Awakening

By Linda Jordan

A naiad’s search for her father takes her to a place even she can’t imagine

Merial always thought she belonged to the sea. Her entire life spent beneath the waves. Now her mother tells her father belongs to the forest and the woods. A dryad!

She must strike off in search of him. To find out where she really belongs. How badly does she really want to know?

Does she find him? Even more important - can she find herself?

Lovers of Faerie stories will find much to delight in while reading this coming of age adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Metamorphosis Press
• Release date: Jul 15, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005525156

Linda Jordan

Linda Jordan writes fascinating characters, visionary worlds, and imaginative fiction. She creates both long and short fiction, serious and silly. She believes in the power of healing and transformation, and many of her stories follow those themes.In a previous lifetime, Linda coordinated the Clarion West Writers’ Workshop as well as the Reading Series. She spent four years as Chair of the Board of Directors during Clarion West’s formative period. She’s also worked as a travel agent, a baker, and a pond plant/fish sales person, you know, the sort of things one does as a writer.Currently, she’s the Programming Director for the Writers Cooperative of the Pacific Northwest.Linda now lives in the rainy wilds of Washington state with her husband, daughter, four cats, a cluster of Koi and an infinite number of slugs and snails.

Book preview

Awakening

Awakening

Linda Jordan

Metamorphosis Press

Copyright © 2018 by Linda Jordan

Published by Metamorphosis Press

Contents

Awakening

About the Author

Awakening

Merial stood on the shore. The wind off the sea blew her knee-length green hair in a swirl around her. Rope-like strands battered her tough, naked skin. The The wind curved around Merial. Playing.

The slate colored sky roiled with clouds. Rain was coming. She didn’t care. The seals just off the point barked at her to come play. She stood firmly on the rocks. Unwilling to move.

Her mother’s words rolled through her mind.

Your father’s a dryad.

A dryad!

All her life Merial had seen herself as one with the sea. Her mother, a naiad. Merial assumed she must be too. Even though she swam more slowly than the other young ones. Wasn’t as flexible. She had a much more difficult time doing water magic than any of them. The others flowed and she struggled. Which made her stronger.

She’d just assumed water was her element.

Now to find out that her father belonged to the earth, to the trees and the forest.

She’d never met him. Her parents had parted soon after she was born, before her memories. They’d decided that Merial was more water than earth, before she was too young to have any say in the matter. So mother had raised her and father returned to the forest.

She should go find him. Talk to him. To see if she was meant to be somewhere else. Her fists clenched as the sea splashed cold salt water on her face. As if it was telling her to wake up and go away. Go to the forest.

She’d never met a dryad. And she didn’t want to. She just wanted to fit in the world somewhere and be happy. Be helping the sea. As if she’d ever been any help to anyone. As if she belonged anywhere.

A gull swooped past, shrieking over the sound of the crashing waves. The white and gray feathers ruffled by its flight. The bird landed nearby, picking at the exposed mussels on the rocks. The tide was going out, leaving the shore behind.

She should go find the others. They were harvesting purple dulse today. Thinning out the seaweed and casting it up on the shore. Humans would come and collect it. They ate it too, Uaine the elder said. Merial had only seen one once. The thought of the human made her shiver, such a frightening creature.

Her bluish skin oozed water. How could she not be of the sea? Dryads probably didn’t leak water like she did. Their skin