Tale from the Deepwater

Chapter 13

 The boy was hiding behind the girl and peeking every now and then, at the still sitting strange newcomer in front of them. A long silence had ensued since the curious pair had come to see what they were anticipating to be some sort of a spectacle. The girl wanted to go nearer to get a closer look at the finer details of the face of this odd female as she was radiated like a specter even from a distance. It was then that it occurred to Nia that she should try to start some conversation to get an excuse to get nearer.

"I am really sorry for my brother's rudeness."

"When? I wasn't rude!" he tried to whisper but ended up speaking loud enough for any passer-by in the vicinity to hear, and he instantly got pinched hard for that. On receiving no answer, she turned her head a little and looked at her brother questioningly, "Can she not talk?"

"I don't know."

Realizing how jittery it must feel to see two strangers come running to stare at you, and talk something in whispers which undoubtedly had you as a subject of such a suspiciously discussion, Nia thought of saying something apparently plausible.

"He brought me with him to check if you are hurt somewhere."

"No, I didn't. he promptly clarified.

"Just shut up for some time."

"No," the strange girl finally said, and both of them couldn't believe that she spoke since, at this point, they were almost convinced that she could barely understand anything.

"Did you hear that? She just talked!" the boy said as he tugged at his sister's shirt for attention. Embarrassed because of him multiple times, she decided to finally ignore him completely.

"That's a relief. We thought you must be injured since you are...still down there."

Nia finally took the opportunity to get closer. She extended her hand to help her get up, but the nymph did not understand what she was supposed to do. Looking at the kind of dainty, soft hands with slim, long fingers that she had never seen before, Nia proceeded to help get up by softly pulling her from the ground. Never having been touched unexpectedly by someone warm before, the nymph flinched and pulled her hand back instinctively. The boy who was walking behind his sister to hide even though he brought more attention to himself in doing so, said, "You scared her! She will vanish now."

"I am sorry! I didn't mean to scare you," Nia said, fixing her eyes on this odd entity to stop her from disappearing when they looked away. The three of them were behind a tent in one of the far ends of the fair so they were yet to be noticed by someone, but from time to time, a few people were passing by. But as the curtain dropped with one of the performances ending, they heard some people coming in their direction.

"Come with me," this time, Nia managed to pull her by the hand while ignoring the flinching and tiny attempts at resistance as she ran and led her to one of the empty tents.