I'm not sure if I copied everything from my quotev profile so if you notice any weird paragraphs that don't quite make sense, please inform me so I can fix that ^^
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That night you spent your free time after dinner reading the story compilation book which you had been given by the book seller. You had laid on your bed, the book resting on your pillow as your eyes skimmed the pages and titles with the help of the bright flame of the candle on the bedside table. It wasn't the safest place to leave a candle but as long as an earthquake didn't occur, then nothing would catch aflame -you weren't that clumsy!

There were many short stories and very few lengthy ones, which helped your progress time-wise... not so much information-wise. Most of them repeated the theme: "They shall eat you and leave your heart floating on the surface of their home". When it came to their appearance, most would describe them as black stallions with fur as smooth as that of a seal's and their mane and tail would be made of seaweed and doomed to drip water even in the sunlight. Some described them as beautiful, white stags with antlers the size of a longhorn bull's horns. In the long stories, there were references (rather short ones) of the water spirit's shapeshifting abilities in little detail. They weren't the best source of information but it was better than nothing. They would be described to take the form of a handsome man or woman (like the fisherman had said) Sadly, there were barely any depictions of the spirit and the few that appeared every few pages would depict it in its stallion form; either underwater with a fish tail or in the long grass beside a lake.

You yawned tiredly and rubbed your strained eyes. Reading the whole book in one sitting definitely had taken its toll on you. You had grown quite drowsy from the many stories but you had barely taken in any valuable information.

"I'll get Bella and go to the meadow again. Maybe it'll still be there even after so many hours", you mumbled to yourself. That was what sleepiness did to you; it refused to let you think and instead it made you utter words without any consideration of the situation.

You wondered if the water spirit would still be there; if it even was a water spirit to begin with. You had begun to doubt yourself. The stories you had just read did not mention anything about the water horses leaving the area of their lake or river. Maybe what you had seen was just a horse that had fallen into a pit of mud.

"If it was a regular horse, Bella wouldn't have been so shaken up from it", you said. You hadn't even warned the village about what you had saw -you forgot- and now you wanted to confirm the presence of the augury of death before you made everyone panic. You didn't want people to give you the stink eye nor shut you out because you had made such a mistake. Not even the ents would look at you, you were sure of that.

You yawned once more and reached with your hand to close the book before picking it up and placing it underneath your bed -the safest place to hide something from your mother. Rarely did she bend over to clean underneath furniture because of her back and waist problems and you had made a habit out of exploiting her weakness by hiding your stuff under your bed. You made sure that the book was quite a distance away from the edge so as not to be visible and invoke your mother's curiosity when she would walk in the room to clean. And then, after quickly putting out the candle, your head hit the pillow and you fell asleep.

~ ~ Φ ~ ~

Morning came by faster than you wanted it to. You had had a wonderful dream, which vanished from your memory after you woke up. There were only little snippets floating in your somewhat drowsy brain and you were trying to piece them together whilst you searched for a reason to not sleep in till noon. You could remember the feeling of not being alone in that dream and the sense of alertness that came with the person who accompanied you in it. It wasn't a nightmare, no but it was awfully close to a vision; and you had never had a vision before or any dream that would cause a deja vu effect.

The person had long, black hair and you could still see -in your memory- that they were naked from top to bottom. Thankfully for your innocent eyes, you could not see beneath their waistline but just above the 'V-line' of their hips. You guessed the individual was well-toned. Guessing was the best tool you had because the individual images seemed to blur and mix into a pile of colours altogether. Your brain had decided that enough was enough and finally, you found your motivation to get out of bed.

"(Y/N)! Breakfast is ready!", you heard your mother shout from the kitchen. If you did not go,she would surely call you until she woke the nocturnal animals of the surrounding forestry.

"Coming!", you shouted back quickly but your tired mood was present in your tone of voice.

You quickly threw your simple morning dress on and exited your room. The smell of fresh bread and fruity jam hit your nose the moment you stepped out and you wasted no time to grab a seat at the table. Surely enough, your portion of bread had already been served and your greedy hands reached to grab the jam jar and the butter knife that was resting beside it. Your stomach grumbled in anticipation of the first bite.

"Don't rush, (Y/N), or you'll get a stomach ache", your mother warned. You had been so occupied with eating that you hadn't taken notice of your father's absence. You looked to the living room sofa, he wasn't there, you tilted your head to see if he was still in the master bedroom but you didn't make out his silhouette.

"Has dad left for work already?", you inquired, your cheeks stuffed with tasty bread.
"Yes, he left quite early actually. He told me that he had to run some errands", your mother answered you with an assuring smile.

You didn't do much other than shrug. It was a natural occurrence for your father to be out, running around and delivering medicine to the sick who couldn't walk to your family's shop. The only weird thing about the situation was that his delivery sack was resting on the floor next to the door, which did make you question if your mother was lying. Or he isn't delivering medicine today, maybe he's doing something else?, you thought to yourself. Yeah, mum probably sent him out for groceries or something.

"Hey, mum, I was thinking of taking Bella for a walk", you said after you had cleaned your plate and put it in the old sink.
"Again?" -your mother raised an eyebrow- "Didn't you go on a walk with her yesterday?".
"Horses need plenty of daily exercise!", you insisted and the woman sighed. She smiled again, hummed for an antagonizing second and then nodded her head.
"Okay, you may go but be back before noon!", she told you and you smiled in return.
"I will! See you in the evening!", and with that you rushed to the front door... but then you remembered that you needed to change for the ride. Silly me!

~ ~ Φ ~ ~

By the time you had arrived at the meadow, the sun had made patterns with the shadows of the trees. It was a few hours before noon at most. Bella was as lively as she could be at the start of your trip but as you neared your destination, her movements had become rigid and nervous. You had taken note of her ears being flattened to her head but you didn't stop and turn around. Instead, you pat her neck and tried your best to soothe her -which didn't work but you were sure that the effort was appreciated.

There were no animals in the meadow and the atmosphere was clean like before. Nature had worked hard and quick to fix the broken. You could see a few bushes with blooming flowers and new life growing from the late patches of the herbs you had taken the day before. It was almost like there had been no animals chewing at away at the plants and grass; like you had never been there. You didn't receive an eerie feeling like you had anticipated and nature's work was a common occurrence which you had grown used to. No matter what, balance would be restored in a disturbed ecosystem; that was one of mother Nature's rules your father had taught you.

"See, Bella? There is nothing bad here", you told your mare but she still flicked her tail in discomfort. You were disappointed that the water spirit wasn't present. You had been hoping to at least catch a glimpse of its head peeking from behind the trees but there was no soul in sight -other than you and Bella, of course.

You walked to where the spirit had been standing the other day in hopes of finding any tracks of the creature but as you should have had expected, there were none. If there had been any hoofsteps, they had been covered by dirt and trampled by other animals. You whistled for Bella and she reluctantly came to you. You grabbed the reins and tugged them off her head to hold like a leash as you began to walk through the treeline. You feared that if you left her alone, something would chase her off and you would be left behind to either walk home or be chased after her. And you didn't want that.

"Where do you think the water horse has gone?", you asked Bella and she responded with an annoyed neigh. You nodded your head and continued on as if she hadn't just responded negatively.

You walked for a bit longer and after seeing nothing out of the ordinary, you decided to go deeper into the forest. Bella tried to resist your constant tugging but she eventually gave in to your persistence of tracking the water spirit. You would choose a direction and stick to it without straying from the imaginary path. You definitely knew what you were doing, going after a dangerous spirit with little knowledge concerning its weaknesses and strengths. Then again, that was what discovery was all about. You wanted to discover everything yourself like a true wildlife explorer ;or you were just telling yourself that to calm your nerves. Even though you didn't show it, a knot had formed in your stomach. You were anxious. What would you do if you encountered the creature out of nowhere?

"Let's just go this way, walk for a little bit and if we don't find anything, we'll head back", you told Bella and she could only nod and keep up with your pace.

And you walked. The sun was slowly rising to the top of the world to signal for noon. You had started to walk faster than before since your mother had told you to be back for lunch. You were subconsciously biting your bottom lip as you and Bella traversed the unmarked path. You were about to give up and turn back but the mare rose her head and ears at the sound of running water. The sound was coming from your right and with renewed hope, you put on a smile and jogged with her. You went up a hill, jumped over a fallen trunk and you had arrived at the source of the sound.

Right in front of you was a small narrow stream of water that came from way uphill. There was plenty of plant life on the banks and Bella seemed to be at ease with the environment. It was a pleasant surprise to see a stream when you were certain there were none near the meadow! You looked to where you had come from and then off into the distance. You could almost make out the village! The puffy, gray smoke of the traditional bakery was visible from where you were standing. You wondered if the stream was the road to the water spirit's home and so, you decided to follow it downhill. It wasn't long before the sight of the village disappeared from view.

"Come on, Bella!", you said to the mare as you brought the reins back over her head and mounted the saddle. Perhaps, if you had seen that animal corpse under that random tree, you would have chosen to stay away.