Siren

Siren - Chapter 1

Every hundred years, a Siren births a child.

Upon that child is placed a gift, and a curse.

The gift is one of nature. The curse is of the voice.

To whomever the Siren first does speak,

will love them forever until the end of their days.

Chapter 1

It was an overcast day.

A young girl was making her way through the small town of Calisto. A bitter wind blew through the main street and swept up her skirts in a flurry. Shivering slightly, Clara Reilly squared her shoulders and continued forward.

Her red hair danced in the wind, and she sighed as she felt the first drop of rain hit her square on the nose. A few more pattered down her cheeks, mingling with hot and salty tears. Pooling in her large green eyes, they sluiced away as the rain fell harder.

"Oy, Clara! Off on an adventure, are ye?"

Clara looked up at the guard in the large wooden tower. Oliver, one of the few townspeople who actually spoke to her, gazed down from high above. He was sheltered and safe, unlike Clara, who feared she would not be for many days. Or weeks.

She waved at him, forcing a smile on her face. Her dress was a dull green. She chose it so that it would match most of her environment for the next while. Forests, fields, meadows...

"That's quite a pack ye 'ave on ye. Out for a long one, eh?"

She nodded briskly.

"A'right, then. I'll open the gates for ye."

Shouting to the guards in the other tower, the large wooden doors slowly groaned as they opened.

Clara did the same. Oliver knew that she could not speak out loud, rather, she used a language with her hands. There were many who used the language, she had learned, as traders from all over came to rest and trade at their small post. It was just a stone's throw away from the ocean.

"There lass, the land is yours."

Three days prior, a man had come to the Reilly home. It was late in the evening, and the sky was littered with bright stars. The moon was a sliver of a crescent, and gave little in the way of light as a man dressed in all black guided his steed to the fence of the country manor that lay before him.

He quietly dismounted, tying his horse to the fence and coming to the door. Before he could knock, the door opened, and there stood the man that had hired him to murder his sister.

"Orcus?" The man in all black nodded. "Please, come in."

He stepped inside, the shorter man looking both ways to make sure no one had seen him enter. He closed the door quietly, introducing himself as Edward.

"I've come for my payment. I do no job without funds up front."

"Of course, sir Orcus. Gladly. This way." The assassin was led from the front entryway that was so brightly lit, down a darker hallway and down stairs to a small room that was set up as a study.

"Please, sir, take a seat." Edward seemed a well educated man, shorter than himself, with short brown hair and a noticeable scar just below his right eye. He was dressed impeccilbly, with black pants and a white shirt, a red kerchief around his neck and stuffed down the front.

"Payment is in the sum of one thousand gold coins. A small price to pay to rid myself of a large problem."

He tossed the gold coins to Orcus, who caught it swiftly. Edward grinned.