Children of the Forest - Sagas of Yryan - Completed #Wattys2017

Chapter 11: Cold water

'Tell them to go away anyway. They scare the horses too much. I won't be able to hold them for much longer.'

Faolan rolled his eyes. 'And how do I do that without speaking their language?' he shouted.

Moira sighed and told him to hold the horses. When he did so, she turned to the creatures. She showed them her empty hands and knelt down like Faolan had done before. Then she communicated with gestures and facial expressions. Moira pointed at herself and Faolan and then to the other side of the river. One of the creatures quickly jumped into the water, disappearing underneath the waves only to reappear on the other side moments later. It made a movement as if it was waving at her to follow.

'How do I tell them we can't swim?' asked Moira.

The weird conversation went on and at times some of the creatures would go back into water whereas others came out. One of them even had a much smaller one on its back. After a long time, one of the creatures came closer and carefully touched Moira's hand with its fin. As soon as Moira grabbed it tightly, the creature walked to the river and wanted to jump in as if to drag her to the other side. Moira let go of it immediately.

'Wait,' she said, holding her hands up to make the creature understand. It bowed its head a little and blinked while she was walking back to Faolan and the horses. 'There's no way the horses will come with us, we have to leave them behind. Help me take their headgear off. They might step onto the reins and hurt themselves, it's much too dangerous. I'm sure their instincts will guide them out of the forest where they're safe.'

Faolan obeyed and the horses let them do their jobs. They were constantly watching the creatures but behaving calmly otherwise. When Moira gently laid a hand on the horse's head, Faolan thought he'd seen its eyes glow with a golden shine for a moment. His sister whispered a few words and he stroked his horse softly.

'You've done a good job. I hope you find your way back home safely,' he whispered. The horse whinnied quietly and pushed its head against his shoulder. A little overwhelmed, Faolan tickled it.

'Now off you go,' said Moira but the horses just stood there and watched them.

'Why won't they leave now?' Faolan asked.

'I don't know. Maybe they like us?' Moira suggested. 'Oh, we have not yet named them! Alright, I've been thinking about this for a while and I think I will call mine Brownie the Brave.' Moira smiled.

'Really?' Faolan asked with a raised eyebrow.

'Yes, it's brown and it was very brave. I'm telling you, names should reflect who you are.'

'Alright, then I'll call mine Sand the soft. I mean, it was way more terrified of everything than yours so I can't call it anything with bravery... But its fur is very soft and looks like the sand we're standing on now.' When Faolan finished his explanation, Moira seemed content but the horses still didn't move.

Not knowing what else to do, Moira turned to Faolan and they went down to the river where two creatures came to help them to the other side. Faolan picked up a branch that lay somewhere close by and told Moira to hold on to one end of it.

'Just in case, you know. You won't get rid of me that easily,' he said and gave her a weak smile.

Then they took a deep breath and the creatures dragged them into the water, accompanied by the horses' fearful whinnies. The river was much deeper than Faolan would have thought and he now felt more and more creatures laying hand on him. But he couldn't open his eyes and the ice-cold water made him nearly unable to move.

He was overcome by the sudden fear of the creatures trying to drown them instead of helping, but there was nothing he could do now, so he started counting to keep as calm as possible.

After what felt like an eternity, he found himself standing on firm ground again. He breathed quickly and the air felt nearly hot compared to the water, but as soon as he was all out of the river, the wetness of his clothes cooled him down. Without thinking, he took most of them off and earned an evil look from his sister. Then he, under the watchful eyes of the creatures surrounding them, took a blanket out of the bag. He'd hoped it would be dry but had to face the fact that the bag and everything inside it was just as wet as he was, since it had been under the water with him.

'Great,' he muttered. When he looked at the other side of the river, he saw the horses still standing there. He waved at them and so did Moira. The horses whinnied once more before they disappeared into the forest, probably heading back home. Faolan quivered with cold when he turned to the little creatures. They all stared at the branch in Moira's hand. The branch was glowing in an intensive green, like Faolan had never seen it before. One of the creatures pointed at the branch and Moira just looked confused.

'Give it to them,' said Faolan. Moira looked even more puzzled when she saw that the branch was shining.

'It's green.'

'Yes, it is, go on. They helped us over, so they at least deserve to have a weird branch, don't they?' he said, wrapping his arms around himself because of the cold.

One of the creatures took the branch in its mouth and, making weird clicking sounds, they all disappeared into the water moments later. For a second, Faolan could still see the green shine but it soon disappeared under the waves.

'And now?' asked Faolan shakily.

'Fire, warmth,' answered Moira. 'But not here, let's go somewhere where the wind is not that strong,' she added while Faolan picked up his clothes, put his pants and shoes back on and stuffed the rest of his clothes back into his bag.

// Me again, who'd have thought? Uploading all of these at once so no long comments here, please don't forget to vote and comment below, thanks!