Untamable

Chapter 3

I wake with the sun, somehow still hearing the mantra in my mind warning me of danger. I sit up, blindly fumbling for the lamp on my bedside table. When I don't feel it, I freeze. Then I realize the bed I am in is much too warm and much too soft.

Memories come flooding into my mind, and I groan aloud. I try to move, now completely awake. The still-healing wounds begin burning with an unrelenting fire. I scream, the agony too much to bear. Falling on the floor, I roll away, trying to keep the gold spots off the pristine sheets

I continue to sob; my body is not responding to my attempts to move due to the extreme pain I am in. I hear footsteps tearing down the halls, some heavy, some light.  see my pink waiting at the fringes of my vision and I surrender quickly. My inplissa moves away from my slumped body. I summon blue and quickly shape it to form a bubble around my physical form.

"In here!" The voice of the prince comes with a shout, calling for backup. He runs forward almost blindly, passing through my inplissa as I reach out for him

"Don't touch me, Linden!" I scream as I make my blue pulse. As the words leave my lips, Linden freezes, looking around. I look around with him and I see an older woman making her way towards my body with a few other servants.

"Who is this, Lindy?" The woman's voice is soft and full of warmth, but with a hint of weariness underlining it all.

"Sirena of the Plains, the Manipulator I told you of." Prince Linden says, his eyes still searching the room.

"What has you troubled, my son?" The woman, whom I now realize is the Queen, is kneeling over me, reaching for my arm to roll me over. My nerves are raised and I scream again, lunging for the Queen.

'Don't touch my body!" I shriek, not remembering they cannot see my inplissa, though they can hear it.

"Whoever else is in this room with us, show yourself at once, or I will have the guards come and hunt you down!" The Prince states, his voice icy with authority.

The Queen places a hand on his arm, and I nod, at least she isn't touching me. My shield would have cost her a finger or two in this state.

"Lindy, I think it is best that we tend to the girl, then we find the intruder. She appears to be losing a lot of.....blood?" She realizes at that moment that my blood is golden, and not at all the crimson she is used to.

"For Elder's sakes!" I cry in frustration. I let my inplissa become visible to the people before me, though their backs are towards me.

"I wouldn't touch me if I were you." They whirl around, eyes wide with fright. The Prince has his sword at my throat in an instant, but it just passes through it.

"Put the weapon down, Prince Linden, I cannot fight you in this form." He lowers his sword, and his eyes widen more in recognition. 

"Sirena?" I nod curtly, and his mother looks between my body and my inplissa in confusion.  "How did you...?"

"This is my inplissa, my spirit energy. I can only summon this form when my physical form in under great distress. I cannot feel pain like this."

"Why did you tell us not to touch you then, if you're in this much distress?" Linden asks angrily.

"Well, since you weren't looking at my body AT ALL, you didn't realize I have my blue shield surrounding me. If you were to touch that, it would cost you at least a finger. Being weak is not good for my shield, but it would have kept me alive." I cross my arms, my feet not quite touching the floor.

Linden casts another glance back to my body. "Can you lower it so I can help you?"

I nod, and dissolve into mist before reentering my body. I gasp. The pain is too great for any mortal to handle. My shield dissolves before I let my inplissa take over again. 

Linden kneels, slowly wrapping my wounds with strips of torn cloth, the queen staring in awe at me. My inplissa slowly moves to stand behind the prince, and I whisper "Thank you, your highness."

Nodding curtly, he rises and moves my body to the bed again. The queen looks over at me, confused. "Are you going to return to your body now?"

"No," my hand waves her words away. "I'm too injured and weak. If  I were to return now, I would most likely cause myself more harm. It simply isn't safe." A blue shield  cocoons me as a rush of orange seeps into my skin. I hear a gasp from more than one person in the room. "Oh, will all of you shut up? It's like you've never seen me before. Leave, now." 

The prince look aghast as the crowd in the room scurries away like mice. Furious eyes turn to me and I shrug. "They fear me more than you, Prince Linden. You would do wise to not glare daggers at me."

He looks down as his mother smirks at me. "Sirena, child, tell me more about your past and your life on the Plains. I've heard it's quite marvelous!"

I sigh, not in the mood to listen to this harpy's numerous questions. Surrendering to my true spirit form, I melt away into a faint pink glow before vanishing entirely. I can see them, they cannot see me. 

"Lindy? Lindy where did that girl go?!" The queen stands in a flurry of skirts and rushes around the room, but my invisible form is curled up next to my body on the bed. I lightly trace the bandages on my arms, allowing a soft white glow to surround them as my healing energy soaks into my flesh. 

The queen runs into the hall, leaving Linden in the room alone with me. He's fixated on the swirling light trickling over my arms and chest. He looks up, and for a moment, I think he can see me. I freeze until he whispers into the air "I don't know how she does it, but this girl...she's...she's...."

He trails off and leaves the rooom, leaving me speechless. In the meantime, I hear something ringing in my head. 

"Watch out, Sirena, danger, watch out....."