The Tale of a Hybrid and a Siren (reorganized version)

The Siren on the Road

A toad crocked beside the bark of the tree, and light rained from the swamp's tree tops. A warm feeling brought a warm air to the knees of Marina. She lifted her head from her long night slumber.

It was just beyond the brink of dawn and a frog was crocking by her shoulder. Who knows how long it was? But Marina thought the frog croaked for a little while, and Sirens could sleep through an entire night regardless of what noises were heard. The frog was rather large, and it was a grey toad. Its black eyes stared into Marina's emerald eyes while standing on her shoulders.

She only smiled and grabbed the toad to place it at the bark of the tree, and the toad didn't seem to mind being carried in the siren's hand to be placed by the base of the tree Marina slept.

After placing the toad at the tree's base, Marina stood up on her feet and stretched out her long arms. Both her arms were attached fins, from shoulder to elbow. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes with her wrists and blinked thereafter.

She looked around to see what lies in her view. The trees were the same, but there was a small haze of mist and little sunlight topping from the treetops. The mist and light flickered against Marina's blue scales of her face. She pulled the hood to hide her face in case there were any humans lurking by.

The only blueness showing of her fish skin was from her shoulders and face. The cloak she made in Siren's Cove was part of the fact to hide her siren's scales, as such of sirens' reputation of luring human men to their deaths and a near fatal battle that really could have brought the sirens to extinction.

If it weren't for the cave to hide, then the sirens would have been annihilated from the face of the world and one species extinct of which no humans would worry or miss. Marina had her blueness covered deep within the brown cloak and hid her well. She didn't know if there could be humans who could not be so easily fooled by demented disguises.

After she disguised herself back up, she continued walking her way. She didn't know where to go, but she walked toward the north. She kept on her walk until she felt she needed to turn somewhere else.

♦ ♦ ♦

Marina only walked for a few days until she came by a wide, rapid, rushing river. It was nearly a half mile long and it looked rather too rapid for her to swim. This was a river she heard several times when she was considered a small infant or a child, in the human's view. A river said to have strong currents and rushing rapids that even a seat boat would easily flip over and sink the riders and any cargo.

The sight was clear to see, and the mist was long gone in the few days Marina walked. It was midday when she came to witness the quick rapids of the wide river.

There is no way for me to cross over, she thought. It's too dangerous. What should I do now? I can always go back south and swim the long way, but I already made this far through these strange lands. I don't know what I'll do now.

Marina walked along the ridges of the river to find if there was a walk to pass over the bridge. Otherwise, she risked her life trying to swim; she knew the watery rapids were too powerful for her swimming ability.

She stopped a few miles down the river and saw a stone, bricked bridge trailing over the entire river. It was wide enough to fit several hundred travelers over the river without a worry of falling over unless pushed over the edge.

Then there was a sound of a metal twitching and the sound of a spinning wheel coming nearby. The sounds of strange footsteps made its way toward Marina, but there was no sign of anything riding on the bridge.

Marina made her way closer to the bridge's pavement and looked the opposite direction of a pavement of a road leading into the swamps.

In her view, a brown horse pulling a long cart with an old man sitting at the cart's front end. The horse had reins tied over its back and mouth, and it pulled with such great strength. The old man wearing a straw hat, leather pants, a blue shirt with brown vest