Halia stumbled towards the sound of waves crashing beyond the trees.  If she could just make it to the ocean, she could. . .well, she wasn’t sure.  She just knew she had to get to the water.  It was what the white stag had told her to do.

She had already been wandering aimlessly around the woods for days when she had found the stag.  Or, rather, when the stag had found her.  After the disaster that had been Seri’s Ascension, Halia had taken to the woods at her father’s behest to track down whatever it was that had caused Seri’s magic not to come.  Not that Halia had any idea how to go about finding it, or even what the reason could be.  Her father had said that he had chosen her because she had a ‘connection’ to the Winter magic as it had the same origin as the summer magic Halia had as the Heredem Aestas, Heir to Summer. 

Of course, Halia hadn’t been able to say no to her father.  She never could.  She didn’t regret saying yes, yet.  She did regret not preparing better.  She had had to slip in the chaos after Seri’s Ascension or else she never would have been able to leave.  So, she hadn’t been able to take anything with her but the clothes on her back.

Those clothes had happened to be the white dress she had worn to the Ascension.  It was beautiful, or, it had been, before it had been torn by branches and dragged the mud.  Now it was little more than expensive rags.

The stag had appeared only after Halia had collapsed from exhaustion on the forest floor.  She had been trying so hard to find something, anything that she had forgotten to eat.  Or sleep.  Or drink.  Apparently, that, along with physical exertion, led to her body shutting down and forcing her to rest.

As she had slowly opened her eyes, the first thing she had seen was an expanse of white.  At first, she thought that snow had fallen while she slept.  But no, she wasn’t cold.  And whatever surrounded her was soft.  As the world came into focus, Halia realized that the white expanse was part of an animal; a large, pure white stag.

He was curled up around her, providing his warmth to her body.  His blue eyes watched her patiently as Halia looked around in confusion.  From his head emerged a pair of magnificent antlers.  Noticing that she was awake, he blinked slowly.

“What. . .how. . .when did you get here?” She asked.  Halia wasn’t sure why she was talking to a deer.  It wasn’t like he could understand her.  He snorted.

From above Halia, a bird twittered.  Halia glanced up and saw a blue bird flutter onto one of the stag’s antlers.

INSERT CONNECTION HERE

Halia finally stumbled out of the woods, revealing the crashing ocean below her.  Just a little ways in front of her, the land dropped away in sheer cliffs.  Gulls circled overhead, calling out to each other.  A cool breeze whipped the musty scent of salt and seaweed up from the waters. 

Halia wrinkled her nose.  The scent of the sea on this side of Leve was so different than what she was used to.  Her father’s estate had been on the opposite side of the small island continent from where she was now, and a several hours journey from the beach.  When she had visited the ocean, the sun had always been shining.  The smell there was fresh and the water was warm.  This day was overcast and the smell was more like piles of kelp were rotting on the shore.  Halia wrapped her arms around herself.  The air was chilly here, too. Why would the stag have sent me here?

She peered over the edge of the cliffs. A little ways to her side there was a small path down them.  It looked like someone might have carved some steps out of it long ago.  Maybe native Levians going to the ocean in search of food.  Halia shrugged and made her way carefully down the cliffs.  It wasn’t easy in her tattered white dress, but she managed.

When she made it down to the beach, she took a moment to look around.  The water was gray-blue, with waves that crashed against the shore.  The beach itself was littered with rocks and shells that dug into Halia’s bare feet.  She had discarded her heeled shoes long before exiting the forest.

The stag had mentioned something about someone being there to help her, someone who could answer her questions about Seri’s lack of magic.  But the beach was abandoned.  There was no other living creature on the shore.  Wait a minute…Halia thought.  She peered out into the waves and…there. A little ways out from shore, a figure was sitting on a rock.

“Hello?” Halia called out, moving closer to the figure.  It tensed and turned towards her, giving Halia her first good look at the creature.  Halia’s breath caught.  The creature’s head and torso looked almost fae, practically just like Halia’s own body.  It had long, golden hair that flowed over its shoulders and pooled at it’s waist.  Halia blushed as she realized that the only thing this creature was wearing was a conglomeration of shells and corals that barely covered its breasts.  The creatures eyes were a vivid violet that looked back at Halia, obviously analyzing her much as she was analyzing it.

From the waist down was where it became obvious that this creature was not fae.  Where Halia had legs, this creature had a fish tail.  It was long and powerful, with scales of varying shades of green and blue.  The creature was sitting with it hanging down over the rock, the fluke dangling just above the water.  The fluke was almost whale-like in shape, but ribbed like a fish’s would have been.  Its edges were the same colors as the rest of the creature’s tail, but the center faded to streaks of violet and darker purple, like the creature’s eyes.  Higher up on the tail, several other pairs of similarly colored fins rested alongside it.  Another pair of fins-almost like wings-stretched from the creatures back.

Halia had never seen a creature like this in-person, but she had read about them.  “A mer-sprite,” she whispered in awe.

The creature twitched a webbed ear and raised its eyebrows at Halia. “It’s just ‘mer’ actually,” it corrected.  Halia startled at hearing the creature speak in her language.  It’s voice was rougher than she had thought it would be, though distinctly feminine.  It spoke with an accent Halia couldn’t quite place.