“Domhnull, where are you?” Tilly asked. It was a mild night in late April. Caught off guard by dusk on their journey, the slim sixteen years old and her travel companion had set up their camp in an abandoned, quite dilapidated hut at the wayside. When the girl woke up later in the night, the long straw-blonde hair still disorderly from sleeping, her companion was nowhere to be seen. This companion surely enough wasn’t quite ordinary. He was an each-uisge, a demonic water horse that was able to speak with human tongue and also to take human shape. When the young woman couldn’t see Domhnull anywhere, such the water monster was called with whom she travelled through the country since nearly five years already and who had become family to her by now, she felt a certain unease rising within her and left her bed to look for him.

She found him soon in a grove nearby, shone on by the silvery light of the full moon. The big black stallion had taken human shape – he appeared as an elegant and handsome black-haired young man clad in black – and he wasn’t alone. With him was an almost superhumanly beautiful woman. Long curly red hair, a flawless face with distinguished pale complexion, a voluptuously curvaceous body, in addition merely dressed sparsely-lasciviously.

When she saw how such a beauty flung her arms around the each-uisge’s neck, Tilly sensed how her heart was cramping painfully while flames of rage were flaring in her blue eyes that couldn’t even be extinguished by the tears that flowed down her cheeks without her will. The young woman didn’t quite know how she felt. She was jealous but hadn’t quite experienced this emotion before.

Following a sudden impulse the girl stormed out of hiding, her blonde hair fluttering in the wind like the snake hair of the furies.

“Domhnull, you… you horndog of a stallion! You idiot! You traitor!” she shouted before she ran away utterly precipitated, leaving the water monster and its nighttime date far behind her.

Tilly didn’t know how far she had run. At last she sunk down between the roots of an elm tree, cried her heart out and then she fell asleep exhaustedly. When she woke up the next morning, the sun was already in the sky and the birds chirped in the green branches and twigs high above her. At first she was confused but then she remembered what happened the last night. Half ashamed and half angry, she stubbornly decided not to return to the old hut and to the water horse for the time being – and that although the food supplies that could have appeased her hunger were still in the camp. With a growling stomach she headed off to find something edible if possible.

Soon she came on a path to the sides of which fields extended, but as it still was April though the seed likely might have germinated but there were no crops yet. Tilly followed this path until she came to a solitary well. With the help of a bucket attached to a winch she could at least treat herself to a cool drink like how the field workers did who used this well. After the worst thirst was quenched, she sat down on the stone edge of the well and began to think once more about what had happened last night.

Suddenly a voice rang out from behind. “What does such a pretty Miss like you do at this remote well?” it wanted to know.

Surprised Tilly spun around. On the other side of the well there stood a sturdy, handsome man with enticingly dark eyes and hair as red as fire. That he wore just a simple but clean smock frock did no harm to his appeal.

“Pardon, I didn’t want to scare you.” the man assured and gave her a gallant smile.

“You didn’t do so.” the young woman bashfully replied. She was still in a complete mess from the last night. How could she be called a pretty Miss then?

“Something seems to depress you.” the stranger stated. He came over and sat down next to her on the edge of the well. “If you want to you can tell me everything. Admittedly we don’t know each other but you can be certain that I won’t divulge your secrets.”

The girl felt impelled by something to open her heart to the handsome unknown man. Thus she told him of all what had occurred the previous night. The stranger who had introduced himself as Sechnassach was a surprisingly good listener. He kept quiet were silence was due, agreed where Tilly hoped for affirmation, and inquired where it seemed appropriate.

The more she told, the more irrelevant her sorrows appeared to the young woman and the more she felt attracted to the red-haired man. It was a longing unknown to her that filled her heart.

Gradually Tilly lost herself in the farmer’s alluring smile. Very slowly she leaned over to kiss her listener on the lips – then loud hoof beats sounded in the distance, approaching with lightning speed.

Suddenly a big black horse stood in front of the two and snorted directly into the girl’s face.

“Have you really taken leave of your senses?” it asked in a dark voice.

Then he turned around and delivered the redhead a tremendous kick. Sechnassach flew high through the air and came back to the ground extremely ruggedly.

For the young woman it was as if she had woken up from a long dream. Confused she looked back and forth between the each-uisge in front of her and the farmer lying on the ground.

“That’s a ganconer, Tilly.” the steed warned “He has aimed for your life essence.”

The words were barely spoken, then the ganconer sat up as straight as a pole, looked very angrily at the water monster, and then he melted into fog as if he never had been there.

The girl’s shock didn’t last long. Instead the rage of last night came over her.

“And what was with your nocturnal rendezvous?” she asked dead serious.

Suddenly the black horse burst into laughter. As a result, Tilly’s rage just increased further.

“That was a baobhan-sith.” he explained “She mistook me for a human wayfarer and was after my blood of which she was very keen to suck me dry. It took me half the night to get rid of her.”

Now the young woman chuckled. “Serves you right.” she said “What do you just have to be so misleading?”

After they both had laughed, the bad mood was completely gone and they started back to the camp of last night were they had left their belongings.

Two days later Tilly and Domhnull reached the port city Eastport. The big, cosmopolitan settlement was the most important trade center in the kingdom of Seathornia. Numerous ships from the five kingdoms and the empire landed in the harbor famous far and wide. A bustling crowd was pouring through the city gates of the trade city surrounded by an extensive wall of white limestone from the cliffs. Amid these people there also stood the girl and the each-uisge, the latter in human shape for convenience. Since they didn’t really stand out they could get into the city without further objection.

They were drawn to the city’s big market. The bustling open space where merchants from all around the world had installed their stands and pitched up their tents wasn’t far off the docks. Between the purchasers and vendors were not only humans from all over the world but also members of non-human peoples, such as elves and dwarves, fairies and lutins, urisks and tylwyth teg, kobolds and domovoys. Also the one or other šotek and even a blemmy bearing its face on its chest that had arrived from far-off places could be seen.

The voices of traders and barkers advertising their goods sounded loudly. They shouted: “Fish! Fresh fish from the Northern Sea! Taste the unique blá-góma.” “First-rate wool cloth from the famous markets of Sucellie! The colors are as bright as the sun!” “Relics from the Sacro Imperio! Let the grace of the Almighty be with you!” “Sweet, sweet honey from the dark woods of Waldbergen! It will melt in your mouth!” “Ebony from the land of the himantopodes! Such a dark wood you’ll have never seen before!”

To not lose sight of each other in the crowd, the blonde young woman and the each-uisge held hands. While it didn’t mean much to the latter, the girl felt how her heart beat faster.

From the corner of his eye Domhnull saw that the face of his companion was slightly reddened and that she looked a bit more excited than usual. He believed that Tilly, who had already lost her parents at an early age and had kept herself alive for years as a beggar, was spellbound by the variety of goods.

“Is there something you’d like to buy?” the water monster asked and looked at her patronizingly with his dark eyes. “You only need to say so. But it mustn’t be too expensive!”

The young woman fidgeted bashfully. Although she had wanted nothing specific, having rather been with the handsome man next to her in her thoughts, but when she got such an offer now, why not seize the opportunity?

“Umm, probably a little pot of Waldbergian honey.” she said. Tilly was mad about eating sweets but she didn’t get around doing so very often.

The each-uisge nodded affirmatively and then he brought her to the honey merchant. At his booth there was a big variety of different kinds of honey: golden yellow blossom honey, greenish lime honey, and dark pine honey. Tilly decided on a little pot of bossom honey that costed Domhnull a silver coin. The golden sweet was surely worth a mint. Then they still strolled over the bustling market for some time – the girl pressed the bought article against her chest delightedly – before they headed off to find lodging for the night. It should be good of course but not overpriced as common in busy cities such as Eastport. The small hostel where they ultimately found accommodation for a reasonable price was out of the way of the important main roads but that was no problem at all for the two travelers.

At night Tilly lay on her bed that had one of the usual straw mattresses and gazed at the ceiling lit up by the entering moonlight. She had every reason to be pleased with the past day, as she had the feeling of having been brought quite a bit closer to Domhnull after all. At that time she wasn’t aware that she gradually developed feelings for the each-uisge who regarded her only with something like paternal affection. The future would show what would become of the sprouting young love. For the time being the young woman felt blessed. That also showed in the satisfied smile that still was on her lips when she had already fallen asleep.