Absolutely, Positively, 100% Normal

Chapter Twelve

I was sitting in the middle of a pond, on a giant lily pad - one even bigger than the usual size range of regular giant lilies. It was the only one around, and right in the center of the particularly large pond. As I had never been in this place before, and because just moments before I had had a psychotic grim reaper trying to rip out my soul, I immediately assumed I was either dreaming or already dead. I looked down into the water beneath me, which was unusually crystal clear, for a pond, and saw what looked like women swimming around in its depths. I couldn't be too sure, as they never stayed still. I shifted forward to try to get a closer look, leaning out as far as I dared, only to see something stream toward me so fast that I let out a shriek and fell back on my ass. The water in front of me spewed up a column of water like a geyser had erupted. I gaped as one of the human-like forms I'd seen separated itself from it.

It was a woman, as I had thought. She perched atop the water column, the water cradling her lovingly. She had pale skin with a bluish tint to it. Her long flowing dark hair had greenish highlights when the sunlight hit it and flowed with a slight wave over her shoulders to trail around her ankles. Long pointed ears poked out from her mass of hair and she had patches of iridescent scales on her bare arms and feet. She wore flowing garments that seemed to merge with the water she was seated on. As the column of water descended to bring her to the same level I was sitting at, I noticed that she had sparkling bright blue eyes.

"Who are you?" I asked. "And where is this place?" Maybe my mind had receded into some fantasy land I'd created to escape the pain of being murdered in an underground dungeon. Here seemed better than there, so I was in no rush to return to reality.

I'd much rather talk to a water lady, thank you very much.

"I am an undine. We are an aquatic type of faerie; water spirits who become human only if we fall in love with a human male." Her voice flowed to my ears and reminded me of the peaceful calm of a still ocean, making me relax and feel somehow lighter.  "You remind me of her."

"Of who?" I hadn't met this creature before, I was sure of it. I doubted my mom had either, and people told me that I reminded them of her a lot. The undine smiled and became even more ethereally beautiful than she had been before. I couldn't help gawking.

"Your grandmother. She lived here with us, for a time."

"But where is here?" 

"Didn't you know?" She looked at me curiously. "You're in the fey world, Though you left some of you behind. Perhaps it is because you aren't physically here that you were able to see us before I decided to show myself to you. You have to go back."

"I don't want to leave just yet. It's better here." I was practically whining. Wow, look at how low I've fallen!

"It may be so, but your grandmother risked her life to bring you back from this very world. Don't let her sacrifice be in vain. You must go back." I thought on that for a while. She seemed to know some things that Gwen had mentioned, and was definitely more reasonable than the female reaper. This was an opportunity to get some answers.

"I'll go back, but only if you tell me who you are and everything you know about my family." The faerie stared at me before letting out a laugh.

"You really are like her. I'll tell you what I know. It's a promise", she said. She let her column flow back into the pond and vanished, reappearing a second later at the edge of the lily pad I was on. She flowed out of the water and sat next to me.

"I am called Aerwen. You are Celstine's grand daughter, Raina. I remember she spoke of you fondly. Celestine was a mixed breed. Her mother was a mermaid, and her father was a human descended from nephilim - the children of angels. Celestine had inherited great healing and sealing abilities and had remained ignorant of her heritage until she was about five years old. When her mother was finally forced to tell her, she had been in awe about her uniqueness and possibly bragged about it. Hunters appeared a few weeks after that, hunters came for her and her family. They feared what the child born of two different species could do.