Free Chess With a Dragon by David Gerrold

wouldn’t object to that.”
    â€œNeither would I,” agreed Larson.
    â€œBut of course,” said Madja. “What good is solution if you can’t also enjoy it?”

No Small Reward
    Hnaxx reached across the intervening space and stroked the fore claw of the young and lovely Rrr. “Thank you for a most enjoyable and successful mating,” Hnaxx said. “Your enthusiasm and your delight are well appreciated. I shall reward you to the utmost should the larva prove healthy.”
    Rrr nodded its head in gentle acquiescence. It was still too young to talk with much fluency, it had eaten its way out of its own host grub only a few seasons past.
    Hnaxx let its claw linger on Rrr’s for only a moment longer, then stood to address the rest of the gathering at the table.
    â€œMy lords and colleagues—” Hnaxx clacked its mandibles loudly for attention. The pavilion fell silent quickly as one green triangular head after another swiveled to that angle of the table. The large bright eyes all glittered like jewels.
    â€œLet us honor the service that has been performed for us,” Hnaxx began. “Let us honor with loud enthusiasm.”
    The room filled with the sound of clacking mandibles and rasping hind claws, even a few delicious hoots as Hnaxx continued. “The young and clever K!rikkl has provided valuable information to this Nest and we shall all prosper from it for many years. We are more than simply enriched. We are more than momentarily enriched. We shall ever be enriched by this service, both exemplary and extraordinary. Let us honor the one who has made it possible.
    â€œLet us make K!rikkl one of us, flesh of our flesh, body of our body.”
    Hnaxx looked around the room at the other members of the powerful Trrrl-t nest. They were fat and juicy and their great multi-faceted eyes were focused like spotlights. “On your behalf, oh Noble Lords, the humble Hnaxx promised K!rikkl that the Nest stood ready to serve him—and tonight, we shall.”
    Hnaxx clacked his fore claws loudly.
    Instantly, six sturdy servants strode into the room, carrying a great wooden platter upon which K!rikkl’s body was cracked, pinioned, roasted, split, sauced and sliced. The guests applauded enthusiastically, rattling their mandibles and rasping their hind legs loudly and vigorously.
    â€œA great honor! A great honor!”
    â€œA beautiful feast! Bravo! Bravo!”
    â€œHow delicious the young Ki! looks!”
    Hnaxx lowered itself next to Rrr again. “We shall impregnate many fine grubs, shall we not, my tenderness?”
    Rrr rasped its claws demurely and labored to speak. “I stand ready to be mounted, my lord.”
    â€œAnd so you shall. So you shall.”
    Hnaxx turned to K!rikkl’s steaming corpse in the center of the room and broke off the first tender leg. The juices dripped appetizingly from K!rikkl’s foreclaws. Hnaxx felt gratified that the presumptuous, ill-mannered, ambitious and insulting young Ki! had met an appropriate fate. Delicately, Hnaxx cracked the shell of K!rikkl’s claw and inserted its long yellow proboscis.
    A moment of hesitation—
    Yes.
    K!rikkl was delicious.
    Hnaxx stood up and announced, “The flesh is sweet! Let the feast begin!”
    It was a grand evening! A grand evening indeed.
    There would be much honor for the Nest as a result of this evening. Indeed, three problems had been solved with one feast. What to do about K!rikkl, what to do about K!rikkl’s grub.
    And one other matter, which must somehow be discussed privately with the Great Egg-Master.
    Until then, of course, Hnaxx indulged most delightfully and enthusiastically in both of the major pleasures of the flesh. K!rikkl’s and Rrr’s.
    Seldom was the resolution of an affair so satisfying.
    The rest of the evening’s entertainment proved equally successful: Of course, the temperature songs and the orchard dances were a delight. They