She gasped as her head broke free of the heavy binds pulling against her limbs’ frantic strokes. Cool relief rushed past her lips, extinguishing the flames stretching across her throat. Though just as quickly as she gulped, a revulsion occurred, and she found herself sputtering and convulsing violently. Viscous liquid poured from her mouth in heaving hacks and ragged coughs, irritating her chest until it was knotted with pain. When the onslaught finally waned, the only sounds she could make out were her own panted breaths and the pound of rushing blood in her ears.

She brought her hand up to wipe away the mess of spittle dribbling down her chin. Surprise halting her sweeping fingers as she noticed clear, shining trails along the back of her hands, disappearing into a thin, filmy white cloth plastered to her wrist. Bewildered, she traced the cloth’s origin down her arm’s length where it disappeared beneath rippling water pooled around her elbow. Confusion furrowed her brow as she turned, only to find herself flanked on all sides by water. While it went no further than her chest, the sudden realization startled her out of a stunned state and into a splashing panic.

How did I get here, and where are you?

She rubbed furiously at her eyes to clear the water that’d been blurring her vision, but the little light was nowhere to be found. Just as she thought to give up hope, a distant voice called out, “Hey, over here!”

Her head jerked up, and she winced as red curls smacked against her forehead, dripping water down the bridge of her nose. Brushing the ringlets away, she looked around for the call and squinted at the sight of a green and brown blur wavering somewhere ahead of her. Thumbing the water from her eyes, she blinked hard then looked closer. With clarity, she realized it wasn’t a blur but a person waving to her from atop a clip of grassland at the water’s edge. Her hand fell back into the water with a splash, disbelief twisting her lips into a scowl.

Perhaps that was why the little light’s voice was so distant because she was too far from the shoreline to hear them clearly.

As she treads water, the flimsy cloth surrounding her slowed her pace until she reached the shallows. Latently, her mind supplied a name for it. A nightgown, she thought as she wrenched her foot free from the sand and lake grass twisting around her ankle. The newly-dubbed fabric, wet and seeping water, clung to the back of her legs as she shuffled up onto the soft grass.

Immediately when her head connected with the warm earth, she decided it wouldn’t be too much to lie there for a moment and regain her energy. Sunlight kissed along her damp skin, lapped the water streaming down her arms and legs dry as it formed a shallow puddle underneath her body. She closed her eyes and turned her face up to the sky, basking in the gentle, balmy winds carrying a sweet scent as they combed through her waterlogged bangs.

Grass sifted somewhere nearby, and at the sound of footsteps, she opened her eyes and gazed at the upside-down stranger peering down at her. Their shadow didn’t overwhelm the light with the distance between them, but she could see it stretch long as they leaned closer. Lip curled back, and nose wrinkled as if they’d smelled something bad.

She wondered if it was her. Affront, joined by awareness of her current state, spurred her to her feet and startled the stranger, who stepped back with a gasp. “You’re alive,” they exclaimed joyfully, laughing sprightly while holding their belly and head. “Oh, you had me worried there for a breath. Flopped up on the shore like a fish out of water, then just lied there.”

Her cheeks burned hot as peal after peal of laughter racked the stranger’s trembling frame, stumbling from one foot to the oher while trying to hold themself upright. She didn’t see what was so funny about watching someone almost drown, but the stranger laughed as if they’d been told the funniest joke. Reaching her whits end, she marched up to them, ignoring the dirt and blades of grass squished between her toes or the clumps flicked from her nightgown with each stride.

“I thought you would never get out of there,” the stranger managed to say through another titter of laughter. Eyes as gold as the sun curved up into crescent moons pinched at their corners, one closed while the other cracked to take another peek at her. “Look more like a drowned ratbird than a sleeping princess, but even those can swim.” Their eyes popped open wide when she was within grabbing reach, and they held up their hands, warding her off with outstretched palms. “Aye, aye, but you’re close enough.”

She scrunched her nose, stopping about a hand’s length away from them. Flecks of water flicked from her hanging sleeves landing on the evergreen vest snugly wrapped and dry around them. “Hmph…!” Her sopping sleeves slapped against her sides as she withdrew, tossing a glare toward them. “I caught you, and those were the first words you have for me?”

The stranger’s brow arched so high it vanished in dusky brown locks shading their eyes. “You caught me?” They cocked their head to one side, then clicked their tongue. A finger raised flicked between the two of them. “Don’t you have this a ways around, Miss?”

Bewilderment twisted her lips into a frown. “And how is that?” This close, she noticed that their eyes weren’t so much as gold but a light shade of brown. Uncertainty filled her stomach like stones. “Didn’t you tell me that if I was curious to come find you?”

The stranger squared slim shoulders, hands perched on their hips as they shook their head. “Hoo, maybe you’ve had too much water in your ears….” Just as she was to take affront to those words, they continued. “I haven’t spoken to y’ at all. Least not face to face. You’ve been down there ever since I came across this place.”

Shock at the revelation stunned her to silence, and for a brief moment, all she could do was stare. Amusement had once lit up the stranger’s eyes, but now they were heavy and dark with something else. Her mind placed it as concern, but she told herself she was in no need of it. Willing her tongue to work, she murmured, “… I beg your pardon?”

“Beg away,” the stranger said in what she assumed was a jest, but her glare made them clear their throat and try again. “I just mean you’ve been in Lake Mnemoyse for quite a while now, and I think I’d remember talking to someone like you.”

Someone like her? The conflict between wanting to ask what he meant and peering over her shoulder at the lake she emerged from settled in the latter winning out. Had she really been sleeping there all of this time? Placid waters, crystalline clear in their hue, but she could see little beneath the surface glimmering beneath the sunlight. Hidden depths unknown to her, but she could remember how dark it had been. Something pulling her down, coaxing with sweet words. She shivered at the thought of her consciousness ebbed and flowing away from her body.

She wondered what would have happened to her if she had stayed there and hadn’t chased after the light. Was that place really a dream, or would it have been her final resting place if she lingered any longer? If she dove beneath the water again, would she find it?

“But it’s good to see you’re still lively,” the stranger’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts, and she whipped her head around to look at their face. Their nose scrunched up, and she realized the water still clinging to her hair must have flung on their face. A part of her thought it served them right for ridiculing her earlier; another was somewhat grateful they called her back before the lake could pull her in. They gave a dopey smile from ear to ear, eyes scrunched up. “I’ve been waiting for you to wake up for awhile, y’know?”

She murmured testily, “Yes, you told me that before.”

The stranger’s smile fell with a disgruntled sigh. “You’re really out of it, huh?” The dismay coloring their words left a bitter taste in her mouth, and she stubbornly averted her gaze. Her odds were stacked in the two being one and the same, but as she tried to grasp the little light’s voice once more, all she could hear was the pitched, clear ringing of a bell. “Speaking of, how did you even hold your breath that long? Anyone would get dizzy if they were underwater long as you’ve been, and I doubt sleep magick could do that..”

I was stuck in a dream, she wanted to tell them. My dream while drifting to the bottom of this godsforsaken lake like a rock.

Occupied in drawing out that memory once more, she paid little mind to the stranger’s musings. Searching for motes of light drifting between colorful waxy heads of flowers sprouting across the sea of green beyond the lake’s shore.

“Hang on,” a snap drew her attention back to the stranger who was gesturing excitedly. “Are you an aquan?”

She squinted, echoing back the word slowly, “Aq..uan..?”

“Well, some of ‘em like to be called merpeople,” the stranger explained, cupping their hands beneath the sides of their jaw where they wiggled their fingers in a gesture she didn’t quite understand. “But there’s so many that….” They stared at her then cleared their throat, dropping one hand while the other rubbed at the back of their neck. “Ah, never mind.”

She appreciated knowing they could feel even a bit of embarrassment, especially after she’d been the one thrown off her game this long. Victory only holds for a fleeting moment when she felt a strange burning sensation at the tip of her nose. Shielding her face with a hand, she sneezed into her palm, startling them both.

“Oof, come over here,” the stranger ordered. She heard the sound of footsteps and whispering grass further away from her, peeping beneath her lashes at their retreating back. “I’ll get a fire started….” They trailed off in a murmur she barely caught, “Should’ve done that first.”