Between the Lines: Tales of the Discworld
Created by Terry Pratchett
Written by The Mighty Floyd
"Koom Valley"
The trolls and the dwarfs are natural enemies. Everyone knows this to be true. For all of their existence they have fought one another, battling endlessly through time. They battle under the sky, and under the ground, and through it all, the world moves on, unperturbed by the gnats killing each other other upon it, and the elephants underneath, and the world turtle, plodding through space until the end of the world.
This is the Discworld...
"To you, him diamond. Him king of trolls. You knob bags give him respect."
"B'hrian Bloodaxe, Low King of the Dwarfs, has arrived. All reverence the champion of dwarfdom."
The two natural enemies stood in front of each other, looking one another up and down. In the case of the troll, this didn't take him very long. They nodded to each other, and sat.
"So, we meet at last," said the Low King.
"Indeed. This has been long in the making," replied the diamond troll.
"A peace that will last to the end of time," finished the dwarf. "Do you have it?"
"Of course," the troll told him. He pulled a stone board from somewhere, and placed it on the flat rock between them. "Do you have the pieces?"
"Here," said the dwarf, setting a bag on the board.
The two spent a short while arranging the pieces, while both sides watched them warily.
"Please, begin," the dwarf said.
"Thank you," replied the troll, and he moved a stone dwarf across the board. The game had begun.
"Do you acquiesce your claims to this mountain?"
Click.
"Do you acquiesce that plain?"
Click.
The game continued, as the peace was put in its final arrangement. Neither player looked at the other, seemingly absorbed in his next move, yet each aware that one false step could end the entire process suddenly and, most likely, violently.
Finally, they raised their heads, and looked each other in the eye. On the board between them, a dwarf and a troll stood face to face, the last two pieces remaining on the board.
"Marvelously played," the troll congratulated the dwarf.
"And you," the other replied in kind.
And, suddenly, it all came crashing down around them as, from both sides, shouts of "Ambush" rose between the mountains. Weapons appeared as though by magic, and both sides charged.
The two kings could not be heard over the clash of battle as dwarf and troll met and killed. The tenuous peace was broken.
And suddenly, boulders fell from the sky, and swirling water rose from the ground, and the kings and their retainers were swept away, deep under the ground, to their eventual deaths, to one day be discovered by Samuel Vimes, along with the record of their peace.