The Kelpie's Cries (Completed)

Secrets

Days passed and nothing had changed. Her room door would lock every time both of her parents were absent from the house and unlock when they came back. She would use that time to read more of her father's diary entries to find out more about that something she wasn't ready to "get mixed up in". She had learnt so many new words and their various meanings and uses because of her handy dictionary that explained every alien word of the notebook in great detail. Due to what the maiden telling her what her friend was, she had done her research and found out what he actually was.

Kelpies in Celtic folklore were shapeshifting water spirits that lived in the lochs and pools of Scotland that were mostly depicted as horses with a kelp mane and fur like a seal's that would lure a human to mount it in order to drown him and feast upon his flesh, leaving nothing but a heart behind. Their fur had the ability to turn sticky and would be possibly as strong as super glue and with that they would secure a free meal once the rider was on. Apparently the only way to tame (more like capture) those creatures was by using a halter stamped with the sign of a cross if it wasn't equipped with any tack such as a saddle or a bridle. Then why did he not eat me? He tried to drown me! Maybe he did want to eat her; maybe he just wanted to kill her for his own amusement but whatever it was, he changed his mind and she was still amongst the living. Wait a second... That meant that spirits of pure folktales and stories were real, right? Did that mean unicorns were real as well?

She then wondered if she had to bring a halter next time they would meet and secure her life for good? There was this one tale, though, of the Laird of Morphie who captured a kelpie and made it carry heavy stones to build his castle and upon its release, it cursed the laird's family and none of them survived. It seemed wrong as well, putting an animal to work without its consent... it seemed too cruel to take freedom away from an animal that didn't need to be in contact with humans to live. She understood that livestock was needed so that people could eat but horses and other animals that were born wild were kept in enclosed spaces and heavily depended on humans to survive. They were taken from their mothers by cold-hearted people and thrown in iro cages or simply hunted down for money or amusement, her dad was so kind to tell her of all those 'fun' activities humans had in store.

The page of the notebook, the one with the most blue ink on it, seemed to be devoted to a forest; perhaps Blue Peace, though her dad didn't state it name at any point. He described it as dark, ominous and mysterious -and those were some of the kinder adjectives he used in there. He held no positivity in his tone, no excitement to be in a forest full of magical creatures that normal people had only heard of. Normal people haven't seen them... So, is dad not normal?, she thought curiously and continued reading but her thoughts were a little too loud to allow that. Does that mean our family isn't normal? Are we some sort of magical beings as well? It was hard to silence the nonsensical string of words in her head but she somehow managed to do it only to remind herself a few moments later and having to do that all over again.

"We headed into that blue ominous and godforsaken forest once again today to see if we could hunt down that water horse or find something better. After a few seconds of walking on a seemingly very used path, we heard a roar right above us. It sounded like a huge dragon but when we looked up, we saw birds with long necks and tails mimicking the sound. We immediately ran off into the most dense area of the forest fearing that some larger predator would come our way." -the girl skipped a few pages- "Henry is going crazy over this. We have been trapped in this forest for God knows how long and no matter how many times we retrace our steps we can't find our way back to the camp or any form of civilization".

Skipping a few more pages, the girl finally reached the one entry where the two men had managed to find a way out. Apparently the forest had spewed them out in an american national park but once they turned to go back in, there was no blue forest in sight. They had to look for hours before they found the entrance and after that it took them days to find the way home.

"That forest has a mind of its own", was a quote that stuck in the girl's head for the rest of the evening and she couldn't help but wonder why she never got 'spewed out' in a different place than from where she entered. Well, she was always accompanied by someone whenever she was in there so maybe that was why she didn't get lost in there.

"Henry has decided to move into that forest after countless of failed attempts of capturing that Kelpie, right after a huge argument we had about me not wanting to continue. For Christ's sake, we had spent almost a year trying and accomplished nothing but use up our supplies and worry our wives. He took Elizabeth and their son and entered the forest to be able to hunt that monster without having his family worry"

Well, that explained why Mr. Henry was living in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a small field of crops and his family and woodland animals as company. The girl wondered what it was like to live out there your whole life with your only goal of killing or capturing a certain animal. What would he do after he had killed it? Surely they wouldn't be able to keep up with society after all this time away from it. Who knows if taxes were a thing when he moved out? She didn't even know if she was born at the time of these events because her dad didn't mention if he had a daughter or not. She hoped her friend would be okay; Henry was walking around the forest with a shotgun the first time she saw him after all!

The rustling of keys sounded at the door and she almost froze in place. She panicked and threw most of the papers on her bed on the floor but the notebook remained on her bed while she tried to clean up. When the door opened, the floor was clean, the papers stuffed in the closet under some clothes and the notebook out in the open. She would have gone back and lied down on it to hide it under her but her father was faster than her shaky movements. The moment he laid eyes on the notebook, he knew what it was and that it was his and he also caught sight of the dictionary resting not far from it on the bed. His head turned to her and his face had that menacing scowl that only a killer could give to a victim that refused to die.

"How much did you read?" he asked sternly, hands forming into fists. Why is he so angry?, the girl thought. Her mind didn't register a word of her father's question and the man wasn't accepting silence as an answer.  He came close to her and she tried to run out of her room but he caught her by the arm and dragged her back.

"How much did you read?!", he asked again and her response were tears. The man sighed in an attempt to calm himself down but it was in vain. He took the notebook from the bed before slapping her hard on the cheek. The girl froze and that was when her mother showed up as she had heard the shouting from the kitchen. Just by looking at the scene in front of her she knew what had happened and instantly she dragged her husband out of the room and closed the door behind them, leaving her daughter to spill tears by herself.