Why?

Trinket stepped through the gardens on bare feet, holding her doll against her chest. The birds chirping in the trees grew silent upon her approach. She paid them no mind.

One foot after another left the soft grass for the cold paving stones that led up to the shrine. Trinket glanced from side to side, noticing the offerings scattered here and there. Curious. Flowers, peaches, small knick-knacks and the like, all laid out to garner the favor of one god or another. The attempts of mortals to reach to those that stood above them.

She turned her attention back to the shrine itself. She had brought no offering. She wasn't sure if one was needed. She had knowledge of such things, of the hows and the whats of the world. But not the whys. Not even, it seemed, the "why" of her own existence.

She stopped before the shrine and placed her doll on the ground, next to the offerings. She looked this way and that, unblinking, her dark eyes scanning the surrounding stones and the trees above.

"Father?" she asked, her voice soft. "I have questions for you."

ludo Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own Ludo is not this one's father. Maker, perhaps. Creator. But it has no knowledge, need or experience of parental inclinations, and that, coupled with the lack of an offering... Ludo is moody as it appears. "Little Trinket, has no one taught you the ways of the world?" It settles before her; a writhing mass of rags and a plain, porcelain mask. "Very well, then. Ask your questions."

"I'm learning about the world," she said, looking up at Ludo, expressionless, emotionless. "I have knowledge. You gave me that. But I don't have understanding."

She studied Ludo's form. Different. Unlike the others in the world.

Different was interesting.

She paused for a long moment, collecting her words. She was in no rush. Time seemed infinite, at least to her mind. Several questions tumbled around in her head. Any number of curiosities that she had no answers for. But one stood out, first and foremost.

She stepped closer to the god, looking up at him with glassy black eyes. In an expressionless tone, tinged perhaps only with curiosity, she asked, "Why did you create me?"

ludo Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own Why did it create her? Ludo's porcelain mask tilts to the side, as if that ought to have been obvious. It had not been able to find or have its relic used in the war, and that was quite tragic. And so... here is Trinket. "For fun," it tells her simply. "For tricks and treats and mischief. I created you for fun, little Trinket. So you could bring some light back to the world after all of the darkness and war. Everyone has gotten so serious."

"I like tricks," Trinket said with a nod. "I'm good at tricks. I want to see what people do when I trick them. Sometimes they scream. Sometimes they laugh. Sometimes they don't know what to do."

"So I guess I'm doing what I'm supposed to do." She tilted her head, much in the same pose as Ludo's own. She considered the other questions she had. One spring out that was not so urgent, but still a matter of curiosity for her.

"Why don't I have a tail?" she asked. She twisted around to look behind herself, at her lack of a tail. She she looked at her creator, craning her neck to search for some semblance of a tail. But the mass of rags seemed not to have enough form to support such a thing as a tail.

But of course, she knew enough of gods to know she could not call on one, even the one that created her, for such a simple question. There were deeper concerns. Questions about her purpose. She knew now why she had been made. But she wanted to know more.

She was silent for a long, long moment, gathering her thoughts. She stood still, unmoving, unblinking. When the question became clearer in her mind, she asked, "If I'm supposed to bring light to the world, shouldn't I do a really big trick? I play lots of little tricks on people, and they have such curious reactions. But the world is really big. I should play a really big trick to make lots of people react."

ludo Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own "That is the beauty of a trick, sweetling. Sometimes not even those who are being tricked know how they will react until it happens." Masks cannot smile, and yet Ludo's seems to all the same. The swathe of rags bobs its head in a yes to confirm that Trinket is, indeed, doing what she is supposed to do, if that means anything to her to know it. Her second question, though, has the mask tilting so far it is almost upside down. Ludo hovers, perplexed. "I do not know why you do not have a tail, sweetling," it admits. "Perhaps I forgot to give you one. I do not believe you are disadvantaged without it?" She seems to be getting around okay, from what it sees. As for her ideas about tricks, two raggedy tendrils come to clap together, like little hands. "That does sound like a good idea. Perhaps you could take everyone's left shoe, and hide them all in a big pile," it suggests. "Or we could take all the children and hide those instead." To say that Ludo's ideas are sporadic and ping-pong between the lighthearted and macabre is putting it mildly.

"Hide the children?"

Trinket paused, considering that. She wondered how parents would react, unable to find their children. So many people, unknowing of the truth, searching, searching. Their boring lives made more interesting than they'd ever been before.

She gave a little nod. "I'll do that. It sounds like fun."

She gathered up her doll, holding it against her chest. "After I hide all the children, I'll come back and tell you how everyone reacted. Or maybe you can see it from here?" She considered that for a moment; she didn't know how gods saw things, whether Ludo would know what was happening in such a far off place. Curious.

"This will be the biggest game ever." The tiniest smile touched the corners of her lips. She had known coming to talk to Ludo would be a good idea. She understood much better now why she was here.

She was here to make everything more interesting.

ludo Braved the forests, braved the stone Braved the icy winds and fire Braved and beat them on my own "Like a big, big game of hide and seek," Ludo agrees, its little raggedy tendrils still clapping together with enthusiasm. "Except nobody will know who is hiding and who is seeking until it is already happening. What a trick that would be." The mask absolutely cannot be grinning now, and yet it is, and Ludo surges upwards to swirl towards the glittering starlight that dazzles over the Celestine. "I will be able to see, sweetling. It will be such fun!" And given that Trinket seems to know what she is doing and, more importantly, why she is doing it, it's with a pat of her head by a whisper of fabric that the god takes its leave, melting back into darkness and the spaces between. ~FIN