I stayed wide awake. I watched him sleep before my vision became unfocused and I stared at nothing.
Do I help Eric?
I did not want to. Getting what he needed would be difficult and risky. I did not want to put in the effort for a random human. Besides, he would heal naturally. There was really no reason to.
But you promised David.
There are no unicorns here anyway. He will let it go when I tell him that.
You know there is something else that will work.
The chances of finding it are slim.
I went back and forth in my head for what was probably hours. Eventually I stood. I still was not entirely decided, but I left. I rose from the bog and made for the river. I was fairly certain there would be at least one kelpie there. It was only a matter of finding it.
And convincing it to help. Most kelpies tolerated me. They rarely went after water fae out of respect for their element. They were the only other creature I knew of that had enough understanding of the elements to recognize their raw power. The siren had been transfixed by the elementals, but only because sirens liked shiny things. Kelpies are smarter. Some say they are smarter than humans and fae. I liked to believe we were relatively equal. They just had different tricks.
This one’s trick seemed to be pretending it was not there. It had to be though. In all my centuries here, I had never come across any large river or lake without a kelpie. I had seen what I thought were the reeds of a mane three times now, but the time stretched on between sightings and I grew less sure.
Help me, Water.
It tugged at me. It tried pulling me away from the river.
That makes no sense.
Another tug. I let it pull me a few yards back. Perhaps the kelpie was hiding from me? I waited.
Nothing is happening.
Water tugged again. It was in the same direction, away from the river.
That is ridiculous. Anyone else have an idea?
Earth and Fire offered nothing as expected. Air blew around me in a comforting embrace. It could be of no help finding the kelpie, but it tried to calm me. I took a deep breath to let out the frustration on the breeze.
I moved downstream. Kelpies typically galloped with the current, so that was the only thing I could think to do. I was still finding nothing. Even the reeds had stopped popping up. Night had turned to morning long ago by the time I gave up.
Water tugged.
Fine. I let it lead me.
It took me back to the bog. Really? All you wanted was to go back to David. Air had to come back to calm me down. I used it to create a small hurricane over the bog first.
Water did not like that. It leaped around inside me until I calmed the storm and let the bog go back to its peaceful, stagnant state.
I sat next to it and stared at nothing once more. I could not go back down with nothing. I did not know when I had made this decision, but it was imperative now that I get that kelpie.
Water tugged.
Stop it. You are not helping.
It tugged harder.
What? What do you want me to do? I put my hand out over the edge of the bog. I would not cause a hurricane again, but I needed to do something. I needed Water to show me what it meant. I let it take control.
A ripple began on one side of the bog. The ripple grew into a wave. The wave grew taller. It formed a point that crashed onto the ground near some grasses outside the bog. The water receded back and was still once more.
I was still confused. I racked my brain trying to figure out what it could be trying to say, but I came up with nothing. I went over to the spot it had crashed into. There were footprints here. They were just behind the grasses where one of us had paused before stepping into the bog. I thought they might be David’s as they looked so similar to my drawings of the footprints by the river.
David and the river. That was it. Water wanted David to go to the river.
There is no guarantee that it will be like before.
Water formed a little wave in the bog again that rushed up to the prints.
I had to admit I was curious. I hesitated, wondering if I should risk it. Finally I gave in. If anyone could find the kelpie, I had a feeling it was him.