The Little Mermaid

Chapter 5

Kyron never had complaints about the siren's hobby, even though he knew in almost full detail. It might have been the very reason why these two could be close--they knew the details, and still accepted each other.

"Kristene," he told her one day, "You have the freedom to go anywhere and do anything as long as it doesn't hurt you, but be careful of this one place."

"There is a dangerous place?" she asked innocently. "I thought you could handle everything, Master."

"I can of course, but there are some that require more effort than others, and if that effort could be spared, I'd like to spare it. I'm busy enough as it is."

"Yes, Master. I understand. So what is this place?"

"Lord Asa's lair."

"I've heard of Lord Asa." Lord Asa was yet another famous magical creature. Yet, unlike Kyron and Kristene, he was a different kind of creature. Rumors had it that Lord Asa didn't take any form, he was just a wall of shadows lurking in a dark haunted mansion somewhere in the world. Others said he wasn't even a wall of shadows, he was the devil that put evil thoughts in one's mind, causing people to take maleficent actions. In other words, while Kyron and Kristene were in plain sight, Lord Asa was a legend, a rumor. It was either that nobody had ever seen him, or that whoever had seen him were taken care of.

Kyron nodded. "Everyone has."

"He's real? Have you seen him, Master?"

"No, I haven't." Kyron opened his mouth to add something, but decided against it. Instead, he sat there on the couch, thinking.

"What is it?" She noticed his hesitation, and asked.

"I've felt a presence like that."

When he said this, Kristene's eyes shot wide open.

"And he's after you."

Her eyes opened even wider.

"His lair is on the other side of the world, where he is more dominant than he is here, but you've heard of him even so. You may not notice it, but you mean the same in his realm. You are in flesh and blood on this side, everyone knows you exist for real, but on the other side, you are merely a legend, Kristene."

"I'm a legend in Lord Asa's realm, the same way he is in ours?"

"Yes." Kyron sounded certain, and she believed in whatever he believed to be true, because his wings took him to places she had never been. Although she had the freedom to swim anywhere she liked, she was often preoccupied with her siren affairs. It was Kyron who traveled around the world and brought news home. "Lady Kristene, a famous siren in the South, the sweetest daydream and worst nightmare for men," Kyron recited. "That is your description on that side."

"It sounds cool," Kristene said, chuckling. "But is that all there is?"

"It is. Lord Asa might be after you just for that rumor."

She wondered about it. Having failed to come up with a conclusion, she looked at Kyron in search for one.

And he gave her one. "You are my little robin. Just mine."

She seemed satisfied with this conclusion, since she nodded her head once with a cheerful gleam, and swam around the living room. But after a few minutes, something occurred to her. "What about you?" she asked.

"What about me?"

"There's Lord Asa, there's Lady Kristene, and what about Master Kyron? Aren't there rumors about you too, Master?"

He shrugged. "I haven't heard any." He looked up at Kristene, who was swimming along the opposite wall. He chuckled. "Funny how nobody far enough away seems to have heard of the evil Lady Kristene's master."

"Really?" She arched her eyebrows in surprise. "It is funny indeed."

Then, she raced around the room, afterwards charging back to her island, as if running away. She'd caught sight of a strange gleam in Kyron's eyes when she asked the question. After all, if she was as famous in the North as Lord Asa was in the South , it couldn't be possible that nobody in the North had ever heard of Kyron.

That was the first time Kristene ran away from Kyron.