Faerie Tales 2; Urisk's Pond

Weirder, more dangerous creatures inhabit fairy pools. You'll see what and why soon.

Captain scanned the pond for depth. "It is too deep to walk across, and going around would bring us to Redcap Road."

Zero flew over the surface of the murky water. "We must find a way across, then," he spoke with a certain tone that Bakunetsumaru recognized.

"Oh no," Baku groaned, his annoyed eyes switching on. "He's got the look."

"He's got the look?" Shute repeated, not knowing what he meant.

"He's got the look," Bakunetsumaru explained. "That smug expression on his face, his chest all puffed out like that; he's gonna rub something in our face, I know it."

"I could carry you all across," Zero boasted, holding his chest out prominently. "One at a time, of course; I would not want to strain my wings- "

"YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE WINGS!" Bakunetsumaru screamed, upsetting a few of the residents of the pond. Zero got splashed by something's tailfin before yelling back.

"I DO TO HAVE WINGS! WHY ELSE WOULD I BE THE WINGED KNIGHT!?"

"All you have is a cape!"

"My real wings are invisible to the non-magic eye!" Zero shouted, pulling on the corner of his cape. "This is the physical embodiment of the Maana that makes up my wings!"

"That's just a cheap excuse!" Baku growled.

"IT IS NOT! THAT'S HOW MAGIC WORKS!" Zero lowered himself to just above Baku's eye level. A vein began to shoot out of his forehead. "I should have known that such a simpleton would not understand the refines of magic!"

Bakunetsumaru drew his sword. "Why, you little-!"

"STOP IT!"

Bakunetsumaru and Zero both stopped to look at Shute, who had just yelled at both of them. He stood there, clenching his small fists in frustration. "Can we just go now? I wanna get out of here, get rid of the Dark Axis and go home as soon as possible!"

Of course, this struck a nerve sensor somewhere in Bakunetsumaru and Zero's Gun Soul/Soul Drive/whatever they called it. They could understand his plight; they agreed on finishing the shouting match later.

"Shute first," Zero grunted, pulling the boy into his arm. "I'll be back for Captain, then Bakunetsumaru. Hold on tightly, Shute."

"Okay."

Zero took off, flying low over the water, childishly taking enjoyment in watching his Maana push the water beneath him aside. About 1/3 of the way across, Shute looked deep into the water to see something moving below them, swimming unlike anything he'd ever seen. It did not move back and forth like a fish, or up and down like a dolphin. It jerked forward unevenly, reminding Shute of some type of caterpillar. Whatever it was, it made feel cold, nervous, and fearful.

"Zero?" Shute shook the knight's shoulder lightly. "Zero?"

Zero responded not to the shake (which he couldn't even feel) but to Shute's voice. "Yes?"

"Something's following us, underwater." The boy wiggled himself higher onto Zero's arm. "Fly up."

"Fly up?" Zero didn't quite understand the request.

"Higher!"

Zero still didn't understand, but was beginning to feel a strange sense of foreboding in his stomach. He flew straight up, only very, very slowly. Captain and Bakunetsumaru watched from the shore, also very confused.

"What's going on over there?" Captain shouted.

"Shute thinks there's something in the water!" Zero answered.

Shute saw the swimming shape growing bigger. His felt his heart pounding in his chest. "Zero, go higher or it'll jump at us!"

"Shute!" Zero snapped. "I know my faeries, and I know of very few that would jump out and attack us. Don't worry and don't order me around like some stupid puppet! I thought you knew better!"

"But, Zero!"

There was a deafening crash- no, a splash! A monstrous shape leapt out of the water and latched onto the corner of Zero's cape, pulling him and Shute back into the depths! He was up and gone within the blink of and eye, dragging the screaming two behind him!

"Shute!" Captain called out in shock!

"ZERO!" echoed Bakunetsumaru.

***

Zero was just barely able to make out the shape of a horse's head tugging on the side of his cloak. He gasped mentally.

"A kelpie!" he remember. "But they never jump out of the water like that!"

A tight pressure on his shoulder alerted him to Shute's presence. He turned his head to see the human boy, his eyes wrenched shut and his breathing withheld, two sets of green hands trying to pull him away.

"NO!" Zero clutched Shute's arm in one hand and his waist in the other, pushing himself up with his wings. Unfortunately, his wings worked very poorly in water, but it was enough to get one hand above the surface. The kelpie craned his neck forward, snapping his teeth at Shute; Zero accidentally let go of Shute to punch the kelpie away, leaving him open to the hands. The boy was visibly beginning to weaken; his face was bright red, standing out greatly in the green water. Zero snatched him back again and pushed him head above water, trying to take a breath of air. The kelpie and the hands pulled him down again as he inhale, causing him to swallow a lot of water. He sent his hand above again, lost for hope and searching for something to cling to-

SOMEONE GRABBED HIS HAND! A strong, metal hand! A Gundam's hand! It pulled him up and out of the water, pulling Shute along with its knightly cargo. It skimmed him across the pond, so Zero had to close his eyes to avoid making himself dizzy.

They came to rest on the bank, leaving Shute and Zero to catch their breath in silence. The two that nearly drowned rested on each other, Shute using Zero mainly as a pillow; Zero just clung to him for security.

A few minutes of resting let Zero think. "This world is strange; it goes against everything I know about faes. Urisk sitting on a rock in the middle of a river with a washer woman; the kelpie leaping out of the water to attack me. And these Redcaps. I have never heard of them. something must be terribly wrong here. This muse holds more power here than I thought. This situation is dire; if we don't restore this place, us and all the inhabitants here will surely suffer."

He finally had enough strength to open his eyes, and the first thing he saw was Bakunetsumaru's worried face looking over him. He coughed and tried to speak; his normally elegant voice came out as sort of a croak. "Baku- What happened?"

"HE'S AWAKE!"

Captain stomped into view, holding a pallid Shute in his arms. "We're glad you're back with us."

"What happened?" he demanded a bit more curtly.

'You nearly drowned!" Bakunetsumaru screamed. "You should know that, you were there!"

Zero tried to sit himself up, but his knees buckled underneath him. Bakunetsumaru helped him up as Captain's projector snapped a playback into the thin air. It pictured a rather graphic representation of Zero and Shute's attack (from Captain's point of view, apparently; the "camera" would shake as Captain moved).

It was only a little ways into the movie when Zero asked, "Is there a way to stop the movie, so I can get a clear view of our assailants?"

"Of course." Captain rewinded and paused the playback at a scene where the kelpie was most easily visible; it was clearly a giant, green horse, complete with hooves, mane, and tail, all three of which tangled with cattail reeds and algae.

"Such a monstrosity of a creature!" Bakunetsumaru screeched, his eyes bugging out. "You had to battle that thing underwater!?"

"That and two others," Zero sighed, leaning less of his weight on Bakunetsumaru's shoulder and returning to his own feet. He pointed to the screen and pointed out three hands, reaching up from beneath the kelpie. "Four hands which I am sure were attached to two people; I have a speculation of one, but I am not certain of their identities. Keep playing the movie, Captain."

Captain resumed the film; Zero flinched as his hand flailed helplessly above the water. His "heart" suddenly stung in amazement as dialogue began to enter the film; it happened just as his head shot above water.

It was just as his head-wings had broken the surface when he heard Baku shouting, "ZERO! Zero, what's going on?' How had he missed that?

"Where's Shute?" Captain asked frantically. And with that, Zero's head went under again.

"NO!"

The camera swerved sharply as Captain met eyes with Bakunetsumaru; his green (well, technically brown but mostly green) eyes were glowing, just as Captain's eyes would start aflame whenever his Soul Drive was at its most powerful. "We have to do something or they'll both drown!"

"Right!" Captain grasped Baku's hand in his own. "Hang on tightly, Bakunetsumaru!"

A roaring sound meant that Captain's booster rockets had activated; he shout out above the water, trailing Bakunetsumaru along as a living lifeline. When they reached the battle scene, Baku grabbed Zero's hand, and Captain turned around and began to slingshot back to the edge of the pool. Zero had to turn away as he saw himself being pulled back in like a fish; it was too embarrassing, and it reminded him too much of the whole ordeal.

Finally, Captain stopped the playback, taking this time to stroke the traumatized Shute's hair. Zero sighed once again and finally stood up on his own, urging Captain to let go of the boy and let him do the same.

***

They began to walk around the perimeter of the pond, guessing that a land- based foe would be a bit more easy to defeat than a water-bound one. Shute was still pale, but breathing normally; Bakunetsumaru kept a wary eye on the water, the sword closest to the pool ready in his hand. It left Zero both flattered and a bit flustered.

When something began to stir under the water, there was a bit of an extreme reaction; each one of the Gundams pulled his weapon and readied to fire in the blink of an eye, pushing Shute behind them. The water parted to reveal-

It was a terribly ugly sight; some kind of horrible cross between a man, a fish, a toad, and a crocodile all in one face, with a snubbed nose like a pug. Long, whipish tentacles swung back from its head, creating sort of a surrogate hair. A red feather cap sat intermingled with all the slimy appendages on its head. As it crawled ashore, it became clear that this was a creature more suited for water than the kelpie; its green hands were webbed, and there were gills slits where the ribs would normally be. Its skin was green, as were most things in this world, apparently. It crawled along the ground, pulling with its two arms because it had no feet; it had a huge tail fin, like a fish!

"AA!" Shute launched himself behind the nearest Gundam (Captain) and hid himself.

"STOP THERE!" Bakunetsumaru screamed, holding both swords to the creatures face. "Friend or foe!"

The wild-eyed creature cocked its head to the side, then took a raspy breath. "Friend. Please take care not to fillet me!" And then he laughed!

Sweat drops rolled down all of the Gundam's heads. The ugly thing had a decent voice; it reminded Zero of King Davis back in Lacroa.

Shute whispered from behind his friend, "I think he's okay."

"We still need to make sure," Captain reminded him. He turned to the thing. "Alright, if you are truly our friend, what is your name and species?"

"Species- what?" The monster scratched his head. After a second, his face lit up like the light bulb had finally gone off. "OH! What am I! Well, I am a Merrow! My name is Kgrrsgdgkd!"

"Kgrrs- What?" Bakunetsumaru counted off the syllables on his fingers. "K- gr-"

"Kgrrsgdgkd!" said. uh. the thing. "You have to role the 'grr'."

"Kgrrrskdg- wait, I messed up," Zero stalled. "Kgrrrrsg- no."

Shute giggled and slowly began laughing out loud. Captain smiled inwardly as the color began to return to his best friend's cheeks.

Kgrrsgdgkd slapped his forehead. "Okay, this was a bad idea! Lemme start over!" He stuck out his webbed hand. "Hello, I am a Merrow. My name is hard to pronounce; you can call me Kade."

"Hi, Kade!" Shute stepped into the open and, refusing to take Kade's hand, bowed instead.

"So, what are you doing here so close to Redcap Road?" Kade asked.

"We are trying to cross the pond in order to get to Mount Gwillyion-Mine," Captain stated.

"We're gonna find the thing that'll restore the muse!" Shute cheered. Kade nodded.

"I understand."

"Answer me a question, Kade," Zero asked. "Why is this world in such turmoil? Why are kelpies suddenly so ravish for food, and why is Urisk so far from his home?"

Kade sighed and began to explain. "It all started when a great red bird came through one of the fairy rings."

Kade then began to describe the "bird"; it fit every specification of the Komusai! He told of the Dark Axis coming and trying to conquer their all- organic world; surprisingly, they held their own and drove them away! But it came at a price; the forces of Faerie had to join together from all corners of the Realm, and some tribes of fae who had never met each other suddenly became enamored with each other, so they began to marry and have children. The Muse was one of these faes. She had become pregnant and had died in childbirth, making not only the fairy dancers stop dancing, but the plants to stop growing and the ocean to stop churning! The world was dieing, and many breeds had become vicious in order to survive. The Redcaps were just one; they had lived within a large castle for a long time before their cattle was turned to stone. They had since moved onto the road to catch unwary humans for food. A shape shifting fae called the Phooka, who had first been nothing but a harmless prankster who feed on sheep to humans, had developed a taste for blood and (turning into an eagle) had carried Urisk to the river and tried to crush him on the rocks below. Unable to withstand the running water, the Phooka had left him there to rot. And now the kelpies (who had always fed on humans, they had just been a little more discreet about it) had joined forces with other carnivorous creatures to catch and kill their meals.

Bakunetsumaru gulped and shuddered as if he had just heard a ghost story. Shute had gone pale once again; Zero was in awe.

"This mission is now top priority," Captain stated. "It seems that we are helping this world from a Dark Axis invasion."

"True," Zero nodded. "Kade, do you know a safe way across?"

"Me and my friends set up a magic barrier around that corner of the pond so that the kelpies and such would not eat us. The rest is safe; we will swim you across." Kade turned back into the water, showing off his strangely ornate and pretty tail fin (it was long and flowing, like a Japanese fighting fish).

"Kade's nice!" Shute chirped soon after he left.

"I am glad he decided to help us," Zero agreed.

"But still, we must be careful," Captain reminded them. "Because of the recent occurring, the chances of meeting a hostile organic being have gone up exponentially."

"We must be on our guard at all times!" Bakunetsumaru shouted, swinging his swords and basically showing off. "We must always be vigilant, always be alert, trusting no one!"

"No we don't," said Captain.

Baku fell over in embarrassment. "Why not?"

"Because I have noted that Shute had correctly guessed the intention of every creature we have come across," Captain said, pointing his thumb at the human boy. "We can know ahead of time who is good and who's not."

Shute blushed. "Aw, it's nothing special, I just kind of. um. know."

There was no time to finish the statement, as Kade had just returned with more ugly Merrow men and a few Merrow women (they were very humanlike and pretty, surprisingly, but they still had tentacle hair). Kade waved them into the water. "Come on in, we'll swim you all across!"

The four were afraid to jump right into the water, but they eventually managed it. Each Gundam took about four Merrows to carry him; Shute, however, just clung to a Merrow woman and that was it. They made their way across the pond, slowly but surely. As they reached ΒΌ way, Kade pointed his hand to a few shapes moving in the water. "Over there, it's the kelpie and her accomplices."

Zero saw the kelpie's head and the heads of two ugly, green-skinned women (again with the green!). Also was a large frog's head and a formless lump with black, lumpy skin and a wild, fiery red eye. They watched him from a safe distance, obviously mad but unable to come closer.

"What are they?" Bakunetsumaru gasped.

"You recognize the kelpie," Kade began to ramble. "The two hags are Peg Powler and her sister, Jenny Greenteeth."

"I KNEW it was Jenny Greenteeth trying to get us!" Zero shouted, moving with the force of his voice; the Merrows holding him struggled to keep him from going under. "I did not know she had a sister though, so when I saw them attacking in twos, I didn't think it was her!"

"The had just come here after the war," Kade kept going. "The giant frog in a water leaper, also notorious for feeding on humans, fishermen mostly. The black lump is a Nuckelavee."

"What's wrong with his skin?" Shute asked.

"He has no skin," Kade informed them. "What you see is blood and veins, tissue and sinew, bare and simple."

Shute resisted the urge to throw up and quickly turned away. Bakunetsumaru did the same; Captain was benign to the whole scenario. Zero felt like his head was about to drift off of his shoulders.

The group of man-eaters swam along their invisible barrier, watching as the Merrows and their cargo made their way to the other side of the pond.

***

"Thanks, Kade!" Shute cheered, squeezing the water out of his shirt. "Can you give us any advice about the field we're about we're about to cross?"

"I've never seen the field myself," Kade dug deep into the banks of his memory to remember a rumor he had heard about the plains. "But I know that you can't step on the tufts of grass, I know that much."

"Thanks, Kade!" Bakunetsumaru bowed humbly. "We'll fix all of this, don't worry!"

"Your world will soon be back to normal, don't worry," Zero comforted.

"Bye, Kade! Bye Kade's friends!" Shute skipped away after his Gundam friends, leaving the waving Merrows behind.

DONE! Oo, that was scary!

Notes? I think, lemme look.

The Nuckelavee, in the words of Brain Froud, "is surely the most awful of the Scottish sea faeries." It's like a centaur with flippers for legs; one eye; no skin; long, long, long arms that reach to the ground; and a head that looks to big for its body. It's scary looking enough in my book, and my book only show a picture of its arm!

All of these faeries' designs are taken from the book "Faeries" by Brian Froud and Alan Lee. It rocks, you should get it. Beware of old-style art that has most of the faeries naked, though.

DONE!