Sprite
Chapter 45

They strolled into Earl’s camp as if there weren’t a dozen armed scouts posted around the perimeter, and truth be told, none of the scouts even noticed them.

Will, alerted by the sudden silence, scrambled from his bed with a muttered curse, pulling on his clothes as he went.

“What’s the matter?” Roselle asked sleepily.

“Don’t know yet. Stay here,” Will ordered, as he stooped down to clear the narrow exit. Roselle settled back under the thick covers with a small sigh.

Why hadn’t his scouts awakened him? Will moved carefully through the trees. Moments ago, the camp had been filled with the sounds of early morning as people hauled water and started cautious cooking fires. The sudden silence was ominous.

No one was hiding, which was either good, or very, very bad. They all stood frozen, staring at the two figures who had walked in unannounced to their secret village. Will’s heart sped up.

One of them was known: Neistah, who had not been seen in months. The other one—Will peered intently at her—he almost thought it was Leane, and the thought sent his heart spiraling again, for if Neistah was a true sprite, then so was Leane! But no, this girl’s hair was not green like Leane’s.

Will started forward, unaccountably glad to be near Neistah again. His face broke into a pleased smile, which faltered as he got closer. “Norah?” he said, not believing it.

The female with Neistah bore little resemblance to Will’s friend from Datro. Where Norah had been thin, this girl was willowy, with flowing dark red hair which almost, but not quite, hid the delicate fins behind her ears. Will glanced quickly at her hands. They were webbed, like Neistah’s. Roselle had tried to tell him, but he hadn’t believed it. She had called it a mutation, but Will had been to Neistah’s homeland. Will knew the truth about Neistah. What Norah had was no mutation. Unbelievably, she was a real sprite, like Neistah!

“Is it really you?” he whispered, coming closer. The awe he felt in Neistah’s presence made him clumsy, but Norah opened her arms and hugged him tightly, answering his question. Will met Neistah’s gaze over her shoulder. The sprite was grinning.

“It’s me,” Norah said, pulling back. “I wanted to tell you. I tried to tell you.” She smiled self-consciously, and held out her hands. “This is the real me.”

Will swallowed, looking from Neistah to Norah. “You’re a sprite, like him,” he said, his voice sounding dry and creaky to his own ears.

Norah turned to Neistah, and her eyes widened. ‘He knows?’ she sent. Neistah just grinned wider, enjoying the moment. She turned back to Will. “We’re not sure,” she explained. “Maybe. Or maybe my mutation just mimics what he is.”

“Norah, you’re back!” Roselle, never good at listening, hurried up, still wrapped in her blanket. She glared at Neistah. “What took you so long? Norah, did he hurt you?” She took in Norah’s flowing multi-colored gown, and her lips quirked up. “Apparently not,” she said dryly. “You’re looking well. And . . . sprite-like.”

Norah flushed in embarrassment. She was finally back among her own people, not hiding her differences any longer. It was taking some getting used to. The other changelings who had stopped and stared when Neistah led her past their sentries and into what he told her was the village center, obviously recognized Neistah, and took her appearance for granted. They all thought he was a mutant, if an odd one, and they assumed she was, too. “I didn’t mean to worry anybody,” she replied. “I followed Neistah---home---and met his family.”

“Neistah has a family?” An old man covered in ugly bumps pushed his way forward, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “What are you—his sister?”

Neistah laughed, and put his arm around Norah’s shoulder, pulling her into his embrace. He avidly watched Will’s face blanch. “She’s not my sister,” he said mockingly, letting them make their own assumptions. “Norah, this is Earl. Earl, this is Norah, recently from Datro. She’s one of yours, or so she says.”

Earl narrowed his eyes. “Another one? We can’t keep absorbing your strays. Do you have any idea what’s happening out there? Hunters are all over the forest these days. You’re lucky we didn’t have to move the entire village. If we had, even you wouldn’t have been able to replace us again.”

Neistah barked out a derisive laugh. “If I needed to replace you, I would replace you, wherever you are,” he said in a deadly soft voice.

Earl immediately backed down. “That’s not what I meant,” he said quickly. “The changelings you sent us have been quite helpful, well, except for that one.” He pointed to Roselle. “But Will has vouched for her, and as long as he’s taking responsibility for her, I have no complaints. What can this one do?” He eyed Norah speculatively.

“She’s Datro’s Sprite,” Roselle announced, to gasps of surprise from everybody except Will, who hadn’t believed it until today. “She can do everything he can do, and more.”

“Can she replace the missing changelings she supposedly helped?” Patrick strode purposefully into the gathering crowd around Norah and Neistah. “Norah, why didn’t you tell me? Why the big charade? If you’re really Datro’s Sprite, and not him,” he glanced at Neistah, “why did you hide your mutations?” He looked at the delicate webbing between Norah’s fingers and the wispy fins on both sides of her neck. “How did you hide your mutations?”

“She cut them off.” Neistah spoke shortly. “She won’t do that again.”

No, Norah had no reason to disguise her mutation anymore, unless she wanted to go back to Datro and her life as a factory-owner. That was the last thing Norah wanted.

“Come with me.” Roselle hooked her arm in Norah’s. “You can tell me all about it over breakfast.” She glanced over her shoulder at Will and Neistah, effectively informing them that they were not invited. Neistah, catching more than just her glance, grinned again.

Will hesitated uncertainly until Neistah touched his arm to draw his attention. “You might as well tell me what I’ve missed.” He sat right where he was, beckoning the others to join him. All around them, morning preparations resumed again. Out of the corner of his eye, Will saw Roselle replace a spot for her and Norah at the far end of the clearing that served as their village center. Norah was a vision in shifting colors, tall, exotic, utterly unhuman. How could he have missed that even without her tell-tale webbing? Roselle, on the other hand, petite and blonde and plump in all the right places, appeared so very human beside her. Will sighed, and turned his attention to the discussion at hand.

Since Patrick and Lou’s very public ‘escape,’ hunters had combed the forest in all directions, making life dangerous for the handful of changeling villages that had flourished thanks to Neistah’s Sprites. Will reddened to think how they had adopted that name, when they so obviously were nothing like Neistah. Despite the chill in the air, he still wore only the cut-off shorts that signified his ‘sprite’ status as a sign of his dedication.

“I don’t mind,” Neistah told him, easily reading his train of thought. “You say it was their escape that set this off?”

“And Norah’s disappearance. Her grandfather thinks she was abducted,” Will said. “There is a reward out for her and Roselle, who were supposedly kidnapped by Datro’s Sprite. And for us, too. They think you are Datro’s Sprite, and think our disappearance was some kind of trick. They’re not letting this one go, Neistah. Pup and I have had reports all up and down the line of groups of hunters setting fire to the woods to try and flush some of us out.”

“Have they captured any?” Neistah asked, frowning. Burning the woods would not be tolerated. The game just got serious.

“Not for lack of trying,” Will said. “The only ones in real danger are the mutants who try to escape on their own. Some of them have been taken before we can get to them, and the hunters are as likely to kill them as capture them. I’ve been staying here on and off, but most of the time I’m out with the other Sprites trying to lead them astray when they get too close. They’re really not very good at replaceing us.”

That’s because Neistah’s Sprites were really good at keeping the changelings hidden. Neistah kept that thought to himself. He had taught them well. “And the burning?”

“We’re lucky the weather has been rainy throughout the summer. But now that autumn is here, the forest is dry and it hasn’t rained for a couple of weeks. If there’s another fire now, it could spread. We’re watching, but as Earl said, there are a lot more hunter groups out there now than ever before.”

“I may have a few tricks that might help,” Neistah said, rising to his feet. “Can you contact Pup? We have a lot to do in the next few days.”

“Are you staying here, then?” Will asked, both hopeful and apprehensive, although he didn’t know why he felt uneasy.

Neistah’s grin was sly. “Yes, set up a place for me and Norah. It looks like we’ll be staying for a while.”

That was why. Neistah was staying with Norah. Will should have expected it, but the news hit his gut like a punch. He steeled his expression. “I’ll make the arrangements,” he said.

Roselle and Norah were surrounded by a group of changeling girls, including Lou, who clung to Norah like she used to cling to Roselle. The girls seemed fascinated by Norah’s mutation, and wanted to know if she could really swim like Neistah, which made Norah smile.

“Yes, I can swim,” she confirmed, sweeping her long, red hair across one shoulder and braiding it to keep it out of her way. The ends of the braid hung down far below where her hair used to end when it was loose. Constant swimming had taken out most of the curl, leaving it long and straight. Straight enough to weave into cloth, Norah realized with a start, fingering her own bright gown. Her cheeks pinked as she thought of Breyan.

“Can you teach us?” one of the girls wanted to know. “We want to be sprites, too.”

Lou snuggled against Norah’s side. “Me, too,” she said dreamily. “Then I can look for Mack and the others.”

Norah frowned, remembering Patrick’s comment. “You mean they haven’t turned up in any of the mutant villages?”

Lou shook her head sadly. “No one knows what happened to them. Only John made it through.”

Norah remembered John. He was the last changeling she had helped. She had dropped him off miles from Datro in a swampy area near the woods. Surely if he had found the mutants, the others she had brought down the river should have been able to do so as well. “I’ll help in any way I can,” she promised.

Will found an abandoned tree house some ambitious boys had begun but never finished, opting for the companionship of living with their buddies, which now included Patrick, in the big rock-cave. “Can you climb?” he asked Norah as he led them there. She just gave him a look, and he remembered belatedly how they used to climb in and out of her window on their escapades in Datro. It all seemed so long ago now.

He managed to take Norah aside when Neistah clambered up the tree trunk to check out their new accommodations. “This will do!” he called down, jumping up and down a few times to test the sturdiness of the branches. Leaves fluttered softly to the earth.

“Norah, you went to the other world, the one where Neistah is from?” Will asked urgently. “Can you go back? Will you take me?” He glanced up to make sure Neistah wasn’t listening, but the sprite was busy shifting branches aside and tying them off to make their new home more solid. “I’ve been there,” he confided in a whisper to Norah. “With Neistah. “

“I—“ Norah wasn’t sure how to respond. “I followed Neistah there,” she admitted.

“Then you know the way!” Will’s eyes lit up.

Neistah jumped down easily. “She doesn’t,” he said, still grinning. “I told you before, you can never go back. That place is not for you. This is your place.” He studied Will gravely. “Maybe we should not stay here after all if it will cause a problem for you.”

“No, no problem,” Will said. “Please, stay. Both of you.” He suddenly couldn’t bear the thought of neither sprite being nearby.

Neistah laughed suddenly, and clapped Will on the shoulder. “If you’re sure.”

Pup came into camp a little while later, out of breath and dizzy from rushing back after he had been given the news. “Neistah is back?” he queried, checking in with Earl. He hurried in the direction of the tree house, where he discovered some of the girls from the camp helping another girl, a new changeling, to get settled. “Where’s Neistah?” he called up.

A curious face framed by red hair and—fins?---stared down at him.

He grinned up at her. “Hello, pretty lady.”

Will followed him to the tree house. “Neistah is waiting for you,” he said curtly, wheeling away. With a last glance at the girls in the tree house, especially the red-headed one, Pup followed. “Who’s the girl?” he asked curiously.

“Leave her be. She came with Neistah,” Will said, as Pup stared at him in surprise.

Neistah met with Pup, Will and several of the other boys who called themselves Neistah’s Sprites, and gave them specific instructions on what to do to dissuade the hunters from their unrelenting vendetta. When the sun set, he released them. “Tomorrow I will show you what I mean,” he promised. He left them to climb nimbly into the tree house he shared with Norah.

Roselle brought blankets and some extra clothes, and Norah’s satchel she had left behind when she went chasing after Neistah. “It would be a shame if you got your new dress all dirty,” Roselle said. “These are better for the woods.” She herself wore a deerskin jacket and woolen pants, a far cry from the fashionable outfits or even the school uniform she used to wear in Datro. “You’ll get used to it soon enough,” she said, as she caught Norah biting her lip. “It’s not a bad life, especially if you have someone you love to share it with.” She winked, and scurried down the tree, leaving Norah alone with Neistah.

‘It’s different from what I thought it would be,’ Norah commented subvocally. ‘Not like where you live.’

Neistah raised his eyebrows. ‘Did you think it would be?’ he asked the same way.

‘I don’t know, I guess not. I just thought, since they were all mutants, I would fit in.’

‘Like you did in my home?’

Norah nodded. ‘I miss swimming.’

Neistah laughed . ‘You can swim here, too, remember? Later I’ll take you down to the river. It’s not as big as Datro’s river, but it’s wet. Now, go to sleep before Will out there wonders what we are up to.’ He rolled over and faced the other way.

Norah propped herself up on one elbow and peered through the branches on her side of the tree house. It was drafty, unfinished, but then again, neither she nor Neistah felt the cold as keenly as some of the other changelings. She could just make out Will’s silhouette framed against the rising moon. Neistah was right. He was watching them.

From the hill above his underground den, Will stared at the tree house where Neistah and Norah slept. “Will!” Roselle’s voice floated through the night. “Are you coming to bed?”

Reluctantly, Will picked his way down the hill to where Roselle was waiting for him.