Chapter Twenty One

Elena's on her feet looking straight at the river waiting for whatever is moving inside to come out. She's decided to give up and just let whatever is in this forest devour her, yes she might be the most powerful fairy in the world but she doesn't think her powers are going to be helping her all the time. All she needs is a bit of luck and she has a feeling she's not going to have such luck tonight. 

Her face is in a fearful mode and her eyes have not left the river, she doesn't even want to run because who knows if whatever is out there growling like a hellhound will catch up to her and her fate in the hands of that thing growling will be worse than her fate in the hands of whatever is in the water. Death by a sea monster can't be that bad, right?

She sees light in the water, blue light and she thinks she sees a fin. Could it be a large fish, a large harmless fish is what she's scared about, how stupid, she thinks? But what kind of fish glows in the water? Oh, a fish in a magical world is what. 

She's still looking at the water and the movement stops. She doesn't see light or a fin, she lets out a sigh of relief maybe she's not going to be dying tonight after all. 

"Hi," Elena screams almost falling to the ground, she spins to the side and she sees a pretty young girl in the water smiling at her. The girl giggles, her giggling sound is light and cute, doesn't sound like that of a monster. The girl swims so smoothly to her and Elena just stands there frozen, her mouth drops when she sees something behind that girl, a tail a fish's tail. 

"Oh my- you're a- you're a mermaid," Elena says. 

"And you are a fairy." She says mockingly and Elena just stares at her, looking at her from head to tail. This girl's hair is wet and dark but she has blue highlights on her hair. Her tail is also blue like her hair and her eyes, except her skin, her skin is white as snow, and her nails are also blue. The shocked face begins to disappear and a smile begins to form on Elena's face. 

She's heard that mermaids exist in this world but she didn't think she'd come in contact with one so soon, this is all so beautiful to witness. She looks so beautiful, pretty even just dazzling. 

The mermaid tilts her head with squinted eyes looking at Elena. 

"Oh, my Triton! You're Elena, the lost fairy." 

"I- uh, yes I am." 

"Oh Gosh!" she squeals excitedly. "You're a very pretty girl."

"Thank you and so are you." 

"Thanks. I heard you're from Earth, the land with no magic. Are there no mermaids there is this the first time you've seen a mermaid?" she gasps. "Am I the first mermaid you're seeing?" 

"Yes! And you're- you look so unreal." 

"Wow, I'm so honoured to be your first mermaid," she says with a smile so contagious that Elena smiles back. "I'm Coraline, but everyone calls me Coral." She brings out her hand from the water for Elena to shake it. 

"Nice to meet you Coral." they both shake hands, dry skin meeting wet skin. Fairy meeting mermaid. Two worlds colliding. Elena has noticed where the glowing light is coming from and it's coming from the the highlights on her hair. It seems like when her hair is underwater it glows. But since her head is out of the water only the tips are glowing. So stunning. 

"So what are you doing here by this time of the night?" She asks Elena and Elena looks her up and down. 

"What are you doing here this time of the night?" Elena asks her. 

"Ah, I asked you first," she says chuckling. And Elena looks to her right and sighs then looks back at the mermaid. 

"I'm new here so I'm going through some hazing initiation shtick." 

"Oh, that's right they do this for new students all the time," she says like it's no big deal. 

"But isn't it dangerous? There are creatures of darkness here."

"What? No there isn't they only tell the new students that to scare them. This forest is protected from creatures of darkness." 

Elena looks at the mermaid in disbelief, she cannot believe what she's hearing right now. She can't believe she fell for Anastasia's bullshit. 

"Okay, but what was that growling thing I heard back there?" 

"Growling? Oh, it's probably Dingy snoring."

"Dingy?" 

"He's a sprite. As tiny as he is the sound of his snoring can wake giants up." Coral giggles. And great Elena feels stupid, she feels like a chicken right now. "Hey, don't let those people scare you, you're a powerful fairy you've got to show them who's boss. They're not worth being scared over. Teenagers are the worst. And I'm one." 

Elena appreciates Coral for that advice, even though she should never have run like that or acted scared in the first place. 

"What are you doing here?" Elena asks. 

"I come here for some peace. I'm kind of a night owl. I don't sleep at night and I'm always grumpy in the mornings." 

"Huh, you sound like my best friend Alex he's the same way." 

"Alex? Alexander Walker?" 

"You know him." 

"Everyone around here knows him. He's one of the best students at Hollow Prep, he's very brave he once fought a troll when it broke into the forest somehow, causing havoc." 

"Yep, that also sounds like Alex." Elena lets out a loud yawn.

"Aww you're sleepy, go ahead sleep I'll keep watch for you." Coral winks. 

"Uh, I'm not scared anymore so you don't have to do that." 

"Elena, just sleep you have school tomorrow, you don't want to be late." that is true, she can't afford to be late she was told if she were ever to be late her marks will be reduced and she'll be punished by cleaning up the stables where the pegasuses are and Elena does want to see the pegasuses but not in that way. 

"Okay, then. Thank you." Elena says and Coral waves her off, It's no problem for her. Elena lays down on the grass enjoying the sound of the river and the crickets, she looks up at the night sky but before she sleeps she thinks about this night and how it has made her process everything, she is not going to be showing fear at this school ever again, and besides she's the most powerful fairy in the land. People should be scared of her. 

Anastasia should be scared of her. 

The next morning Elena wakes up and her being a morning person is filled with the joys of the day, the sun shining directly on her, the birds singing and the magical air creatures flying in the air. She looks over to the flowing river and it looks like they're awake too which is weird because they never went to sleep. Coral isn't here though, which is a bumper because she really wanted to thank her for last night. She hopes to see her again. 

Elena gets up from the ground and looks straight ahead. She can find her way back so she starts her journey. She doesn't need to worry about creatures of darkness because there's no such thing here. But what about the troll Alex fought? Surely that was just one incident of a creature of darkness finding her way here. She should stop worrying and just move along. 

She finds the school and she rushes straight to the regal dorm, her feet hitting the soft grass as she runs toward it. She hopes she doesn't get caught. She doesn't know how she's going to explain why she was in the forest last night and she's not going to be a snitch who opens up about the initiation to the house parents. So she successfully gets into the dorm but why does it feel like everyone's already out of the dorm? 

She looks straight at the clock on the wall and she gasps. She's already late, she runs up the stairs, rushes into her room takes off her clothes and she brushes her teeth and showers. She's not going to be brushing her hair so she just puts it up in a bun. She puts on her uniform grabs her bag and walks out the door. She's walking as fast as she can toward the stairs but then she stops when she hears something. 

"Hello, princess." she slowly turns around to see two Gothic-looking people smiling at her, and oh no she has seen such people before. It can't be, they can't be here in this school. How are they here?

They smile, the smile they give looks like something out of a horror movie. She should be running right now but she still stands there looking at them. 

"We want your blood princess." the one with the long dark hair says. 

"I'm sure your blood is very juicy." the one with the long blond hair hisses. They both look like royalty but there's nothing royal about them, they're cannibals looking at her hungrily. 

Elena tries to swallow her fear and she faces them, her fear comes back when they turn into gigantic mutant bats and they let out a loud hiss. 

Elena screams.