Mischief Mage: Heres' the next chapter. Sorry that it's a short one but this I was only prepared to address this one incident in this chapter. Read and review.


King Ephraim awoke in bed a week later, mind buzzing with spots induced by the bruises Innes had given his temples. He was so lucky to have his sister. He and Innes might actually have ripped each other limb from limb if she hadn't reminded them that, if they did, the dry cleaning bill would be through the roof. Eirika and Tana had then decided with Joshua and L'Arachel that the confiscated land would be divided into half between Renais and Frelia. Innes and Ephraim had been resolved to resolve the teddy bear dispute in a court of law within the next half-year.

Ephraim rubbed his eyes wearily, unable to remember why he had actually woken up. He had been haunted through his dreams of his precious poopsie's (the bear) button eyes and matted chocolate brown fur which was scarce after being hugged so often. Innes was also a recurring motif of his dreams, normally a close up of his face far off in the background cackling maniacally and pelting him with porcelain missiles.

But strangely enough, this was definitely not what had woken him up. He had been beating the boss in his dream with his super laser beam fire breath powers and his enchanted flying staircase.

Just as he lay his head back down beside Tana's, pushing some of her massive hair from his face and wrapping an arm around her waist, he heard what had woken him.

He rushed to the east facing wall and pushed the windows open, letting the rising sunlight flood in along with waves of smoke. Coughing, he fanned the smoke away and, squinting through grey to the forest on the edge of the grounds, he saw a massive straight line of charred trees. But the burning seemed to have stopped and as the smoke cleared, Ephraim was able to see four figures moving slowly across the lawn. He couldn't see what they were doing. One was standing back, pointing and occasionally yelling and hitting a small figure on the head. The small figure seemed to be scrawling something on a rectangular sheet and the other two were holding something down to the ground.

Straining his ears to hear what they were shouting, he picked up words such as 'chimney' and 'rabbit'. He rushed impatiently to the door, grabbing his bath robe to cover his bare chest and shorts, and hurried down to the grounds. Only one person on Magvel could use the words 'chimney' or 'rabbit' in an insulting way.

'INNES' he screamed, running out over the courtyard in his bare feet and skidding slightly as he came to a halt on the moist grass.

'INNES' he yelled again, 'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?'

The culprit raised his head to look the half-dressed king in the eye and say,

'Measuring'

Ephraim eyed him suspiciously. 'Measuring?' he asked, 'Measuring what!?'

Innes pulled a clipboard from a tired Ewan's grasp.

'Well, King Ephraim' he said sarcastically, looking his comrade up and down, 'Our wives have decided to split the confiscated land between our two nations, am I correct?'

'Ye..es' Ephraim said slowly.

'Well, obviously, as Renais lies on the border to Grado, the easiest means of dividing the land is to give that land to Renais and remove half the area of the land that Renais receives from the area on the border of Frelia. Basically, you receive x area of land and we remove half of x area from your land so that in total, Renais and Frelia each have half x extra land. '

'Oh and that's what your doing now is it?' Ephraim asked angrily.

Innes smiled diplomatically, 'Well…yes' he said, gesturing at sewing tape measure that two servants were holding against the ground so that Ewan could take notes. Considering that the measure was only about three metres long, Ephraim had no idea how he had managed to measure the distance from the Frelian border to Renais castle.

But that wasn't what was bothering him. He gestured angrily at the big black line of dead trees that come straight from the direction of Frelia.

Innes shrugged noncommittally. 'I had Ewan do it. How was I supposed to get a straight measurement if i had all those trees in the way?'

He barely had time to gasp before the usually gentle blue haired youth was gripping his collar in both hands and holding his face right up to his.

'Do you mean to tell me,' Ephraim roared, 'that you had the balls to embarrass my sister at the conference, claim my bear as yours, give me a black eye, tramp into my country with a tape measure, blast down fifty native trees and wake me up at five in the morning to tell me that you're MEASURING!?'

Innes seemed to think a minute, seeming unperturbed that he was being held by the collar by a seething, blue haired man dressed in shorts and a bath robe.

He finally seemed to come to a conclusion.

'Yes'

They both stood completely still for a moment, holding each other in the utmost contempt.

'By the way' he added, looking straight into Ephraim's eyes, 'It's my bear.'


Tana sat at the breakfast table in the great hall, a cup of tea next to her and munching on a piece of cheese and bread. She was reading over a letter in her hand, her pretty brow furrowed. Her head jerked up as Franz burst in the door, in uniform, looking distressed.

'Milady!' he cried, 'Out on the lawn! King Innes and Ephraim are fighting'

The Queen straightened for a moment and asked 'are they using weapons?'

'No milady'

She relaxed, taking a bite from her bread.

Franz looked at her stunned.

She looked up at him swallowing.

'Franz' she said addressing him, 'How would you like to visit your brother in Frelia?'

The paladin looked startled.

'I..I'd like that very much milady'

She smiled serenely at him.

'Excellent. You can go tomorrow; Amelia can cover your duties for you. But I need you to take a letter to Eirika for me. I need to tell her I've found her lost husband'