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Friend of the Sprites

The prompt today is "Mermaid". And ... well, water sprites are sort of like mermaids! Their leg fins could make their legs look like mermaid tails if you squint ... That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

~~~

A storm threatened on the far horizon, promising that before the night came the world would be drenched in cool rain. Dead leaves scattered in the wind. Such ambience was the perfect setting for his arrival. The ambience of autumn suited him, from his tendency to wear cozy sweaters to the way his vibrant red hair whipped in even the small breezes, giving him that effortless mussed look. Combine it with his thick glasses and the worn shoulder bag that went everywhere with him, and Louis appeared perpetually ready for the start of a new fall semester, despite having graduated three years prior.

Not that the residents of Fallon Park cared much. They saw many people in the day to day comings and goings through the park, and Louis was one of the only ones that made a point to greet the park’s hidden denizens when he could.

His unmistakable style and the bright color of his hair preceded him, and the water sprites of the pond waited just beneath the surface, peeking around lily pads and reeds. Even with a storm on the way, they’d be ready to return his friendly hello.

He shifted his bag to his other side as he paused by the pond. Kel and the others waited as he glanced this way and that. Ever careful, was their Louis. He wouldn’t acknowledge them until he could ascertain that no one else was around, and no one would notice him talking to the pond. When he finally looked down, they were all assured that he hadn’t seen another human too close to bother with him. The nice thing about the park, something the water sprites had long accepted, humans that came there were often far too preoccupied with their own lives and worries to pay the life under the surface of the pond any attention.

Louis squatted down and Kel grinned. He and the others all raced upwards, their fin wings rippling and the fins on their legs spreading as wide as they would go to lend them speed. They broke the surface at about the same time, each clearing nearly a foot before they had to flip backwards in graceful arcs to dive back into the water with small but no less jubilant splashes.

When Kel resurfaced to tread water with the other six or seven water sprites that had jumped with him, Louis was laughing and wiping his glasses with a swatch of soft cloth that he never let the water sprites swim off with, though they’d tried once or twice. “Yes, hello,” he said, replacing the glasses on his nose. “Do you splash my glasses like that on purpose, or does it just come with knowing a bunch of watery troublemakers?”

“What if it’s both?” Kel called up, his voice coy and hushed. Speaking up while out of the water had always seemed dangerous to him. Most of the pond’s denizens felt that way. But they couldn’t talk to Louis any other way, so they had to. “Maybe you’re asking for it, being so splashable.”

Louis raised his eyebrows, eyes widening in a very good imitation of pure shock. “Kel, after everything! And you lead this charge against me.”

His dramatics earned raspy laughter from the diminutive water sprites gathered before him. The sound broke him out of his character and he grinned, a truly beaming expression on his pale face. He thought the water sprites were cute, with their butterfly-like fin wings and the found-object fashion they employed, wearing cast off items as accessories.

He was right, really, by Kel’s estimation. He and the other water sprites were adorable.

“Isn’t it Saturday,” one of the other sprites piped up, ducking her head partially back into the water when the human’s attention turned on her. She popped back up again to finish her question in spite of her startle reaction. “You don’t do office things on Saturdays.”

Louis nodded. “You are correct, it’s Saturday and I’m not going to work today. I came just to see you.”

“Did you bring something?” another sprite asked. Kel splashed at them.

“I did, actually,” Louis replied, glancing at the bag at his side while he rummaged within it. The water sprites drifted closer, eager despite all warnings against coming too close to the bank. They gasped when Louis pulled his hand out of the bag again in a quick motion, surprised by his speed, and then distracted by the tidy spool of twine he held up for all to see.

“Strong rope! All of that is for us?” someone asked. “How much is there?!”

Louis lowered it towards the water for the sprites to get a closer look. Indeed, they drifted closer, reaching up to touch the rough texture. Kel grasped some of the twine experimentally. It was sturdy.

“It’s three feet of twine,” Louis explained. “The weather report says that the storm is going to be pretty rough later. I wanted to make sure you all had enough to lash everything down, just in case the wind is strong enough to upset the pond.”

He was so kind, compared to how awful the sprites knew some humans could be. Kel smiled up at him. “You spoil us, Louis. Absolutely rotten.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “Sure. Just don’t go using this twine to pull any pranks, okay? I’ll never hear the end of it.”

He certainly wouldn’t, if any of the older water sprites bothered to come up to scold him in person. Kel shook his head. “We make no promises, human. No promises at all.”

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