Rules of a Fairytale

Enrick walked us to the edge of their domain and about six more miles until we came to a fork in the road. The right path, he said, would take us to the swamp while the left would lead to the diamond-filled dwarf mines. He quirked a brow at Brooke and grinned lopsided at her. Taking one of her hands he added, “You’d be at home surrounded by all those gems nearly as breathtaking as you.”

I rolled my eyes at his flirting at the same time a low growl rumbled in Tate’s chest. I glanced over to see how Ryder was handling yet another rival for Brooke’s attention, but he didn’t seem to care. The prince simply leaned against a tree leading toward the right trail with his arms crossed looking just a tad impatient.

“Thanks, but I think we’ve all come too far to just give up. I’m not going to bail on this quest.” My respect for this girl kept growing the longer we were here.

After Enrick was gone and we started down the road towards the swamp lands, it didn’t take long for the air to get muggy and the ground to get squishy. Every step made a plop sound that only got worse as the mossy trees thickened and mist settled in. Water pockets gurgled with green water and the land we walked on was so engorged with the liquid that I had to battle for every step as the ground tried to swallow my feet. I was thankful for my knee-high hiking boots so that none of the swamp actually got into my shoes.

“Gross!” Tate exclaimed when a bubble of stinky swamp popped and smacked him in the cheek. I would have laughed if I wasn’t concentrating so much on not falling into the bog.

“We should stop here for a second,” Ryder suggested. “Make sure we’re on the right track. Oh, and Tasha, you should ask it what the safest route would be.”

Brooke was quick to take him up on that idea. While I rifled through my pack for the mirror, she found a relatively dry tree with its roots protruding to sit on. “Why? What’s out here?” she asked.

The prince ran a hand through his hair and avoided the question. His wary eyes scanned over each of the blue-green water pockets. His nervousness was starting to make even me paranoid. He wouldn’t look at any of us.

“Ryder!” I finally snapped. “Just tell us.”

Pale blue eyes met mine. It took another second before he mumbled, “Nixies.”

“You mean those mermaid things? I think we’ll be fine,” my twin scoffed.

“Not even close,” Ryder retorted back. “Mermaids are generally benign, if a little troublesome, and live in open oceans. Nixies live in swamps. They aren’t half human and half fish. Nixies lay in wait until someone gets close enough then pull you into the bog. They’re carnivores, eating whatever they can get ahold of.”

Brooke pulled her long, jean-clad legs up onto the rock like something would yank her into the slimy water if she kept her feet on the mossy ground.

I sighed and pulled the mirror from the front pocket of my backpack. “Mirror, mirror in my hand, what’s the safest way through the swamp lands?”

The cold glass rippled again. I was really getting the hang of this. Instead of an aerial shot like I’d seen the map before, the mirror acted almost like a camera. I could see whatever I was pointing at as I turned in a slow circle. On my second pass, I noticed the faint glow along the picture’s edges at certain points. Looking slightly west, green rimmed the glass and faded slowly to a black glow the more I shifted left. I moved until the glow was green again. “Cool, magical GPS. C’mon. This way looks like our best bet.”

I led our little entourage through the swamp with the mirror. We followed the green path on the glass and it seemed to be working. We didn’t see anyone else for two more hours and only had to stop six times to rest or unstick someone from the gooey mud. I felt like we were making good time and would be out of the bog long before sunset. We were getting lucky for the first time in this entire quest.

But I was wrong.

The water gurgled and the glow along the mirror’s surface instantly faded from green to red. I froze at the same time something splashed not far from our little soggy island. “What was that?”

The guys drew their swords and Brooke notched an arrow in her bow. I sniffed to see if I could pick up any scent, but all I smelled was the musty, wet moss and overly-humid air. The water stilled and for just a second I figured I was just being paranoid. I’d just let out a relieved breath when a grey-green face popped up.

Given the way Ryder was talking, I imagined a nixie as some big ferocious beast with shark teeth and tentacles ready to yank you to the depths. Instead, this thing was small, the size of a chimpanzee with huge milky eyes in a round face. Its mouth was a gaping black hole and there were gills on its neck. A scrawny arm ending in three long, webbed fingers reached out. The thing looked more like an alien, and not one of the scary ones in sci-fi movies.

Tate snorted. “Tell me that’s not what you were so afraid of.”

Ryder kept a wary eye on our little guest. “Don’t let its appearance fool you. Nixies are some of the most dangerous creatures in the land.”

The nixie blinked, those giant eyes focusing on me. It tilted its head slightly and I found myself mimicking the gesture. “You seek Red Riding Hood’s cloak.” The mouth didn’t move, but I could hear it nonetheless. The nixie’s voice was soft and sweet, childlike in its inquisition. “Why would a wolf want that? Are you going to try and take over that kingdom?”

“No,” I answered quickly. “I couldn’t care less about that stupid cloak. But I don’t want any more wolves to be hurt, and I’m hoping the cloak will lead us to our parents.”

The nixie perked up a little more. “Well in that case, let me help you. People don’t keep secrets around us because they don’t think we matter, so I’ve heard things about how to find Red’s cloak. Come on. I can take you.”

The nixie held both arms out and I took one... two steps towards the swampy water before something snagged my wrist, holding me back. I looked over my shoulder to see Ryder, his glare directed at the nixie.

“What are you doing?” I snapped. “This might be our only chance to get your grandmother’s hood.”

“Tasha, what did it tell you?”

I scrunched up my eyebrows in confusion. “Weren’t you paying any attention? How did you not hear it say that it can lead us to the cloak?”

“Nixies get into your head and tell you what you want to hear. It’s different for everybody. That’s how they lure you in, with promises they won’t keep. That’s what makes them so dangerous.”

I ran my fingers through my thick hair. “So what did it tell you?”

His blue eyes turned icy and he looked away. “Just grab Tate and I’ll get Brooke. We should get going.”

A little reluctantly, I did as he asked. I yanked my twin away from the swamp where he started intently at the nixie. Now they I wasn’t focused on it, I couldn’t hear those tempting words that had almost led me to the water. My brother growled at me as I twisted my long fingers into the front of his navy T-shirt, his eyes taking on a faint gold. I arched a black brow at him and growled back. In a second flat, he stopped and cast his eyes downward, letting me lead him along me solid ground. Maybe this Alpha thing wasn’t so bad if I could get Tate to comply.

We walked for twenty minute, the mirror showing us the way out, but no path was really safe anymore. I could feel the round, white eyes of the nixie following us. It tried talking, tried to lure us into its trap, but I dutifully ignored it and made sure Tate didn’t give in, either. Ryder kept Brooke from diving into the swamp, but he seemed almost unaffected by the nixie’s words. I wondered what it was telling him.

Brooke stopped suddenly and tried to wrench herself free from Ryder’s grasp. Tate let out a high whine, his wolf dangerously close to the surface.

“You need me,” the nixie’s deceptively sweet voice penetrated my concentration. “How else will you safe everyone, queen? Do you really want to let your parents and wolves die? I can help you. Just come with me. You know you can’t do this without help.”

“Enough!” I snarled. Tate instantly cringed away, my wolf commanding his, Brooke blinked as if waking up, and even the nixie ducked into the water so that only its giant eyes still showed. Ryder just narrowed his eyes at me as if to say about time. “You manipulative little water sprite, you’re done trying to pull us into your trap. Understand? Now you’re going to show us the way out of here.”

“I’m not part of your pack, wolf. You can’t boss me around.” Instead of the smooth, tempting voice, the nixie sounded like a petulant child.

I glowered down at the sea monster and I was pretty sure my eyes glowed. “Maybe not, but I am a wolf who is running out of patience. So if you know what’s good for you, you’ll do as I say.”

The nixie looked down demurely. I guess I scared it pretty badly because instead of doing the sensible thing and just swimming away, it nodded obediently. Even though the nixie had agreed to lead us out of the swamp, there was no telling if it would turn on us, so I kept a sharp eye on Tate and Brooke. The marsh got foggy and we lost the nixie a couple of times, but it always turned back up. We maneuvered through moss-covered trees draped in heavy vines and old tree stumps that smelled like mulch. The bloated ground slowly became drier and my shoes didn’t make that gross suction cup sound as frequently.

“This is far as I go. The bog ends on the other side of those bushes. You should reach Cale and Lisette in about two days.”

I froze and stared at the wide-eyed creature floating along the shore. “How could you possibly know that?”

“I told you- people ignore nixies and we hear things. Bye now!”

It was gone before I could ask anything else. I rolled my eyes and turned back toward the thick, prickly bushes. Drawing my knife, I waded through the foliage, cutting through the particularly dense parts. I heard the other three behind me and after a few minutes, we were officially out of the swamp.

The nixie was right about it taking a couple of days to reach Mom and Dad. After leaving the swamp, we paused and consulted the mirror, which confirmed the nixie’s words. It was already starting to get dark so we set up our camp for the night. During a simple dinner of berries from the queen’s garden and a couple of squirrels that Brooke refused to look at until they were skinned and cooked, our group was depressingly quiet. Brooke and Tate looked lost and Ryder kept glancing at me like he was worried I’d break, too. I did keep thinking about what the nixie had told me in its attempt to draw me into the water, but I knew I had to find some way to pull the other two from whatever funk they were in.

“The nixie got in their heads,” Ryder murmured as he slid next to me on some dead grass. “Are you still thinking about what it told you?”

I plucked up some of the yellowing grass and shredded it into tiny bits as I spoke. “Yeah. It told me that it could take us to the cloak. It-it preyed on my fears of not being able to save everyone. Mom, Dad, the wolves. If we can’t get to my parents, I don’t know what I’ll do. And if we can’t get Red’s cloak back to your kingdom, Bo and the rest of the pack will still be in danger. Talking with that stupid little water demon is making me question if I can actually do this, and I’ve already had my doubts from the beginning of this.”

“I think that’s how it tries to draw you in,” Brooke mumbled absently. “It finds your insecurities and offers comfort. It promised me that it could make my parents proud of me and then they’d want me around. Somewhere in the back of my head I knew that the nixie was lying, but I couldn’t help wanting to listen.”

Tate let out a small whine. “The nixie tapped into my wolf. It threatened you, Tasha, and my wolf didn’t like someone threatening my Alpha. It was trying to get me to fight with it.”

I grinned wryly at my brother. “If only the human side of you was as nice to your sister as the wolf.” That earned a small chuckle from my twin and he threw a blueberry at me. I felt lighter after talking about what the nixie had done, and it seemed like the other two were less maudlin as well. I bumped Ryder’s shoulder with mine. “What about you? We don’t mind listening if you feel like telling us what the nixie did to you.”

The prince shrugged but there was something off in his blue eyes. “It didn’t get into my head. I knew what to expect so I was able to block it.”

“There’s a way to block it? That would have been nice to know,” Brooke grumbled as she stood up and wiped the dust from her butt. I watched for a second as she dug through her bag and pulled out the poles for our tent. I really loved magic when it could fit the poles for a two-person tent in a regular backpack with all of Brooke’s stuff and the canvas in my pack with all of my essentials. I pursed my lips at Ryder but it was obvious that he wasn’t going to say more so I got up and went to help Brooke set up our humble abode for the night.