Sirens

Part Four (Abbadon)

After lowering the girl into the water I dived into the water myself. As I was overcome by the pain of my fin reforming itself, I had to clench my teeth to stop from crying out again. The reforming of the tail is normally less painful than the forming of legs since the water heals us almost as soon as we feel any pain, but it is still painful.

My fin had formed within seconds of me entering the water and the pain had almost completely vanished when I heard one of the most bloodcurdling screams I had ever had to hear in my life. The sound caused shivers to run up my spine at a shocking speed and goosebumps to jump up all along my skin. Snapping my head over to where the sound was coming from I could see that it was coming from the girl I had just saved from the cavern.

She was writhing in pain from the force of the change on her frail and weak body. I had never seen anything like this before, no one ever feels this much pain when reforming their tails. I had told her that the longer a person spends out of the water then the more it would hurt. I had been there when a group of us had saved a group of civilian Sirenians after they were trapped in a sea cave by the Oceanids general. They were kept out of water for a number of weeks and were very weak when we found them; they had also felt a lot of pain when reforming their fins but nowhere near what was happening here. She had to have been in that cavern for much longer than I had first thought.

As another shrill scream left the girls mouth I was forced to cover my ears in fear that my eardrums would burst. From the volume of the scream I could only guess that any and every sea creature within a hundred kilometres could hear the frightening cry. That also means that any Oceanids in the vicinity could hear her and would either turn fin and run or they would come and investigate, I could only hope they would take the first option.

Another spine-chilling scream left the girl before she stopped moving and went completely quiet, far too quiet. As I slowly swam towards her a flash caught my eye and my attention was drawn to her tail, it was beautiful. The golden colour was as enchanting as her eyes and caught the light in a way that made it look like thousands of stars were attached to the limb. It had been a long time since I had seen a tail such as this; I hadn’t seen it since before the war had begun over a millennium ago.

Snapping back into the present I took in the situation I was in. If we didn’t move soon we would most likely be caught by the Oceanids that guarded this part of the territory and that were drawn in by the noise.

Finally building up enough courage I approached the girl that only moments ago had been making one of the most frightening sounds I had heard in my life. When I had reached her I extended my hand so I could grab onto her arm, pulling her into my hold. I was immediately reminded of how I had carried her through the cavern and how soft and warm her skin had felt against mine.

Shaking my head at the direction my thoughts had taken me I lifted the girl into my arms and swam for the border. We would be safe when we crossed the border out of Oceanid territory but until then I had to keep an eye out for any soldiers that could stop us from reaching safety.

Swimming as fast as I could with the dead weight in my arms I knew that we were getting closer to the Sirenian border when I felt my strength and senses increasing. It was a trait that the Oceanids and Sirenians definitely had in common; the closer you are to your gods the more powerful and stronger your abilities become.

Hearing a groan come from my arms I looked down to see the girl’s eyes flutter and she began shifting in my arms. Slowing down my speed so I could give her  my full attention in case something went wrong again, I worried that something else would go wrong before we could get somewhere safe and hopefully far away from any Oceanids.

Slowly opening her eyes the girl became conscious once again and in the most beautiful voice I had ever heard in all of my years of living she said, “Where are we going?”