A Rusalka’s Seductive Touch

What started with a stream at the forest’s end on the outskirts of Ragusiic grew into a creek, which eventually funneled into the Dragica Lakes Peter had been deadset on discovering in his search for the leshy within a day and a half’s time. He didn’t know where he’d go once, he reached the fabled land and didn’t put too much thought into what it’d actually look like, but his ignorance soon left him with something far grander than he would’ve ever hoped to imagine. These lakes weren’t some simple blue bodies of water, dotted with a few rocky shorelines and some swampy fresh water. What he saw was nothing short of magical. Deep turquoise waters remained near transparent, with swaths of waterfalls pouring into them. The foliage grew around the running water, their roots fully exposed as the eroded land continued to give way for the evercascading water. Its everflowing stream brought the peace that came from listening to a trickling waterfall and put to rest a part of his mind that felt it was in a constant state of defense since he arrived in this land. Perhaps it was for good reason, but Peter appreciated the escape all the same.

While he could let himself be fully swept away by their magnificence, what he didn’t appreciate, however, was how thirsty it made him. While he brought a healthy amount of drinking water with him before he departed from Ragusiic, the amount he sweated each day ensured he’d almost exhausted their supply in such a short amount of time. He could feel the layers of sweat caught between his gambeson and undertunic. Keeping his mouth wide open to breathe while continuing to march onwards was far from his most dignified moment, but his pride had long been put behind him at this point.

“Are you sure you’re not about to pass out on me? You look as pale as an alghoul.”

Peter wiped the sweat off his brow before it could continue to flood down into his eyes, blinding him as the feel of salt concentrate burned his eyes. “I..I’ll be fine..w-w-e just need to-.” His excessive breathing caused Peter to grow dizzy, his body ready to pass out at any given moment.

Before he could let himself faint onto the forest floor, Lyana dragged him over to a leanable boulder and shook him in place. “No, you’re taking a rest. Now. It’s starting to get close to evening soon, I’ll find us something to eat while you try not to die on me.”

“No…I need to-”

Peter tried to stand up, but he got knocked back onto his resting place on the boulder. “No, you’re getting something to drink from that lake and sitting here until I return.”

While Peter wanted to rebuke every word Lyana just told him, deep down, he knew she was right. Lyana waltzed off bow in hand. She looked back at Peter one last time, before disappearing into the trees. Peter wished she didn’t see him ready to pass out in his parched state, but there wasn’t anything he could do at this point. He sat there for a while, admiring the oak trees and taking in any gust of wind that was gracious enough to blow his way. It wasn’t until he thought he heard Lyana’s voice, singing a long and slow melody that he couldn’t understand, that he compelled himself to get up from his resting place. The words were foreign to him, but he understood the sadness in the melody all the same.

He stepped towards the lake with his water canister in hand, peering around for where the sultry voice could be coming from. It was then he noticed someone was swimming in the lake. He squinted his eyes, only to see a woman humming that same tune. She stopped in the water, her head and shoulders just above water. She was a dead ringer for Lyana, only she had greenish hair and purple eyes. He wanted to register the discrepancy, but he could feel himself becoming deadset on her eyes, as if it were all that he could focus on.

“What happened? I thought you were hunting for something to eat tonight.”

The green hair Lyana giggled and waded closer, her shoulders slowly becoming more and more visible with each step she took. “It’s such a hot day out, isn’t it? I was dying to cool off. You should join me, I’ve been wanting you all to myself for a while now.”

Peter felt his face flush red as he froze in place, not sure whether to laugh off the gesture or play into it. A piece of his head said he must be hallucinating, that the heat stroke must be getting to him, but the beckoning gaze she was giving him felt as real as day. Her hypnotic stare prompted him to move forward, and she now stood halfway in the water, fully exposing herself to him, with her hair long enough to still be in the water. Peter tried to curb his enthusiasm and play it cool while he stripped down from his clothes, but he couldn’t believe this was actually happening to him. His bare feet stepped into the water. It felt cool and soothing, allowing him to ignore the sweat that otherwise coated his body. Soon it was up to his ankle, then his calves as he waded closer to her.

A coy smile filled her face as she stepped forward. The two stood at the edge of the river. She reached out her hand and caressed his face with a soft and gentle touch, slowly making her way down from his cheek to his neck. Peter could feel himself fully giving in to her caress, while her hands felt clammy, almost as if they were scaly, all he could focus on were her lips as she bit down on them ever so slightly. While he feared nothing more than to let his feelings make her uncomfortable and alienate one of the few allies he had in this world, her intentions were all but spelled out at this point. Peter leaned in closer, ready to finally give in to what he’d been fantasizing about doing but never gathering the courage to actually act on it.

Instead of locking lips, he felt his lips touching her hair. Only, it didn’t feel like the hair of a woman. Instead, it was coarse, slimy and algae-like, feeling more like a plant. He opened his eyes and attempted to brush it out of his mouth, but more of it wrapped its way around him. Instead of looking eyes with Lyana’s warm gaze, they were suddenly cold and ruthless, as if he were being hunted as prey. A rush of panic filled him as he splashed about and tried to scream, but the algae-like hair had now made its way deeper into his throat and latched on, making him want to puke as it gagged him. He attempted to rush back to the shore, but it was far too late. The hair had now wrapped his arms and legs, as it moved with conviction and pulled his weight from under him. With the sweeping motion, Peter soon found himself underwater, with the supposed Lyana looming over him. His eyes struggled to adjust while under the water, but her appearance suddenly seemed far more fish-like, with gills and scales across her neck. Her teeth suddenly seemed much longer, as she appeared to salivate over him in a way that he wasn’t hoping for. He tried to hold his breath, but he instinctively coughed and gasped in water as some of the hair started going up his nose. While he tried to gasp out, more and more water filled his lungs and he felt his vision grow dizzy while his fate seemed all but assured. It wasn’t the first way he had hoped to die, but he supposed there were worse ways to go.

Before he could let the sudden calmness overtake him and drift away by closing his eyes one last time, the water grew red and tasted of iron. The hair that moved with a mind of its own soon grew limp, and weakened his grip on him, until Peter was able to pull the worst of it off him. He used what little strength he had left to propel himself upright in the shallow water. He got his first breath of fresh air, coughing up water, hair and a bit of blood in one disgusting upheaval. As he struggled to gather his bearings, he saw Lyana standing at the water’s edge, her bow still firmly held and ready to disburse another arrow at a moment’s notice. He turned to the side to see her target. It looked just like her still, even in death and the added gills, though this copy had an arrow through her now that pierced her neck. Her vividly purple eyes now dulled and nonresponsive to the world around her. He’d almost feel heartbroken, had he not almost been drowned by her moments before.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Peter still couldn’t help but cough up more water and hair as he struggled to stand upright. He felt his weight buckling in on itself even while in the shallow water. He couldn’t bring himself to stand upright and could only stare into the sun as he tried to keep his head afloat. He spit out more water, but he felt his eyelids grow heavy as he tried to heave more and more air, but it didn’t feel like it was enough. All he could bring himself to do was close his eyes and reminisce on the moment he thought he had with Lyana. The fantasy was a pleasant thought at least…