Elixir

Part I

Discovery

'George,' she said, 'George, come here.'

I let the paper plane drop from my hands, bored. It's not like I could fly through it to somewhere in the world, like you could do with a real aeroplane. As a teenager I was obsessed with the idea of flying, but if you had known me as a child you wouldn't have complained. At the peak of night, when the humans were asleep, I would sneak down to the playground at the bottom of the hill and steal old plastic bags and newspapers from the dustbins, never minding that I might be spotted. I would use the materials to make myself toy wings. Then I'd climb to the little cliff at the other side of the hill and flap my arms as if they were real wings, shrieking with laughter.

My race didn't approve of my obsession with flying. My behaviour was considered unnatural since our people were swimmers, built for water. My mother often threatened me by saying that I would call demons onto myself if I dreamed of flying so much.

Pam was kneeling down by the riverbed, eyes wide. I walked over to her side. 'Look,' she whispered, pointing, and I looked. Growing in a cleft between two rocks were tiny beige berries, with pointed yellow leaves like spearheads. 'Ius,' Pam whispered, although by now I knew.

Eager limbs beat to the sound of clashing stones and horns fashioned out of hollowed branches. Two warriors chanted by the feet of the Blue God, declaring their devotion to the streams and the winding river and begging Him for the courage and strength to fight evil. A priest threw roasted fish into crackling flames, sacrifices that would connect the undines with the Blue God. A choir of old women with bead necklaces whistled, their hands on their hips. I, then a child of six years, asked Mother the meaning of their whistles and she said that they told the story of Tesh, the heartless undine woman who froze her widow tears into a kind of berry.

The news that the healer's children had discovered Ius by the river spread like wildfire through the village. Perhaps it was because the village was such a small place, or perhaps it was because we ran down the street screaming the dead awake with our news. Within twenty minutes, a group of men and women were swimming down the river to the place where the berries were. The elder plucked a berry and raised it to his eye, observing carefully and then passing it to my mother to see as well. He turned to me.

'You found it?'

I shook my head. 'No,' I managed to say, 'Pam did.' Pam beamed with pride.

The word "Ius", I found when I went to college, is a Latin word, meaning "elixir". I could vouch for the fact that the elixir part of it was true, at least. Legend was that Tesh' Tears could make any undine swim with such speed it would put a sailfish to shame.

The first person to try the berry was Rory, the only child of one of the warriors. A frail, timid boy, he had spent his entire life being mocked and ridiculed by the other youngsters but as he raced down the river fast as a thunderbolt, his reputation was as if born anew. Such was the power of Ius.

The elder would not have it wasted around for the amusement of beardless boys, though, so a rule was formulated regarding Ius. They would only be used in times of emergency, such as when humans suddenly appeared and one had to escape, or when one was being chased by a grizzly.

I, personally, honoured the rule...

Part II

Thievery

... until I didn't.

'Rory,' I whispered, and nudged him with the tip of my pale webbed foot. 'Wake up, you idiot. Rory, wake up.' He grunted in his sleep and turned to the other side, thoroughly ignoring me. Man, you would expect fast reflexes from a warrior's son, but apparently not with this guy.

'Wha-what happened?' he asked, trying to contain a yawn. 'Are the humans here?'

'They aren't,' I said, and then, making sure no one but he could hear me, in a voice soft as a moth's fluttering wings, 'that's the problem.'

His eyes widened.

As I mentioned before, my mother was a healer. She was also a witch, an apothecary and a storyteller. Thus, I had grown up hearing tales about all kinds of people and beasts and spirits and treasures, and about none more than Ius. There were hundreds of legends regarding the berries, all of which I knew by heart. So, naturally, after Pam had discovered them and I knew for sure that they existed, I was curious. I longed to unveil all its secrets and magic powers. I longed to be a hero in a tale.

I had decided on just one companion, since, as they say, the more you have along, the more can betray you. I had picked Rory because I knew he lusted for fame. Being the first to taste Ius in a hundred years had improved his reputation a lot, so much he know had two cronies by his side at all times those days, but he longed for more.

I explained my plan to him in a hushed voice, trying not to wake anyone else up. His eyes grew larger with every sentence and I was worried that he would rush over to the elder any moment and give me away. When I was finished, though, he asked, 'Would you tell Maya I was the one who came up with the plan?' and I knew I had him.

The site was barely a kilometre from the village. The moon was half a wheel of cheese in the night sky, lighting the way. I ducked behind a tree when I saw the men and dragged Rory behind me. I had known that there would be two guards, yes, but I hadn't known one of them would be Rory's father.

'The plan is still the same,' I whispered to him. 'Nothing needs to change.'

I could tell by the look on his face that he was starting to rethink the whole thing, but we had come too far ahead now. Not too far to turn back, I would think later, cursing myself as I cut onions in the kitchen.

'The humans are right there,' I said, pointing at a thatch of brambles that covered a forest path. 'Not so far.'

Around a bonfire they were gathered. One of them had fallen asleep with her head against a man's chest and another was digging something out of a backpack. The rest roasted marshmallows on the fire and gossiped loudly, having a sip from tin cans frequently. One can rolled towards us and seeing my chance, I picked it. The humans heard.

'Someone's there.'

'Probably a rabbit or something.'

'Someone wake Martha.'

'What if it's a bear?'

'Did I fall asleep?'

'I'm going back to the van.'

'Don't be stupid. If it was a bear, we'd be dead by now.'

'I think it's gone.'

I broke a twig from a branch hanging over my head.

'Something's there.'

'It's a possum.'

'Y'all are dumb.'

'Could be a ghost.'

'Totally dumb.'

'Let's get in the van.'

'I saw this video on YouTube where this bear crushed a whole truck -'

'I'm gonna check it out.'

'No, Hugo, what if-'

'Let him go.'

Hugo got up and neared the spot where me and Rory were hiding. We ran out of the thicket, making as much noise as we could, and over to the river bank. There were five stones in the water, step-stones. Rory went ahead, me at his heels. Hugo chased after us, using a flashlight for illumination. 'Who's that? Stop running, you cowardly -' He tripped over a stone and fell face down into the water.

By now we had created enough ruckus for the guards to understand that humans were around. They fled the scene. Hugo straightened up and struggled back to the shore, where three of his companions had appeared, all holding smartphones with the flashlight on. They shined the lights around, but by now we had slipped into a thicket of trees on the other side of the river and with a cloud hiding the moon, we camouflaged perfectly. The humans left after a while.

The berries sat naked in a cleft between two rocks. I plucked three of them, from the farther part of plant, thinking that would make it harder to discern that they were missing. The mission was successful. Rory and I grinned stupidly at each other.

We were caught halfway to the village.

Part III

The Story Needs A Different Title

I blended in perfectly with the other young people on my first day to college. Grey tee, blue jeans, a backpack slung over one shoulder. I had a wallet as well, in my pocket. In it were three images: one of myself, one a miniature map of London City and one of my late sister.

As punishment us thieves were given five days of work in the kitchen. When that was over, my mother took me to her herbary and introduced me to all her ingredients. At first I thought she was going to assign me a chore, like cleaning bottles. Instead she put a tiny beige berry in the palm of my hand.

For the next five months every morning of mine was scheduled for a lesson. We were working to find out more about Ius, how it worked, how one could farm it, if one could.

Before one such morning, as I was walking towards the herbary, someone called out my name.

'Hey, George!'

It was Rory, sitting under a tree with his new girlfriend, Maya. 'Look what I found!' It was a can with "Red Bull" printed across its body along with a picture of a bull. Although I could read the words, I didn't know what they meant. Bulls can't be red.

'There's something inside it, some kind of liquid,' Rory said. 'Your mother's the healer, eh? Here. Let her have a look at it.' He handed me the can and went back to his girlfriend.

Mother spent hours observing and experimenting with the liquid. At long last she came to the conclusion that it was an energy drink, a kind of activator humans consumed when they wanted to be loud and hyper.

I sniffed it from the pan and said, indifferently, 'Smells a lot like that Ius sap you made the other day.'

Her eyes widened.

After a vigorous research, we found that Ius was nothing more than just a kind of energy drink. Since undines are rather sensitive to alcohol and other drugs, Ius gave us much more strength and speed than it would have given a human. The berries weren't an elixir. They were just a kind of Red Bull.

Me and Mother dozed off in the herbary that day, with the intention of presenting our findings the next day before the whole village.

The next day Pam was found dead by the riverbank.

Her friend, Susanna, gave up the story between sobs and hysterical wails. They had found a broken radio in the forest and used it to play a couple of songs, which led the guards into thinking that humans were around. They fled, and Susanna and Pam rushed over to the berries. In a fit of giddy euphoria Pam had plucked half the plant and ate them all then and there. Susanna swam down the river to get help but by the time they got there, my sister was past.

Name: Pam Heath

Cause of death: Caffeine overdose

Our village was discovered when the hill was being cleared. We caused havoc all around the world and fuelled news channels for years: Mermaids found near London City, Mermaid village in the UK, Mermaids are real. No matter how many times we told them that we were actually undines.

The children were allowed to study in human schools. The adults were accepted in the workplace -- the government produced several laws exclusively for us -- although most only knew farming, fishing and swimming. Although I could not participate in any state, national or global competition, my school allowed me in swimming class since it was part of the curriculum. I was my coach's favourite student.

Swimming ain't my thing, though. My thing is flying. As Heidi gives us all some final instructions regarding landing, I peer out of the window. Some 3.048 kilometres above ground level.

Heidi has had it with me. 'George,' she says, 'George, come here.'