to Walk on Water || NaNoWriMo 2023

Chapter 4 | The Innkeeper

Over the course of two or three weeks, he wasn't entirely sure, time was a strange concept while living with fae. He was nursed back to health, and when he was deemed alive again by the fae, they dropped him off by the hill Greystone was situated behind.

He would never forget the way he travelled with the fae. Riding on magical wolves, they soared over the plains and through the woods. Apparently he had wandered off in the completely wrong direction, and now they had to travel several hundred miles back the way he came from.

Riding on a wolf, especially a magical one, was a complete new experience. Something he would love to experience once more. Though when they had arrived and he had slipped off his mount, he knew he would never be allowed the same experience again.

This was just like a miracle, ordinary people would only experience it once if they were extremely lucky. And honestly, though miracles were one of the most beautiful things to experience in the world, the road to them was often too hard to overcome.

He had turned to the leader of the fae. A beautiful creature with purple eyes and translucent green wings, who had softly spoken a command to their underlings. And before he could properly thank them again, they were already gone. The tails of the wolves they rode on could barely be distinguished in the cold evening light.

He watched them disappear from his life, till nothing could be seen of them anymore than the vague footprints the wolves had left in the soil of the earth.

At that moment he turned his back on that part of his past and walked to his new future.

This new future consisted of a sleeping village. Laying in a crook of the earth made by the restless ocean. Several farms were still lying between him and the village, they were the main providers for the food here, together with the fishermen that lived near the sea. Because of the hill he was standing behind, the only real part he could see of the village was the windmill that was located near the outskirts.

He wanted to see. Hear. Smell and feel the village he would live in till he had to leave again. He started walking uphill, till he couldn't wait anymore. With a short sprint, his feet devoured the last metres till the top.

Finally he could see all of it.

The village.

The windmill next to it.

The smoke out of some of the bigger houses.

And at last the sea.

The rocks that protected the lagune from the ocean and the horrors that lived in it, could barely be seen by the light of the stars and moon.

He understood now more than ever that a lighthouse was a necessity at this place. Without it no one could safely travel these waters to the bigger cities.

He was needed here. It wasn't a foreign feeling for him to be needed. But during the years he had lived in the ocean, he had almost forgotten how it felt. To be really, truly needed.

Almost without a sound he entered the village. Only the soft sound of dead leaves that were crushed could be heard. Till the silence was shredded to pieces by the cries of a small, probably, human child.

Fortunately no one in the village seemed to be woken up by it. He quickly searched for the source of the wails, which were increasing in volume with every passing minute. After walking through the entire village, he still couldn't determine where the child was. That was untill he saw something in the forest that enclosed the village.

A will-o'-the-wisp.

Without further thought he followed it into the woods. He knew he shouldn't trust it, nor the direction it was given him. But he also knew they had the tendency to lead you to your destiny, and now he was looking for a child he couldn't find. Why wouldn't he try to follow it?