The Werepire

CHAPTER 10: Laila gets lost.

In and out, over and under, bat to fit through two logs, mermaid to dive underwater, werewolf for speed on the final stretch. With a final lunge, Laila skidded over the finish line.

"Acceptable," said Thrasymedes, checking his stopwatch, "but too noisy. Especially when entering and exiting the water. See you next Thursday."

The moment he was out of sight, Laila collapsed and took a power nap. Being a mer-werepire was trickier than she previously anticipated. Especially controlled transformations. After five minutes, she woke, and soared into the air. She was getting much better at flying due to countless hours of trial and error, though her levitation was still 'atrocious' according to Thrasymedes. She hadn't seen Mystic for ages, but he'd probably be a bit more positive.

Soon, Laila was lost. She didn't really mind, as any direction would take her to a highly visible border of the Manjirippun Reserve. Mountains, ocean, or concrete town; take your pick. With a quick dive, she was on four paws without thinking, bounding along the leafy undergrowth.

The trees around her changed gradually, tropical and beautiful. Brilliant red hibiscus bushes filled the air with their scent. However, they also filled the air with bees, so Laila kept away from them.

As she padded along what seemed to be a path, it turned to sand beneath her paws, and it cleared outwards to reveal a thundering waterfall of luminous blues and greens, the foam rushing up and spraying the air, making it look like there were a thousand dancing ghosts swooping through the air.

It was only when one of the little ghosts flew up to her and spoke that Laila realised that she wasn't seeing things, and promptly yelped, reared up, and fell on her back.

"S-sorry, did I startle you?"

"You're a ghost!" Laila said accusingly.

"No I'm not. I'm a sprite!"

"A spirit?"

"I'm a SPRITE!"

By now, most of the dancing shadows were gone, the few remaining peering curiously as Laila.

"You're not meant to be here," one said.

"Why not?"

"Only sprites have ever entered this place. Nobody else has chanced across us."

"You can't have been here very long. I'm betting that waterfall's kinda hard to miss."

"Yet if you had not followed the path, you would not have found it. How you found thy path itself, I don't know. It's really thy most magic thing of this place."

Laila scrutinised the pale sandy path behind her. Didn't really look magical compared to this waterfall area full of ghosts.

"What's a sprite?" she asked.

"We're thy gentle guardians of the land, sworn to protect it from eons past, barely a century younger than thy great Mother herself-"

"Oh, gawd sakes, Anabel!" another sprite scoffed, "Spare 'er the details! We're just a band o' buccaneers protecting them great forests fer a livin'. Ah'm Lily Ann, an' this is our patch o' nowhere! Yer welcome back whene'er you please, if you can fin' it."

"Lillianzenreschkamiien, you know full well that I approve not of thy crude name you've attempted to force upon me. Thy newcomer wants to hear about-"

"Who pays your income? The forest? Are you thieves?"

'Anabel' (thank goodness we never had to hear her full name) harrumphed and strutted away as well as one can without legs. She didn't look too happy at the notion of being a thief.

"No, lil' un! We're spri's, we don't need nuthin' to live but a lil' haven like this one right 'ere, which the forests 'ave so gratefully given us. We clear up them leaves; they don' break down so easy without some good air tahm."

"Air tahm?"

"Y'know. Tahm in the air."

It took another few sprites to butt in to clear up that Lily An was talking about 'air time', and not 'air tim tams' or whatever was going through Laila's head. By this time (or 'tahm' or however you want to say it), most of the sprites were gathered around Laila.

"Hey, want to come see behind the waterfall? It's really cool!"

And thus the protagonist got to meet the sprites and play in a waterfall. Waterfalls are good. ONWARDS!!!