The Nymph
Cynthia gazed up into the man’s eyes, grasping his arm with her delicate fingers while her sisters crowded around her. Nimue cupped her hands, offering the man pearls she had collected from the bottom of the lake. For some years, she had been weaving them into her hair. However, she found they encouraged knots and gradually stopped.
“What. . .what do you want with me?” the man asked, his voice shaking slightly.
Cynthia’s voice came out musically. “Come for a swim,” she said. “We shan’t harm you.”
“Yes, do come in,” Nimue encouraged.
The sisters were joined by a chorus of agreement.
Hearing a shift in the water behind her, Nimue looked over her shoulder. Lydia, the sisters’ cousin, had joined them. She waded through the water to the group clumsily. The sisters found it difficult to not roll their eyes.
The man’s eyes flicked upward at the sound as well, breaking his stare from Cynthia.
“Hello,” he said. “Who are you?”
“Lydia, daughter of Argus. These are my cousins,” she said, gesturing around her.
“Your cousins? All of them?”
“Yes.” Lydia caught a water bug on her finger and pressed it down. “Water bugs drown, you know,” she said thoughtfully.
He nodded absently, drawing his arm away from Cynthia and moving closer to where Lydia was though still avoiding the water. “I’ve heard that,” he said. As his attention shifted to Lydia, the other nymphs scoffed and swam away, embarrassed by Lydia.
Lydia watched her cousins drift away without making a sound. She dragged her finger on the surface of the water in circles.
“Are you going to stay?” she asked.
The man crouched by the water then sat down fully, toying with a piece of grass in front of him.
“It was not originally in my plans. Your cousins were trying to convince me.”
“Yes, they do that.”
“Do you?”
Lydia placed her hand over her chest and looked at the man with large eyes. “Me?”
He laughed. “Yes, you.”
She looked down into the water and shook her head slowly. “No, I do not.”
“Why not?” he asked. “You are a nymph, are you not?”
“I am.” For a moment, she held her head up proudly. Her chin sank back down.
“Is something the matter?”
“Oh! No, no. I’m fine.”
“You – that was quite an odd way to answer my question.”
“Yes, I suppose it was.” Lydia concentrated on the weed which had floated before her.
“You’re kind of strange, aren’t you?”
She offered a few short, feminine laughs. “Yes, quite. My cousins certainly think so, at least.”
“And why is that?”
“You ask an awful lot of questions.”
He stood at full height and Lydia tilted her head, squinting into the sun to see him.
“I’m a curious man,” he said. “Would you like to ask a question of me? I promise to answer it as best I can – given I feel you are trustworthy of knowing the answer.”
Lydia took one step back in the water, as if she were surprised he had asked, in a sense, what she wanted. That certainly never happened with her cousins.
“Oh!” she said again. “Well, I. . .what is your name?”
“Vesper,” he said, “son of Gregorius.”
“Evening.”
“Sorry?”
“Your name. It means ‘evening.’”
“Yes,” he said, crouching down again, leaning further over the water and closer to Lydia. “And are you from Lydia?” he asked.
Lydia blushed. “No. I’m afraid not. My mother is.”
“Well, if I understand the human body correctly, then you are as well.”
She laughed. “You forget I am not human.”
Vesper grinned. “I imagine it works roughly the same way. Nymphs are able to travel out of water then?”
Lydia shrugged. “I’ve heard rumors that my mother was human. It is very unusual to have a male nymph – my father – and a female who is lured to him. My father’s sister – that is my cousins’ mother – lured a man. This is why I am quite an outcast in their circle.”
“Oh, so you did notice it? I was hoping you had not.”
“Yes, well, I’ve lived with them for nearly twenty-two years now.”
“You’re that old then? Twenty-one?”
“Too old?” she asked. “Not that I—“
“No, not at all. I merely meant—“ He cut himself off. “I’m twenty-four myself.”
“Really? I would not have guessed you older than twenty.”
“My mother always said I had the face of a child. I suppose this will be an asset when I am older. I shall not have younger people tugging at my clothes for a piece of wisdom.” Vesper sat down fully again and edged closer to the water. He stuck his foot out over it.
“Oh, you ought not to do that!” Lydia said, shooing his foot away, but not touching it.
“Why is that?”
“The water is. . .enchanted. All nymph dwellings are. If you touch the water, you will be tied to a nymph who makes it her home.”
“Maybe that is exactly what I want,” he said. He dipped his foot lower.
“No! I could not let you do that.”
“You are a nymph, aren’t you?”
She shook her head.
“I was right,” Vesper continued. “You are strange. I was under the impression that nymphs lived for this kind of ‘error’.”
“Not I,” she said.
“Why is that?”
“I have always supposed that was not my destiny. My cousins—“
“Why should you allow your cousins’ opinions rule your life? Opinions, by nature, are not factual. You do know that, right?”
“Of course I do, I—“
“Good.” Vesper dunked his foot into the water before Lydia could say another word.
She gasped suddenly and Vesper slid off the bank into the water fully, still clothed.
“You—“
“Hush,” he said, pressing his finger to her lips. “Tell me something,” Vesper said, tilting his head, “do your cousins think you’re rather pretty?”
“Quite not, I’d think. You see, I hear them whisper while they comb each other’s hair.”
“I see. Have they any suitors?”
“Suitors? Nymphs do not—“
“You understand what I mean, Lydia. Please do not play games.”
“Well, yes, a few, I suppose.”
“I see. And do these suitors suppose you are pretty?”
Lydia shook her head.
“Pity. Although, I suppose it only helps my case. You understand, Lydia. Don’t you?”
“Understand what?”
“Oh, beautiful, simple girl!”
Vesper wrapped his arms around Lydia’s waist and spun her in the water. When he stopped, his hands fell to her hips, holding her still.
“I am going to kiss you,” he announced quietly.
Lydia could only nod stupidly.
Vesper pressed his mouth to Lydia’s, one of his hands moving up her back and into her water-heavy hair.
“I think you are quite pretty. I – well, hmmm. Do you think you could live on land?”
Still dazed, Lydia attempted to answer. “I could try.”
“Would you? I fear a life exclusively spent in the water might not serve me well. That is, would kill me, quite literally.”
“Yes.”
Vesper stepped out onto the bank again gracefully and held his hand out for Lydia. As she took it, she glanced over her shoulder. Her cousins had entirely disappeared.
“Goodbye, my cousins,” she said to the water.
And then Vesper began to lift her up.
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