The Nixie

OTHER LIFE FORMS Nixies -- Guardians of freshwater pools and streams, nixies (also called naiads and nixes) are bound to the body of water in which they dwell. They are not commonly spotted alone and can be identified by the liquid continuously streaming from their hair and clothes as well as the greenish sheen of their skin. Nixies are amphibious and unlike mermaids, they have legs rather than a tail. Nixies love music and dancing. Look for instruments made from reeds, especially pipes, near the banks of streams. Unlike their merfolk cousins, they are very curious about land dwellers. They are bound to their body of water and much like treefolk may only venture a little way from their trees, can only venture a short distance from their pools. Therefore they rely

on other faeries to bring them information. Occasionally nixies will lure a human into their pools, but they are usually more interested in company than in drowning their visitor. Like some merfolk, nixies have hair that is, in fact, external gill filaments that take in oxygen from the water as they swim. They have no fingernails or hair to speak of and their skin has a beautiful opalescent sheen to it much like the soft underbelly of a frog. Nixies have a translucent nictitating membrane that functions as a third eyelid and protects the eye while underwater. -- submitted by Kathleen Frasier - from Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide. Everyone should have one!