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Lady of the Lake

Rated: E · Short Story · Paranormal · #2360272

underwater-themed paranormal fantasy for the Writer's Cramp 5/3/2026

It was a weird sensation looking up to see water above my head. I was breathing normally, somehow. I walked along the bottom of the lake, there was a bounce in my step, and it took conscious effort not to float up every time I planted my feet. I followed Murray deeper and deeper into the lake. Murray was a fairy.

She had been my imaginary friend since I was little. I thought I had grown out of her, but I guess she just stopped coming by. Now, at twenty-one, imagine, to my surprise, she appeared at my birthday party. I would have thought I was just drunk, but all I had was lemonade. I am pretty sure it was not the hard kind. Though my "friends" were capable of anything. James really wanted to get me drunk with the hopes that I would fall into his bed.

Murray appeared to have grown up as well. She was almost as tall as I was, but I recognized the vivid iridescent patterns of her wings. Nobody else saw her wings. They walked around them, avoiding contact but not consciously aware of them. I doubt they saw her at all; no one ever had.

"Penny, I need your help! The Lady of the Lake is trapped in her palace. I can not get it open. There are magic wards I can not even get close to. You are the only mundane creature I could think of to send in to try to damage the warding magic. You did it when we were little!" Murray blurted before I had finished blinking in surprise at seeing her in front of me.

"Murray, where did you go?"

"I've always been there, silly."

"The Lady of the Lake? I can't breathe underwater anymore. That was a one-time spell."

"Silly, you've been underwater all night!"

I blinked some more. Then looked around the bar, which was indeed underwater. The people around me were actually fish. "How?"

"The magic is breaking through the barrier again. The only one who can fix it is The Lady of the Lake."

"And she is trapped in her palace behind a wall of wards?" I clarified.

"Yes! You've got it! Now come on. We only have until morning, or the two worlds will collide, and I do not know what might happen."

I picked up my jacket and pulled it on. We left the bar surrounded in a bubble of water. It rolled around us as we headed towards the lake. "Murray, is this like last time I could breathe underwater? If i try to breathe air will I drown in it?"

Murry paused she turned to face me, with her serious face. "Yes."

I noticed that our bubble of water was shedding. "Let's get to the lake before I can't." We took off running. The bubble of water soon rolled us along faster than we could run. We reached the lake with plenty of bubble remaining. I held my breath and jumped off of the pier. The splashdown was spectacularly unspectacular. Murray lazily drifted down into the water. This is where we came in. Above me, the night sky wavily twinkled down through the surface, and Murray led the way with her now glowing wings. I followed. Dawn was tickling at the edges of the sky by the time we reached the palace. It was just as beautiful as I remembered it.

"Here we are. Now go break the wards like a bull in a china shop!"

I can't believe she was still holding my accidental release of a Minotaur in the forest against me. I was five. How was I supposed to know that the crystals were that fragile? I sighed and headed towards the first pile of crystals. I had to push through the barrier around them; the magic making me able to breathe underwater wasn't quite enough to keep me away from the stones. I kicked the pile, shattering half and scattering the other half. Murray's wings glowed momentarily brighter as the energy from the first pile of warding crystals crumbled. I spent an awfully long time hunting down all the piles and demolishing them. Then I marched up to the front door. I knocked, and The Lady of the Lake came to the door yawning.

"Good heavens! You're a human, what are you doing down here?"

Murray rushed towards The Lady of the Lake. "Your majesty, you have been trapped by warding crystals in your palace for months. The Darksiders have been tearing at the wall between. Magic is leaking across the veil. If you don't set things right before dawn, the worlds will collide."

The Lady smiled and yawned. "Ah, and the sun is coming up! Girls, I need each of you to give up one strand of hair."

Murray yanked one from her head and reached for my hair. I batted her hands away and pulled out one strand of my own. We handed them over. The Lady of the Lake wadded both strands in her hands, swirled them around through the water, and then clapped her hands together, making a bright glow spread from her hands.

With the glow, a pressure wave of water knocked me over, and the light blinded me. I blacked out.

881words

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