The Twins from the Sea

Chapter XVI

Moana was shocked to see Aikaterine at their door. She quickly straightened up and opened the door wider, and behind her, Ophelia all but jumped out of her sponge bed. Aikaterine cleared her throat haughtily.

"Aikaterine," Moana said, trying to sound humble and respectful. "Please, come in." She led her over to the table, and Moana sat at one end, Aikaterine at the other, and Ophelia stood by the door. Moana took a deep breath.

"I, ah," she said, trying to keep her composure. "I believe I owe you an apology, Aikaterine." Aikaterine remained silent. "My, erm, actions, yesterday, were completely inappropriate, and offensive to you. And for that I am very sorry."

Ophelia smiled to herself. She was proud of her little (yes, Ophelia was a whopping seven minutes older) sister.

Aikaterine's intense gaze seemed to soften a bit. She started to massage her temples.

"I know, I might have started to jump to conclusions, but everything from the prophecy has lined up to your coming! I'm... I'm just worried, because from the day the war started it has been my only duty to find the saviors, and bring them safely to the castle, and let them do their... Ah..." Aikaterine started but seemed to trail off.

"Saving?" Moana suggested.

"Yes," Aikaterine said, blushing.

"I feel that you two have the true spirits of Sirens. And after some deep reflection, I know now why the, ah, incident happened yesterday. You two have led dreadfully normal, ah, human, lives up until now, no?" she continued. Moana and Ophelia nodded in agreement.

"I think that you two are just in shock. I mean, after living lives that deceived you that you were humans! How horrible is that?" she said. Ophelia raised a skeptical eyebrow. When Aikaterine talked about humans she acted like they were uncivilized creatures, like Sirens were superior. She decided to keep her mouth shut. They were just getting back on good terms with Aikaterine.

"So now that I know the circumstances, I believe that it is I, that owes you an apology. I'm sorry that I forced you both into this so quickly. Now you know your true purpose in life, and it's time you learned about your kind. Would you come with me?" Aikaterine finished, and stood up from the table. Woah, this was a lot. True purpose? She wasn't so sure that she was 100% Siren. From what she had heard, real Sirens turn into humans when they are on land, and Sirens in water. Before yesterday, she sure hadn't ever turned into one. It only happened when they were in the Siren territory. Moana was utterly confused, but since Ophelia was already out the door, she had no choice. Besides, Moana wasn't one to shy away from a new adventure.

As Aikaterine led them back down the hallway, Ophelia was delighted when she started giving them a history on the castle. As she had said before, this palace was makeshift. They assumed that meant that the castle on the island was even more stunning than this one. That was hard to believe. She explained how the castle was made; King Marinus had used his magic to take dead pieces of coral littered around the ocean to make this palace. Some of the castle was made from the wreckage of the island palace as well. It took a grand total of ten minutes to complete. Insane. Aikaterine also explained that the royal family, or what was left of it, was currently living in the dome area of the palace.

She took them around the palace grounds, including the courtyard that they could see from their room. There were stables that held dolphins. Yes, you could ride a dolphin. When they were there, Moana asked if it was like riding a horse. Aikaterine had no idea what a horse was. As they swam around, passing Sirens looked at them with wide eyes, and whispered to each other.

"Could it be?"

"The prophecy!"

"This can't be happening!"

Moana grinned at them and Ophelia gave them a shy but friendly wave. Aikaterine was beaming. Ophelia was so glad that all was well again. Well, for now.

"Are you two hungry again?" Aikaterine asked as they passed a large rectangular building with seashell designs on the facade. Moana nodded eagerly, but Ophelia just shrugged.

"I forgot to ask, did your dinner get to you last night?" Aikaterine asked.

"Yes, it was delicious! It seemed like they read my mind, I was craving a sandwich!" Ophelia said. Aikaterine looked confused.

"Is a... sandwich a human food?" Aikaterine said, saying sandwich like it was a foreign object. Then again, it was to her.

"Um... Yes," Ophelia said, deeply confused.

"Well, here's the way our food works here in Jade Bay. A special kind of bean is originally put on your plate, and you wave your hand over it, saying the name of the person who is going to eat it. Then, it takes the shape and taste of whatever that person is craving. We did this because we had a problem; some Sirens liked human food better, but some others liked the food that is natively caught or grown here underwater. So we had a gift from Poseidon; these magic beans," Aikaterine said proudly. Moana was dumbfounded. Life here was pretty much perfect. Well, except for the war.

They entered the rectangular building aforementioned and saw that it was like a huge café. Booths and tables were spread out everywhere. Sirens came around asking for names, and then brought around plates filled with all sorts of meals. Moana saw some plates of seaweed mush, and some other odd things. She guessed this was Siren food. But then she saw a Siren couple enjoying plates of bacon and eggs. This was so odd. They sat down, gave their names, and shortly the waiter came back with plates. There was a large pepperoni pizza for Moana, a bowl of cereal for the not-so-hungry Ophelia and a chocolate sundae for Aikaterine. It was set in front of her, and she blushed.

"I do have a soft spot for this heavenly human delicacy," she said, and Moana giggled. Ice cream, a delicacy? Yeah, right. They all dug in, and finished quickly. After they finished, Aikaterine led them out of the café and around to a large empty field, where seaweed was growing randomly.

"Now, this is the territory line. Poseidon has given us a warning; any Siren who steps outside the line will be killed, and war will begin. That's why this area is so un-" Aikaterine started explaining, but was interrupted. A very tall and bone thin female Siren swam up, quicker than Moana or Ophelia had ever seen.

"Aikaterine!" said the mysterious Siren. Aikaterine looked behind her in surprise.

"It's the King! He's... He's on his deathbed."

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hi again, guys :)

hope you enjoyed this chapter, things are finally starting to heat up ooooooh :)

now question, just for fun, what would your magic Siren food bean be right now? I'm craving cheeseburgers :/

thanks again for everything guys. xoxo