At this point, Drinks' face had lost all of its jovial charm and had been replaced by an intense concentration. He didn't seem to react to Ahnasha's pattern at all, except to take his own inaudibly slow breath through his nose and pick up the dagger. Imitating Ahnasha's pattern was clearly pushed him to his limits as his eyes darted to follow the dagger between his fingers. Everyone around the crate was dead silent, the only sounds being the tapping of the blade point and the creak of the rigging. For such a short space of time it seemed to go on forever. Everyone involuntarily began to lean in as Drinks' approached the end of the pattern. When the tension was highest, he completed the last stroke by barely missing a finger and then slammed the dagger into the crate between them in triumph. Everyone around the crate who had placed a bet on him raised their hands and cheered.

A few moments passed where Drinks-In-Sun took a breath and let the sailors behind him pat his back. The game wasn't over, though. Drinks pulled the dagger from the deep divot he had made in the wood and everyone's revelry was silenced. His own new pattern began. He started off at the same pace as before, but he began to speed up to a dangerous level, his face straining as he tried to keep control. He wanted to win and this would be his final move. Even so, he had three close calls before he finally, inevitably, struck deep into the side of his index finger. "Aagh!" His strained shout and wide eyes was met by an uproar of victory from Ahnasha's bidders. Fendros even let out a cheer, caught up in the moment.

"Just as I thought, Khajiit mother. You are a worthy opponent!" Drink-In-Sun smiled respectfully through the intense pain as he clutched his hand, "I think that is enough of this game for me, before getting this wound seen to, anyway." Drinks slowly rose up from his seat and left the gold to be dealt out by the Imperial. Ahnasha now had a respectable amount of gold in comparison to before.

Fendros squat down to Ahnasha and gave her a friendly nudge. Holding Rhazii made it difficult to do much else. "Nice one. Thanks for winning back [i]my[/i] coin," he retorted finally.

Sabine twisted her mouth before she could decide to speak about what Meesei told her about the differences between Argonians and Humans. She didn't want to mess up her streak of not making people feel uncomfortable. Sabine instead looked sideways at Kaleeth, finding another small difference on the top of her head. "There's hair," Sabine pointed out, "You don't have hair growing on the top of your head." Sabine ran one hand along the side of her head, pushing her frizzy hair behind one ear, "I've seen lots of people try to make their hair look pretty, but it seems like more trouble for nothing. You don't even have to worry about hair."