Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon. If I did, I would be owning DreamWorks Entertainment and and be rolling around in money.
A/N: Hello! mohla . mohla here. I hope you enjoy this one-shot. It came to me in one of my in-bed ravings =P. Nice time for random thoughts.
This is my first stab at a fanfic (and I mean first try), so you can understand if there are any discrepancies.
"Checkmate."
Astrid looked down at the black-and-white, 8-by-8 board. Yes, her king was pinned down by her opponent's queen, bishop, rook, and knight. She bit her lip.
"Damn."
Hiccup grinned. Chess and other strategy games were basically the only things that he had an advantage—a huge advantage, about as huge an advantage as Astrid had over his strength—over his friends.
"How do you do that?" Astrid complained. "I can't understand how you're supposed to pi-checkmate this piece." She gestured toward the king.
"Well, you'll learn. It takes a lot of tries to learn how to play chess effectively. I had to do that, too." Hiccup tried to placate her.
"Yeah, out of a book." She retorted hotly.
Hiccup sighed and buried his head in his hands. He was contemplating how to soothe Astrid's rising temper when he heard her speak:
"Oh, Toothless, do you want to try?"
Hiccup glanced up. Toothless was staring intently at the chess board with Astrid looking quizzically at him.
"What?"
Toothless looked at Hiccup, and then pushed his snout toward the chess board.
Hiccup stared at him with confusion. "You sure you want to do that?"
Toothless just looked at him and huffed.
"…Fine."
They were both sitting in front of the chess board in the main room, with Toothless curled up on one side and Hiccup sitting on the other. Hiccup set up the chess board. "OK, bud, which side do you want? Black or white?"
Toothless nudged the side with the black pieces. Hiccup spun the board around until the black pieces came in front of Toothless.
The game started.
Hiccup moved first, advancing his pawn two spaces. Toothless replied, gripping the pawn with two ebony claws, much like a human would grip a piece between finger and thumb, and moving it forward.
The chess game advanced, with attacks and counter-attacks, sacrifices and captures.
Astrid could hardly believe her eyes. This game was completely beyond her. The fact that Toothless could have such a grasp of the game amazed her and irked her at the same time.
When the dust settled, Hiccup was gazing shocked at the board. His king was trapped in a corner with Toothless's queen and king pinning it down.
Still shell-shocked, Hiccup looked up at Toothless's smirking face.
"Well," Astrid said with satisfaction, "looks like somebody is up to your level in chess."
Hiccup rotated his head to her, his features changing from shock to determination.
"We'll see about that," he scowled. He turned to Toothless. "OK, bud. Time to go down in flames."
They set up the board again.
A/M #2: As always, R&R. Tell me what you think so that I can make my writing (and stories) better.
Any flames will be used to heat my house in the winter.