Pan walked into the common area of the inn to find Horse awake and eating breakfast. Horse stood awkwardly tall at the table, unable to take a seat. He held a bowl of fried rice in one hand and a pair of chopsticks in the other, laboriously shoveling the rice into his mouth. So Pan asked him how he slept.

  “Not great dude,” he said, sounding like it. “Someone stabled a rotting zombie horse next to me after I turned in. I fought them on it and they moved it down to the other end, but I couldn’t sleep knowing it was there. And then-“

  Pan had obviously stopped listening. The fried rice smelled delicious. The whitefish he had eaten last night hadn’t carried him through the night very well, and he wanted something hearty.

  “Hold that thought,” he said, interrupting Horse. “I’ve got to check what time it is.” Pan made his way to the barkeep.

  Horse grunted, but he held his story. Athena was entering the commons now, too.

  “Morning, Horse,” she said as she pulled up a chair. “Where’s my brother?”

  Horse shrugged. He shoveled more rice into his mouth.

  “Where did you get the fried rice? Did you buy it, or did you just have it on you?”

  “Had it,” he grunted. She eyed him warily as he ate, holding the silence. After a while he said, “They only give you chop sticks. Why is rice so hard to eat with chopsticks?”

  “Good morning party people,” came Apollo’s voice as he also entered the commons. He had his tablet in-hand as he took a seat at the table too. Athena tried to grab it from him.

  “What’cha reading?” she asked, plucking it from his grasp. She succeeded, Apollo giving an impotent “Hey”, but before she could get a good look at it, it reappeared back in Apollo’s hands. He stuck his tongue out at her.

  She leaned over the table and put her head in her hands. “I really regret choosing Hoplite.”

  Apollo chuckled.

  “No, seriously,” Athena said, “I was up all night fretting over my lack of study material, and I remembered you had that stupid tablet, and not me.”

  “Not to worry,” he said, attention turned back on the magical page, “I’m all over this.”

  “You suck at studying,” she said flatly.

  He nodded his head to the side in a half shrug. “I’d say I’m about average.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re barely averaging a C. In a Poli Sci major.” Pointing at herself she added, “And I’m valedictorian with-“

  “Where’s Pan?” he asked, cutting her off.

  Horse jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the bar, fisting both chopsticks. “He went to go ask what time it is.”

  “Oh yeah,” Athena said, cool despite the academic contest becoming suddenly over, “he did have that Breakfast of Champions card.”

  And as soon as she said it, Apollo’s eyes went wide.

  “He can’t use that card! Pan, stop!” he shouted, jumping up from the table. His chair clattered over behind him. But at the same time, there was the distinctive sound of a card being played. Then, an air-rending screech.

  The three of them turned as one towards the bar. Pan had been knocked on his back, and standing on the bar above him were three great birds.

  But they weren’t quite birds. They had giant wings with feathers, and they had heron-like feet. In fact, they were birds up until the waist, where their body became that of an old hag. Their arms were an amalgamation of wings and human arms, and their heads were those of ancient old women with knotted dirty hair.

  “Pan, what were you thinking?” Apollo called to him, “You have that food curse, remember? We talked about it last night!”

  Athena was out of her chair and driving towards the creatures. Horse flashed a card where he stood, one called Stealth Shot. It depicted an indistinct character mostly concealed by dense leaves. All that could be seen of them were their eyes and a bow, arrow knocked and ready.

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  A bow and arrow appeared in Horse’s hands before he disappeared from sight.

  As Athena charged, she also played a card. Reversal. The art depicted a swipe being deflected, its white trail bouncing off an extended spear. Athena’s spear formed as she moved towards the bird-women.

  “They’re Harpies,” Apollo said, hanging back and studying his tablet. He flipped a few times on the page with his finger. “According to Pan’s curse, if he summons a Prepared Meal it will instead summon a monster of equal level.”

  The lead harpy flashed a card, Rend, and swiped down at Pan with a leg. The tips of its tows shone, ending in sharp claws.

  Athena’s spear drove in, diverting the attack to the bar counter. The claws sliced through the hard black wood like a sawblade through styrofoam.

  The harpy screeched, which was as unnerving to watch as it was to hear. The screech made Pan cringe and cover his ears, but to see it come out of the toothless mouth of a wrinkly old woman was icing on the disturbing cake. Drool strung from her gums, showing an amount of teeth Horse could count on one hoof.

  Athena helped Pan get to his feet. In one movement, she brought him up and put herself between him and the lead harpy.

  “I could use some creep control, Apollo!” she shouted. Her spear fizzled and disintegrated.

  “Lightning!” he cried. Pan looked over to see a card called Frost Shards flash. Immediately several icy spikes appeared and flung themselves at the birds.

  Two of them fluttered behind cover, leaving the third vulnerable. She cried out in pain as an icicle pierced her wing. Then two arrows appeared in her side.

  Horse became visible again, standing just behind the harpy. Pan deduced he would have had to shoot her point blank.

  “If you’re going to call out an attack,” Athena was shouting at her brother, “then call out the one you’re actually going to use!”

  A card flashed in front of Horse. Backstab. The handle of an ornate dagger sticking from the back of a nondescript character, bent backwards from the pain. A dagger appeared in Horse’s hand as he prepared to strike between the bird’s shoulders.

  But not before the creature’s companions could intervene. They leapt over the bar, wing-arms fluttering like mad, bird feet flailing.

  “Augh!” he cried. They were obviously much lighter than him, but he backed slowly out of the flurry of sharp claws. The dagger vanished as Horse was covered in scratches.

  “Lightning!” Apollo cried again. A card called Whirlwind flashed, the picture similar to Pan’s own curse Vortex, only less sinister in shade. A small but intense dust devil formed and flew towards the bird-women, carrying them away and into the far wall. They collapsed in a heap together, down but not out.

  “Apollo!” Athena cried in frustration. She activated a card called Aerial Strike, which conjured her spear again. She jumped. For a brief moment, Pan worried her head would hit the ceiling. It brushed the roof between the rafters, and then she came plummeting down point-first on the lead harpy, the one still standing.

  Or rather, right next to it.

  The feathered hag grinned and flashed a Slash card, her claws gleaming.

  “Lightning!” Apollo cried. A boulder came flying over Athena, who remained crouched from her landing. The boulder hit the surprised hag dead-center, sending it through the wall of the inn behind her with a deafening WHOOM-CRUSH.

  The barkeep, who had been hiding behind the bar, crept forward cautiously from around the end. The skeleton stared jawbone agape at the ragged hole. A few yards outside lay a large boulder, which was now resting atop a purple-tinged harpy pancake.

  Horse, using a Coup de Grace card, was finishing off the other two knocked aside by the Whirlwind, the card having conjured his dagger again. With all three harpies finished, they began to dissipate.

  “My tavern,” the barkeep said quietly, staring at the hole.

  Athena, thinking quickly, began ushering Pan, Apollo, and Horse out the door.

  ****

  “You knew that would happen?” Athena was saying as the four of them walked quickly away from the inn at which they had stayed. “But you did it anyway?”

  Apollo had explained the relevant portions of his and Pan’s discussion the previous night. He showed Athena the Feast of Tantalus curse which had caused the impromptu harpy attack.

  Pan did his best to shoulder the accusations and bewilderment coming from her.

  Apollo was deep in his tablet, his report of last night now dispensed.

  “I don’t know. I just forgot. At least the card Evaporated.”

  “You’re lucky we’re all still ok.” She gestured to Horse who was just finishing a health potion. The scars on his arms and face visibly sealed themselves.

  “I remember it now, now that it’s already happened. I remember going through the deck and finding that card. Usually I’m better at remembering stuff like that. I don’t know. Maybe it’s this place.”

  Apollo spoke up. “Actually, you might have a point, Pan. Here, I’m looking into card properties and there’s a section on curses.”

  He held the tablet in front of the faun as they all stopped so he could read.

  “Best avoided, Curse type cards are harbingers of doom for their carriers. Effects of curses vary wildly from card to card, but cursed players will find themselves jinxed. Remove from your deck ASAP,” he read aloud.

  Apollo retracted the tablet. “Sounds to me like they might-… I dunno. Cause some mind-fog? Bad luck?”

  Or possibly depression, Pan thought to himself. Could a card do that? Moreso, could forty of them affect my mind that much?

  “Well, I for one had an awful night,” Horse interjected.

  The other three looked at him, attention shifting off of Pan’s recent lack of judgement.

  “Oh yeah,” Pan said, recalling their brief discussion. “You were saying you didn’t get much sleep. They stabled a zombie horse next to you.”

  Horse nodded. “Yeah. And that gargoyle guy showed up and started talking to me.”

  Apollo and Athena shared a look of confusion.

  “What gargoyle guy?” Apollo asked.

  Horse tapped his forehead in intense thought. “Uhh, Ruckto? Ar-…Arctoss.”

  “Arctus?” Athena asked, astonished. “Arctus appeared and spoke just to you, and you’re just now telling us this?”