by C. Litka
01
Hissi spent her time playing games and sleeping. Luckily, at least for the financial well being of the crew, she had discovered a new game - the Pela's slightly mutated version of chess. PinTin found her card playing fascinating, and as an experiment, I suspect, introduced her to chess. As soon as she realized that this game was an order of magnitude harder than DuDan's Folly and Dragon's Luck, she embraced it. Simla dragons are not ill-equipped with ego. Fortunately, PinTin was perceptive and eager enough to have someone to play the game with, that he took the time to introduce the intricacies of the game to Hissi, explaining each move he made and, carefully, critiqued some of hers - not all, mind you - but just enough to keep her engaged and not discouraged.
Of course, playing chess with someone who could read your mind put PinTin at a little disadvantage, but I suspect that the intricacies of chess were too complex to give Hissi much of an advantage, beyond a hint of danger. By the time we reached the Halfway Islands, 27 rounds out of Tindatear, they were playing a pretty competitive game of chess, though PinTin was still explaining some of his moves and discussing the game afterward. It was rather humorous to watch them - PinTin explaining the various ramifications of each move and response, moving this piece and that, while Hissi watched each move, growling, hissing and barking softly with laughter. Actually, it was very strange.