Ardea and her parents smiled at us from the family photo in a silver frame that hung on the wall. The warmth was seeping into the room through the open window, while the breeze was playing with the edge of the curtain.

It did not seem to bother Mathias who sat on an armchair by the window. Across the room, on the sofa upholstered by a gray fabric, sat Opal, Nia and I. Ardea was pacing up and down, frequently casting glances in the direction of the door. My eyes wandered in the same direction quite often as well, and neither Mathias nor Opal were exceptions. Nia hadn't moved her eyes away from the wooden pattern on the door at all.

We were waiting. Two hours had gone by in anticipation.

It was a test of our patience during which my fingernails did not remain intact. I was nervously nibbling on them for about half an hour. Opal occupied her hands by flipping the pebbles she had found in Ardea's garden earlier that day, while Mathias cracked his knuckles every now and then.

More than a hundred and twenty minutes had passed before Ardea's father slowly opened the door and pushed a wheelchair into the room. On the wheelchair sat his latest patient. Her hands as well as her legs had been wrapped in white bandages.

"Professor Cyan!" I exclaimed the second I saw her.

Mathias jumped on his feet, Ardea stopped pacing, Opal dropped her pebbles and Nia stared at the door frame as if she were hypnotized.

Our teacher was smiling.

"Are you okay?" Mathias asked.

"I am," Professor Cyan replied.

"Did it work?" Ardea addressed her father, looking deep into his eyes. Neither of them wore contact lenses which made every look they would cast our way that much more intense.

"I'd say it worked," he answered the question and added, "But the most difficult part still lies ahead of us."

Reconstructing the webbing between the fingers and toes was a child's play in comparison to the operation that would follow once the stitches on her limbs heal. Doctor Kasian thought it would be the wisest to leave the most difficult procedure for the end.

The operation that would follow. The very thought of it was enough to cause shivering of my entire body.

In the days before the final surgery, I tried to find a shelter from the dark thoughts in Ardea's garden which was just as beautiful as our school gardens. My favorite part was the one that welcomed early summer with abundance of fruit. Raspberries and strawberries melted in my mouth when I ate them freshly picked. Ms. Cyan liked the apricots best.

"Won't you miss this?" I asked one afternoon when we lazed in the sun.

Earlier that day, we swam in the swimming pool that was a part of the clinic where Ardea's father worked. The home of the Kasian family was located right across the clinic, so Ms. Cyan had all the medical attention she might need right at the doorstep.

In her hands that were no longer wrapped in bandages, she held an apricot. It only took about ten days for her wounds to heal. Her fingers and toes were once again joined by the webbing, and I was no longer able to match her in the water. I no longer had her speed. The webbing would never again connect my fingers and toes.

She took a bite of the juicy, orange-colored fruit and closed her eyes.

"Who knows," she said, "if I take the seed with me and plant it, maybe it will grow." She looked at me and smiled, letting me know that she was only joking.

"If the procedure works, and you do get back to your home, I promise I will bring you fresh apricots every summer," I said, trying to prevent my vocal cords from shaking.

"That would be very kind of you," she replied.

After that, we both went silent. Ms. Cyan's eyes were absorbing her surroundings, as if they were trying to fill her memory with the sights of beauty she found in the world outside of the water.

°     °     °    °    °    °     °

My fingers were turning the pages of a book I found in Doctor Kasin's personal library. It wasn't a medical book. This one contained information about the deserving elves throughout the elven history. Although it wasn't the reading that would normally interest me, I needed something to distract me.

The night behind us was the night of the full Moon. Ms. Cyan and I were sent to one of the guest rooms on the first floor and were given a key so we could lock it from the inside.

Ardea did not put her contacts on that day either, and Mathias kept away from those of us whose race caused such a strong reaction in him.

With the onset of evening, he looked for Ardea himself so that she and her father could take him to the clinic. He returned to the Kasian family home the following day, some time after noon. He was unusually quiet.

Neither Ardea nor I asked questions, but Opal and Nia did not hold back.

"Was everything all right?" Nia asked considerately.

"Are all the patients accounted for?" Opal added, with no regard.

"Was it wise to ask him a question like that?" Nia frowned at her.

"You're right," Opal replied. "That is something I should be asking Doctor Kasian. Where is your father, Ardea?" she continued, turning towards the elf while a mischievous smile played with the corners of her lips.

Ardea did not respond. She looked at Mathias who, surprisingly, didn't respond to the provocation of our dwarf. Instead, he turned his back to all of us and chose to stare out the window.

"Mathias, what's wrong?" Ardea asked in a voice filled with concern.

He wasn't looking into her elven eyes, so he didn't feel the urge to answer her. Ardea came closer and stood beside him. She grasped one of his hands with her palms and whispered to his ear, "Did something happen?"

He turned his head to look at her. "Not yet," he said. "But soon it will."

Before he had the chance to explain the meaning of his words, a doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Nia offered and left the room. She came back just a minute later, followed by Mr. August. Behind him, I spotted another person, a student from our school.

"Harper?" I asked, not believing my own eyes.

"Hi," he said when he entered the living room.

"Why did you bring him here?" Mathias seemed exasperated.

Mr. August crossed the room and stood right in front of his nephew. "He is here for the same reason as you," our headmaster said calmly.

"Do you think he can be trusted?" Mathias wanted to know. The accusing tone in his voice was still present, although it was somewhat dimmed.

"Listen to yourself!" Opal threw her hands in the air. "A werewolf wants to know if a faun can be trusted. Please, remind me who in this room had problems with Aquantiens? Who had trouble controlling himself? Was it Harper? Huh?"

While she stood there, with her hands on her hips, her head tilted to the side, I was convinced that she was gonna trigger another nasty situation. To make my hunch the more real, Mathias gritted his teeth, but then he did the opposite of what any of us would expect; he closed his eyes, turned to the window and took a deep breath.

"You're right," he said, causing Opal's jaw to drop. I shared her amazement.

At that point, Professor Cyan stepped into the room. She wore a long skirt in dark coral color and a loose white shirt. Even though the gloves were no longer a part of her outfit, she still had a scarf wrapped around her neck.

"There is no need to argue," she said. "I trust Harper, therefore he is welcome here." She looked at him and gave him one of her apprehensive smiles. Her eyes then encircled the rest of us before she continued, "I have faith in all of you. For that reason, I did not oppose your desire to come here with me. That is the reason why I let you be here by my side. I want you to know that I cherish every moment I spent with you. No matter what happens tomorrow."

Thank you for still reading Call of the Water. 

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