A Water Song

“There’s someone besides us?!” Zduhach carefully put Milena down on a bed.

“Spirits are no longer powerful enough to kill a god. And a god cannot kill another god. So that’s the only reasonable explanation.”

Milena suddenly snored.

“Thank goodness. She’s finally asleep…” Dragomir sighed. “Is there a blanket?”

He looked around and found one slung over a chair. He took it and covered Milena up to her neck. For a moment, he gazed at her sleeping face.

“I think I should try this sleep thingy as well!” Zduhach knew how to spoil the mood. He dropped to the floor and tried to copy what Milena did. He closed his eyes and lay still. The more seconds passed, the tighter he squeezed his eyes shut. Then he gave up.

“Aarghh! How does one even fall asleep?”

“Well, for starters, one doesn’t expect to fall asleep in ten seconds. Do you even feel tired at all?”

“Hmmm… not really.”

“Then get over here and help me carry Svarog’s body outside.”

Dragomir leaned over the dead god. “He was a good man at heart. He taught me and Levoslav a lot of things in the short time we spent together.”

“How come a god can be good?”

“He said he just wanted his peace back. And he disapproved of any violence that the others committed. So he fought against them in his own way.” Dragomir first glanced at his battle-axe... “For example, by creating useful weapons…” Then he glanced at the Little Table. “…or useful tools.”

Dragomir then laid eyes on something shiny on the floor. He crouched down and picked it up. “A wedding ring?”

As he studied the golden ring, Milena mumbled in her sleep. Her face was pale and she clutched onto the blanket.

Dragomir put the ring inside of his pocket and hurried over to her. “That sleep deprivation is taking its toll on her health already. Dammit! It’s all because of me…!”

“Don’t sweat it, Debilmir. It was her choice.”

Milena started trembling uncontrollably. She raised her hands as if in defense, rolling from side to side, her eyes still shut.

“Milena? What’s going on?” Dragomir leaned over her.

A single moth landed on her chest. Milena started panting heavily. Then another moth drifted in from somewhere unseen. Within seconds, dozens, then hundreds of moths swarmed around her, covering her body.

“Oh no!” Zduhach moved toward Milena but the moths kept multiplying, until there was so many that the two men were driven out through the windows.

Dragomir landed on the grass, but quickly got on his knees. “Milena…!”

The whole house was suddenly swallowed by thousands of moths, and the fluttering of their wings grew louder and louder.

“Milena!” He was about to race inside again, but Zduhach stopped him.

“Wait!” He yanked Dragomir back by the arm. “That thing is called Mora. It’s a powerful spirit!”

“Mora? I’ve heard about it but never seen it myself. Do you know how to fight it?”

“I don’t. I know of these spirits because when I was a child, a Mora attacked my mom in her sleep. I tried to punch those little bastards but nothing seemed to work!”

“Then what do you think we should do?”

“Wait. There’s nothing we can do.”

“What?” Dragomir grabbed him by his collar. “Of all people, you say there is nothing we can do?”

“Calm down! You’re so quick to resort to violence!”

Dragomir lowered his gaze, and let go of him. “You’re right… I’m sorry…”

“When my mom defeated that Mora, she praised me for not interfering. She said… that if I did anything, for example, wake her up, Mora would have sapped all the blood from her body instantly.”

“So you’re saying… we can’t help her?”

“We have to believe in Milena! If she’s strong enough, she can fight it!”

“But what if she can't?” Dragomir clenched his fist.

“Then… she’ll be trapped in a nightmare forever.”

The moths finally stopped multiplying. They didn’t need more numbers. They had already swallowed the whole house along with the workshop.

The two bohatiers watched helplessly. Dragomir dropped to the ground, sitting on the perfectly trimmed grass that was just a little too perfectly soft.

Even if he and Zduhach wanted to rest for a single moment, Prav had different plans.

A song.

A beautifully orchestrated harmony of different types of voices, all carrying across the water. Though it was dulled by the river, the sound traveled to the bohatiers’ ears and captivated them.

“Such a beautiful melody…” Zduhach closed his eyes to feel the moment as he smiled.

Dragomir’s eyes, on the other hand, stayed open, but colorless. His stare was blank. He crawled through the grass, then he pushed himself onto his knees and just kept going towards the river.

“Debilmir?” Zduhach noticed something was wrong. Dragomir wouldn’t usually behave this way, and he sure didn’t strike him as a music lover.

When he reached the water and dipped his fingers into it, Zduhach dashed after him and pulled him back by the legs.

“Hey! Snap out of it! I know they sing well but this isn’t the time!”

Dragomir’s eyes regained their chestnut color. “W-what was I trying to do?”

“How should I know?”

The singing continued.

“The water was cold.”

“What?”

“The water here is usually unnaturally warm. But it was icy cold. That means only one thing.”

The singing grew louder.

“Spirits!” Zduhach nocked an arrow. Dragomir looked for his battle-axe but he remembered he left it in the house.

The river stopped flowing.

For a few seconds, the song stopped.

Zduhach aimed at the water, expecting the enemy to emerge from it.

But nothing was coming.

The singing resumed and something resembling hair appeared on the water’s surface. Then it started emerging from it. It wasn’t just hair. It was a head - a woman’s head with green hair. And then the whole body. The woman was dressed in green, almost transparent clothes, soaked with water. She kept singing.

“Is that… a Rusalka?” Zduhach squinted.

And then five others followed.

“Damn, they’re pretty!”

“I’ve never seen one before,” Dragomir admitted.

“That’s the second time you said it! And you call yourself the boss?”

The Rusalki danced on the water’s surface in pairs, their voices strong.

Dragomir’s eyes lost color once more as he was being drawn towards them.

“Not again!” Zduhach tried to wake him up by shaking him, but Dragomir pushed him away.

Two Rusalki stayed behind, while four others surrounded Dragomir in a dancing circle.

Zduhach aimed his arrow at them. “Hey, what do you want from him?!”

The two Rusalki from the water extended their hair and wrapped it around Zduhach, obscuring his vision. Their hair tightened around his wrists, making him drop the bow and the arrow.

One of the Rusalki surrounding Dragomir broke the circle and approached him. “Come live with us…” The others sang.

And then a different one replaced her. “We’re so lonely…”

Another change. “We need a strong man to take care of us.”

And the last one. “The water’s so cold and dark…”

Dragomir whispered. “You’re all so beautiful… how could I choose?” Levoslav’s dushe hovered above him without a word, as always.

“No one is forcing you to choose,” one of them replied.

“True…” Dragomir smiled, his eyes still colorless. “Your faces are the same, I don’t have to choose. No…” He paused. “They’re not the same.”

The song ended.

Rusalki flinched. Then they laughed and called in unison. “We’re not the same! We’re not the same!”

“Your eyes are different. Yours are light blue,” he pointed at one. “Yours are greyish.” He pointed at a different one. “Yours are green. And yours…” His finger pointed at the last one, and then he retracted his hand. “Yours are… colored like home… and love…”

“He noticed.” One Rusalka giggled. “Yeah, he noticed,” another confirmed.

“You noticed, Dragomir.” The Rusalka he had pointed at approached him. Her eyes were chestnut brown.

“Mmmmm!” Zduhach mumbled through the hair that wrapped him, probably complaining about not seeing or hearing anything.

The brown-eyed Rusalka touched Dragomir’s chest. His eyes flashed back to their usual color and went colorless again.

But then…

BAM!

A battle-axe got stuck just a few paces from Rusalka’s bare feet.

“Leave them alone!” A familiar voice called out.

“A woman!” The Rusalki shouted. “A woman saw us!”

All of them dove back into the water, submerging under the surface.

Zduhach could finally breathe and see again. “Woah…! I thought I was a goner! They were strong!”

Dragomir’s eyes regained their color.

The moths had disappeared and the house stood before them again, along with Milena, who had sent the battle-axe flying.

“Milena!” Dragomir rushed towards her.

“Move!” She pushed him aside.

Of course.

She had slept.

Milena turned to Zduhach. “I think I found what I sought. I met my mother.”

Zduhach stepped back. “Huh?”

Then Dragomir lowered his gaze and whispered. “Yeah… I found mine, too.”

Chapter 28: END