The Little Water Elf

15- Tinker

「Once during the night her
sisters came up arm-in-arm,
singing sorrowfully, as they
floated on the water. She
beckoned to them, and then
they recognized her, and told
her how she had grieved them.」

Rumors had started to travel only a few days after Runaan left over the border. Tinker could hear the students whispering as they quietly swum through the halls, passing notes in secrecy and letting their fear slowly rise up and into the foam.

Runaan has gone searching for Rayla and never returned.

The humans were crossing the border and kidnapping the merfolk.

War was brewing and they were caught in the middle of it.

Their worries were ridiculous and had no evidence whatsoever, but for a race so foreign to this type of fear, they automatically went to the worst possible scenarios.

It had been a week since Runaan left at this point, and though Tinker tried to keep the worries off of his mind, distracting himself with training and pouring all of his spare time into taking over Runaan's classes.

The worry was finally beginning to catch up to him.

He was lingering in his and Runaan's room, just outside the academy, grading assignments and overseeing the sheet music for new song-spells he was compiling for the next week.

However, there was one slight problem. His thoughts kept drifting back to Rayla and Runaan. It was pitiful, really. He was nothing but a blacksmith, a simple tinkerer who specialized in magic underwater weapons. He had no experience with humans — and quite frankly didn't want that experience.

Still, he felt no regret whatsoever as he packed a small bag, tied it's strap around his waist, and began the long swim to the border.

He could only hope that both Rayla and Runaan would be okay.

• • •

Rayla stared down at her plate, the strange lump of meat sitting there, as if it were taunting her.

She'd already eaten all of the other things on her plate, trying to postpone eating the one thing foreign to her. Rayla poked it with her fork. It was thicker than fish, and didn't fall apart when she stabbed it. The others had cut it with a knife before eating smaller pieces, so she decided to do just that.

When she put the strange food into her mouth, she was slightly disappointed. It tasted nothing like fish, and seemed to lack any notable flavor. It was edible, though, so she quickly finished it before standing and excusing herself from the table, hoping to catch Callum in the hall. The boy had left a few minutes earlier.

That was when the pain once again heightened, blinding her senses.

Rayla was used to these moments at this point, and familiar with the sick feeling that entered her stomach as the pin receded. She found herself leaning against the wall, her head resting against the edge of a window that faced the sea. She swallowed back the bile that rose in her throat, gently dabbed away the sweat from her otherwise dry forehead, and pushed herself once again to her feet.

Her eyes drifted to her wrists, where the faint image of scales was clear against her pale skin.

She sighed, beginning the walk back to her room. Rayla couldn't go to find Callum any more, she needed to use Viren's potion to disguise her scales — again.

Rayla tried to convince herself it was worth it. It was either this or the chance that Viren would've used her for one of his dark magic spells.

Each day, despite longing for her thoughts to change and be positive, she found it was harder and harder to believe she made the correct choice.

• • •

The tide was extremely high that night, with the water reaching a part of the steps she hadn't yet seen it at. The moon was quite full, and the smell of salt and sand seemed to be much more potent than it had the previous nights she'd been out by the water.

Rayla gazed out over the water, looking at the stars and their silent reflection in the sea.

There was a sudden movement, causing the still image to ripple into a million scattered pieces. Rayla looked up, alarmed at the almost unnoticeable change.

If she were human, she probably wouldn't have noticed, but she'd grown up in the ocean. She knew when something wasn't right.

The mermaid stood, leaning out over the water with one hand resting on the staircase's railing for support. She would've called out if she could, but that clearly wasn't an option.

She could see the top of one's head peeking out of the water, and her heart seemed to stop when she recognized exactly who it was.

Rayla reached out an arm, becoming to the figure that had silently emerged from the water. He seemed to realize who she was, and rose even further from the safety of the ocean's embrace.

"Rayla?"

The muted silence in the air seemed to numb the sound. It had been so long since she'd heard the voice of a fellow ocean elf, so long since she'd heard the magic laced within the way they spoke.

Her hand flew to her mouth, and she let go of the staircase's rail, stepping into the water without hesitation, slowly making her way to the sand and wading through the shallow water as Tinker carefully approached.

He took her hand, and looked at her with such sadness that Rayla's eyes pricked with the pain of unseen tears.

"Rayla— how— what— you have legs!" Tinker managed to mutter out, taking the younger elf's face into his hands.

Rayla simply nodded, a smile spilling over to fill her face. Tinker was here, he was here! Did that mean Runaan was here too?

"Rayla, speak, what happened?" Tinker asked, and the smile fell from the mermaid's face.

She patted her throat, hoping the small gesture was enough to get her point across.

"You can't speak?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Oh, Rayla, what happened to you?"

They sat in silence for several minutes, Tinker wrapping Rayla into an embrace, not really knowing what to think.

Rayla, an ocean elf, one he saw as his own daughter, had legs instead of a tail. Legs.

And she had no voice.

"Did a dark mage do this to you?"

The silent nod was all the confirmation he needed.

A dark mage had done this to Rayla.

He could only imagine what had happened to Runaan.