by Jae Vogel
They watched the shark swim away and she turned her attention back to him. “Would you like to come and live here with me forever?” she asked him.
“I can’t do that. I’ll drown. I’m human and I can’t breathe water.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that. It’s too bad; I would so much like to have you with me. Is there some way we could always be together?”
“I’d love to be with you, Dirce. I’ll find a way, just give me time.”
Then he was back on the blacktop of the exterior part of the pool store. Dirce was still in the yellow bikini in the pool, but their hands no longer touched. He felt a hand on his shoulder pull him back as Dirce swam back to the other side of the pool with a frown on her face.
“That was close,” a voice said behind him. It was Dion. “You can thank me later.”
What had happened? It reminded him of a dream where he was in a place of perfect joy and happiness with all he ever wanted, only to be woke by the alarm clock because it was time for school. It happened repeatedly. He would wake and look at the ceiling with a sensation of great sadness. The real world had come back and pulled him out of the enchanted place where he’d been.
“Why did you do that?” he said to Dion as he pulled him away. His brother broke off contact with the girl in the pool he’d tried to converse with and walked over to them. Dion had him almost to the door of the pool store.
“Is something wrong?” Doug asked Dion and his brother. In truth, he’d sat there and noticed Dennis drift off into a coma the moment the girl’s hand made contact. He’d assumed it was from the shock of contact with a girl. As far as Doug knew, his brother had never been on a single date.
“Let me go back to her!” Dennis was crying out. “You can’t take me away from Dirce! I want to go back!” Dion shook his head and took him inside the pool store.
“What is wrong with him?” Doug asked when he caught up to Dion with his brother. Dennis was kneeling in the corner in tears. People in the pool store had stopped to watch him. It was obvious he was in the middle of a breakdown of some kind.
“He attracted the attention of the nymph in the water,” Dion explained to Doug. We need to get him out of here before she comes after him again.
Doug gave him a strange look. He walked Dennis outside the mall with the Dion and the other three. Once outside the store they found a bench and sat Dennis down where he continued to sob.
“I’ve never seen him like this,” Doug exclaimed to Dion. “What happened in there?”
“I’ll go get him something to drink,” Lilly said.
“Take Emily and Sean with you,” Dion instructed her. “None of us should be alone with these elementals on the move. Get back here quick if you see the security guards.”
“We won’t go far,” Sean told him as he walked away with the girls.
“I won’t move until you get back here,” Dion reassured him.
Dennis placed his head in his hands and continued to weep, a little bit more in silence this time. He didn’t seem to understand Dion and his brother were with him as they tried to calm him down. Dennis was close to hysterical at this point and Dion couldn’t figure out what to do for him. He was told once that encounters with nymphs could do horrible things to the susceptible, but this kid was a wreck.
“So are you going to tell me what happened back there,” his brother began, “or do I have to go and ask that girl he was with? He can’t go home like this!”
“Sit down,” Dion told Doug and seated himself by Dennis. “Your brother has been through something traumatic. I don’t know any other way to tell you. He’s been touched by a water elemental. You are witnessing the effects of that contact.”
Doug sat down on the side of Dion opposite his brother. “Look, I don’t need a lot of mumbo jumbo; can you just tell me what happened out there? I was making progress with the other one when I saw you pulling him back from that brunette. Now what happened and tell me in Standard English?”
Dion sighed. “There are things out there which don’t fall under rational explanation. I’m in touch with some of them. I’m here because I need to meet the owner of that pool store. She will give me the ability I need to bring them under control, but that is not the reason I need to find her. The swim team out there in the display pools isn’t real girls.”
“They looked real enough to me.”
“Because it’s what they want you to think. They’re water sprits, nymphs, naiads, and undines, whatever you want to call them. This whole section of the mall is under control of the water element. Okay, I don’t expect you to believe me, but it’s true.”
“Assuming any of what you just told me is true,” Doug replied. “How do my brother and her fit figure into all of this.”
“He attracted one of them. I don’t know why, sometimes they just take an interest in people. She was attracted to him and made contact. When that happens, the person who they like will become obsessed with the elemental. They won’t be able to go anywhere or think about anything until they’re with the nymph. I tried to get to him before she touched his hand, but I couldn’t do it. Now we have to figure out some way to get the glamor she put on him away.”
“Is this some sort of curse?” Doug asked. “Can we get a witch to remove it?”
“Wrong sort of affliction. But you have the right idea and you need an elemental worker to take it away from him. I just happen to be one, let me see what I can do.”
Dion kneeled down to Dennis level and looked into his eyes when he got him to hold his head up. He saw despair and pain. He saw the face of the nymph that Dennis had attracted. She wasn’t about to leave him without a drawn-out fight. This was severe. It meant he would have to go back to the pools in the rear and get the nymph elemental to release him. This was not easy to do and would involve all kinds of promises. Nymphs didn’t like to leave someone with they had them under their influence.
“We have a real problem here,” Dion said to Doug. Dennis brother had a look of concern on this face. “Did he ever have a girl?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did your brother ever go out with a girl or see one at any time?”
“No, as far as I know the only thing he cares about is his science textbooks and getting into the right college.”
“Wonderful,” Dion said as she slumped back to the wall. “At least it explains the wall of tears.”
“What are you talking about? Tell me what you mean!”
“This is your brother’s first real encounter with a woman. He’s been keeping himself hidden away so long he doesn’t know how to deal with it. He’s fallen in love. What’s really bad is that he’s fallen in love with a water elemental. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do until Ms. Delphi returns and grants me the power to bind water elementals.”
Doug stared at him in disbelief. “Are you trying to tell me my brother is in love with a mermaid?”
“If you want to put a name to it, yes. He’s attracted the attention of a water elemental and the only way to free him is make her let him go. If we don’t do that, he’ll spend the rest of his life trying to get to her.”
“This is insane. I can’t believe any of this.
“You don’t have to believe it. Whether you do or not won’t make any difference to your brother and his condition. If I don’t get back there and make that nymph take the glamor off him he’ll always be this way. And she’ll be lovesick too. Elementals who fall for humans don’t last long either. She can’t survive outside water for long.”
“She’ll dry up?”
“No, go into some kind of crystalline state until reconstituted. Look, it’s hard for me to explain and we don’t have time. I need to get back there and deal with this. Or we can wait it and I’ll make her release him by binding her. I don’t want to do that because when you force an elemental to do something they hate you for it. They might act all obedient, but there is always an aspect of defiance. They’ll look for any way they can to mess you up. I
already have two sets of elementals who despise me and I don’t need more. Someone has turned them to keep me from obtaining full powers.”
Dion stood up from the bench when he saw his friends arrive with a bottle of soda. “Just keep him quiet for now and I’ll see what I can do. Give me a few minutes to find some way to solve this.”
“How is Dennis?” Lilly asked as she looked at his quivering form. “He doesn’t seem so good.”
“First love and it’s with an elemental. I need to make her release him. Just help his brother watch him until I come back.”
“Do we need to do anything in the meantime?” Sean asked him.
“Just keep him calm, I have to get back there and get him free from this nymph.”
“You will do no such thing!” a voice boomed from the entrance to the pool store.
Chapter 6
Standing barefoot, dripping wet with water pouring over the floor, and still in her yellow bikini, stood Dirce the water elemental. She was alone and her black hair was plastered down her back. Her green eyes were in flames and she stood facing them with her hands on her hips.
Dion didn’t know what to say. His experience with water elementals hadn’t prepared him for this. He knew they’d be very aggressive toward the person they were attached to, but he didn’t think she would come out here right away. It just wasn’t in their nature.
“Get away from him!” she shouted across the hall outside the pool store.
Dion’s friends, still sitting by Dennis looked to him with incomprehension. What happened to the playful water sprite from a few minutes ago? Had she been replaced by something else? His brother was even more confused. For years, he’d tried to get him to quit grumbling about the girls who wouldn’t give him the time of day. Now he had a girl straight out of a TV show concerned about his brother’s well-being. Something was very much wrong with this picture.
“Pardon me, missy,” he snarled at the girl in the bikini, “but I happen to be his brother. I don’t even know who you are.”
Sean and Emily exchanged glances. They’d been in close proximity with the air elementals the other day and knew about what each other thought. They’d seen the inside of each other’s inner souls and it bound them together. They’d spent the ride home in the back of Dion’s van in a state of euphoria because they finally had someone else on the planet who understood them. They had some idea what an encounter with an elemental could do to a person. They weren’t surprised about Dennis, but an elemental in the picture. This was something unexpected.
“Dirce!” Dennis said as she sat up. “Please don’t leave me. Don’t let them take me away!” He stared up at her in total worship.
The water elemental walked up to Doug and glared directly in his face. She had to be six inches shorter and half his weight, but at that minute, she appeared to grow to a height of eight feet. Doug sat back down as their eyes locked. He saw sharks, stingrays and all manner of dangerous creatures under the sea. Had he been three inches from an electric eel, Doug would’ve felt less fear inside him.
She sat down next to Dennis and placed one wet arm around him. Dennis became calm and serene, as if he’d entered a state of total relaxation. Dirce leaned on him and made a purring sound. People in the mall did their best not to stare at the strange tableaux before them as the little scene played out. His brother, on the other side of her, attempted to say something, but Dirce whirled around to give him another look and he was silent. He promptly shut his mouth and leaned back on the bench.
“Wasn’t there another girl in the pool with you?” Doug managed to say.
“Her name is Appias,” Dirce snapped back at him. “And she’s not the least bit interested in you!”
“Which is a good thing for him,” Dion said. He didn’t want to disturb the tow. They were close together in each other’s arms, even with the water dripping off Dirce. The appearance of the nymph had an effect on Sean and Emily too. They were on the end of the same bench, but hugging.
“Dirce,” Dion said to the water elemental, “do you have any idea what you’ve done to Dennis? You’ve put a glamor on him and he’ll never be happy until you release him. You have to let him go because it’s not good for either of you.”
“What do you know, Master Dion?” she snarled at him. “You think your ability to manipulate elements entitles you to know what goes on in our world? You think your quest to free your parents overrides everything else?” She returned to Dennis who was now calmed down and in control of himself.
The effect she had on Dennis was uncanny. He was calmed and held onto the wet form next to him. The young man was at peace with himself and the hurried look of someone not sure about their future was gone from his face. Dion faced two couples affected by the power of the elementals. But this time half of one couple was an elemental. He only needed to wait until Salacia Delphi showed up, then he could make Dirce leave Dennis alone.
A very easy solution, but what about Dennis? Would he ever recover from this encounter? And Dirce would hate Dion forever. The rest of her water elemental clan would hate him as well. It would make using them for anything difficult, as they would have to be bound to do any task. They would despise him and jeopardize anything he needed done when the opportunity arose.
“You can’t be together for long, Dirce,” Dion tried to explain. “He’s mortal, you aren’t. It’s as simple as that. You don’t do very well out of the water. You’ll need to go back into the pool soon unless you want to feel sick. He can’t stay in the water very long. He can’t stay underwater at all unless he has breathing equipment.”
And then something else struck him. “Dirce,” Dion asked. “Have you ever been attracted to a human before?”
“No,” she said. The elemental began to sob too, her tears flowing over her face. “This is the first time for me.”
It was hard to tell when water elementals cried because they were wet most of the time.
So this was it. Both Dennis and Dirce had fallen in love for the first time and to each other. Dion ran his hand through his hair and tried to figure out what to do about this. Now he was close to the boundaries of his code if he kept Dirce away from Dennis. It would be much worse than the usual binding to keep a nymph away from a human. He wasn’t sure either of them would survive the separation. Dirce wasn’t mortal, but she could still be hurt.
He tried to think if this had happened in the past. It might have and perhaps the Water Grandmaster would know what to do, but how would it look to her if he couldn’t straighten this out? Why should she grant him full powers if he dumped these love seals in her lap? Probably not right away and it might take years for her to make her mind up again. Indeed, his uncle had set all of them up by sending the nymphs into this part of the mall. Small wonder the security guards were absent. They didn’t need to be around when Dion had this on his hands.
‘It’s not like he can take Dirce home and introduce her to mom,” Doug grumbled to the side. “She would have a fit if all that water was on the floor in the house.”
“Just be quiet,” Dion said before Dirce snapped at him again. “There has to be a way to resolve this. Let me think.”
Lilly stood next to Dion. She was in awe of his Solomonic wisdom on display. She didn’t even speculate on what he would do.
“You can stay with us, Dirce,” Dion said to her after he thought for a few minutes. “But you have to get some clothes on. As much as the male half of the shoppers might like it, you can’t go around wet and in a bikini.”
“I’m glad you approve of me,” Dirce said to him coldly. Dion noticed that Sean and Emily were also inseparable. Great, now he had two couples to contend with in order to finish his quest.
“I’ll have to talk to the Water Elemental Grandmaster when she arrives,” Dion said. “It might cost me ability, but I can’t risk the damage it would do to Dennis right now if I send you away.”
He took his wallet out and handed Lilly a credit card. “This is in my aunt and Uncle Rich’
s name. If any of the stores give you a hard time about using it, come and get me. Go back and get her something to drink too.”
“Aren’t your sisters going to want to know where you are?” he asked Dirce.
“They already do,” Dirce said and nodded to the front.
Dion turned to the front of the store and saw a crowd of elemental nymphs gathered at the front. All of them still were wet and in their swimming suits. The nymph who’d been in the same pool walked up to them with Dirce’s tracksuit in her hands. Now there would be a lot of water on the floor.
“She’ll need this,” the nymph said to Dion as she handed him the tracksuit. She went over to Dirce and gave her a hug, then rejoined the others who watched from the entrance to the pool shop.
“What will the rest of you be up to?” Dion asked the one who walked back to the door.
“Waiting,” she said. “The owner is on her way back here and she told the clerks to let us continue to use the pools. They don’t seem to mind because they’ve already sold two pools since we’ve been inside them.” She padded back to the others who soon left the entrance of the store and returned to the outside.
None of it changed the problems Dennis and Dirce would face if their relationship went forward. She needed a constant body of water around her and if Dennis planned to get into a major college, he had better major in marine biology. And there was the problem of him aging, but not she. However, he still had to admit, they made a nice couple curled up on the bench with Sean and Emily next to them. Anyone else would think them another high school boy and girlfriend out for a date.
“I need to go home,” his brother said. “Dennis, call me from a pay phone if you need someone to pick you up. I’m outta here.” He stood up and walked out the corridor that connected to the main concourse.
“So as long as I am here,” Dirce said while she put her tracksuit on, “you can at least ask me some questions, because I know that’s what you want to do.”
“You can start by telling me why you and your sisters are here,” he said and sat down on a bench next to theirs to lessen the impact of his words. Dirce slipped her flip-flops on and sat back down next to Dennis.
