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In the Kingdom of Check, everyone moved according to rules. The Castles could only walk in straight lines. The Bishops scurried diagonally through the markets. The Knights jumped over houses.
Pawn 74 was tired. He could only move forward. One step at a time. Never back. Never sideways.
"It's the rules," the White King said from his stationary throne. "Order is everything."
But Pawn 74 saw the Black Queen approaching. She was terrifying, moving in any direction she pleased. She was going to capture the King.
The Knights were stuck in an L-shape pattern. The Bishops were on the wrong color squares. No one could help.
Pawn 74 looked at the square to his left. It was forbidden. To move sideways was heresy.
But if he didn't, the game was over.
He took a deep breath. He stepped left. The ground didn't crack. The sky didn't fall.
He intercepted the Queen. He was small, but he was an obstacle. She stopped, confused. A Pawn moving sideways?
In that moment of confusion, the King escaped.
Pawn 74 was arrested, of course. But as he sat in the dungeon, he smiled. He wasn't a Pawn anymore. He was a piece that had made his own move.