Aliandra: nymph: Book 1 The Nymph chronicles Read online

  "I don't know if I can hunt any animal for food. Hides are important to keep warm and make shoes and clothing here. This is the custom of my immortal family. I wanted to be part of it" moaned Ali.

  "The custom is that men hunt and women cook, so you haven't failed any great test here. The men are still keen to show you how to make a good bow and arrows. They will take you fishing tomorrow too. Your progress is beyond what any of them expected, faster than most of the boys they taught. They say you have accomplished much in a short time and are very accurate. Nothing is stopping you from continuing to practise and improve with the bow" impressed grandma. "Lunch is ready. Are you coming down?"

  "I can't sulk here all day" said Ali with a watery smile.

  "Good girl. Always did like that steel in your spine" grinned grandma.

  The days passed crammed with activity with Ali always accompanied by at least ten elder men outside the fortress. Ali was taught different ways to catch fish from flicking them out from their hiding spots along the river bank onto the grass, to stabbing them with a spear and line fishing with a cord and hook. Ali and the elders had finished off a large basket of food after spending the entire morning fishing. While the men rested Ali took her bow and decided to practise. Rom followed her away for the river and into a small valley. He took his position on a ledge to laze in the sun and watch over her as she set up her targets.

  After an hour, Rom growled low. Ali heard some bushes moving in the distance. Ali got down low and watched carefully in the direction of the noise. A man with a gun stood and silently moved position. Ali watched as the stranger took aim in their direction. She saw the gun was sighted in Rom's direction. Ali nocked up her arrow and aimed for the barrel of the gun, hoping to get close and scare him away. She fired. Her arrow hit the barrel as the gun fired and the stranger's shot missed. Rom moved quickly towards Ali and the stranger stood to take aim at Rom. Ali nocked her arrow again quickly, aimed and fired. Her bolt shot directly down the gun barrel as the stranger pulled the trigger. The gun exploded out of his hands. Ali heard the elders running toward her. Rom reached her side and snarled in the direction of the stranger.

  "Ali!" called the elders.

  "I'm here" she called back "I'm fine. There is a stranger over there who was aiming at Rom with his gun" she said as she pointed in the stranger's direction. The men returned with the damaged gun.

  "He's gone. Did you get a good look at him?"

  "No, it was so fast" she replied.

  The men crowded around the gun to examine it. "You shot this arrow, Ali?" asked one.

  "Yes" she replied as her knees got too wobbly for her to stand. She sat down on the grass.

  "Have a look at what you did to the gun, Ali. The arrow went straight up the barrel. That was a mighty fine shot and it was a good distance" a man said.

  "I was practising and I had my eye trained in good" she responded as she put head between her knees and breathed deeply.

  "Rom, it looks like this little girl saved your hide" said an elder.

  Rom brushed his body up against Ali's arms. "Rom was heading to me to protect me. You are my hero, Rom!" Ali hugged Rom as he snuggled in to her hold.

  "How are you feeling, Ali?" asked an elder.

  "A little shaky still. I need a few more minutes to calm down" she replied.

  "I will stay, the rest can pack up and ready the steeds, then return here for us" said Kitch's dad. When the men left he said "You did good, Ali."

  "How did the stranger disappear so quickly?"

  "He could be an immortal hunting on our lands. We will register a complaint with the council. They don't ever do much, so it is more of a formality. The stranger is unlikely to return after experiencing your marksmanship up close and personal" he grinned. He grew serious "Ali, it is only through experience that we discover who we are and what we are capable of. It is our choices of what we will or won't do that we define ourselves. Your unwillingness to bring harm to a defenseless creature in your sights is a sign of who you are. Nymphs usually protect the forests and its animals. You bravely defended Rom from a determined hunter, twice. We tribal immortals respect your courage and your values. We love you as our daughter. The rabbit incident was not your failure; but ours, for not seeing you clearly enough. You opened our eyes to who you are and we love you exactly how you are" he stated.

  "My nymph friends said that we were related closely to elves. They are good with bows and arrows too. Can we make the bow and arrows tomorrow?" said Ali meekly.

  "We will cut the wood from a small tree on our return to make the bow. If you like we can carve designs into it" he said.

  "I will draw the designs" she stated.

  The elders returned with the steeds in to and Ali climbed onto her steed. Rom followed her with a flick of his tail. The group slowly made its way through the shaded winding paths of the forest. They stopped to choose a sapling for Ali's bow. Once done the leaves and branches were stripped and carried by one of the trailing elders. When they remounted Ali gasped as a stomach cramp struck her.

  "OK Ali?" asked the nearby elder.

  "A cramp. It is starting. My keening is close. I think today may be my last taste of freedom outside the fortress walls for a while" gasped Ali.

  When the group returned to the fortress there was much whispered discussion about the hunting incident. Ali went to her room to lay down as more cramps hit. Grandma knocked on her door and entered.

  "Ali, you will have to remain in the hall for now. We suspect the immortal today may have been hunting you as he was close enough to have caught your early keening scent. We will have to take more precautions to keep you safe. It will mean your freedoms will become very limited, very quickly. We will have to get more braves to patrol the forest outside the affected zones to hunt the immortal. Saying that, we will have to put you in the sphere earlier than expected to limit the affected zones. We do not want any immortal to track you here. We will bathe you tonight and put you in the sphere" she said.

  "Right now grandma, I am feeling so lousy I can't think straight. I will put myself in your capable hands" Ali replied.

  "Are you hungry, child?"

  "No, I think my eating days are over" she grumbled.

  "We will draw you bath to prepare you. It is best if you stay in the sphere naked once you are cleaned up" said grandma.

  "Anything you want. I'm all yours" said Ali with a weary grin.

  The bath was carried into Ali's room and filled with steaming water direct from the fires. The hot water soothed Ali's cramps a little. When she was finished Ali stepped out onto a clean mat while grandma attached a controller device on the back of her neck. Grandma activated the device and a glass-like sphere formed around Ali.

  "The sphere regulates your surroundings to provide the maximum comfort during your keening. It keeps a check on your vital signs too. We have arranged transportable collection containers for your scent. I have brought in some math and physics schoolwork to keep you focused on. I will have whiteboards set up in your room with the problems so you don't get bored. The more you dwell on the pain and feel sorry for yourself, the more it will hurt. Try to compartmentalize it and focus on something else to make the time pass more quickly" insisted grandma.

  "Bring on the schoolwork, grandma. I am ready for that sucker. Can Rom stay with me?" asked Ali

  "I will let him in. He is fretting outside your door" said grandma.

  Grandma soon set up the schoolwork and Rom was happily perched on her bed.

  "No rest for the wicked, hey Rom?" grinned Ali as she began to tackle math problems on the white board. Grandma came in regularly to write down her solutions. Solving problem after problem took so much of her focus that it, Ali suspected, it was becoming more like meditation. The sphere began to mist up because of her scent and Ali had to wipe it clean with her hand. As night set in Ali's exhaustion hit her and she slept soundly.

  In the morning grandma entered with a large jug of ambrosia and a funnel.

&n
bsp; "Ali, I have some ambrosia for you to try to drink. You need to keep up your fluids. The funnel goes with the sphere so we can get food and drink into you during the keening. I will pour it from the top and you put up your hand when you want me to stop. Rom, you can go outside and hunt" ordered grandma.

  As Rom sauntered outside, Ali got on her knees and tilted her head up as grandma inserted the funnel and then tipped the ambrosia into it. She drank greedily as the ambrosia soothed her aching body. Finally Ali raised her hand to stop.

  "Rest now. Work on the problems later. While you are doing that, the elders will be scattering your bathwater over different parts of the forest to throw the immortal hunter off the scent, so to speak. Your scattered diluted scent may make the braves dazed and confused if they get caught up in it but they will have to deal with that. They were discussing about setting up traps for the immortal using a little of your stronger scent essence. I will keep you updated" said grandma.

  Ali couldn't work up any interest in the outside world right now. She was feeling a little drunk on ambrosia and was wondering if she could stay inebriated on ambrosia for the entirety of her keening. This ain't so bad. I hope grandma has plenty of ambrosia as backup for the next few weeks.

  Chapter 9

  The immortal hunter settled down in his cave as he watched over the Peyton fortress.

  Hundreds of braves were sent into the forests to patrol and hunt for the immortal trespasser. All elders stayed close to the fortress. The walls of the fortress were scrubbed and bleached to remove any sign of Ali's scent.

  Trak had followed the trespasser's trail leading toward the fortress before it vanished. Trak, Donny and Kitch met their father outside the fortress gates to advise him the trespasser knew Ali's location. Their father ordered more braves to be sent around the surrounding area and into caves to hunt him down.

  The immortal watched an incensed group of braves close in on his position and he worked out his next move. He was bemused by the extreme response to his incursion. He hid as the group passed by him and he followed them to eavesdrop on their conversation. A word, a name, was repeated by the outraged braves. Ali. The cave system was swarming with braves so he considered it was time to withdraw back to the underworld.

  Chapter 10

  Ali tried to focus on the problem before her but her thoughts swam hazily around her head. Three weeks in a little glass bubble. I am going to kick that hunter's ass if I ever meet him. The pain of the keening was not exaggerated as wave upon wave of cramps shuddered through her body. To add insult to injury, Ali was seriously grumpy and hormonal. The elder women tended to Ali constantly with drinks of ambrosia, nourishing soups and food mash pushed down the funnel. Containers were constantly filled with her scent and stored in rooms beneath the fortress.

  Outside was a constant hive of activity as the braves and elders kept a watchful eye on the fortress and regularly set out to seek any further signs of the trespasser. Rom scratched at her door to be let in. An elder opened the door for him and closed it behind him. Rom sprang up on the bed.

  "I am so jealous of you right now, Rom" growled Ali.

  Rom playfully rolled on his back and began purring like an engine.

  Grandma knocked and entered. "How are you doing, Ali?"

  "Gloriously! I'm just about to put on my bonnet and promenade down Main Street" answered Ali.

  "Still enough energy to be sassy. You are fine" responded grandma.

  "Grandma, the focus and problem solving has helped so far but I feel something big building and the more I clamp down on it the more powerfully it pushes back. I cannot stop the shaking and it grows worse each day. It is like a tidal wave with a force building it beyond anything I can stop. It is going to crash through soon and I just hope this sphere survives it. You must evacuate" said Ali.

  "We will clear the area. How much longer can you hold it back and what do we need to do?" asked grandma.

  "Two days, maybe three. Clear the fortress and the surrounding area. Take Rom and all the animals to a safe distance. Keep back at least a kilometer from here and wait. You will know when it is over" said Ali.

  "I will arrange it now" replied grandma.

  Ali heard more movement throughout the fortress as everything and everyone was moved out over the next two days. Grandma fed Ali just before she left with the final group of elders. They left Rom until last and he left grudgingly after Ali angrily ordered him to go with grandma.

  That night Ali's body bent over double with the pain and she flung herself back and screamed with all her might. It was like a million hot needles pierced her skin and as Ali was out of her mind with the pain something broke through. Her sphere expanded beyond the size of her room and the stone crumbled around her. Ali screamed again as another wave crashed through. Ceilings collapsed around her, walls blew out and a rockslide drowned out her screams. The sphere was half the size of the fortress and filled with her scent. Wave after wave continued to wrack her body as it trembled submerged in her scent. Days passed before the earth stopped trembling and the rockslides ceased tumbling down the mountain.

  The braves had to be ordered to keep their distance. Trak, Donny and Kitch were out of their minds with worry and frustration at not being there to protect Ali. As soon as the forest went quiet grandma and the elders headed back to the fortress. The fortress was destroyed. Giant stones lay scattered over the forest floor. The male elders stood guard as Rom and the women entered to look for Ali.

  The sphere was unbroken. Ali was sighted at the bottom of the sphere, she was unconscious with bubbles floating out of her mouth. Grandma sent word to the male elders Ali was alive and to bring back many scent containers, and keep them coming. Ali remained unconscious while the women drained the sphere of her scent over the next several days. Hundreds of containers were filled and sent directly to Poseidon.

  The women agreed it was probably a blessing to Ali that she remained unconscious because it was expected that the trailing off period after her keening would take months. Ali's body had transformed from a girl to a woman, Conversations with the elders also indicated they detected her capacity, that would hold the source of her immortal power, had activated.

  Chapter 11

  When Ali finally woke she had been transferred to her bed. Rom lay next to her bed and he let out a loud growl when he saw her eyes open. Grandma rushed in and hushed Rom.

  "He didn't wake me" whispered Ali.

  "We got tired of him fretting at your door so we let him in. You are over the worst of it now, Ali. We took you out of the sphere only when we were sure you were releasing a little scent" whispered grandma.

  "How long have I been out of it?" asked Ali.

  "Four weeks since we found you. The worst of the keening took six days" replied grandma. "Do you feel up to eating?"

  "Ambrosia?" asked Ali weakly

  "I will get it for you" said grandma wiping away tears as she exited.

  Ali found her bed had been transferred to an undamaged room downstairs in the fortress. Rom left her side in the evenings to hunt while she slept. Much of the rubble had been removed by the many braves and the fortress walls were partially rebuilt in the first few weeks. All braves were then ordered back to the main lodges while Ali recuperated outside the sphere.

  As the weeks passed, Ali gained strength in her new body. Her appetite began to recede back to normal levels. The women elders took her new measurements and sent the information back to the lodges so the village women could start making Ali new dresses that fit her. While she had to remain inside the tribal women got Ali to work on her cooking skills. She was shown how best to cook different types of meat and fish. New recipes and new herbs and spices entered her cooking repertoire. Ali loved experimenting with the different flavors and textures of the foods. Eventually the male elders instructed her how to make her bow and arrows.

  "Ali, we need to talk" said grandma seriously as Ali sat at the table sipping a hot chocolate drink.

  "Do we need to talk
in private?"

  "No, here is good" answered grandma. "The elders tested you for changes and any new powers you have developed as a result of your keening transformation. They found your capacity has activated. Capacity is the main difference between mortals and immortals. Every immortal has a different capacity for power storage. Some immortals with a large capacity but may have their power element as a gas. This is the case for many air immortals. Some have a small capacity but if their power element is a dense solid, like most earth immortals, then they may have equal power compared to the immortal with the gas element. Your capacity is still expanding which sometimes happens with water elementals. While you are still developing as an immortal you may use energy to the point of a complete energy drain to expand your capacity. You need to continue expanding your capacity and that means at least every day you must drain yourself of energy until the point of collapse. We are still testing your power element. The new power you have is to heal the earth. Anything or anyone that is earth element you can heal. What I must ask you to do on a regular basis is to heal the earth until you drain all your energy and then keep healing so your capacity grows. Healing the earth is a good way to drain your power quickly but it will also keep you very weak. Consider this as part of your immortal training program that we want you to do secretly" explained grandma.