The Siren's Call

Chapter 3

"Ashlynn, would you please stop with the thumping?" scolded Ashlynn's mother. She was at it again, giving her another way-too-long talk about her upcoming birthday and how it would be the biggest event of her life. Her mom had been stressing out way more than was necessary. It's not like she didn't understand, she had been thinking about it nonstop for longer than she would like to admit. She couldn't tell her mom that, though. If she so much as tried to get a single word in between her mother's incessant rambling, she would only get cut off again.

Ashlynn, as per the request of her mother, stilled her tail that had been hitting the floor of their cave. Their home. She focused her eyes back on her mother's face, muttering a small "sorry" before falling silent again. In the end, however, it served no purpose. The poor woman began rambling again, and as soon as Ashlynn realized that she wasn't going to stop any time soon, she tuned her back out. She instead chose to think about the skeptic that she had met the day prior.

Arthur...

Ashlynn wondered how he would feel about the situation. Maybe she could get an outside opinion. After all, everyone in the pond said pretty much the same, unhelpful thing:

"You had better hurry up and choose a song, every girl has to have one."

Yeah, she knew that. It was her problem, after all. She had remained in the same spot for several moments before she realized that her mom had stopped talking, and had even left the room without her noticing. Jumping at her chance, she rushed out of her cave to search for Hannah.

Ashlynn passed a few other teen sirens, maybe three or four years younger than her. She didn't miss the look of wonder on their face. Wonder mixed with a tinge of jealousy. She suspected it was because of her birthday coming up. At that, she rolled her eyes after she had passed them.

Hannah had been sitting on a rock at the bottom of the pond, in the chilly depths, much like the both of them had the day before. Upon seeing Ashlynn, she lifted herself into a sitting position so that she could better communicate with her. Ashlynn saw the look of pleasant surprise on her face before it quickly turned into mild concern.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just wanted to see you before I go to the surface again," she said. Everyone knew that Ashlynn went to the surface almost every day, but Hannah found it a bit odd that her friend seemed so much more excited about it this time. A few seemingly confused clicks of the tongue told Ashlynn of her thoughts, but Hannah shook her head and decided to ignore it. She should be happy for her friend, right?

Upon seeing that her friend had dropped the topic, Ashlynn let out a quiet breath that she didn't know she had been holding. She couldn't have anyone know that she let Arthur go without wiping his memory, or she would likely be punished for putting them all in danger. For the time being, she decided she would have to act normal, so no one suspected a thing.

"Okay, well, I wanted to talk to you about a few ideas that I had for my birthday," she began, effectively changing the subject. Hannah listened politely, nodding her head every so often. She didn't seem to be suspicious of her, so Ashlynn talked to her like she normally would. They managed to get a few decent plans in during her cover-up conversation. In the end, she bid Hannah goodbye, only to rush upward to the surface.

Unfortunately for her, though, she bumped into a couple of other sirens. They were two of the elder females, to which Ashlynn internally cringed. Out of all people she could have ran into, these were the worst possible ones. If they caught on to her little "mission", they would most definitely tell everyone. They had a more traditional way of thinking, whereas she was sure some of the younger sirens would be at least a bit more accepting.

"What has you in such a rush, my dear?" croaked out one of the women. Not good. Ashlynn had to think of something to tell her, and she needed to do it fast. She couldn't just tell her that she was going to the surface, as always. She had been far too hurried for that. Maybe, though, she could stretch the truth a bit.

"Oh nothing, I just needed to clear my head again. I'm a lot more stressed than usual, so I was trying to get there quickly." she offered. She wasn't really lying. She most definitely had been stressed, with everyone pressing her about her 18th birthday. The old women narrowed their eyes, but the quiet one looked to her friend and rested a hand on her shoulder. The more adamant woman gave her a look, but then decided to back off. She exchanged goodbyes with them and hurried off again.

When she breached the surface, she looked around hurriedly. There, by one of the larger trees, she spotted Arthur, sitting against the trunk.

"Arthur!" she called to him to get his attention. As soon as the words left her mouth, his gaze shot up towards the pond. A wide grin spread across his face when he made eye contact with the siren, and he scrambled up to get to her.

"I figured you would come back, with all that talk about biological wonders and stuff," She half-joked. Arthur gave her a mock-hurt look that he had to drop soon after because he was still smiling.

"I'm not one to skip lectures, but I gotta admit I find the existence of mythical creatures much more interesting," He chuckled. "But less about the background for today. I'd like to know more about you in particular."

"Actually, there is something in particular that I wanted to talk to you about." She began. Letting out a shaky breath, she continued.

"I believe I told you about our customs for the 18th birthday, right? You know that mine is coming up fairly quickly..." She stopped to make sure he did, in fact, know these things. She looked back up at his face, to find that he was listening intently. He seemed to understand. He appeared to be hanging on her every word, and that made her heart want to burst. She had been waiting for so long for someone to at least listen to her issues instead of dismissing them as some "teenage" issue.

"Every girl has to have a song to sing by her 18th birthday, and I've been stuck. I can't choose a song. I thought maybe since you aren't a siren you could give me a new perspective." she explained. Arthur continued to stare at her, unmoving. She focused on his eyes. Within them, she saw so many different things: amazement, curiosity, but buried further down she saw concern. Was he worried for her?

"Talk about pressure," He chuckles, an airy, playful sound. "and you have to choose from all these old folk songs, played out, passed down for centuries?"

"Yeah, it's honestly annoying. I'm so sick of all of them but I have to have one or I'll be an outcast." she huffs. When she looks back at him she can practically see the cogs in his brain turning. All of a sudden, a grin stretched across his face.

"What if...you wrote a song?"