Page 8 of The Nixie and the Frost Elf

It's a relief when I get to the edge of the water and slowly dip my toes into it. Magic tingles through my veins in response, and I have to hold it at bay until the water has reached my waist. Any lower and I'll just fall over when my legs become a tail.

The moment I let the magic take over feels like letting out a breath. The release is immediate, and the changes take place so quickly that it might as well be instant. My legs fuse together, and the fins on my arms and legs unfold. They're there all the time, but the water does something to them that makes them more useful for swimming. And even though I'm not under the water yet, I can feel my gills preparing for me to be.

I take a deep breath despite the fact I don't need to and dive down beneath the surface, revelling in how it feels to have the water brush against me. It's no longer cold, the transformation from being in the water also does something to keep me from freezing. Though I suspect it's in part because I'm also moving.

I lose track of time as I weave my way through the darkness of the water, my eyesight adjusting easily to the gloom. I pause as I catch sight of something grey-ish blue moving towards me, and there's a brief hint of fear while I worry that it's some kind of predator, even if I know that isn't possible in Rosewood's moat.

As they come closer, I recognise features that make me relax, and my best friend Marnie appears within taking distance, her light blue hair drifting in the waves behind her.

Despite both of us being creatures of the water, there were a lot of clear differences between us, most notably that she's blue where I'm green, and she has scales as opposed to my fins that are meant to resemble some kind of underwater weed.

"I didn't expect you here," she says, her words vibrating through the water between us. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but a lot of us are able to communicate this way if we're underwater beings.

"I needed a swim," I respond.

"Mmm, I know the feeling. But I thought you had your date tonight."

I grimace. "Tomorrow."

"Okay, so why don't you look happy about that?" she asks.

I let out a sigh, causing bubbles to float past my face and to the surface. "It's complicated."

"Complicated is the kind of thing a swim is for," she responds. "So, tell me?" She gestures for the two of us to continue through the water.

There is something soothing about getting to swim at the same time as processing my thoughts. "You know I'm ace, right?" I check, glad that I thought to actually tell my flatmate about it at some point so it's not a surprise to her now that I want to talk about something related to it.

"You mentioned it," she responds.

"I suppose I'm worried about that."

"Hmm, okay, understandable. Does he know? What's his name again?"

"Edur." I have to say his name slowly, as it isn't a usual word to be said under the water.

She turns to swim on her back so she can look at me, a curious expression on her face. "The frost elf?"

I nod. "Do you know him?"

"He's in my Healing class."

"Makes sense. He always said that he wanted to be a healer." I smile at the idea that he gets to see that through.

"Does he know you're ace?"

"Yeah, I told him." Though I'm starting to think that might have been the wrong thing to do.

Marnie raises an eyebrow. "And he actually knows what it means?"

I shrug, even as I use my arms to keep myself travelling in the right direction. "I have no reason to think that he doesn't." From what he's said already, I have to assume that he does.

"Then I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"It wouldn't be the first time someone's said they understood and then decided to try and fix me when they didn't get what they wanted," I murmur, thinking back to my last disastrous attempt at a relationship.

A large silver fish swims between us, so used to the merfolk of the academy being in the moat that it doesn't even respond.

"That sucks," Marnie says.