By: Mionikoi

Briggit was waiting by the lake shore, having taken a nap mid day so she wouldn’t be tired during her evening escapades. First, she needed to speak to the nixie. It was a meeting she was not looking forward to, but it was an obligation she needed to fulfill.

The sound of water lapping against the shore and the occasional breeze was all the vixen could hear. She hadn’t seen any wolves in the area after her first meeting with the nixie, they were likely avoiding the area entirely now. But she had not grown complacent enough to unawares, keeping her ears peeled and sniffing the air for any change the breeze might bring.

The moon was full and rising, the sun having fully set an hour ago. The shore was occupied only by a pouting girl.

“I have more to request about our bargain, nixie.” Briggit said, becoming impatient. “One thing, that will determine how long it takes for me to help you. The other is something I want.”

Silence.

“Well. The thing is. I don’t know anything about gates to the realms of water. I don’t know how they’re constructed or what you need for them. I could learn, but there is no telling how long that will be. I don’t have much to trade for it. I only know how to make an earthen gate.” The vixen continued.

Silence.

“Also, I lived by the sea all my life. No offense but… I miss eating fish. Nice juicy, white flakey meat with a hint of salt fried in butter… Well, you might not cook very often… but umm. If you happen to know where I can find fish to eat. I’d appreciate it. “

Mist began to creep along the ground, slowly from the surface of the lake. The silence grew until even the lapping of the shore died down. The air became a mix of a silvery cloud rising from the lake until it obscured the surroundings in fog, mixing with the clouds that sunk from above and hiding the moon.

The vixen’s ears flickered back. Her head turned to look back and up to what was standing over her. A pair of pale white eyes, devoid of all but their yellow pupils, loomed several inches above a mouth filled with the needle-like teeth of an angler fish. Fog concealed the rest of the creature’s body however. The bulbous white eyes stared down at the girl as the creature reached out great webbed hands with sickle like claws closing around slowly to wall off the girl’s escape.

Briggit however stood there glaring. Making herself glare. Feigning annoyance with puffed out cheeks, fighting with every fiber of her being to not show any signs of her growing terror. Or more importantly, wetting herself.

Through the fog Briggit could make out the shape of a towering figure stepping over her as silently as the mist surrounded them. A tall, gaunt figure slipped into the water like an semi-aquatic predator. No wake, no noise. No disturbance or evidence of ever having been there. The fog began to withdraw in the strangest of fashions. Rather than being dissipated naturally, is was pulled back into the water until all that could be seen was the reflection of moonlight and two glowing eyes staring at the girl.

A woman slowly emerged from the water with an expression of disappointment on her face.

She looked like one who truly lived in the waters of a marsh or swamp. ‘Not as fair as a mermaid, but far more appealing than a grindylow.’ The vixen thought, taking in a shaky breath.

“Well, you are no fun. Stiff as drift wood though.” The nixie said, giving a hissing exhale.

“We had a deal, and I can’t get you home if you eat me.” Briggit said, keeping her voice from trembling better than she was keeping her body from doing so.

“I don’t like spicy food anyways. ” The nixie said, walking back into the water as smoothly and silently as she had left. “Don’t worry. I am not going to eat anyone… That you know. I don’t want to be dredged out of the lake before I can leave this horrible place.”

The nixie looked towards the keep thoughtfully. “If one of them drowns, I’ll give them a day or two to fish their dead out of my lake. If they haven’t claimed the corpse by then, I’ll start with the legs. Tell them that, welp. I am at least that fair.” The nixie said. “There is a rather large one with meaty legs. I hope she comes by.”

The nixie sank down chest deep before looking the girl over with a tilt of her head. Green skin, darker green hair, and glowing eyes that were almost completely white except for the yellow pupils that stared back at the girl.

“You have more conditions.” A statement, not a question.

Briggit nodded, slowly taking a seat. “I won’t be able to help you if I don’t know how to help you.”

“Useless.” The nixie scoffed at first, but looked at the girl suspiciously. She reconsidered the vixen after a brief moment. “No, you are able to make gates.”

“To the earthen realms.” Briggit stated, curling up on the dry part of the shore. “Those are simple. Make a square with rocks. Grass and flowers are enough to activate them. Moss and lichen is better. I don’t know anything about water or cloud gates.”

The nixie considered her. “You are no witch then.” The nixie said, looking away. “Water gates take many forms. Mostly a hole in the bottom of a spring… There is no spring here. There are no springs here. Not ones large enough for me.”

Briggit frowned. “I don’t know how to help. I can ask. But I don’t have much to trade for. Or get anyone’s attention. ” Briggit said and looked away, out of embarrassment. “And I am hungry. “

The nixie looked at the girl with a quizzical gaze before grinning. “Almost all bones, and not enough to make a proper soup.” The nixie scoffed. “Give me some of your hair.”

The vixen looked at her warily.

“I have an idea to solve both of your problems. You need something that can go where you can not, when you can not. Extra hands? I know a spell. Give me some of your hair as an ingredient and as payment.” The nixie said.

Briggit looked at her curiously now, beginning to comb through her hair.

“You don’t have long. I know you don’t have long. Till that human dies no? I know of him. I have that long, and I won’t waste it. I won’t be stuck in this lake bored out of my mind, waiting for the next stupid animal to come my way.” The nixie almost began to hiss her words loudly, sounding everything like a large serpent or the huge bony lizards that lived in water, a crocodile. Her expression seething in rage briefly contorting her face before she calmed herself.

“But you can’t stray far from the lake.” Briggit said.

“No. Not for long.” The nixie said. “Not while it is this dry. Seldom when it rains. You will remember our bargain.” The nixie said, glaring at the girl, her face smiling with sharp needle-like teeth gleaming in the light.

Briggit simply nodded.

“Help you help me.” The nixie said with a cackle as she reached her hand out. Briggit offered the nixie her hair.

“Help me, help you.” Briggit said softly in return.

The nixie rolled her eyes and took the hair before lowering herself further into the water. The moment the hair touched the surface, it hissed and bubbled, the water beginning to boil until nothing of the hair was left but steam.

The nixie reached for the cloud of steam, pulling it back to her, condensing it, forming a ball, and molding the cloud. Pressing harder and harder until the cloud began to solidify into a bubble. And from a bubble it became opaque, glistening in the moonlight, like a bubble that slowly froze in the cold winter air.

“It is done. ” The nixie said, holding what looked like a large white pearl. “Fire and water birth steam, the newborn of clouds.” The nixie held the pearl out to the girl.

Briggit reached out but was startled and tried to jerk back when the nixie clasped her hands together with both of hers.

“Ree.memm.berr.” The nixie said, leveling her eyes with the girl and giving a toothy grin before she let go and disappeared under the surface.

Briggit waited for a moment to pass before she grumbled and sighed. ‘I swear if anyone at the keep asks me to do laundry at night, I’ll refuse!’ She internally told herself. ‘This nixie is not good for mi heart!’

The girl looked at the bright white pearl in her hands, glowing softly in the moonlight.

>–<

Rachuck stared off into the distance of the night sky. “I don’t like this.”

Belathon inhaled slowly through his nostrils before glancing at his captain. “It’s not a forest fire, we are down wind from it and there is barely any scent of smoke.”

“Then it is not an encampment, unless they are using something else.”

“It could be a faerie doing faerie things.” The guard suggested.

Rachuck’s eyes narrowed with suspicion towards the horizon. “ I don’t want to imagine what could be capable of that. Go get my sister and the other huntresses. We can’t afford to ignore this.”

Belathon nodded before he disappeared under the hatch.

‘Probably that demon’s doings.’ Rachuck thought to himself while he sighed in exasperation.

It wasn’t long before a peeved looking Dakota emerged from the hatch. She took one look at her brother with a, ‘Why do I have to be woken up?’ expression before it went away when she saw the glow on the horizon.

“A forest fire?”

Rachuck shrugged. “If it is, the wind isn’t carrying smoke this way. Something strange is going on.”

Dakota grumbled. “ If it is the faerie, we need to give it a piece of our mind about doing strange things at this time of night.”

Esmerelda soon joined her. “Thinking of writing a letter of grievances to her, are we?” Esmerelda blinked when she caught sight of the horizon. “Bloody hell, did she set the forest on fire?”

Dakota tilted her head. “I don’t know. Belathon couldn’t detect smoke.” She looked to Rachuck for confirmation, who in turn nodded.

Fengi and Jackalope soon arrived followed by Kokashi.

Jackalope stared at the distant light “Shit, what is that?”

Kokashi gave a mindful glance. “ I think I remember Apuma mentioning the old quarry being that way.”

Rachuck looked over to Kokashi before returning his gaze to the horizon. “ We can’t rule out that it might be an incursion. We need to prepare.”

Dakota sighed. “ We’ll go look. If we aren’t back in an hour or so, wake the keep.”

“Our luck, some idiots tried to camp in the rock pit and set it on fire.” Esmerelda said.

“Or maybe it’s the faerie girl.” Fengi added in.

Without too much delay, they were soon on the wing. The night was bright with a noticeable chill as if the moon was trying to remind them it was still only spring.

Dakota was thankful the quarry wasn’t too far from the keep and it wasn’t long before they spotted the source of the glow. The huntresses dived, slowing their descent in time to land just outside of the quarry’s edge.

There was no bonfire, no encampment, not even a cluster of torches. Instead, a multitude of small embers floated in mid air while a number of others joined into a wheel that flowed and looped around a small figure standing on a rock. There was a ring in the air that chimed with a constant but slightly varying tone and a faint voice in the air.

The quarry itself, once overgrown with plants, had become a bare stone pit with puddles steaming gradually to create a light hazy fog. The smell of ash and soot hung in the air.

Dakota looked to the other three huntresses before gesturing that they should glide further down for a closer look. Just outside of the border created by the floating flames, but behind an outcropping. Upon their arrival they could clearly hear the faerie’s voice.

It was a combination of lilting ballads and fast paced shanties. The girl, much to both the amusement or annoyance of her hidden audience, did not realize her vocal range was somewhere between treble and a soprano scale.

An occurrence that made Esmerelda wince whenever the vixen sang out of tune, straining her vocal chords by going either too high or low a pitch than she was capable. The fire she danced with however, did not seem to care about how well or poorly she sang, instead it flared up into small flames or died down into embers in time with the volume of the girl. They all but went out when the girl hummed.

The vixen would begin to sing a lively tune, spinning in place, and letting the fire engulf her hands as she whirled about on the soles of her bare feet. The leader of the huntresses simply shook her head watching the awkward girl lose her balance and fall over, concerned momentarily until the vixen burst out laughing.

There was a pattern to the songs. A rise and fall, and with it the temperature in the air. Something the huntresses could feel as the air would grow warm, almost hot, but then the chill in the air would gradually settle back in. It would begin with a slow humming followed by a boisterous shanty, and slope down to a softer ballad before dying down to calm humming again. This performance continued on for half an hour.

Fengi prodded the lead huntress for her attention, not realizing she had drifted off into thought. The young huntress pointed to the girl, where she had made an impromptu cage to house an ember using her fingers. The vixen hummed to keep the embers that orbited her alit, her volume pulsing and the caged ember flaring into a flame that started to push her fingers apart.

In the process of humming to the caged ember, the shadows surrounding the girl began to take on a life and light of their own. Embers drifted down to the ground and upon touching a shadow, would take the shape of long blades of grass, a rabbit that looked up at her curiously, and a fluttering butterfly. A small meadow of shadows began to grow just around the girl’s immediate area. The apparitions were a warm orange color and mostly transparent with a visible ‘shell.’

After some time the huntresses could see the vixen was visibly struggling to keep her ‘cage’ from splitting, the flame taking on a solid orange color. The light show was small and it didn’t take long before the flame forced her fingers apart and the apparitions returned to floating embers, gently orbiting her.

The vixen breathed heavily, shaking her hands. After a while, the girl returned to humming again.

It was after this display that Jackalope’s curiosity got the better of her. Withdrawing an arrow, she used the tip to test one of the embers that drifted by. The arrowhead acquired a mark of soot, and little else, but the vixen’s reaction was immediate.

She jumped, almost as if shocked and looked alarmedly in their direction. Embers quickly floated above their position to light the area up. The look of shock and alarm slowly became replaced with one of mortification. Cautiously, she grabbed her skirt and slightly knelt down.

The lead huntress did not have time to react before the fae had dashed away like a frightened deer with wolves on its heels. Up the quarry wall and out of sight. The surprise left the huntresses flatfooted, their eyes following the embers that trailed after the fae, before also dying into the night air.

The quarry was left in the silence of the spring full moon night. The soft warm glow of the fire banished, replaced by the moon’s bleached light, slowly claiming the heat with the night’s chill. Silently, they decided to not bother chasing after the girl. Instead, each of the huntresses stared at the offending party before deciding it best to head home to the keep before the silent alarm was raised.

The flight back was quiet and Dakota wished she had more time to contemplate what she wanted to do with what she now knew. The huntresses landed by one by one upon the guard tower. Rachuck, Kokashi, and Belathon waiting to hear about their findings.

Dakota flexed her wings before folding them. “No forest fire, no encampment. It was the faerie girl putting on a light show.”

Rachuck stared at her with confusion. “What?!”

Esmerelda chuckled. “She sings fire into existence. Not a bad voice, but she is shit at singing.”

“She’s a clutz too! She tried dancing and fell over! I thought she knocked herself silly when she hit her head on the rocks! She just laughed it off!” Fengi chimed in excitedly.

“She’s really fast too! Ran up the wall like a frightened deer!” Jackolope added.

“And why did she run off like a frightened deer?” Dakota asked, staring at Jackalope sternly. “Did you really have to go around poking magical fire?”

Jackalope smiled apologetically. “Sorry.” She very much was not sorry. “What was that thing she did with her skirt?

Dakota shook her head, beginning to feel a migraine set in. “That was a curtsy.” She had bigger problems to deal with.

Rachuck frowned. “So, we are living with a monster that can manipulate our memories, is practically invisible, and can probably kill us all in our sleep by burning the keep down.”

Dakota remained silent for a moment. Esmerelda looked to her friend before turning to the guard captain. “I don’t think the last part is entirely true. She might be able to, maybe. But not unchallenged. It seemed to take her time for her magic to work. We might be able to deal with her before things get dangerous.”

Dakota nodded. “It’s a hunch, but she might not be able to stay hidden while she sings. The fire responded to her voice.”

Rachuck opened his mouth to speak before closing his mouth and looking to Kokashi.

Esmerelda grinned. “Yes, I do believe my love would be able to hear her the moment she tries.”

Fengi looked between the older huntresses and the guards. “But would she?”

Rachuck looked at the huntresses, annoyance at the fae painted on his face. “How can we know?”

Belathon scoffed. “We can’t for sure. She’s dangerous, she is messing with us. But I think she is trying to get us to like her.”

Eyes turned towards Belathon with a mixture of curiosity and incredulousness. “What? You can’t be serious!” Rachuck snapped.

“Hear me out. She left all those things at your door Rachuck, why?” The guard asked.

“How should I know? It’s creepy that it knows where I sleep!”

Kokashi nodded. “She’s been here long enough to have figured that out, but you aren’t wrong.”

“Offerings. The same as that rabbit. I bet she didn’t even know it was still alive. I had a look at it. Had a bump on it’s noggin. I think she probably clonked it on the head, just not hard enough.”

Jackalope nodded. Dakota frowned. “It almost sounds like..”

Belathon grinned. “Like she is attempting to make things better and failing miserably?”

Dakota slowly let out an exasperated breath. “Like we are living with a tiny incompetent dragon.”

Esmerelda laughed. “To be fair, I think she does a good job at cleaning and sewing. Probably would do better if she had proper tools.”

Rachuck slowly face palmed. “Am I the only one who still thinks we are better off without a monster under our roof?”

Dakota looked at her brother with a deep frown. “Not at all. But we are dealing with a person. Which makes things worse. We have no idea what she wants, why she is here, and what she might do. I don’t like that. You want her under control?”

Rachuck slowly lowered the gauntlet clad claws from his face. “Yes of course. Order and peace. Which it seems to be the exact opposite of.”

“Tomorrow morning we will speak with mother and father to make some plans. Maybe we can find a way to rein her in.” Dakota said.

“And how do you expect us to trick or trap the thing if we can’t even see it? It could be there listening even as we speak!” Rachuck snapped.

“We don’t. No tricks, no traps. She leaves us notes. We can do the same. Unless she just happens to fall on our doorstep, visible for all to see… I don’t see any other options.”

Rachuck shook his head. “We could try capturing her with nets.”

“I don’t think it would be wise to corner her.” Dakota said flatly. “I am going to bed. I will assume the keep will be standing tomorrow morning. We’ll deal with her sometime then.”

With that, the lead huntress climbed down the hatch. Others of the guard not on shift and huntresses followed suit.

It was an hour later that the girl returned. For once, the keep slept soundly while the guard continued to overlook an embarrassed maiden who hid her face in her hands as she practically ran past them to her excuse of a bed.