Uncharmed

Chapter 4: Helping

Tania and her four friends, full after a trip to the local ice cream parlour, were laughing at one of Jill’s crazy stories as they headed back to campus when they heard a voice calling from behind them.

“Tania!” Aiden shouted as he ran up to them. “Have you seen Alex or Theron today?”

“No,” Tania replied frowning.

“Fuck!”

“Is something wrong? Do you need help with something?”

Aiden ran one of his hands through his red-blond hair. The closer his hair got to the centre of his head the more red was in it. Just like a fire, Tania thought mildly amused. “I hate to bother you but if you’re not busy that’d be great. I just really need at least one other person to help.”

Tania nodded. “Sure,” She said before turning to her friends. “Sorry guys I’ll see you at dinner ok?”

The other girls glanced at Aiden and then at Tania. “Alright. If you’re not there we’ll come and hunt you down,” Chloe promised.

Laughing Tania waved to them as she followed Aiden. He led her through the backstreets that held only houses and student apartments until they came to a lot empty except for dead brown grass, which backed onto the slow-moving creek. Aiden went down the bank first and then helped Tania slide carefully down the muddy slope.

“I really am sorry about this but she won’t come out,” He said indicating the large rusted metal pipe that was sluggishly pouring brown water into the creek. “I’ve tried everything but she won’t listen. I figured either Theron could force her out or Alex could charm her out but…”

“What is she?”

“A pegaeae. A kind of water spirit. I would ask Ilana but the last time she tried to talk to a water spirit it ended in a shouting match. It took Alex, with his charm on full power, an hour to calm the pair of them down and another half-hour to get the naiad out of the fountain.”

Tania flashed a smile at Aiden before squatting down in front of the pipe and looking into its dark depths. “Hello?” she called.

“Go away child of fire,” came the waspish reply.

“Umm, Aiden’s standing over by the tree if you mean him. My name’s Tania.”

Suddenly a pair of blue-green eyes appeared and stared at her. “You smell of the fire one. Be wary of that one. He lies. Claims to be of the Wayde clan. But he does not fool me. He is of fire.”

“Well I don’t know about clans but Wayde is his last name. And Aiden brought me here to help you if you want it. It can’t be at all comfortable in there. If you’re stuck I can try my best to help.”

The pegaeae drew back, eyes disappearing back into the blackness, as she thought it over. “You come with the child of fire and yet you are untouched by fire. How has this come to pass?”

Tania blinked not entirely sure what she was asking. “Uh, Aiden brought me to help you. And, um, he can control himself so he doesn’t burn people?”

The eyes reappeared and stared deeply into Tania’s, almost as if the creature was reading her soul. “You are a human child. That is well. I will gladly accept your aid. Just keep the fire one from me.”

Whole face breaking into a grin, Tania nodded. “Aiden she wants you to keep your distance but she says she’ll let me help her.”

Aiden let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks Tania.”

“No prob,” She told him before turning back to the pegaeae in the pipe. “Now how did you get stuck in there?”

The creature moved forward and Tania found herself staring. It was one thing to be told there were spirits like dryads and nymphs but it was quite another to see one. Especially one so different from a human. Covered in glittering blue scales, her head topped with slick green hair, the pegaeae was strangely cute, at least to Tania’s mind. “It is my tail. It has become caught and I cannot free myself,” the water spirit explained, moving her tail forward so that it too came into view. As with the rest of her body it was covered in shimmering scales but these were shaded more towards the blue-green of her large eyes then the deep blue of the rest of her body. Wrapped tight about the thinnest part of her tail, right before it flared out into multiple fins, was a plastic string of some kind, the other end heading back into the depths of the pipe.