Author's Note: I don't own these characters or the Thud game, they belong to Pratchett, I'm just borrowing them.
This is a little thing I wrote a while back. It's not going anywhere at the moment, but it may be continued at a later date if any inspiration hits. Little plot but hope you like it anyway.
Margolotta sighed and swept the pieces from the board. No matter which side Havelock played, dwarf or troll, he almost always seemed to win. On the rare occasions that he didn't win, Margolotta could think of only three possibilities as to why.
i) He had a lot on his mind with that monster of a city and had more important things to attend to, thus deliberately allowing his game to slip.
ii) He had not been able to anticipate her move and had made genuine mistakes; after all, not even he could be perfect.
iii) He was in a good mood and feeling benevolent and had allowed her to win.
However much she tried to convince herself that it was the first or second she never quite succeeded. The first just didn't fit the man's nature: if he was having a hard time he would use every available opportunity to sharpen his skills. The second… well, the second she did believe, in the real world – but not within the limits imposed by the physical restraints of a game board. There were too few options.
That only left the third.
It came to be quite depressing, it really did. Centuries older than him and still he could run political rings around her and tie her mind in knots. Letting her win was like a father telling his child that it's not the winning that counts it's the taking part, when the child knows very well that the winning is the only thing that counts and that what her father has told her is a complete load of horse dung. He really was a most vexing man.