The Asrai

Once every 100 years or so, the waters stir in the light of a full moon. A small figure emerges from the inky waters looking up at the moon. Water trickles off her pale skin as she climbs onto a nearby rock jutting out of the soft waves. She looks around and is comforted by the quiet emptiness of the nearby beach. She has no interest in running across a dangerous human passerby. 

Eyes closed, white fingers reaching an almost irridescent quality as they stretch and soak up the energy from the moon’s glow. The light exposes a soft, and almost childlike face framed by impossibly long green hair. She wiggles her long toes, some of her sisters have large webs between their toes, but hers are quite small in comparison. She wonders if her webs will grow this trip, increasing her speed as she swims back home.  She is an Asrai, they are little seen, keeping to themselves in the deep recesses of lakes and rivers. The moon has been calling, her body is ready to grow again. They live for many centuries, happy to remain in isolation, but they can only grow in the light of the full moon. 

What is an Asrai?

An Asrai is a water spirit; a solitary fairy as far as we know. Little information is available to us, but from a few stories we do know they have a particular aversion to sunlight. If they are exposed to the rays for too long, they will die. Some water spirits are known to have been captured and become wives and mothers; such as the Selkies. As long as their seal skins are kept from them, they can live among us as if they too were human. The pull of the water is so strong, however, that the very instant their skins are within their grasp they return to the seas and do not come back. Not even for their children. The Asrai, however, cannot be domesticated in this way. If taken from their dark home, the only proof they ever existed will be a small puddle of water glinting in the sunlight.