The Little Mermaid

Chapter 12

After the horns were blown, the hunters put their earmuffs on, so that they would not hear the siren singing to them. They got their weapons and nets ready, and sailed closer to the island. Before long, the siren came into view--an exotic female figure mixed with features of a crow and a fish. The hunters saw that her mouth was moving, so she must have been singing. Yet, they couldn't hear her, with their earmuffs on, and she seemed not to have seen them either. She was only singing to herself, singing herself, a mournful song.

Kyron motioned for them to take action. As the team charged, they lost sight of Kyron.

The siren noticed the hostility in their eyes, so she began to escape. She first dived into the water, but realized they were sailors after all, and they had come prepared. Next she took to the skies, but it was even easier for them to shoot.

Through her course of running away, she hadn't counted how many people were pursuing her. Somewhere along her way, she ran into a human being with a serious but not hostile look in his eyes. He was focused on her, and beckoned at her. At first, she didn't approach him.

But then he spoke to her. "Let's get you out of here."

"Excuse me?" She thought she'd heard wrong. He was a human after all. He had to be a companion of those who came to catch her.

"I said, let's get you out of here," he repeated. "You don't have to trust me, but you don't have a choice, really."

"How will you get me out of here?" she asked skeptically.

"Lend me your wings," he said. "It won't hurt."

"I've tried flying," she said. "If it doesn't work for me, how will it work for you?"

"It will."

The confidence in his tone convinced her. When he saw that she had been persuaded, he didn't even wait for her to say "yes". Kyron went up to her and opened a jar of something. He poured the liquid inside on her wings. They came off easily, and she didn't even feel anything. It might have been because the liquid really was that magical, or it could be because she was already beaten and battered, such that she couldn't feel additional pain.

Kyron placed the pair of wings on himself, and scooped her up. He shot into the sky, and quickly escaped from view. By the time the commotion was over, it was well after sunset. He was able to take the siren to his home inconspicuously. He placed her into his bathtub and filled it with warm water, adding another small jar of liquid into the water.

"To calm your nerves," he explained at her questioning look. "To numb your senses for one night. It must have been a tiring day for you."

She was still glaring at him with an impossibly skeptical look. A million questions formed in her head, but she didn't know which to ask first.

"I'll explain tomorrow," he said. "Do you have a name?"

She shook her head.

"You're the only one on that island?"

She nodded.

"What happened to the others?"

"In your goddamned museums," she answered.

"Why couldn't they fight?" he asked. It was his turn to be confused. "I thought sirens were powerful."

"Powerful? I don't know. All I know is we can sing."

"What?"

"What?" she defended.

From the wide-eyed look she had, he concluded that the sirens on that island, were merely mermaids with wings. They were built to be sirens, but they didn't live like sirens. Kyron sighed. "Alright. I'll call you Kristene," he said. "Objections?"

"I don't care much about names."

"Kristene it is then. And when you're all better, I'll teach you how to be a proper siren."