We've been working on this story for quite a while. We both wanted to wait until Anthony actually picked out his Fursona's Species design before we posted it, but then we figured, If Rebeca (one of the greatest romance/mystery novels I've ever read) didn't need to give it's main character a name, then We don't have to reveal Anthony's species to tell a good story. I'm still getting over my own recent loss, so writing a story about death, may very well be what I need. Enjoy everyone.

Seriously, don't take it seriously…

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Death of a Trickster

In every world, there are those who possess abilities that define the very core of existence. Then there are delinquents who disrupt this balance of existence all for the sake of their own sense of Comedy. Being bringers of discord and chaos, they are despised for their unique ideas of justice. Some are misjudged for the actions of their predecessors, so they hide among us of the mortal plane. And yet, not one can resist the itching urge to have a little fun, especially when their favorite targets appear before them.

If you find yourself with one of these beings, it is highly advised that you do not threaten them. Despite most of them are mortals themselves, they are nearly impossible to kill. Those that have tried come to regret ever attempting the task. Still, those who wish to preserve order must oppose them. Nothing is more difficult than to defeat a Trickster.

“Finally I can eat,” I smiled as I took my tray of well earned food into the food court. I was just meeting some old friends of mine here. I haven’t seen either of them in a life time or two.

“Yo Anthony, over here,” Jackie, one of my oldest friends, waved me down. He was younger than I was, but he’d never let me show it. I’d never recognize him if it weren’t for the fact that he likes to keep his prized feathers in his hair. He’s been wearing them since he won that bet with this old crow that we met in the 1800’s. Heck, he was there too. The two of them were enjoying a similar paradise of sweets.

“Nice to see ya Jackie,” I took a chair at their table, “Soul, what? It’s been forever.”

“I don’t go by that name anymore,” the dark haired teen brushed his long bangs back.

“Whatever… Soul,” I said digging into my cherry pie, “by the way, you forgot your ears.”

“Again,” Soul quickly corrected his appearance, “I always forget you land walkers tend to have these things.”

“Woah check it out,” a girl pointed us out for her posse, “Boys can be such pigs.”

“If I ate any of that then It’d go right to my hips,” said one of her drones, “I’m so jealous.”

“Kids these days,” I shrugged it off, “no respect like the old days, huh guys?”

“Well, you know what they say,” Jackie got that look in his eye, “the more things change…”

I stopped mid-bite, “Jackie…”

“Ooh… What are you planing,” Soul smiled.

“I’m thinking that cake could use a little more fattening,” Jackie snapped his fingers. The powers that we all shared allowed that simple action to do so much more. I didn’t have to be a Trickster myself to know what he was planning to do to her.

“No Jackie,” I swiped the tainted cake from his hand, “you’re not going to turn her into a fat pig.”

“What,” Jackie tilted his head, “is it not original enough for you?”

“It’s been done 60,000 times,” I shrugged, “but that’s not the point.”

“So then a hippo or do you think that it’d be better if she’s just left as a big old slob of lard.”

“Personally, I think it’d be better if you didn’t prank her at all.”

“Hold that thought,” the two of them performed a spit gag, “What!”

“And you wonder why she called us pigs,” I gave the two of them nasty looks, wiping away the soda (turned water) from my face.

“That’s crazy talk Anthony,” Soul pointed a clawed finger at me, “a Trickster that doesn’t pull pranks is just not natural.”

“I’ve been thinking about that,” I sighed twirling the ice in my soda, “what’s the point of pranking mortals. They never really learn their lessons. Hell, half the time we don’t even give them a chance, so why do we even do it?”

“Um… because it’s funny,” Jackie tried to laugh it off.

“But aren’t you worried about the effects our pranks have with the world?”

“Whatever,” Jackie snatched back his tainted cake and brought it to the click’s table, “Hello ladies… my bros and I were wondering if you’d like one of our extras.”

The group of five stereotypical teenage Barbie dolls were not the least bit interested in the crazy guy’s cake. Of course, it wouldn’t matter if they had. Jackie’s one of the best manipulators that I know. He could take a horse to salt water and make it drink. Believe me, I’ve seen him do it just to prove he could. It’s what started the whole legend of Kelpies.

“See we bought a sugar free one by mistake,” Jackie held the cake under the insulting girl’s nose. I didn’t have to see her face to know that what Jackie had put in the lemon cake doomed her just by it’s scent, “All that and organic crap just doesn’t taste right to me.”

“Well… if it’s… organic…,” the girl almost hypnotically took the cake off Jackie’s hands.

“She took the bait,” Soul smiled widely, barely able to hide his excitement.

“I can’t watch this,” I put a finger to my forehead to think of what to do. As a fellow Trickster, I can’t undo or alter the work of another Trickster. No one knows why. It just is, but that doesn’t mean that our actions can’t be overridden either. I snapped my fingers. Jackie had only turned around for a second before the girls noticed my own ‘contribution’ to his prank.

“Hey, you’ve got something on your head,” one of girls mentioned, pointing at their queen bee’s hair.

“Really,” their leader broke out of trance long enough to check her hair with her compact, “I don’t see wha-AHHHHHHH!”

The girl had pulled a few slick and slime covered worms out of her hair and quickly slapped them onto the table. After that, the entire click was thrown into a panic. While checking their own hair for similar little surprises, they squealed and shoved each other trying to get away from the table. The moment Jackie discovered his prank had been highjacked, he gave each of us a death glare that would have made Medusa’s seem harmless.

“Not me, man,” Soul betrayed me, pointing my way.

“Sorry,” I shrugged, “I was going to do a frog, but soul got me thinking about bait and-”

“Oh, so you wanted frogs,” Jackie turned and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, the click of girls were finding those very creatures alive and kicking inside their blouses. Two of them attempted to rid themselves of the tainted clothes by stripping their shirts right off.

“Oh god,” one girl shouted, slapping herself, “they’re everywhere!”

“Where did they all come from,” one of the smarter girls plucked a frog off her by it’s foot.

“Ooh, hilarious,” Soul pointed as he held back his laughter, “let me try.”

“These frogs just aren’t natural,” the forth of the click was about to fall to her knees and cry. Soul snapped, adding his own touch of comedy magic.

“Well, if that’s how you feel about us,” the dangling frog croaked, escaping from her captor, “then we’ll just get up and go. Come on ladies!”

The swamp of frogs gathered themselves from their hiding places to the floor in front of the shocked girls. They stood in a line and bounced up to their hind legs and started to dance the cancan. Music coming from Soul knows where. Jackie added to the chaos by giving the frogs dresses just before they really got into the dance number. The looks on those girl’s faces was truly priceless.

I couldn’t hold in my laughter. Something about that dance gets me every time. I had almost forgotten about the many witnesses to our antics. Not just the girls, but entire food court was bearing witness to this spectacle of cancan dancing frogs. Some people were even getting out their camera phones. Not that it would make a difference (humans have such short attention spans when it comes to the unusual), but I couldn’t let them photograph us there.

“Okay, that’s enough guys. We’re attracting a crowd.”

“I’m just getting started,” Jackie snapped his fingers again. This time the dancing frogs bounced about and blobbed together into a giant frog. Not just any frog either. You remember those old cartoons where that dancing frog only sings and dances when that one poor guy was watching. Well, Jackie had been watching reruns lately. The frog ribbitted one time before retrieving a top hat and cane (from anyone’s guess where) and got up and began to perform “Hello my Baby” for everyone in the mall.

While the rest of the mall figured it was all just a show. The barbie girls were not forgotten to Jackie. Women were his favorite targets, especially the uneducated superficial ones. He used the giant frog as a distraction to “rescue” the leader of the girls. The other girls of her click either had fainted or were too busy observing the show to notice. When the frog’s show was over, the frog returned to his natural pose and croaked once.

“And now for the grand finale,” Soul snapped his fingers and vanished.

The giant frog croaked one last croak before exploding into confetti. Soul himself (though in a slightly different form) stood were the frog used to be, dressed as a magician. He took a bow before the audience and announced the cover story for what had occurred and for them to all see his next show “in the near future” (Translation: “never”). Still, the entire food court clapped and foolishly accepted the boldfaced and impossible to believe lie. After that, he vanished into a puff of smoke.

It wasn’t until then that I had noticed the mean leader girl from earlier had disappeared from her click. The others took notice of this, but they figured that she had run off in fear of the cheesy act. I knew better though. Jackie was a great manipulator, because he knew how to get exactly what he wanted.

When Soul and I found Jackie, we were already too late. She was a giant breed of sow. From looking at her, she had to weigh at least 600 pounds. The former girl was honking down garbage as if it was pig feed. Behind her was Jackie with his dingo head showing. I didn’t need to see his prized feathers tucked behind his ear to know it was him. He was petting the new sow’s back like she were a fellow canine. Jackie stopped stroking his “good piggy” and smiled when he saw the two of us.

“Yo Anthony, Soul, you both missed it,” the Dingo Trickster laughed, “I actually got her to start eating out of the trash before I even touched her mind.”

“I’m sure you did,” I crossed my arms, tapping my foot, “now change her back.”

“Change her back,” Jackie wasn’t happy about that, “do you know how many baby back ribs I can get out of a pig this size?”

“Jackie, you promised me after that kidnapping incident in Australia that you’d never take a human life again.”

“Technically, she’s not a human life now,” Jackie shrugged, I just threw daggers with my eyes (though not literally. That would hurt me far more than him.), “Alright, alright fine, but how are we going to cover this up?”

“Tell her it was all a magic trick,” Soul asked.

“Please,” I sighed, “that would explain the ‘illusions’ in the mall, but not how you turned her into a 600 pound garbage eating pig.”

“We could always just let her think that it was all a dream,” Jackie grinned using the pig as an arm rest, “that’s what my Pop used to do.”

“That’ll have to do,” I nodded, sliding my hand through my hair, “now make it happen. I need to recharge after that little stunt you pulled.”

“Aren’t you eating enough calories,” Jackie stopped grinning. Not getting enough nourishment is truly fatal for us Tricksters. Producing those worms probably cost me at least a dozen cupcakes’ worth of energy to call them out of thin air.

“I’m still here, aren’t I?”

“Look, the sow can wait until after lunch,” Jackie stated as he stood up, I glared at him, “And no, I wont eat her.”

“Fine…,” I smiled, “just don’t forget your face, okay…”

“Of course not,” Jackie rubbed his human guise back into shape. He started with his nose and eyes as they were the easiest to shift. His left ear was the next to change even as his human hair slowly grew back out. He had to be careful with his right ears as it was where he kept his feathers. We watched as he readjusted them so that they would say in place.

Why am I suddenly giving you so much details as to Jackie’s simple changes, you ask? Well, it has always been fun for me to watch how easily we Tricksters could alter our appearances. Transformation’s never been a specialty of mine. No, my personal skills were in bringing things together. Even still, the true reason is because it was the final moment of Jackie’s life.

The next instant was the longest moment of my long life. I’ve lost friends before, but never in person. Not like this… and I couldn’t do anything to save him.

All I can truly remember about it was all was that one sound. It was a sound that even the simplest of mortals have heard hundreds of times in the past. Although, I’ve found that sound has become significantly more common due to movies and increased crime. This is no movie. It couldn’t be anything else, but a single bullet being fired.

“Jackie,” I shouted reaching out for for him. His head was already out of my viewpoint, but I already knew exactly where he was hit. I was stuck in slow motion as I watched the young trickster fall to the ground. I took a step forward the moment time started again. Soul stopped me and forced me back behind the dumpster. I didn’t exactly let that task be easy for him. I was kicking and screaming to save my friend. I knew he was gone, but that meant little to nothing to me. I wasn’t right in the head.

“Calm down,” Soul shouted to me, “we have to go.”

“Not without Jackie,” I cried, “he’ll die if I don’t save him!”

“He’s already gone Anthony!”

“No I can still,” I paused as I remembered the one Trick that was unique to me as a Trickster. I needed to focus. My entire being called out to Jackie’s spirit. Telling him to not cross over just yet. In response, Jackie’s body vaporized away. That’s to be expected though. Jackie was dead after all. And I did NOT have nearly enough energy to bring him back all the way.

I wish I could see Soul’s face as the vapors flowed to my free hand. What used to be Jackie’s body was now a small action figure. (What? You expected a doll? No, I mean a plastic action figure. There’s even a small switch on his back that would flip out his human head for the dingo one.) Jackie was still lifeless though.

“What did you do,” Soul quickly let me go, but I didn’t have time to explain it to him.

“Now what did you have to do that for Anthony,” that murder’s voice echoed off the walls of the alleyway. I knew that voice. I had to agree with Soul about leaving ASAP. I turned to push Soul through the wall behind us. It wasn’t my personal power, but I knew that Soul could do it. Just as saving the recently departed was on of my Special Tricks, Intangibility was his.

“Warn a guy would you,” Soul brushed himself off when we were past the wall, “I could have left you in the wall by mistake.”

“We have to move,” I shouted, “You have no idea how evil that Hunter is.”

“Why? Who is it?”

I choked on the words. Can you blame me, really? One of my oldest friends was just killed. The shock of that alone was finally getting to me more than I feared his killer. Still, I had Jackie nested in my hands now. I still had time to bring him back to life. His murderer was a different story.

“He is… Jolon,” I looked up at Soul, “my brother…”

“Oh… crap…,” the avian lost his disguise in his distress. His human parts just fell right off as easily as dropping a glass would be. He was a full crow in the time that it takes for you to blink. It was nice to see my brother’s reputation had preceded itself to Soul. That way I wouldn’t have to have to explain how epically deep in trouble we were in.