In the darkness, with just a soft glow from her little fire lighting the underside of
the bridge, Melanie picked her way down the rocks and into the river. She waded, her
feet welcoming the soft sandy bottom, until she was just over knee deep, then sat down
and let the water caress her naked body, rolling over her shoulders and through her hair
as she laid her head back into the water.

The water rushed over her, cool and gentle but firm. The perfect massage. She
could feel the little water sprites tugging at her.

“Come with us” they whispered, “and live in the river forever.”
“But I cannot breathe water, as you do.” she answered. This dialogue has been
held many a time before.
“Come with us, we will teach you.”
“I bet” she chuckled, and stood.

The water sheeted down, caressing her body one last time before it rejoined
Mother River and shushed away. The sprites tugged at her ankles, trying to hold her back
and Melanie giggled and shook her head, droplets spraying from her short hair. Not
without some regret, she bade them goodbye and then climbed back up to her little fire.

Sitting by the fire on a towel, naked, curled elbows on knees, face on arms,
staring into the flames, she could have been a cave girl, or a little primitive elf. Or a
woman, perfectly comfortable and safe in herself basking by the fire after her bath.

If they were in a role-playing game, they would be labeled “neutral”. That is, neither good nor evil. Like animals, they just have a whole different way of looking at the world. If getting a human to lighten up required a shower of flowers, they’d do that. If getting a human to lighten up and look the right way took a few well placed pixie arrows disguised as mosquito bites, they’d do that equally as joyfully. And they just don’t get the “laws of property” thing at all, which is why sometimes they will borrow your stuff and leave it somewhere else and never think a thing of it. If you get mad, well, they think you ought to lighten up.

Anyway, this day they were making their way to a party. They might or might not get there, of course, since they have to flit to every flower, stop and say hello to every living thing, and now and then involve themselves in something that is none of their business – or maybe exactly their business, needing just a little pixie serendipity to solve the problems humans make.

They saw a beautiful, dainty palomino pony the color of sunshine with a snowy white mane and tail, a big white blaze down her face, and a pretty pink nose standing in the middle of a lush green pasture with a little girl. The little girl was wearing a faded dress and worn tennis shoes, and they couldn’t see her face because it was buried in the snowy white mane. The ponies pretty pink nose was nuzzling the little girl and his deep brown eyes looked sad.

Sapphire, Emerald and Ruby looked at each other and knew. This clearly needed their mischief – I mean, help.

They landed in the snowy mane and snuggled down. The pony felt them and really wanted to shake them out – they tickled! But he didn’t want to disturb his girl, who was crying into his neck.

“Ooooooo Sunshine. You’re my only friend in the world. What are we going to do? Daddy died and I’m so lonely and now Mommy says we will have to sell you. She says she doesn’t know how to take care of you like Daddy did, and anyway, she can’t afford it. We don’t have as much money now that Daddy is gone. Ooooo Sunshine, if I could only have one thing in the whole world it would be you. I’d give up my TV, and school – oh yes, I’d never miss school and those mean girls there – I’d give up everything just to have you.” And she boo hooed and boo hooed while the pony just sighed and nuzzled her for comfort.

The pony, Sunshine was his name, was no fool. He wasn’t a young pony – nor a very old pony – but this girl (April was her name) wasn’t his first little girl, and he didn’t think she would be his last. It was the way of the world that eventually little girls outgrow pretty golden ponies and either decide other things are more fun, or start begging their parents for “a real horse”. And then Sunshine would be sold to a new home. He was always sad at leaving his girls, but he always had new girls to look forward to meeting. April wasn’t near outgrowing him yet and he had thought they would be together for a long time – but such was the ways of humans. He didn’t really understand it all, but he accepted it with the graceful patience that all ponies have in such abundance.

The pixies snuggling in his soft mane looked at each other.

Sapphire said, “Isn’t there an old farmer who owns those next fields over?”
Emerald said, “Didn’t we just hear his wife talking about the children moving away and taking their grandchildren?”
Ruby said, “Isn’t this thick mane just wonderful as a bed? I think I’m going to pluck a few hairs and braid myself a necklace.”

And she did. Ow, ow ow thought Sunshine – but he didn’t flinch because that might disturb April, who was also burrowed into his thick mane, as deep as any little girl could be.

The pixies flitted out of Sunshines mane and flew in the direction of the next fields over. They didn’t stop to sniff every flower and chat up every field mouse – now they were on a mission!

Sitting on the windowsill of the farm house they watched through the window. The old farmer was watching TV. The farm wife was making bread and sighing. She was worried about her husband. He was so sad since the grandchildren moved away. He didn’t seem to care about anything any more. He sold their cows and this year he didn’t even bother to sow the fields, or even plant her little kitchen garden. She loved him, this good man, but his heart was just broken and it was beyond her to repair it. She missed the grandchildren, too – the sounds of quick laughter and light feet running through their house. She sighed and wondered if this bread would get eaten before it was too old.

The pixies looked at each other and nodded.

Ruby, Emerald, and Sapphire flitted out to the old barn. Stored up in the loft were some old, rotten bales of hay. Their little noses crinkled at the smell. Summoning up a little pixie magic they pushed them off. The bales fell crashing through the barn, bouncing off the old tractor and over a tool bench creating a great bashing and clattering noise as tools flew through the air everywhere. The pixies thought that was so much fun that they spent a few minutes tossing tools at each other. Their favorites were anything that would make a great loud noise and of course, anything shiny.

The farmers wife heard the commotion, and ran to get her husband. He had heard it, but was still staring at the TV. She wouldn’t rest until he got up and went outside to investigate.

When he arrived in the barn it to a scene of chaos. Tools and hay everywhere. Sparkling dust motes filled the air (some of them were pixies). He looked up at the loft and thought he saw movement. Expecting to find a raccoon or possum, or even a skunk exploring his loft and making a mess, he picked up a sharp hoe and then carefully climbed the ladder.

The pixies giggled and started chasing each other under the thick layer of hay, just enough motion to keep the old farmer hearing it and catching a glimpse now and then (humans can’t really see pixies – except some of them do) so that he followed and followed, until they got him to the high door right near the top of the barn – and facing Sunshine’s pasture.

The farmer sighed and leaned on the door, looking out across his fallow fields. He saw a bright spark of gold – Sunshine! Sadly, he smiled at the pony and the little girl he could just barely see. He could tell her face was buried in the ponies mane. The farmer remembered how his sister told her pony all her secrets when she was young. His wife had told him all about her pony, too. He wanted to buy a pony for his grandchildren, but his children had moved away. Yes, a pretty gold pony like Sunshine would have been welcome.

He couldn’t have told you why, but he decided to walk down and say hello to Sunshine and his girl. The pixies danced around his head, creating a cool breeze and spreading pixie dust so that everything became brighter to his eyes. The fields were greener, the pony was more gold, the little girl winsome despite her tears. Sobbing, April told the farmer she was going to lose her pony, and why. His heart touched, he made a quick decision, a promise, and then walked home to tell his wife that soon they would have a guest.

A beautiful golden pony named Sunshine. And his girl April would be visiting as often as she was able. He knew his wife would be happy to hear her quick laughter and light feet dashing around their house, and he knew just how to take care of a pretty pony.

Emerald, Sapphire and Ruby looked at each other and smiled. There, another task done! Weren’t they going to a party?

Water Nixie

The nixie sat on her doorstep, enjoying the sun and the warm breeze, her tail dangling in the river. She was idly watching the ripples roll down the bright blue river, the swallows diving and swooping, and some kids sliding down the bank on a big piece of cardboard.

The swallows chattered, the children whooped for joy and the river lapped happily at her banks. The nixie swished her tail idly in the water. She could tell that someone was coming down the river in a boat. In fact, she knew who it probably was by the rhythm of the paddling and the feel of the boat in the water.

A nixie tail is as sensitive as the tail of a fish. She can feel vibrations in the water, and energy, like those deep-water fish who find their prey by feeling their electrical fields. This nixie had a tail just like the big carp who lived in the river, wide and flat, her scales a beautiful deep olive green and the fin big, square and golden green in color. Unlike all the pictures you’ve probably seen of nixies and water sprites and mermaids, her tail fits on her just like a fish. That is to say, the tail fin is aligned with her spine, up and down, not a sideways tail like a dolphin.

This means that it moved side to side, not up and down, but nixies bone structure is different from humans. In fact, she thought the children moved oddly, all up and down like a bird. And, like a bird, their arms (instead of wings of course) moved up and down to the side. Yes, they were like birds. Those rowers who skimmed along the surface in their fast little white boats moved their oars just like the Great Blue Heron moved his wings to row through the air.

But the boat coming towards her now was different. It was one human in a little kayak and she rowed side to side, rather like humans walk. Left, right, left right, with adjustments to allow for the waters rhythm. It seemed so awkward, and at the same time, the kayaker seemed far more attuned to the rivers own motion than the rowers. She was coming closer all the time; the nixie could feel her in the river.

Watching the human children slide down the bank the nixie wondered if she could do that, too. She was sure her friend the tree nymph was up in the leaves watching with interest. Perhaps if she would throw down a couple of those big maple leaves, they could try sliding down the bank, too. She thought it would be a lot of fun.

Such are the idle thoughts of a nixie sitting on her front porch enjoying the sun on a warm early spring afternoon.

The kayaker came closer and closer, eventually going a bit past the Nixies front porch. She had stopped paddling and the current turned the little boat gently and nudged it towards the bank. The nixie paid her little mind. Most people can’t see the fey folk, and those who can are usually not the sort who would do them any harm. She had not met this particular human, but other of the river nixies had and they had told her all about her.

This human loved the river, and the plants and animals and fey who shared her. Some nixies thought that she was a nixie who had lost her tail. There were stories. If a nixie stayed dry long enough, sunning on a rock perhaps, their tail would transform into legs. That’s why you usually see them sunning with their tail dangling in the water. Sometimes, it was said, a nixie would fall in love with a human and stay dry on purpose. Once they had legs they could stay with the human on land, even have babies with them. Always, the water called them back someday. No one really knew what happened to the babies.

Some nixies thought that the humans who loved the river, the trees, the magical things were babies from those fey who joined humankinds for a while. There were stories, too, that if those humans spent enough time in the river, or in the trees, they could transform from their human form to the sprite they were within. No one knew if that was true though.

Nixies had tried to get this human woman to stay in the river with them. Sometimes she swam or waded, or just sat, dangling her feet in the water and they would gather around and watch to see if they transformed into a tail. The human just laughed and said she didn’t think it would happen. They tried to get her to dive underwater and stay, too, but she told them she couldn’t breathe underwater as they did. It was all very mystifying, really.

But this human was a known friend of the fey folk, and so it wasn’t very surprising when the little blue kayak bumped against the Nixies home and the human in it said “oh, hello. I’m sorry. Am I disturbing you?”

“No, not at all.”

“What a lovely home you have here!” she complimented the nixie.

The nixies summer home was once one of those big cinder blocks with two big square holes that you see on construction sites. By the time it was tossed into the river for bank fill, it had a large blob of cement or something on one side so that the holes were quite closed on that side, but still open on the other. It came to rest on its end, far down the bank. Over the years the river added soil to the crevices of the rock. Algae began to grow along the sides and more soil clung until the block didn’t look like a block at all, but a little natural grotto, just the right size for a pixie.

The bottom chamber was below water almost all the time. The top was sometimes under, sometimes, like today, just above the surface. Perfect for a nixie to sit on the soft mud floor and dangle her tail in the river. The openings faced north-northeast and the river runs south, so the river brought all sorts of treasures right to the nixies door. All she had to do was sort through them and decide what she wanted to keep. Perhaps that would be a bit disturbing for a human, an open door with all sorts of things floating through it at any time, but it was a source of endless wonder for a nixie.

“Thank you” the nixie responded to the compliment, eyeing the bright blue boat and wondering if a bit of it would rub off on her home. A nice little blue streak at water level would be quite decorative.

The human had noticed that the door faced north. “Doesn’t it get cold in the winter though? What do you do then?

The nixie shrugged, “It is really far more snug than you would think. Especially under the water.” (Her bedroom was in the lower chamber, but she felt that was a bit too intimate of a detail to be sharing with a human) “If it does get too cold, I just swim down to the deepest waters. You know, this river almost never freezes over, and the deeper waters are always warmer. Then, if it gets too cold there, I just snuggle down in the mud and sleep until it warms up, just like the turtles and fish”

The human nodded. They sat in quiet companionship for a few minutes, watching the children still sliding down the bank, whooping with joy, and the swallows as they swooped and dived and chattered.

“You must have a very slow metabolism then, like the fish and reptiles” the human murmured, almost to herself.

The nixie swished her tail in the water, her head tilted contemplatively. “Slower than yours. But not as slow as the kayaks.” She could feel the human’s big, slow heartbeat in the water, faintly through the shell of the kayak. The boat itself was a bit of an enigma to her. It seemed both very very old, and very new, and had a life of it’s own that was more than the sum of it’s materials. Well, most living things do, of course. She decided it must be made of that material humans use that comes from the fossils of things long dead, thus the very oldness of it. Their magic transformed it into a new shape – the boat, and then the human who paddled and spent time in it shared her own life force with the boat, and made it more.

It was the humans turn to sit, head tilted, contemplating. “You say PJ, my kayak, is alive?”

“Why, yes, of course.”

The human nodded. “Yes, she seems that way to me. But it seems to me that she has a higher energy than that.” She laughed, “she sure gets lively skipping over these little waves at times.”

The nixie smiled in agreement, “Yes, but she borrows life from you, and from the river and fills herself with it. She isn’t so lively when you drag her out and leave her to sleep in your living room.”

The human raised her eyebrows. “You’re right of course. I suppose she told you where she sleeps?”

“Of course” the nixie replied. She sighed. It really was sad to think these humans were so blind in a way, unable to communicate with so many things that the fey found perfectly capable of communication. Although she had heard this human was different from most. After all, here they were having a conversation!

The children tired of their game, picked up the cardboard and started to walk away down the bank. The nixie watched them go, and then looked up into the trees for her friend, the tree nymph. The human sensed the conversation was over. She took a long drink from her water bottle.

“Well, nice meeting you. Have a good day.” Carefully she nudged the kayak away from the nixies summer home and back out into the current.

The nixie waved goodbye as she slipped into the water to swim over to the bank. She could see the wood nymph peeking out of the leaves and already scampering down the tree trunk to meet her, as two big maple leaves floated slowly down to the bank.

This is an original fiction story written by Summer Fey Foovay and is copyrighted, all rights reserved.

Water Nixies weave their way through my first novel – The River Way.  You can download it for free as an ebook here or purchase as a soft cover at Amazon.com.

Got to go to town today – so no time to waste.

TTYL

Summer Fey Foovay

Sleeping fairy

Neva shuddered as the cold water of the shower hit her skin like a dance of
minute needles vibrating across her shoulders then running down her back in
steadily warming streams until the pool around her feet was actually hot.
Leaning her head back into the shower so the water hit her face and tangled
in her long, blond wavy hair helped, but only a little. With a sigh, she turned
the cold water off and reached for one of her big, fluffy bath sheets.

The soft, warm terry was a comfort for only a moment before it began again.
An insistent worrying beneath her skin, as if a million microscopic bugs
were rushing up and down in her skin, beneath the surface yet quite
individually distinct to the touch as if running along avenues and hallways
made up from a second surface beneath the skin. It was an unbearable
sensation, yet she had been bearing it for months now.

Neva had gone to her doctor at first. He was a kind, gentle man who had
been treating her general ills, aches and pains for most of her adult life. She
loved his benevolent brown eyes and the compassionate way his soft hands
soothed her as he explored her body so very politely in an exam. The doctor
listened to her list of odd woes and willies and asked about her periods.

Never regular, her menses now showed up twice in one month, and then
disappeared for six months. She was too hot, then too cold. At night she
would wake up in bedclothes soaked with her own sweat. Her breasts ached
until she was sure it had to be cancer or some other terrible nameless thing.
Worst of all, sometimes she couldn’t remember something for more than a
minute. She would arrive in the kitchen with no idea of what she had been
seeking there. Look up a phone number, and then have to look it up again
before she could dial it on the phone. And then there was this horrible skin
sensation. At first it was intermittent, lasting only a few minutes. Gradually
it became a constant low-level irritation, occasionally peaking to such a
point she would desperately seek relief of any kind.

The doctor smiled and nodded, and nodded some more. Then explained to
Neva that this was all perfectly natural and normal for a woman of her age.
“It is called menopause, or the change of life”, he told her in his calm voice.
A prescription for estrogen and a counseling for patience until this passes
was all he had to offer.

Neva filled the prescription and went home vaguely dissatisfied. When she
shared the news with her Wednesday night quilting club she was deluged
with all sorts of folk remedies, natural cures, and more suggestions and,
inevitably, a wise nodding of heads and assurance that this would all pass in
time.

The first time she took the estrogen, she was taken with a terrible fit of
vomiting that lasted for hours. When she called the doctors office they
promised her it couldn’t be the hormone – she must have gotten something
bad to eat. The next day it was the same, only the vomiting was followed by
diarrhea. Again she called, and was advised to go to the emergency room
and be checked for food poisoning, but definitely to continue to take the
estrogen – especially since her complaints about hot and cold flashes, and
this endless itching sensation under her skin remained the same.

A day wasted in emergency, squirming in discomfort, alternately shivering
and sweating and always, always the itching – and now, of course, rushing
to the bathroom every few minutes – gave Neva no satisfaction. The doctor
on call shrugged, and the nurses seemed almost angry with her for wasting
their time when they had real emergencies to deal with, such as the child
who had somehow gotten a glass sliver in his eye doing some sort of hobby,
or the man who fell off his boat while getting it on the trailer and sprained
his ankle. Neva slung home feeling as if she had somehow done something
wrong.

Just as an experiment, she stopped taking the estrogen. All the vomiting and
nasty stomach things stopped, although the hot and cold flashes, the
soreness, and most of all the awful prick prick pricking of her skin came
back even worse than before. Neva tried all the folk remedies, the natural
cures, the homeopathic tinctures, vitamins, and long soaks with the finest
bath oils made. A few things helped a little, or at least, she thought they did.

Then she began to swell. Her entire body seemed to grow rounder and
rounder. Her skin seemed taut, and had a whitish glow. Her face became
puffy and blotchy pink and white until she called the girls and excused
herself from quilting club meetings because she couldn’t bear for anyone to
see her. Everything seemed scratchy to her increasingly sensitive skin and
she wound up living in a big silk muumuu because she couldn’t fit into
anything else, and anyway she couldn’t bear anything other than the lightest
whisper of silken fabric on her skin. And then her hair, her long beautiful
hair, began falling out by the handful.

She called the doctors office. But when she told the nurse that she had
stopped taking the estrogen, the nurse got huffy and told her that if she did
not follow the doctor’s instructions, then of course she must expect the
sensations to get worse. When Neva mentioned the home remedies to her,
the nurse got angry and told Neva that perhaps she should go back to her
witch doctor before hanging up.

And still that sensation continued, worse all the time. She would pace and
pace for hours, unable to concentrate on anything – music, TV, a book. A
drink, a bit of rum or whisky, would seem to turn it down for a few minutes,
as if the little bugs got drunk and sleepy. Neva began going days without
sleep, then sleeping twelve or fourteen hours or more at a time – waking
soaked in sweat. She went out once – only because she had concluded that
silk sheets might help her sleep and she had to buy some. The young cashier
at the store looked at her in her big silk muumuu, her blotchy face and
ragged hair and smiled.

“My mother got just like that. Don’t you worry – it all goes away
eventually.” The bright young thing said, and then turned her head away and
giggled.

Neva was ashamed, and furious.

She went home and spread the silk sheets on her bed. They shone at her
invitingly – white and silver like ice. Neva undressed and had her shower
before slipping thankfully between the beautiful sheets. For a moment, even
that buzzing sensation, that feeling that she didn’t belong in her skin, ceased
completely. She sighed and rolled up in the top sheet like a cocoon before
sliding into blissful sleep. For only a second before she slipped away she
could have sworn that suddenly the awful prickling itch started again before
sleep sucked her down into nothingness.

She woke up only once, feeling as if she were wet all over. Neva sighed,
night sweats again, she thought. But it didn’t quite feel like that. More like
a soothing lotion had been somehow poured over her, between her and the
slick, cool sheets. She couldn’t escape the soft sensation of sleep and dozed
off again.

Neva woke. Without opening her eyes, she knew something amazing must
have happened. The air smelled sweeter. She felt like herself again – but
even better. As if she had somehow been born again – a younger Neva, with
a strong, beautiful body and perfect skin. She smiled, and opened her eyes.
Sunlight bathed the room. The silk sheets were puddled around her feet.

Her feet! No longer swollen, they seemed longer, lighter boned, the skin
perfectly smooth and pure white with the faintest glow about them. As Neva
sat up in shock, she felt the strangest sensation. As if she had…

WINGS! Twisting and turning her head she could only see glimpses of
smooth whiteness with an iridescent rainbow gleam. Neva leapt up from the
bed and felt like she might just fly up to the ceiling, her body was as light as
a bundle of sticks and perfect – oh, how perfect! She ran to the mirror on
her toes and was astounded by what she saw.

She was slender, more slender than she had ever been, and her skin was a
glowing flawless milky white. Her hair was as glorious as it had been in her
little girl days, flowing to her waist. Instead of being blond, it was snowy
white. Neva took a deep breath and turned sideways. She let the air out in a
sigh. Beautiful, iridescent white butterfly wings emerged from between her
shoulder blades. She experimented for a few moments, learning how to flex
and flutter them.

Turning from the mirror, Neva regarded the room she had retreated to hide
herself in who knows how long ago. The sad silk muumuu hung from the
edge of a door. Big enough to hold an elephant it looked now. The silk
sheets were tangled and musty. The TV droned on the shopping channel.
The window beckoned her.

She drew the heavy curtains open on a perfect spring day. The dewdrops
shone brighter, the flowers smelled sweeter, the sky – the sky called to her.
Neva flexed her new wings. Smiled. And flew out into the day.

© Summer Fey Foovay – short fiction – all rights reserved

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