“Is everything okay in there?” a masculine voice asked. “We heard a scream somewhere up around here.”
“Everything’s okay in here,” Kestrel called as he sat up. He walked over to the door and threw it wide open, so that the visitor could see Merilla and the boys standing nearby. “Thank you for checking,” he added as he closed the door.
“You’re friends with a sprite?” Merilla stuttered, so stunned by the event. “I’ve never seen one before; I didn’t think they were real, to be honest.”
Kestrel sighed, frustrated by the turn of events. He had asked for a sign, never expecting something so obvious. Clearly, if the gods would so clearly send a sign, he and Merilla could have no immediate future together. The dreams that had pecked at the back of his brain during the day, the dreams of being a nobleman, the dreams of living in Estone with Merilla, settling down to live a blissful, domestic, human life, they were empty, they were only dreams, not what the gods had planned for him.
“Take the boys and try to settle them back into bed,” he directed Merilla. “I’d like to call Dewberry to find out why she came.”
“Can I watch?” Merilla asked in a small voice.
“Will you promise not to scream at the top of your lungs?” Kestrel asked with a crooked smile.
“You would have screamed to if you didn’t know what was happening,” the young mother defensively said.
“Go on,” Kestrel laughingly said, “and come back quietly.”
“Dewberry!” he called. “It’s okay to come back now,” he spoke in the Elvish language.
“Dewberry, my friend. She’s sorry she shouted,” he added moments later.
“’Shouted’ doesn’t begin to describe it,” the blue sprite was suddenly sitting in the chair in the corner of the room. “I thought the world was coming to an end.”
“You surprised her,” Kestrel explained. “We were, you know, alone together, and then suddenly you were with us.
“Why were you with us? Is everything okay?” he asked, pausing for a moment to find his vocabulary in the language he had left behind for several weeks. “Aren’t you supposed to be on your honeymoon?”
There was a noise at the door, and Merilla slid silently in though the opening, focusing on making no noise to disturb her boys, and not aware that Dewberry had returned. “So, do you think?” Merilla cut her question off as she turned and spotted the sprite.
Dewberry rose in the air and floated over to Kestrel, then sat down in his lap. “What did she say?” Dewberry asked in Elvish.
“She said she’s very sorry she screamed so loudly,” Kestrel lied.
“Merilla, this is my friend Dewberry. Please come have a seat while I find out what is happening,” Kestrel had a premonition that something bad would happen before the evening was over.
“So tell me why you’re here?” Kestrel repeated to Dewberry.
“Well, we are on our honeymoon, as you say, and we thought we’d like to soak in the spring by the moonlight,” Dewberry explained. “So I came to see if my very favorite elf in all the world would give us a wedding gift and watch over us while we enjoy the water?”
“Where’s Jonson?” Kestrel asked. “You can’t carry me alone, can you?” he held up a finger to Merilla, indicating he was about to tell her something.
“He’s shy; he didn’t think we should drop in to visit you unannounced, but I knew you wouldn’t mind. He’ll be here any second,” Dewberry answered airily.
“We’re going to have another visitor, and then the three of us are going to go away for a little while,” Kestrel turned to Merilla and spoke in the Human language.
“Where are you going? Are you going to come back?” she asked immediately, then gave a gasp as Jonson arrived.
“My apologies if we have disturbed your evening,” Jonson said solemnly to Kestrel. He turned and bowed to Merilla. “You friend is quite lovely, for a human, I’m sure,” he spoke in a tone that cast doubt on his sincerity.
“These two are going to take me someplace to do a favor for them,” Kestrel told Merilla in a resigned tone, as he gently nudged Dewberry aside, ignoring the nasty face she made to show her displeasure. He walked over to the befuddled human woman. “You go on to bed. I’ll be gone a bit, and then I’ll be back.” He leaned down and kissed her forehead, then walked to another corner of the room where his belongings were piled, and picked up a pair of waterskins.
“I’m ready,” he announced, inviting Dewberry and Jonson to come envelope him in their hug, their small blue hands linked as they created a circle around him while his eyes met Merilla’s astonished eyes, and all three were momentarily transported through space, and then stood upon the bank of the healing spring.
Dewberry and Jonson disrobed immediately, while Kestrel stood on the bank of the spring and considered his situation. He had no wish to cause his ears and eyebrows to grow more elf-like yet, not while he still anticipated that he might be expected to pass for human, and therefore he concluded he should avoid contact with the water as much as possible.
“Why are you waiting, Kestrel?” Dewberry asked him as she and Jonson stood expectantly on the bank.
“Here, come over here,” Kestrel directed them, leading the way to the sandy shelf in shallow water that was the usual resting place for soaking sprites. He lifted Jonson and placed him in the water, then turned to Dewberry.
“Won’t you get in the water too?” she asked.
“The water makes my ears change back to their elf shapes, and I don’t want that just yet,” he explained briefly. “But here, let me place you in the spring so that you can enjoy!”
“I’m sorry to bring you here if it brings you no profit,” the small sprite said contritely.
“You’ve done me no harm,” Kestrel assured her. “Your appearance was a sign, I think, that I need to focus on my intended mission, and stop making something more out of my visit to the humans than it was intended to be.
“And I’m always glad to see you!” he added brightly, then lifted her into the water beside Jonson, and sat down upon the grass. He got up to find a stick in the nearby trees, then used it to push his water skins underneath the surface of the spring, immersing and filling them with the valuable water before he pulled the skins out and secured their stoppers. He would give one to Merilla as a farewell gift, a token of his friendship, he planned, and the other would go back with him to Firheng where one skin of the water still remained waiting, or perhaps he would carry it down to Center Trunk.
And he would go on to Center Trunk, he now accepted. His dreams of living with Merilla among the humans were clearly not meant to come to pass. He had received a very direct sign from the gods that he was to return to Center Trunk, and see Alicia once again, despicable and untrustworthy as she was, pretty as she was, married to Silvan as she was, and let the surgery on his ears be carried out one more time. Then he would receive his assignment and go forth. He had demonstrated his ability to live among the humans; if anything, he realized, he had demonstrated that he could live among the humans better than he could live among the elves, he bitterly told himself.
His thoughts wandered among the possible scenarios his life might have been, or might still be, until he looked up and saw that the stars had moved far across the sky, and time had passed. He lifted each of the small blue people from the water, then gently shook them awake.
“How is it that you understand the Elvish language but not the Human language?” Kestrel asked Jonson once the two had collected their clothes and started to dress.
“The elves are interesting, and fun to annoy, and live in such close proximity to my own people’s lands,” the water imp explained, referring to the great Swampy Morass that bordered the Eastern Forest and the East Sea. “Although I think you’re the only elf we have befriended in recent times, since the evil Chandel came to power; before him in the past, there have been friendly relations between our people and yours.
“The humans are less tolerant, and more inclined to fall into ugly battles faster. They are not worth the trouble of trying to get to know,” he contrasted.
“But you have found a different experience, at least with one human, perhaps?” Jonson asked with a twinkle in his eye.
“My human friend is not warlike at all,” Kestrel smiled in agreement.
