Five hand poker wasn't exactly known by the other witches, but there was Hexes Hold'em, which was similar except Hold'em used jokers as wild cards, which messed with Axel.
Though there was one witch that didn't know how to play.
"Straight flush!" the Golden Guard confidently said.
"That's a normal flush," Axel pointed out.
"But they're all red?" the Golden Guard asked.
"But those are hearts and those are diamonds," Axel said pointing at his cards.
"Well, it's still a good hand," the Golden Guard mumbled.
"Not as good as my full house!" Grape said laying her cards out.
"What! But you never increased the bet!" Apple frustratedly said laying down his three of a kind.
"That didn't mean I had a bad hand," Grape taunted.
"Royal Flush," Lettuce called out.
"No using illusion magic on the cards," the captain reminded.
Avoiding eye contact, Lettuce removed their illusion magic from the cards, reveling a pair.
"I hate this game," Artichoke said, putting his cards down without even revealing them.
"You're only saying that because you're down a few snails," Apple said.
"Oh yeah, just a few snails," Artichoke mumbled.
"Can you keep it down? I'm trying to sleep," the citizen asked, still tied up.
"No," Lettuce replied.
"I'm taking a walk," Axel said getting up from the hard ground.
"Remember to not stray far from the cave," the captain replied, starting to gather cards and shuffle the deck.
"Understood Captain," Axel responded.
Axel walked out of the cave looking at their surroundings, before turning back to look at the cave.
Inside the cave were the seven witches playing five hand poker around the deck. Behind them sat a fire lit by one of Axel's fire glyphs.
The campfire was the only thing that illuminated the surroundings and helped warm the scouts.
Axel then looked below him at the snow. There was something here, he knew it. A new glyph perhaps, the books he was reading about wild magic talked of an elemental system that was combined to make any spell.
He knew there was something in the snow, but he couldn't see it.
"Hey Beetle," Grape said, "You want in this round?" she asked.
"I'm good, I actually think I'm going and try and get some shut eye," Axel said walking back into the cave.
"I actually think that that's a good idea," Grape said putting the cards she drew back into the pile.
"What! Come on Grape! We can go one more round," Apple called out.
"The scout is right we need sleep so we can wake up nice and early tomorrow," the Golden Guard agreed.
"Come on now, give me my cards," Axel called out.
"Here," the captain said gathering the cards and handing them to Axel.
He put his cards in his coat and looked around for the best place to take a nap.
"I'll do first watch," the captain said, "I'll wake the Golden Guard in a few hours, then he'll decide who's next," he said.
"Sound good to me," Apple said before laying down on the ground and covering themselves up with their coat.
Axel laid down on the ground, the puffy coat helped with the comfort, but laying down on hard rock was unconfutable no matter what someone wore.
But apparently the exhaustion from everything in the day hit Axel was a truck, because he closed his eyes for one minute as the captain stoked the fire, and he when opened them he saw the Golden Guard reading a book near the campfire.
'Who carries a book with them on a mission?'
Waking the rest of his body up, Axel went over to sit next to the Golden Guard out of curiosity.
"What are you reading?" Axel asked, sitting down.
"Nothing!" the Golden Guard responded, hiding the book, "What are you doing awake? It's not your turn yet," he said.
"Bored and curious at what you were reading," Axel replied simply, wrapping a hand around the Golden Guards shoulder.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"Huddling up for warmth," Axel responded, "But if you don't like it, I'll stop," he said pulling his arm back.
"So, you may remain asleep, until," the Golden Guard started to say.
"From Bones to Earth, a book on wild magic," Axel read out.
"What! Where did you get that!" the Golden Guard asked looking at Axel holding his book.
"You could get in some real trouble for having this," Axel said.
"No one will believe you," the Golden Guard said sternly.
"Hold on a minute, I'm not going to tell on you, that would be cheap, I'm just curious why the right hand of the Emperor himself would be looking into wild magic," Axel asked handing the Golden Guard his book back.
"Uncle Bel-, my uncle is cursed and I think that wild magic might be the key to saving him," the Golden Guard answered.
"Interesting," Axel murmured.
'What kind of curse needs specifically wild magic?'
"Now, may I ask you a question?" the Golden Guard asked.
"I suppose I owe you that, so ask away," Axel responded.
"What is with the names you scouts call each other, like Grape or Beetle," the Golden Guard asked.
"You don't know? It's based on what we put on our food, I put Beetle scales on mine, what do you put on your food?" Axel asked.
"You put things on your food?" the Golden Guard asked.
"Well, I suppose different positions get different foods," Axel mumbled.
"You don't get scale rye with boiled eye and a tentacle?" the Golden Guard asked.
"That sounds exactly like what I eat," Axel responded, "I usually get my scales on my one day off a week, but I heard that higher positions get less time off," he said.
"Your right, I get one day off a year," the Golden Guard responded.
"You must look forward to that day all year," Axel teased.
"Not really, most of my life has been in the castle after my uncle saved me from wild witches," the Golden Guard said, "I don't have much to look forward too," he shrugged.
'So his uncle is someone high up in the coven system'
"Very interesting, so about that book," Axel asked.
"Oh, well it's actually a book about how wild magic is split into four different elements, light, ice, fire, and plants. Wild witches would combine them to cast any spell," the Golden Guard told.
"What do you mean would cast, aren't there still wild witches, isn't that what we came here for?" Axel asked.
"Most wild magic has been lost to time, and the term wild witch is different than what it once meant, wild witches used to be any witch who used spells out side the coven system, but it eventually shifted to any witch without a seal, due to demands from the Titan," the Golden Guard explained.
"I'm guessing the Titan talked through the Emperor?" Axel asked.
"Who else can talk to the Titan?" the Golden Guard asked.
"I see, well I'll take the watch from here," Axel said patting the Golden Guard on the back.
"It hasn't been the full time yet?" the Golden Guard responded.
"How long have been reading that book?" Axel asked.
"I'm not sure," the Golden Guard responded.
"You've probably been reading that thing for longer than you think, now off with you," Axel said.
"Fine, remember we're leaving tomorrow bright and early," the Golden Guard remined while getting up and finding a place to lay down.
"I know I know," Axel said.
Axel waited a moment staring at the fire, before leaving for the snow.
Standing in the snow Axel thought.
'Light, ice, fire, plant, I know the glyphs for light and fire, and I'm surrounded by ice'
He then got on his knees and began digging into the snow. He needed to be more, he needed more, and the rest of the glyphs allowing him to cast more spell would help him greatly.
It was then we he realized something.
'I'm not surrounded by ice, I'm surround by snow, little ice'
Grabbing a hand full of snow, Axel brought it up to the eyeholes in his mask and looked as closely as he could.
That's when he saw it, a pattern, and glyph.
Quickly he ran into the cave, grabbing a charred stick from the campfire and drawing the pattern he saw on the ground.
Then, a pillar of ice rose from the pattern.
'YES'