Author’s note: In preparation for NaNoWriMo 2009, someone put up daily prompts on one of the forums. I did them in the spirit of warm-ups, but some of them turned into stories. Here is one such.

Prompt (and title): Let’s play a little game.

Let’s play a little game. Suppose we imagine this is all a chessboard, see—you play chess where you come from, don’t you?  Great game, chess.  King and queen and big shots, and then the little guys—the pawns—and see, if a pawn is really lucky, see, she can cross the board and turn into a queen.

Okay, so it’s chess, see…

No, we are not the king or the queen.  Not us, baby.  We are the pawns, see, and we have to get to the other side of the board.  Not that our chances are particularly good, because we can only take teenytiny steps compared to the rest of them.  Bishop can zap you if he’s got a clear shot across the diagonal.  Rook gets you going down a row or a column, see.  Knights—now they’re scary, are knights, because they can do this little hooking thing, that’s their move. You think that wouldn’t be much, but sometimes you’ve got your eye on the bishop or the rook, and bang! some knight gets you.

The king’s not much, he can’t take but a step in any one direction, but he’ll kill you sure as anything if you get too close.  And the queen takes no prisoners.

Damn, it’s dark out there.  How much oxygen you got left there?  Not bad.  OK, that’s good for the night.  I think there’s another tank back there.

We’re pinned down for the night, though.   No, don’t think further than that.  Pawns can only move a step at a time.

Let’s play a little game.  Suppose we got a chessboard—well, we don’t, but just imagine.  OK, see it?  I’ll play black, you play white.

Oh all right, if it’s silver and blue where you come from, fine.  Suit yourself.

(Process information: 10/14/2009 finished at 5:05 PM, 298 words, 11 minutes)