Chapter 24 The Stream’s Child

Gia lay her head on Vonn's chest and closed her eyes. Everyone was snuggled into the tent for the night, and she was exhausted from the high emotions from earlier. Drifting off, she imagined she heard someone whispering, and it jerked her back awake.

"Is everything okay?" asked Tom, feeling her jerk from the other side of the tent.

"Sorry, I thought I heard someone whispering," she said softly.

"That's funny, because I thought I did, too," whispered Carla.

Mikey softly snorted and rolled over, obviously already asleep.

"Should I check it out?" asked Vonn, easing out from under her.

"Only if I get to go, too," Gia said, sitting up. "I almost lost you once today."

"Is that wise?" asked Carla. "What if it's some beast? Or another satyr?"

"We need to know what it is, to know if we should flee," explained Tom gently. "We can't just stick our heads in the sand and pretend nothing bad exists."

"I thought these amulets were supposed to keep us safe, though," Carla said, pulling hers out to try and look at it in the dark.

"They influence those we meet, which is why the kids should be safe checking out who is outside."

"Didn't really help with that satyr, did it?" she grumbled softly, but seemed to have given in to the argument.

Vonn and Gia quietly slipped out of the tent and stood by the door together listening for the noise again. Hearing it from near the water, Gia pointed and Vonn nodded, taking the lead. There was just enough moonlight trickling through the trees to let them see as they made their way through the thick bushes next to the water.

Just upstream from them, they saw a young satyr, half the size of the one they had met earlier that day, leaning over and talking to someone who was in the water. Gia's first thought was that it was another mermaid, but as they got closer, it looked less like a person, and more like a fish.

"But I do love you. Nixie! I told my family I didn't care that you weren't a mermaid. I'm willing to run away with you whenever you're ready!" whispered the satyr, not noticing them.

"But I can't run away with you," said a soft garbled voice from the fish. "Oh!"

Vonn and Gia paused as the fish seemed to notice them and dived under the water. The satyr looked in their direction angrily, but stopped short when he saw them.

"Humans?" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here? Are you lost? The festival is back that way!"

He pointed behind them, back the way they had come.

"I'm sorry," said Gia. "We didn't mean to intrude. We had settled down for the night, and overheard you whispering."

"So, you came to spy on me?" he exclaimed, getting angry.

"No, we didn't know who it was until just now," said Vonn. "Are you alright? It kind of sounded like you were in trouble?"

The satyr stared at them for a moment then sighed, sitting down in the lush grass and glancing towards the waters.

"Satyrs aren't supposed to marry water-folk unless they're mermaids. It keeps things simple, because the babies of mermaids are always fish-like. Nixie is a non-mermaid, so everyone is against us being together. I keep telling her I'm ready to run away with her, but she keeps telling me she can't."

He sat there looking so forlorn, Gia couldn't help feeling sorry for him.

"Why can't she?" asked Vonn. "Does she have family she won't leave?"

Gia gasped and looked at him, to see the hint of a smile at her reaction. She relaxed when she realized he was teasing her.

"No, her kind don't stay in family groups."

"But if that's true, aren't you afraid she won't stay with you?" asked Gia.

"I thought about that, but she tells me that mated couples stay together, they just don't let their kids stick around, which sounds great to me."

"Can she leave the water?" asked Vonn, looking puzzled.

"For short times, but not really, her legs and arms aren't that great at working out of the water."

"Then how do you plan to marry her? Can you spend time in the water?" asked Gia confused.

"We had that all planned out. I would live around the pool she ended up in, and whenever she had any kids, they would be sent downstream to find their own home."

"How do you intend to get her to the pool if she can't be out of water?" asked Vonn. "You don't look to be very strong."

The satyr went to answer, then paused, looking at them. "That's what she meant! How could I be so stupid!"

"What?" Gia and Vonn asked at the same time.

"She can't run away with me, because she can't run! Ugh! That's embarrassing."

Gia shook her head and Vonn chuckled.

"Thanks for talking to me, guys, but why aren't you at the festival? I have a hard time believing you made it this far into the forest without running into any of the other satyrs."

"We did, actually," Gia all but growled.

"Oh, from that tone, I take it the experience wasn't a good one," said the satyr with a wince.

"He put a curse on me, that almost killed me," said Vonn, putting his arm around her, to calm her down.

"You survived a curse! It had to be my brother. Was there a fairy involved?"

"Yes, it bit me too! If the tree hadn't told Gia what had happened, I would probably be dead right now."

"Wow, if the trees are talking to you, you must be something special. Well, you probably don't want to be on this side of the river when everyone wakes up tomorrow. My brother can be a jerk when he doesn't get his way."

"The river? You mean this?" asked Gia, pointing at the water.

"Yea. Normally people are stopped by the non-mermaids from crossing, but Nixie will let you, since you're my friend. The satyrs don't cross it at all. Here, I'll give you a gift to help you get past the elves over there. They can be pretty stuck up."

The satyr held out a flask.

"What's in it?" asked Vonn, taking it and hearing the slosh inside.

"It's a special wine. We satyrs make it out of special grapes the fairies grow. The elves love it, but we can be kind of stingy with it. Think of it as an apology gift for my brother almost killing you. He's in cahoots with a lot of the local fairies. They like to dance to his music during the festivals. We really only give the elves some of the wine if they try to stop the festivals. They know we don't cross this river, and it might cause them to stop you when you cross it."

Vonn nodded and said, "Thank you very much for the warning. Do you know what else might be in the forest, and how far the elves are from here?"

"Well, you have a long walk, honestly, to get to the elves. I've not seen any this far out in a while. The other side has more treants, which are talking and walking trees, as well as sprites."

"What are sprites?" asked Gia.

"Sprites are like fairies, but more wild and mean. They like to play pranks on people who are walking through their areas. You should be good though, if the trees talk to you, because the sprites are more plant-like than the fairies. If the trees like you enough to talk to you, then the sprites should like you too."

"What will they do to those they like?" asked Vonn. "I don't want to insult any of them."

"If they offer you anything, as a gift, take it, but be willing to give it right back. I don't understand them very well. It's like they don't have a very good memory and forgot they gave you something, so when they see it, they want it back. I've heard stories where they traded things back and forth with a guy for three days, before he finally left their territory. If they offer you food, eat it right away, or they will get mad that you don't like it."

"What kind of food would a sprite offer, if they are like plant fairies?" asked Gia.

"Oh, like berries and stuff. Nothing poisonous, I think."

"Anything else dangerous?" asked Vonn, getting ready to leave.

"There is a dire elk that lives in the forest, but it shouldn't bother you, unless it sees you eating elk. Also, you might want to watch out for the troll."

"Troll?" they both cried together.

"Yes, there's a forest troll that lives around here somewhere, and rumors have it he moved to the other side of the river to get away from the noise of our festivals. He will eat just about anything that moves. Even the dire elk leaves him alone."

"Oh dear!" said Gia, covering her mouth in alarm.

"Thank you very much for letting us know!" said Vonn.

"I have to see if I can get Nixie to come back and talk with me some more," said the satyr, turning back to the water.

Gia and Vonn hurried back to the tent. They would have to be very cautious to avoid the troll. She didn't look forward to telling her parents what they had discovered, because she was so tired. Thankfully, they were both asleep. She could tell them in the morning!