And that, with very little variation, was exactly what happened. Jaren realized by the time he'd lost the queen that he wasn't getting out of this fix (and no, shuffling the king back and forth to avoid the knight and then the rook was not exactly a solution unless you wanted to play the game in a perpetual loop.)

With that, Jaren sat back and crossed his arms, only to freeze in shock as the white pieces on the board suddenly sprung to life, formed a single file and danced the can-can.

And stared.

"..."