Scene: Down to The Lake

"How great is this? Just the four of us and loads of booze," Zeldine says with a complacent smile.

"Yeah, I had my doubts, but I really feel ...natural out here," Kass remarks. "D'you gals think it's true - the 'pull of nature' and all that?"

"I don't know. I still like the buzz of the city," I say. I honestly don't like the idea of being pulled in any way due to my fey genealogy. It reminds me of the compulsion of lesser fey and reeks of "full feydom".

"I'm not saying, I'm moving out here or anything. But for one night - it's cool," Kass replies, taking a sip of her can.

"So, why here - why this lake, Zel? Got a date with a hot merman later?" Brynja teases, but I was surprised too, when Zeldine suggested outdoor camping.

"Woah, not all I do is about sex, you know!" Zeldine retorts with a laugh. "But if you happen to see a well hung faun or something, I call dibs!"

"Not a chance!" Brynja chortles as she crushes her empty can before opening a new one. "Well... a merman you can have all to yourself."

"I'll try anything once!" Zeldine responds enthusiastically. "But back to the subject, I just thought It'd be good with some change of scenery, and see what kind of fun there is to find out here when there isn't a boring alf to supervise everything."

Maybe she's onto something. Wilderness survival has been a large part of our curriculum, being home schooled by alfs and the like, but we've never been left unattended to our own devices. I think it's to prepare us to a potential life in Otherworld - the fey realm that is supposed to be endless untamed nature. Not that any of us changelings are going to move there voluntarily, but I like the idea of knowing that I could manage if necessary.

"...and talking about fun," Zeldine continues with a mischievous smirk. "It's getting really dark. Let's go to the lake!"

Being slightly drunk, it sounds like the best idea anyone has ever had, as we head out from our little clearing and down to the lake, greeting us like a vast pool of ink in the dim moonlight. Zeldine is the first to strip down showing off all of her blue skinned glory as Kassandra hesitantly remarks:

"What if anyone comes out here?"

"If anyone actually do wander out here this late, I think they deserve a peek," Zeldine counters and winks at her. With a good laugh, we all strip down and get into the cool water. We play around for a bit, splashing and swimming, but keeping close to the lakeside and quickly we forget all about the cool water and the chill in the air. The utter silence of night. All until...

"SOMETHING grabbed me! SOMETHING FUCKING GRABBED ME!"

My mind instantly sobers up by Kassandra's piercing shriek as she darts for the water's edge and we all follow suit. She stands frozen yet shivering as she keeps her eyes peeled on the calm waters. I lay my hands on her pale, shaking shoulders and try to ground her.

"Kass! What happened?" I try to keep a calm voice, but I'm rattled too.

"S-something out there - Someone grabbed me. There was a hand on my leg, and I kicked and-and..!" Her stuttering words come to a halt.

"There's nothing to see out there," Zeldine says, pulling up her pants. Her eyes scanning the lake. "Could it have been a branch - or a fish?"

"A fish doesn't fucking close it's grip around your leg, Zel!"

"Okay, OKAY!"

"Calm down, both of you!" I jump in. "We get dressed now and go back to camp. Whatever it was, it's part of the lake and won't leave it." I try to will my whole being into my need for that last part to be true. I try to keep calm for the others, and I can tell Brynja is doing the same, but our eyes don't leave the lake as we get dressed and head back for camp. With Brynja here though, I can't help but feeling a bit safer. She's tall and buff enough to make most think twice. Back at camp we sit in silent contemplation for a moment, before the quiet becomes too much for Zeldine.

"So, I was thinking... and let's get another round of beer... Anyway, we - the four of us - should get matching tattoos!"

"What?!" Kassandra proclaims loudly, as we all turn our heads. Leave it to Zeldine to change the subject of a room completely. "You're just bringing that up now?!"

"Uhm, yeah, why not? We're all gathered now, and I've been thinking about it. We're like the four-leaf clover of the coolest party chicks of Evergreen. Alea is always talking about moving away to the city and stuff, and I just want us to keep sticking together," Zeldine starts strongly, but ends in a mutter. I never really thought about how the others might feel about me moving, but here we are, I guess.

"It's not like I'm not coming back for visits. Or looking for a place so small, I can't have you come over," I try mitigating. "I just... have to give it a shot. And honestly, I thought you'd all join me at some point."

"Nah," Brynja begins, taking another swill of her beer before poking at the dying embers of our campfire. "I like when we go out for drinking there, but I need more nature and calm than what Garden City offers. I dunno what I'm gonna do though... I might go through with the Díseblót."

"You what?!" In my shock it comes out harder than I intended. My heart starts tightening in my chest. "Have you forgotten what happened to Mia? She became a fucking banshee! She's never coming back!"

My throad tenses, and I have to fight back the tears. It's been six years, but I still have dreams of that night, when we snuck out of the dorm to see the ceremony where changelings awaken their dormant feydom. That haunted look on Mia's gaunt face as she stopped and saw us as she was running from her own awakening. Kind, loving Mia, who spend so much time with us children - suddenly doomed to haunt the grieving for the rest of her existence, knowing only sorrow. That night we learned what horror could await each and every one us at Díseblót.

"No, of course not! I just... There has been amazing transitions too. And I think, with my skintone, I'm safe from some of the bad ones," Brynja explains. Zeldine is now kneeling next to me, holding my hand, her bright yellow eyes grounding me. Kassandra is just staring into the ashes with a vacant look. They can't be thinking about doing it too, can they?

"Well, I'm not gonna. Not ever!" Zeldine responds with a reafirming smile to me, before standing and turning towards the others. "I dunno what blue skin means, but I'm not gonna risk becoming a mermaid or some shit - I could lose my legs for a tail! Oh god, I could never be fucked again! I wouldn't last a day without my pussy!" Even I have to laugh at that.

"No way," Kassandra chimes in. "With your libido, you must be a rabbit shifter or something. The first female satyr maybe!"

"The first female satyr - now that has a ring to it," Zeldine laughs. "I'm coining that term right now."

I'm trying to laugh along, but I really don't like them talking this casually about it. Mia was who kept me sane after I lost my family, and losing her was like losing them all over. I can't bear to lose any more friends.

"I bet with your tan skin, you'd be pretty safe too, Al!" Brynja grinningly states, and that's when it becomes enough for me.

"I'm going to bed!" I stand up fast and beeline straight for the tent. I can hear Brynja making apologies behind me, but I'm not having it. Had anyone else brought it up, I'd been at their throats. I'm quickly out of my clothes and into the sleeping bag, cursing all of them in my head, all the way.

Even though I'm silently raging, the booze kicks in and I fall asleep to the hushed voices outside. In my dreams, we are walking back from the lake as a dark, bulky snake slowly slithers out of it, and even as we run for our lives, the viper slowly gains on us and opens its massive jaw until-

A harrowing scream breaks my dream and my pores are bombarded with the awful stench of drying seaweed. I turn just as Zeldine bumps into me, and next to her - on top of Kassandra - a gaunt figure is looming, whispering something. Fumbling with the flashlight, Zeldine sends a burst of light straight at it, and she stops her horrid chanting instantly and turns for the light source. For it is a she - an almost cardavorous female frame with wispy locks of wet hair and eyes as dark as the night sea, and her skin a dead and cold pale color. Her hands firmly gripping Kassandra's equally pale wrists. Kass still squirming underneath her, thank fuck.
The light sends the foul fey into a frenzy, as it leaps for the source. Though only halfway out of my sleeping bag, I rush in to protect Zeldine. We tumble into the front of the tent, partially unzipped by our unwanted guest. Zeldine's flashlight bounces as the entire tent moves. Brynja jumps to action as she grabs the creature by the arm and drags it out of the tent. I get up on my feet outside, and for a moment we stand there, frozen, panicked, but standing strong against this thing. For a moment that lasts forever I can feel it assessing us. A screwdness so unlike its feral state just a second ago. Not it - her. She is some kind of fey, as we are. Maybe she was like us once.

"What is that thing?!" Zeldine calls out from the tent door.

"Stay inside!" I yell back. "Is Kass safe?"

"...Kasssssssss..." the fey woman's gutteral voice mutters.

"You leave her the fuck alone!" Brynja growls.

"You stay away from all of us!" I reaffirm. Fuck. This is the kind of thing we need to report back home. We can't have stray feys out here ambushing people. Somebody has to stop her from roaming about.

"No..." she answers silently, before tuning up in intensity: "No, no no nonono..."

She leaps at Brynja, who barely manages to get her arms up to guard herself, as the beast bites deep into her forearm, blood gushing everywhere. I try to make use of her focus on Brynja, as I ram into her side, and we roll into the bushes. I hear the others scream as the hag is on top of me. She grabs my head and starts knocking it violently into the ground, and my vision begin to blur. In flashes, Brynja comes to my help before hitting a tree trunk and she goes limp. The darkness consumes me

I'm floating in water. My arms and legs are gone. Eaten. Suddenly I see her. Mia. Her eyes wide and horrifying, like that night. She opens her mouth and screams into my face"

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"

I'm awake. I dreamed again. But the scream was real. Not Mia - Zeldine! I stagger to my feet, my head spinning. Close-by lies Brynja - unconscious but breathing, thank God. I must follow the screams. I stumble through the trees as fast as I can. The lake - the screams are coming from the lake!
I will my mind together, and force my feet into a run. My bare feet and legs scraping against thickets as i beeline towards the sounds of Zeldine still struggling. I get through the bushes, when I see them - closing in on that utter darkness. The hag trudging sluggisly while carrying a limp Kass on her shoulder and dragging Zeldine behind her by her hair. Not tonight. Not any night. I won't let you.

I sprint directly for the gaunt bitch. It stops as Zeldine yells my name, and dumps Kassandra to the ground. I come in faster than she can prepare for me, and I hit her hard, but she remains on her feet, and I start whaling on her the best I can. I can't let her win! I won't let her take them!

Barely has she pushed me away before I'm onto her again. I can't let her get an attack in. Must keep hitting her. Water starts splashing - Slowing my movement. We're in the water. In her water. She knows it too. While I'm slowing, getting exhausted, she seems revitalized. She avoids my flailing fists with ease. I have to get out of the water. With luck, I manage to feint and hit her straight in her teethy face, and I try to make a run for it, but she grabs my foot and I fall. I can hear Zeldine yelling my name, as I feel a savage tug and the needle sharp teeth biting into my shoulder and I cry out in pain.

The Darkness returns.

But this is not unconsciousness, I am fully awake, as I am brutally dragged through the water. I try to reach for something - anything.

I cannot die now.

Not like this.

I don't want to go.

I feel something on my hand. Stones. I grab one and fasten my grip around it. But first I must get out of her grasp. I can feel her in front of me, so I take a trick out of her book and sink my teeth as deep as I can into whatever I can reach. Even under water there is no mistaking her howl of pain, as I tear into her clavicle and feel the skin break under my canines. She slips her grip on me, and I bolt up. I need air, and I need it now.

I see it. A warm light flickers towards the surface and I rush towards it. The surface breaks, and I gasp for that sweet air. I'm closer to the lakeside than I thought. And the fire. The fire? No time to wonder. I make the edge in a few strokes, when I hear the splashing of water behind me. Oh fuck. Oh shit. I still have the stone in my hand. Gripped so hard, my knuckles are bone white. "That's right - Just come here, you bitch!"

I stand ready to receive her, as she leaps out of the water, ready to bite. But my stone is faster. I slug her right across the temple as she emerges, and she comes tumbling into me. We roll over, this time with me above her, and I'm done playing. I start hammering her temple repeatedly with my stone, till there is not a spasm left in her. Only then I look and see her face. Or what's left of it. The blood soaked stone falls from my hand, and my eyes flash. I am suddenly emerged in tall grass.

It is done.

Parent Plot

Plot: The Hag of the Lake

Related Characters

• Alea
• Brynja
• Kassandra
• Zeldine

Related Locations

• Lower Saxony