It was said that in the days of magic there lived a young Aisha, and her name
was Gwyn the Lady of the Sea. And it was also said that Gwyn lived by the ocean,
breathing the salty air and walking along the empty beaches for miles.
~*~
One fine morning along the ocean, the beaches were washed clean, and left
flat and warm in the dawning sunlight. Only a solitary line of small footprints
led unwaveringly down to the south, and that is where Gwyn the Lady of the Sea
could be found, talking to the Peophins, the Flotsams, and the Faeries of the
Sea.
On this fine morning Gwyn spoke to her friend Nereid, the golden-haired Faerie
of the Sea. Nereid told stories of the ocean's deepest caverns; of its most
beautiful kelp jungles; and of its hidden lagoons on which no Neopian had ever
laid eyes. But one story above all the others interested Gwyn.
This story was of a secret glade deep in the heart of the mountains, where
a shallow pool could be found. When one looked into that glassy pool, that someone
would view what they most wanted to see above all other things. And so, after
hearing of the legendary pool, Gwyn took it upon herself to travel there and
find out what it was that she wanted to see above all others.
"I think I shall journey to this pool, and see what it is that I shall see
there," Gwyn told Nereid.
But Nereid shook her head, and warned her friend against it. "Such a journey
will only bring sorrow upon you, dearest friend. I would not advise it. But
if that is what your heart tells you to do, then you must not disobey your own
heart, for it is really your soul that speaks."
And so that very noontide Gwyn gathered a few belongings, and set off along
the winding road that would eventually lead deep into the mountains, and to
a secret glad which sheltered a shallow glassy pool.
So after weeks and months of walking, and sleeping, and walking again, Gwyn
came at last to the secret glade. It was a circle of birch trees, their healthy
green leaves hanging like a canopy over the shallow pool. And the pool was as
tiny as could be, and if one were to walk through it, the water would scatter
and never run back into its original form.
Exhausted from her long journey, Gwyn threw aside her bag of food, and knelt
gingerly beside the glassy, shimmering water. She was full of excitement, anticipation…
and dread. Leaning a few inches over the water, she turned her eyes downward
and gazed into the water. And there she saw not what she most wanted to see
in the entire world, but only herself. It was her reflection, her tired and
muddied face staring back at her with a sad expression. Suddenly enraged, Gwyn
shouted and flung her hand into the middle of the tiny shallow pool. Water droplets
like so many glimmering diamonds splashed into her face, and when she lifted
her hand, only a small indentation in the ground showed that there had ever
been a pool there.
"To think I was such a fool to believe a Faerie's legend!" Gwyn said to herself.
She picked up her bag, shouldered it, and began to walk back along the winding
road that would lead her eventually to the seashore, and home. "I shall never
again follow my heart, for now I know it brings no more than lies."
~*~
That is the tale of Gwyn, the Lady of the Sea, and how she lost her heart
because of a foolish Faerie's legend. But was the pool really only a legend?
For Faeries have never been known to lie.
The End | 
