The Kelpie's Cries (Completed)

The Truth

"What are you planning to do with that small human, Odan?", Enfys asked the taller man before her. He simply shook his shoulders in response and then his head.
"I have no idea to be honest with you. I know that a human is a bad omen-"
"Exactly, all humans are bad omens so why did you bring that girl here? Do you want my home to burst into flames?!", the woman cut him off, making sure to whisper so the girl wouldn't be able to hear what she was freaking out about, though her frantic arm movements and wide eyes gave most of her emotions away.
"You didn't let me finish!", Odan whisper-yelled and grabbed her by the shoulders, "I know that a human is a bad omen but I intent to decide what to do with her after I learn of her story"
"She hasn't told you why she came here?"
"Not yet", the man responded, looking over to find the girl looking over the various trinkets and jewelry that were laid out on the table.

Something within Enfys seemed to snap. The woman couldn't bear the thought of having a bad omen inside her house for longer than an hour, especially one that could be removed at any point in time. Since the only way of possibly ridding herself of the human was to learn why the girl came into the woods, she rushed over and grabbed the girl by the shoulders, her nails dangerously close to ripping the child's skin open. The man went after her and tried to pull her off but by the time he reacted, the woman was already screaming at the girl, asking her to speak up and threatening her that is she didn't, she would face a terrible fate inside the hut. The girl didn't know whether to cry or stay silent through Enfys' outburst of frustration.

Finally, Odan was able to pull the woman off the girl and somewhat calm her down with his own shouting. The girl sank to her knees on the floor, feeling a little lightheaded by what had just happened. Sure, she wasn't badly injured but that scenario left her shocked, shakey and a little more than terrified of the witch. However, Enfys noticed the straps of the backpack she had been carrying all this time and she lunged for it once Odan released her from his grip. The girl struggled for the bag but her strength was easily outmatched and soon the backpack was being emptied upon the trinkets and jewelry on the table. Most of the notebooks fell out of the bag and filled the surface of the table and some slid off and fell with a thud on the floor. Both adults were surprised to see that many notebooks stuffed in that small a bag but they didn't waste any time grabbing them and skimming through the pages.

"Hey! Give those back!", shouted the girl but they didn't listen. She continued pleading with them to return the notebooks but they would either ignore her or simply turn their back to her. At some point, Odan picked up her father's diary and came upon the pages of the description of the hunts he had gone on with Henry in Blue Peace. He motioned Enfys to look over and showed her the pictures and the text. She looked furious for a second and the girl, out of fear, hid under the table as if that wasn't the most obvious place to look in such an enclosed space.

"This mentions the male human in the clearing", the woman murmured and continued to skim through the paragraphs. Whilst she was occupied with reading, Odan reached underneath the table and dragged the child out by the arm before raising her and seating her on a stool.

"Are those your father's?", he asked and received a nod as a response. "Care to tell us what happened now?"

Reluctantly, the girl decided to enlighten them as to her situation. She dug deep in her memory and told them of how her father had gone rogue and murdered her mother and almost herself as she was running to Blue Peace. She told them that he was looking for her and that the people living in the clearing were looking for her as well in the forest. How did they not hear the dragon, though? She shook her head at the thought and waited for their reaction to her story.

"Alright, let's give her to the human and get this over with!", Enfys cheered but Odan felt a little bad for what the child had gone through and how awful it must've been to watch.

"Do you have any idea why your father killed your mother?", the man asked, shushing the witch's protests with a palm over her mouth. The girl shook her head. "Alright, let's look through these books and see if we can find out anything", he told her and gave her a stack of the notebooks.

"Odan, why are you even helping the human? Oh wait, is it because you're half human yourself?", Enfys raised an eyebrow but she received no answer. She sighed and continued looking through the material in her hands.

About an hour passed since the three of them began researching the texts and they had found out that the girl's father and Henry were folklore hunters. Folklore hunters were notorious for their ability to sniff out the magical from the normal folk and they would either enslave them or kill them in order to sell whatever valuable was on the creature. Her father stated that he had hunted down gem golems to sell the gems, big dragons to sell their scales and even giants for their strong bones that he Henry used to build the foundation of his house in Blue Peace several years after. Enfys came across a text regarding Selkie folk at some point and how the girl's father had managed to steal the skin of a selkie and later convinced her to become his wife.

"Your mother was a selkie", Enfys said and put two and two together, "She probably found the skin your father had hidden that night but he found out and decided to kill her before she could leave for the ocean".