The Sirena

Chapter Seven

"She's waking up!" A female voice said urgently. Katherine fluttered her eyes for a second then drifted back into the void, feeling it fall around her like a thick cloak.
She awoke some time later, she knew this because the sky had turned blue with small puffy white clouds indicating it being morning or early afternoon.

"Finally!" Someone exclaimed behind her. Someone grabbed her under her arms and hoisted her up. Katherine staggered around before regaining her balance.
"Are you alright? What happened? Who are you-" a young girl with bright bouncy orange hair interrogated.
"Let her be, Rae." A black haired boy said.
Katherine clutched her throbbing head, "...who are...you?" She stammered.
"Who are we? Who are you?"  The boy snickered, his eyes cold and calculating.
"I'm Lady Katherine...Hepwick.." She said trying to sound important and dignified.
"Well, Lady Katherine. Welcome to Atalya. My name is Wes, this here is Astra," Wes gestured to a sulky looking girl, then a really tall girl, a honey blonde haired boy and finally the bouncy ginger haired girl, "that is Etania, that is Reece and that there is Rae."
He paused.
"What brings you to our humble island, Milady?" Wes bowed low for dramatic effect.
"I didn't ask to be brought here, Wes." She retorted, hissing his name with displayed disdain.
"Well we didn't have to care for you when we found you washed up on our beach." He argued, putting a lot of emphasis on the word our.

Katherine sighed, "I apologize and I am very grateful to you for doing so, but I have to-" She stopped mid sentence, she was going to say go home but she couldn't. Everyone at home believed she had been killed by The Sirena.
Why hadn't she killed her? And why brand her leg with a weird hand shaped blob?
Maybe these islanders could know something.
"Do you...know what this is?" Katherine asked.
Wes peered down at the brand then reeled back, "why it's just a scratch.. You must have hit your leg on a sharp rock." He said nervously.
"Most likely.." The tall girl, Etania agreed.
Katherine most certainly was not an idiot. She could see they were hiding something, Wes had been reduced from confident to a nervous wreck from just a glimpse. But she doubted they would just tell her, so , for now, she would play
along.

"Indeed." Katherine said, pretending not to notice the look of relief on each of their faces.
It was a silence for quite a few seconds before Rae cut through it like a knife, "Shall we take her to the village? She could use some more rest."
The others nodded in silent agreement, the sulky girl trudged toward a hill. As they started to walk, Wes and the blonde boy, Reece, huddled into a small conclave with Etania who ever so often glanced back at Katherine (who Rae was talking to) and muttered. Katherine strained her ears to hear what they were talking about, but only picked up a few words:
"Damita."
"Sacrifice."
"Cathwind."
"Tomorrow."
Katherine looked up at the clouds, each one molding into a different shape, and vowed to find out what was happening.
She would solve the mystery of The Sirena.