The Disobedience
"...ck." The lights returned to normal and the confused players looked around.
"What the heck?" Crabbe asked. Other similar questions were being asked by other pieces. Then the lights dimmed. Some pieces looked around warily, but some began to yawn. The wolfjackals began to settle in first, yawning, and performing some strange ritual of biting the leader's nose. Crabbe and Goyle fell asleep next, their hands clutching their wands in case of danger. Then more of the dark side: the dragons, Tybalt, Tigerstar, Bloodstar, and Capricorn; all lay down on their squares, some using clothing as blankets. Next Jimmy Blake and El Gato fell asleep, the later tossing and turning though somehow managing to remain within the confines of his square.
Finally all the sentient beings but Maddoc and Ender were asleep. They looked at each other, and then at the sleeping pieces. Ender stepped to his right.
"Well, I can't do anything," Maddoc said. "My pieces are all asleep."
"You can do many things."
"It doesn't matter..." A glowing figure began to appear. Suddenly there was a flash of light and a blue, four-legged thing appeared in the square that Vader had previously occupied. The other pieces began to wake up, and stretch out.
"Ender, you moved!" El Gato said.
"...so I did." Ender unconsciously looked at the bishop that had of course been there since the beginning of the game. He remembered Rachel's reaction...
The Dark team felt that it should have had an easier time finding a bishop for the black squares than it did. Eventually, it claimed one, and began organizing him along with the rest.
Rachel dallied on her square, watching the Dark team try to line up.
"Taking them long enough..." She peered towards the back row and noticed a tail blade swinging dangerously. "Ender?"
"What?" he snapped out of his concentration.
She pointed towards the Andalite-controller. "I call that guy."
Maddoc, meanwhile, was looking around at his now-awake pieces. "Bloodstar, move up two,"
Yowling, the cat complied.
"El Gato, one."
He silently slinked forward.
The king once again stumbled forward, to his left. He fell into his square, unable to hold himself upright. He coughed, and blood spattered across the square.
"I could end this game in two moves, if I wanted. But cats love to play with their mice..." Maddoc taunted.
"Lucky El Gato's on our team then." Jimmy moved up two at Ender's word.
"Wolfjackals, up one."
They barked and leaped ahead.
"Do you believe in honor?" Ender posed an odd question that El Gato did not respond to. He stepped backward.
"Continue, until you get to the back row, wolfjackals, one a turn..."
They continued energetically.
"Don't do it," Ender warned. "Up one, El Gato."
"Wolfjackals, I take that back. Bloodstar, take the goalie."
He slashed El Gato in the neck, and the pawn disappeared.
Ender hopped forward almost eagerly.
"Now you can queen yourselves." They bounded forward energetically, each receiving a crown as they reached the square. They howled in delight.
"Check, um, Ender? Is it mate?"
"You're asking me? Jimmy, get off the board."
"What?"
"Off." Ender pointed left. Eyes wide, Jimmy stepped down.
"What in Krynn are you doing?" Maddoc swore.
"We're not in Krynn."
"Just tell me what the h is going on."
"You won, didn't you?" Ender moved left and began a straight away sprint at Maddoc.
"I suppose one of us couldn't have avoided being made a sacrifice. It's a pity. Had Takhisis not already put you in such a bad position, I would probably have seen a more worthy opponent. I have enjoyed thrashing you." And Maddoc lifted his hands and began to mutter. The other dark pieces, seeing that Ender no longer played by the basic rules, split up. Half jumped off the board to tackle Jimmy Blake, the others circled Ender, causing him to stop his sprint. He tried to find a way around them, but they had him surrounded. They herded him towards Maddoc, to await his commands. Another ring of dark pieces, surrounding Jimmy, came from the other side of the board. Maddoc had closed his eyes, and was still muttering.
"What do you want with them?" Crabbe asked hesitantly. Next to him were two red dragons, and that was all that was stopping Ender from getting to Maddoc. Suddenly, Maddoc finished the spell. He released the power, opened his eyes, and stared in shock.
"Stupid!" he roared. A huge fireball had erupted from his fingers, and gone straight at the pieces. Red dragons are immune to fire. Crabbe, however, was not. The fireball hit him with such force that he fell over backwards, burning. He fell into Ender, who was still trying to escape, and they both went down in a tangle of arms and legs. Both pieces disappeared.
"Let the pawn go, we don't need him," Maddoc whispered wearily. Then he fell over, exhausted.
Jimmy touched the stones of the wall tentatively, hoping that they would open up to let him escape. It didn't work.
"Now what?" asked Raistlin. "I never moved!"
"Neither did I," Tybalt complained.
"We didn't even get to come up there!" a muffled voice exclaimed. "Quit your complaining. At least you got to watch."
"We're still bored. How do we get home When will he wake up?"
"At least your team is still alive!" Jimmy joined.
"Not our fault, well, maybe, it is..."
"So, what do we do?"
"I guess we just wait."
"How long?"
"However long it takes."
"That could be a while." Jimmy decided to speed up the process by trying to revive Maddoc. He walked around the perimeter to Maddoc's square and spat on him. Nothing happened.
"Okay then." Jimmy sat down on the thin border separating the board from the boundaries, and twiddled his thumbs.