The Kelpie's Cries (Completed)

Dryad

The horse had lied down next to her freezing form, his nose right next to her. The girl didn't know how to feel about him anymore. She was scared, freezing, shaking and on the verge of crying. He had just dived in the water with her on his back knowing what would happen so why? She couldn't understand and the worst thing was that she could only yell at him and only get so much as an answer. They didn't speak the same language; she spoke the language of humans and he spoke the language of horses. Maybe it had something to do with that; maybe he tried to tell her something she didn't understand? She shook her head. No matter how many excuses she found, nothing changed the fact that what had just happened was attempted murder.

When she felt like she could stand on her feet and not fall over immediately, she stood up and rang out the water from her hair and the sleeves of her shirt. There wasn't much she could do about her pants but pat them down to get rid of as much water as she could from them. The horse stood up as well and that startled the girl. She took a few hurried steps backwards, almost falling on her behind. She was so scared of being dragged in that lake again, she was scared of feeling how it is to drown.

He took a step towards her and she took a step back. He lowered his head to her level and she raised her arms. It was an awkward moment of him sniffing her and letting out small sounds that sounded sorrowful and sad. It was an apology, at least it sounded like one. However, she didn't know whether to trust him or not with what he did out of the blue but that wasn't as important as warmth. Nothing around them could provide such a thing. Sure, they were surrounded by trees but the girl didn't know how to light a fire without a lighter and the other couldn't really build a campfire even if he wanted to. So, he did the next best thing, which was to pick her up by the collar of her shirt and transport her back to her house. The girl was flailing and screaming, wanting to be let down in fear of being thrown in the water again. It only made the horse go faster because all of that was bound to attract unwanted attention.

The spirits of the forest awoke; a maiden of the trees awoke from her slumber at the sound of a child crying. The maiden waved the horse over and he listened, dropping the child at the roots of the big ancient tree as gently as he could. She looked down upon them and seemed to smile, descending from the branches of her tree and taking the girl in her arms. The crying stopped almost immediately as the girl looked up at her, marvelling at her beauty even through tears. She had amethyst eyes and long, very long hair that wrapped around her tree's trunk and branches and a midnight blue nightgown hang from her shoulders. It seemed that the surrounding trees were more alive than those further away and the air was way warmer than before.

"W-who are you?", the girl asked through a small hiccup.
"I am a dryad of this forest. I've heard about you, it seems you've grown quite close to him", the maiden's voice was euphonious and sweet like honey. It was very pleasant and calming to listen to her talking.

"Him?", the girl asked.
"The Kelpie you are with, of course", she responded, nodding to the horse -her friend- with her head, "He has told me a lot about you".
"He has?"

Her view of her friend was being altered by the second. She was confused as to what to think about him but that woman seemed way too nice to be lying... right? The maiden had mentioned that she was a dryad; what is that? She didn't know but she wanted to learn in order to see if it was something good or something bad. Well, if she was connected to the forest, there was no way it would be something bad! - that would be way too ironic.

The maiden nodded and smiled warmly. Then, the horse -or Kelpie as she had referred to him- neighed and whined and her smile turned into a sad frown.

"He says he is sorry for what he did but he can't say why he did it"
"You can understand him?"
"I can understand most languages, whether they are human or not"

The dryad felt the girl's forehead for a second with the back of her hand. Her clothes had started to dry from the warm air but that wasn't necessarily good. She feared that she would catch a cold from the time she had spent in the water; it was truly a wonder how she hadn't gotten hypothermia while she was out there.

"Return home, girl, you could catch a cold out here", the maiden said as she set her down on the Kelpie's back. She waved them off as they left and afterwards returned to her own home, her tree.

The trip back home was fairly fast and they arrived within time for dinner. Her window was still open and the house was dark, meaning that her parents hadn't come home yet to find her missing -she was safe. After she had entered her room through the only opening, she turned to her friend and told him not to do something like that again or their friendship would end (quite literally). He neighed as an answer and left, running towards his own home in the blue forest right as a car pulled into the driveway. That was a close one. If dad saw him, I'd be in serious trouble! She sighed and ran to change her clothes. Her skin was so cold, she wondered how she didn't feel it after they left the pretty maiden.

The front door was heard opening and closing and then the sound of keys approached her door. The girl quickly rushed to hide the notebooks and papers under her bed while putting on her shirt. With a few clicks and rattles, the door unlocked and opened in seconds, revealing the figure of her father with a big key in hand. They greeted each other and then her mother shouted from the kitchen to get ready for dinner. Her father went away, probably to the master bedroom to change from his suit to something more comfortable.

Instead of going to the kitchen for dinner, she grabbed her bag and stuffed as many of the papers and notebooks as she could in it as a better hiding place and those that didn't fit in, she hid amongst the books on the shelf. In no way would she let her father find out that she had taken something he had kept hidden, at least not while that something was in her possession. She would read more into it later with the help of her dictionary and the monster under her bed as company, that was for sure.