'I've looked and I've looked and there's nowt left to feed me,' said nix.
'I weren't thinking of feeding thee,' said bat. 'I were thinking of feeding the pool.'
'Eh?' said nix.
'Have you not noticed? Yon pond in the village hasn't got much smaller. And you know why that is?'
'No,' said nix.
'It's because of them juicy young lasses always splashing about in it,' said bat. 'Get yourself one of them, and you'd soon see pool filling up again.'
So nix went up to the surface to take a look for himself. It were so bright and hot, he could only stay up there for half a minute, but it were long enough to see that bat was right. The village pond were still full of water, and the little kids were still splashing around in it.
Back down he came to his cave and he said, 'So you're right, but it's not much help. How am I going to get one of them to come down here? They're all shut up in their homes at night, and if I go out during the day, I'll shrivel up and die.'
'Then she'll have to come to you,' said bat. 'Go out tonight and gather all the prettiest flowers you can find, and plant them all around the entrance to the cave. Then just sit and wait.'
So that night the nix stole out and went far and wide over hill and dale, uprooting all the flowers he could find, moon daisies and stepmothers, aaron's rod and bedstraw, but no flopdocken, for that's a flower nixes and their kind cannot abide. And he planted them all around the mouth of his cave.
Next morning Nina went for a walk up the hill afore the sun got too hot. She wanted to pick some flowers for her mam, but there weren't very many because the heat had dried up all the ground and baked it so hard that even the grass was brown. Then suddenly she spotted this hollow in the hillside so full of flowers, it looked like a garden. She made haste to get there and started picking the brightest blooms when a voice said, 'What do you think you're up to, little girl? Do you always steal flowers from other folks's gardens?'
'Oh, I'm so sorry,' cried Nina. 'I didn't realize this was anybody's garden.'
'Well, you realize now,' said the voice.
She couldn't see who was speaking but the voice seemed to be coming out of this hole in the hillside. So she went to it and said timidly, 'I really am sorry. I'll put them down here, shall I?'
'Nay, now they're picked, you might as well keep them,' said the voice.
'That's right kind of you,' said Nina. 'But won't you come out into your garden where I can see you?'
'Nay, lass. I can't bear this heat,' said the voice. 'In fact I were just making myself a jug of iced lemonade. Would you like to try a glass?'
Now, Nina was very hot and thirsty indeed and she said eagerly, 'Yes, please.'
'Right, I'll pour you one. Just step inside and help yourself.'
So she pushed past the flowers which fringed the entrance to the tunnel leading down to the cave and stepped inside.
Next moment she felt herself seized by her long blond hair, which she was wearing in two pigtails, and before she could scream she was dragged right down into the bowels of the earth.
There she lay in the foul-smelling dark, sobbing her heart out.
Finally she ran out of tears and rubbed her eyes and sat up to take a look around.
Outside, sun were so bright, a little bit of light filtered down the entrance tunnel. By its dim glow she saw she were in a cave. The ground were strewn with rocks and stuff. In the middle of the cave was a small, foul-smelling pool, and on its edge sat this thing.
Its body was long and scaly, its fingers and toes were webbed with long, curved nails, its face was gaunt and hollow, its nose hooked, its chin pointed and fringed with sharp spikes of beard, its eyes deep set and staring, and its mouth twisted in a mockery of a smile, showing sharp white teeth as it spoke.
'How do, Nina,' it said.
'How do, nix,' she answered in a very low voice.
'You know who I am, then?' said nix.
'Aye. My mam's told me about you,' said Nina.
What her mam had told her was never go up the fell on her lone, else the wicked nix that lived beneath it might steal her.
Now she wished with all her might that she'd taken heed!
'Then it's nice of you to come visiting, Nina,' said nix.
'It's nice of you to have me,' said Nina politely like she'd been taught. 'But please, I'd like to go home now, it's nearly time for my dinner.'
'It's long past time for mine,' snapped nix. Then, smiling his terrible smile again, he went on. 'Tell you what, Nina. It's so hot, why don't you have a little swim afore you go?'
Nina looked at the dreadful pool and shook her head.
'No, thank you,' she said. 'My dad says I'm never to go swimming by myself, only when there's someone bigger around to take care of me.'
'Never fear,' said nix, standing up. 'I'm bigger and I'll take care of thee.'
He came round the pool toward her. At that moment a voice came drifting down the tunnel from far above.
'Nina! Nina!' it cried.
'It's Dad!' cried Nina. 'I'm coming. I'm coming.'
And she set off to run up the tunnel, but she'd only gone a little way when those terrible hands caught at her ankles and dragged her screaming back down.
Far above she could still hear her dad's voice but now it was fading and soon it was far away, then she couldn't hear it at all.
She lay on the edge of the pool with the nix towering over her.
'Just wait till my dad gets ahold of you,' she sobbed. 'He'll pull your neck like a chicken's for the pot.'
'He'll have to catch me first,' laughed nix. 'Now let's go for this swim.'
Nina looked up at him and saw he were strong enough to make her do whatever he wanted her to do. No use fighting, then. What was it her mam used to say? God made men strong but he made us clever. Why use fists when you can use your noddle? And her dad were always boasting she were bright as a button.
Well, now was time to see just how bright a button she really was.
'All right,' said Nina. 'But I'll need to tidy up first.'
She stood up and began brushing down her dress, which had got all dusty when the nix dragged her down the tunnel. Then she took the ribbons out of her pigtails and unplaited her hair and combed it with her fingers so that it tumbled over her shoulders like a fall of bright water.
And all the while nix watched her with eyes like hot coals.
'There,' said Nina. 'I'm ready. But you'll need to jump in with me to help me to swim.'
'Take care, nix,' squeaked bat. 'They're sly as spiders, these lasses.'
But nix wasn't listening. His eyes and his thoughts were fixed entirely on Nina.
She took his hand in hers and made him stand alongside her on a big rock at the edge of the pool.
And she said, 'I'll count up to three and then we'll jump together. All right?'
'All right,' said nix.
'One,' said Nina.
'And two,' said Nina.
'And three,' said Nina.
And they jumped.
Only, as nix jumped forward into the pool, Nina let go his hand and jumped backward onto the ground.
Then she turned and ran as fast as she'd ever run in her life up the tunnel.
It only took nix a second to realize her trick.
Then, screaming with rage and dripping foul-smelling mud and water, he dragged himself from the pool and set out after her.
Oh, she were fast, but he were faster.
She didn't dare waste time looking back, but she could hear him behind her, his sharp nails screeling against the rock like hard chalk on a shiny slate, his stinking breath panting like Bert the blacksmith's bellows.
