What an easy liar I've become. The useful excuses, already at hand like a deck of cards. Sitting at the table of this gentleman's humble home with his daughter beside me, I waited for him to finish preparing the table with trays of bread, cheese, vegetables, and hard-boiled eggs.

 I smiled at the utensils near my plate. One of them, a wooden stick with four prongs branching from it. The humans had their name for it. But I would always know it as the dinglehopper.

 He sat down with a grunt. "Well. Clara. Tell Freja here what we do."

 The girl looked up at me with cheerful eyes, "Fa and I move trees."

 "You mean you cut trees and sell them?" I say.

 The girl, Clara, froze like she didn't understand.

 Her father reached over the table and patted her arm, "It's alright Clara. This one is just ignorant."

 I looked at them both, confused. There was a lot I still didn't know too much about, but I was certain that I described their jobs correctly.

 He looked back at me. "Allow us to introduce ourselves. This be me datter, Clara. And I'm Arne. Tree moving has been part of our family for years. We don’t brag about it, but we do take offense when compared to the common lumberjack."

 He leaned forward in his seat. "Now, in courteous fashion you would introduce yourself beyond just a name. I suspect there is a reason you've shown up at our door in such a state. "

 “Oh. Yes.” I say. I'd had about fifteen minutes to think up a story. My cards were ready. Let's play. "My father is a fisherman."

 "An honorable occupation."

 "Yes. He has high respect in our community. You know, the upstanding sort."

 "Ha," Arne laughs, while looking at me side-eyed. And I know why. If my father was so good, what was I doing here? But I had an answer for that too.

 I frown, "But I fell for one of his men. Father didn't like that. He thinks I don't understand what it is I wish for. But I knew what I wanted."

 "So what did you do?" Clara said anxiously.

 "I followed my heart," I answered with a smile. "We got engaged and planned to elope. Father somehow heard of it. And before we could do as we planned, Father sold me to off a sailor."

 Nothing I said seemed to provoke even a smidgen of a reaction from Arne. So I continued.

 "I knew I had to get away. I wouldn’t be his ship's queen for anything. So I jumped."

 "Jumped?" Clara asked.

 Noticing the look on Arne's face, I quickly realized how mature the topic was getting to be heard by little ears. "I left the ship. And found myself in the wilderness. I tried to see my lover again. But he was angry with me. He thought I left him on purpose."

 "But you didn't leave him, your fa sold you," Clara argued. "Doesn't he know you love him?"

 Something about what she said made my heart burst. I began to drip real tears, "Exactly. I thought the same thing. He must know I love him. Blasted! Why can't he and my father just see eye-to-eye? They are so much alike. If only they didn't hate each other none of this would have ha- happened." My breaths quickened as tears fell to my cheeks. Soon, I was crying so hard it gave little Clara a scare.

 Arne stood up. "That's enough."

 I did my best to wipe my tears. "I'm sorry."

Stolen novel; please report.

 "As you should be for bringing sentiments to a breakfast table. It seems you have withstood a lot. But if you are to be here, I don't want to hear anymore of this nonsense between you and some rebel around me Clara." He grimaced, "Following your heart– foolishness."

 I scowled back. "What’s foolish about that?"

 “Well, just look where it all got you. You betrayed your own Fa, and left a sailor all for a man who only broke your heart at the end of it.”

 I raised my chin at him. "And I'd do it all over again."

 “And you'd be a fool for it.”

 I was getting so flustered, I forgot my appetite. "How dare you to diminish how I feel."

 Arne stared at me with souless cobalt eyes, “I haven’t a care in the world for how you feel.”

 "Fa!"

 “Don’t Fa me, Clara! Eat your food.” He pointed to his daughter while looking at me, "But I care for what this one's mind gets shaped to."

 Extremely offended at this point, I say something I probably should have thought twice before saying, "You are just like him. My father. And you will ruin your daughter's life."

 His wide fist hit the table. "Get out of here. Get out now!"

 “Fa, no.”

 I gladly stood to my feet, stuffed two eggs in my mouth, and found the door of the cottage.

 I'll admit, I could have quelled my temperament, and I wouldn't have been kicked out. But who would put up with that? I mean, I guess his daughter has to, poor thing.

 "Absolutely, positively, the most unpleasant–"

 I heard a crash. It came with a flash of light, and then darkness filled the sky. Rain poured over me without holding back. Something told me King Poseidon was behind the sudden outbreak.

 I tilted back my head and let it have me. It may be the only way to feel him now. And I could perfectly feel his rage, disappointment, and sorrow. "I feel you, Father."

 I touched my wet neck, dragging my hands down to my chest. I felt the vile. It hung from my neck, hidden below the cords that cinched my low neckline together.

 I looked around for a dry place to sit. I saw a shed some yards from the home. I walked to it. The wood was painted a cute yellow color. I passed under the passage roof. The inside smelled like the wood, light and grainy. I looked around at all the supplies. Strange objects crafted for purposes I didn't yet know.

 I sat down and settled in, taking shelter from the storm. Unscrewing the vile from its top which connected to the string around my neck, I slipped out the tiny roll of paper that was inside. I unrolled the note.

 An illuminated page torn from a manuscript dazzled before me. The red, braided frame encased a tiny sketch that had, at the time I discovered it, sparked new ideas in my head. This picture gave me hope to pursue a life of my own. A life with Eric.

 Laying on my side, I held it up in front of me and studied the image. The setting was a shore, blue webbed swirls made up the water that crashed against the yellow sand. A bronze bluff was the background. On the sand, A woman with long swirling hair, flowing in the wind. Her arms reached out at a young merman submerging from the water. He had a strong build and gorgeous flaxen locks. His arms were doing the same to her.

 At first, I tried to see it a thousand ways. Maybe they were rivals declaring war. Maybe he stole something from her that she wanted back. But the truth was plain and simple by the way their eyes trained on each other. It was plain and simple that the thing the merman stole was her heart. They were in love.

 This page, I found in the castle library on my first day above water. It was a single page hidden in a corner behind two shelves. I didn't know who could have possibly drawn such a forbidden thing, or if it came from a fictional book or depicted a true event. But it was as if I was meant to find it. It let me know that I was doing the right thing. That I could find love on land. I flipped it over to the next side. In ancient letters it read, "Of little nature." Or in other words, "Unnatural". I scowled at the text.

 All of a sudden, I heard a rustling coming from the other side of the long shed. It was too dark to see anything. I quickly stuffed the paper into the vile, and screwed it back on my necklace.

 "He- Hello? Is there anyone there?"

 Another rustle answered back.

 I stayed near the shed opening. "I'm sorry. I just had to shelter here for the night. Please don’t tell the man called Arne."

 No reply came. I inched toward the dark corner, "Unless... you are hiding like me?"

 I came closer. There was nothing there but a little sappling. Its roots weren't planted in anything. I noticed a chain that wrapped around the trunk, keeping it close to the wall. I looked around but nothing else was there.

 I chuckled to myself. Must be hearing things. I looked back at the tree and chuckled again, "Now that's a downright silly thing to do. Chaining a tree to a wall." I slid my fingers along the metal links. "That evil Arne must have an issue with freedom. Why, he must have seen you minding your business, and couldn't bear the thought of a tree not belonging to anything. The only thing you were ever bound to was the ground." I found the end of the chain and started pulling, loosening, and unraveling the links. "Well, I'll just undo that for you. There." I started to question my sanity. Was I really talking to a tree?

 My sanity became critical when the sappling seemed to lean forward one way and then the other. My eyes widened in surprise. Before I could be sure I was not going mad, I was forced to the side as the sappling busted past me. Its roots stepping forward like legs. I was shocked beyond words. It left out the opening, it's branches bouncing along.

 Did I just see what I saw? Did a tree just walk?