The Mystic Water

The water rippled and glided between my fingertips. Lifting my wet hands from the water I watched with awe. The water moved and swirled and I felt its pull. Its pure and gleaming light entranced me. I reached out again, to the stream that held my interest for so long. I had never been allowed near it, but today I had snuck away a few hours before dawn, out of the comfort of my home to look at this stream. This was indeed the water from which legends were created. I contemplated on whether to tell my mother where I was going, but the thought had been quickly dismissed. I was forbidden to go near the stream. We all knew it was there but no one had ever set eyes on it. That's what the stories told. But how would anyone know it was there if no one had ever seen it? That was the very question I had asked my mother a week before. And for my efforts what had I achieved but a beating and disapproving looks from the elders.

On my way home from school yesterday I had stopped outside my home when I heard the voices from within. It was something all children learned at a young age. Never enter your home if there was a guest in attendance unless you were given permission to come in. It was a stupid rule from what I thought. Why should one be forbidden from entering her own home? But then there was nothing I could do about it. I listened to the voices inside. After a few moments I recognized them as the elders.
"You have bore a disrespectful and rebellious child Habath, and what are we to do but discipline her? She ventures near the river every chance she gets. The only thing that stops her is the guards we put just outside of the village gates. I will say this one last time but then no more. The mystic waters must not be seen!"

After hearing this I made my mind up. I had decided to learn what the villagers were hiding. They called me rebellious, but I was only curious as were the other children my age. They called me disrespectful, but in my eyes I was the only one brave enough to learn for myself what secrets the mystic water held. That very night as I sat across the kitchen table I stared into my mother’s worried eyes. She had been quiet for the longest time but I knew when she was set to speak. She put down the fork she had been eating with and crossed her arms across her chest. She looked at me firmly and spoke the words I knew were coming. “The elders want you to stop going near the stream.”

I rolled my eyes with a sigh. It frustrated me but I knew if my plan should work I had to play along. “...very well. I won’t go near it again.”

She watched me silently for the next few minutes as I picked at my food and I knew she did not believe my words. “I promise mother.” These were words I did not want to speak. I regretted lying to her but what else could I do? I needed to know the truth. I picked up my plate and took it over to the sink across the room. As I turned towards my bedroom however her arms came around me and gathered me into her warm embrace.

“I worry about you.”

“Don’t.” I smiled at her softly and returned her hug before leaving the room.

The sun had not yet risen when I set my plan into motion. I made my way out of the house tiptoeing as I went. I walked quickly towards the gates and hid behind a large tree just within the compound. I sat behind that tree for the longest time in wait of what I knew would occur. I dozed off there for a while although I tried my best to keep my eyes open. When I awoke, it was to hear the footsteps of the guards outside the gate. Here was what I had been waiting for. It would be dawn soon. This was the time when the guards changed shifts. But this was also the time where the guard posts stood deserted for not but a few seconds. My heart rate quickened along with my breathing when the footsteps grew nearer and soon they were past me. It was now or never. I didn’t think. I just ran. I ran and didn’t look back until I reached my destination.

I looked into the stream now expecting to see my reflection, but what I saw there scared me to no ends. I saw darkness. And suddenly I could see no stream, nor the green of the grass or the trees. Darkness surrounded and enveloped me; the scream that left me was silent. I tried to clutch at something, anything, but I was surrounded by nothingness. "This is a burden you shall carry alone." The deep voice was all that sounded before my mind faded and with it the knowledge of being.

I could hear the whispers around me and feel the pounding in my head. As memories surrounded me I awoke with a start. I heard the gasps and saw the shocked yet fearful expressions on the faces of the villagers. I saw my mother cowering in the corner of the room her mouth agape, her eyes wide, tears streaked over her cheeks. I got up from the bed which I had been lying on and the crowd parted and backed away as I made my way over to her. Her eyes seemed to get larger and I watched as she pressed herself back against the wall as if hoping to become one with it.

"Mother." I whispered and shock overwhelmed me as, what I heard was not my own voice but a sound, a language, which I had never heard before. I spun looking around the room and ignoring the murmurs and shrieks and walked swiftly towards my destination. And what I saw there unnerved me more than any of the expressions I had seen so far, more than the fear I had seen in my mothers eyes. For this creature standing here there was not me but something I had never seen before. Its pupils were silvery-white and seemed as if they were narrowed into slits, they were almost faded and its face as pale as snow and white hair streaked with silver. And as I stood there staring at the creature- no... monster that I saw reflected in the mirror I heard those words again.

"This is a burden you shall carry alone." It was then that I realized it. That it was me the villagers feared. It was I who had brought tears to my mother's eyes. It was me who was this monster I saw reflected in the mirror. And I shrieked with all the pain and regret that boiled up inside me. I cried as I realized the price of ignorance. And the villagers watched as I fled from the home which I had known my entire life, past the gates which were meant to keep these poor souls at bay, to guard forever a people that I once was.