"Ellen" he called through the door "Ellen, open up"
There was silence from the other side of the wooden panel. The little girl was clearly upset
"You have to come out sometime, Ellen. You can't stay in there forever"
"Go away, Tristan" came the tiny, shrill response
The boy shrugged, left a glass of milk by the door and went back down the stairs to the kitchen. Where his mother was waiting
"I'm telling you mother, there really were merfolk" he insisted, sitting at the kitchen table opposite her
"I believe you, my darling" she sighed "You wouldn't lie and you're not likely to make such a big mistake"
Tristan sighed and put his head in his hands "The men from the market laughed when they saw the empty net. They thought I'd made it up"
Annice frowned at her son. Almost a man and yet so unwise "There really was no need to yell at your sister like that. It was unkind"
Tristan was furious. He stood up from his chair and slammed his hands down onto the table, startling his mother "She let them go!" he cried "I had them and she let them go because they were 'really nice'. It's insane that you're defending her!"
"She's a child" Annice huffed "She saw goodness in those god-forsaken monsters and she let them go. Don't ask me why, just be glad they didn't take Ellen with them"
Tristan sat back down and dragged his hands down his face before chewing on his thumb "You should have seen them, mother" he stared into space "They'll give me nightmares. The black scales and the grey skin and those eyes! They were soul-less and white and…you couldn't even tell where they were looking!"
The sound of music and cheer erupted from outside their home and Tristan turned his eye back to the window. Suddenly his eyes widened "Oh, God! I forgot Alesia!" and he dashed to the door, swung it open and threw it shut behind him.
Tristan dashed to where he'd left his date to the evening's festivities before he had run off to find his sisters with promises of 'I'll be right back'. The music was louder and there were more people, gathered around the centre of town. Then he spotted her.
Alesia of the beautiful gold hair and the blue eyes and the perfect laugh like every fairy-tale he'd grown up on (in fact, like in every fairy-tale everyone had grown up on) was dancing with somebody else.
"Alesia, hey, I'm back" he smirked
She sighed, continuing to whirl around the with the boy that Tristan now recognised to be Artemis Pyke, every girls prince charming "I can see that, Tess"
"Don't call me Tess, please" he laughed nervously, following the twirling couple around "I was wondering if…"
"No, Tess" she teased, cruelly "I don't want to dance with you or get something to eat with you or go and get a drink with you. I'm perfectly happy here. Our date is over"
Artemis looked down, sheepishly. Tristan wanted to be angry with him but he wasn't a bed person and this whole situation wasn't really his fault.
Alesia sighed and stopped dancing, placing a hand on Tristan's shoulder "Look, I'm sorry but you just ran off and left me, okay? And I just heard this thing about mermaids from my father and you came off as a bit mad and…well, weird. I just don't really…"
"Yeah, no. I get it" Tristan smiled as warmly as he could muster and gestured with a wave between Artemis and Alesia "You two have fun"
He strolled off into a side street and sat on the front steps of a small house to get himself together, illuminated by a single candle on the outside wall of the house opposite
"Well that looked decidedly uncomfortable"
Tristan jumped and launched himself up a step, ready to kick away whoever had surprised him.
Sat next to him with big, blinking blue eyes was the smallest man he'd ever seen. He had huge feet and sandy brown curly hair with a nose that twitched from one side of his face to the other as he sniffed in confusion
"You scared me" Tristan muttered, sitting back down again and dusting himself off in embarrassment
"Sorry. Wasn't my intention" the man mumbled
"Aren't you one of the dwarves?" Tristan asked, curiously
The small man laughed "Who? Me? No! No, no, no. I'm a Hobbit. Bilbo Baggins" the Hobbit extended his hand and Tristan shook it nervously, introducing himself in the process
"I'm their burglar and the general voice of reason" Bilbo explained
Tristan laughed. He'd heard dwarves lacked common sense
Bilbo sniffed again "So, that seemed bad. Back there, I mean"
The boy folded his arms "That's Alesia. She's kind of big around here. I was amazed she said yes in the first place"
Bilbo huffed. "Yeah, there was a girl like that back in the shire. That's where I'm from, by the way; Hobbiton in the shire. But she went to a village dance with me once but went off with somebody else halfway through"
Tristan tried to change the subject "How come you're not sat with the dwarves. Don't they let you sit with them?"
Bilbo laughed "Not at all. In fact, Thorin asked me to sit with him at centre table this time. I just slipped away halfway through. I'm not a party person in all honesty"
The boy nodded "Me neither. I only left the party in the first place to check on my sister, Ellen. Turns out some merfolk were trying to lure her away"
"Merfolk?" Bilbo's head shot up "Like, sea-nymphs?"
Tristan shrugged "A male and a female. Not like the ones in the oceans. The ones here in this lake are dark and malevolent beings. They drag people into the icy water and drown them"
The Hobbit looked horrified "Well, where are they now? Are we at risk?"
"I don't think so. They'll be long gone by now" Tristan shook his head "My little sister cut them loose. By the time I came back with help they were gone and none of the towns-men believed me. Everybody here thinks mermaids are extinct"
"Why don't you?" Bilbo asked in curiosity
"My father" Tristan smiled sadly "He believed the stories… that they were just waiting in the darkest waters. Everybody here thought he was mad. Then he disappeared one day. Mother believed he went looking for the merfolk and he got too close. So they drowned him"
"I'm sorry" Bilbo muttered, giving Tristan a reassuring pat on the arm.
The two sat in sad silence for several minutes before a great booming voice echoed around the corner of the entrance to their small side-street
"Bilbo!? Where are you, burglar!?"
"That's Thorin" Bilbo jumped up and bolted towards the voice, turning quickly to look back at Tristan "I'm sure we'll speak soon, Tristan. Be safe"
And with that, the Hobbit vanished around the corner and left Tristan sitting on the dark steps