The Kelpie's Curse (book #1 in the Kelpie's Entrapment trilogy)

Day 4 pt. 1

She was surrounded by water again. Well of course she was, she always was. She moved and kicked, swimming up. If she could just reach the surface even once it would be a relief.

Just then, as she continued to swim, she thought she could see light from the surface above. What a wonderful thing. She had never been able to see any light in the black, murky darkness of the water. She could make it. She could do this and her throat wasn't even tightening. She still had plenty of air and the surface was just within her grasp, just a little bit-

Something grabbed her ankle! Something grabbed her ankle and pulled her back down with it! NO! She had been so close. Why did this happen?

As it pulled her further down she found herself getting angry, completely forgetting that she had a very limited air supply. She stomped on whatever it was with her free foot and turned around in the water when it relinquished its hold. How dare it be here? It had always been just her in the water. The skin on her ankle was torn slightly but it was nothing really. Besides, with the amount of adrenaline pumping through her system she barely noticed it.

What she did notice was what she saw when she turned around. The red eyes, the sharp teeth and the black body. It was a Kelpie that had pulled her down into the depths and it was close, much too close but she couldn't move. She was literally frozen and she knew that even had she been on the surface she wouldn't have been able to breathe. Her fear wouldn't have allowed her to.

Suddenly it moved, circling her round and round like vultures circling a carcass. Of course, that wasn't too far off the mark now, was it? She could already feel the tightening in her throat that meant she was running out of air, and if she didn't get some soon then she would be dead meat. Oh if only she had her bow. She knew that dreams could be controlled by the dreamer's mind but she had never been able to control hers. If she could, she wouldn't be underwater all the damn time.

"Did ye like my presents?" the Kelpie asked in a deceptively calm and silky voice.

Wait, it talked? But it was a horse! Maybe if it was in human form she could believe that but... Suddenly terror struck her again as she realized what he meant by presents. Alec Dunaid and the old man in front of the library.

She shook her head and tried to back pedal as terror and disgust filled her in equal measures, the tight burning in her throat and lungs getting steadily worse as the seconds ticked by. Unfortunately as she tried to swim backwards he continued his circling and brushed against her back. As he swam around and around her she was thankful that her skin hadn't adhered to his skin. Then again, it didn't need to. Being in a dream she was already in his domain.

"I will have wha' was promised me, Lass. Th' more ye fight th' more those villagers will suffer." There was malice in its voice, a promise that there would be more blood spilled.

Spots were beginning to form in her eyes but she still couldn't believe what it was saying. What could it possibly do with a human bride? Any human would drown down here. She did not have much time left so she closed her eyes, willing herself to just wake up already.

That's when she felt something she hadn't expected at all: A pair of human lips on hers. She gasped in shock but instead of water, the air that she so desperately needed filled her mouth.

She tried to open her eyes to catch a look at him in human form but her eyes wouldn't open and throughout this entire exchange his voice, while silky had sounded muffled, as if there was something, a spell or a charm of some type, keeping her from hearing his true voice.

"Remember, Lass, come tae me or their blood will be on yer hands."

Renestrae Frank awoke with a gasp. That had to have been the strangest dream she'd ever had. Even the waking was off. No flailing limbs, no struggling to catch her breath, just a tiny, hardly discernable gasp of shock. A quick glance at her clock told her that it was still five o'clock but that seemed to be the only thing consistent with her normal routine.

Maybe Evelyn was right. Maybe she needed to get her head out of the clouds for a couple of days.

A walk. Yes, that's what she needed to clear her head and besides, the girls probably wouldn't be up until after nine so she could take her walk, clear her head and have breakfast on the table before the girls got dressed. Yes, it was a solid plan, and hopefully, her plan would go off without a hitch this time.

As she walked across the farmer's field, Renestrae couldn't help but look around. No reason to get run down by a spooked horse and she didn't care what Constable O'Cain said, it was a horse that tried to run her down. The nerve of the man, to suggest that she could actually mistake a cow for a horse. Preposterous! Quite frankly it was an insult to her intelligence.

She didn't have her bow with her this time, and for once she was thankful for that. Had she had her bow she would have wanted to practice instead of getting a good look at her surroundings. It would have been a shame because the forest out here was magnificently beautiful. She even had the sudden desire to climb a tree. Her limbs positively ached with the need to feel the bark under her hands.

Of course, back home she tried to suppress such urges, as anything seen as 'woodsy' was bound to get her made fun of since she was from Sherwood. The fact that she was good with the bow didn't help her case one iota either.

After finding a low enough hanging branch (she was only five foot two, after all), she hoisted herself up and began to climb higher and higher. If she was perfectly honest with herself then she loved being high up in the trees like this, the wind blowing through her curly brown hair. It was because of her dreams about water, she supposed, but when she was in the tops of the trees like this it gave her the same feeling that riding a horse had given her at camp. It felt like she was flying.

As another breeze hit her she started to laugh lightly but stopped herself.

Oh, come off it, Frank. No wonder everyone thinks you're a basket case. Besides, there's a murderer out there. Now is not the time to be laughing.

Sometimes she really hated her more rational and realistic side. It was why she kept the thing shut off for most of the time. Rationality just wasn't very conducive to a creative atmosphere. However, her rational side did have a point. There was a killer on the loose. Should she really be having fun?

She shook that thought off immediately. Of course she should be having fun. If she continued to worry about this killer then she'd never get any peace and she was sure that her dreams would only get worse. She was sure the dream last night was merely a by-product of a worried mind and that myth that Dageus had told her, that was all. Her unconscious mind had simply held onto the fact that in the story the Kelpie had been promised an Irish bride and though she was loath to admit it because of her past, she was, in fact, half-Irish.

Renestrae sat in the tree's branches for several moments. The silence out here was absolutely peaceful and the sounds of birds chirping and the nearby stream running were peaceful too. It was only as she caught herself about to nod off, dangerous considering how high up she was, that she decided to get down and head back in. The forest would still be here when she decided she needed another reprieve from the harsh truths that reality had to offer her.