Knucklebones is a simple game. You roll the dice, strategically place them, and hope that you come out on top.

This had been a particularly bad night of bets for The Lamb. Nothing seemed to be going their way and their supply of gold was getting smaller and smaller.

"Tonight's just not your night..." Ratau would taunt as he raked in more gold to his ever growing mountain of wealth.

"Y'knoooow..... There's always a way you could recoup all your losses in one go.~" He would eventually suggest. The betting currency being ever obvious, something that the other regulars to Ratau's hut would joke about whenever someone was on a losing streak.

With a simple nod, The Lamb had agreed to quite the high stakes.

As fast as The Lamb had agreed to the bet, they began to regret it. It was completely one sided. They couldn't seem to get any high numbers, and any time they started to build up a score of some kind, Ratau would roll the perfect number to bring it back down to nothing.

As Ratau finished it out with a 4, adding it to two others in the same row, he leaned back in his chair with a sigh,

"Ahhhhh.... This is why we always stop at jokes when it comes to betting like this..." Clearly not at all remorseful for planning on cashing in on that bet immediately.

Sure The Lamb may come back from the dead all the time, but followers tend to question their leader's decision, especially in cases like this. It would be way too hard to explain how they willingly let themselves get eaten because they lost a few dice rolls.

"Cmooooon, surely there's something else we can agree on? My next five expeditions of gold, all the food we grow for the next month, one of my other followers-"

Gwrrrrrrrgglll....

Cut off by Ratau's gut doing the talking, the conniving rat comes up with an extra greedy offer....

"Another follower huh?~ Well I'm not inclined to just let you off the hook, but if you want a way out... That grumpy little cat that used to love pushing us around... yeah, he would definitely make a worthwhile double or nothing.~" Ratau lays out his offer with extreme pleasure, licking his chops at the thought of a double meal, not just of his opponent, but also the death-god-turned-follower he used to spend all his time worshipping.

While The Lamb could come back, normal followers could not. Thankfully, Nari wasn't a normal follower, so he should be fine... Maybe? This is the kind of thing you should usually get confirmation on before putting someone's life at stake.

Not wanting to back down, especially since doing so meant a trip to rat guts, The Lamb took a deep breath and took a step forward, hand outstretched. Nari will probably be fine, but that won't matter cause there's no way Ratau is going to win AGAIN.

"Double or nothing."

"Double or nothing.~"

Dice were rolled, and the match seemed to be going in The Lamb's favor. Ratau was building up a decent score, but with some lucky rolls taking away Ratau's points, the excitement was building. Oddly enough though, Ratau seemed very calm, but he wasn't the one at risk of getting eaten, so it wasn't too suspicious.

Three sixes! It was becoming clearer and clearer that this night was turning around! The other two rows were pretty meager, but Ratau only has one space left, and with those sixes surely they'll-

Ratau rolled a six, and grinned wide as he looked up at his opponent and moved it into his final slot, eliminating a majority of The Lamb's score and ending the match.

"So..." He said with a wide grin. "I suppose you oughta go grab your kitty friend.~ And no, I won't risk losing all my winnings on infinite double or nothings.~"

Shocked and devastated, The Lamb drooped his head as he left to get Narinder.

---

Returning to the site of the "tragedy", Narinder entered first, still not sure what was going on.

"I told you, I have no interest in gambling with you and your flea ridden friend. I am only here to observe."

As he turned to say this to The Lamb, Ratau locked eyes with the unlucky dice player, and opened wide, pointing first at Narinder from behind, and then into his gaping maw.

"Well, what do you wa-"

With a hint of hesitation, they shoved Narinder back, headfirst into the rightful winner of tonight's games.

"WHAT TH- MMPHHH- UNHAND ME RAT!" Despite his struggles, Ratau had wrapped his arms around his feline prize, and The Lamb reluctantly held Nari's legs. There was no way he would be getting out of this one.

With a few rapid gulps, and a lot of eager tasting, the rat made quick work of Narinder, until all that remained were his legs.

Locking eyes with his second course, he pointed once more at his mouth, now full of slowly vanishing cat paws.

Understanding their fate, The Lamb held onto Nari's ankles, allowing their hands to be pulled in as they sunk deeper and deeper.

As time passed, The Lamb sunk deeper and deeper, as their new home grew larger and larger. Having gotten in most of the way, Narinder was punching and kicking up a storm, though it did little to prevent anything as the already tight space got more and more cramped, with the addition of the second course.

"I DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT THIS IS ABOUT, HOW COULD YOU BE STUPID ENOUGH TO ALLOW THIS!" Nari yelled, understandably filled with rage.

"Well you see, O god of death~, your leader here is real bad at dice games, and-"

Hearing this drives Narinder into a blind rage, Kicking and punching outwards, even bopping The Lamb a few times.

"YOU BET ME ON A GAME OF DICE?!?!?! WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT! I WAS ONCE YOUR LEADER! YOU WILL RELEASE ME AT ONCE-"

OOuuoUUUrrrrppPphhh....

Ratau cuts the shouting off with a loud belch, making the space inside ever tighter "Rules are rules, and I won't have it any other way.~" As he laid down on the ground, rubbing it in both literally and figuratively. He was going to enjoy every second of this.

Though when mentioning "rules", he kept quiet about the fact at least one or two of his rolls were done with... "special" dice of his...

"Settle down you two, you've got a loooooong night ahead of you..."

This would be a story he would be retelling to the guys for a looooooooong time...