The Water-Nix

Beside a rushing river in a valley surrounded by rolling green hills, there stood an old mill that had been grinding grain for generations. The current miller was a hardworking man who lived there with his beloved wife, and together they made an honest living serving the farmers of the surrounding countryside.

However, times had grown difficult. The river had been running lower than usual, and without enough water to turn the great mill wheel, the miller could barely grind enough grain to support his family. Each day, he and his wife watched their savings dwindle, and they began to worry about their future.

One evening, as the miller walked along the riverbank wondering how he might solve their problems, he noticed that the water seemed unusually calm and still. The surface was like a perfect mirror, reflecting the first stars of twilight.

Suddenly, the water began to ripple and swirl, though there was no wind to disturb it. From the depths of the river rose a figure unlike anything the miller had ever seen—a being that was neither fully human nor entirely spirit, with long flowing hair the color of river moss and eyes like deep pools of water.

“Good evening, miller,” said the water-nix in a voice that sounded like the gentle babbling of a brook. “I have been watching you and your wife, and I know of your troubles.”

The miller stepped back in amazement, but the creature’s manner was not threatening. “You… you can speak? What are you?”

“I am the spirit of this river,” replied the water-nix. “I have dwelt in these waters since before your grandfather’s grandfather built this mill. I have seen many millers come and go, and I have watched you work harder than any of them.”

The miller found his voice, though his heart was beating rapidly. “If you have been watching, then you know that the river runs too low for my wheel to turn properly. My wife and I fear we will lose everything.”

The water-nix nodded sympathetically. “Indeed, the drought has been severe. But I have the power to make your river run full and strong again, to make your mill the most prosperous in the entire region.”

“You do?” asked the miller, hardly daring to hope. “But what would you want in return for such help?”

The water-nix smiled, but there was something mysterious in her expression. “Only this—that you give me the first thing that is born in your house after our bargain is made.”

The miller thought for a moment. He and his wife had no children, and their household animals were all fully grown. Perhaps this meant their cat might have kittens, or their hen might hatch some chicks. Such a price seemed small for the prosperity the water-nix offered.

“I accept your bargain,” said the miller quickly, before he could change his mind.

The water-nix clapped her hands with delight, and immediately the river began to rise. The water swirled and foamed with renewed vigor, and the mill wheel started turning with a strength it hadn’t shown in months.

The miller hurried home to tell his wife the wonderful news. “Our troubles are over!” he announced joyfully. “The river is full again, and our mill will prosper!”

His wife was overjoyed, but when he told her about the water-nix and the bargain he had made, she looked concerned. “You promised her the first thing born in our house? Are you certain that was wise?”

“What harm could it do?” replied the miller. “Perhaps our cat will have kittens, or our hen will hatch some eggs. It seems a small price to pay for such prosperity.”

And indeed, prosperity came quickly. Farmers from far and wide brought their grain to the mill, which now operated with incredible efficiency. The miller and his wife soon found themselves wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.

A few months later, the miller’s wife made a wonderful announcement. “My dear husband,” she said with tears of joy in her eyes, “we are going to have a child.”

The miller’s face lit up with happiness, but then suddenly grew pale as he remembered his bargain with the water-nix. “A child,” he whispered. “The first thing to be born in our house after I made the bargain.”

His wife gasped in horror as she understood what this meant. “You promised our unborn child to the water spirit?”

The miller fell into a chair, his head in his hands. “I thought… I never imagined… Oh, what have I done?”

For the remainder of his wife’s pregnancy, the couple lived in fear and anguish. They considered fleeing to another land, but they knew that magical bargains could not be so easily escaped. They tried to think of ways to break the contract, but every plan seemed impossible.

When their beautiful baby daughter was born, their joy was mixed with terrible sorrow. They loved her desperately, but they knew their time with her was limited.

The water-nix did not come immediately. Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months. The miller and his wife began to hope that perhaps the water spirit had forgotten about their bargain, or maybe she had changed her mind.

But when their daughter took her first steps and spoke her first words, the water-nix appeared at their door one evening, just as the sun was setting.

“It is time,” she said simply. “The child must come with me now.”

The miller’s wife clutched her daughter protectively to her chest. “Please,” she begged, “take anything else. Take our mill, our wealth, our very lives, but let us keep our child.”

The water-nix looked at them with something that might have been sympathy. “A bargain is a bargain. Your husband gave his word freely, and magic contracts must be honored.”

“But she’s just a baby,” pleaded the miller. “She belongs with her family.”

“She will be safe with me,” promised the water-nix. “In my underwater realm, she will grow up with magical gifts and knowledge beyond what the surface world could offer her. I will raise her as my own daughter.”

Despite their protests and tears, the water-nix gently took the child. But as she prepared to return to the river, she paused and looked back at the grieving parents.

“Your love for her is true and deep,” she observed. “Very well. I will make you another bargain. If you can find your daughter and call her true name before she reaches her eighteenth birthday, she may choose whether to stay with me or return to you. But you will have only one chance, and you must find her on your own.”

With those words, the water-nix and the child vanished into the river, leaving the miller and his wife alone with their grief.

Years passed, and the couple never stopped searching for their daughter. They traveled to every lake, river, and stream in the region, calling her name and looking for any sign of the water-nix’s underwater realm.

When their daughter’s eighteenth birthday approached, the miller’s wife had a vivid dream. In it, she saw a beautiful young woman sitting by a crystal pool in an underwater garden, combing her long hair with a comb made of pearls. The young woman looked exactly as their daughter should look now, but her eyes held the wisdom of the water spirits.

Following the guidance of her dream, the miller’s wife went to a deep pool in the river where the mill wheel turned. At midnight on their daughter’s birthday, she called out the name they had given her so long ago.

“Margaret! My dear Margaret, if you can hear me, please come home!”

The water began to glow with a soft light, and from its depths rose their daughter, now grown into a beautiful young woman with flowing hair and eyes that reflected the depths of the river.

“Mother?” she said wonderingly. “I remember you. I have dreamed of you and father all these years.”

The water-nix appeared beside her, no longer seeming like a mysterious spirit but more like a caring guardian who had raised a beloved daughter.

“The choice is yours, child,” the water-nix said gently. “You may return to the world above with your birth parents, or you may remain in my realm where you have learned the ancient wisdom of the waters.”

Margaret looked at her birth parents with love and recognition, but she also looked at the water-nix with deep affection and gratitude.

“I love you all,” she said finally. “But I have learned that I don’t have to choose just one world. May I live between them, spending time in both realms and serving as a bridge between the world of humans and the world of water spirits?”

The water-nix smiled with approval. “That is a wise choice, showing the wisdom I have taught you and the love your parents gave you.”

And so Margaret became a guardian of the river, spending part of her time with her human parents and part of her time in the water realm, helping travelers and protecting both the mill and the river from harm.

The miller and his wife were not able to have their daughter live with them as they had originally hoped, but they gained something perhaps even more precious—a daughter who could move between worlds, bringing blessings to both, and who visited them often with stories of the magical realm beneath the waters.

The mill continued to prosper, but now the miller and his wife understood that their greatest wealth was not their success, but the love they shared with their remarkable daughter who belonged to both land and water, bridging two worlds with her generous heart.