War and Peace

[altariel]

mraltariel wrote a response to Old Soldiers.

War and Peace

Sometimes, his story could afford a moment's peace and contemplation. Under the shade of a favoured tree, feet in the tingling silver of the winter stream, he would take out the box. Unwatched, he turned the pieces in his fingers, inspecting their dark and sinuous curves, their haughty faces, their minute solidity.

They spoke of his father, and his grandfather out-of-time. They spoke of the rain and the echo of a game that was not a game but history.

That evening, Faramir found an anonymous slip of paper at his bedside, "1.e4" in a childish hand.

He wept.

Comments

[ideealisme.livejournal.com]

He plays, doesn't he :)

I love that, beautiful and terse.

[greylin.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. And - of course - King's Pawn.

[brinian.livejournal.com]

Mr. A has some mad skillz! He should write more. Thanks for posting this. And, BTW, I LOVEDLOVELOVED Old Soldiers. Any Amrothos/Faramir interaction you or Isabeau write is just wonderfully skilled. Nice job both you and Mr. A!

[genarti]

Oh, this is a perfect follow-up.

[azalaisdep.livejournal.com]

the echo of a game that was not a game but history.

[sniffle]

I so love that Leof's already fallen for chess. It particularly resonates for me at the moment since I have two small, blond, chess-playing children being taught by their distracted dark-haired father :-)

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Another very late comment:

Beautiful! I think it's the 'Unwatched' that speaks to me, that sets the scene even more than the description of the tree and the stream, in that it provides the gap in which the game that is not a game might begin again.