QT: Gilded Waters

4: Capture

Dierdre awakens to a powerful jolt her body slapping into the water with force.

What had happened?

She was only going to take a short nap!

Her nostrils flared as she breathed in the scent of fresh lotus flowers. It had been a while since she'd smelled flowers like this before. Flowers were more of a special treat for a girl like her that lived in the hospital for so long.  The only patients that got flowers in a hospital were the people that were well enough to leave. Patients with terminal illnesses like her didn't get flowers. After much cajoling, a nurse had finally broken down and told her the reason why. Bringing flowers to a hospitalized person was discouraged in hospitals, as it reminded the sick person of death as they watched the freshly cut flower eventually wilt, then die in their room.

Flowers were depressing. That was the consensus.

Deidre never thought so. She'd loved staring out at the bobbing flower heads in the bushes on the hospital grounds outside her window. Tulips, forget-me-nots, and bluebells, all beautiful in their way. The flowers there were alive and vibrant. Each lonely year that Deidre passed in the hospital, was marked by their cycles of wilting and blooming.  

To her, the fresh flowers that came in spring were a testament to her will to live. Though they were long gone by winter, Deidre knew she could look forward to seeing them again in spring.

Quickly twisting her body around, she finds herself in a wide pool, beautifully decorated with lotus leaves and white blooms that float around her. Within the pool, there was a stone bridge that connected the outside of the pool with an island sitting in the middle of it. Atop the island stood a small viewing pavilion with gossamer white curtains billowing in the wind.

???

The mermaid looked at her surroundings in confusion, the waters stirring about her.

What happened to her small grotto?

Dierdre couldn't smell the fresh salty scent of the ocean anymore.

Where was she??

Pushing herself up and curiously looking around, she finds herself in a large pond lined by polished oval stones. Several lotus flowers floated in gentle currents created by Deidre's tail, while peonies bloomed in low bushes surrounding the pond she found herself in. Beyond the pool, small paths lined with picturesque rocks stretched out using the pool as the center, winding further into a garden. The paths disappeared behind winding trees manicured to perfection, creating a garden scene that portrayed an idealized vision of synergy between man and nature.

A few koi fish brush by Deidre as if in greeting, and she strokes their backs in response. Deidre shivers.

Someone's intense gaze seems to bore into her back. She didn't know why, but she felt as if something very dangerous was watching her.

Goosebumps rippling on her arms, Dierdre quickly turns, powerful tail splashing water into the air.

A jaw-droppingly handsome man, long black hair flowing down his back and dressed in white robes, lounges on a red lacquered chair. There was a desk before him that was stacked high with paper as he leans forward, watching her.

But the scary feeling that she'd picked up, her sixth sense that was telling her something was wrong had disappeared. Was it this man's gaze that had felt so dangerous? Had her gut instincts sensed wrongly? With his arm hooked around the back of the chair and no weapon in hand, he looked harmless enough.

All he was doing now was observing her with a cool, detached look.

"Good. Looks like no difficulties adjusting to the water" he mutters to himself, pushing up the thin gold-rimmed glasses perched atop a high nose.