wonder, would you watch over us until we reawaken if we join you in the water?”
“I don’t know if I can hold everyone all at the same time in the water, but I don’t mind watching over you,” Kestrel replied. “Dewberry and I did fine when she was here before.”
The sprites began to disrobe at the edge of the pond, heedless of any personal embarrassment, then began to float through the air and hovered around where Kestrel sat. Only Reasion was an exception, keeping underclothes on while moving towards the water.
There was a gasping, and then sputters, and Kestrel felt Alicia’s body, resting beside his, start to shake. Her eyes opened, and she looked about wildly, saw the flock of naked sprites floating above her, and screamed softly. The sprites instantly disappeared, as Alicia reached for Kestrel and grabbed onto him clinging to him tightly.
“What’s happening? Where are we? Is this a nightmare?” she looked up into his face.
“Everything is okay,” Kestrel said hastily. “We’re fine. We’re in a pool of healing water, from a special spring.
“You were in your father’s apartment, and two men attacked you,” he explained. “When I heard you scream and came to see you, you were unconscious, and I couldn’t awaken you. I didn’t know where to find a doctor in the city, but I knew about this healing spring, so I called the sprites and asked them to help me bring you here to be healed.”
The sprites suddenly reappeared in the air around them. “That was embarrassing!” Dewberry said angrily, as Kestrel hastily clamped his hand over Alicia’s mouth to prevent her from screaming once again.
“Do you know that we all transported to the court because your girlfriend’s scream scared us?” the sprite asked crossly.
“And do you know that none of us are dressed?” she further asked. She didn’t wait for an answer. “It’s one thing to go skinny-dipping with friends, but showing your skin at court is not amusing!”
Kestrel looked down into Alicia’s eyes, and saw the amazement in her eyes. “We’re sorry,” Kestrel apologized. He removed his hand from Alicia’s face. “This is such an amazing thing, for an elf to be with sprites and imps, and she had no idea of what was happening,” he tried to sound reasonable.
“And I’m not his girlfriend. I just met him this morning, and was giving him a tour,” Alicia spoke firmly.
“Really? You just happen to be laying naked on top of him in a spring so that you can give him a tour? A tour of what?” Dewberry asked skeptically. “But you’re not his girlfriend?”
Alicia firmly pressed herself away from Kestrel in response, and looked angrily at the sprite.
“Are we going to get in the spring or not?” Jonson spoke, interrupting the brewing argument between the two females.
“Yes,” Kestrel responded gratefully, wanting to avoid upsetting Alicia. “I thought that as you got in the pool one by one, you would pass out, and then I could put you over on that ledge,” he pointed as a small sandy beach area to his left, “where you could safely lie in the water until we take everyone out.”
“And then you two could continue your ‘tour’,” Dewberry acerbically added.
“That’s a good plan,” Jonson said, working with Kestrel to cut off the obvious enmity between his fiance and Kestrel’s companion. “Dewberry, you go first,” he directed.
The female sprite obediently dropped down in front of Kestrel. “I know you’ll treat me well,” she murmured to Kestrel, “you did last time.” She leaned forward and surprised him by placing a kiss on his lips, both of her tiny dark blue lips fitting in the crease between his, then she dropped down into the water, and immediately fell into unconsciousness as Kestrel’s arms rose to support her.
He waded through the water to the sandy ledge, and gently deposited the sprite on the clean, soft sand, the shallow water lapping against the side of her body, then proceeded to assist the other sprites, one by one, as they likewise immersed themselves in the water and passed out. Kestrel gently laid each of then beside one another, a neat row of small blue bodies glistening in the sunlight and the water as they slept and reinvigorated.
“What exactly are you Kestrel?” Alicia’s voice sounded from behind him, and he turned to see that she was out of the water, back on land, where she had discerned her pile of clothing and was donning her apparel quickly. “Are you a human, an elf, or a warlock with mastery over sprites?”
He sighed, and sat down on the sandy shelf with the sprites, as Alicia came strolling around the edge of the water, and sat down cross-legged on the grass near him.
“I’m just an ordinary elf, who is trying to figure out some unusual circumstances,” he answered after a long moment’s pause.
“You’re hardly ordinary if Silvan is interested in you; you’re definitely not ordinary if sprites rely on you to babysit them while they sleep. You may not be ordinary if you fought off two elves to save me when you had no real reason to care about me,” the girl replied.
“Those don’t sound ordinary,” he agreed after a moment’s reflection, “but I’m me; those are just what’s going on around me,” he told her.
“How do you know and befriend sprites?” Alicia asked. “That doesn’t strike me as ordinary.”
“I met Dewberry here,” he answered, “right here at this pool. I was healing in the water when she came, and a wolf seized her. I rescued her and healed her in the water, and after we straightened things out, I think we have become friends, a little.”
“She kissed you, right there in front of her fiance. I think she was jealous a little when she thought I was your girlfriend,” Alicia answered.
Kestrel laughed. “No, she’s a princess of the sprites, and her fiance is a prince of the water imps. They’re royalty, hardly likely to be jealous of a big, ugly human-elf mess like me.”
“You’re not really ugly, I think,” Alicia told him. “Once I got used to you I thought you were sort of good looking, in a human kind of way, which I know doesn’t make sense.
“Where is this spring? Are we near your home?” she asked.
“This is a spring outside a village between Elmheng and Center trunk; I don’t know its name,” Kestrel replied.
“I’ve never heard of a spring with miraculous healing water; how did you know about it?” Alicia tried to pin him down.
“An old lady in the village told me about it,” he answered, unwilling to mention Kere’s name.
“What’s the matter?” Alicia asked, seeing his sudden distraction.
“Nothing. Just a fly buzzing around, I guess,” he said, baffled by the sudden intervention of the goddess in his life after weeks without evidence.
“What would happen if the water was drunk, or just poured over an wound?” Alicia asked speculatively, looking at Kestrel with a directness that unnerved him.
“I don’t know; I didn’t think about drinking it, but originally I thought I might just ask Dewberry to bring some of the water to me at your father’s apartment, when you were unconscious, before I knew she and her friends could carry us here,” Kestrel told her, sharing in her speculation about the medicinal use of the water.
At last she lapsed into silence, apparently thinking about the water, while Kestrel concluded that the sprites had probably been allowed to soak in the spring water long enough. He hadn’t thought to ask them how long was an appropriate bath, but he thought they had probably had enough to satisfy them.
He stood and began to transfer the sprites to the shore, one at a time, gently placing each on a patch of soft grass, conscious that Alicia was watching him, dressed as she was now, while he remained dripping nude. He had seen her unclothed earlier, he realized, but it felt unfair nonetheless. “Would you look somewhere else please?” he finally asked her as he went back to the water to pick up the fourth sprite, actually a water imp, Jonson’s sister.
“Of, of course,” she agreed in some embarrassment, and turned away. “How far is the village?” she asked a moment later.
“What village?” Kestrel asked in confusion.
“The closest village, the one you were at when you heard about this spring,” Alicia answered with a shortness to her tone that sounded more like the soulless woman he had started the morning with.
“The road to the village is back along the stream,” Kestrel gestured towards the water that flowed away from the source of the spring. “Follow the stream until it comes to the road, then take the road north towards the
