Memoirs of a Mischief-Maker

A/N: just a one-shot concerning my two favourite characters from the memory-world – Mahad and Mana. R&R thanks.

Disclaimer: I own a rather lovely chunk of nothing.

It was a quiet day in Egypt. The burning sun shone down on the crisp, golden sands of the vast Egyptian empire that stretched as far as the eye could see. The towers of the great pyramids loomed on the horizon, with huge colonies of slaves pottering around, with chisels and axes and various other tools for maintaining the grandeur of the empire, under the watchful eyes of several guards armed with whips and beating-rods. Nothing out of the ordinary with that.

In the palace, the grandest and largest of all the buildings in the city is where the newly-crowned Pharaoh Atem lived, along with his most trusted servants. Most notably, the six priests that were entrusted to hold the ominous powers of the six millennium items besides the Pharaoh's own millennium puzzle.

Mana, a young magician – or rather, a young magician-in-training – was lurking in one of the overly-large flower pots that had been placed almost systematically around the palace, patiently waiting for him to walk by. Him, of course, being the handsome-and-intelligent-yet-awfully-cranky-Priest-Seto. Priest Seto was one of the six priests that guarded the millennium items, his charge being the Millennium Rod. Mana had taken it upon herself to annoy the grumpy priest on every occasion she could – especially after Seto had insulted her shoddy spell-work earlier that week.

Every now and then, Mana's perky chestnut mane could be seen poking out from the vase, as peaking green eyes scanned the area for any sign of Priest Seto's approach. He would usually take this route back to his quarters after his daily rendezvous with the young pharaoh – which, if Mana was correct, should be just about over, meaning Seto should arrive here any moment now. And sure enough, after several minutes, the all-too-familiar sounds of Seto's footfalls could be heard, and the slamming of a door against the pristine white-stone wall announced Seto's dramatic arrival. The Priest clad in sweeping sky-blue robes trimmed in gold walked hastily along the corridor – unaware of the mischievous menace hiding in the pottery.

With a flash of pink light and a loud splash the presence of the young apprentice magician became abundantly clear to Seto, who was covered from head to toe with – quite literally – paints of every colour of the rainbow and more.

Somewhat stunned, Seto simply stared blankly at his once-blue-and-gold attire. A loud, girlish giggle brought Seto back to his senses, and his usually handsome features contorted into the paint-covered snarl of a feral beast. He lunged for Mana, who had emerged from the safety of the pot to fully appreciate her handy work, but the small girl dodged with a yelp. Seto lunged again. And once again, Mana doged, her grin only widening the more Seto's frustrations showed - obvioucly, the prank had been a success.

"What's going on here?" a reprimanding voice scolded from behind them.

Both Priest and magician alike turned to seek the source of the voice. The one who had spoken was Mahad, the Pharaoh's greatest magician, and Mana's master. He was also the bearer of the millennium ring. His azure eyes scanned the two people as he approached, a hint of amusement shining from his eyes as he looked from Mana, to Seto who was still dripping with paint, and back to Mana. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened – Mana had an infamous reputation for being a mischief maker, and Seto was known to be a favourite target of hers. He didn't know whether o be proud or angry at his young apprentice for her actions.

Seto's eyes narrowed to barely more than slits as he recognised Mahad. He pointed an accusing finger at him. "You!" he spat. "Need to keep a firmer hand on this – this abomination you call your student, Mahad!"

Mahad raised his eyebrow somewhat. "Now Seto, there is no need for such language. It's only paint!" Mahad waved his own staff, and in a flash of green light, every trace of the paint vanished from Seto's robes. "See?"

Seto's scowl remained true to itself and did not budge.

"And Mana, what have I told you about playing such foolish pranks?" Mahad reprimanded sternly, turning his piercing blue eyes onto Mana's watery green orbs.

"That if I can't control myself, I'll never be able to control my magic and become a true magician" Mana recited in a dead pan voice.

"You know I'll have to punish you for this?"

"Uh-huh!"

"You're getting off lightly, girl. If you try anything like that again, I'll ensure you never practice magic for the rest of your life. Is that understood?" Seto snarled, his blue eyes flashing menacingly.

Mana nodded grimly.

The blue-and-gold clad priest stormed off then, his millennium rod glinting in the Egyptian sun, leaving Mahad and Mana staring after him in his wake.

As soon as Seto was out of range, Mahad's eyes softened considerably – he had actually found the whole ordeal rather amusing, but Seto was certainly not the type to take being pranked lightly. He looked at Mana, who was staring at her feet, kicking the floor in a sad, defeated kind of way. Mahad inwardly sighed – he hated seeing his favourite pupil looking so crushed. And he also hated being the one to have crushed her.

"Psst" said Mahad, discretely grabbing his student's attentions. 'Damn this frail conscience of mine' he thought to himself as he subtly handed her a small slip of papyrus, on which several words were written in the magician's smooth, cursive script.

The message on the note was simple, but the meaning behind it was a subtle one;

Seto really hates birds.

Mahad watched as Mana's eyes brightened as she quickly read the short note. She was smart enough to know just what Mahad was implying for her to do – he winked at his apprentice, a sly smirk on his face, and strolled away, humming a cheerful tune as he went. Mana stared after him for a moment, and then a mischievous grin spread across her young face. She immediately set off to plan her next prank on the cranky bearer-of-the-rod Seto – a prank that, thanks to what Mahad had told her, was going to contain lots and lots of birds. She completely forgot about Seto's threat – she didn't really care, because King Atem was a friend of hers, and he would never allow such a threat to grow into fruition. All she could think was 'Oh, this is going to be fun.'

From a distance, Mahad watched his apprentice dart happily off in the direction of their living quarters. He sighed, half with exasperation, half with amusement. 'Ra help me, that girl's a bad influence on me. Ah well, at least she's entertaining' He thought to himself, before continuing on his travels around the palace, quietly laughing to himself.

A/N I know it was a bit of a lame prank, but I couldn't think of anything else that wasn't going too far. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed. It isn't bad for something that took me twenty minutes to write. Read and Review, please. I might write the prank Mana is planning if i get enough reviews - we'll have to see.