A Kelpie of Rowan

Chapter 7

Rowan blinks as a face swims into focus above her. She flinches away from it. It's both unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. A boy, with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Freckles are scattered across his face like the stars in the sky. He holds his hands up to her placatingly.

"It's alright. Let it come back to you, Ro."

Rowan blinks in surprise and confusion. Ro? Why is he calling her Ro? Then everything comes into focus. It's Andrian. She frowns.

"Why did you call me Ro?"

Andrian hesitates. "It's one of the few similarities between kelpies and other faeries. The power of a name. So I will not share yours, which means a nickname. I chose Ro."

Rowan smiles lightly and shifts into a sitting position. Her hands slide against pebbly sand. "Normally I would use Berry."

"Why Berry- Oh."

"Yeah."

Andrian stands and reaches down towards Rowan. She looks at his hand for a moment before she takes it and lets him pull her to her feet. Now that she can see past him, she blinks in confusion. There are people, other kelpies, standing behind him. Two of the kelpies at the front look similar to him. Family, perhaps. Rowan blinks and glances behind her at the water they had just emerged from. It looks like they just walked out of a river, but . . . they were diving into one before, weren't they? Rowan frowns and looks up at Andrian.

"I don't understand?"

He doesn't look that surprised. "To get to the home of the kelpies, you have to go into a river and dive down. Deep down. Farther than the river goes. Only the kelpies can use the paths, but we can take others with us. That's why you're here. When you cross the border between the real world and our pocket realm, the world shifts around you. Instead of diving down, you're swimming out. If we went back, we would go from swimming into the river to swimming up towards the surface of the river."

"Is that the only point you can get here from?"

Andrian chuckles and shakes his head. "No. We can get here from any river with deep water. But all doors lead back here. When you go back, you must think of the general area you want to return to, or you'll end up going through the same door you came through."

Rowan nods, still a bit confused. "Okay . . . Why did I pass out."

Andrian frowns. "I'm not entirely sure. I thought I could take you to one of our healers and see. But at a guess, I think the passage took too much energy out of you."

Rowan nods to the rest of the people, waiting further up on the shore. "And who are they? I think I can guess that actually, so why are they watching us?"

He flushes and runs a hand through his hair. "Can I . . . could I explain later?"

"If you can get them to leave. I don't like being watched."

Andrian blinks mutely for a moment before he laughs. "That's easy enough."

He flaps his hand at the group in a shooing motion. The two boys at the front that look so much like him appear to be holding in laughter. The turn away to follow the group up the slope, but one of them looks back for a moment. Andrian winces, causing Rowan to frown.

"What is it?"

"They'll want to meet you."

"Okay . . . Who are they?"

"My younger brothers."

Rowan blinks. "Okay then. Where's the healer?"

Andrian smiles and beckons for her to follow him up the slope. Rowan nods and does so, her steps across the shifting sand shaky. Her wrist itches slightly and Rowan moves her iron bracelet further up her arm to itch at it. It keeps falling back down every few seconds. The rocky sand of the beach quickly changes to gravel and then grass. There is a village further ahead, at the center of a massive clearing. Each building looks similar to her own house. The biggest difference is that they are smaller and don't have a yard. There are about fifty buildings in this clearing, but Rowan can see another group of them through the trees.

"Did you create the clearings?"

Andrian shrugs. "In a way. This is a pocket realm. It conforms to our needs. We needed spaces big enough for our homes, but we still wanted to be surrounded by the forest. So the realm created these clearings."

"How many of you are there?"

"Just over a thousand. Occasionally a kelpie has a mortal cridhe, and they join the community."

"Cridhe?"

Andrian flushes and shifts nervously. "That's an explanation for another time."

She gives him a look but doesn't push him for the answer. "If kelpies are water creatures, why do you live on land?"

Andrian laughs. "We aren't water creatures alone, we're a mix of land and water. Horses aren't water creatures, are they?"

Rowan smiles softly. "In the Greek myths, Poseidon created horses from the crashing waves."

"I can tell you that it is highly unlikely that the Greek myths are true. Now, we're here."

They'd passed through two of the large clearings. Before them is another house. At first glance, it looks like all the others, but here is an extra room jutting off to the side. It's a large room, Rowan can see that. The door swings open to reveal a woman standing behind it. Her hair is dark and her face is tanned like she's seen a lot of sun.

"Don't just stand there, come in and tell me what the problem is."
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What do you think a cridhe is? What will the healer tell them? Why do you think going through the passage made Rowan pass out? What will happen when she meets Andrian's brothers? Tell me your thoughts!

Happy reading and I'll see you next chapter!

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.