She sat by the pond, watching the still waters, as she had done every night since the girl had told her about the isolated littke pond. Anyone who saw the girl sitting still as stone, by a pond at the edge of the woods, might have called her troubled. When you added to that, that it was far beyond the time all young girls should be in bed, some would pity her, others would consider her with scorn reserved only for the homeless and poor. She didn't care.
Anna had said she was stupid for believing in fairytales at her age. "Thirteen year olds are too big for that shit", she had said, but the girl didn't care about that either.
Her father had told her the story. It was one of many, about the spirits of the woods, and the wind. The fire spirits that spun in flame. And of the naiad. The water sprites. The ones who saw time in their waters, and would foretell the future to those they deemed worthy.
She had to believe, because she had to know. Her father was gone now, her mother with him. Her brothers and sisters scattered like ashes. It was just her now. And, surprisingly, she found herself ok with that. They wouldnt apprive of her plan anyway. They wouldnt help her. She knew it as surely as she knew the sun would rise. None of them could do what had to be done.
Her heart picked up a little as rising bubbles reached the surface and popped, the ripples reflecting shades of the moon. Her green eyes, always sharp, became even more focused, trying to see into the depths. She would never tell a soul how she prayed at that moment, for just a glimmer.
The waters stilled. Nothing.
She made herself relax and breathe, and pulled a strand of black hair behind her ear as the breeze tossed it. She wondered if perhaps she should just concentrate on the water, if maybe a vision would appear if she looked hard enough.
Twisting herself onto all fours, she crawled to the very edge and looked into her reflection. She saw a dirty, starved version of herself there, but there were her father's green eyes, and her mothers pale skin too. The reflection might be hers, but she vowed it wouldnt be so forever. One day she...
The crunch of footsteps caught her thoughts. Still as the water, she listened. Not heavy footsteps, like a man, or the careful steps of a woman. Definitely not someome sneaking. It sounded like a kid, forcing their way through the growth, and when she heard the whisper of her name she knew it to be so.
She didnt look up from the waters as the small blond girl broke through to opn ground. She knew Alexa would talk whether she was listening or not.
"What are you doing, Taya?" she asked as she assumed the same position as her friend.
Frustrated green eyes, turned to curious blue ones. "Im looking for my future."
"Oh." said the other, simply. "Why?"
Taya pulled back from the edge and sat on her heels. She knew there woukd be no naiad now. "Because ", she huffed, "my father told me that time flows like water, and the water spirits can swim up and down the stream of time. If i wait long enough ill meet one, and she can show me the if I do it or not."
Alexa, now interested in the pond leaned a little further over the edge. "Do what?" She asked, almost mesmerized by the ripples in her reflection.
Taya looked her hard for a moment, trying to decide if she could tell the girl the truth. She liked her, sure. But she had learned far too young that like and trust were not the same thing.
As she pondered, Alexa slowly leaned closer to water, until the tip of her nose almost touched it.
"Alexa," said Taya, suddenly troubled, "if you lean any further you're going to fall in." But the girl simply continued to stare into the rippling waters.
Rippling...
Taya crawled back over and looked in as she had before, and found the most curious had happened. There, from Alexas reflection, from the space right between her eyes and above her nose, came tiny circles of water, as though a steady drip came from her head.
Her heart began a steady pounding as she looked at Alexas face, then the water, then back again. She looked pale, far away, and worried.
"Alexa?" She asked, but still she didnt seem to hear. "Lex!" She said harshly, trying to break the girls fascination. Still she gave no answer.
Now Taya was scared, and it was a feeling she didnt like. Not knkwing what else the do she grabbed her by the shoulders and yanked her up to face her. She opened her mouth to call out her name again, but stopped. Alexa was looking at her as though she was something she had never seen before.
"I saw you" she said quietly. "I saw..."
"What? What did yiu see Lexi?" Though she'd meant to ask gently she couldnt stop the slight shaie she gave the girls shoulders.
Suddenly, almost frighteningly, her blue eyes focused on her green ones. For a long moments she simply stared, as though poring through Tayas every secret thought. And then, with Tayas heart pounding in her ears, suddenly Alexa softened.
She climbed to her feet taking taya with her. "I saw you and me." She said. "We were older. And somewhere far from here." She hesitated a moment, before then in hardle more than a whisper, and more than just a little sadly, she said "And you were unstoppable. "
With that she stepped away and turned back to the woods. Her parents house was just through on the other side, a bright fire lamp just visible through the trees. "I'll see you tomorrow." And then she was gone.
Taya stood breathlessly, staring after the girl who was her age yet so much smaller, and a million question ran through her head. But Alexa was already gone, and if her parents or any of the staff found either of them out in the woods there would be trouble.
"Tomorrow then." She said to the empty air, and turned in the opposite direction Alexa had taken. Back to the streets of a run down city, where no one knew her.
As her footsteps faded into the distance another sounded on the grit by the pond. His clothes were that of a gentleman, and his smile one of a rake, but the pond, still lapping at the power of visions, saw the truth, and when he looked down he saw it too.
Swiping his cane along the surface of the water, he turned and disappeared silently into the woods. He didnt need the pond to show him what he already new. That the demon inside him was grinning with glee, and the blood dripping from its reflected maw would be that of a little blond girl.
