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Amber nodded and began to descend. She didn't seem exhausted at all, and Macey was a little jealous. She was feeling tired, thirsty and hungry, and just wanted to curl up in a ball and be miserable.
With a sigh of relief, Macey climbed off Amber's back and jumped up and down a little, getting some warmth into her frozen limbs. Her thighs hurt from holding on to the large beithir for so long. She'd never ridden a horse before but somehow imagined it might feel similar.
Suddenly, a scent hit her nose, a very familiar one. She breathed in deeply and smiled.
"I can smell water!"
She began to follow the scent, half-walking, half-running over the muddy ground. Her feet made squelchy sounds with every step; it was weird being on such soft ground.
About a hundred metres away, she found it. A tiny stream. The water was a yellowish brown, but it smelled drinkable. Water was Macey's element and her nose told her that this stream was safe. And even better, it led to a large pool.
Finally, a good thing was happening to them. Things were beginning to look up.
The water called to her. As it always did. It'd been too long since her dip in her men's swimming pool.
Next to her, Amber started humming, now back in human form. She meandered towards the murky pool of water, not seeming to have a care in the world.
"Amber?" Macey asked carefully, starting to worry about how zoned out the beithir looked. That couldn't be normal. "Amber?" she repeated louder, still not getting any response.
Luch squeaked from her position between Macey's boobs, and used her paws to tug down the material of her shirt. Macey assumed it was to have a better look, though she wished the mouse wouldn't do that, it left her feeling all kinds of exposed.
"Uh-oh, that's not good," Luch said.
"You don't say," Macey deadpanned, before taking a couple of steps forward, hoping to reach the other woman and pull her away from the water. Something clearly wasn't right. Especially for the pull towards it to have suddenly turned into an urge to get them all away from it. Something about it felt off, and it wasn't the murky colouration. Macey was well aware that even the dirtiest looking water wasn't always so. It could just have been a certain kind of algae that was making it like that.
She took another step, and ground to a halt, something stopping her from moving any further forward, almost like the barrier that had stopped them from leaving the Voice's keep. She tried again, to no avail.
"Want to try?" she asked the mouse.
She felt it nod against her skin, but the sensation only lasted for a moment. Luch leaped from her shirt, shifting as she did, only to be replaced by the same woman as before. It surprised Macey, she'd half expected Luch to appear differently again.
The mouse took a few steps forward and came against the same problem Macey had. Not a good sign in the slightest.
"That's a no go, then."
"What do we do now?" Macey asked, worry building within her.
Amber had reached the edge of the water now and hadn't seemed to rouse from her spaced out state. That couldn't be good at all. Macey didn't know if beithirs could breathe underwater, though she suspected they couldn't. And if the red-head carried on, then she was going to risk drowning. There was very little doubt there.
The water was now lapping around Amber's legs, but she didn't even seem to notice. Macey's concern grew worse. This certainly wasn't a good thing. It was almost as bad as when the Voice took control of people. At least, from what she'd seen.
A ripple in the pool of the water drew her attention away from the beithir, and to her surprise, a head poked up above the calm surface. It only appeared for a moment, but there was no mistaking what it was. The woman had dark green hair that floated around the surface. Her skin was a similar hue, and if Macey's eyes hadn't been as strong as they were, then she probably wouldn't have noticed her. The skin and hair clearly matched the colour of the pool and must have been designed for camouflage.
Macey wracked her brain for the knowledge of other water beings that her Aunt Nessie had imparted in her, but it was hard to tell without seeing the woman's entire body. For all Macey knew, she could be yet another kind of kelpie. Even though she'd been led to believe her family was the only kind, the storm kelpies had thrown that idea out of the window.
"She doesn't look very friendly," Luch said.
"The teeth?" Macey half-joked, though her voice was shaking. She pushed against the barrier again, trying her best to get past it, but it still wouldn't budge.
A splash drew her attention, and a thick tail, not unlike the salmon that passed through the rivers near her loch, disappeared into the lake.
Realisation crashed through her, and she renewed her efforts to get through the barrier. A ceasg was bad news. Very bad news. Especially for Amber, who was now chest deep in the water and only getting closer to the creature. Macey had heard a lot of stories about the creatures, some of which involved them eating people whole and keeping them in their stomachs for years.
That couldn't happen.
Not only did Macey need the other woman for their fight to save the Staran, but she'd come to like her in the short time since they'd met.
"Shit!" she shouted, as she bounced back past the barrier again.
