NaNoWriMo 2007 Tenth Chapter

Whenever my mother caught us doing something sneaky, mischievous, or meddlesome, she called us a "nix nux."   I just had to create my own little story of an imp named Nix Nux.

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month, in which participants need to write 50,000 words from November 1 to midnight November 30.  The point is to get the words flowing, push to the end, allow yourself to write a bunch of crap, and revise in December.  This motivation and urgency should help a writer put aside the internal editor and excuses that normally stop them from writing a novel in the first place.   

Fresh Water Pirates- The Legend of The Nix Nux



On a light and fluffy cloud, there lived an air spirit named Nix Nux.  Nix Nux usually hopped from cloud to cloud, trying to find a fellow spirit for play.  A curious and restless little spirit, Nix Nux's idea of play was trickery, pranks, and other such jokes for himself.  That was his gift, to turn any situation into an entertaining moment, whether for himself all alone, or for others caught in the same place at the same time.
One day, Nix Nux looked under his cloud in search for a friend and discovered the swirly blue and green earth, far far below him.  Instantly his thought this world looked very interesting and worth an exploration.  He rode a wave of wind down to a rocky shore on earth, where he could hop from rock to rock, tree to tree, wave to wave and find so much delight.  He loved how the sun sparkled in the waters and how the rocks revealed their colors when they got wet.  He found the smell of pine and cedars trees intoxicating.  Their bouncy bushy branches tickled him while he danced and pranced up and down each tree.  Oh how fun this earth seemed to him.
He discovered squirrels in the oak and maple trees.  They ran and ran around and around the tree trunks, chasing each other for a reason they had forgotten. Nix Nux learned quickly that the squirrels obsessed over nuts, so he took the pleasure of teasing the squirrels with these nuts.  First placed a nut in one squirrels little paws and tap the other squirrel's shoulder.  The two squirrels would quarrel in high-pitched chatter for quite some time until they forgot what they were fighting about.  
Then Nix Nux would throw a nut at one of them, which made that squirrel turn around and accuse his fellow squirrel friend.  The squirrels would then begin the race again, around and around the tree in the opposite direction as before, until Nix Nux would throw a nut to other squirrel.  The entire scenario repeated itself over and over as Nix Nux threw one nut after another, laughing hysterically to himself.
After wiping tears from his eyes feeling his tummy ache from laughter, he looked for other critters to play with.  Nix Nux decided to wander further and further into the woods.  As the sky grew darker, Nix Nux noticed the forest started to wake up.  Owls perched up high, searching for mice and rabbits to eat.  Raccoons sat at the edge of a skinny spring-fed stream to wash their dinner or catch their dinner, whichever the case may be.    Coyotes howled and yipped.  Frogs and crickets sang an enchanting chorus that continued all through the night.
For the first time, Nix Nux was overwhelmed with opportunities for play.  Invisible to all earthly creatures, Nix Nux took advantage of as many opportunities as he could to tamper with the lives of the nocturnal forest creatures.  
After a raccoon spent quite some time scrubbing a little fish clean, Nix Nux would quick as a wink, sprinkle sand an dirt on the fish as the raccoon was about to take his first bite.  The raccoon shrieked in disgust and returned to cleaning the fish.  Again when the raccoon found the fish adequately scrubbed, it tired for another bite, but Nix Nux had smeared black slime on the fish the second before the bite.  A how frustrated that raccoon was, and how Nix Nux laughed.
The opossum entertained Nix Nux for hours. Nix Nux threw nuts at the opossum just to see what he would do.  At first the opossum did nothing but look around and continue on his way to finding bugs and worms to eat.  Nix Nux threw a stick at the opossum.  The opossum turned, looked, snarled his teeth a little this time, and proceeded to follow his nose to a rotten log.  Then Nix Nux saw a coyote pup trotting along a deer trail.  Nix Nux pulled on the pup's tail and ears until the poor little coyote stumbled in front of the opossum.  When the opossum saw the coyote she dropped to the ground and froze.  The coyote pup, now left alone by Nix Nux, poked the opossum with his nose.  No reaction.  Nix Nux poked the opossum with a stick.  No reaction.  The opossum played dead.  Nix Nux, however, could hear the heart beat of the opossum and feel his breath.  He was alive but scared stiff!  Nix Nux enjoyed the joke the opossum played on him.
As day broke, Nix Nux found himself waking upside down in a cave.  The cave felt cold and damp and not so playful as the forest or the shoreline.  Nix Nux tried to move, but he was bound by some magic spell.  It is very rare for an air spirit to feel immobile!
Suddenly a gorgeous woman with long wavy brown hair and deep dark brown eyes, clothed in a dress of emerald green moss, approached Nix Nux.  "Good Morning, air spirit.  My name is Gaia, the Queen Goddess of the Earth.  You have been meddling with my forest creatures."
Nix Nux giggled and shrugged.  "Yes, I have.  They are so entertaining!  The skunk sprays foul clouds of odor when it is startled.  The opossum plays dead.  The frogs get their tongues stuck and cannot sing.  The moles, when chased, will run into trees or rocks!  I haven't ever ha so much fun before!"
The Earth Goddess nodded.  "Yes, all those things are true, but you are the only one having a good time, Nix Nux.  My poor creatures have lost much of their food-gathering energy because you were teasing them, chasing them, frightening them, and bullying the all evening.  I have no choice but to ban you from earth and send you back to the clouds up above."
"NO!" cried Nix Nux.  "Please, do not send me back.  As I do have fun on the clouds, I find this earth so much more entertaining, it keeps me so busy, and I must keep busy.  I need to tamper, meddle, an prod.  I cannot help it!  Oh please allow me to stay on earth!  Is there any way I can stay here and play?"
Gaia thought about his request. Her powers governed that planet, and she had already seen enough torture in her beloved world.  When she thought of the true culprits of this destruction, and how she wished she could ban those specific creatures from her world, she found an answer for Nix Nux.
"Nix Nux, if I were to allow you to stay on my Earth, I need to turn you into an imp, a sprite, and keep you here forever.  You must never return to the clouds."
Nix Nux rolled this idea around in his crafty mischievous head.  "What else?  You are not telling me the other rules."
Gaia nodded.  ‘Yes, and you would be bound to never interact with any creature on this land, that is, all creatures but humans.  I would assign you to meddle with the humans to distract them from devising more ways to create pollution on my precious Earth."  Gaia sighed, as she knew this was not the answer to stopping all destruction for her world, but she had no problems with an imp messing with a race who, in her mind, messed with her.  "Can you do that, Nix Nux?"
"I can create as much mischief as I want, but only to the humans?"
"Yes, that is correct."
"How many humans are there?" Nix Nux wanted to know before he agreed to anything.
Gaia laughed.  "No worries there, imp, as there are plenty!  Too many!  You could never keep up with all of them.  I guarantee you will never run out of humans or pranks."
"Will I remain invisible to their eyes?"
"Yes," Gaia answered, now blushing as this inquisitive, curious little spirit.  "I will ensure you will be an invisible quick little imp, with all the capabilities of toying with the human race.  The possibilities are endless.  Cutting one shoelace too short, hiding the energy bill, playing with their dreams while they sleep, spilling wine on a ladies white dress, blowing dust in their nose to make them sneeze... I'm telling you, you have a lot of work ahead of you."
Nix Nux did not even know what most of those things were that she spoke of, but it sounded like a party to him.  "Yes, I agree, Gaia.  I would very much like it if you would turn me into an earth-bound imp to meddle in human lives for eternity."
And so it was done. Nix Nux hops from home to home, making certain that socks don't match and the record scratches.  He ensures people have the wildest dreams or window that won't stay shut.  Nix Nux loosens the nails on the floor boards and makes cricket sounds in the china cabinet.  When a person spends hours trying to find those keys they just had in their hands, one could blame it on Nix Nux.  And don't think that the traffic lights, cracks in the sidewalk, or tickle in your nose doesn't have a thing to do with a particularly meddlesome giggling imp named Nix Nux.  And don't you think for one minute that he is not on this planet to stay, forever.


Copyright 2007 Laura Beck Nielsen