\nThey swam away too quickly for her to follow.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \u201cShe\u2019s not a bird,\u201d Yastara laughed.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Lothlo grinned. \u201cLet\u2019s see if she\u2019s a fish.”<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Before Dindi knew the rules of this new torment, they shoved her off the snowy outcrop, straight below into the ice cold water of the glacial lake. They jumped in after her, changing to fish. She floundered. Though she could swim, the water was so cold, it drove her to panic, and the choppy water didn\u2019t help. The fae fish batted her around with their tails, bit her clothes and dragged her down.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Dindi fought off drowning. She struggled to push the water back under her rather than over<\/i> her. She broke the surface, but only when they deigned to release her.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n They were merfolk now, with fishy tails but their own faces and torsos, laughing at their joke.\u00a0<\/div>\n <\/div>\n They swam away too quickly for her to follow. They had left her in the deep of the lake, no minor swim to shore. She forced her tired arms to swim. Exhaustion and hyperthermia almost defeated her, but she was damned if she would let these stupid, petty fae kill her. Just keep going<\/i>, she urged herself. Just keep swimming<\/i>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The Aelfae were dancing on the shore when she arrived at last. She felt near dead from cold; their clothes were already dry. They danced around her, drying her clothes instantly, and warming her core. Probably they saved her life, but she felt only resentment. They had made their morning all about playing with her, to make her feel helpless and humiliated. Well, she\u2019d been on that path before with human children, she didn\u2019t plan to walk it a second time with fae who behaved like children.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s next?\u201d she demanded. \u201cYou could at least let me know.\u201d<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \u201cDon\u2019t be so sour,\u201d laughed Yastara. \u201cWe were just having fun.\u201d<\/div>\n <\/div>\n That\u2019s what makes it offensive, you selfish, thoughtless bi<\/i>\u2026.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n She didn\u2019t have time to even complete the thought.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n The mud exploded.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n A monster of mud, squirming with worms, rotten with fetid leaves, stinking, foul, ghastly and oozing, burst out of the earth.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n The gruesome thing \u2026 it was female. It was human\u2026 not human.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n It was Aelfae.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \u201cGaya!\u201d gasped Yastara. \u201cGaya Earthdancer! I haven\u2019t seen you in ages\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n <\/div>\n The taste of the darkness made Dindi want to retch. She recognized the uncleanness, the uncanny power. The same kind of penumbral knots animated this mud monster as had animated the bog mummy she had fought with Umbral.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t who you think it is!\u201d warned Dindi.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \u201cThis can\u2019t be Gaya! The true Gaya was Cursed!\u201d agreed Lothlo.\u00a0<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \u201c We<\/i> were dead too!\u201d said Yastara. \u201cShe\u2019s come back to life\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Yastara ran toward the undead thing.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \u201cNo!\u201d shouted Dindi.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n It struck instantly. It lashed out its unnaturally long arms like whips of darkness. The mud monster snapped out one tentacle of darkness to strangle Yastara. The monster curled another rope of shadow around Lothlo\u2019s waist and dragged him toward its rotting maw of a mouth, as if for an obscene kiss.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \u201cGaya\u2026 what are\u2026 you doing?\u201d wheezed Yastara, trying to pry the black, oozing hand from her throat.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n The thing latched jaws onto Yastara and began to suck the light from her.<\/div>\n <\/div>\n Yastara screamed. Pain, shock, agony and disbelief mixed into the howl, which made Dindi\u2019s back crawl with fear. Anything that could make an Aelfae scream\u2026<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" They swam away too quickly for her to follow. \u201cShe\u2019s not a bird,\u201d Yastara laughed. Lothlo grinned. \u201cLet\u2019s see if she\u2019s a fish.” Before Dindi knew the rules of this new torment, they shoved her off the snowy outcrop, straight below into the ice cold water of the glacial lake. They jumped in after her, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/taramayastales.com\/bestfantasynovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |
![](\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-yDmb8Xt6EzE\/UH7usHrfTMI\/AAAAAAAACrY\/t-ed77ZdCWI\/s1600\/meremaid+tail+in+lake-small.jpg\")
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n