Spring Writes Stuff

31. Chess of Two Queens

This one-shot is based on Evenceflux18 's "Alice in Wonderland" AU with the LAIKA Kids.

"For valor, not for honor."

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       The young boy ran with his quick little feet as he held his wooden sword. He lets out a loud guffaw to hear its echoes across the empty ballroom.
       'Can you at least try to be silent?' says Eggs. The tall boy is sitting beside the two princesses, who are peacefully having their tea party amidst Kubo's roars of laughter.
       'Let him be, Eggs,' says Agatha, one of the young royal princesses beside him.
       Kubo stops in his steps and points his wooden sword towards the young builder. 'The princesses are right!' says Kubo.
       Eggs laughs, tipping the pointy end of the wooden sword away from him and continued on with his work.
       'At least Kubo has caused no casualties.' says Winnie, the other young royal princess beside him.
       'Yet.' says Eggs, pointing his small screwdriver to the air before getting a screw from his pocket and gently sticking it on top.
       'Hmm. Touché.' says Winnie, before taking a sip from her teacup.
       After running a few more laps around the ballroom, Kubo joined the three and sat on the floor.
       Agatha glances at him and smirks. 'Tired?' says Agatha.
       Kubo nodded and fell flat on the floor with a loud thud. He is indeed tired from all his running, but he couldn't think of anything to do.
       He took a glance over the two princesses. They're drinking make believe tea and seemed to be having fun as well. They must've been bored waiting too, Kubo thought to himself.
       Kubo glances over Eggs's spot. He felt immediately bored at what he's making, because he didn't have the energy to understand. Kubo closed his eye and groaned.
       The redhead places her teacup on the floor. 'Wybie and Norman are taking too long,' says Winnie with a pout on her lips.
       'I thought they went out to get the board?' says Agatha.
       'They are, but they're taking too long!' says Kubo.
       The tall doors of the ballroom suddenly creaked open. The four children turned their heads to the sound.
       'Sorry we took too long.' says Wybie while carrying the huge chess board in his little arms. The hole of his big green hat fell on top of his eyes. He giggled as he placed it on top of his head, before he continued walking.
        Kubo got up from the floor with a heavy breath. 'Good lord! We thought you two left us for good!' says Kubo.
       'Wybie and I played a long game to decide who carries the chess board all the way back here.' says Norman as he nudges Wybie's shoulder.
       'You just got lucky I lost my queen right away.' says Wybie with a frown on his face.
       The two friends finally sat with the rest of their friends. Norman reached for the other side of the board and help Wybie set the huge chess board on the marble floor.
       'Well, thank you for bringing the chess board for us, you two.' says Winnie.
       Agatha nodded her head in agreement. 'Indeed.' says Agatha.
       'After all, Eggs quite enjoyed his quality time building his contraption as he waited.' says Kubo, making the others laugh.
       Eggs continued to tighten the bolt on the side of the metal, not even bothering to give them all a quick glance.
       'At least I didn't run around the ballroom and screamed at the top of my lungs, Kubo.' says Eggs, making the others laugh at his words.
       Kubo crosses his arms with a huff. The young builder smirked as he neatly tucked the wires inside the metal.
       Wybie opened the chess board, making sure the pieces didn't roll off the marble floor too far from where they all are.
       'By the way, what is that you're building, Eggs?' says Wybie.
       'A chess clock.' says Eggs as he sealed the metal shut. 'The King asked me to build one for him.'
       'Splendid! Winnie and I can test if it works with our game!' says Agatha, a smile forming on her face.
       'I can't wait to see how you two play, since the both of you are capable of ruling Wonderland when we get older.' says Norman, helping Wybie set the pieces on the board.
       'It's just a game, Norman.' says Kubo with a shrug.
       'Chess is a way to see how someone thinks, and how they lead their pieces to victory.' says Norman.
       'Oh, dear. Agatha would win this for sure.' says Winnie. 'I don't play chess well, to be honest.'
       'We might as well see, sister.' says Agatha.
       Winnie raised a brow. For a second, Winnie felt like her sister is sending her a threat. But then, she realized that she is the threat to her sister.
       That thought made her smirk.
       'Alright, I'll still play.' says Winnie, despite her being unsure of what she's doing.
       Kubo, Norman and Wybie looked at the two royal princesses as they stared each other down.
       Wybie's scared at how they're looking at each other. He thought that they were going to start fighting each other any minute now.
       'Great!' says Eggs, placing the chess clock he made beside the board.
       'I'll set the time to ten minutes, so you both don't rush.' Eggs turns the knob behind the metal for a few times.
       The gears inside the clock jittered, creating a high pitched whirr. Everyone covered their ears at the sound.
       'Are you sure that this thing even works, Eggs!?' says Kubo as he gritted his teeth together.
       'We have to trust him, Kubo!' says Wybie as he closes his eyes shut.
       The whirring ultimately came to a a close. Silence filled the ballroom afterward. Everyone's eyes were on the chess clock.
       Winnie slowly opened her eyes, afraid that the thing might explode anytime soon.
       'C-can we play now?' says Norman.
       The clock heard the concern in his voice, and instantly shot down by itself for good.
       Eggs stared at the chess clock and smiled. Wybie scooted closer to the young builder and patted his shoulder.
       'You tried.' says Wybie.
       Norman nods. 'We should probably move so Winnie and Aggie can play.' says Norman.
       The four boys nodded in unison and begun to go further from the board, as Eggs collects the remains of his creation with a sob.
       'The clock will be solemnly missed.' says Kubo, helping him collect the debris of metal scattered on the floor with a frown.
       Eggs gets off of the floor. 'I'll try to fix this. Enjoy the game, little ones.' says Eggs.
       'We'll tell you who won, tall man.' says Kubo. Eggs stuck his tongue out before walking out of the ballroom with all his things.
       Agatha blinked. 'I think we can play without a chess clock for now, yes?' says Agatha, giving her sister a quick glance.
       'Yes. I'll have black's pieces.' says Winnie as she nodded her head.
        Agatha rose from the marble floor and sat on the white's side of the chess board. The older princess studies her pieces for a while, before nodding her head.
       'Shall we play?' says Winnie.
       'Let's get on with it.' says Agatha as she brings her pawn forward.
       Winnie grabs a pawn and places it in front of her sister's pawn. Agatha covers her mouth with her hand, looking intently at the board. Winnie doesn't know what her sister has in mind, and that scared her for a bit.
       Agatha dragged her queen outside of its position, attacking Winnie's black pawn.
       'Isn't it a bit too early to bring the queen into the game, Aggie?' says Kubo, letting out a small chuckle.
       Winnie ignored his remark and focused on the board. The redhead brought another pawn to attack the white queen. Winnie thought that if Agatha didn't move her queen away, she can capture it with her pawn.
       Agatha simply smiles. The older princess captures a pawn with her queen, checking Winnie's king.
       She left her king unprotected, Winnie thought to herself. That blunder was entirely her fault. Winnie moved her own queen to block Agatha's queen.
       'Your rook, Winnie.' Norman whispered.
       Agatha gave Norman a look, before moving her queen to capture Winnie's rook. The redhead slouched as she stared hard at the board.
       Winnie needed to trap Agatha's queen, so it could stop capturing any of her pieces. She stared at the white queen, and realized that the knight could help control Agatha's queen.
       The redhead moved her black queen one diagonal square to the left, threatening to capture the white queen.
       If Agatha chooses to get rid of Winnie's queen, she'd lose hers too for the black knight is protecting the black queen's advance.
       Agatha straightened her back and stared at the board. Winnie smiles to herself. She's caught her sister off guard.
       The older sister moved her hand over the white queen. Her eyes thought for another moment. And then Agatha caught the black pawn in front, refusing to trade off each other's queens.
       Winnie placed her little hands on her cheeks and breathes out. There's no way she can protect her other pieces now. Agatha's absolutely going to take all of them.
       She needs to end this game now, even though she doesn't know how.
       'Aggie's really good at this. It's scary.' says Wybie as he sets his hat beside him.
       'Thank you for the encouragement.' says Winnie as she rolled her eyes.
       Her gaze landed on her black queen. Her eyebrows furrowed. The black queen is indirectly threatening Agatha's king. Checkmate the king, the game ends, Winnie thought to herself.
       Winnie's eyes settled on the bishop beside her black king, and dragged it halfway across the board. She's planning to check Agatha's white king with her queen, guarded by the black bishop from afar.
       Kubo chortled at the redhead's move.
       'Evacuate!' says Kubo with a toothy grin.
       Wybie and Norman gave each other a look, before looking back at the chess board.
       Agatha raises a brow at her sister's move. Her eyes went from the black bishop and her white queen. Winnie looks at her sister, hoping she doesn't see her plans.
       The older princess glances over her sister, before capturing the black knight with her queen. Agatha checks Winnie's king once again.
       Winnie quickly moves her king one square up, avoiding Agatha's white queen.
       Agatha captures Winnie's bishop next, making the redhead grin. She realizes that Agatha merely went for her pieces, not knowing that she has left her king unguarded.
       Winnie grabbed her black queen and captured Agatha's pawn, checking her king.
       Agatha can't capture the queen because of the bishop guarding it, and her queen went too deep into Winnie's side of the board to defend her king at all.
       Agatha was left with no choice but to move her king away.
       The redhead captures her sister's white bishop, putting Agatha's king in check once more. Agatha suddenly shakes her head, her eyes stuck at the chess board in disbelief.
       Winnie saw what Agatha was staring at. Their eyes widened.
       'It couldn't be.' says Kubo, his mouth hung open upon staring at the chess board.
       'Wow. I thought Winnie was going to lose.' says Wybie.
       'You've thought wrong. That's checkmate.' says Norman.
       'Winnie won.'

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This is the visualization of Agatha and Winnie's chess game.
It is based on a game I've played myself.
I played as black.