Tic-Tac-Aught-Nought

Zahir stretched out on the ground beside the tractor and crossed one paw over the other. She had her Very Serious Face on so Tyrian did his best to match it. They were going to play a game. A serious game, apparently, unless she was just that into teaching. Of course it may have also been that he was a terrible student. He wasn't going to devote much brain space to figuring that out; she was grumpy all the time.

"Alright, the rules are simple," she said tartly. "I'm going to draw two diagonal lines and cross them with two horizontal lines-" Zahir was on the verge of doing just that when Tyrian interrupted her.

"Do I draw the lines too?" He had to ask. If he was going to be following along that he needed to know now otherwise he was going to fall behind. No doubt she'd get grumpier if she had to wait on him to catch up.

"No. We only need one grid. Like this..." Using a stick held between her teeth, Zahir carefully made a 3x3 grid. Each square was about as wide as two of her big furry paws.

"Does it have to be that big?" Maybe one day he would want to play with Righty. If the grid had to be that big then he might have to fill in her squares for her and that would take a lot of the fun out of it.

"No," she said patiently. "But if you make it too small it might be hard to make the markings."

"What markings? Can I pick what I want?" he asked before she could continue.

"If you would just listen I'll tell you; I'm getting to that part. Can you listen, Tyrian, and let me speak?" Her tone was still patient, if a little forced. Honestly Tyrian didn't know why she was getting grumpy already. They hadn't even played one game yet and he was being good! Still wearing his best Serious Business Face, still laying still. He was even asking questions which was a whole lot better than just pretending to listen.

"I am listening, I want to know how to play!" His expression was earnest and hopeful. He did want to learn how to play. This seemed like a good way to insure he was better at something than his siblings. Hopefully Zahir wouldn't get mad and leave him to figure it out by himself.

Zahir eyed him and he saw her tail flick around, but then it settled down and she started to explain again. "There's going to be two kinds of markings: Xs and Os-"

"What if I don't want those? Can I pick other markings?"

"No."

"But-"

"NO. When you play later you can change it up, but for now there will ONLY be Xs and Os. Now, which one do you like better?"

Tyrian frowned thoughtfully. Truthfully he didn't like either marking at all. If he got to pick he'd draw a star or maybe a leaf. Since those weren't options... "I guess Xs are better."

"Alright, so from now on you can only draw Xs-"

"Forever?!" Tyrian was appalled by the thought. He didn't want to only ever draw Xs. If that was what he was getting into by playing this game then he didn't want to play anymore.

"No," Zahir replied irritably. "For this game and this game only." Zahir paused to give him time to interrupt and when he stayed quiet, she continued, "Alright, we're going to take turns filling in the squares. The goal is to get three in a straight line. So if you up an X here, here or here," she said as she pointed to three diagonal squares, "Then you'd win. Same as if you put three here, here and here." This time she pointed at three horizontal squares. "Are you following me?"

Tyrian eyed her warily. That sounded like a trick question. Slowly he answered, "No...I'm laying in front of you..."

Zahir sighed loudly and Tyrian very nearly groaned in frustration. She was making this so hard!

"I meant, do you understand the game so far?"

"Oh..." Okay that made more sense. "Yeah I get it...I think? Can we play now?"

"Alright, fine. You go first," she said in a voice that had gone eerily serene.

Tyrian stared down at the grid for a second before snatching up the stick Zahir had used to draw it. He made a little X in the upper left corner. Zahir followed by putting an O in the square directly beneath it. "HEY!" Tyrian groused. "I was gonna put an X there."

Her tone a bit smug, Zahir replied, "Well if you'd let me finish explaining I would have told you that it's my job to make sure you can't get three in a row and that I want to win by getting three in a row too."

"So we're fighting each other?"

"Yes."

"Ohh, okay! I like fighting!"

"I know you do. Now take your turn."

Tyrian quickly put an X beside the first one. He was following the second line Zahir had made in her example. Zahir put an O beside it.

He frowned, this time the expression less thoughtful and more annoyed. She was awfully good at playing where he wanted to play and he didn't like it. Now there was only one place he could play if he wanted to win with the first X he'd put down. Tyrian opted to fill in the center square.

Zahir, it seemed, was struggling with where to play next. Tyrian watched with no small amount of dread as she hovered over the bottom right corner (that's where he wanted to play!) for several impossibly long seconds. Waiting was agony. He was ready to be mad, ready to throw the stick...

And then she filled in the bottom left square instead.

With a gleeful shriek Tyrian filled in the bottom right corner and then jumped up and ran a couple laps around the prone snow leopard shouting, "I win! Yay! That was fun! Wanna play again, Zahir? Huh, do ya? I like this game!"