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The Enchanted Pool
Eliza found herself on a path behind the old cathedrals, Holly having led her there. She was told to go straight until she reached the enchanted pool. “It should only be a thirty-minute walk,” Holly had smiled at her before bouncing back toward the school buildings. Eliza’s faithful cat lead the way with tail upright in curiosity. The gardens just outside the school were neatly clipped and perfectly symmetrical. The straight path guided toward a kissing gate, on the other side of which the gardens became less formal.
Like an English cottage garden, explosions of colour overflowed from their borders. The many plants whose flowers had faded had been clipped back leaving the ones still in bloom in centerstage. It had the look of a carelessly planned garden, as if the gardener had planted as many species combinations as possible there without much thought to a unified theme. The effect made the garden look effortlessly beautiful, so much so that Eliza was certain a lot of effort had been taken to achieve the feat.
Following her cat down the path through the garden, the flower beds gave way to an orchard garden. Apple trees and pear trees in espaliers enclosing rows and rows of berry bushes on either side of the path. It was a few minutes more before they found themselves surrounded by a forest, trees creaking merrily in the fall breeze. Autumn was in full force here, leaves glowed in shades of yellow, red, and orange. The sound of running water was also present in the woods, though Eliza never laid eyes on the river.
Still they walked on, past innumerable mushrooms that sprouted through fallen leaves in the undergrowth. The forest changed from oak and maple to dense evergreens, then thick brush. The path became narrow and Eliza’s clothes began to catch on menacing thorns growing from the tips of sinister branches. Now hot from the walk, clammy, and having ignored several tempting forks in the path, Eliza was grateful to emerge from a bend to this route’s conclusion. Burrs were sticking to her clothes as she stripped off her scarf and jacket, face flushed.
The clearing looked like a dream. The path disappeared to reveal a meadow of wild grasses in the middle of which was a wide pool of water. There were three large weeping willows around the edge of the pond, their long limbs draping lazily on the surface of the water, leaves still green in the fading light.
Eliza did not hesitate. Not only was daylight fading fast but she felt compelled to seek her truth. Learning that someone had cast spells upon her to impede her introduction to the magical world felt an intrusion. She felt dirty. Tainted. Itchy. What possible motive could someone have had to prevent her from living a life of magic and splendor? She had known she was able to do something special, but in a world of monotony and doing as you’re told, she had never been permitted to reach her full potential.
Eliza felt vindicated in discovering she was not alone in feeling the forces of nature in the very fiber of her being. She could not wait to learn to control them. When these enchantments were washed away—curses, she thought to herself—her next priority (aside from vigorously taking on the challenging studies ahead of her) would be to discover exactly who it was who had been pulling the strings of her life since she was a small child. She would lift the veil from her eyes, then find the person who put it there.
Eliza’s clothes landed softly in the overlong grass as she approached the water. She had agonized over how she would dress for her first day as an official ‘witch’. It seemed so stupid now. None of that superficial stuff mattered. The only thing that mattered was accepting and becoming her true self. Her foot slid into the water’s edge.
To say it was cold would be an understatement. “Oh bloody fudge!” she cried. The cold stung her skin. From habit, she began to draw energy from the earth, the air, and the water to warm herself but Pal interrupted her concentration.
“I wouldn’t bother trying a spell to protect yourself from the cold,” he said. “This water is made to wash away enchantments. Don’t fight it. Calm your mind and accept the cold.”
Eliza grudgingly admitted the cat was right. She let the spell she had started to weave fall away; the energies she had called upon dissipated. She took a deep, steadying breath and tried to accept the cold as she walked further into the pool. The icy water was biting at her ankles and legs. She could no longer feel her feet. She waded into the middle of the pool, the water barely reaching the top of her thighs.
“You have to submerge yourself,” called the cat from the water’s edge.
Eliza would have rolled her eyes except she was trying to stop her teeth from chattering. It had been perfectly obvious that she would have to submerge herself, but it didn’t make the task any easier. Her lips were turning blue from the cold. The air had felt lovely and warm when they were walking. She could not believe only moments ago she was overwarmed. “You try it,” Eliza hissed at the cat.
Even so, though it was the last thing she wanted to do, Eliza forced herself onto her knees. The water lapped up her thigh and kissed her belly. She yelped from the shock and decided not to prolong the inevitable. She plunged face forward into the icy cold water and let it submerge her completely.
Once under the water, it didn’t seem so bad. There were lights here. Houses. Tiny creatures swarmed around her brandishing pitchforks. These ones had tails and wild hair. Others had legs and looked nearly human. The humanish creatures rode on the backs of giant koi fish using their whiskers as reins. Eliza giggled. It was a silly sight.
There was something else, too, in the distance. Something that looked like a castle with a great stone tower. Eliza reached forward and upon doing so she realized she was not a huge human in a small pool, but she had become as small as the water sprites that swam around her.
The castle in the water looked miles away now. She had a nagging feeling that within this castle lay the answers she was looking for. The mystery person who had cast her out of the magical world and hid her from it was in the tower standing by the light. Eliza was just too far to make them out. She reached forward and began swimming toward the light. Her body glided forward effortlessly in the water. She hadn’t felt the need to breathe since she submerged herself.
Deeper and deeper she went, swimming through dark waters. She reached the castle after only a minute and swam over its many courtyards. Eliza was just nearing the tower when dark spots appeared in her vision. She blinked stupidly, trying to fix her eyes on the person in the tower but her lungs started to pain her. Eliza clutched her chest as realization overtook her. She was running out of oxygen. She opened her mouth and it filled with water, unpleasantly cold. She glanced up at the sky, the last moments of sunset glittering through the rippling surface looked miles away. She tried to swim toward the surface but her arms were heavy and tired. She couldn’t control her frozen legs. She looked down at them helplessly and tried to kick but they remained painfully still. Beginning to panic, Eliza realized with a start that the water sprites had led her to her death. Never able to see them until today and now a victim of their malicious tricks.
A sharp bite on her ear made her push backward with her arms and legs reactively. Her intake breath of surprise caught her when she was still under the water so as her head broke the surface she began choking on a lungful of water. She retched and coughed until the water left her lungs and she turned her attention to the pain she was now feeling on her back and shoulder. Pal was clinging to her, his claws leaving watered-down blood trickling down her chest and back as he struggled to stay on. He was soaking wet, again.
“You—what—what happened?” Eliza spluttered to the spiky animal on her shoulder.
“You were an idiot—that’s what. Get out of this stupid swamp and we can talk about it,” the cat growled back at her. Eliza transferred Pal from her shoulder with some difficulty. He was all claws and the scratches were particularly painful on her bare skin. She managed to get him to cradle in her arms but even so, his claws were out as ever and she soon had scratches on her forearms and chest too.
Eliza’s joints protested as she made her way back to the bank. Once out of the water, the cat swatted at her frozen skin and demanded “Dry us. Quick.” His wet fur gave him a mad, bug-eyed look. Eliza obeyed Pal’s order as quickly as she could.
She struggled to make her frozen fingers work. She spread them out, her whole body trembling uncontrollably, and began feeling into the water on her skin and on Pal wishing the energy to redirect itself into the air and into the ground beneath them. She felt the water trailing off them both with unnatural quickness. Her hair dried and the black cat began to loosen its grip. She continued until she felt the sticky wet fur become light and fluffy on her cheek. Pal leapt onto the ground. Eliza’s shoulder stung from the scratch wounds.
Eliza looked at the black cat. “What happened in the pool? I thought I was miles deep when you bit me.”
Pal made a most patronizing face and fixed her with a steady gaze. “You were drowning face down in a pond three feet deep. All you had to do was sit up. I should be asking you what happened.” The cat made an angry sort of growl. “I waited a while, hoping you’d come back out, but you kept thrashing around and then... you seemed to be losing the fight.”
“Oh Pal,” said Eliza, slipping her clothes back on. “I’ve never seen a sprite before—or any sort of magical creature. Can you believe the first ones I see with my own eyes almost killed me? I was sure there was something important at the bottom of the pool... I was being lured to my death.”
Pal gave himself a vigorous shake to make all his hair settle down correctly, and gave Eliza another condescending look, “You followed a light, didn’t you? Never follow strange lights!”
Eliza finished dressing and looked at her cat with sadness. “I’m sorry I made you come in after me.”
“It’s fine,” said the cat, “just as long as I still get some tuna every night and you keep humouring me when I attack your ankles from behind the curtains I’ll be happy.”
With a small smile, Eliza scooped Pal into her arms and hurried back up the path toward the school. The forest was quickly plunging into darkness. On the walk back they saw faeries, gnomes, and faces in the trees which whispered into the evening air. After her unpleasant encounter with the water sprites, Eliza was not much interested in engaging with these creatures. She broke into a jog, dropping Pal gently to the forest floor to trot along ahead of her. It was with relief she returned to the school to find Holly, who would take her to her dorm.