The Bird and the Garden 3: The Final Adventure

Chapter 10: Recovery and Sickness

You all know the drill. The song is not mine, and all rights go to the owner.

...

Salem's eyes fluttered open dazedly. Above her was a dark roof made of oak, dust floating through the air. She felt too weak to stand. If she was experiencing another one of those strange episodes, she knew she wouldn't survive.

But the sound of soft humming brought to her a strange sense of comfort - it was almost motherly.

Who was her mother? It had been so very long. She could hardly even remember her father. It took everything she had to lift her head just to see who was humming such a beautiful tune. The owner was just as beautiful.

Her hair was a perfect golden blonde, her skin as fair as the snow. Her delicate looking hands held a cold cloth, which she used to tend to Verde, who remained unconscious. She wasn't wearing a shirt, but rather just a bra, despite the icy water. Salem used her eyes to look at their surroundings.

They were in a dark, cold shack, the floor almost made entirely of cold water, safe from drowning only by the ledges they rested on. A wheelchair rested by the door, abandoned by its owner. But if the strange, beautiful woman was crippled, how could she swim without using her arms? When Salem looked, confusion struck, and then terror.

Her legs weren't human. Replacing them was the tail of a fish. The woman was a monster. A siren.

Sirens always took the form of beautiful women, and were notorious for causing shipwrecks and devouring the sailors. And because their race consisted only of women, they would regularly kidnap the men to reproduce, eating them after they had outlived their usefulness.

The woman turned to tend to Sasha, finally catching Salem's gaze. A small, perfect smile formed on her gorgeous face, pressing the cold rag to the elf's forehead. "... Hello. You are the first to awaken..."

Salem didn't respond. Not that she could. Not only did her own weakness prevent it, but the fear that held her in place, staring at the monster. The woman's smile fell. "... Is something wrong, dear?"

She finished with Sasha, swimming towards the princess. Her soft hands cupped her cheeks, staring deep into Salem's turquoise eyes. "... Are you still unwell? Or is it because I'm not human...?"

A soft, gentle giggle. The siren was smiling again. "Be not afraid, dear... You are safe. I have been taking care of you since they brought you back three days ago..."

Salem didn't know what the siren meant. She only remembered fainting in the desert, with no memory of what happened after. The siren's hands stroked her hair gently, her smile softening. So close, Salem could now see her clearly in the darkness of the shack. She was the embodiment of perfection. Salem was almost jealous of how she looked.

"Sleep now, dear... You still need to recover from your heat stroke. Let me take care of you..." The siren ran her fingers along the cheek of Salem, her lips parting into a chilling song.

Salem couldn't cover her ears when the siren began to sing, her voice as smooth as silk, as sweet as honey. She had never heard a sound so pure, so elegant, and yet so sad and haunting. It was a song of life and death, something that the doomed sailors of the sea would hear in their last moments. It was a sound that could never be replicated by anyone but a siren.

A siren's song was inescapable once heard. Salem was under her complete control, subjected to what the monster desired. Trapped under her spell, Salem found her eyelids growing heavier, heavier until it felt like they weighed a ton. And as her head began to fall back, she could feel the monster catch her, gently resting the princess where she slumbered. The final words she heard belonged to the siren, her voice gentle, motherly.