Siren's Call

Chapter 7

(Dipper pov)

I wake up hearing humming. Looking up I see Bill folding a pair of pants before he looks over towards me. "Morning Pinetree."

"Pinetree?"

"Last night, when I pulled you out of the water some scales on your arm looked like a pinetree."

"What's a pinetree?"

"You don't know what that is?" I shake my head no. He reaches into his desk pulling out a drawing and brings it over, sitting on the edge of the bed as he hands me the detailed picture. "This is a pinetree. They don't really grow around most places. They tend to grow where it's cold. We tend to stay where it's warmer so we don't have to worry about snow and ice."

"What's snow and ice?"

"Snow is when rain from the sky partially freezes. Ice is when the water fully freezes over."

"Is it pretty?"

He hums in thought. "Sometimes."

I sit up as he hands me the pants, them now dry and folded. "Now be careful when you're around the water from now on."

Standing up I pull the pants on before he leads me out of there and to his office. He sits in his chair behind his desk looking at a map.

"Why am I here?"

"Well we have a few days before we reach the island again and I don't trust you to be on your own. So you will have to stay where I can see you at all times."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

He tosses me a book which I barely manage to catch. "Read this and just entertain yourself."

I open the book flipping through it not able to make any sense of the words. "I can't read the human language."

He sighs very annoyed. "How is it you can speak it but not read it?"

"Because sirens and humans use the same language for speaking with minimum variations. But when it comes to writing, we use a different system to do it. To keep your people from understanding our things if you somehow found our writings."

He opens another drawer and tosses me another book. I catch it dropping the first book. "Then read this shit."

I run my hands over the cover, recognizing the worn cover. This material can only be found at the deepest darkest bottom of the oceans. "Where did you find this?"

"I just did. Does it matter?"

"Yes it does. This book can't just be found anywhere. The material for the cover is only found in one part of the ocean. Only one siren has ever gone down to that part."

He slowly looks up at me. "You know the man who made this?"

"Yeah, he was my great uncle. He vanished over 30 years ago and this book vanished with him. I had only seen pictures of it. How did you get this?"

"A man died, this book was sent to me a few weeks afterwards. Tried to understand what it said and couldn't make heads or tails of it. And the few sirens we did find over the years my idiot men killed with crossbows, same way they almost killed you."

I open the book flipping through a few pages. "It's a journal that dates back like 35 years ago."

"How about you read it aloud and translate what it says for me?"

"I can try but some of the words might not translate to your language very well."

I sit in the chair in front of his desk flipping to the first page of the book as I start reading it.

...........................................

My reading gets interrupted as the ship gets rocked violently sideways throwing me out of the chair clutching the book to my chest. Bill holds onto his desk tightly to not get thrown onto the ground as well.

"Fuck. Stay here and don't move."

He gets up throwing the door open and walks out, blistering cold wind and rain blowing into the room instead. I crawl across the floor peeking my head out of the room it getting soaked but as longs as my legs stay dry I will be fine.

I see Bill and his crew trying to keep their boat still in once piece, the raging storm throwing it every which way imaginable.

A crashing wave comes without warning, so high that it towers over the entire ship. It sweeps across the deck and I watch as Bill gets pulled over the railing.

Without thinking I kick the pants off as I run onto the deck, gritting my teeth in pain as the water hits my legs and the scales stabbing through my skin.

I throw off the shirt just as I jump onto the railing diving into the ocean waves kicking the shorts off as well.

I take a big deep breath in as the gills on my neck open up making the water breatheable. I look around the darkness of the water, sensing for any sign of life when I finally see him floating deeper into the water limp and not moving.

I swim down to him wrapping my arms around him from behind before swimming back up with him our heads breaking the surface of the water.

Waving up to Tad with one arm he throws down a rope. I hold onto it with one hand as he pulls us back onto the deck.

Once on the desk I shack Bill's shoulders trying to wake him up. "Bill wake up!"

Not knowing what else to do I try something that I have seen a few humans do. I pinch his nose closed before opening his mouth slightly and breathing into it. I do this a few times before putting my palm on his chest and my fist on my palm. I quickly press down on his chest many times until he turns his head puking up water and coughing.

Tad helps him sit up, rubbing his back. "There you go, just breath."

"I'm....I'm okay." He says his voice raspy before he looks at me.

Shakily he gets to his feet before looking at the crew members still standing around. "Someone get a barell of water and bring it to my room. Now."

Now waiting for another response he picks me up and walks into the ship with me in his arms.