Lanek awoke to find himself lying next to a fire while Liv was busy cooking meat. He had no idea what kind of meat it was, but it smelled delicious. In fact, it smelled so good and his stomach was rumbling so hard that he began to wonder how long he had been unconscious. The last thing he remembered was falling toward the water.
“You’re finally awake? Good, I was starting to worry that I’d have to carry you all the way back to Caelis. And before you ask, you’ve been out for almost two days now. You should go look at yourself in the lake at some point.” Liv said.
Lanek nodded his thanks for the information and took a look around, noting that they were still in the valley, the lake only a few meters from their campsite. He looked at the water for a minute before finally registering the changes.
“The water is clean. How did that happen?” Lanek asked.
“Ah, you can thank the beastie that saved you from falling into the lake. If she shows herself again, that is. She carried you out of the water, looking for all the world like a normal woman before setting you down on the shore and transforming into a dripping wet horse and diving back into the water. The tressym says it was a kelpie if that means anything to you. Haven’t seen it since, but the water began clearing up shortly after it went back in.” Liv explained.
Kelpie, huh? Wasn’t there folklore about them back home? I think they were Scottish and that they were also called water horses. I didn’t know they could look human, but maybe that’s just unique to the ones in this world. Lanek paused as the memories he glimpsed from the soul of the kraken returned. Ah, that must have been what the Void transformed. The memories showed multiple horse-looking creatures.
Lanek decided to enjoy a quick meal with his companions before walking toward the lake and sitting on the shore. He hadn’t looked at himself yet, but he had a good guess as to why Liv wanted him to look at his reflection. Lanek had already noticed the changes to his hands and realized that he had returned to his dranrid form. Rather, the reason that he had returned to the lake was to see if he could sense the former core of the domain once more and possibly reactivate it.
Unfortunately, after sitting for a few moments, he couldn’t pinpoint the core. Instead, his senses kept telling him that the entire lake was the core. The water rippled nearby as the horse’s head breached the surface and stared at him. Lanek looked back at the creature before speaking.
“I don’t suppose you know anything about Eldros and this being his domain?” The kelpie cocked its head to the side before it transformed before his eyes and he found himself looking into the eyes of a dark-haired woman.
“Eldros?” She said, excitedly. “Is he coming back?”
“Oh, so you can speak! Great, I’m Lanek, a Herald of Eldros and I am doing everything I can to help Eldros make a return. Can you tell me what happened to this domain?”
“A Herald? I haven’t seen one of you since my grandmother’s time. My name is Elspeth by the way. Umm, I’ll tell you what I remember, but most of what happened to the lake and valley happened before I was born.”
“That’s fine, please continue. Actually, wait a second, I just want to confirm something… Were you the kraken?” Lanek asked quietly. Elspeth’s face contorted as she recalled the experience before nodding.
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“I’m sorry I had to put you through so much pain. I wish there had been another way.” Lanek said, remorse in his voice. To his surprise, Elspeth emerged from the water and hugged him. He cleared his throat, frozen in place by the unexpected action and the fact that he now had a very naked woman clinging to him.
After a few awkward moments for Lanek, the kelpie released him and returned to the edge of the water before speaking. “I forgive you for the pain you caused. How could I do otherwise? You released me from that wretched prison and returned me to my natural form. As for the valley, my grandmother served Eldros and passed before I was born. However, my mother would often tell me that it was in our blood to protect this place as my grandmother did as one of Eldros’ guardians.”
Elspeth continued after a moment of silence. “According to my mother, grandmother died after fighting for many decades to keep this place safe from the invasion of the pale ones. However, grandmother was also getting weaker as time went on, something that mother said was a result of Eldros getting weaker as well. Eventually, the pale ones brought a powerful creature with them, one that proved to be too much for grandmother to defeat without sacrificing herself. In the end, the pale ones were defeated and left us in peace aside from an occasional group passing through. My mother and siblings were always enough to beat them back, though, even without grandmother’s power.”
Elspeth’s face dropped as she continued and Lanek suspected that he knew what was coming. “One day, a person showed up, clad all in black. We thought he was human until we looked within the cowl of his cloak and saw nothing but pure darkness looking back at us. When mother saw this, she yelled for my siblings and I to flee while she attacked the creature. She died immediately and the monster hunted my siblings down one by one, leaving only me alive. It never spoke or acknowledged my family other than to strike them down, it never even bothered to speak to me while it tortured and changed me. This was centuries ago.”
Liv, who had come over to listen, reached toward the kelpie with tears in her eyes and grasped her hand. Lanek, on the other hand, was filled with rage. The more he heard about the Void’s activities, the more he wondered which was worse, the Void or the gaunts.
“Elspeth, do you know of any places of power? I want to bring Eldros back to this place, but whenever I try to detect the source of the domain, I can only feel the lake itself.” Lanek asked.
Elspeth looked up, roused from her painful memories and nodded. “At the deepest point in the lake there is an entrance to a cavern with a single flower in the center. That was my family’s home and where my grandmother chose to be when she succumbed to her injuries.”
“Damn, that’s going to be a problem. I’d like to see it, but I don’t have anything that will let me breathe underwater and I can’t swim for shit.” Lanek said, triggering a laugh from Liv. “Yeah, laugh it up. Seriously, though. I can keep myself afloat and swim very slowly, but that’s about it.”
Liv laughed a bit longer before regaining control of herself with a deep sigh. “We’ll need to work on that.” She said, eyeing Lanek in a way that left no doubt in his mind that it was not going to be optional.
“Umm, there is another way. The flower itself isn’t underwater. There is a cave up here on the surface that the males would use.” Elspeth said.
“Why wouldn’t they just swim like the rest of you?” Liv asked.
“Oh, the males aren’t aquatic. While the females would tend to the lake, the males would protect the valley itself and patrol the surrounding mountains. Since they couldn’t breathe underwater, they needed another way to reach us if they wanted to spend time with the rest of us. Humans called them centaurs.”
Well, that’s an overlap in mythologies I didn’t expect. Lanek thought.
“Could you point me toward that cave? I can meet you down by the flower and we can see about bringing Eldros back.” Elspeth promptly gave him directions to the nearby cave and dove into the water after making them promise to meet her in the cavern soon.
“What a sad story.” Liv said after Elspeth had disappeared. “Her family is dead and there doesn’t seem to be much hope for the future if she wants to rebuild her family.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.” Pharaoh said, appearing on Lanek’s shoulder, seemingly out of nowhere. “While flying to meet you two, I saw several centaurs roaming the mountains, and if they are still around then that means that there needs to be another kelpie around.”
“Really? Are they nearby?” Lanek asked.
“They should be within a day or two of this place by foot.” Pharaoh responded.
“Hmm. Would you mind taking Kazuma with you and seeing if they are open to talking? If so, please arrange a meeting. Whether I can get this domain reclaimed or not, I want to make sure that Elspeth isn’t left up here all alone when we move on.”
Pharaoh nodded and took off with Kazuma in tow. The big cat had no trouble pacing the flying tressym as he simply shifted into mist to deal with any rough terrain. Lanek grinned as they left, pitying anything that may try to take the pair on.