After a long and dramatic battle of wills between myself and my muse I have decided to put If We Ever Meet Again on the backburner for a while. My muse refused point blank to give me the sentence I need and so eventually I gave up and let her give me inspiration for the next song instead which she seemed much happier about. I'm not giving up on If We Ever Meet Again completely though – I like it too much for that.
This next story/chapter is written at school so I also have a time limit of one hour (as this lesson my teacher hasn't turned up so I have an hour in which to do what I please – i.e. writing Sherlock Holmes fanfiction) if I haven't finished this I'll post it incompleteand then finish it at home.
Knights of Cydonia (Muse)
"Name a country" demanded Sherlock into the silence that had been gracing the nursery for the best part of the last hour.
"What?" Mycroft asked, distracted.
"Name a country!" Sherlock repeated.
"Cydonia"
"Is that a real country?" asked Sherlock suspiciously.
"Of course." replied Mycroft dryly.
"Alright." muttered Sherlock and he fell uncharacteristically silent.
"What on earth are you doing?" asked Mycroft, twisting in his seat. He saw Sherlock lying on the floor by the window setting up a chess board.
"Be careful with my chess set." he warned and picked up his book again pleasantly surprised that Sherlock was partaking in a sensible and quiet activity instead of carrying out one of his usual dubious experiments. Mycroft still shuddered when he thought of the time Sherlock had decided to investigate the different rates at which his toys burned.
Several minutes later Mycroft was pulled away from his book by several loud repetitive tapping sounds.
"What are you doing now?" he asked exasperated wondering how on earth the eight year old could manage to turn every activity into something that could grate on Mycroft's nerves.
"Playing chess." replied Sherlock innocently, "the Queen and King aren't very realistic." He added with slight disappointment in his voice. Mycroft took a moment to decipher Sherlock's speech.
"Sherlock! Chess is not like your toy soldier, you're not supposed to play battles with them; chess has rules." Mycroft paused and looked at his brother. Sherlock was looking up at him with slight incredulity on his face.
"Are you sure?" he asked.
"Of course I'm sure!" Mycroft snapped. "You don't know how to play chess then?" Sherlock looked down at the board where the scattered pieces lay looking for all the world like the aftermath of a minute battle.
"I am playing chess." pointed out Sherlock slightly sullenly.
"Let me teach you to play properly." Mycroft said. He thought that the logical aspects of chess would appeal to Sherlock and thought that maybe it would in the future serve to keep Sherlock quiet and entertained. Mycroft stood and crossed the nursery to sit cross-legged on the opposite side of the board to Sherlock. He picked up the fallen pieces and put them in their correct places on the board.
"The board starts like this." he told Sherlock who was watching him with interest. Mycroft pointed out the different pieces and their names.
"Isn't a rook a bird?" asked Sherlock.
"Yeeeees"
"So why is there a bird in a battle? All the other pieces make sense."
"I don't know Sherlock but it is not important."
"So white always starts." Mycroft said.
"Why?" asked Sherlock "and that's Cydonia."
"Sorry?"
"Cydonia." repeated Sherlock. "This side," Sherlock pointed to the white pieces "is Cydonia. And this side" Sherlock pointed to the two rows of black pieces "is England. Why does Cydonia always go first?"
"It just does." said Mycroft sighing heavily. He was beginning to regret his decision to teach Sherlock chess.
"On the first move you have to move a pawn, but you can move it two squares forward." He moved one of his pawns. Sherlock narrowed his eyes and copied Mycroft.
"Usually you can only move the pawns one square forward." Mycroft moved another one of his pawns. Sherlock watched copied him again.
"You can move different pieces to me." Mycroft commented.
"Oh I know." Sherlock assured him.
"So now I can move another piece out onto the middle of the board." Mycroft moved his bishop.
"What religion do they believe in in Cydonia?"
"Why does it matter?" asked Mycroft disbelievingly.
"It might affect where I move my Bishop."
"A bishop is associated with the Christian religion Sherlock." Mycroft replied sagely. "Anyway how can that possibly affect the way you move the piece?" Sherlock just gave him a mysterious smile and moved his Bishop to the square opposite where Mycroft moved his. Mycroft smirked and took Sherlock's bishop with one of his pawns.
"What are you doing with Cydonia's bishop?" asked Sherlock indignantly.
"Taking it. If a piece is in the path of another piece I can take it." Mycroft smiled and placed Sherlock's bishop at the side of the board, "I'm not going to go easy on you." Sherlock scowled.
"The bishop wasn't in the way of the pawn." he muttered darkly. "Stupid England"
Not quite finished so will put up the next part when I get home. This isn't bad though for an hour.
Thanks to everyone has reviewed
Thanks for reading.