Ushushur the Water Sprite
Anto Zirdum
Copyright Anto Zirdum, 2011
Smashwords Edition, 2011
Published by Style Writes Now
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Cover design. translation and web layout by Style Writes Now, Smashwords
Smashwords Edition License Notes
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The story can be also found at the author’s blog.
English language edition by Style Writes Now, Smashwords, 2011
Ushushur the Water Sprite
Since ancient times there have been mills on rivers: wheat has been ground and used to make bread. Other crops too have been turned into food by going through the mill. In the beginning, mills were owned in common and each large settlement along a river would have one. Then some enterprising millers set up on their own account and served communities beyond their own. They took payment in 'ushur' – in kind – because in early times barter was the common practice. That was the case along most rivers, and so it was along the Ukrina, which flows from Borje through low hills to the flat plains of Posavina, where it meanders across fields till it reaches the River Sava. But the mill on the Ukrina was not like any other. No one dared to steal 'ushur' there. Or if they did, it happened very rarely.
Thanks to the sprite, Ushushur.
Water sprites like Ushushur live in rivers that have no source, rivers that have come into being through the confluence of two rivers of the same size. Most often, sprites live exactly at the point where the rivers merge, or, going upstream, at the point where the rivers bifurcate. In the same way, the characters of sprites and fairies start to bifurcate, retaining the good and the bad, not necessarily as opposed principles but like two sides of the same coin. When they are good they are very good, and when they are bad they are merciless. They can be graceful or disgraceful and they can reward virtue and punish evil.
Ushushur was a rare sort of water sprite, because he occupied two rivers that came from a single source. There are few such rivers around the world. The Usora and the Ukrina are like that, rivers from a spring on the same mountain. The two rivers separate in the spring itself growing in strength as they flow in different directions, like a huge fork with two prongs coming down the mountain to expand on the Posavina plain with its patchwork of hills. No one has yet worked out why it’s like this, but Ushushur has been there since the beginning of time. Because of him, in the mills on the Usora and the Ukrina people have always been careful not to underpay or overcharge. However, from time to time this sort of thing has happened anyway. When an old miller didn't teach the younger ones to stay honest, or when a miller forgot that his dealings were watched by Ushushur, there would be times when someone would take more than his share. When that happened, Ushushur would sense a whiff of dishonesty and he would go under the mill and sing his song: “Shush, ushur, ushushur, you sold your soul to the devil…”
It took time for the person who heard Ushushur's song to understand what was happening. That person would drown in the autumn flood, when the peaceful Ukrina turns wild and dangerous. That was the warning to anyone tempted to take what didn’t belong to him.
Water sprites live as long as a river flows. When rivers dry out, they die. As rivers almost never dry out, sprites live for a very long time. So our Ushushur enjoyed himself gliding from mill to mill and using his pale eyes to see what was happening anywhere on the river. But in time he became bored with his life in the water and so he decided that now and then he would change into a different guise. He would assume the shape of this or that land creature and wander about till he got tired and wanted to return to his home in the river. He usually concluded quite quickly that there is nothing better than to be a sprite.