Welcome to Gaia! ::

"It's very simple," Dorian smiled brightly at Miyuki. He picked up a stack of small wooden tiles and spread them on his table to show her. "Every single one of these has a pair," he explained, showing her the images that had been painted on them. "I put them upside down, you flip two at a time and see if you get a match. If you do, you keep going - if you don't, it's game over. You get a prize for how many pairs you get - the more pairs you have, the better the prize. If you get all the pairs, you get the grand prize! Magic is allowed, but once you flip a tile you have to choose it, no flipping it back."

He grinned at her. "Think you've got it? Any questions?"

Dorian nodded and flipped the tiles upside down, then shuffled them around on the tabletop. Finally, he set them into rows, four by four, and put his hands behind his back.

"Go ahead," he smiled encouragingly at Miyuki. "Try for a pair."

As the tile was flipped over, an image of a deer appeared on the side that was now up.

"Amazing!" Dorian was clearly astonished. "Congratulations, you have a match!" He beamed at her. "Go on and hold on to those tiles, and you get to go again!"

Once again the tile was the same as the first one that Miyuki had chosen, giving her two pairs now.

"Congratulations!" Dorian laughed. "That makes two! Keep on going, you're a quarter of the way there!"

River's eyes were glowing with excitement. In all her years, she had never seen anyone get beyond two pairs - not without using magic, anyways. Some people, like Aragost, always knew where the pairs were - and he was blind!

"Keep going, Miyuki!" she squealed. "See if you can get them all!"

Indeed it was another bird, and River let out a squeal and clapped her hands together.

"Another one!" she babbled excitedly. "You got another one! Try again, Miyuki, you're almost halfway there!"

River and Dorian both held their breath apprehensively, watching and waiting to see what would be the next tile that Miyuki flipped up.River crossed her fingers, hoping it would be a cat to match the first one she'd picked. She liked cats, personally - though she was wary of them, of course.

She cheered loudly when she saw that MIyuki had indeed picked up the second cat.

"That's half! That's half!" she screeched, jumping up and down in her excitement. "Keep going, Miyuki! You can do it! You're halfway there!"

River's eyes were wide and she clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from squealing again when Miyuki flipped the second fish tile. She had seen how it had embarrassed Miyuki, and she didn't want to do that again.

Instead, she took her breath in sharply when Miyuki got the fifth match and did a little dance on the spot.

"Three more," she said in an excited whisper.

River squealed quietly , keeping it caught in her throat so that she wouldn't make too much noise, when she saw that Miyuki had chosen the pair of unicorns.

That meant there were only two pairs left! And if she got the one, she would get the other by default!