Sweet Song

Chapter 4

I stayed in my cave for quite a while. I didn't really have much indication of time from inside the cave. Usually I was able to tell the time from where the brightness was above the water. There was a rather large lack of light within the caves. I was just lying down on my back, deep in thought. I could've gone for a swim but I knew myself too well, I would get distracted and wander somewhere I wasn't meant to.

Despite that sensible thinking, I did end up going for a wander. I knew where I definitely could not go, no matter how much I wanted to. My mind was whirling and swirling with thoughts of those two humans, mainly the female. I wanted to go back there and see her again. I wished that I had the vocal cords necessary to express my frustration to her. If that were the case, I probably wouldn't have to talk to her.

I swam a little bit far from my cave, it was a regular routine for me to go here. It was very tempting to divert from my route but I tried to stay strong and not go too far. That human was interfering with my life too much. I had other priorities. I was thinking of finding another clan who I would be able to travel with. It is very rare for sirenneyets to do this. You usually stayed with the clan that you were born into. Yet, it was very rare for us to abandon a part of the clan. We were like a wider family.

After my mother died, it was just me, my father and my brother. We were all a very small and close family. I never understood why my family left me. We didn't fight or anything. I just woke up one morning without anyone else there. I took the rather harsh reality that it was because of me. What else could it have been? We were living peacefully, I was the only issue.

I saw a few fish as I passed them by. I was getting rather bored. It wouldn't hurt me too much to go back to shore. As long as the human wasn't there, I'd be safe. It seemed that the other human was the father to the female. The word 'daughter' gave it away rather clearly. I didn't care much that he had insulted me. It was something that I didn't really mind. Looks and such weren't really important to us. We hardly ever got insulted by others, we didn't really care for bringing others down.

Before I knew it I had arrived at the spot where I had met the human. I had almost forgotten to make sure that there was nobody there before I pulled myself up onto the rocks. I guess that it wasn't really my spot anymore. It was a tricky place to find if you weren't looking for it. The human must come here often.

There was no sight of the human. I spent hours playing with the fish nearby and listening to the squeals and laughter which originated a little far from me on the sand. The noise settled after a while, the sky was becoming orange and the waves were calming down. The beach wasn't busy. It wasn't abandoned, there was usually a person or two there until rather early in the morning.

It was calm and serene. I liked it like this, I liked the busy beach too but they felt like two completely different worlds. It was bright and happy with lots of people or it was dark and gloomy with very few visitors. I enjoyed them both. It was odd for those like me to spend time near humans. I didn't blame other Sirenneyets, it was our job to make humans stay away.

I sighed as my night was interrupted by footsteps once again. I had been coming here for years and yet I was interrupted twice in one day. I had just managed to calm down after the last one. I had found the piece of metal which was shot at me earlier, I took it back to my cave. You can't have too many objects if you're not moving.

I sank down to the bottom of the cliff, not too far from the surface but far enough down for nobody to be able to see me. I couldn't see who was up there but I was able to hear quite clearly. I had my back to the cliffs so I could face the rest of the ocean, getting a good grasp of the familiar surroundings.

"Hello? Are you there?" I heard a sweet voice say and I nearly sank down more. I was tempted to swim off. I knew this voice was talking to me, who else would they be talking to? It was the human who had visited earlier. "I'm sorry about earlier." I huffed and crossed my arms, I didn't believe that.

I got a fish's attention and rolled my eyes, I pointed up to the surface with a pleading expression. The fish just did some sort of laugh at me and swam off. I watched them with an offended look on my face as they refused to attack the human. I'm not sure what they could've done but it would've been nice for an effort to have been made.

"Look, my dad's always been like that. It had nothing to do with me." I felt like I was the human in this situation, being persuaded by another creature to believe them. Honestly, I felt weak and vulnerable. I didn't want to listen to her. I wanted answers. "He told me about your kind when I was younger. He told me tales and stories. I just want to know if he was right."

I wanted to be stubborn and stay down there. I wanted to be quiet and ponder over her words. There were many things that I wanted to do at that moment. I found myself going against all of these as I swam up to the surface. I stayed under the water and I watched the girl carefully. I looked for anything metal in her hand and saw nothing. She didn't seem threatening. Her curiosity seemed genuine.

"Hello there." She said with less confidence in her tone. I just stayed staring at her. She soon tilted her head and chuckled slightly. "Cat got your tongue?" She said weakly. I didn't know what she meant but I knew that I was annoyed.