Look closer. I think those wooden figures are us!"
Diane smirked at Cyndi, who ignored her.
"Well, then..." said Jerri, interrupting the others. "I suppose I have to roll the dice?"
"You roll two six-sided ones," said Diane.
Jerri gently tossed two dice onto the table. They stopped, respectively, at four and one.
The figure resembling Jerri moved smoothly down the board, stopping after five spaces.
"Amazing," said Cyndi. "Maybe it really is magic after all."
The display in the centre of the board glowed, and writing appeared on it. Jerri read it aloud:
"You have landed on a gray square.
When players land on a gray square, they are given a choice between two or more options.
Do you prefer FLIGHT or to FIGHT?
FLIGHT: Avoid land-bound obstacles and move quicker.
FIGHT: Improve your chances of survival.
Remember: choices not only affect the physical world, they also affect the game."
"So what happens now?" said Joy.
"I think I'm supposed to make a choice," said Jerri.