To Catch Fire: The Nixie

Sam and Rena were merchants. They let Edgar sit and ride on one of their carts, which was drawn by a mule. The women took turns riding while the other led the mules along. The dirt path rose until they were far above the beach, traveling along a cliff. The jungle thinned as they climbed, until they could see the crisp horizon all around them.

"I saw lots of junk around the waters we found you at," Rena said, breaking the silence, "you know anything about that?"

"Shipwreck," Edgar curtly said, "a bad storm. I remember being on that ship when it went down."

"You're a castaway!? Where were you going?"

He glumly shrugged. "Dunno. I don't remember anything." Then, he thought to ask, "where are we, anyway?"

"Right now we're basically straddling Occita and Vesitha, following the coast to get around the mountains," Sam explained aloud from up ahead, walking alongside the mules. "You know what I'm talking about?"

A map materialized in Edgar's mind. He scanned the horizon, and a pin appeared on the map, upon the small concave of the sealine, just short of the border between the two Imperial Realms.

"Kingdom of, uh," Edgar closed his eyes, his inner eye squinting at the map, "Callione, right?"

"Exactly so," Rena said, coldly, "you're good with the geography, for an amnesiac. You seemed to know a thing or two about sea-wenches as well."

"Nixies," he corrected, shrugging again, "and I can't explain it, but yes. I know-- well, quite a bit actually." He gestured to the cliffs. "Like, I know there's schools of slimes and barnacles thriving in the foam that laps at the cliffs below. And," he then pointed behind, towards the lush greens, "there's carnivorous plant-kin deep in those jungles, with vines spanning across whole acres."

He then turned to Rena, a new fire in his eyes. "It's like, I know all these things, but I don't remember."

"You know your name," Sam pointed out.

"No. That's just what the nixie called me."

There was a long pause. Edgar spontaneously asked Rena, "hey. You like songs and poems and stuff?"

Cautiously, she answered, "yeah?"

"You know one that goes something like,

"All the lady's ladies

"Pluck round red cherries,

"Stepping and twirling,

"Around the tall white daisies.

"Praying to their lady

"'Forgive us our follies.'

"Who then stands up with knife and cup

"And says--?"

Another silence. Rena said to Sam: "Hey. I'll throw the tail into the sea right now if it means we can leave this--"

Sam interrupted, her hand raised, "we'll take him to the Sister at Cabercleur. And then we'll be on our way. I reckon we'll be there before sundown, easy." She turned to Rena, adding gruffly, "by the Mother, Rena! He's odd and probably a bit sick but he's one of us! God, I swear you get colder and colder as the years--"

"Kidding!" Rena shouted. And then, turning to Edgar, "kidding. I was kidding. It's good we came upon you. You know. Before you were a corpse."

"Yeah," Edgar said, absentmindedly, watching the beach slowly vanish, barely a thread beyond the jagged rocks and eroded crags.

He felt an excitement, like an impending thrill. Beneath it was a murmur of sadness and anxiety, not just for the nixie, but for something else. He just couldn't remember what.

~To be continued. Thanks for reading this story! I love receiving any and all kinds of feedback, so please share your thoughts by commenting.