The Summer Siren

Ace

She's been sleeping for the last thirty minutes. I glanced at the river ahead of us, it was a long route to take but I had several spots where we could dock her odd ship and take cover from Erik and his crew. I kept us going at a fast speed because the dancing seaweed would take her ship and us down with no problems if we went any slower. I turn my head to look at her again. We still haven't exchanged names. Then again, we haven't had much opportunity to exchange them. When I first captured her and her ship, I had no intention of getting to know her to this extent. My plan had to get her to show me how to drive this ship and dump her into the ocean.

I sigh, looking at her, not knowing what to do with her but I know that I can't throw her overboard anymore. I thought about leaving her at a port but ultimately decided against it because she doesn't seem familiar with our country or oceans. You could make her one of your pirates, the voice in the back of my head says. I turn back to face the river and scowl, "Yeah right, she doesn't have what it takes to be in my pirate crew."

Glancing behind me, afraid that she heard me, but she's in the same position she was in two seconds before sleeping still. I don't realize I sigh in relief when I see her sleeping. The idea of her being a pirate bothers me, but the idea of her being abandoned for someone else's taking also bothers me. It's a lose-lose situation right now. I listen to the bugs and birds chirp around us as we pass through the forgotten forest.

I smile thinking back to when my ma would tell me about the legends surrounding the place. She would tell me that anyone who enters the forest when crossing the great lands would be forgotten. It didn't matter if it was the King or a peasant from the outer villages, they would be forgotten, none the less. I remember one story that she told me about long ago when one of our first kings walked into the forest. "I don't know what happened that day because it was long before I came about, my boy. I remember my grandmother telling me about it though. She was one of the few that seemed to remember the former King. It was a cold, windy day when he had decided to take a stroll. The country had been going through some hard times during the last few years and people were harsh when they criticized him. He had walked at least five miles through the woods behind the castle, his guards following him on horseback. He had tried to get rid of them for the last three miles, but he couldn't seem to shake them. When he got to the entrance of the Forgotten Forest, a stream that cut a path between the two woods, he hesitated but when he really wanted a break from the royal life and wanted to take a walk without his guards. He ran across the stream and disappeared through the trees."

I stared at my ma with my mouth dropped open before I realized that some of her story didn't make sense. "But Ma, if they all forgot about him then how did they know he disappeared?"

She laughed softly, "My boy, the King had pictures all throughout the palace. Questions started to arise about who the man in all the portraits was. Nobody had an answer except one guard who had stayed back that day. You see, the King had made his way back into the kingdom the same way he went in. The guard was there, and he had questioned the man about who he was, but the King didn't know who he was either. The guard helped the man to the nearest town, wondering why he was heading into the small village while wearing such nice clothes. It never occurred to either of them that he may have been the King."

I remember asking my ma a million questions about the story that night. 'Where did he go? Why didn't he remember who he was? Who was the King after that?' and as I thought of them, I just sprouted them off. She would answer each question with simple answers that were still vague. When it was time for me to go to sleep, she stopped me mid-question, "The details aren't important my little Archer, what is important is the lesson that can be learned."