Chapter Two -- Changes

The little girl blinks and looks at the beautiful world around her. The golden sunlight plays through the green leaves of the trees. The sky is cerulean blue with an occasional wispy white cloud like the wings of angels floating past. She can hear the sound of a waterfall in the distance. Beautiful flowers of every color line the edges of the path.
The Golden Kelpie whispers, “Please bring me out of your pocket.” And the little girl reaches in and carefully brings the Kelpie out. As the dappled sunlight lands on the Kelpie, her hair changes and plays the spectrum from blond to red, to brown to black. Her eyes lighten and her skin begins to gain its natural golden hue.
“Thank you,” says the Golden Kelpie, “I need one more favor if you would?”
“Yes, anything,” replies the little girl.
“Well, actually two favors. First take off your coat, you won’t need it here.
The little girl lowers her head and whispers into her chest, “It’s all I have.”
“Do not be afraid, do as I ask and all will be well.”
The little girl slowly unbuttons her coat. She hesitatingly pulls it apart and lets the sleeve slide down her arms and drops the coat to the ground. Before her eyes a little orange sleeveless dress appears as if she had been wearing the dress under her coat. The dress buttons down the back and on the front near the bottom there are three appliqué butterflies. The little girl blinks in wonder at the new beautiful dress and when she looks again, the butterflies are real, clinging to her dress slowly opening and closing their wings.
“You can take off your shoes too, you won’t need them any longer.”
And the little girl did. Her toes wiggled in the sunlight and felt the warm earth for the first time.
“Now for that favor,” said the Kelpie, “Would you carry me along the path to the lake with the waterfall?”
And so they went.
The little girl carefully held the Golden Kelpie in her hands and walked barefooted along the path. The fragrance of the flowers was wonderful. Each color had its own scent and each scent blended perfectly with the other scents.
“Do you have name?” the Golden Kelpie asked.
“My name is Anna.”
“And tell me about your life before today.”
“There isn’t much to tell. When I was born, I had a mother and father so I was told, but one day they disappeared and left me with an Aunt. My Aunt did not care about me. She kept food in the house and I had a couple of dresses, but I fed myself and told myself bedtime stories about finding my parents again to help me fall asleep at night. They were stories about a place like this. I don’t know how I knew such a place could exist, but it was always in my head. I spent my days wandering the city. No one noticed me; my grey coat and my size. My Aunt never asked where I was going or where I had been. But I watched and listened to the workers and the people on the beach. I would sneak into my Aunt’s library and look at books. The ones with pictures made the most sense to me. I would listen to other children at the school and I learned how to read.
Then one day, I got this strange sensation that I needed to go looking on the beach. Everyone seemed to be doing the same thing. I heard people talking about a Golden Kelpie that had washed up on shore. I didn’t know what a Golden Kelpie was, but I knew that I needed to find it. Then I found you. You are the Golden Kelpie, aren’t you?”
“Yes Anna, I am the Golden Kelpie and I was waiting for you to find me. I wanted to bring you to this new place and give you a new life.”