Big Lion and Togaksch

 

The Great Hall is crowded with nervous chattering people. Some of them discuss the ancestry of the camouflaged stranger, others prefer to crouch in the corners whispering in agitation. A chanting group forms behind the disputed dwarf, making the hall echo with their battle-cries while swinging transparents with strange tables and statistics.

Majestically, the big lion paces through all that noise, flanked by a magical fairy conjuring a golden glow over the lions mane, whispering blessing spells while escorting the king of the animals to the board.

Abruptly the noise stops as the Crimson Queen enters the Great Hall. Silently she walks through the crowd to a small pedestal at the far end of the hall. The spectators strain their eyes to see the glorious Queen, hard to discover behind the mysterious dwarf, when she starts to speak: "Friends of the Mystical Chess", she nods a short greeting to the group behind the dwarf and the crowd surrounding the board,"thank you for coming in such big numbers. Disturbing rumors have filled the room long enough, let´s start the fight for enlightenment!"

A peculiar odor of canned fruit fills the room, when the dwarf screeches snottily: "Ha-ha, what a kinglike appearance, a moth bitten, cross-eyed lion. Is there no more deserved rival for a splendid fighter?" The dwarf´s supporters roar with laughter, while the little fairy is fluttering around the lions mighty mane, fighting back her tears of anger.


1. e4

With a big roar the lion raises his paw, looking daggers at his opponent, while pushing the e-pawn, almost touching the d-pawn by mistake due to his worsening vision.

1....... Nf6

With his head upraised, not even looking at the board, the dwarf flips his knight fizzling: " Hop, crock!"

2. Nc3 Nc6
3. Nf3 e5
4. Bc4 N:e4

The lion feels a weird prickle in his left hindpaw, some pressure fills his head while an interior voice moans: "Just the right thing for me, let me out clumsy fellow, I will tie this bozo into knots!" Some spectators groan astonished, when the lion's eyes seem to flicker between a warm gold and a luminous green, hearing a mixture of roaring and adjuratory spiting.

5. 0-0 N:c3
6. d:c3 h6
7. Re1 d6
8. Nd4 ...

"Play up, weirdo, try and catch me!" the lion annoys the dwarf with his changed, cheeky voice.

8. ......Na5

An icy breeze touches the spectators faces, when the dwarf slowly turns his cloaked head, looking to his supporting fans, speaking: "Blood-feeding insects have to be squashed!" His bloodcurdling laughter fills the hall, seeing the lion looking cross-eyed and trembling at him.

9. Bb5+ c6
10. Bd3 c5
11. Nb5 Be6
12. b4 Nc6
13. b:c5

"Oh dear, what have you done ….my pawnstructure". The lions eyes, open wide with horror, turn back to a warm gold, the voice, sonorous and resonant again, seems to hide a faint tremulousness.

13. ..... d:c5
14. Ne4 a6
15. D:d8 ...

"No queens, less danger - no woman, no cry…" the lion thinks, while the cheeky voice inside him crys out in pain.

16. Na3 Bd6

The dwarf seems not even be aware of his chanting fans, one's blood runs cold seeing the mysterious man, never using more than a wink before moving.

17. c4 Kc7
18. Bb2 Nd4

Suddenly the dwarf raises his head, shortly waves to the group behind him and bursts out into sardonic laughter. While the lion stares at the board, hanging his head more and more, the dwarf seems to be animated in a strange way by some fruity drops, thrown up by a little girl.

Hopping on one leg the dwarf starts crying:

Tomorrow I brew, today I bake,
And then the child away I´ll take;
For little deems my royal dame,
That Rumpelstiltzkin is my name!


19.Rab1 Rab8

Amazed by the dwarfs weird behaviour, which is accompanied by frenzied laughter, no one seems to notice either the desparate look of the lion, or the worried eyes of the fairy beside him.

20. Bd5 Rhe8
21. f3 b6
22. Ra1 b5

More and more drops mingled with candied fruits are hurtled torwards the arena of the Mythic-Chess-Fight, seeming to give the unknown a special form of power. Hopping from one leg to the other he sings incomprehensible words: "...soup and pottage, own, cooking, hmmhmmm and tried and canned and tropicaaaaaaal.", interrupted surprisedly by a foreign-language shout against the lion : "WURZE! Patzer! "

23. B:e6 R:e6
24. c:b5 a:b5
25. Rac1 c4

"Fight my brave lion!" the fairy whispers with a beseeching voice, covering her face in fear.

26. c3 Nf5
27. Rb1 Bc5+
28. Kh1 Ra8
29. N:b5+ Kc6
30. Bc1 R:a2

The dwarf seems to become more and more space-consuming, spreading a clowd of coldness and contemptibility in the hall, while the lion sinks down more and more. Some adamantine glittering tears run over the fairy´s jowls, seeing her beloved lion devastated.

31. Rd1 Re8
32. Rd2 Rea8
33.g4 ...

With a croaky roar, the lion tries to rear up, feeling the cloud of coldness paralysing his energy, even hushing the voice inside him.

33. ... Nh4
34. f4 Ra1
35. R:a1 R:a1

The yell of the fairy fills the hall, superposed by Togaksch´ slurping whilst eating up all the drops and fruits.

36. Rd1 K:b5

"Come on, capitulate, wretched creature!", Togaksch scoffs at the lion, "it´s such a pitiable sight!"

The whisperings and murmer of the fairy fills the room now. With wide open arms, upright, everyone hears her spell: "I´m pining to feel the cold rush of the wind, I´m yearning to hear the whistle and howl, to the stars in the heavens I cry....", and with a tremendous boom a blue, translucent figure sweeps through the hall.

With wide open eyes everyone stares at the intriguing man, hearing his melodic voice referring to the fairy: " You called me - how can the Wind-Singer be a helper for his admired fairy?" Whispering with the fairy, the Wind-Singer grows and grows, filling the board, the hall, the court, raising a tremendous storm, taking the board high up in the sky, swirling and twirling it can be seen flying through the clouds of sand, the Wind-Singer seems to call from distant deserts, surrounded by the tumbling pieces. Even the cryptic dwarf seems to be awestruck by the power of the Wind-Singer.

Dead silence fills the hall after the storm stops, rearranging the board in the middle of the arena. Magnetized, all the people gaze at the board, hearing the silence being interrupted by a triumphant scream.

Roaring with laughter Togaktsch dances through his admirers, juggling apples, oranges and peaches, missing the excuses of the Wind-Singer: "I´m awfully sorry, much valued fairy, I did everything in my power..." Melting into tears, the fairy thanks the Wind-Singer for his efforts, falling down beside the lion, resignedly lying on the floor. Suddenly some new energy seems to warm the fairy, when a Pegasus shows up and his nostrils pet her jowls. With warmhearted eyes the fairy looks up into the horses face, listening to his whispering with more and more exaltation. Everyone keeps his eyes on the glamourous pair, watches the Pegasi wings raise, hears the gentle voice of the fairy whisper: "Fly my friend, fly and deal wisely!" Majestically the Pegasus flys up, floats through the hall and reaches with a soft landing his admired square.

The lions head, still covered with glittering sand of far distant deserts, lies sapeless on the floor, while the Queen looks trembling to her Pegasus. A flashing light sent by the Pegasus wings glares the lions eyes, making him blink. "Strewth, at last you did it, sleepy lion!" he hears the voice jangling inside him, "Good Lord, don´t move and let me settle things!" Before the lion is able to answer back, he feels the special prickle, starting in his left hind paw, reaching his back and taking posession of all the massive body.

"Good Lord, what a fug!" calls the lion in an astounding changed voice. Even the eyes of the animals´king seem to have changed from a warm gold into a gleaming green. "Keep your trap shut, no one can bear that tang of rotten fruits !" the refreshed lion picks on the unbelieving Togaksch. The shimmer of the winged horse rises to a blazing glow, overflowing the whole board with a glamorous glint.

1. Qe5+ ...

Blood surges to Togaksch face, warped into an ugly grimace now, when he sees the lions paw drawing near the white queen. A direful howl fills the hall than the dwarf bends forward with wide spread arms, horrified looking on the smirking lion,accidentally giving a short insight under his cawl. A murmer fills the hall of the Crimson Court, simmering with excitement a man's voice can be heard: " Why have I got the notion, I know this man...", but in an instant all rumor and voices fall silent, than the impressive risen lion crows: " Play up, scary Guy, I want to savor seeing you being on your last legs!"

1. ........ Ka8
2. Nc7+ Kb8
3. N:e8+ Ka8

Aglowing with happiness the fairy watches magnetized by the events, hearing a scarcely audible purring: "Hey, have you cooked his goose? I want to switch back, hurry up!"

4. Nc7+ Kb8
5. Na6+ Ka8

The Pegasus finishes his triumphal feat squeezing all the breath out of Toga, who tramps on the floor gasping and drenched in sweat, out of control with rage, fretting and fuming.

6. Qb8+ R:b8
7. Nc7 ##

Togaksch´ last howl resounds throughout the hall :

"None of all you miserable squirts in this court is worthy of watching the great Togaksch! Never, not at any time, will any of you vile creatures be allowed again to see even one nibble of the master of the Magic World!"

The dwarf drags his cowl, elongating the hood more and more. Murmur fills the hall, when more and more of the unknown becomes invisible, just allowing the spectators to see the finale of the dwarf: In his rage Togaksch drives his right foot so far into the ground that he sinks in up to his waist; then in a passion he seizes the left foot with both hands and tears himself in two.

"Impressive!", the lion scoffs licking his paws with pleasure, "What a grand performance - although I fear, that gives us some duplicate of this glamour boy!"

But before having finished his sentence, the king of the animals is elavated by countless arms and carried through the hall. Hearing all his admirers cheering, the lion is all smiles, making sheep-eyes at the fairy flying on his side.