Siren's Curse

Chapter 12

Bryan's POV

Normally when we went to the lake, we'd place our stuff down and the rest would join me in the water, but today was not a normal day.

Since it was the first Inpu's friends had met my friends, there was a good amount of hesitation.

River and Elio were sitting on a distant rock, Mario and Kay were sleeping in their cave, Mania was watching the ocean for anything that moved, and Cal and Ashara were just watching the group while making jokes.

Xylo, Nad, and Magnus on the other hand were being chickens about the fact there were more sirens.

It didn't help that I was also messing with them, but I really couldn't help myself.

Eventually, Inpu decided it was stupid for them to be fearful since they've been fine with me, so he walked into the water causing the others to freak out.

"You are insane" [Xylo]

"And you are being irrational, you've been able to swim fine with Bryan and he's the leader, so there's nothing to worry about" [Inpu]

"Hey, Bryan! You're match is brave!" [River]

"You already have your match, lay off!" [Bryan]

"Bryan, are sirens territorial?" [Magnus]

"Non podded sirens are, podded sirens only are with their matches" [Bryan]

Magnus hesitated a bit, but then went into the water so they were about as far in the water as Inpu.

Cal was the closest to the group, so everyone had their eyes on him to make sure he wouldn't do anything, but he wasn't really paying attention since he found a fish that got close and started eating.

"If you guys continue to be chickens, I will pull you into the water" [Bryan]

"You could throw rocks at them, that could be a good way to get them to get in the water" [Elio]

"Not really how it works with people, trust me, I've tried it before" [Bryan]

"Damn, humans are weird" [River]

Ashara ended up swimming closer, seemingly needing to talk to me, so we went under the water so we could talk without others over hearing.

"Everything ok?"

"Something doesn't feel right, it isn't exactly a siren call, but I keep hearing something similar"

"Alright, I'm going to check around the more open part of the grotto, make sure the others are informed and if you hear my call, you can come help"

He nodded and swam back to where he was before while I swam into the deeper part of the water which led to the ocean.

As soon as I was out in the open, something came right towards me and I didn't even know what it was until I was able to get myself in a good fighting stance.

It was a siren from my mother's pod, but of course, it was one of the few who didn't have a good siren call.

All I could do was let out a slight call to confuse before I swam back into the grotto, but the other siren followed.

The others saw what was going on, and quickly swam in front of me, which caused me to notice something.

She wasn't there to get me, she thought we were from another pod, the pod mark had finally showed up.

Once she saw that my pod was there, she swam away in a few seconds, and the rest of us swam up where Inpu and his friends were enjoying the water.

I just went up to Inpu, wrapped my arms around his upper body, just tired from what happened.

He clearly noticed my tired appearance, so he told the others to stay there as long as they wanted and took me home.

"Eventful day?"

"You have no idea"

"Want to talk about it?"

"My pod mark showed up, another siren thought she'd be able to over power us"

"Fun, does that mean I'll get mine soon?"

"Well, duh, I'd hope my match gets his mark before we get married"

"Speaking of getting married, I talked to my parents about it"

"Oh, what's their opinion on it?"

"They wanted to know if they would be allowed to watch the ritual, they confirmed that they'd help us plan the ceremony, but they said they wanted to watch the ritual is possible just to know what it looks like"

"Depends on when we plan to do it, if we were to get married tonight, which we can't do because you don't have the pod mark yet, they could, but there is a good part of the month where they won't be able to"

"What's the reason for that?"

"Mostly the weather, as it gets warmer, sirens are more likely to pick spots in warmer waters, or in our case, an open space where we have full view of the moon"

"So warm weather is better solo, while cold weather is good for an audience?"

"Yeah, its always confused me too"

"You have weird traditions"

"I can say the same to you, I don't know why you need a ceremony, for us you just leave for a bit, come back married, and just tell a few people, it'll eventually spread on its own"

"Would it be bad of me to say I'd want you to meet me outside of school just to prove to people that I am able to get aa husband"

"I'll do that tomorrow if you so wish, you know I'd be happy to help you mess with people"

"There are times I forget sirens are naturally mischievous creatures, then there are moments like this"

"You just don't see it from me often because I was raised in a position where messing with people is considered "rude and improper" but when my mom does it its fine"

"Are there things that you want to do but just can't?"

"Always are, always will be, I want to be able to have a life with nothing going wrong, but my mother won't want to see me again, I've never met my father, and I doubt I ever will have the chance to meet him"

"Yeah, I get that, believe it or not, I don't want to be a fisherman like my father"

"Really?"

"Yup, I've always wanted to be an author like my mother, but with how poorly her books often do, I just have to hope it goes well enough where I can make a living"

"We could always find leftover items at the bottom of the water, those often make good jewelry, so we can run a jewelry shop for a full living and you can write books on the side until they make more than the shop, then the shop becomes a side gig for you and you can live your dream"

"I love the way you think, may I ask why jewelry has become your thing though?"

"When my friends had to go do stuff, I'd often find myself picking up rocks and gems at the bottom of the ocean and would clean them up for display, once I learned how to make them into parts of my clothes, it kinda became my thing"

"Think you can make me something subtle for school? We have a dance coming up, and while I know you'd already agree in a heartbeat to come with me, I don't really have anything nice for it"

"You know me so well, what did you have in mind?"

"Just something purple and red, you know my colors, so whatever you think would fit I'll wear"

I just ended us moving myself closer to him as we got closer to home, just kinda snuggling up to him the most I could.

He knew I was more than willing to help him, and I knew he had my trust and help with anything that was troubling him.

Once we got home, we just decided to cuddle up for the rest of the day.