Magic & Mayhem OR How Not to be a Goddess
an excerpt

She was surprised, blinking back the bright sunlight. The village, at least what she could see, didn't look that different from something you might find back home...except for the total lack of cars, and bright lights. She could hear children laughing in the distance...It seemed like a peaceful place to live, just like Arthur had said. She started towards the back of the cottage, rounding the corner. Next was...the path. Easily spotted. The light was fading a little quicker than she was used to. It was summer after all, was it not? Looked more like Winter...Kasey started down the path, realizing a little bit too late that she was still in bare feet. Damn. The path was well-worn, but she kept a careful eye out for pieces of glass, or wood, or otherwise sharp metal objects that would hurt if shoved through some ones foot. A few minutes down the path, and it felt like the forest had closed around her. Glancing back over her shoulder, she couldn't even see the back of the cottage. Everything felt muted, and...green. Kasey wasn't sure if she liked it or not. It was peaceful, but at the same time...disconcerting. At least the birds were still cheeping and making noise. Everybody knows that the moment the birds stop singing, you should start running.

Not too much later, Kasey heard the faint sound of rushing water. She felt relieved. The longer it took to walk there, the more Kasey had become assured that this was just some sort of crazy wild goose chase to get her out of the way, and these people really were psychopaths. Rounding another corner, the faint sound suddenly became much louder, and she stared at what stood before her.

Around the corner, spread out in front of her, was the most perfect little alcove ever. The rushing water of the stream was right in front of her, separated only by about 10 feet of green grass. Directly on the other side of the brook, solid trees. Much more solid than the forest Kasey had just walked through, she was sure there wasn't enough room to even squeeze through some of the larger spaces in between the solid trunks. The trees made a nearly perfect circle with a 20 foot diameter. At the edge of the circle on the left side of the stream, a thick patch of brambles had grown wild, allowing the stream to flow through it, but preventing anything much larger from coming through. On the right side, another patch of brambles and nettles, making a perfectly little enclosed space. She quickly spotted the stump that Cassandra had mentioned (easily, because it was the only stump just outside the entrance to the creek). Putting her robe there, Kasey silently padded into the quiet grotto. The sound in here was still strangely muted, but she found it was bothering her a lot less. Nothing bad could happen in here.

Still, it was better to be safe than sorry. Tentatively stepping into the water, Kasey was mildly surprised to find that it wasn’t as cold as she thought it would be. In fact, it was nearly lukewarm. She wouldn’t be surprised if the entire village had grown up around this little alcove. Stepping back, she set the towel down right on the edge of the stream, the soap on top, and reached around back to unzip her dress, stepping out of it. Although she knew there weren’t any people around for miles, that didn’t make her take her time stripping, and she got under the water as quickly as she could. Around the middle of the creek, it got very deep, up to her chin. She shivered as the water moving around her slid the dirt right off her skin. She had barely comprehended how sweaty and gross she must’ve been for the past three days, but it felt really good to get it all off. After a few moments of just floating there, letting the water do all the work, she finally moved back towards the bank, pulling the bar of soap off her towel, and started scrubbing.

If just the water had been perfection, then with soap added, it was heavenly. Kasey couldn’t remember a better bath. After lathering up, and letting the water carry the soapy bubbles away, she sank back down into the water, closing her eyes. The brook was doing wonders for her muscles too. She had felt totally tense as she walked down the path, but now...It just felt so much better. She put her head back in the water, letting her hair get wet, feeling almost less confused than she had before, until a voice cleared its throat, making itself known.

Kasey's eyes shot open and she ducked underwater with a squeak. Oh God, she had completely forgotten about Cassandra sending someone down with clothes. Slowly surfacing again, being incredibly careful to keep the majority of her body underwater. She looked at the girl who was standing uncertainly, although with a polite expression on her face, at the entrance to the alcove. As soon as she realized that Kasey had seen her, she sank into a little bow.

“Lady Cassandra told me that you needed clothes...And we’re about the same size.” Stepping quickly and quietly, she set the folded dress down beside the towel, very determinedly looking at the ground, or at the trees, or...anywhere that wasn’t Kasey. She felt her cheeks flame up, and uncomfortably crossed her arms over her chest, trying to make herself as small and non-visible as possible.

"Thank you...uh..." Kasey trailed off, realizing that she didn't have the faintest idea as to the name of this girl.

"Dahlia." The girl pushed her hair behind her ear, taking a small step backwards. Dahlia clearly wanted to turn around and run back to her village, but respect for Princess Cassandra's wishes came first.

"Thank you Dahlia...And...you can go..." Kasey winced, making a face. That sounded rude, and all high and mighty. There was no way she was buying into Arthur or Cassandra's' explanation of things, so there was no reason to start treating people like she was above them. "I mean, if you want..."

Dahlia curtsied quickly, turning around and walking quickly out of the clearing, leaving behind a madly blushing Kasey, and a wine coloured dress that should just about fit. Sighing, Kasey waited a few more minutes before pulling herself out of the water, making a mad grab for the towel and wrapping it tightly around herself. Tip toeing across the clearing, she stopped at the entrance, looking down the path, before snatching her robe off the tree stump and throwing it around her shoulders, tying it up in the front. Using the towel to dry her hair off, Kasey poked at the dress with her toe. It didn't look that bad...She didn't mind wearing dresses, especially if this was all they had. She knew Lynn must be in hell...Tomboys and dressing up never went along well. Once her hair was dry enough for her own satisfaction, threw the towel around her shoulder, picking up the dress to examine it further in the quickly fading sunlight. Realizing that she really didn't want to be caught out here after dark, Kasey hurriedly tried to figure out what parts went where, and how she was supposed to do up the back. Again glancing over her shoulder before she stood naked again, Kasey undid the robe and slipped the dress over her head in record time. Fumbling with the buttons in the back, she looked around the grotto again just to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything important.

Soap, check. Towel, check. Robe, check. Gross, ripped prom dress (sigh), check. Gathering all of these items up into her arms, she started towards the exit of the alcove, drifting off into her thoughts again.

All she could think about was the situation that she found herself in. Things just didn't seem like they were matching up. Or maybe they were falling into place, a little too conveniently. First of all...Goddess? She loved her friends, and she loved herself (most of the time), but...Goddess? That was pushing it. But the fire thing...That was the one piece that stuck out. Big, like a sore thumb. What the hell was up with the fire thing? Kasey couldn't remember a whole lot about those moments, as hard as she tried. She did remember waking up tied to a post, and she did remember being accused of something she didn't do by a garishly dressed older man (Arthur said his name was Horah, didn't he?) and she remembered someone leaning over with a torch...and it kind of...ended there. But that couldn't be it, because she was still alive and kicking, wasn't she?

...Wasn't she?

Oh God, maybe she had died and gone to heaven or something. OR maybe something had fallen on her head way back at prom, when the power went out, and she was in a coma right now. That would explain a whole lot. Kasey put her hand on her arm, and pinched herself, hard. Letting out a small squeak of pain, she sighed, rubbing the place where she pinched herself. Well...maybe you could feel pain in a coma, right? No...that wasn't how it worked, was it? Damn. This was just not her day. Or week. Or lifetime. Blowing a strand of wet hair out of her face, she walked along the path, subconsciously aware of the light that was fading further every minute. The last thing she wanted was to get caught out in the middle of a foreign forest after dark. Kasey was sure she'd probably get eaten by a large animal of some sort. A twig snapped somewhere over on her left.

Well speak of the devil. Here come the large man (or girl eating) animals right now. Despite the fact that it was probably something small, like a rabbit, Kasey couldn't help but quicken her pace, and let her imagination run away with her. She was on the right path, wasn't she? Oh shit, what if she had wandered off into some other path, and all she had been doing was walking further and further away from the village? What if she was hopelessly lost, and now being stalked by a mountain lion? No, this wasn't good. Stumbling around forests was never good. Half-running, half-walking, Kasey kept along the path, hearing things moving in the bushes, now there were thousands of them, weren't there? Oh God, oh God, oh God.

Something erupted from the bushes, and a scream slipped out of Kasey's mouth, a tree in front of her igniting with an intense flash of heat that had originated somewhere around her heart, she could just feel it like that. And then she spotted what had leaped out of the bushes.

A rabbit. Not even kidding, just a small, fluffy little bunny rabbit, complete with puffy tail, looking startled as all hell at the flaming tree before it bounded away, down the path. Kasey put a hand on her chest, feeling her heart beating at a thousand miles per hour. That was so stupid of her, it was just a rabbit! Not even a big rabbit. Well didn't she feel like a total and complete retard now? Ugh. This was the last time she was letting her imagination get the best of her, just look at what she did to that tree!

Wait, what?

Tree. On fire. Because she had freaked out. Kasey let out a loud groan, feeling like she should bang her head against a wall or... a tree or something.

"Shit..." She couldn't leave that tree burning like that, could she? No, it would probably set the entire forest on fire. Shit, shit, shit, shit, she didn't have water or anything...This was just not getting any better.

"Okay Kasey...breathe...you can do this...And now you're talking out loud to yourself, well doesn't that just beat all. Okay, distractions. Just...focus on the fire. If you're a so called fire Goddess, you should be able to fix this with hardly any trouble at all, shouldn't you? Right. Okay. Let's do this." Hardly even noticing that she'd dropped everything in her arms, she held both hands out towards the fire, feeling like an even bigger idiot. This was not some sort of movie or TV show, and yet, fancy arm movements were the first thing that came to mind. God, she was such a retard...Okay. Okay focus on the fire.

Kasey could feel it again, much like the feelings she had that night, tied to the post. A little buzzing, somewhere down...well, she didn't want to say her soul, that sounded stupid, but it was the closest thing she could think of. Kind of like pins and needles, you know, when your foot falls asleep? Except this was her soul. Her soul fell asleep.

This was not helping.

She focused on that little buzzing feeling, trying to pull it...up somehow. It felt like it was just out of her reach, and everytime she pulled it, she could only get so far before it snapped back into place, like a rubber band. So now she had a sleeping rubber band soul. Great.

Still, at least it was a tangible force this time, she could actually feel it. So again, she tried pulling on her rubber band of a soul, jumping back as the flames from the fire became more intense than they had before. Pulling was bad. Gotcha. So instead she tried the reverse, pushing. Making an odd sort of scrunched face as she stood there, she felt like an even bigger idiot than before, but...yes, the flames were dying down! She squeezed her eyes shut and pushed down on her...whatever it was called, harder, before with something that felt like a small 'pop', the flames vanished out of existance, leaving behind a charred tree. A wave of naseua hit Kasey like an 18 wheeler, and she put a hand over her mouth. But that was nothing compared to the feeling that she got next.

You know the feeling when a really, really loud roar of some sort of demonic animal echoes in your ear? Yeah, that feeling! Kasey froze on the spot, her breath catching in her throat as the trees started moving again. She might've been fooled the first time, but this time she definitely knew that whatever it was...it wasn't some cute little fluffy bunny rabbit.

Imagine her shock, and absolute horror, coupled with crippling fear when a great large reptillian head emerged from the trees on one side of the path. Her knees were shaking so hard, it was an absolute wonder that she managed to stay standing.

The great jewelled eye swivled, staring at Kasey. She recoiled with a jolt, tearing her eyes away, clenching her fists. She would not fall over, she would not fall over.

She heard a low rumble of some sort, emenating from the giant dragon in front of her. Because of course, that's what it had to be. Giant repetillian head, and from what her panic fogged mind could gather, a long, red scaled body. The dragon lurched forward again, and the colours of the scales shifted, pearlescent orange, red underneath. It was beautiful, in a way. Shimmering like the sunset. Of course, this would've been a lot better if she wasn't scared out of her wits. The dragon kept it's eyes on her, emenating another long sound, something like a plantive cry. Kasey stumbled a couple steps backwards, groping blindly on the ground for the towel she had dropped. She hadn't even thought about the soap that she had dropped, there were far more pressing things. Except for the part where the dragon was in between her and the way back to the village. Her situation was just not improving. For a minute, maybe an hour, Kasey couldn't really tell, herself and the dragon stood at an impasse, neither one of them moving, and neither one of them backing off. Kasey couldn't back off, because she didn't know where else she would go. And the dragon...Well she wasn't going to pretend to know the dragons motivations for anything. It was just a big stupid animal, wasn't it? A big stupid animal that could breath fire.

Wait a minute. Fire?

Kasey could do fire. Armed with that knowledge, she pushed the fear back a little bit, straightening up with the borrowed towel thrown over her shoulder.

"Shoo!" Suddenly, and without much warning, she snapped the towel off her shoulder and into her arms, flapping it like a mad chicken at the great beast blocking her path. So it wasn't the best idea, but under the circumstances, it was the best she could come up with.

"Shoo you great brute!" She had been about to call it stupid, but something...something about those big ruby eyes made her think that maybe, just maybe it wouldn't take too kindly to that. Dragons were usually pretty smart, weren't they? Right. That's how it went in all the stories. If Kasey paused to think about what she was thinking about, she would've smacked herself over the head. Dragons were smart? What the hell was that?! These people were doing a damn good job of brainwashing her!

You know, except for the part where her soul was a sleeping rubber band. But she could work around that.

The dragon uttered another plantive cry, this second one cutting Kasey to the quick, nearly sounding sad enough to bring tears to her eyes. Slowly, too slowly for her tastes, it started to lumber off into the forest again, making a great load of noise.

Kasey waited until it's great barbed tail swung out of view between the trees before she broke out into a full out run. She had never been an extrordinary athelete, and running was one of her least favourite things to do. But at the moment, it was the first and only thing that occured to her, and her mind zoomed straight into "flight" mode. She beat the worn path below her feet with an astonshing speed, nearly fainting with relief when she spotted the brown stone of the cottage peeking through the trees, and was rounding the corner a few seconds later, bursting into the cottage with a bang. Panting, she tripped over the hem of her dress, landing hard on her knees with a wince. The inhabitants of the cottage, consisting of Arianna, Cassandra and Clara. Complete silence reigned over the group for a moment before an outbreak of voices started talking all at once. Clara was the first one at her side, helping Kasey to stand up and...then supporting her when her weak knees failed her again, making their way over to a chair for Kasey to collapse into. Breathing hard, sweating even harder, and feeling weak all over, Kasey shut her eyes, letting her head fall back as she caught her breath. The three girls waited in anxious silence. Finally, after a long moment as she caught her breath enough to let her talk (although the sweating hadn't stopped, essentially rendering her bath useless to the extreme).

"Why didn't you tell me there were dragons in the forest?" She lifted her head, staring straight at Cassandra. That was kind of an important fact to leave out of a conversation. Especially when one was expected to wander around said forest without any protection or warning at all. Cassandra blinked her one visible eye slowly, cocking her head to the side.

"Dragons...? There aren't any dragons in the forest..." Kasey chuckled sarcastically, raising a finger to make a point.

"I beg to differ. Because I just saw one, and I swear to God, I am not delusional." Even though all of her mental evidence pointed to the contrary.

Arianna bit her lip, pressing a hand to the back of Kasey's forehead, looking for all the world like a concerned mother. Kasey jerked her head away, more rudely than she had intended, standing up again, despite the fact that her legs felt like they were made out of jello. Just as she was about to say something, the door swung open again, this time with Lynn and Arthur in the doorway. Lynn had some sort of staff over her shoulder, and as she stepped into the house behind Arthur, Kasey could see the sharp blade affixed to the end. Almost completely forgetting about what she had been about to say next, she instead gaped at Lynn. Leave it to her to somehow fit in with the boys while wearing a dress. Arthur strode across the room, bestowing a cursory kiss on his sisters cheek, looking like he was in a much better mood.

"Well my ladies, it seems that your friend here is somewhat of a deft hand with a glaive!" He said, in a loud and booming voice. Lynn, simply grinned, hauling the stick with the blade that was apparently called a glaive off her shoulder, twirling it around once.

"Yeah well, it's not like it was hard..." Arthur laughed, shaking his blonde mane of hair.

"Not hard? The skills you have after an hour are some that the village boys could never hope to acheive!" If Kasey wasn't mistaken, there was a small blush on Lynn's cheek, and although her steady friend would never admit it, she was faintly embarassed at the praise. Cassandra smiled, and looked like she was about to curtsey again, but decided against in the moment after Lynn sent her a warning glare. Placing a hand on Arthur's arm to get his attention, she glanced over at Kasey again.

"Arthur...Lady Kasey believes that she saw a...a dragon in the forest." Kasey huffed, crossing her arms.

"I know I saw one, it stood in front of me for practically five minutes!" Arthur frowned, slipping out of his sisters grip and walking over to Kasey, looking her straight in the eye.

"Are you sure Lady Kasey? A dragon is a serious matter."

"Yes! And stop calling me Lady Kasey!" She knew they didn't mean it as any sort of disrespect or anything, but combined with the fact that everybody seemed to be in a state of suspended belief about her dragon siting, it proved to annoy her quite a bit. Arthur put a hand to his chin, mulling over the fact in his own mind before turning again, striding towards the door.

"I hope you, and perhaps Lady Lynn will do me the honour of accompaning me and my men into the forest. If you are correct--" Kasey made an annoyed noise in the back of her throat, but Arthur continuted on, pretending he hadn't heard her. "--then this is very serious business. Dragons rarely leave the Northern mountains..." Well, there was one thing Kasey now knew about her location. They must not be anywhere near north. And that just leaves the rest of the world. Oh goodie. She nodded, even though her legs still felt like they could give way at any moment, and Lynn simply shrugged, shouldering the wicked looking blade-on-a-stick.

"I'm in." Of course she was in, Kasey couldn't help but think that Lynn was just eager to show off with the glaive some more. Not that she could blame her, if she had awesome skills with a blade of some sort, she'd want to show them off too.

"Yeah, I'll come..." What other choice did she have? Man, now she was starting to doubt her own thoughts. What if she had imagined the dragon? Then this would all be for nothing, wouldn't it? A small voice in the back of her mind protested, and her bones remembered the soul aching noise the dragon had made. Well if nothing else, that sound had been real...very real...Goosebumps erupted along her spine as she tottered towards the door again. Arthur walked out in front, opening the door like a Gentleman, motioning for Lynn and Kasey to walk through. They did so, and the door shut, although not before they could hear the eruption of conversation from the three girls who were left behind. Kasey felt a momentary twinge of guilt, leaving Clara and Arianna behind, but she consoled herself with the fact that neither of them would've liked coming along anyways. Forests and dragon hunting wasn't really their thing after all. Arthur disappeared almost the moment he walked out the door with a quick mention of 'staying where they were'. Presumably, he was off to gather up the troops or...whatever it was called here.

Kasey stretched her tired arms, glancing towards the west to watch the sun sink below the tree line, lighting up the sky with a brilliant red. Lynn was swinging her glaive around, all fancy like, humming to herself.

"So...You're really handy with that thing?" Kasey looked over at her friend who swung the pole around her head, the blade cutting through the air.

"Yeah, apparently...It's weird, isn't it? I've never even seen one of these before, but one of Arthur's friends handed it to me, and it just...fit." She sighed, making a face. "That doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?"

Kasey rolled her eyes, laughing quietly.

"About as much sense as a rubber band soul..." They both lapsed off into silence, Lynn still swinging the glaive around, executing a fancy move every now and again, and Kasey drifting off into silent contemplation about the dragon. Oh dear. She hoped that Arthur and his gang weren't planning on killing it. She had just been scared, but she hadn't really thought it would hurt her...And it was so...beautiful. Sighing, she scuffed te dirt with her pair of borrowed soft leather boots, rubbing a hand through her hair. A clamour of voices to her left caught her attention, and both her and Lynn lifted their faces at the same time, catching a glimpse of Arthur and his band of merry men, some carrying torches, and much to Kasey's dismay, weapons of some sort. Some of them held only a pitchfork, or like Lynn, a glaive, but more than a few had glittering swords at their sides. Kasey's heart constricted in her throat, and she forced herself to stay standing. The situation felt like it was spiralling out of her control already, and she would just have to fix that.

"Arthur...Arthur!" She picked up the hem of her skirt (she hadn't realized how annoying those things could be), and ran up to the mob, even as Arthur was giving directions for how to split things off into groups, and who was to go where.

"Arthur, please tell me you won't hurt it." The prince looked back, blinking, faintly confused sounding.

"Hurt it...? M'lady, dragons are not a thing to be trifled with." Kasey shook her head, standing her ground.

"Promise me you won't hurt it." Arthur looked hesitant, and the men standing behind him shifted, uncomfortable at having their crown Prince's power undermined in front of their very eyes, by a teenage girl, no less. Finally, after a long moment of deliberation, Arthur's shoulders sagged slightly, and he bowed in her direction.

"As you command." Kasey lifted her chin, feeling faintly vindicated. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knew he was only doing it out of respect for Lady Helio, who she apparently was, and not out of respect for her or her choices, but as long as it kept her dragon safe, it was okay. A few minutes later, the groups were ready to go, and the mob split into three, with Lynn and Kasey in a group with Arthur, and about 6 other men of the village. They marched into the forest, Lynn walking tall and confidently beside the Prince, and Kasey hanging back, suddenly feeling entirely out of place without some sort of protection, or weapon. She knew her dragon wouldn't hurt her, but that didn't have anything to do with the rest of the creatures that could possibly be lurking about in the forest. The light from the fading sun was completely gone once they entered the leafy canopy of the trees, and Kasey had to squint to adjust, until someone passed her a torch. Holding it high, partially to cast a brighter ring of light around the area, and partially to keep it from setting her hair on fire (God knows that would just be a perfect ending to her day so far), she paused, causing the six men behind her to pause, pointing towards a large area of trampled brush and broken trees.

"Here. Down here." Feeling confident in a way that she couldn't quite explain, Kasey suddenly took charge, marching off the beaten path, and picking her way through the brush with a skill that she hadn't been privy to before. Her light suddenly caught something that didn't match it's surroundings, and she stopped abruptly. That familiar feeling of fear bit into her chest, taking hold. What if she had been wrong about the dragon? Maybe it was harmful, and scary, and it only tricked her into feeling sorry for it so it could catch her and eat her.

But...something was wrong. Backing up a few steps and manuvering the torch over a few feet, the light didn't catch a tail or a long reptillian snout, but a...foot?

Frowning slightly, she moved closer, her light traveling up a leg...a thigh...before...

"Oh God!" She turned around suddenly, her face blooming into the brightest blush anyone had ever seen. She almost didn't need a torch anymore. Putting a hand over her eyes, Kasey thrust the torch out to the side, putting her free hand over her eyes.

"I--found...someone...Over here Arthur, and for God's sake, bring a cloak or something!" Her voice sounded slightly high pitched, even to her own ears, and it had a tiny hysterical tinge. But there was nothing she could do about that now anyways, oh God, this was mortifying. At least he(the person lying prone on the ground was most definitely, without a shadow of a doubt, of the male gender) was out cold. And if they weren't, they were doing a bloody good job of lying in the middle of a forest without moving at the sound of the voices, running the very good risk of being trampled. Sighing slightly, she listened to the rummaging around behind her, and Arthur's orders, as the men in her party wrapped a cloak around the prone boy (or man...she wasn't entirely...sure) and talked amongst themselves. Kasey nearly leapt three feet in the air when she felt a hand on her shoulder, whipping around, brandishing her torch.

"Jesus Kasey, calm down! It's just me." Lynn's face was set in a hurt expression, although her eyes sparkled with amusement.