I wrote this story before I entered college. The basis of this story has to be attributed to a role playing game I had been on, called Balance II. I played several characters there, among which was the Incarnation of Mischief. And I did get her into alot of trouble...regarding a criminal and the mortal beloved of the God(dess) Creation. Enjoy if you can, comment, critique and tell me your thoughts on it.

The only times she was content was when she was playing a prank on someone. She often did, and got away with it. Somehow, someone else was usually implemented with the prank and she was never in trouble for it. Through one escapade after another, the youth of her childhood passed, and she always came out on top.

Arianna was lonely however. True, her pranks were loads of fun, but what fun was it to do a prank on someone and not be able to tell anyone about it?

One day, around her tenth birthday, Arianna was pondering how to use a fish bladder, spice and the oven in conjunction when she thoughtlessly said out loud, "Gods, I wish I had someone to talk to about this..."

Just then, she heard a voice calling her name. It sounded like someone she thought she knew, even if she couldn't place a name or face with the voice. She called out, "Who is that?"

** You know who I am, Arianna. Come on, or you'll miss it! **

"Miss what?" Arianna called, rushing off after the voice as it moved away, "And who are you? Tell me!"

** I'll let you guess! ** came the voice, bubbling with laughter.

Arianna frowned, the voice was just around the corner of the house, but she hadn't seen anyone go there. She dashed around the corner, sure to catch the culprit-and she splashed into a mud puddle. Stamping in annoyance at the mud, Arianna was startled to hear laughter-coming from all around her.

Arianna started to get frightened, "Who are you?" she asked again. No answer came, but the laughter continued. Arianna watched wide-eyed as the laughter started to bubble-literally. Iridescent bubbles started to appear from out of nowhere, and converged on Arianna. Arianna squinted her eyes shut, clapping her hands over her eyes. She was sure something really bad was going to happen...

"Open your eyes, you silly duck." came a familiar voice.

Arianna opened her eyes, surprised to not only find herself okay, but also clean. She looked toward the voice. It belonged to a girl, not unlike herself. The girl had the same bright red hair, but where Ariannas hair was straight, the other girls hair tumbled about her shoulders in riotous curls. Arianna had blue eyes that always seemed innocent, while the girl had green eyes that seemed anything but. Arianna was clothed in silk and the girl was clothed in simple green homespun, but the grass stains on the knees and elbows were familiar, as was the big grin on the girls' face.

Arianna finished unsquinting her eyes and dropped her hands to her sides, propping her fists on her waist. She was at a place she had never seen before. She had seen a beach, but there was something about this beach that didn't seem quite right, but she couldn't put her finger on it. "Where am I?" Arianna finally asked.

"My place." was the reply from the impishly grinning girl.

She continued with, "I figured you wouldn't want me at your home. Your parents wouldn't like it."

Arianna grinned, "Parents don't like anything."

The strange girl nodded emphatically, "Don't I know it!" she exclaimed, throwing up her hands.

Both girls exchanged a glance of camaraderie and broke out in laughter. The wild girl sobered and grinned, "C'mon, let's take a walk'n talk."

Arianna shrugged, she had nothing better to do in this strange place, "Okay."

Arianna fell into step with the other girl, the two skipping a bit down the beach, "What do you want to talk about?" Arianna asked, then added quickly, "If you're the smiths daughter, I didn't do a thing! I swear it!"

The other girl laughed, bouncing a bit, "Yes you did, but I'm not the smiths daughter," the wild girl pouted, "That girl is much too serious."

Arianna nodded, trying to recall where it was that she knew this girl. She seemed so very familiar.

The girl steered Arianna towards the water. The water looked unusually foamy and as she watched, bubbles, rather like the ones that surrounded her before, started to form on the water.

"Watch," said the strange girl, pointing at the bubbles.

"Why?" asked Arianna, even as the bubbles started to rise off the water. Arianna blinked, then frowned. The bubbles seemed like an image was forming inside of them. Arianna shook her head, she was imagining it. She hoped she was imagining it.

The other girl grinned, "You have good ideas. I can't wait to see what happens when you stick that bladder in the oven!"

Arianna was about to ask how the girl knew about that, when she gasped. Inside the bubbles, images were forming! And they were of herself. Not just any images of herself, but all the mischievous things she had ever done over the years. All her narrow escapes and occasional failed pranks. They all floated before her in a bubble before it popped.

The girl beside Arianna peered at one bubble and held out one hand. The bubble floated to her and rested on her hand as the girl peered at it, "I liked this one," she said before it popped.

Arianna stammered as she looked at the widely grinning girl, "Wha-how? Who are you?!"

The girl, who had been watching Arianna with a delighted grin now scowled, "What," she stated, "You don't recognize me by now?"

Arianna shook her head, staring at the other girl with wide eyes.

The girl pouted and crossed her arms over her chest, "Fine!" she exclaimed, her scowling turning into a furious look. Her eyes seemed to bubble with energy, "Be that way!" as soon as the wild girl finished, she stamped one foot on the ground in childish fury and burst into bubbles.

Arianna cried out and covered her eyes again. When she opened them up, all the bubbles were gone. She was alone.

Arianna wandered the shore side for a while, but without the other girl around, the water was cold and still and the sand was hard and gritty. Soon enough Arianna gave up looking for the other girl. She didn't notice that time didn't seem to pass, as the sun wasn't readily visible through the fog in the air.

Arianna wandered away from the shore and headed inland and promptly got lost. She once even found a home that looked like her own, except that it was deserted. Everything looked the same, except it wasn't. She searched the entire house, calling out the names of her parents and the servants, exploring every room and nook. Arianna didn't catch onto the subtle differences soon enough. So while she avoided the obvious trouble, she fell into the more subtle tricks. The worst was, after she fell for the trick, she recognized it as something she had done or seen before as a prank.

She left the house and tried to go back to the beach, but as she looked around, she didn't recognize anything that she had passed. It was all different. Just then she saw a flash of light at the corner of her eye. She turned to it, hoping it was the girl. It wasn't. It wasn't anything actually. Arianna frowned but walked towards where she thought she saw the light, positive that she had seen something there. Soon, she saw another flash of light at the edge of her vision, and she turned to follow that one.

Soon the landscape started to change, becoming damper, muddier, and with taller thicker grass.

Arianna unknowingly followed a will o' the wisp for a while, until she tripped over a hidden root, which tore her dress. It also caused her to trip and fall into the mud puddle, which seemed placed in just the right place for someone to trip over a root to fall into it. Arianna burst into tears, after a long stressful day, this was the proverbial last straw! In her fury and distress she unthinkingly used a phrase her mother was fond of using when caught by one of her pranks and she exclaimed, "What horrid mischief!"

With that, a voice said from a nearby rock, "Hello again," and it sounded all together too happy for her liking. Arianna clamored to her feet and threw a handful of mud at the sitting girl, who had an odd light twinkling behind her. Arianna cried out, "I hate you!"

The girl nimbly jumped off the rock, the mud missing both her and the odd light that dashed away from her line of sight, lingering at the corner of her vision.

"If you hate me," started the girl and she finished with an innocent smile, "Why did you call my name?"

"But," the wild girl pressed her lips together, and shook her head, "If you really want me to leave, I will." The wild girl shrugged her shoulders and sighed mournfully as she started to fizz around the edges.

"No!" cried Arianna, "Don't go! How do you mean that I called your name..." she paused and asked quizzically, "You're Horrid Mischief?"

Arianna pouted and said glumly, "Why couldn't I have met Nice Mischief?"

The girl laughed, "I'm not Horrid Mischief or Nice Mischief."

She then spread her hands out to the sides and twirled around, "I'm just plain ol' Mischief," she grinned at Arianna as she came to a stop, "Well, the Incarnation of it anyway." She waved one hand in dismissal, "But that's getting technical. So... I'm both nice mischief and horrid mischief."

Arianna digested that in silence. Everyone had heard stories of the Incarnations, children of the Gods. All were mercurial, but none more then Michief. She asked timidly, "Why did you bring me here?"

Mischief smiled, "Because I like your style... that and trying to get the other Incarnations to fall for my pranks is getting dull. Courage just plods through everything and pranking Love is absolutely no fun at all. And boy... trying to get the Gods and the Demi-Gods is downright dangerous!" she ended, wide-eyed.

Though it was all more then she could imagine, Arianna bravely smiled, "I'll bet!"

Mischief grinned, "Yup. So... am I forgiven?" she asked, putting on a sad-eyed face, complete with pouting lips. But her eyes still sparkled in impish delight.

Arianna tilted her head to one side, regaining her courage at the antics of the Incarnation,"Clean me up and fix my dress and I'll call it even. But I still hate you."

Mischief grinned, "Done!" And with another burst of bubbles, the two were again at the beach side, the water rolling in and out and the sand smooth and soft.

Arianna didn't close her eyes at the appearance of the bubbles this time, and she was able to see the disappearance of Mischief, the disappearance of the landscape, and then the reappearance of Mischief and a different landscape. Ariana blinked her eyes, and kept her jaw from dropping open too much and remained quiet.

Mischief sighed as she noticed her guests silence, "I guess you want to go home now, huh?"

Arianna nodded, "Well, yes. But you can come visit if you'd like..." already envisioning all the fun she'd have with Mischief along.

But Mischief shook her head, "I can't..." she grinned, "Consider me to be in a never ending state of being grounded. I swear, one incident with a criminal and the mortal beloved of Creation and you're grounded until Destruction wins a game of chance against Chaos."

Arianna paused, "Oh..." she grumped, "Sorry."

To which Mischief replied, "Me also."

She was silent for a moment, then the Incarnation snapped her fingers, "Which reminds me. How would you like to be able to talk to me whenever you'd like?"

Arianna bounced a bit in delight, "Would I ever! Yes!"

Mischief grinned, "Great! Oh... on two conditions." She held up two fingers, then after a pause, added a third finger, "Or more... one and the most important one, you can't tell anyone!" To emphasis this, Mischief slashed her arms to the sides, shaking her head with her lips pressed together.

Arianna frowned, "No one?"

The Incarnation repeated, "No one."

Arianna nodded and sighed, "Okay... what else?" Hoping that the rest wasn't as bad as that, this was something she had wished she could share with everyone!

Mischief grinned and said, "Cheer up, this is the fun part. You gotta do everything you can to cause mischief and to encourage others to do mischief."

Arianna protested, "But I do that anyway..."

Mischief nodded, "I know, but it's nice to make sure. Now, last but not least... as soon as you break any one of those two, you forget all about me, and can't talk to me and well... it just isn't nice."

Arianna bit her lip, "You mean, think that you were just an imaginary friend or something?"

Mischief shook her head, "No. You forget about anything that had to do with me. This talk, any future talks, everything." Mischief spread her hands, "And a bunch of other things will be gone also..." she grinned, "But I'll let you figure out what those things will be on your own."

Mischief then spat on one of her palms, and offered the hand to Arianna, "Do you agree to my deal?"

Arianna nodded and spat on one of her own palms, clasping Mischief's hand in the wet hand shake of an unbreakable promise, "I do... but, what other things...?"

Mischief cut Arianna off with a grin, "You'll see," she said as a burst of bubbles seemed to explode in front of Ariannas eyes. When she was able to see again, Arianna found herself back at home where she last was.

At first Arianna scowled, suspecting the house to be another trick of Mischief, but it really was home and home was hardly any fun. Then she grinned widely. Now she had a real reason to play pranks, and someone to discuss them with! She may as well get started!

As she stepped back towards her house, she stepped right into the mud puddle she forgot was there. Arianna reconsidered. She'll start after she changed her shoes. In the recess of her mind, a faint bubbling laughter was heard.

Arianna remained in close contact with the Incarnation of Mischief throughout her life, and got to know several other Avatars well through he years. It took her a while, but she slowly figured out the special skills and abilities being an Avatar endowed upon her.

As often as the bubbling laugh she heard laughed with her, it did occasionally laugh at her. She didn't mind, laughing at herself was a skill she had long ago aquired. Arianna always had a fondness for children, them being natural avatars of Mischief, but she had never had any herself. The more rambunctious the child was, the fonder of them Arianna grew and often took to guiding them in their early careers in life. Having lived a full life of fun, pranks and closeness with the Incarnation, Arianna died content.

When her relatives found her body, it appeared that she was turning the corner of her childhood home and had slipped in a mud puddle. Then apparently, just died with a smile on her features.

At her funeral, mourners were surprised when a disheveled looking child, a young redhead girl with wild curls and green eyes, bright with tears and something no one had a word for, entered in the doors unannounced. The girl silently walked to the coffin and touched one hand to the wood, then turned and left as silently as she had entered. During her brief stay, time almost seemed to slow. Speculation was that she was one of the children Arianna had known, but nobody had ever seen her before and no one ever saw her again.

Except Tomas... but that is another story.

To return to the main page of stories, click here.

To return to the main page, click here.

© 1997 kithan@mindspring.com

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page