Anything But || OT7

The Siren Pt. 3

KIM T

"Can I help you gentlemen?" the man questioned, brushing a blue-tipped strand of platinum hair from his brow.

"I, uh-" I stammered, gesturing futilely with my hands as heat prickled into my cheeks. I scoured my brain for words as I held eyes with the gentleman, one grey eye and one startling blue eye piercing into me. My chest tightened a little.

"We're looking for you," Yoongi explained curtly. I shot him a look, the fire in my cheeks intensifying. Mare glanced between the two of us, a smug smile playing at the edge of his lips.

"So is every other being it seems," he murmured, opening the door to the cottage just enough for us to slip through. "Come in, I suppose." I ducked under the man's toned arm, pulling Yoongi in behind me.

The cottage was sparsely lit, despite how bright it was outside. Various herbs hung in bundles from the ceiling, and I stooped to avoid them as I followed Mare farther into the house. Spices and a few nondescript bottles were displayed neatly on a few shelves above a wood burning stove. A cauldron was set on top of the stove with a piece of cloth thrown haphazardly on a hook beside it. Exactly three wooden bowls and cups were neatly stacked on the counter beside the sink, which was a more crude wooden basin than sink. There were other little cabinets that I assumed were filled with food and other dishes. The cottage was quaint and a little mysterious; almost witchy, but not in a bad way.

"Would you strange gentlemen care for some tea? I was just about to brew some for myself, but you are welcome to join," Mare offered, his words quiet, calculated, almost melodic and seductive, like a serpent whispering sweet nothings in my ear.

 "Strange? We–"

"I will take some please, my friend here will have to pass," I interrupted, gripping Yoongi's wrist a little tighter. "He doesn't drink hot drinks, he's very sensitive," I explained, giving him a pat on the shoulder with my free hand. I lowered my voice to an exaggerated whisper. "He's got a mutant spectrum disorder," I intoned. Yoongi raised a hand to whallop me on the head but paused as he remembered my concussion. Instead, he shot me a sharp glare.

"Oh, I understand," Mare spoke softly as he produced a kettle from the cabinet and filled it with water from the faucet.

"You live very modestly for being practically religious royalty."

Mare turned to Yoongi, eyebrows raised. "Right before our ancestors destroyed the mainland as you are familiar with today, my father Poseidon- as well as other gods, of course- brought many sea and land creatures, as well as plants over into this land. They wished to preserve as much of their creations as they possibly could.

There was an agreement amongst all the gods that their creations may have a certain amount of materials and space. My kind are half siren, half human, so we can move from water to land from time to time. There is no reason to take up so much space when the trees and plants need it more than we do."

"Well I guess that explains your looks. I suppose your voice as well. But if what you're saying is true, how come there aren't any mortals or mutants here?"

Mare sighed and continued, a note of sadness in his voice. "As you know, Hades kind of controls the mortals and their souls. In the early days of this realm he allowed mortals to enter as they pleased."

I listened to Mare's explanation the best I could through the pounding in my head, though I caught myself zoning out more than once. Finally I tuned back in.

"They were the children of the survivors from the collapse of the mainland, so they did not understand our ways and what belonged here. They began to destroy and pillage certain villages, the way they did in the Outlands. The gods, seeing what was becoming of their divine creations, created protections in each realm. In ours, Poseidon created a spell to keep the mortals out of our waters. It made it difficult to enter, and those who did died from starvation, exhaustion, or old age due to the time warp Zeus created."