The Kelpie's Treasure

Chapter 6 (1st Draft) 2702

I must have dozed off in the chair at the bedside sometime after the stranger from the sea had fallen back to sleep because, the next thing I knew, the sun was up and aunt Jaana was gently shaking me awake.

"Haltija, wake dear," she whispered to me. "Go up stairs to sleep the rest of the morning in Emmi's bed where you'll be more comfortable."

My head felt muddled. I wasn't sure whether I dreamed or not. But, I rose obediently and left. Aunt Emmi greeted me with a sweet smile and escorted me up the narrow staircase to her room. She had to help me dress for bed because I could hardly keep my eyes open. It was an easy task made very difficult by my drooping head, eyes and limbs. But, she only laughed good naturedly through it all, and smiled down at me lovingly the moment I was tucked into her soft bed.

"You've done well, haltija," she told me as she smoothed down my hair and petted my cheek. "The young man will survive now. It is certain."

She smiled brightly at me and her eyes twinkled with mischief. I could not help but smile in return although I could barely keep my eyes open.

"Sleep," she commanded me gently and in that moment I stopped struggling to stay awake. Instead, I let myself relax into the soft folds of her warm bed and gladly bid farewell to consciousness.

Sleep was bliss until I began to dream of him. I dreamt of his long black hair, his deep dark eyes, his cold fingers, and his parched lips.

In the dream I found myself floating out to sea on a thick bed of seaweed. The stranger was with me. He was submerged in the frigid waters right up to his shoulders, and contented himself by  pushing my bed of seaweed further and further out to sea. He swam in the cold salty water as if he were born to it, and he drank it back as if it were no more than tea.

Horrified at the prospect of being taken so far out to sea on such a questionable raft, I tried to steer the seaweed back to shore. However, every time I dipped my hand into the water to paddle toward home, the man from the sea would grasp my hand, pull me down, and kiss me. I feared his kisses, but I was equally afraid of drowning in the salty water that was so deep it was as black as his hair.

Frightened, realizing he was determined to take me out to sea, I rolled off the bed of seaweed and tried to swim to shore. However, in the self-same instant I found myself on a cliff looking over the sea below. There was a great storm brewing over the sea and it was wild with violently crashing waves. Such a sight was enough to make me tremble.

Then my eye spotted the stranger with his long black hair. He was caught up on a rocky shoal below the cliff. His hair was entangled in driftwood that was fetched up in the rocks. I could see that the enormous, wind-whipped waves were going to drown him and my heart felt sick for him.

There were fishermen on the water and on the beach but they didn't see him. I cried out to them in a panic, asking them to save him, but they did not hear me. Finally, more distraught then I could ever remember being, and full of terror for the stranger, I braved the cliff's edge and climbed down to him.