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[Laufey]

Chapter 6 - Lady Of The Lake

A short while later, Poppy was already in a better mood, and her spirits soared even more when the children reached a small meadow, with dewy, emerald green grass, and a ring of pretty purple toadstools, plump and soft. “Oh, look!” she cried out. “Look at all those pretty butterflies!” Without waiting for a response she scampered over towards the shimmering multicolored wings she had seen fluttering above the meadow.

“Wait!” she heard her Best Friend cry out behind her. “Poppy, watch out! Those are…”

And then there was a multitude of tiny voices chattering at her, and she suddenly found herself lifted into the air, and dangled upside-down as little hands fingered her curiously. Suddenly something was clinging to her nose, and a small face was staring at her. The creature looked like a very small elf, with pointy ears and a sharp face, but its skin was a pale green, and it had translucent fluttering wings, which explained why she had mistaken it for a butterfly. “Big ones!” it said in a voice like a mosquito. “What do they want, what do they want? Want to play, maybe?”

“You’ll put her down right now,” Poppy heard her Best Friend say, “or you’ll be sorry!” Then he gasped with alarm, as he had to swat at a dozen of the flying things, all of them attempting to lift him by the ears.

“Leave off!” Poppy said. “We’ll be nice and play with you, but only if you’re nice to us.” This seemed to calm the creatures, and she soon found herself on the ground again, a swarm of gossamer wings swirling about her head. “Wow…” she said. “You sure are pretty…”

The little beings giggled happily at this, some of them joining hands and dancing in circles in the air. “They’re pixies,” Poppy heard her Best Friend say. “I've seen them before, they're pretty common here. But all magical creatures and monsters are more common in Rasheman than anywhere else, it's something to do with the land itself and all those spirits everywhere. Pixies are usually friendly, but they like to play tricks on people.”

I guess Rasheman really is a bit like the stories I've heard about it, Poppy thought. Magic and monsters and strange things everywhere. Except none of the stories told about the Witches hurting children. I think they are probably worse than any monster we could run into.

“Tricks is lotsa fun!” one of the pixies cheerfully agreed. “Tricksy pixies!” It laughed, a sound like little tinkling bells. “Why you here in pixie circle?”

“We’re lost. Do you know how we can get out of the forest?”

“Pixies know everything! We’re as clever as we’re pretty!”

“So, can you tell us how to get out of the forest?”

“Yes! Yes, yes, yes!”

“And will you tell us?”

The pixie squealed with delight, making a loop in the air. “Nuh-uh! Not unless you play with us first!”

Poppy heard her Best Friend give a small sigh of resignation. A silver-winged pixie had settled down on his head and seemed to be trying to comb his tangled hair, using its fingers, while another was doing acrobatics on his shoulder. “All right,” he said. “But only if you get us something to eat first.”

The pixies provided a pretty wide assortment of food. There were different kinds of fruits and nuts, fresh water, and a jar of wonderfully sweet honey, much of which wound up smeared over the children's hands and faces. Afterwards they felt quite satisfied, and quite willing to join the pixies in a fast-paced game of tag, all across the meadow. Poppy found the experience quite delightful, and even more so since her Best Friend seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself. I guess he really needed to tell me that stuff, she thought. I wonder how he managed to go for so long without anybody to talk to, and not go insane.

Once they were too breathless with exertion and laughter to be able to run anymore, the children settled down in the soft grass again, the pixies fluttering about their heads. "Will you tell us how to get out of the forest now?" Dekaras asked.

"Yes!" one the pixies replied. "Is far, and we not go that far, but the Lady in the Lake knows the way. We show you to her, and she show you, yes?"

"Lady in the Lake?" the boy asked. "Who's she? Some sort of water spirit?"

The pixies looked confused. "She's the Lady in the Lake," they said, as if that explained everything. "She very powerful. You go see her, she help you. She sees very far." With that, a pair of the pixies broke off from the flock and flew deeper into the forest, waving eagerly! "Come! Come!" they called out. "You follow, we take you to the Lady!"

After maybe half an hour, the forest grew a little denser, and by now the forest floor was in complete shadow. There was something else that was bothering Poppy, a heavier, more oppressive feeling in the air, as if something was lurking just out of sight. "Dekkie?" she whispered to her friend. "Do you think the pixies can be trusted?"

Her Best Friend nodded. "I think so," he said. "They like to play tricks, like I said, but they're not bad, not like some other faerie folk. They wouldn't try to hurt us on purpose." Then he looked a little worried. "Of course, they may not realise exactly what sort of things could be dangerous to us."

The two pixies came flying up to them at this moment, looking very excited. "There, there!" one of them said, pointing ahead. "Lake up ahead, home of the Lady. You go talk to her now! See ya, bye bye!"

"Wait!" Poppy said. "Suppose the Lady isn't home, or doesn't want to help us?"

"You just take this as thanks for nice playtime," one of the pixies, the one with a silvery body and green hair said. "If you want play some more, you call us, and you can join us and be happy pixies, yes?" It dropped a small silver object into the halfling's palm, and then disappeared along with its companion.

"I don't really think being a 'happy pixie' is my thing," Poppy heard her Best Friend mutter. "Far too chirpy. What did you get?"

Poppy looked at the thing. "It looks like a whistle," she said, holding the tiny instrument up. "I guess it's magical."

"Probably. But we shouldn't use it unless we absolutely have to. Like I said, pixies like playing tricks. It could give us both pink hair, or…or turn us into squirrels or something."

"Being a squirrel sounds like it could be pretty fun, actually!"

"Not in the middle of a forest inhabited by foxes and wolves, it doesn't. Let's go check out that lake instead. With any luck, that 'Lady' won't try to turn us into anything nasty or kill us or anything…"

The ground started sloping steeply downwards now, and as the children started climbing down a rocky hill they could see the lake below them. It wasn't particularly big, and its water was completely still, with not so much as a ripple crossing it. It was also black, as black as midnight, and eerie reflections of the tall spruces that surrounded it flickered across the shiny surface. Some lily pads floated here and there, but that was the only sign of life. "I don't like this," Poppy said once they had reached the shore and stood watching the still water nervously. "What do you think that Lady is like?"

"I've no idea," her Best Friend said. He was biting his lip a little, looking ill at ease. "Rasheman is full of spirits you see, as I said before, more so than anywhere else I think. They're everywhere, in the lakes, in the trees, in the rocks and the earth. So this will be some kind of Lake Spirit, but there are many different kinds, and not all of them are nice. I think I'd better talk to her first, in Rasheman all children are taught how to talk to spirits." He cleared his throat, then called out in a loud voice.

Avar, sirdje Laran! Mern bannin t'djal.

"What did you say?" Poppy whispered.

"I just greeted her, requesting her aid. Let's see if she wants to show herself." Since they were staring intently at the water, the children were able to see the first ripple crossing the surface. Then there was another one, and another, and a brief glimpse of something white beneath the surface. And then the Lady of the Lake appeared, rising smoothly and silently out of the water, without a single splash. She was fairly close to the shore, and yet only her head and naked shoulders were visible, so the water had to be very deep. At first glance she looked like a beautiful human woman, with long and shimmering green hair and sparkling green eyes. But as you looked closer you could see that there were things that didn't quite fit about her. For one thing those eyes didn't have any pupils, nor any whites, and they were too bright in colour. There were rotting weeds clinging to the tangled locks of long hair, and the woman didn't seem to care about that, nor about the faint stench of rot that surrounded her. "Children…" she said in a soft voice, and though it was pleasant and musical there was also an undertone of darkness, and of things slowly dissolving beneath the water. "Such pretty little children. It has been a very long time since anybody came to visit me, I was beginning to feel lonely…"

"That's no ordinary lake spirit!" Dekaras hissed, catching hold of Poppy's arm and dragging her a few steps backwards from the water. "That's a Rusalka!"

"A what?"

"A Rusalka! A sort of undead, a woman who died by drowning and tries to drown anybody who comes near the lake where she died! She's incredibly dangerous, don't look into her eyes or she'll try to enchant you into getting in the water, and then she'll drag you down!"

"Wait, children!" the Rusalka said, raising a pale hand out of the water. "Do not run from me, little ones. I mean you no harm. Grown men alone are my prey, men like him, like the one who drowned me when I told him I was carrying a little one of my own, a child of his loins. Ah, I miss my vadja, my child, my little one… When my lover returned to this lake on the night one year after my murder, I sang to him and called to him, and dragged him down, and now he sleeps silently, deep in the mud. But I would not harm a child. Why have you sought me out?"

Poppy looked on nervously as her Best Friend addressed the spirit once more. "We are lost," he said. "We're trying to get home. Sirdje Laran, lake Lady, we were told by the pixies in the glade to the south that you might be able to help us. Will you?"

The Rusalka smiled faintly, her green eyes shining more brightly than before. "I might," she said. "Yes, vadja, I will try. But first I must ask you to do something for me. Come, let me explain it to you. I have the power to see the past, the present and the future to a great extent, and that means I can see the best way for you to go home. But to do so I need an item, my enchanted mirror that I use for scrying. Nothing else will do, for it is tied to me, as surely as I am tied to this lake. But my mirror has been recently stolen from me, and unless it is returned I cannot help you. I cannot even go take it back myself, for I cannot go far from my lake without withering and being destroyed. If you would have my help, you must first help me get my mirror back, but I warn you. It would be very dangerous, and you might be better off trying to find your own way."

"Why is it so dangerous?" Poppy asked. "Who stole your mirror?"

The Rusalka's mouth tightened and she hugged herself tightly. "It was Baba Yaga," she said. "The wicked old crone, the hag in the chicken-legged hut. Now do you see, children? I cannot ask you to do this, Baba Yaga would surely kill you and eat you both, and add your little bones to the fence around her cottage."

The young Dekaras had been listening to this story with very mixed feelings. Rusalki were supposed to be very dangerous, and not to be trusted. But then again, I want to be really dangerous, and I can be trusted. And she was honest enough to tell the truth. And she was betrayed once too…along with her poor baby. Serves the one who did it right that she drowned him. Also, the Rusalka looked like a grownup, and grownups couldn't really be trusted, but she wasn't really a human, not any more, and that made things different. And she hadn't tried to trick them into doing what she wanted, she had said openly that it might be best if they didn't try. Besides, he liked her. She seemed so sad, and as if she really missed her dead child, and she had a kind voice. I guess I wouldn't have minded having her for a mother, if I still needed one. She's nice, undead or not. Not that I do need one, but still…

"All right," he said, trying to sound business-like, but not being quite able to keep all the tension out of his voice. "I'll do it."

"WHAT?" Poppy yelled. "Are you crazy? No, forget it, I know you are. You'll get us both killed!"

"No I won't. Because you won't be going with me."

"Oh really?" Poppy asked, crossing her arms across her chest. "And what makes you think that?"

"Because it's my fault we're here in the first place, and I don't want to risk you getting hurt." He stared at the ground, not quite daring to meet the halfling's eyes. "You'll be better off waiting here."

And then his Best Friend suddenly threw herself at him, the surprise assault tackling him to the ground, and sat on him, glaring into his face. It was really quite annoying, her being smaller than he was and all, if not by much. "Forget it, Dekkie," Poppy said in a steely voice. "You're not going anywhere without me. You need me. And it's not your fault I'm here, how many times do I have to say that? You didn't make me come, I came because I wanted to."

"But…"

"No buts! If you don't promise that I can come I'll…I'll stay right here, on top of you! And I'll tickle you till you say I can, you know I'm not kidding."

"But…"

"And don't even think about sneaking off on your own when I'm not looking. I'd follow you, and then we'd get in trouble separately."

The boy heaved a great sigh. There was really no arguing with Poppy once she put her foot down like this, she could be a stubborn as a mule when she wanted to. "All right, all right!" he said, a little testily. "I guess you can come."

"Thanks, Dekkie!" the halfling chirped, and then proceeded to plant a big kiss on the tip of his nose. "I knew you'd come around."