This time, there were no men awaiting them. Macey was quite glad, actually, because she wasn't sure if she could have believed them to be real. It was all so confusing. She didn't want to hug and kiss them if they were only figments of her imagination. Or the Voice's imagination. She shuddered as she tried to find a more comfortable place on the ground. Something was digging into her hips, but no matter how she turned and tossed, there was always a place that hurt or pricked or annoyed her. Sleeping on the ground wasn't comfortable, and even though she knew she needed to sleep to recharge her energy, she was having a hard time actually doing so.

Luch apparently didn't. The tiny mouse was snoring as loud as a human, nestled against Amber's chin. The girl had decided to stay in her beithir form for protection and warmth, and Macey was a little jealous of her. She'd probably be more comfortable in her kelpie form as well, but for that, she needed water or she'd suffocate. So here she was, fighting to sleep.

They'd talked about one of them staying up to keep watch, but all three of them were too tired so they'd scrapped that plan. If anyone wanted to attack them, they were too weak to fight much anyway. Especially if the Voice decided to show up.

Macey checked that her mental barriers were still in place. Thank the waves, they were. She thought they might have become a little stronger since she got Amber's lightning mark, but maybe that was just wishful thinking. For now, the Voice hadn't tried and infiltrate her mind, so that was a good sign at least.

Unless this was all still one of his games.

Macey shuddered again. Her brothers would call it mindfuck, but as a princess, she'd not use such language. She'd only really learned swear words once she'd left the loch and moved to Earth. It had been an enlightening process. Humans had such a colourful language.

She turned again, this time because her thigh was pressed against something hard, probably a small stone. This night was going to be long and uncomfortable.

Eventually, she must have fallen asleep because waking up was a long and painful process, despite the little claws tapping her cheeks.

"Luch, stop it," she groaned, tempted to pull her non-existent blanket over her face.

"Rise and shine," the mouse said cheerily, continuing to pat Macey's face with her paws. "Come on, we need to leave and get some distance between us and him."

That woke Macey up. The Voice. Yes, they needed to leave and get away. And hopefully find her men in the process.

She sat up and saw a very human Amber crouching in a bush not far away. Macey averted her gaze, not wanting to intrude into the other woman's privacy. Her own bladder was telling her it was time for a potty break as well. At the same time, she was thirsty. They needed to find themselves some water and food soon.

She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked around. Last night, it had been dark and hard to see where exactly they'd landed. Now, she was glad they hadn't. It was too depressing.

They were in a barren, brown landscape full of mud, low hills and thorny shrubs. No houses, no signs of life. Not even a single tree. And no colours, either. A hundred shades of brown and grey, but nothing living. She looked at the ground. No grass, either. Just mud and fallen leaves.

Wait, leaves? How could there be leaves without trees?

Please, don't let this be another of the Voice's mind games.

The better option was that this was some kind of magical place. Like the Staran, but more depressing. Purgatory. Something like that. A place so hopeless and desolate that her heart sank with every minute she had to look at the dead landscape.

How were they going to find food here? And water?

The mud was wet, so maybe it rained here occasionally, but for now, she was more interested in a stream or loch.

She got up and patted down her clothes, glad she'd been lying on leaves rather than mud. Amber returned from behind the bush and gave Macey a small smile.

"Good morning. Not the nicest place we've ended up in."

Macey grimaced. "You could say that. Any idea what direction we came from?"

Amber pointed to her left. "That way. And I'd be tempted to just fly into the other direction. All I want is to get away from him."

"So, we're going to fly again? Are you feeling strong enough?"

Amber smiled. "I'm feeling like a new beithir. Let's see if we can find a way out of this place. Ready?"

She sounded excited. After being in captivity for so long, even being in this dreich place had to be exhilarating for the redhead.

"Yes, I'm ready. Stop ignoring me," Luch peeped and stamped her tiny paw.

Macey suppressed a snort. The mouse was hilarious, no matter how serious she was trying to be. Luckily, she hadn't changed back to a woman though. Macey had found that a little unnerving. Somehow, she didn't believe Luch was just a simple mouse shifter.

Amber shifted in one fluid motion and beckoned them to get on her back. Macey picked up Luch and put her back into her cleavage. Luch moved around a little until she found the perfect position: her front paws hanging onto the rim of Macey's shirt and her head sticking out so she could see what was going on.

Lucky Luch, she was probably going to feel nice and cosy in there. Macey shivered. It was cold in this place, and steam was beginning to rise from the muddy ground. Yes, it was time to leave.

She sat down on Amber's back, now more aware of the most comfortable and safe position.

"Ready!" she called and Amber began to fly.

They gained height quickly, giving them a better view of where they were. Except that there was nothing to see. Endless desolate plains with no signs of life. Not even a ruin that would show that people once lived here.

They flew for hours until Macey was shivering uncontrollably from the harsh cold wind they were exposed to this high in the air.

"Can we take a break?" she finally asked when she was beginning to have trouble holding on to the beithir. Amber's scales were warm, but it wasn't enough to stop Macey from feeling terribly cold.

Amber nodded and began to descend. She didn't seem exhausted at all, and Macey was a little jealous. She was feeling tired, thirsty and hungry, and just wanted to curl up in a ball and be miserable.

With a sigh of relief, Macey climbed off Amber's back and jumped up and down a little, getting some warmth into her frozen limbs. Her thighs hurt from holding on to the large beithir for so long. She'd never ridden a horse before but somehow imagined it might feel similar.

Suddenly, a scent hit her nose, a very familiar one. She breathed in deeply and smiled.

"I can smell water!"

She began to follow the scent, half-walking, half-running over the muddy ground. Her feet made squelchy sounds with every step; it was weird being on such soft ground.

About a hundred metres away, she found it. A tiny stream. The water was a yellowish brown, but it smelled drinkable. Water was Macey's element and her nose told her that this stream was safe. And even better, it led to a large pool.

Finally, a good thing was happening to them. Things were beginning to look up.

The water called to her. As it always did. It'd been too long since her dip in her men's swimming pool.

Next to her, Amber started humming, now back in human form. She meandered towards the murky pool of water, not seeming to have a care in the world.

"Amber?" Macey asked carefully, starting to worry about how zoned out the beithir looked. That couldn't be normal. "Amber?" she repeated louder, still not getting any response.

Luch squeaked from her position between Macey's boobs, and used her paws to tug down the material of her shirt. Macey assumed it was to have a better look, though she wished the mouse wouldn't do that, it left her feeling all kinds of exposed.

"Uh-oh, that's not good," Luch said.

"You don't say," Macey deadpanned, before taking a couple of steps forward, hoping to reach the other woman and pull her away from the water. Something clearly wasn't right. Especially for the pull towards it to have suddenly turned into an urge to get them all away from it. Something about it felt off, and it wasn't the murky colouration. Macey was well aware that even the dirtiest looking water wasn't always so. It could just have been a certain kind of algae that was making it like that.

She took another step, and ground to a halt, something stopping her from moving any further forward, almost like the barrier that had stopped them from leaving the Voice's keep. She tried again, to no avail.

"Want to try?" she asked the mouse.

She felt it nod against her skin, but the sensation only lasted for a moment. Luch leaped from her shirt, shifting as she did, only to be replaced by the same woman as before. It surprised Macey, she'd half expected Luch to appear differently again.

The mouse took a few steps forward and came against the same problem Macey had. Not a good sign in the slightest.

"That's a no go, then."

"What do we do now?" Macey asked, worry building within her.

Amber had reached the edge of the water now and hadn't seemed to rouse from her spaced out state. That couldn't be good at all. Macey didn't know if beithirs could breathe underwater, though she suspected they couldn't. And if the red-head carried on, then she was going to risk drowning. There was very little doubt there.

The water was now lapping around Amber's legs, but she didn't even seem to notice. Macey's concern grew worse. This certainly wasn't a good thing. It was almost as bad as when the Voice took control of people. At least, from what she'd seen.

A ripple in the pool of the water drew her attention away from the beithir, and to her surprise, a head poked up above the calm surface. It only appeared for a moment, but there was no mistaking what it was. The woman had dark green hair that floated around the surface. Her skin was a similar hue, and if Macey's eyes hadn't been as strong as they were, then she probably wouldn't have noticed her. The skin and hair clearly matched the colour of the pool and must have been designed for camouflage.

Macey wracked her brain for the knowledge of other water beings that her Aunt Nessie had imparted in her, but it was hard to tell without seeing the woman's entire body. For all Macey knew, she could be yet another kind of kelpie. Even though she'd been led to believe her family was the only kind, the storm kelpies had thrown that idea out of the window.

"She doesn't look very friendly," Luch said.

"The teeth?" Macey half-joked, though her voice was shaking. She pushed against the barrier again, trying her best to get past it, but it still wouldn't budge.

A splash drew her attention, and a thick tail, not unlike the salmon that passed through the rivers near her loch, disappeared into the lake.

Realisation crashed through her, and she renewed her efforts to get through the barrier. A ceasg was bad news. Very bad news. Especially for Amber, who was now chest deep in the water and only getting closer to the creature. Macey had heard a lot of stories about the creatures, some of which involved them eating people whole and keeping them in their stomachs for years.

That couldn't happen.

Not only did Macey need the other woman for their fight to save the Staran, but she'd come to like her in the short time since they'd met.

"Shit!" she shouted, as she bounced back past the barrier again.

"I have something I can try," Luch said softly. "But you're going to have to trust me."

"Anything." Tears stung Macey's eyes as she agreed, and Luch nodded her head. Right now, her only focus was on making sure Amber was safe.

"I need you to be ready to run for the water and shift as soon as this works," Luch instructed.

"Okay," Macey agreed shakily, wondering what was about to happen.

"I don't know if this will hurt or not, but if it does, I'm sorry," the mouse added, before lifting her hands and cupping them together.

An intense look of concentration covered Luch's face, and a tugging sensation built within Macey, as if someone was drawing on her power. She opened her mouth to speak, but Luch shook her head, stopping her in her tracks.

Instead, she looked at Amber in the water. She was still walking into the centre of the pool, but it didn't look to have gotten much deeper. The beithir's tail twitched from where it floated in the water, and hope rose instead. Until she realised that was Luch's doing too.

Something swirled around the woman's hand, and before long, lightning and water were swirling there, much like they had when Amber and Macey had combined their powers earlier.

With a deep breath, Luch threw the power in the direction of the barrier. It lit up as the lightning crackled around it, before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Macey stood there for a few gob smacked moments, before realising what she should be doing.

Without waiting a second longer, she began to run towards the lake, already pulling on a shift, knowing she’d hit the water before she needed to breathe.

Even with her kelpie vision, it was hard to see underwater. Amber walking into the pool had whirled up a lot of mud which was now threatening to clog up Macey's eyes. The water was a lot deeper than she'd thought, deep enough for several kelpies to stand on top of each other. She was by Amber's side in a flash, using her powerful tail to propel her forwards.

She took a deep breath and broke the surface to check what the other woman was doing. Amber stared blankly into the distance, but she'd stopped moving. She was now to her neck in water but didn't seem to be bothered by it in the slightest.

Macey couldn't speak so she whinnied loudly, but Amber didn't even blink. She was in a deep trance, but how to get her out of it?

Macey went back underwater to check for the strange woman she'd seen earlier. She'd never heard anything good about the ceasg, but she had to keep reminding herself that most people thought kelpies were monsters, too. So, she should really keep an open mind... but luring Amber into the water like that wasn't a good sign.

She came to a halt and listened. The water around her was flowing steadily, a rhythm that she could focus on. Now if there was to be a disturbance to the rhythm... yes, there it was! She shot towards her target and almost crashed into the ceasg.

The woman was swimming close to the surface, a few metres downstream from Amber. If you ignored her sharp teeth and strange colour, she could almost be called beautiful. No wonder there were stories of human men falling in love with these river mermaids. She smiled toothily at Macey, who wasn't quite sure what to do. Could she communicate with this other species?

Kelpies used language that to humans sounded like whinnies and dolphin-like clicks. So far, she'd not met anyone other than kelpies who could understand it. And most other supernaturals made fun of it because it sounded so unsophisticated. They just didn't understand the nuances of a well-executed click.

"Who are you?" she asked in her own language, not really expecting a response.

I am Mhara.

Ah, she was one of those mind-talkers. Not everybody could talk in the pretty sounds of the kelpie.

"What do you want from my friend, Mhara?"

I was curious. I've not come across someone like her before.

"So, you entranced her to walk into the water just to satisfy your curiosity?"

Pretty much, yes. But why are you here, kelpie? I've only ever met one of you before. He was quite a bore.

"We were just passing through," Macey said noncommittally. She still didn't know if this Mhara was friend or foe.

"Now that you've seen her, could you let Amber go, please, so we can move on?"

Tell me first, what is she?

Macey wasn't sure if she should divulge Amber's identity, but at the same time, what could it hurt?

"She's a shifter. A beithir."

Oh, I've not met one of those before. Do they taste good?

Macey immediately shifted her position, making herself big and threatening. The ceasg was getting nowhere near her new friend.

Stop it, that was a joke! Seems you've heard the same rumours as everybody else has. She scratched her chin. I'm sure it's the selkies who've been spreading that nonsense.

"Yes, I suppose they may have," Macey said weakly, a bit embarrassed that she'd reacted the same way to the ceasg as everybody else reacted to kelpies.

We're not bad people. We're actually quite useful, if one asks us nicely.

"Why, what can you do?"

You've not heard of the maidens of the water granting wishes to all who capture us? Now, I'd like you not to imprison me, please, but I am able to grant you one wish.

"Ehm, that's nice of you," Macey spluttered. This woman was weird. "We never really planned to be here... Can you bring us back to Earth?"

Earth is a big place, my dear. Where exactly would you like to be?

Macey thought back to a vision the Voice gave her long ago. Maybe it was time to turn it into reality.

It was time to visit Aunt Nessie.